And… done! As soon as the first room had been made and I declared it done, plants and trees started to grow all around the room. Soon the room floor was completely covered in grass, moss, ferns, small bushes, and the like in between the now fully grown trees. Climbing plants had even covered the walls and ceiling!

  Heh… I didn't realize the environment appeared automatically… What if I wanted a route through the forest? A dirt route appeared going from the opening to the core room straight through the new room to the wall on the other side. Nice! I can still customize it! Let's test how far this goes!

  After some testing I discovered that as long as it fits in a forest environment and isn't in itself dangerous, I can be as detailed as I want. I can even do some crazy things like making the trees form words, give their bark a green-reddish rainbow color or create a blood red pond by raising the iron level in it! The environment also includes insects as long as they're harmless or only annoying. Ordinary mosquitoes are okay, while mosquitoes with malaria are not. While testing I realized that it didn't cost mana to change the environment or spawn insects. Can I fill the entire room with mosquitoes and kill people with mosquito bites? Not that I actually wanted to do that, but it could be a useful plan B.

  The answer was no, though. I couldn't even get the number of mosquitoes up to the level of a proper swamp. And as I couldn't control the insects - I tried - I couldn't just make them attack someone anyway.

  At this point my mana was almost full again, so I decided to turn the room back to default - as I didn't yet know what I needed from it - and finally spawn a dragonet. Hmm… How do I do this? Maybe I just think "Spawn level 1 dragonet"?

  Spawn it in this ro… Floor. The dragonet successfully spawned but as it appeared in the newly created room, I couldn't really know if it was locked to the forest room or the 1st Floor.

  Hello there! I aimed the thought at the dragonet, but it sadly didn't react. Its long ears didn't even twist. I had only been a Dungeon Core for a day, so I didn't yet feel lonely, but I knew it would eventually come. Maybe it will react to a command? Go to the Core Room. The dragonet had been exploring the forest floor but immediately changed direction. It worked! But when it arrived in the short corridor between the two rooms it sat down instead of walking into the Core Room. Why won't it enter?

  I suppose that makes sense. And it's not like I really need one in there anyway. Go do what you want. The dragonet turned around and found a tree to climb. I watched it for a bit. It explored the tree before jumping into the air and flying around. It seemed to like the room but it couldn't actually tell me if it did. I tried. What did the description of dragonets say again?

  Right! They burrow and eat fruit! I immediately made a couple of different sized burrows in different places and changed the trees and bushes to fruit trees and berry bushes. While I was at it, I decided to add a little pond in one corner. The dragonet landed in a plum tree and smelled a plum but didn't seem interested in eating it.

  As I looked more closely at the dragonet a status window showed up.

  Uh~! While I'm sure I could guess it, please inform me what these new categories mean and what would be considered a high score.

  No reaction.

  Hmm… Let me try again. What do these new categories mean and what would be considered a high score?

  Okay. So, for a level 1 its Dexterity and Awareness are high, while its Toughness must have started out kinda pathetic. Its Toughness supposedly gets first +2 and then an additional 120%, so it would have started with a Toughness of only 5. My Dungeon Core mind made quick work of the math. That would mean dragonets are hard to hit or hide from but will normally go down quickly if actually hit.

  Oh well! While I love watching my dragonet, I still have work to do! Digging a corridor in the right wall and starting on a new room, I soon realized that, as I could always see everything in my Dungeon, I was still observing the dragonet!

  Neat!

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  Two days later I had 3 rooms done and needed a change of pace. Let's make this room a puzzle room!

  Hmm… Not only had I needed to design the puzzles and traps, I had to name them too… And puzzles, which killed or seriously harmed if you failed them, were locked until later Floors. Kindness. The 3rd forest room from my Core Room was now separated from the other rooms by a thin stone covering covered in climbing plants. The only other difference was the appearance of a scared dragonet with its tail caught in a tiny bear trap. The dragonet wasn't actually real. It was a part of the puzzle and would disappear when it was solved. At which point the thin stone covering would slide to the side. Ha! Let's see any bad people figure this one out! The puzzle cost me 40 mana and while I didn't know if it gave me enough EXP to be worth the cost, I loved the idea that no bad people could get to my Core.

  Actually… What does happen if someone gets to my Core? Do they want to kill… shatter… me?

  Uh… That's got to be hard to make or expensive or something, right? I started panicking. No answer came. Maybe I just didn't ask it right. Uhm… How rare is this Dungeon Core taming device?

  … That didn't help much… What's celenegil?

  And what's orichalcum?

  Relief rushed through me. It's got to be super hard to get to then. That's from Floor 36 and higher!

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  … What are enchanting runesmiths by the way?

  … That sounds even harder to get a hold of! Not only do you have to be a high tier, you also have to have had the right Classes beforehand! Happy with my continued freedom I went back to digging for a bit before a thought hit me. You said they were commonly made by Enchanting Runesmiths. That means other Classes can make them too! So, tell me: which Classes can enchant a Dungeon Core Cage?

  No, thank you. It still seems like Dungeon Core Cages are rather rare, so it’s fine.

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  It was the middle of the 7th day and I was done with the 6th room. To change the repetitiveness of my life I had made a curved tunnel between the 5th and 6th room instead of the standard short corridor. It didn't help the boredom much though. It might be a good place to put some traps though. But I didn't want to put down traps without making sure it wouldn't hit good people. Or at least make it less likely. And I didn't yet know how to do that.

  I had just designed yet another trap while waiting for my mana to regenerate. I'm running out of ideas for traps and puzzles… And it's gotten really repetitive by now… Hoping a break from the digging-designing cycle would help my mood, I decided to do nothing but watch my dragonet for a while. Unfortunately, as I'm always seeing everything at once I already knew everything it might do. Maybe making it a friend will change its behavior? I need to make more eventually anyway. So, I made it a friend and they immediately started playing aerial catch-me-if-you-can.

  Wait a minute… The way I had made the puzzle a couple of days ago and the way I had spawned the dragonets had many similarities. Mainly that I had a design and used mana to make it appear where I wanted it to appear. Can I design my own creatures?

  The question had been aimed at myself, but I was very happy with the response I had gotten. Awesome! I've always wanted a mimic! So, I immediately began designing a mimic. However, when I was done making the perfect mimic, disaster struck. Much like how my puzzles weren't allowed to harm anyone on the 1st Floor, the mimic too was simply too powerful and mana expensive for now. As in way too expensive. My "true mimic" as I named it had a base cost of 11,000 mana! On top of that I had to pay an additional 50% bringing the actual price up to 16,500! I only had a max. of 50 mana right now!

  So, a new routine began: Digging and designing increasingly weaker mimics until I had made one I could use. Every time I tried to design a weaker mimic, I first attempted to make the mimic draconic in the hopes that the extra 50% mana price would disappear, but then the design didn't result in a creature pattern.

  I didn't want to compromise the mimics' ability to perfectly mimic other things so I mostly played around with their Strength and putting limits on what they could turn into.

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  I have successfully made 9 different mimics and I still don't have one weak enough to use! The 8th room was now done, and the 9th mimic had a base cost of 50 mana and an actual cost of 75. Leaving me just shy of the goal.

  Isn't there some way to make this mimic draconic? Wait… That's the wrong question! I should instead have my dragonet learn to mimic! I then immediately designed a dragonet with the abilities of the 9th mimic - as it was the weakest one.

  Yes! And the price?

  Wasting no time, I tried to spawn one in the 1st room with the other dragonets. But nothing happened. Right, I need to have max. mana. The waiting was torture as I couldn't concentrate on making new designs. But finally, my mana was full and I spawned a mimicking dragonet.

  Nice! A new creature and an Achievement! And this Achievement is in a series! Awesome! Now mimic a bush! The mimicking dragonet turned into a small bush as ordered but immediately turned back to a dragonet, clearly not wanting to be a bush right now. It still made me happy to see and so I continued my earlier break and simply observed my three dragonets.

  After several hours of simply watching, I concluded that the mimicking dragonet would act like an ordinary dragonet until it saw a sapient. The three dragonets loved playing together. Aerial tag, water games and hide-and-seek, while mostly using their sense of smell, seemed to be their favorites.

  Back to work, I guess.

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  Finally! I'm done with the boring part! The 10 rooms stood completed at last.

  Now to add some more creatures. Hmm… I want to stick to the dragon theme and have mostly dragons. Like 90% dragons or something. How much does that leave for everything else?

  9 levels for other creatures then. Alright. The mimic is one… Even though it's a dragon I'm still counting it as a mimic.

  Hmm… While I love mimics, I still don't want to have too many of them as it will just ruin the element of surprise. One mimic each Floor sounds good. But what other creatures do I want? Dragons are the main event. You are meant to see and be awed by them. So… Maybe something boring looking but surprisingly dangerous?

  With the 10 rooms now built, the cycle was now: design creatures - hopefully in my price range - and spawn dragonets when possible.

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  …No, thank you. I'm not ready yet. It was 4 days later, and I had just spawned my 30th creature. While I don't plan on doing everything I can before opening up, I do want to have some traps and the other puzzle up first. And 3 creatures averaged in every room seems like too little. 5 sounds better.

  So, I ignored the message for now and went back to planning.

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  Another day passed before the next message popped up.

  … I didn't expect that… Extra mana regeneration?! And a Mana Bank! Now we're talking! Status, please!

  Awesome! Now I can save up for an actual mimic as my max. mana is now effectively 150. But… my mimicking dragonet already does that job and the only mimic I can actually get isn't any better, so there's really no point. Still, I can now get more expensive creatures should I want to. The regeneration boost is the real catch there though! Hurray for shorter periods of boredom!

  ...

  And how do I use this Ability?

  Manually? Giving it a try I focused on moving my current mana into the Mana Bank. Well, something definitely happened. Status?

  It worked! Then let me try to spawn a dragonet using the mana in the Mana Bank. I only had enough mana to try this right away due to having gotten distracted trying to design a very powerful creature that I might never get to use but was fun to design regardless.

  The dragonet spawned just like it should. Yes!