Chapter Five: Back on the Grind.

Graham Kingsley's PoV (MC).

I take a few moments to gather my thoughts and sort through my emotions. I knew what I was doing. but it felt like I was looking at this whole experience from the outside. I knew this wasn't a game, but I'd been treating it like one till now... Maybe as a coping mechanism? I don't know... Perhaps I should continue to treat it the same way? I mean, was there any place for my sanity now? no, it should be my morales as I'm already not sure if I am 100% sane.

I'm pretty sure that my emotions have already been buffeted and I'm more prone to rational thought processes.

'Alright! Enough of this, I need to get back to developing or I'll end up like that guy.'

~~~~~~~~~~

Throwing useless thoughts of morality and emotion aside. I summon 20 more scorpions and send them out of the dungeon to have them continue hunting for monsters and creatures that will come to the riverside for water.

I leave them lay in wait on the shadowy sides of the trees so they can ambush anything that comes into proximity,

Meanwhile, I decide to keep my first floor as a natural cavern-based maze floor and have my 30 scorpions continue digging as I collect the dirt and loose rocks into my inventory.

My little insect buddies are relentless but tire out In time, so I have them bring in the Horned Frog corpses to eat and get refreshed before continuing. The system grants me a node for them too so that's nice and all but I've got nowhere to put it so I keep it in my inventory for now.

As the hours trickle by and night descends outside. I gain the 50 passive daily dose of mana and use it as well as the few mana I had gained from killing animals throughout the day to open up some new tunnels and widened the whole tunnel system to 8ft wide by 16ft high, making it big enough to allow 3 people standing shoulder to shoulder with a bit of space for movement. thus, my first day in this world comes to an end with my starting dungeon floor a third of the way done.

While it is night time I have my scorpions rest in 10-man shifts. I, as a dungeon core I don't need sleep as it is a process completely unnecessary for me. Also, digging out my dungeon manually like this may be cost-effective. but, it is a dauntingly slow process to be sure. So, all I can do to avoid boredom is check out my notifications and shop. There are a few more nodes like 2 kinds of deer nodes and a weird water rat node that's the size of a beaver from my old world that I have collected throughout this afternoon.

The stability of food seems very good in this forest area with my mobs having no need to explore more then necessary, which I have no plans to do yet anyway. Not until I can get at least 4 of my floors up and running, the first 3 will be easy as I've already got them planned out with the first floor being a largely unoccupied maze of tunnels for the time being. the second floor will be the forest and the third floor the Arid highlands or perhaps another environment floor, if it pops up in my shop. the only thing is mana will continue to be an ongoing issue for some time as until I get some adventurers come along and lose their lives here there won't be much in the way of advertising my location.

'Should I raid a village? there was one not too far away, a little under a day's ride from here if I'm not mistaken.' i have a thought and marinate on it for awhile. It seems like a bad idea at first, but after I'm set up here it should be fine to do. I also need to think about gathering more cores to consume, as shitty as it seems. It's the only way I'm going to get strong enough to survive what will happen in the future. I doubt that the natives will not see the benefit of dungeon diving once we start being able to afford Loot opportunities for them and they will only grow in strength from then on.

*Sigh*

'So much to do, so little mana.'

I could increase my daily passive mana gain but it won't be cost-effective yet, as it will cost me 500 mana to upgrade it to gain 100 mana a day... I mean 500 mana for a 50 mana upgrade? yeah not yet thank you very much. that'd be a waste of my precious resources, and I need them for floor development at the moment.

I also feel so exposed right now it's not funny, if I didn't have my 50 little scorpi-buddies I don't think I'd be trying to build a maze on my first floor.

Ding!

[Invaders have entered your dungeon host, Protect the core.]

*Howl!!!*

'Ahh and then there's these guys. what's this the 5th time already?' I think as check out my map and and see a pack 7 large gray wolf's coming through my dungeons entrance. the wolf's look around cautiously while sniffing the air and proceeding at a moderate pace to search for my mana signature.

My scorpions, having already heard the noisy Howls of the intruders. Quickly make their way towards the incoming pack of wolves with practiced ease and proceed to fill them with poison. earning me 70 mana that I put away for something that I'd found in my shop recently. and that is a portal gateway for use between floors. the cost is very low considering the price of everything else in the shop. only being 200 mana but it has a daily upkeep of 20 mana so that is probably why. but if I'm being honest with myself... stairs or portals? how could I not! that shit is dope as fuck.

~~~~~~~~~~

5 days later.

'Finally!' I exclaim, after 5 long agonising days I've done it! my first 4 floors are done. well, almost. I mean spawner and nodes still have to go down and I have to continue my next maze digging spree but at least I am in a safe and secure location on the 4th floor and no longer sitting near my dungeons entrance. that shit was nerve wracking!

1st floor image.

2nd floor image.

3rd floor image.