Core was facing a dilemma. He now has access to three defenders, and he also had three different defenders. This might make it an easy choice for most people, just get one of each defender, but the problem was the lizard.

Core like his spider defender. Spider had scary legs and pointy fangs. It also has the trapdoor subspecies. Trapdoor spiders like to bury themselves in the sandy soil and lie in wait for unsuspecting prey to wander past. Then when their prey is close they jump out and bite them with their pointy fangs.

Core knew that things didn't like to be surprised by pointy things which his traps made very obvious. The fact that it would hide also meant invaders wouldn't see the spider till it was too late. And if the invader would win the fight it would be in no state to continue its journey through his dungeon.

Core also liked his goblin. Goblin wasn't as cute as his spider and it couldn't hide. But it was tiny and pretty fast. Goblin has sharp teeth and claw-like hands giving it more attack options than spider who only had his fangs. Its more bulky frame means it can also push invaders around, he might even be able to push them into a trap.

Having the goblin perform this action isn't even as hard as you'd think for a mindless skeletal goblin. While it doesn't have a mind of his own apart from kill invaders, Core found out he can still tell the goblin what to do. Not directly like a punch with your left hand and bit the target, but more in the go there and do an action type commands.

But the lizard didn't have pointy teeth, fangs or claws. It was just a skeletal lizard. Sure it's mouth was pretty big but without teeth, he couldn't kill the invaders. Maybe if he can level the lizard up and then evolve it into a more deadly lizard version, but then the lizard would need to get experience points from killing which it couldn't do.

And that brings us back to Core's dilemma to either get a second spider or a second goblin.

"System, what can you tell me about skeletal defenders?"

Skeletal creatures are the reanimated remains of deceased creatures. Their bones are held together by dark magical energy instead of muscles, flesh, and skin. By absorbing a creature inside the dungeon the Core learns how their bone structure works and can reproduce that with mana. Skeletal creatures have a 20% reduction in their statistics compared to their live counterparts. Being a skeletal creature gives them the following modifiers: Weakness:

Holy damage.

Fire damage

Blunt damage. Resistance:

Slashing damage.

Piercing damage. Immunities:

Bleed immunity.

Poison immunity.

Disease immunity.

Darkness damage immunity.

That gave him no new insight into which of the two was the better choice. He did wonder about all the new terms System was telling him about, but didn't ask any further. Knowing System she would probably have even more terms each time he asked about another term, so he decided to leave that for another day.

Then Core had a really brilliant idea. He will have all his defenders fight against an intruder. The one that killed the intruder the quickest would be the best choice of course, but what if his defender died?

"System, what happens when defenders die?"

Defenders that have been killed will vanish. Since they are created by the dungeon using the Core's mana, they can not be reabsorbed by the dungeon. No negative effects are applied on a defender's death.

"System, what happens if my defender is really hurt?"

Defenders will regenerate health over time just like the Core. This regeneration rate is based on the creature type of the defender. Skeletal defenders share the same health regeneration due to the Undead archetype.

The Core can also dismiss a defender. While it will cost mana to recreate a defender, it will be created with full health.

To dismiss a defender, select it from the defender menu and choose "Dismiss".

Core checked his defender menu and found the dismiss option. Well, that settles it then. If he can dismiss his creatures he can even create the lizard and see how it would do in a fight. He would need to slightly adjust his dungeon but he had regained plenty of mana while he was debating his choice.

First, he moved his first trap to the tunnel in front of his core room. He then took out three squares of space to the left of where the trap used to be and lined up his three defenders in a row. The first defender would fight an invading creature and if it won he would move it to the back to regenerate health. If his defender lost then the second defender would come out and attack the invader instead.

The first defender to fight is the spider, but since the spider would give the best fight from an ambush he set the spider to bury itself on the tunnel path instead of having to wait in the tunnel. While the spider could jump out of the tunnel he wasn't too sure if it could leap into a good enough position.

Core browsed his menus and opened his Defender creator. The menu has all kinds of options so he can create the exact defender he wants to have. First, he can select the archetype, which is set to Skeletal by default. Next, he has to choose the Race, which has the options for Lizard, Golbin, and Spider. The Type selection only has the Runt option, he still needed to ask System what a type is. Subspecies / Class is also empty unless he selects the Spider race. Lastly, the level selector is set to 1. He'll probably get to choose levels after his defenders gain levels. For now, he settled on his selection.

Defender creator. Archetype: Race: Type: Subspecies / Class Level: Skeletal Lizard Runt None 1

The lizard he created was a lot bigger than he expected it to be. Based on his Defender compendium menu he thought it would be the same size as his goblin, but the lizard is so big the goblin can probably ride on the lizards back!

'Wait, that's not even a bad idea'.

He promptly gives his goblin the order to mount the lizard. He instantly regrets his decision. Having no flesh means the goblin has no proper area to sit on. The moment the goblin tries to sit on the lizard's spine he promptly lost his balance and falls off.

Well, that idea will have to wait for when he unlocks the Lizard archetype. If the lizard is made of flesh the goblin surely won't fall off, probably.

And thus begins the waiting game. He waited for an hour, which turned into two hours, and then into three. Core's pretty patient, but he really wanted to see which of creatures was the best fighter. After the fourth hour passed without an invader showing up Core focussed his attention back on his menus. Maybe now was a good time to ask System about those terms of the undead description or what a type and class are.

"System , what's a ..."

Warning: An invader has entered the dungeon!

It finally happened an invader found his dungeon!

He focussed his dungeon sight on the entrance to have a look at the newest invader. He found a small furry creature with a naked tail, two big teeth in its pointy mount. It walked on four legs sniffing the air, sometimes standing on its hind legs.

Slowly it scurried past the wall into the waitings fangs of his defenders. The invader looked pretty weak with its small body. The big teeth might be scary if the creature was a lot bigger then its current form. It rounded the corner its tiny nose twitching in the air and it sniffed the new defender tunnel. Taking a few steps forward it came face to face with the skeletal goblin. The sudden appearance of the undead form scared the invader as it instantly sprinted away, right into the fangs of the spider. Core had a hard time following the quick movement of both the invader that sprinted away and the spider that popped out of the ground. The instant the spider popped out it sunk its sharps fangs into the invader's tiny body, the front legs used to keep it down on the floor. The invader struggled to get out from under its attacker, but it was no match for the spider which repeatedly bit down with its fangs.

Rat Level 1 has been killed by Experience gained: 8. Current experience 8 / 100.

Dungeon Points gained: 1. Current Dungeon Points: 16. Progress gained: Understanding of archetype +20%.

Current % progress: 20 / 100. Undead archetype experience gained: 5.

Undead archetype current experience: 5 / 1.000. Skeletal Spider experience gained: 5.

Skeletal Spider current experience: 5 / 50. * Skeletal over type has been applied to Rat.

Core was happy with how quickly his spider had killed the rat invader. He also like he was making progress with the archetype and the spider, but he noticed a slight difference in the amount of experience he gained."System, why did I gain less experience than last time".

Experience gained is based on the difference between the level of fighters. If the level of your opponent is lower than your own you gain less experience. Likewise, if you kill an opponent of a higher level you'll gain more experience.

Since you are a level 2 dungeon and you killed a level 1 rat you only gained 80% of the experience.

Since your spider is a level 1 defender it gained 100% of the experience, but since it's a defender 50% is added to the archetype and 50% is added to the defender.

Core found that a stupid rule, he wanted to get really powerful, and he needed a lot of experience to grow. But this only lasted for a moment. Core wouldn't like it either if some really powerful invader showed up that he couldn't defeat and that invader gained all that free experience. Plus Core couldn't change how the world worked, so he just accepted that he'd gain less from killing weak invaders. At least his defenders gained full experience points still.

Core told his spider to get back further into the tunnel. Goblin was up next in the grand melee to decide the most powerful defender. The rat was pretty weak, so he kinda hoped a slightly stronger invader would show up next.

Core didn't have to wait long before he got a new notification.

Warning: An invader has entered the dungeon!

Core looked at the entrance with high anticipation, which quickly went away as he saw yet another rat invade his dungeon. Well, at least they would fight the same invader so the result should align better to decide who was best the best defender. And just like the previous rat this one also scurried along the dungeon wall, but this time it picked the other wall. It stopped for a moment and lifted its nose towards the tunnel ahead.

The hiding goblin jumped from the tunnel and pounced on the little invader. Surprise ones again proving to be the deciding factor. Goblin held the squeaking rodent firmly in its bony fingers. The rat tried to fight back by biting down on them, but that only caused minor damage. Goblin mimicked the action on the rat but instead of fingers, it bit the head of the rat right of its body.

Rat Level 1 has been killed by Experience gained: 8. Current experience 16 / 100.

Dungeon Points gained: 1. Current Dungeon Points: 17. Progress gained: Understanding of archetype +20%.

Current % progress: 40 / 100. Undead archetype experience gained: 5.

Undead archetype current experience: 10 / 1.000. Skeletal Goblin experience gained: 5.

Skeletal Goblin current experience: 5 / 50.

Core still didn't like the reduced experience but on the plus side, the rats died easily, so he only had to kill eleven more to get to level 3. He wondered if he'd get another cool feature when he reached level 3. Maybe he'd gain more defender slots or trap slots or even an entire new trap.

He made the goblin and the lizard swap places, and he waited for the next invader.

Spoiler: Dungeon map