It had taken Ranus longer to reach the palisade gates than he would have liked. When the emergency messenger arrived, he set off at once, but was on the valley's far side, and he had to navigate through the throngs of people in the city, who had now just realised that the Dungeon was under attack again.

  His Watch escort had cleared the route as best he could, but it had still taken him far too long to arrive. Danrum was organising the watch along the palisade, ready to seal the gates if needed and make a stand there.

  The Adventurer's Guild was out in force, and so were the leaders and militant orders of the churches. All the highest-grade teams were present, and he noticed the dwarven warriors off to the site being looked over by the healers from the church of Ilinia.

  Danrum joined him as he walked out onto the floodplain and toward the clustered group of leaders, who were talking.

  "Lord Goldwind." Many said as they noticed his approach in greeting.

  "What is happening?" The message he received was vague, but he knew the code words alerted him that it was a void-corrupted monster attacking the Dungeon. He looked towards the building, whose doors were smashed through and lying on the floor inside the room.

  "Things were confusing at first, but we got confirmation from the dwarven team in the Dungeon when the void-corrupted creature attacked. They have positively identified it as a Fearfiend." Averance explained what they knew so far. There was a sharp intake of breath even from those who knew the name of the monster attacking the Dungeon.

  "How was a member of the demon race allowed to get so close without us being alerted?" Ranus demanded.

  "As you know, when the churches were established within your city, the standard wards protecting them and your community were also implemented. Its void corrupted nature seems to have allowed it to bypass these wards without triggering them." Nextom explained. This was another unpleasant reality: they had to face demons, and their kin infected by the new type of corruption could now bypass wards designed to sense their presence.

  "Do we know what is happening?" Another church leader asked.

  The dwarven team was in the Dungeon, preparing to go to the sixth floor. On the surface, the Fearfiend attacked quickly, emerging from the other side of the building and not being spotted until it was too late to stop. It smashed through the Dungeon's entry doors and went straight in, triggering its fear ability to attack anyone too close. Elian took them through what had happened. "The little dwarven team became aware of the danger when two dungeon monsters ran past them down the stairs. They had heard the aggressive entry and were quickly engaged by the Fearfiend. The team captain, Thrum, made the identification that witnesses on the surface corroborated. The dwarven team fought it as long as possible and did not inflict any major injuries upon the demon. They sought to reposition themselves into a better defensive position, but the demon broke off the engagement and continued downstairs. Several team members were wounded, so the captain ordered the retreat."

  "Are we sure it was a twisted monster?" Ranus asked, dreading the answer.

  "Yes. The crystals located in both buildings detected void energy from the demon." Nextom looked as worried as he felt.

  Before anything else could be said, the teams watching the doorway exclaimed with fear and surprise. Turning, everyone witnessed the door standing and being repaired by magical forces. It seemed the battle was over.

  "Is the battle over?" Ranus asked, needing to be sure.

  "It appears so," Averance answered. "I want full scans of the Dungeon's aura. Report anything different, no matter how small!"

  Her voice carried, and the Adventure Guild support staff members present jumped into action.

  "What does this mean, then?" Ranus was still asking questions; they were all thinking.

  "That we need to determine," Averance again said, knowing neither had the answer.

  ## ## ## ## ##

  "Errrhh. I feel terrible."

  I have filled the void with corruption from the monster that attacked my Dungeon. Before I made the changes to myself, the amount of corruption would have been in the high 70s, but now it is in the low 30s and draining much faster. I suspect it would be gone within a day or two, not the weeks it would have normally taken. Further Core Refinement would hopefully accelerate this even more.

  That brought me to the second problem I had, Infernal Mana. Usually, it started degrading as soon as the notification came through, and I made my choice on the spur of the moment. I was now the "proud" holder of Infernal Mana.

  "This is going to cause so many problems."

  I knew this would cause problems, but their exact nature and scale were still unknown. By its very nature, how I now held myself was the opposite of what people on the surface would call "good."

  My Dungeon was resetting around me as I thought about how to deal with this new resource. I felt terrible, as always, when my Core was processing void corruption, and my thought processes were disrupted by it. But I had come to one clear and unmistakable conclusion: I would not use this Mana on any of my minions within the Dungeon, and I did not need it as a creation cost. I reasoned that limiting it as much as possible would not bring down too much censure upon me, to the point where they would call for my destruction.

  That was the hope.

  Still, I had to wonder what I could do with it....

  I focused back on the aftermath.

  Ironically, Puck and Larry are the big winners out of all this. As they had taken part in the battle, even in a very limited capacity, they had received essence for it—enough essence to level up.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Congratulations, you two. We will deal with reviewing your levelling as soon as I'm in a more focused mood."

  Levelling had completely healed Puck, and he had flown back to the higher floors as soon as possible. Larry had bounded up the stairs shortly after to take his usual position in the rafters within the entrance room. Both levels were excellent, but I had too much on my mind now, dealing with what I had just acquired.

  The biggest thing I had to deal with was my newest option for a minion.

  "Lesser! That thing was a Lesser Fearfiend!"

  I was outraged and shocked that what was considered a lesser demon had just rampaged through my Dungeon. What the hell could a normal one do? Pun intended. If those dwarves had been here, the demon might have overrun my defences. I doubt anything above the 5th floor would have been able to do anything.

  I spent several minutes reading what was now available in this new menu. Its stats were decent, and it had some versatile options. I noticed that the dodge skill was the first, but it is now rated at two, not just one like all the others. I had seen in the fight that the demon was proficient at avoiding many of the attacks sent at it by my minions. This would explain that. Could I copy it?

  "Hold on! Puck has that as well."

  Magically, it had the highest number of spells I had seen so far in any of the creatures outside of Puck I had killed and turned into minions. This seemed right to me as its primary focus was on causing fear in its opponents, allowing it to move in and kill them.

  I looked over the spells and their descriptions, and Infernal Bolt was the only offensive spell not designed to attack its opponents through psychological means. When I reached the final part of the status sheet, my impressions of it were confirmed.

  This demon used fear to open its prey to its claws, sorry talons, capable of rending most things apart. Its skin was more like an armoured hide, as I theorised when it was in battle and was much tougher than I had expected. Its infernal nature made it vulnerable to holy items and magic, but that was to be expected. In this case, it was a balanced build for a monster or demon.

  "Interesting."

  Upon reviewing its design, I considered improvements to what was already there and what I could add to enhance future minions. The biggest problem with this new minion was its cost of 60 CP and 20 Infernal Mana.

  "It is far too expensive."

  I had briefly considered using it as a guardian, but the cost and potential censure were things I did not want, so I had to abandon that line of thinking. So, I now had a question: what could I do with this new minion?

  The Dungeon was fully restored, but no adventurers were coming in. That did not mean that people were not coming in—the few who did use various crystals to measure my aura and gather information on my present status. Larry watched them, and I took no action, leaving them to their tasks.

  "What are you going to do with me then?"

  I could leave the demon, never creating it to function as a minion within my Dungeon. That might be the safest option, as the local population may not respond well to such a creature being located here. I was sorely tempted to do this and ignore its existence and the Infernal Mana.

  On the other hand, creating it would give me a powerful new minion to use in offensive and defensive roles. But that would bring me a whole horde of new problems I hoped to avoid. I found it all quite vexing and spent the rest of the day and night thinking about it. Back and forth, the two arguments existed in my mind as I tried to find a resolution.

  The night had come, and I had spent most of it flicking through random screens to keep my mind from the argument. Then, I remembered, as I stumbled across the little side note within my wiki of a Dungeon Core Guardian.

  I looked into this option more closely and discovered a possible solution. The Core Room Guardian would be assigned to the Core Room, hence his name. At first, this was a bad idea, as my Core Room was disguised within my Dungeon so people would ignore it. The more I read, the more interested I became. I could assign specific instructions to this Guardian and only activate it at certain times. Now, this was an option that might work.

  The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. I could utilise this daemon and, as my Core Room Guardian, conceal it within a wall when it was not in use. If my Core was exposed, it could trigger, break out of its containment area, and attack whoever threatened the Core.

  Now, that was an option that might work.

  The biggest problem with it, however, was the cost. I could take the monster as it was, but my need to tinker with its design was a constant itch. I had already considered a few possible upgrades and improvements, but this would increase the cost exponentially and make it unfeasible.

  "If I limit my plans for the next floor with both numbers and the mana type I plan to use, I might have enough left."

  Again, I was torn about whether or not to limit the next floor to fund the new Guardian. My overall plan for the 10th floor was taking shape, and I was hopeful that what I wanted to create would take shape. The 9th floor, however, was a different kettle of fish altogether.

  Do I make sacrifices to it for a new Guardian here?

  Trying to make such thoughts while suffering the effects of void corruption processing and storage within my Core was not pleasant or helpful. I did not have enough CP to turn my attention back to Core Refinement, as the little I had was used for experimentation. Right now, I didn't feel like either, as I was still suffering the effects of dealing with the void corruption.

  The night passed with me deliberating on the merits of the possible plan. The adventurers returned when the new day's sun rose over the valley. My essence count increased steadily due to the battle I had just thought about and the number of adventurers passing through my Dungeon.

  For now, I would wait and plan.