Twenty hours later, I was starting to understand them a bit, but I was getting really tired of it.
In two hours, they would have been in the dungeon for exactly one day, and during that time, they had made significant progress. They had the beginnings of a town and had even defeated a powerful creature.
...
They were talking again, and by now, I could grasp individual sentence components.
"Have you... adapted… to … pressure?" the oldest lizard asked.
"Not entirely, it's possible... to reach… limit!" a relatively broad lizard replied.
"Oh, I completely forgot about that!" I exclaimed.
Because the [Space-Hardened Stone] doubles gravity, or at least that's what I think it does.
"Hmm..., and the limit, probably the maximum possible at a certain level?"
That would explain why my creatures are so strong. Even if they're a hundred years old, it takes time to build up their status points, and one point can make a big difference. The double strength has allowed them to accumulate more power.
"That's why the panther killed so many well-trained soldiers," I pondered, "because the lizard people had additional challenges, even with a handicap."
Although I suspected that many were at level one, I thought that some might already be at level two, if not three. They weren't sent on this mission without a reason.
I continued to listen to the lizard people and noticed once again that I was learning faster than usual.
I had to admit that I wasn't too dumb in my youth; after all, I didn't become an astronaut for no reason.
But understanding a language, even in fragments, in just 20 hours was unusual.
"What's the reason for this?" I wondered but couldn't come up with an answer.
Gradually, my interest waned, and I returned to the control room, which was as dull and white as ever. The only things in the room were me (Core) and two notebooks lying nearby.
"I can't take this much longer!" I exclaimed. "This is practically my head!"
That's why I wanted to make an effort to create a sense of home within me. Even though the room wasn't large (100x100x40 meters), I wanted to create a feeling of spaciousness.
First, I sketched out roughly what I had in mind. I may not be a garden architect, but I had enough time and imagination to do it right.
What I wanted was a small house in the middle, with large windows that could be opened. I wanted lots of greenery, a small path out of stone, a lake, and a seating area with outdoor sofas.
I went to the Core, placed my spiritual hand on it, and accessed the building menu.
First and foremost, I needed suitable materials, which I wanted to select carefully since I now had access to different or better materials, giving me more options.
But first, I needed to lay the foundation and quickly found a suitable bedrock.
[Chronit-Bedrock] had the ability to stabilize time and influence plants in its immediate vicinity. These plants could maintain a certain state for a long time if they wished.
"Does that mean they can continuously bloom or bear fruit, for example?" I wondered.
I immediately placed a 12-meter-thick layer, and I watched as a slightly silvery-brown layer of stone covered the ground, shimmering in the room's white light, which now looked completely different.
I excavated a spot, as there would be a small lake and a little stream later. I spent some time finding suitable materials for the control room.
Two or three hours passed, and I was finally relatively satisfied.
My [EC] was now almost completely replenished, and I could put my full effort into this.
------
[Status]
Name: -
Age: 0 years, 0 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 2 hours
Species: Dungeon Core
Level: 3/4
Exp: 36,273/40,000
EC: 369/450
----------
For the earth layers, I chose almost the same as on the first floor, but the humus was slightly different, and the other two layers had the same abilities, only stronger.
---
1. Humus -> [Timeless Humus]
2. Topsoil -> [Space-Time Topsoil]
3. Weathered rock fragments -> [Space-Time Weathered Rock Fragments]
---
I was about to place them when I felt that intrusive sensation again, just like the first time.
[Intruders detected]
"Oh, more of them?" I asked myself. "Probably another army!" I joked and teleported to the first floor.
The entrance in the forest of the [Big Spring Trees] lit up.
"What a coincidence!" I said in astonishment because it was the forest near the lizard people.
I flew to the center of the forest, the [Big Spring Tree], and observed as a circle lit up at the lakeside.
The first thing I thought was, "Not again." What I saw were silver suits of armor!
There were a hundred soldiers and four horse-drawn carriages entering the first floor. They looked around and seemed to be waiting for the entrance light to extinguish.
Then they started talking.
"Oh, that sounds like the lizard people's language!" I said, pulled out a notebook, and wrote down words I understood.
The system seemed to be the same, but the translated words that came out were in English!
"Hmm, do the two races understand each other?" I wondered, but I couldn't continue that thought.
Two surprising things happened at once, and I didn't know what to focus on.
First, I felt and saw it again.
[Intruders detected]
Second, I saw a man in white robes and adorned with gold jewelry stepping out of a carriage.
Without the helmet, I could tell that these were humans, but that wasn't important for now.
I watched the older man kneel and pray.
I only understood individual words like "Manara" or "Redemption," while the rest were small words like "we," "the," and so on. I didn't understand a lot of the longer words.
I had to say, small words worked quite well.
Nevertheless, I saw him rise again, and there it was again.
From among the soldiers, I heard a mysterious murmuring.
The eyes of 30 soldiers glowed slightly green, and a red ball formed in the air.
"Fire!" I said. After a moment of realization, I had a thought.
"No... DON'T DO THAT!" I shouted, but the people didn't hear me.
The 30 soldiers randomly launched the fireballs into the forest, which quickly caught fire.
Then another and another.
Each mage threw 20 fireballs the size of basketballs into the forest, which soon blazed.
The mages seemed to have run out of mana as they stopped and panted.
"Why are they doing this...?" I asked in disbelief.
I floated there, with my mouth and eyes wide open, in the air, watching the forest burn.
Behind the hundred intruders, there was a lake into which they fled, but the animals didn't, so they ran out of the forest.
About 400 animals like rabbits, wild boars, and even a few deer ran toward safety, straight into the lizard people's city.
I followed the herd of animals and heard bells ringing in the city. Even though the animals were safe, they ran senselessly out of fear.
[Intruders detected]