The woman who had just come down my dungeon stairwell, slain Krag, and revealed my Core terrified me. I had observed her with my Mana Sight, identifying her gear as enchanted but not overly so. Watching a fight, however, deeply unsettled me. She danced around Krag with a speed that was unnatural for a human. I still believe she was human, just so far along her Path that her ability outstripped his by an order of magnitude.

  I spent several hours afterwards doing the core equivalent of hyperventilating. I quickly repaired the damage to my alcove but knew that if she came back and tried to claim me, I thought... no, I knew I could not do anything to stop her. The power gap between her and him was too great.

  To stop myself from going mad by worrying, I had to turn my attention to other things.

  Void corruption had been on my mind for the last few weeks. I had put all of my resources into refining my Core and trying to fix the problem with the channels through which the corruption flowed as I absorbed it into my centre.

  Had I achieved very much?

  That was the question dominating my mind right now. Still, unfortunately, as no void-corrupted monsters were running around for me to kill, I couldn't test whether I had indeed improved my ability to deal with the corruption or had spent the last few weeks just wasting my time.

  It was frustrating, but this was the life I was leading.

  Another day had dawned, and the adventurers were piling through the doors in groups. There had been an increase in those visiting the sixth, which allowed another group to work the higher floors. Most avoided the seventh at all costs, outside of a few groups. Krag developed quite a reputation amongst the adventurers, and they were not eager to test him.

  Honestly, I couldn't blame them.

  I found myself once more in the familiar pattern of waiting by day and experimenting by night. This was all in service of my slowly increasing essence count as it pushed towards the next level. Of course, I was aware of it much more than usual, and it was dragging… again.

  Krag had done excellent work increasing it by smashing more than a few adventurers. I'd hoped he would even increase his level, but that was dashed yesterday when the minotaur group showed up again and put him down. The fight was brutal, and he lasted longer than all of his previous engagements. I could tell the minotaur's were unhappy with this, but they eventually wore him down.

  So far, only four groups had regularly faced him and spent several days apart from each visit. I did not know if they were pacing themselves or him, but Krag got restless when he was not fighting. There were still twenty bodies in his hall, as he had not made any more kills since the last group that tried to sneak around him.

  I was uninterested in what was happening on the other floors as this was just another day of adventurers, so I wandered around. I was on the seventh floor at the moment, looking at the hall and thinking about maybe making a few alterations to the decorations within the room.

  Krag was sitting on his throne, using his finger to investigate the contents of his nose.

  To be honest, I was in another uninspired slump, and I wondered what I could do to possibly change the space in this room and mix it up a bit. I already decided not to add traps or anything else to the room, as Krag was doing his thing well. Looking across the floor, I was wondering if I should…..

  "Hold on."

  A change in the moss had suddenly caught my attention. On top of one of the earliest bodies, instead of dark green, the moss was a rusty brown, like the colour of dried blood.

  "What's going on here?"

  I shifted around and took a good look at the moss. I got close up and moved through my means of sight. Something was going on here. But what?

  It seemed that the moss was changing in some way as the essence flowing through it was being reduced slightly, and some of it was absorbed.

  Was it going through some form of evolution?

  I found this quite interesting. So far, I have not seen any natural evolutions of anything within my Dungeon. What literal literature I had been able to acquire and the Dungeon said such things were possible and usually followed the lines of the Cores' mana affinity.

  Well, my Dungeon is essence-rich, but I have no affinity. So what will happen here?

  I could interfere but decided not to, as watching this happen proved quite educational. So, I settled in and waited, wondering how long this would take.

  ## ## ## ## ##

  So, I'm not proud of myself for watching moss grow for eighteen days, but eventually, my patience was rewarded. I saw change in it and absorbed some.

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  "Blood Moss?"

  I opened the screens relating to this new design and read through what I had with great excitement.

  What I read quickly extinguished my excitement like an avalanche of snow on a fire. Blood Moss was not a very dangerous plant, it seemed. The moss had developed talons that latched onto its target skin and were designed to penetrate, causing the wounds to bleed.

  And that was it.

  Now, what could I do with it?

  ……. I spent a good day thinking about it, but I had nothing.

  Could it be helpful in the future? Most definitely, but I have no idea what to do with it right now. It was so bad that I could not even think of any experiments I wanted to run with it.

  My focus was in my core room, where I reviewed my experiments and tried to see where to integrate this new plant. Could I merge it with something? I could go down that route because I had no real plant minions. But then again, what would the foundation of the minion be?

  Would I create some form of hybridised vampiric mushroom?

  Questions with no answers. It's pretty much not a normal situation for me.

  I didn't want to be defeated, so I kept working, thinking up ever increasingly preposterous ideas.

  I spent another three days on this, but it was becoming frustrating because of the rabbit holes I was going down. My attention was diverted by the arrival of a pair of adventurers I had not seen in some time. Doltum and Seela started at the top of my Dungeon as they had the first time they had visited and began working their way down the floors systematically.

  I didn't bother to watch; it was just too depressing. They went through each floor, and I knew that nothing in my Dungeon could even come close to threatening them. I shifted back down to the seventh floor and my Core room.

  Krag might hold his ground for a little while, but I doubted it. I went back to the screens and continued my wild ideas. It didn't take long, but eventually, he arrived with his partner in crime on the floor.

  "Ya numpty! Stop showing off. Ya's alone here with me!" Seela was yelling at him as they came down the stairs.

  "Seela, you must always be practical when fighting in a Dungeon." He replied.

  "Practical! Ya showing off with ya sword work!" She retorted.

  "Having style is never showing off." He snapped back.

  "Style! Me arse!"

  They continued bickering until they reached the two large doors. Here, the bickering ended, and they became serious. They might argue a lot, but they were always professional when it came down to it.

  Doltum opened the doors with a flurry and strode in—sword in one hand and wand in the other. Seela hung back in the doorway for now. Krag was waiting, standing before his throne with mace and shield.

  He did not allow Doltum to do anything as he roared a challenge and charged across the hall. Doltum moved to meet him, but at the last moment, before they made contact, he darted to the side as the mace swung at him. He soon responded to the attack with his blade darting forward in cutting strikes. Several got through but only caused minor wounds. Krag used his shield to block several of them and tried to regain the initiative.

  Doltum alternated between his sword and wand, using steel and magic in a fluid combination that spoke of years of experience. Krag quickly realised he couldn't get close to hitting his opponent, so he changed tactics. He tried to ensnare the adventurer with his magic, attacking him with his shadow tentacles.

  Doltum reacted with lightning speed, slicing them away and barely stopping his attacks upon his opponent. I quickly realised I was seeing the true potential and skills of the High Magus that he had been holding back before. Krag alternated his spells and attacks to keep up with his opponent. However, this was a losing battle, as the High Magus had the advantage in all areas.

  Krag was no quitter, and I watched as his health bar began dropping fast, as did the other two. He shifted between skills, magic and brute physical strength, but could not get close to hitting his opponent. He slowed down and made him work for the victory, but his defeat was inevitable.

  With a muffled crash, my guardian fell back into the moss. The injuries finally proved fatal as they mounted up. This left Doltum standing over his body, breathing hard and sweating. It seemed my guardian had proven a more formidable opponent than I believed the High Magus thought when he first arrived.

  With the flash of the reward's arrival, Seela entered the room.

  "Ya found no easy one there." She remarked.

  "Indeed, it was not. Now, that was a tougher opponent than I thought. It makes me excited for what will come later." As he spoke, I noticed that he was regulating his breathing.

  "Right! Time to get to work." Seela quickly got to work collecting the rewards and locating the moonlight rose behind the throne. As she worked, she stopped and pointed out the blood Moss growing on the ground.

  "Well, that's an unwelcome addition to the dungeon but not wholly unexpected," Doltum said as she bent over, looking at the new moss. As he spoke, the moss moved slightly, not in the breeze but trying to get into range to strike at him. As it could only move a few millimetres, it had no hope of doing any damage as his enchanted clothing would withstand any attack it would make.

  "Want me to grab a sample?" Seela asked, eying up the moss.

  "I think it would be best. No doubt The Alchemist Guild has plenty of it on record, but as this has emerged from the Dungeon, we best make sure."

  Seela did not take long to go through the room and collect everything they wanted. She never removed the large pack from her back during the whole thing, yet somehow, she could quickly move objects in and out. I suspected some serious skills were involved here, on top of her experience. Once she was done, the question I had dreaded would be raised.

  "Ya going to look at the Core?" She asked her companion.

  He looked to the pillar where I was hiding but shook his head. "No need. Averance has probably terrified the Core enough already. We shall depart and report our findings to the Guild."

  Averance? That must have been the adventurer's name that quickly tore through the seventh floor and exposed my Core. I didn't want her to appear again until I had twenty floors to protect myself—maybe more.

  "Ya leaving anything behind?"

  "No, the Core has been getting supplied with many useful materials recently, so I believe I have no other need to inject myself here. I am looking forward to what will be coming in the future. This Dungeon has proved to be quite creative with its options."

  "Bloody pain, sometimes that's what it is," Seela muttered.

  "Come, let us return to the surface. I want to investigate more what is happening in the northern valleys, and I would like to set off in a day or two."

  "More bloody walking." Seela continues to mutter.

  The two quickly make their way up the stairs and out of my Dungeon, leaving me with the aftermath of the battle. My Dungeon quickly resets, and Krag comes back into existence. He is in a bit of a mood regarding how easily he was defeated. I leave him to his mutterings and curses and think about what I have planned for the future.