Aby had a lot to contemplate. It was no stranger to invaders, but it hadn’t ever had one escape before. Moreover, he’d given Aby and all its major players something to think about it. The kobolds mourned the loss of one of their own; its star had regrown its missing limbs, pondering that encounter with a creature far superior; and its wyvern seethed with rage, having been attacked before he could even take part in this fiasco was an insult to his ever growing pride. Its aquatic kobold was especially repentant, having been training on the eighth floor, it hadn’t had any opportunity to help its fallen brethren, with the warrior sharing similar feelings. Even some of its other creatures had some faint concept of that need to further develop.

Aby itself was picking up the pieces, it had to respawn a few additional silver-streaked barracuda, having gotten their template after it’s first managed to breed with a great barracuda. Aby was still learning the rules of when a spawn template was unlocked. So far, it only knew of two ways: when an invader died within its caverns, or had an already dead example deposited; or when an evolved creature managed to produce offspring. This meant it had to treasure evolved specimens like its wyvern, he was far too removed from his roots as a common seahorse to have even the faintest hope of producing little wyverns, and it hadn’t any luck with repeating the process that had netted it its first scaled seahorse. It wouldn’t leave its creations out in the open like that as they evolved anymore.

It also wondered what that sapient was. That transformation it had displayed… that sparked a desire in Aby. It appeared similar to its wyvern, but immense. It wanted something like that, a truly immense beast that stare down upon any who dare intrude and make them retreat through sheer size. It had hopes that its wyvern would reach that stage one day, the four meter beast was already rather large, but it wasn’t immense like that invader had been. Its body was streamlined and graceful, something that beast was not. It had another candidate in mind, an idea that needed a proof of concept.

Congratulations! Your creature “Black-Banded Sea Krait” has reached the threshold for evolution! Options available:

Greater Krait

A krait with a simple, all-round improvement. Its venom more venomous, able to swim faster, and reaching larger sizes.

Darkness-Banded Sea Krait

A sudden mutation of some black-banded sea kraits, allowing them a marginal darkness affinity, increasing the potency of their venom as well as their capability to hide and ambush

Aby waited, its conceptual fingers crossed tightly. It desperately hoped it wasn’t wrong in this conjecture, this was the first time it had actively tried to influence the direction an evolution occurred. It had forced the krait to hunt any invading fish it could, nearly losing it twice. It had further incensed its wyvern, too, ordering him to let this lowly krait bite and drink the blood of the reptilian. Now, it only hoped-

Congratulations! Your creature “Black-Banded Sea Krait” has fulfilled a hidden condition(s), allowing it the option to undergo a special evolution.

Condition(s) fulfilled:

Creator title “Randomizer”

Creator title “Invasive”

Creator title “The Trench Dungeon”

Ingesting blood with a moderate amount of the draconic bloodline

Drawing the blood of a creature with a moderate draconic bloodline

Special evolution available:

Lesser Wyrmling

The infant form of a creature oft mistaken for one with draconic blood, few realize that wyrms are the first stage of most royal-serpentine bloodlines instead, examples include hydras, nagas, and many others.

Aby heaved a sigh of relief. This was what it hoped for. While it was both an infant, and a lesser variant, this wyrmling would likely be only a slight bit weaker than the wyvern at best, both being moderately weaker than its first boss.

It selected the wyrmling, watching the snake it had put so much effort into the past few days begin glowing, then shining. Its brown and dark brown striped skin started changing a royal blue, deep and glossy. Its fangs grew in proportion slightly, and a single small horn grew out of its forehead, colored an inky purple. Its eyes changed color into an amber-gold, making it truly appear like a young ruler.

However, the most drastic change by far was its size. Whereas before it measured a mere one meter in length, it quickly rocketed in size, reaching and then eclipsing the wyvern’s four meter length. It stopped only at five meters, fifty centimeters. Finally done with its changes, it turned towards the wyvern, eyeing it down. The two were similar in strength, and had Aby had known creature rankings at the time, it would have come to know that both were on the higher end of C ranking. Nothing spectacular, but if they caught even a veteran like Rok with his pants down, they’d be able to contend, especially given his apparent disadvantage in the corridors and mazes of the dungeon.

As Aby learned the specs of his newest prospective frontliner, the wyvern and the wyrmling had started facing off, with the wyvern doing something similar to raising its hackles, the spines on its back sticking straight up, or slightly forward. Meanwhile, the wyrmling had flared out a hood that Aby hadn’t even seen grow. Both were letting out a low hissing noise, and appeared ready to attack the other at the first provocation. Thankfully, Sela was present, swimming between the two. It appeared comical, the Nereid had grown only slightly since she’d been with Aby, barely thirty centimeters from head to tail. Between the four meter wyvern and five and a half wyrmling, it made for an interesting image. Even stranger was when they both listened to her stern scolding, seeming to deflate in a manner no different than when two children who were at eachothers throats get a severe tongue-lashing.

As the two royal reptilians slunk away from one another, Aby sent them both an important message. Namely: don’t kill eachother. While the gem wouldn’t mind and may even actively support the two fighting and improving themselves, it refused to have either die in an entirely useless manner. It had gotten both of them entirely by chance, and even if that chance didn’t seem unlikely based on past success, there was no reason to risk it. It thanked Sela for breaking the duo up before anything major went down, and turned its attention to the dungeon at large.

It felt vulnerable being so close to the surface, that man had made it over halfway, and Aby was certain that he could have done even better if he’d prepared. At the same time, it couldn’t go deeper yet. Something important was missing, and that would need to be fulfilled before it could add new floors. It didn’t know why it had these limiters, things telling it certain things it shouldn’t do, but these instincts were strong enough to keep it from finding out what would happen should it break them.

Do not build too many floors at once. Do not spend too little time before expanding. Do not have too many boss level monsters concentrated in small amounts of floors. Do not refine mana into a flavor you are not compatible with. Only convert differing flavors of mana into the affinity you are compatible with before refining. Do not expand above ground. Do not create monsters for going above ground.

These were all less instincts to the little gem, and more hardwired commands, inviolable laws that disobedience would be punished. It had no desire to break them either, so far it had remained safe, never feeling that same fear it had back before bonding with Sela. It’d asked her once before why it had these rules, but she had no clue either.

Already on subjects that weren't strictly related to its duties, it decided to focus on its core room. Despite its entire life being situated in this room, it hadn’t ever paid much attention to it. It was quite… bare. Sitting upon a pedestal of limestone, the gem was a sphere of aquamarine eighteen centimeters in diameter. The gem was translucent, no imperfections marring it. Should one stare closer at it, they’d find a single image carved into it, if one could call the apparently depthless lines carving. Facing the entranceway was an intricately detailed brittle star, covering a single centimeter of the surface. Aby could guess what this represented, obviously, but had been curious of its origin ever since it had noticed its presence. It certainly hadn’t felt anything scratching onto it.

It finished that introspection soon enough, though, there was more important matters to attend to. Things that weren't directly relevant didn't need to be focused on, it told itself. Despite being unable to make another boss, nor to add new floors, it needed to raise its strength, a qualitative rise, rather than quantitative. It settled into its thoughts, reviewing the entirety of the invasion once more, trying to pick out what worked, like the surprise by its shrimp, and what didn’t, like its boss trying to fight in a wide open area.

~~~~~

The aquatic kobold was training on the fourth floor, something he did often after the invader. Whilst he had rid himself of most of the blame he felt at the loss of a kin, he still desired to get stronger. Thus, he was sparring with his partner, and having a rough time of it. Even with his body being specialized for aquatic movement, he was unable to fully utilize it. He may know all the new quirks of his body, as all evolved creatures do, but he hadn’t used it nearly enough to ingrain any methods of fighting to muscle memory. As such, he could really only rush straight after the eel, and as he was unable to turn as fast or strike as quickly, the eel was mopping the floor with him.

For its part, the moray had been showing off. It had been using its ability to freeze the water around it, turning the liquid around it into a haze of ice crystals. The color of these crystals matched that of its body surprisingly well, meaning it was constantly obscuring the kobolds vision. As it darted around the kobold, once more making a sharp turn at an angle the kobold couldn’t hope to match, it yet again nipped its partner, a small chunk of flesh being sheared away. As it began to swim away, the water around the wound froze, sealing the bleeding. While that helped stop any bleeding, it wasn’t done only for its benefit. Kobolds, despite being warm blooded, still felt its effects similarly to other lesser reptiles. Add to the fact that this was his eight such patch of frozen flesh, the others showing various degrees of melting, and the kobold wasn’t very happy. His movements slowed down yet again, his sluggish behavior only furthering the superiority the eel had over him.

This dance ended shortly after with the kobold having been bit multiple times and lashed with the eel’s tail. The eel, on the other hand, had been raked along the side by the kobold a total of once, when it’d been overconfident after the first bite. Light shining upon both of them, their wounds were healed, and they started to head to the second floor and rest when two new visitors arrived. Knowing the first to be that wyvern that his kin sacrificed himself to protect, the kobold had a bit of resentment creep into its mind, something it swiftly quelled.

The other was a new creation, one he hadn’t yet seen. A serpent nearly six meters in length, and stocky, it gave off a deeply conceited feeling, something that contrasted the wyverns own of standing above the masses. The two seemed at odds, the annoyed expressions on their reptilian features and low hissing they made when they looked at each other made that obvious. They both swam right past the duo, and wyvern continued downwards, while that serpent coiled around the exit to the fifth floor. The kobold lingered and watched the snake a moment longer, a moment too long for the prideful creature apparently, as it reared up and flared out its neck, showing off the teeth that lined its maw.

The kobold retreated, having gotten the message. He went back to the tribe, and would let the cranky beast unwind before he returned. The eel seemed displeased at the blatant contempt being shown, though it was well aware of the disparity, and curled its body around the kobolds waist, its head resting on his shoulder.

~~~~~

As the kobold retreated, the wyvern continued onward to the eight floor in a huff. Both him and that infernal wyrmling were too big to comfortably reside in the caves, and neither of them would stoop so low as to actually share a floor.

In his mind, however, he was smug. He was getting the better end of the deal, the eighth floor. All it had taken to make that snake think it was winning was a dejected look and “begrudgingly” moving on to the next floor. It had never even seen past the fourth, so it had no idea what it was missing out on. Not that it wouldn’t put that worm in its place even if it did.

His idle musings of trampling over his rival were interrupted on the seventh floor. He’d always had a dislike to this floor, however the creator designed it made it appear slightly ominous and foreboding. The dim, orange light flickered and cast shadows, the fire coral that was generating that light swayed, and in the dim light made it appear as though a large group of animals were moving along the walls. It was so uncanny, in fact, that he didn’t even see the comparatively tiny seahorse swim out from the coral until it was passing directly in front of him.

Jerking back in apprehension, he was prepared to dispatch the creature out of annoyance when he realized it had vanished. He whipped his head towards the direction the thing was swimming, finding naught but more coral, and this irked him greatly. He scanned the tunnel around him for a solid minute, intent on finding the sneaky creature, but came up with nothing. He accepted his lot, assuring himself that he would dispatch the critter next time he came across it.