A/N: Shout out to RexZShadow and Growl for their tips and critisism! It truly helps to have some other opions on it. Please never hesitate to comment or let me know. I want to improve my style before I try my hand at some other ideas I've waiting.

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Looking around, I realised lots of things have changed. The bats multiplied enormously, they were covering the whole ceiling of the first room. Every cranny and crook was covered with bats and there were furious fights for the best positions going on all the time. There was one bat in particular that attracted my attention. It was bigger than average for a carnivorous bat, almost a foot in length, but that was not the most important thing. It was the way it interacted with all the other bats, as if it were their king. It took up the precise centre of the ceiling, surrounded by a small empty space of about an inch and then several bats facing outwards, as if they were guarding the kings space.

I suspect that with the adaption of mana it tried to establish dominance over the surroundings, for enough food, partners and space, especially now it's so cramped in there. I should allow them to further venture into the cave, assuming the other creatures must have had a similar growth. Most of all I'm interested in my Cored worm.

With a quick look over the rest of the rooms I decided to lift all restrictions towards expanding their life zones for all animals. All regular worms and all mice multiplied nicely and there were even some new insects around. I saw fruit flies, regular flies, cockroaches and several spider species.

I placed a couple [nests] for all the new insects spread around the rooms, then checked upon my lovely creature. As expected, it grew even larger and fully fused with its core, while also turning carnivorous, preying on smaller worms and even weak mice from time to time. Surprisingly enough, it had mated with regular worms which resulted in an even more interesting kind. Several mice and even the giant worm were infected with what I couldn't describe as anything but parasitic worms.

The mice were slowly being eaten alive, but the parasitic worms seem to use the fused worm as sort of home. My plan was to use a giant human eating worm as first line of defence, after all if it's cleaved in half, it might just survive, but now I had a different idea. I would link the minds of all the parasitic worms to some sort of hive mind, and add the fused worm as a part of it, both as hive and as living creature.

This way the little ones would protect the big one and vice versa. That might even be done without the linked minds, but I feel like this would be a better option since I'll use the combination as a boss. To make sure the hive mind stays intact, I'll make the "queen" take place in my room at all the time, especially once I further expand. It'll turn into my own small zoo, I like the idea of that.

I'll use bees as a base for the hive mind, mixed with ants. For such a chance, a small bit of mana has to be spent, but it'll all be worth it, without a doubt. To see the effects, it'll have to take a while most likely, because I'm changing their ways of interacting with each other. Before I forget it, I should make it so that they still eat other worms, as long as they don't belong to the hive, might run out of a food source for them otherwise.

After this change, I did another round through the rooms. It seems that the mice build their own [nests] in small gaps in the walls, creating comfort zones. Wondering how they found those gaps, because I certainly didn't make them, I kept looking at them for a while. After some moments I saw a mice digging into the stone wall. Nodding to myself, I noted that they too had adapted to the environment thanks to the abundant mana, this time by hardening their claws to create a safe haven.

Happy that all creatures had some adaption of some kind, I released their mental block to cross rooms. An established ecosystem would benefit me more than regulating it all the time. It'll take a few days most likely for them to realise they could move, after which the new order of things should be established. After all, not all mice were used to the frequent bat attacks for example.

After I solved that, I created a pathway all above the rooms. It were steep downwards tube like paths, with the highest point being above the current heartroom. It was very similar to a boulder path, those that you drop a marble on and it keeps rolling until if falls down a hole in the path. I created it exactly like that.

Unlike marbles or boulders, I placed a [spawn] at the highest point, destined for slimes. I wasn't too much of a fan of slimes, but they did their job and that was all that mattered. The good thing about slimes is that they can still acquire evolutions with a [spawn], as the only exception of all species. I didn't want to keep bothering with them, but having slimes drop out of the ceiling didn't seem to bad of an idea as a defence, especially since those could possibly evolve.

I also made the assumption all the other creatures would be able to either hunt or escape from the slimes, adding them to the ecosystem. After all, so far they did very well in adapting, so why would they suddenly stop with a new creature in place.

I need to prepare all my defences before I get invaded, so there wouldn't be mercy on anything. I won't amass all my forces in the first floor in case of a wipe, but I wouldn't gradually increase difficulty either.

Humans are certainly a danger with their greed, but I fear more about fairies. They act like helpers, approaching a young Dungeon, offering their "help" and "expertise" and then make a contract. They sign themselves as the Dungeon Master, keeping the Dungeon under their control.

That's why Dungeons get options to choose between species. Sure, it does have some benefits, in the beginning they'll share their mana regen to help you grow and help with how to design a dungeon, but they're even worse than leeches. Ever wondered why mana cost keeps increasing the more rooms you add, the more floors you get, the more experienced you become?

It's because they leech of your mana, they steal it from you. If you get more experienced, shouldn't your control get better and your costs reduce after all? They do, but the fairies steal your mana, they've that control as Dungeon Master. They restrict your possibilities, keep you as a pet or as a slave and there's normally no escape.

The only way is for either the fairy to resign from being a Dungeon Master, which will never happen, or for the fairy to be slain, which still doesn't happen that often, but sometimes it does. That's how I got my freedom, after which I sworn to never be a slave again.

I must say, sometimes a dungeon gets lucky and a non-experienced fairy accidently makes the mistake to assign itself as a Dungeon Lord, but that happens even less than a fairy getting slain. I might still be safe for now, but I should focus on growing more.

After my mana has returned that is.