Valterra let the sensation of claiming another Location of Power wash over him even as he looked over the results through the System.

  Congratulations, Valterra Unok’Davaas!

  You have claimed a Location of Power, The Pond of Hidden Depths.

  The Pond of Hidden Depths (Rank C - Steel)

  Once a common pond, this body of water has been transformed by the presence of a Shard of the Deep. The Shard is far changed from its original nature, being another failed experiment by the Archmage Calamvor to craft a dungeon core. Like a dungeon core, it stores the Frameworks of those within its territory and is capable of unconscious changes to said Frameworks over time, but is unable to spawn more. Future Ascensions for creatures within its boundaries have a higher chance of aquatic mutation, specifically adaptations for facing the extreme cold and pressure of the depths.

  Progress to Core Ascension:

  75%

  New Framework acquired!

  Ursula, Shardbound Snapping Turtle (Guardian, Rank C - Steel)

  A unique existence among freshwater turtles, this creature has been bound to a Shard of the Deep and forcefully elevated in Rank. With increased power and Aether reserves, it is a terrifying foe to face while in its watery domain, as it is capable of firing beams of concentrated water affinity from its jaws. Placed by the Archmage Calamvor as the protector of a Location of Power, this creature has great Potential for growth while remaining bound to the Shard.

  Error! As a protector of a Location of Power, this Framework is not replicable. As a suitable boon is available on the side of the dungeon core, this creature is still claimable for a suitable price in Divine Potential, and has been automatically made a Guardian via said boon.

  New Frameworks acquired!

  Valterra dismissed the flood of other Frameworks. He would have time to go through them later, though; he just didn’t know when. There was so much to be done after all, and with his own Ascension drawing closer now that he had hit 75%, he felt as though he was running out of time. He needed to meet Natalia and find out what she thought of his dungeon, and there was a part of him that was worried about his safety once it became known that he was in the area.

  For all he knew, there was a whole society of people who would be chomping at the bit to invade and were simply gathering a larger force with which to do so. Hopefully, there was enough time for his own Sapients to begin growing in power and number.

  The Risen would hopefully challenge his dungeon eventually, but they still looked at it with fear. He would need to ask Geckodo about that. Both sets of rats would eventually awaken from their slumbers, and with the Rakali, he would have another Sapient race, but he wasn’t sure how they would match up against a possible invasion by delvers. He also didn’t know if the delvers had any way of breaking through the wards that had so far protected his dungeon from being invaded by larger creatures.

  Then again, perhaps the divinity inherent in his title would protect him better than the wards ever could, while simultaneously shrinking said larger creatures down to a level his creatures could fight at. The rate of invaders would skyrocket, but hopefully so would his available Frameworks. With more powerful creatures supplying a higher level of conflict, the hope was that Aether would flood his creatures and generate waves of Ascensions.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  As for his rats, Iskra’Seher and his clan were extremely intelligent to the point of Psuedo-Sapience, but it would be some time before they would be able to Ascend, hence the need for stronger opponents. There was also the concern that the seer would be quite mad when he did end up Ascending, but Valterra was confident in his ability to curb that madness. He wouldn’t be able to get rid of it entirely, but he could lessen its effects or turn its power toward benefiting his dungeon.

  All of these possible troubles had Valterra questioning the wisdom of Ascending. If his calculations were correct, then his next Ascension would take one to two months to complete, depending on the System’s support. During that time, he would be vulnerable to invasion, and he knew by experience that a lot could happen in the span of a few months, considering that was close to the amount of time he had been alive.

  Taking a moment to center himself, the core pushed aside his doubts. There would be time to plan before he Ascended. For now, though, he would continue to work on his dungeon, especially since another Location of Power was now available. He refrained from turning it into another Hidden Floor for the moment as he was unsure if that would put him over the edge for Ascension, and he wanted to do it semi-naturally, but he did look over it.

  Now that his Awareness was unhindered, the pond was revealed to be a place of beauty and wonder. Various water plants grew from the shallows, while a specific variety seemed to grow from the silty floor upward before blooming outward in a flat platform of greenery. Various creatures darted here and there among the undergrowth, and the dungeon could spy various aquatic and semi-aquatic animals living in and around the water.

  The pond was quite deep, which was surprising for its size. Considering the fact that a Shard of the Deep was responsible for the Location of Power, Valterra was reasonably sure that the depth was artificial or simply one of the consequences of the pseudo-core’s influence. Still, the depths held prizes all on their own, so he wasn’t complaining. It would also allow his whales more freedom in their swimming, and he knew they were enjoying themselves.

  While he didn’t necessarily want to wade through the Frameworks he had just received, he saw quite a few creatures that were pleasing to see. Several fish had survived the assault by the whale pod, and the differing species would provide his underwater places with a decent amount of flexibility and finally provide proper food for the pod and his Deeplight Belchers. He quickly summoned a few from the deeper basement levels, where he would be keeping water.

  The decision to drain the majority of the water from the basement was a decision he had come to after reliving his father’s most recent memory. He wasn’t going to do it yet, but he could prepare for the future. He would also have to move his core and shift his Aether Funnel so that his dungeon had a more precise method of descent.

  His seventh and eighth floors would suffer from the shift in Aether, but a few well-placed Aether Pylons would help with it. Perhaps they would become specialized floors in the future where he could keep creatures he specifically wanted to stay alive and grow before letting them head deeper.

  Now that some of his creatures were getting properly big, his rooms would need to be bigger as well. While larger dungeons in particular would need massive rooms, Valterra suspected that his dungeon would always remain on the small side. The first large basement room would be reconfigured as a melting pot of everything he had gained so far and become the actual start of his dungeon, as his father had intended. Perhaps he could even keep the water as a means of including his new Frameworks.

  His mind envisioned a large river cutting through the center from a pool he could build nearby. Then, he could connect the pool to the Pond, and any creatures that wanted to could come and join the battle to delve deeper. Every successive floor could have its own miniature pond and river, which would eventually make its way to the completely submerged section. Nothing prohibited him from making the small underground rooms larger, so that is what he would do.

  Still, none of this mattered if Natalia couldn’t enter his dungeon. All these plans that whirled around his head wouldn’t mean anything if she decided to be violent, but Valterra chose to trust in his uncle. If Krat’Imos said she had been invited, Valterra wasn’t going to deny her entrance. It was still nerve-wracking, though, and Valterra didn’t even have nerves! The core shifted his awareness to where the ward’s runes were carved and sighed. Well, here goes nothing.