Congratulations on Copper 1! the message read.

Upgrade Point Earned x3 New Mob Unlocked: Flying Fox New Mob Unlocked: Fungusling New Mob Unlocked: Dolves New Mob Unlocked: Mosqueevil New Block Unlocked: Glass New Block Unlocked: Crumbled Stone New Block Unlocked: Polished Stone New Alteration Unlocked: Dark Forest Decoration New Alteration Unlocked: Whimsical Forest Decoration New Alteration Unlocked: Slabs and Half Blocks New Alteration Unlocked: Opacity

Gem immediately dismissed the idea of looking at his available Upgrade options. He was absolutely certain he could make decisions on his own, but he liked having Chesu provide feedback. The wisp was a good sounding board, if nothing else.

For now, he examined the notifications he received when hitting Tin 8 and 9. The unlocks had gotten ignored in favor of Upgrades.

New Mob Unlocked: Stink Plansect New Feature Unlocked: Party Buffs

The Stink Plansect was labeled as an Imposter Mob. It looked like a Plantling, but it had eyes along the body instead of in the flower on its head. There were many eyes, and the little example picture his Mob menu gave him made Gem uneasy. The description of the mob mentioned that it exploded into a stinking cloud of choking fumes on death.

That’ll be a good thing to pair with my Plantlings, Gem thought to no one in particular. It’ll blend right in and provide some additional damage.

Party Buffs was an interesting Feature, but Gem wasn’t sure how to best utilize it. The feature was something he could activate, but only when an adventuring party was inside his dungeon. Available buffs ran from small stat bonuses to increased damage against certain mob types. Each buff had an associated multiplier, which would increase Gem’s experience gain from his daily quests, the death of a Hero Core, or the completion of the party’s quests. Even resting and recovering mana would give Gem additional XP.

Perhaps I can find a way to combine this with the Quest system, Gem thought to himself as he perused the menu. I could give stronger buffs to lower-level groups, which would make clears easier for them, but also provide me with additional XP.

With a mental shake of his head, Gem dismissed the menu.

Can’t get lost here. Need to focus. I’ve got two days to build my floor, and lots of stuff to still go over.

The Copper 1 mobs he unlocked were a Flying Fox, which was, unsurprisingly, a Flying Mob that could camouflage itself and used echolocation; a Fungusling, which seemed to be an upgrade from the Plantling; a Dolve, which was a Pack Mob that had antlers but also wicked looking fangs; and a Mosqueevil, which was a Tank Mob. The Mosqueevil had a shell much like the Cicadossum’s carapace, but the accompanying text said it had lifesteal attacks.

Gem thought the Dolve looked intimidating, and he looked forward to seeing it tear through adventurer groups. As a Pack Mob it would do best with multiple friends, but it cost six command points.

The Mosqueevil did as well, while the Flying Fox was only five and the Fungusling was four.

That prompted Gem to look at his character sheet.

Name: Gem

Theme: Forest Dungeon

Contained Entity: [ERROR - NO ENTITIES AVAILABLE]

Tier: Copper

Rank: One

Mana: 178 / 200

Regeneration: 20 / Hour

Command: 62 / 70 (cap 300)

Area of Influence: [View]

Dungeon Map: [View]

Rooms | Mobs | Upgrades (3) | Traps | Alterations | Decorations | Catalog | Quests | Buffs

The jump in available Command Points from Tin 9 to Copper 1 was shocking. Gem had only had access to 90 Command Points before he ranked up.

Immediately his mind started to do calculations.

I have 238 available points with no alterations to Floor One. If my Boss Mob is a Dolve or a Mosqueevil, that’s only 18 Command Points. Even if I use a Hollow Heart, that’s still only a one and a half time increase, rounded up, so 27. That leaves me with 211 points! I could have so many Hollow Heart mobs!

His glee was almost too much to contain.

Cart before the horse, however, he thought, trying to sober himself up first. I need to design the floor before I can populate it with Pylons and mobs.

###

When Gem created his first floor, he was working under subpar conditions. There was so much he didn’t know, since he was a brand new Dungeon Core and his wisp had left with all his knowledge of the system.

Even with Chesu fast asleep, Gem had a much better understanding of the systems in place.

It took him less than half the time to build his second dungeon floor, barely over a day. He got distracted for a little while each time adventures came within his Area of Influence and decided to check his doors even though it was clear the dungeon wasn’t operational, but they usually left immediately after they didn’t open.

I should put a sign or something closer to the main island. It’s really quite a distance to come all the way here and then be turned around.

He had the quest system, and he planned on utilizing that. A quest board up by the connection to the main island would attract the Hero Cores and draw them in. It would be simple to attach a floor monitor to it, like the one he had at his front doors.

To make the work of building go faster, Gem split his consciousness again. He aimed for three—two of himself to build and one to use the new Hallow-infused Stone generator. His concentration was a bit shaky at first, but he adapted after a moment and the three of them got to work.

Gem built the second floor to have a larger footprint than his first. It cost a considerable amount of blocks, but he had a good variety to choose from now.

Like with his first floor, he blended Mossy Cut Stone, Cobblestone, and Stone together to give the floors, walls, and ceiling some texture. He also mixed in the Hollow-infused Stone, particularly as the floor progressed towards the Boss Room. The Boss Room chamber was made almost entirely out of the stuff.

Even without occupants or decorations, Gem thought the setup was impressive.

It looked even better when he added the little details like plants and other decorations.

His primary consciousness decided to roam the halls to get a better look while the other two worked on preparing materials through the generator, and through making Mob Hearts.

The outer footprint was a neat square, unlike his first floor. But the inside was nothing so simple. The stairwell that would appear when Magi fell was made of the new Polished Stone he’d unlocked. It was well lit due to the closeness of the walls. Gem could imagine the sounds of adventurers clamoring down those stairs, armor jingling in a cacophony of tiny sounds.

At the bottom of the stairs was a short bit of hallway, and then a pair of giant stone doors. Gem had rigged a trap to open the doors when an adventurer stepped on a well-hidden pressure plate, but he could easily override that particular mechanic if he wanted to. He wasn’t quite sure why he would want to, but instinct was a hard thing to ignore.

Past the giant doors was a hallway that went off at a right angle. Here was a well-manicured garden, full of trees and shrubs, with flowers that glowed in the warm light that filled the area. Daytime decorations made the dungeon seem like it was experiencing direct sunlight, regardless of what it actually looked like outside.

Gem didn’t plan on putting any monsters here. At the end of the garden was another double door, one that again opened when the pressure plate was activated. It would mean the adventurers could rest here, regain their mana if needed, or just enjoy the tranquility of the garden.

He did think of putting another Cardinowl here, one instructed to not attack, but decided against it. No one would trust it. They’d try to kill the bird, and Gem’s instructions would either go unheeded as soon as it was hit, or the creature would be unable to fight back. He wasn’t sure which was worse.

Past the door, the hall split to the right and left at sharp angles. The left-hand passage led to a dead end, but at the far wall sat a small dais that held another loot-filled crystal. Not only was there loot, however; this crystal was on a weighted button that would unlock one of the chambers of the final boss.

Gem had made sure to trap the hallway, but his proverbial heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t want adventurers to die to traps. It just didn’t seem fair. But they would also be suspicious if there were no traps in a place like this, so he included a few pressure plates in the floor and extruding spikes from glaring, uncovered holes in the wall.

It was all painfully obvious. Anyone who got hit with anything almost deserved it at that point.

The right hand split began the maze.

Gem was quite proud of the maze, all things considered. He planned to have a handful of mobs roaming the halls, making the tight turns and zig-zagging corridors much more dangerous. Inside the maze were two points of interest—a cluster of Plantling huts that Gem had obvious plans for, but also a small pond. He’d placed plants and decor around it to make it seem like a pleasant place, but he didn’t know what he planned to do with it otherwise. Especially since he had no aquatic monsters, and there was no reason to have a rest area since he planned on making his monsters roam the maze.

But for some reason he liked it. He even worked so hard to make the edges seem organic, even though he was confined within the limitations of using blocks to define its banks. Some of that was due to perfect plant placement, but Gem also used height variance to do what he could.

The maze could be bypassed, or so an adventuring party was sure to think. The hallway continued past. But just after the hard right into the next hallway was a glass wall, and Gem planned to have a mob of some sort stationed there. Maybe something with a Hollow Heart. Just something to threaten those who thought they could outsmart the dungeon.

After the adventurers traversed the maze, they would find another stone double door. This one was activated by a pressure plate as well, however there were three points of activation. The first was in the depths of the pond, the second in the middle of the Plantling village, and the third was on the other side of the door.

Gem’s idea was that someone would have to be left behind so that the others could go through and open it for them. However, he purposefully left rocks along the bank of the pond that would be heavy enough to activate the pressure plate.

I can’t trust adventurers to not sacrifice one of their own… and they’ll need everyone for what I have planned.

Beyond the hallway was the Boss Chamber. Gem wasn’t quite sure yet what he planned to put in this room, but he knew it had to be amazing. In the center of a large room was a glass box. The walls were set to recede into the floor when two of the four buttons he’d hidden were pressed.

Around the room as well were four pillars made of Hallow-infused Stone. The light from above the room reflected off the central glass box and hit these pillars, sending shimmering rainbows of dancing, distracting lights into the air. Those would fade when the glass receded, but it would be awe-inspiring when adventurers first came into the room.

Beyond the Boss Room was another hallway, and this led around the outside of the second half of the dungeon. It was completely uneventful, other than a hidden door immediately off to the left that housed another dais, loot crystal, and hidden button.

Gem was worried about that button.

Clever groups would find it, but if they also found the button in the beginning of the floor, they would unlock the Boss’s chamber. But there would still be enemies ahead as well. It would increase the danger of the Boss by a percentage Gem couldn’t even calculate yet, since he hadn’t assigned mobs to areas.

I’ll have to ask Chesu how to handle it, Gem thought to himself as he swept his consciousness past the door. There has to be some way to let them know of the danger.

And the end of the seemingly endless hallway was a verdant forest. It wasn’t as meticulously maintained as the other, and seemed a lot more like the first floor. The difference here was there was no defined path, and hidden among the branches were pillars of Hollow-infused Stone that seemed to rip out of the ground.

Gem wanted to put a pack of Dolves here. A very secret, very dark part of him wanted to make their leader a servitor, and one with a Hallow Heart. He knew that would increase the difficulty of the room by an incredible magnitude, mostly because the horned pack animals would be led by a creature that could think and change its mind fluidly. Gem wouldn’t have to give the Dolves some complicated series of instructions; they would be able to care for themselves.

One of the pillars had a hidden switch. Gem thought that was painfully obvious.

But, additionally, there was one more hidden door that led to another loot-filled crystal with a pressure plate switch.

If Gem got to Bronze and was able to build a third floor, he planned to have the stairwell down be a grand reveal. He wanted the floor of the Boss Room’s center area to recede away into the downward stairs.

It was much better than the stairwell from floors one to two.

He hadn’t done any planning for it, when he built the first floor Boss Room, originally. So, for now, a stairwell opened up on the opposite of the entrance, right next to the hidden stairwell that led to his uppermost floor.

It was dangerous, and Gem wasn’t sure it was the right idea. But he needed the door to be against the far wall, so it made sense for where it popped out. And he couldn’t very well redesign his entire first-floor Boss Room to accommodate a grand entrance to the second floor.

There just wasn’t enough time.

This’ll have to do, he thought to himself as he combined his consciousnesses once more. For now, we populate.