Trash Mountain Dungeon

As it turns out, natural talent and a supportive environment do not compensate for years of higher learning. The rats did their best, and most across the floors did learn something, but they struggled with anything beyond the simplest of devices or parts.

Sigh

They were learning but it was slow, painfully so, and they'll probably get there eventually but for now project 'ratgineering' is a bust.

Oh, and as a side note I chose the iron scale kobolds.

But with that plan out the window, I should have turned my attention to the fourth floor. It had been more than long enough and leaving it empty was making me itchy.

For the foundation, I decided to go with one giant room using all 20 of my allotted room spaces, and once I confirmed it a doorway to a truly massive hollow formed. I could still see the walls of the room, but a casual float around showed me that from end to end, it would take about four or five hours if you ran at a decent pace. But size aside, I decided to go with a large ratkin room, but not the whole thing, instead I decided to dedicate 15 slots to the ratkin as the primary defenders with 5 slots going to my new monsters. Instead of a castle what I got was a [Greater Under-Fort], a large construction that housed 75 newly created ratkin, a head taller and visibly more muscled, they looked like the peak of what any ratkin would want to achieve.

Greater Under-Fort

A large fortress of ratkin and machine design, capable of housing a sizable force of soldiers, this building contains all the needs of the occupants and some more. The building is constructed in the lost style of under-building where instead of entering and ascending to reach the commander, assailants enter and go down. This fortress is equipped with several anti-siege weapons as well as several autonomous defensive measures.

A random ratkin will be assigned the title [Deeps Commander] and will be granted minor improvements.

A random ratkin will be assigned the title [Magic Aspirant] and be granted a heightened awareness of magic.

Underground flora and fauna will spawn, and fauna will not exceed the [small] size.

The fortress will normally be perfectly indistinguishable from a very large hill and will only become apparent if under siege.

Produces: 300 mana, various medium-grade ratkin equipment, and insignificant-grade magical items.

As it said, it was almost invisible to the naked eye, you wouldn't even tell that there was anything to begin with if it wasn't for the large glowing mushroom forest that sprung up around it. But as they acclimated to their new home and existence, I also placed down the kobolds and their building, the [Ferrous Clan Ground] a second hill closer to the entrance, but unlike the fort, this one was visible. Sturdy and sparse, kobold architecture was more spartan than the ratkin's, with little ornamentations and few displays in the way of individual comforts, it was obvious that the individual was less considered in the design.

As for the kobolds themselves, they were shorter than the ratkin but not by much, with cast iron-like scales, wide thick snouts, and a predatory gaze, they looked nothing like scrawny lizards and instead looked more like bipedal nightmare crocodiles, and they could speak to.

A sound was being exchanged between two of the kobolds, somewhere between a gurgle and a growl. Whatever they were discussing, it was indecipherable to any but the creatures.

Well, maybe people wouldn't understand them, but I do, and isn't that the point?

But anyway, their building was also as efficient as it attempted to convey, built in a circular design, it had a central meeting area with a square hole in the middle that attackers would enter first before they could reach the other rooms. In the circling rooms were the communal sleeping spaces that had large pools of water with hot water flowing through, next was a cafeteria of sorts, then a fully built workshop that looped around most of the way before coming to a storage space and what I think was a garden of some sort. It was all rather nice to look at in all honesty, neat, clean, and with little waste, all they would need now is a couple of posters for some reptile band and maybe a carpet or two. Although, looking at how heavy their steps were despite their ease of movement would make floor decorations difficult, would need to find something sturdy enough.

Floating above it all, it was complete, my fourth floor was done. Looking at what I had right now, I had a sort of gauntlet setup, from the first floor to the barracks things were relatively simple, just go in and defeat me monsters, but from there, things got more complicated. The barracks were an organized defense, something only large numbers would defeat or something massively more powerful, an obstacle that was achievable if handled correctly. But the lesser fort made things even worse, it was a static, well-built structure with siege tactics in mind, and the only three ways I could imagine people getting through it was if they somehow actually managed to siege the fort, were skilled in stealth and could get over the walls somehow, or they were once again like a paladin. And while that didn't change much with the greater fort it was more dangerous because of how many more there were. The only thing I needed to figure out was how I would connect the kobolds with the fort, my initial idea was that they could act as a sort of decoy given how obvious their home was, but I'm not sure if that was for the best. What gave me some ideas was that they were displaying that metalworking talent they were promised to have, using their thick arms to hammer tools and weapons.

Perhaps not a decoy, but maybe, hunters?

Their home base was obvious but they would probably be tricky to spot, their scales were 'iron-like' but less like polished sheet metal and more like cast iron which made them blend in with the darkness that the glowing mushrooms didn't cover. Once I got them some bows they'd probably be the ones people would have to look out for more, and after a couple of hours, they would have them. Introducing the bow concept was easy, just two flexible parts that shoot something else, a concept that took some work to properly adjust to their stronger physique when they kept breaking all of the borrowed bows, turns out that while they're almost as big as a floor four ratkin, they were significantly stronger. A fact I already knew but failed to properly recognize for this. But as I said, after a while they were able to pull something together, carving a pale woody yet not wood bow using mushroom 'wood'. Using simple 'wooden' arrow shafts to practice I began on my future killer lizards.

Ok, now things were done, which meant that it was time to look toward the future, give me what I need to know!

Level 5 Requirements:

Place 20 rooms (20/20)

Hibernate for 6 months (0/6)

Excuse me what?

You want me to fall asleep for half a year, a half year I could (probably) be doing stuff with?!

The core is developing at an unsustainable rate, and local mana levels have fluctuated beyond acceptable parameters. A forced hibernation to allow for mana levels to stabilize and for local flora and fauna to adjust.

But why half a year, with how things are I could just fall asleep and never wake up!

The consequences of the core's actions belong to the core, the system will not lend aid in that regard.

Is there any alternative then, surely I could just ease up on things rather than gamble on whether or not I wake up, is this even a normal thing for dungeons?

Request Denied.

As stated in prior messages, the core is unique and is thus intrinsically different than other dungeons, your accelerated growth is one such difference.

If you desire to progress beyond this point you will be required to hibernate, if you do not then [Planar Incsurions] will begin to form near the dungeon.

I've heard that term before, and I get that it's a bad thing but if it's just some bagel suckers looking for a fight then I'll take them on.

Processing...

Request Denied.

At the current level of mana density, [Knight-Level] entities will invade the mortal realm, which is currently beyond the dungeon's ability to defeat.

Insult: ["Bagel Suckers"] has been added.

How tough exactly, it's not like I'm without defenses and I have two fortresses to cover for me.

Example Loading...

And then not even a second later I found myself floating above a massive battlefield. The night sky was choked with multi-hued smoke as a large number of hulking warriors and floating mages fought with a large six-armed beast. It was an abomination somewhere between a lion and a fish, its features were chaotic and ugly, but it fought with the strength to tear ten men in half, and the savagery to bite the heads off another two.

What was I watching?

Dated: 1296 AC, The Battle of Abhorrence:

The historic battle between the 72 Faiths Paladins and [Knight-Level] chaos entity [Grand Amaalgam] which was summoned by a chaos cult.

That's... a lot to take in right now wasn't chaos one of the options I had when I first got here, and exactly who would want to summon that thing?

Correct, chaos entities are among the accepted types, however, they are intrinsically unstable and propagate [planar incursions].

Also, the system cannot release information about existing organizations.

Excuse me what! Pushing the whole bit about it being an accepted type, you're telling me that these people are still around!

...

The silent game then, might as well see the rest of this.

The battle had been raging while we were talking, the 72 was reduced to 56 as more and more people died, roaring the prayers of their gods as they fell or traded blows with the monster. That was until a certain figure emerged, a tall woman with a sword insignia bearing a golden spear... no not golden, a spear that glowed gold. With a mighty rush, she ran to the beast, rushing in and out with lightning speed as she struck hard and fast before escaping like the wind, her compatriates pelting it with magic, arrows, and the occasional sword or hammer swing.

It was amazing, glorious even, but not forever, whether it was because I had a certain view of monsters or because of my actual view on things, I could see them and their plan, cracking. They were dead tired, their armor was likely once beautiful and masterfully crafted, but it was not covered in mud and blood, but whose I doubt they could tell, friend, foe, maybe even their own. As things progressed so did the problems, but thankfully the woman was able to put the beast down, using the constant pelting on its hide as a way to charge up a blinding energy around her spear, thrusting it into the beast's fish-like head with a boom.

Dust filled the area until one of the mages swept it away, the beast was dead. The woman was missing an arm but despite the intense pain hefted her spear up and gave a great cry, signaling that things were over, and with that, everything began to fade away back to my fourth floor. But before everything faded, I could almost see something, her face twisted from pride and relief to pain and shock, a long blade with a unique symbol sticking out of her chest, someone had betrayed her.

End Recording.

Hmm. Thanks for the history lesson, but I think I need to talk with Arthur, this plan of ours might not be so difficult.