Chapter 3

John spent extra attention on the 5th floor since that is where he will be staying for awhile until he could expand his domain again. The original plan was for the 1st to 5th floor to be retail where merchants could setup shop and trade with his dungeon as well as each other but he temporary made the 5th floor more like a fortress with a maze to confuse invaders. His crystal room was built with thick walls and only had 1 doorway, outside the crystal room is his personal room which was a huge room that totally surrounded the crystal room, making it impossible for invaders to break through the walls and create shortcuts. This huge room will be his final defence and also his personal room to display trophies, collectable items, etc.

It took 6 golems to carry his heavy crystal down to the 5th room, fortunately he had planned for heavy traffic and the staircases were wide enough for 6 people side by side. John felt safer deeper underground in his fortified room and as a small bonus, the mana density was just a little bit higher here. With his 3rd to 5th floors completed and defined in his mental map, John ordered his 26 golems to go excavate the 2nd and 1st floors.…but first, he wanted them to remove all their poop from his crystal room and personal room. However after settling in his personal crystal room for awhile, he soon discovered a problem. Because his now at the 5th floor which is near the edge of his domain, he kept feeling very insecure about the unknown dark areas so near him. John never realised this before, being in the center of a sphere gives him the best feeling of security and safety. John waited until he had more mana before he tried pushing his mana into the dark area under him. The dark area slowly got brighter as his mana entered. John had to keep pushing in mana until the area became as bright as the rest of his domain and the mana there started to circulate with the rest of his domain. John continued to increase his domain, resting when necessary to recharge his mana until he had a mini sphere shape area under his crystal. It wasn's big when compared to the rest of his 5th floor but at least it alleviated the worst of his insecurities. Expanding his domain went up his piority list, right after making contact with the surface.

As his golems dug upwards, John started to feel a sense of anticipation, many things will finally change when he connects to the surface world, this days of quiet peace and even boredom might be rare in future. He started seeing insects on the 1st floor and while digging out the ceiling for the 1st floor, one his golems broke into what seems like the tail end of an ant's nest, except that the bugs were bigger and scarier then earth ants. The fist size ants ferociously attacked the golem, pouring out of their nest and landing on its body, swarming the unfortunate golem who discovered their nest. John was worried for his golem at first but after awhile he started to mentally sneer at the ants, the ants were futilely biting the golem's hardened soil skin, their large mandibles uselessly scrapping along the hardened soil. His golems automatically attacked the ants, as if responding to an invisible alarm, the other nearby golems gathered around the ant nest, attacking with their hands and feet, clubbing and stomping the ants to death. After awhile of battle, the corpse of the ants made little piles of bodies on the floor, the ants finally retreated from their nest, starting a mass evacuation and running away with their queen and eggs.

John wasn't out yet but he could already feel a different type of mana through the ant nest's connection to the surface world, it felt warmer and alluring, inviting him to explore further. John sent out a tendril of his mana to explore the surface, he could feel his mana touching and then mixing with a mana that is vibrant and full of life. After the initial contact he hurriedly retracted his mana, out of caution and also shock from feeling a overwhelming sense of life and vitality on the surface. John never noticed it before but now the mana underground suddenly felt cold after he tasted the warmth of the surface. He envision a small tunnel leading to the surface, just big enough for a small animal to enter. His mental map acknowledged the tunnel and it appeared as a hazy outline connecting his underground domain to the surface which he then queued for work after the 1st floor is completed. He was being cautious, the surface represented a whole new exciting world but also potential dangers, a small hole for now is the best course of action. Without fanfare, his golems finally completed the entire 1st and 2nd floors. They dug the small tunnel through the now deserted ant nest and John could feel the connection to the surface get stronger. Soon he discovered a problem, his mana near the surface will rapidly lose power and disperse up into the surface, at this rate the passive drain will be a very irritating waste of his precious mana. After quite a number of failed attempts to slow down the dispersion or prevent it altogether, John gave up. It wasn't a problem he could solve anytime soon. He retreated his domain, making the area around the tunnel uncomfortably dark again. However he could still feel some surface mana entering his underground domain through the tunnel and abit of his mana was still dissipating upwards, the mana coming from the surface and the mana leaking to the surface kind balanced out each other but John remained wary of the surface tunnel. He ordered his golems to start reinforcing the ceiling of the 1st floor, its very important for him to keep the surface away from his domain. John also revised the plan for the 6th floor and 10 floor, originally the 6th floor was supposed to be the start of residential floors but now he removed the 5 staircases and replaced it with only 1 smaller staircase that can be blocked off in case of emergency. He also replaced the staircases between the 10th and 11th floor, all this was done in the dungeon layout in his mental map.

After making enough emergency plans in case of a scenario where his first floor ceiling was broken through and the surface world had direct catastrophic contact with his domain, John had nothing else to do but watch his golems busy working on reinforcing the entire 1st floor, they still had a long long way to go before his entire dungeon was reinforced properly with the magic runes. He started to daydream about his plan to get rich again, 1st expand his domain, 2nd explore around for gold, gems or whatever this world thought valuable and then trade the items for wealth. Finally with wealth he could easily build his dream dungeon. It would definitely be richly decorated with valuable items, elegant pleasing architecture, cultured paintings and books, luxurious furniture and have lots of pretty females serving him, admiring him, forever loyal to him. John could see his wonderful future coming true. He started to feel sleepy again and took a quick nap. This time he woke up feeling that parts of his mind had been unlocked, like something was always there now he could see it. New spells [Improved Golem] and [Basic Lure] and a feeling that his mind has matured in some unknown way. John didn't know whats the change yet but he could feel some new instinct growing in him, some hunger or something similar. Anyway now that he has a new spell he can finally create combat oriented creatures to defend his dungeon and maybe kidnap some sexy maidens from the surface?? hehe better not, what if humans or whatever living in this world decided to invade his dungeon now and kidnap defenceless little him before he build up his empire.

His new instincts had been growing within him for awhile now and was starting to get very suspicious, there was this urge to lure surface dwellers deep into his magical body, bash them up with his creations and then...absorb them ??. He didn't know the details but something was vaguely telling him its very good, very delicious to kill living creatures after luring them inside his dungeon. Lure, Kill, Enjoy. This 3 thoughts kept repeating within his mind until it became some sort of desire, a craving to fulfill it. This disturbed him because he never experienced such a strong bloodlust before, it was like a urge to kill anything alive. He wasn't a man eating monster or some sort of wild beast from the jungle. He is a Human, currently trapped in a Crystal body.... OMG HE REINCARNATED AS A TRANSGENDER !!! John was stunned like a vegetable by his own realization.... He was a transgender crystal.... crystal on the outside, human on the inside...How is this even possible??... Who is he ?... Who am i ?…..who is John ?...Is john…..John ? ….. John fell into a helpless daze.