“Well, that went better than I thought.”

  After the battering they had received on my newest floor, the minotaur team pulled themselves from my dungeon. Some things had gone according to plan, while others had proven less effective than I had hoped. It was time to review what had happened.

  Let's start with the rats.

  When I created them, I was surprised I didn't get another racial class. The basic black rat seemed far more adaptable than I could ever imagine. I ended up creating a greater black rat, but its stats lines were very unimpressive. I had added the camouflage ability I now possessed but did not make it as extensive as the snakes. Finally, I threw in the improved teeth based on the worms on the 5th floor. Looking over what I created, I noticed it did not look awe-inspiring except for the final perk of swarm tactics.

  I opened the information screen on this and discovered a 50% chance of all the rats in the room swarming a single target rather than engaging whatever came closest. Now that was something for future projects.

  I could have done more. I had opted not to, as each rat now came in at 4 CP, and I did not want to overburden myself with too expensive minions, as they were here for the numbers. Due to that low power level, they rated copper coins as their primary reward for killing them. I was happy with this and did not bother to change anything more.

  Seeing them in action, I saw that they acted in accordance with how I envisioned them. However, they performed admirably in the third room, almost taking down a silver great adventure by themselves. OK, that was wrong. The boar did help.

  Here, the swarm tactic was triggered, and the rats quickly overwhelmed the distracted adventurer, causing him a great deal of injury. I had gotten in close and studied the injuries while he was being treated and noted that his arms and legs, along with the armour in those locations, were shredded by their teeth. Overall, I was happy the rats were meant to be swarm attackers anyway, and they had worked out.

  Now, I went on to the boars.

  Rock Boars.

  I took the template of the guardian of the third floor as the basis for this new minion. I swapped out all the shadow mana for earth mana. Coming in at 15 CP 10 Earth mana per boar, they were the principal investment outside the guardian on the floor.

  Their creation was relatively easy; I've had experience with them before. But watching them in action, I have to say that I was somewhat disappointed. Sure, they were tougher and lasted a bit longer in combat, but they lacked that…. punch I wanted them to have.

  As with the ones on the floors above, they rated copper as their reward, though they also produced meat and tusks. If their heights were magically infused like the guardian of the third, I might see more people down here skinning them, but on the surface, I don't think that the earth had mana-infused them similarly. I could be wrong, though. There was still so much I did not know.

  Unless I come up with a radical plan for the future, I think my time with the boar design is coming to an end. It is a robust and effective minion, but its applications are more limited now. That might change in the future, but for the moment, I don't think I will use it again.

  The rats proved a good combination with it, and I think I will look at multi-minion floors again. But that will have to be after the 10th. I had plans for the next two floors, which I was now committed to. I'm currently short on resources, so my experimentation is limited, and I had done as much as I could planning for these floors beforehand. Looking at my total now, I almost cried, but I went on to the final surprise I had for this floor.

  40 CP and 15 Death Mana.

  It was expensive but sooooo worth it!

  Creating it had been a last-minute decision and had proven to be one hell of a headache in the most literal sense. Creating this one minion had proven to be the most difficult outside of Krag. But the results spoke for themselves.

  The revenant held its own against an almost whole team of silver-grade adventurers.

  I had expected it to enhance zombies in some form, but I got what is listed as a revenant instead. From its status sheet alone, it was a massive improvement over the base. Seeing it in combat made me a believer. Creating it had opened up the options for the undead, which led me to the first quandaries I had to deal with.

  Do I make more undead?

  I'm pretty sure I can make skeletons and zombies, as they are lesser versions than those I had just created. I now understand how the manner needs to be woven through the body to have it animate. I had been thinking about using a similar principle to create golems, but that was a future project I wanted to investigate later.

  I still do not know this world's attitudes towards the undead. It was a terrible risk just creating this one undead as if they took it badly; I might be facing censure or some form of backlash. If I were to make more, it would be far later, well after floor 10 was done.

  However, this brought me to the next problem of mana.

  Even with the improvement in my mana of storage that came from levelling, I was risking exhaustion as I was using more mana now for each floor. I realised I could not just rely on creating bigger or more complicated versions of my minions and needed to add elemental mana to their designs to push them to the next level.

  The danger was that I would use too much and be unable to replenish it enough to sustain the floor or even large parts of the dungeon. I could store mana within my core and the mana stones around it, but I felt it was far too little. I couldn't move the stones further away as the mana regeneration would drop off to nothing the further away it was from me.

  I will have to suspend using my limited resources to develop new minions and focus them on improving this situation.

  “It's damned annoying being caught in this quandary.”

  This brought me back to looking over the newest floor again. I was happy with everything that had happened in the end, and the fact that I had not left a hook on the floor was not as big an issue as I had feared. The flows above each had a unique resource or item that would attract the adventurers, but this floor did not.

  “I think the rewards are good enough.”

  This led to the last thing I needed to look over: my own status sheet.

  “Status sheet Bhaldor. Open”

  “More Core Refinement on the horizon. Shame is going to be so slow.”

  I had 12 CP available to do everything I needed to do, but this was going to slow me down dramatically. Before, I had over 80 to play with, but now I have a fraction of that.

  “Could I delay a floor's creation and focus on my Core instead for a day or two?”

  That was an interesting question that had never really occurred to me. I will need to think about that a bit more. It might solve quite a few of my problems in the short term.

  “Well, back to work.”

  ## ## ## ## ##

  “A revenant. Are you sure?” Albrot asked.

  Minvar was sitting in Guild Leader Woodland’s office. She had been making her report on exploring the new floor. She had covered what they had found there and what rewards were handed out for the kills. However, things changed when she reached the floor guardian and explained what they had fought in that final cavern.

  “Yes, Xurak is a veteran of several campaigns against undead outbreaks. I trust his words and observations.” She trusted her teammate and would stand behind what he had said.

  “You said it was also merged with a plant. Blood Moss, I believe it was called.” Elian asked, wanting to confirm the information.

  “That is correct. The plant has slight vampiric abilities and has enhanced the revenant by merging with it.”

  “What is your opinion on the floor's grading?” Albrot inquired.

  “At first, it seemed that the floor was a downgrade, but looking it over now, I realised it's closer to gold. The combinations of monsters and, finally, the revenant make it far more dangerous than it first appears.” Her answer was more confident than her report, as she had been thinking about that question for some time.

  “Thank you, Team Captain Minvar.”

  Minvar raised herself from the chair. The furniture in the room was not designed for her size or her people, so it was an interesting experience. She left the room and closed the door behind her, leaving the two to discuss what she had said.

  “A revenant,” Albrot said again.

  “I don't know why I'm surprised, considering this Dungeon and what he's been doing, but I am,” Elian confessed to her superior.

  “The churches won't be happy about that. But I don't think they will take action against the Dungeon to you?”

  “I agree they won't be happy. Unless the Dungeon pivots and becomes exclusively undead, I think they will tolerate it.” Elian thought over the situation.

  They both fell silent for a few moments as they thought over the political implications of the appearance of an undead in the Dungeon.

  “We need to speak to the Searider now.” Elian reminded her superior. He grimaced and nodded his head.

  Elian rose and went to the door. Opening it, she found the assessor outside, waiting on a chair to be summoned into the room.

  “Please come in, Assessor Searider.” She indicated that he should, and he quickly rose and followed her, closing the door as he passed it. He crossed the room and sat down where he knew they would interrogate him.

  “Please take us through what happened.” Albrot had him start.

  His report was clear and concise. He took the two through each explored cavern with his thoughts and observations. He told him about the earth-enhanced boars and the rats that attacked when the fighters were engaged. He reported on what strengths and weaknesses he thought each had and how the team reacted to them. He went over the third cavern and how the rats had changed tactics and swarmed one of the fighters, causing a great deal of injuries to him as their teeth were able to penetrate his armour.

  The fourth cavern held the floor boss. It was here that his report became far more interesting. He went into detail about the revenants that they fought, reporting on the skills and abilities that he had witnessed in use. He also reported using a spell, which concerned them even more. He continued to tell the story of what happened until the fight ended and the team proved victorious. The two listeners, however, did notice his slant on everything. His views on non-humans were well known, and they secretly attached amendments to his reports noting this.

  “What will be your grade then?” Elian asked her assessor.

  “High silver. The revenant pushes it close to gold, but I am confident about the grade I am giving it.” His reply was delivered quickly.

  “Very well, Assessor Searider. Supply the Guild with your reporter on the map of the floor, and we will take your suggestion into account. From what we have heard, we will probably agree with you.” Elian knew the dance, and so did her assessor.

  “You will have them tomorrow morning, Guild leader.” He promised her.

  “I will be glad to see them then tomorrow.”

  The assessor rose and left the room, closing the door.

  “Are you adding the amendment, or shall I?” Elian asked.

  “This time, I shall do it to ensure all his reports are viewed correctly.” Albrot decided.

  They both fell silent for a few minutes as they reviewed what the team captain and the assessor had said.

  “When should we make the announcement?” Elain asked.

  “Let's take a few days to get all the paperwork in place.”

  “I understand.”