Gem immediately asked Chesu about the system messages and their relation to the World Core, but the wisp dodged them until Gem gave up. Instead, they talked about next steps while Gem finished building the roof and walls on his attic.

“You need to connect to the main island. If you look at your Map menu, you’ll see an interactive overview of your dungeon, but off to the side of the map will be a marker for the main island.”

Gem sent the wisp a picture of a crystalline gem with a grimace plastered on its surface.

The wisp made a noncommittal noise but said nothing else. It was as if he was waiting for Gem to look. With a mental sigh, Gem pulled up his Map menu and took a look.

It was interesting to see the overhead of his dungeon. He was able to see where all of his mobs were (which was all up here in the attic because he hadn’t gotten around to assigning them locations yet) and then where his traps were. Loot-filled Hearts were also shown on his map, even though they were filled with lava.

But it looked like luck was on his side. The marker for the main island was just off to the right of his first floor’s entrance, and was marked with a ‘900+ blocks’ just under the arrow.

The wisp shook his head. “Waypoint marker usually just rounds up to hundreds. So it’s somewhere between 900 and 999.”

Gem checked his inventory.

Chesu wrinkled his nose. “I must admit, they are useful. But um… listen kid. Speaking of your Plantlings… If you’re going to build to the main island, you might want to populate your dungeon instead of having everyone up here. I don’t know if completing that last quest alerted the adventurers or anything. They might be lining up for the chance to come and delve into your dungeon.”

Gem looked over his mobs. Every one of them—other than the Plantlings working the generators—looked back at him. Some had dispassionate looks, while the Goosalopes all seemed to be buzzing with pent-up energy.

Leading the mobs down the stairwell wasn’t easy. The Goosalopes and Plantlings were too short to use the stairs, and his Boss Mob was just too large for the stairwell. To get the Boss downstairs, Gem had to unsummon him, keeping his personality in the Boss Mob Heart, and then resummon him once he was in place.

Doing the same for all the Plantlings and Goosalopes would be too much work, so Gem had those creatures ride on the back of the Cicadossums. It was a bumpy ride—and one the Plantlings, in particular, did not seem to care for—but everyone made it downstairs in just one trip.

Gem said as he and Chesu followed the mobs downstairs.

“It’s an Alteration,” Chesu said. “You should get them sometime around mid Tin to prepare you for Copper and building your second floor. Most dungeons don’t try a setup like this.”

Gem mentally shrugged.

“Absolutely agree. It almost treats you like a below-ground dungeon. You get all the perks of being a sky-bound dungeon but none of the weaknesses.” The wisp looked excited. “But enough of that. Let’s talk about mobs. What are your plans for organizing?”

Instead of answering, Gem started to arrange the mobs with simple mental commands.

The Plantlings—minus Shriek and Pals because Gem still needed them generating blocks—were ordered to stalk the Plantling tunnels and look for adventurers to ambush. They either needed to be able to turn the tide of a battle, or they needed to find someone unaware and jump out. Chesu warned that it was a bit unfair to attack adventurers if they were expecting down time to recover mana, but the Plantlings couldn’t do much damage. It would instead aggravate them and keep them on their toes.

The three packs of Goosalopes and Cicadossums were arranged with one pack in the first room and two in the second.

He instructed the three extra Goosalopes to hide and wait in two different groups. The first two Goosalope were together, and they were just inside the door. Gem had created a ring of mushrooms and the Goosalopes made themselves comfortable behind one of the oversized fungus. This put the Goosealope just in front of the first pack of mobs. He then instructed them to wait until the adventurers were distracted.

Gem’s hope was that the Goosalopes would be able to jump out and attack a healer or a ranged damage dealer while everyone was focused ahead. If they targeted someone who wasn’t used to being the focus of a mob. The Goosealope were too small to do massive damage, so it would just be an annoyance.

For the other one, he set it up in the second room, just before the Boss Room entrance. It wouldn’t have a pack to help distract their targets, but it could ambush adventurers who would be focused on getting to the Boss and wouldn’t be watching their surroundings.

The Boss Cicadossum went into the Boss Room. Gem told it to do Boss Things. It seemed confused at first, but eventually just meandered back into the faux forest Gem had established for it.

“You gonna name that monstrosity or what?”

Had Gem a body, he would have jumped in surprise.

“Well, yeah. But even if they didn’t, you named the Plantlings.” The wisp gave him a grumpy frown. “Kind of a dick move, as an Issy would say.”

Gem didn’t know what a dick was, but he didn’t want to be rude to his Boss Mob.

“Typically dungeons go for something epic. Not, you know, Yell, or whatever you called the Plantling leader. And please, no generic names. Don’t want to end up with a Boss Mob named Steve.”

“Yes, right, great. Whatever. So you want something awe-inducing, and then a title to go with it.”

Gem looked at the Cicadossum Boss where it lurked in the forest.

As he spoke the words, they formed over the Boss Mob’s head, and were also available when Gem examined the creature.

Magiphis, Blessed of the Vale

Cicadossum Boss Mob

“Well, I have to admit; that’s a pretty awesome name.” Chesu laughed, sharp and loud. “I don’t know if it’ll strike fear into the hearts of adventurers, but its appearance will do what the name can’t. Alright. Are you ready to start your bridge?”