It took me a while, but I finally found a good theme for the second floor of the dungeon.
The theme was simple: an underground jungle. Without a doubt, the hunters would be bewildered as to how the hell there was a jungle beneath a cavern full of caves and goblins.
Since the first floor was in good shape and only needed a few details adjusted, I decided that before starting work on the second floor, I would finish the first.
The first floor measured a kilometer long and about eight hundred meters wide, all interconnected through tunnels that constantly branched off, patrolled by goblins. I also used the remaining two hundred meters to build a goblin village, where they would be more intelligent than their other brethren since I wanted to run some experiments.
Given that the silver-haired girl had something I suspected was mana vision, I decided to counter that ability. To do so, I began flooding the walls with mana, making them indistinguishable from one another.
However, there was a slight detail: my mana wasn't high enough to flood my entire territory with my mana, so I accessed the system.
After searching for a while, I found a type of moss called "Mana Moss." This moss used a bit of mana to expel it, flooding the cave walls.
If any hunter with mana vision used it inside the cave, everything they would see would be exactly the same, without noticing any greater amount of mana in one place over another.
In short, they would have to explore every path until they found the floor boss room.
The moss wasn't really expensive, as it was like a weed that spread quickly as it fed on mana. To prevent the moss from spreading beyond the first floor, I spent some points on purchasing enchantments—yes, the system had enchantments, although they were expensive, very expensive.
The enchantment I obtained was one that stopped the moss's growth up to the boss room, preventing it from growing beyond the entrance to that room.
This enchantment cost me about five thousand DP, which hurt deeply.
To make things a bit more difficult, I would continuously move the tunnels, connecting them to others so that there would never be a similar path each time.
Oh, and of course, I added more ruins in the style of an ancient worship temple. With the rune language based on Nordic runes that I had read about out of boredom on the internet.
Using the runes, I added them scattered throughout, telling a kind of story related to an ancient war and how this temple was one of the last temples of a certain god. Of course, that god was me in my corporeal form, though no one needed to know that.
Finally, I needed a reward for those hunters who eliminated Ravenous.
The reward should be tempting. But what?
I'll think about it later. It took me almost two days to make these changes, and I need to create my second floor—and the moss gave me good ideas.
---
Focusing underground, I began expelling my mana, adding the earth and rock below to my Domain to extend it. While doing this, I began creating a small cave about five meters long and six meters high.
The second floor was about a hundred meters below Orc Bastion.
I would connect both floors through a descending spiral staircase, and at the end, a tunnel that led to the entrance of the second floor.
As for the second floor, after extending my domain about five hundred meters, I began editing the terrain. First, I started enlarging the small cave into a larger one, adding some wide pillars to support the structure and prevent the ceiling from collapsing and ruining all my work.
I wasn't an engineer or anything, but anything with too much weight needed something to distribute the load; otherwise, it would inevitably collapse.
The cave continued extending and enlarging until it became a great cavern of five hundred meters.
The height wouldn't be sufficient, so I would have to keep digging underground. I wanted a distance of one to two hundred meters between floors.
After descending about two hundred meters, I further enlarged the pillars.
Now the ceiling was about two hundred meters above the ground, while the cavern was now enormous and would only get bigger when I added at least two kilometers in diameter to do what I wanted.
For now, this would serve as a base.
While waiting to recover my depleted mana, I noticed how the warrior's mana that Ravenous had killed finally assimilated, giving me new knowledge.
Well, let's see what new thing I'll learn today.
---
[Continent of Agartha — Dragon Rock City]
The surviving hunters advanced until they reached the guild master's office. They had managed to escape that dungeon alive to present their report. The guild master was an elderly man, although that didn't mean he was weak.
Velkor Draven was the highest-ranked hunter in the western part of the continent.
It was actually a tragic story. The guild leaders felt intimidated by his rapid rise and made sure he ended up there, hundreds of kilometers from anything that resembled a dungeon or large concentrations of monsters, to prevent him from accumulating more power.
The man had light gray, receding hair. His clothing was similar to a robe designed to hide the armored suit he wore underneath. Hanging on the wall behind him rested his famous weapon, the Moon Sword. It was a beautiful sword with a straight, elongated blade that seemed to emit an ethereal glow. According to what was known, he had killed an A-rank beast alone and used its core as a conduit for the sword.
Once the three survivors—the rogue, the mage, and the swordswoman—sat before the guild master, he spoke with a serious tone.
"Did you underestimate the monster, the dungeon, or were you overconfident?" he asked, looking at the silver-haired woman.
She responded in a low voice.
"The first two," she said calmly. "We cornered the monster and almost won when, in a desperate act, he changed targets and lunged at Bertram, who furiously charged to kill him. His body was cut in half, although he managed to kill the monster." She finished explaining.
The guild master sighed as he picked up the necklace that had belonged to the fallen hunter, which was obtained once an adventurer died to confirm their death.
"I'll get started on the paperwork then," he said, grabbing a sheet. "What's your assessment?"
"It's at least an ancient dungeon," said the silver-haired woman. "We found remains of the ancient civilization in its architecture. As for age, it could be a few hundred years old. Easily a thousand years." The old man said nothing.
"Monsters? How many floors?"
"We only explored the direct path to the first-floor guardians' room," she admitted with some regret. "The monsters were goblins, although they were stronger and more diverse than wild goblins, with more roles." The woman began explaining the different types of goblins they had encountered, as well as their physiology and tactics.
"The guardian was a unique superior species. He stood almost three meters tall, with leather armor covering his body. His skin was such a dark green that it could easily be mistaken for black. His weapon was a great double axe about three meters long," the woman explained, then after a moment continued.
"During the battle, Eris launched a fireball at the monster. The fire impacted and stuck to his body, acting as a mantle of fire, changing to a dark purple color. From what I saw, the monster used his mana on the fire to control it. The dungeon or the monster must have discovered something, because no less than three seconds later, his power increased, becoming more devastating," she explained.
The guild master stroked his surprisingly well-kept beard.
"Now I understand why you think it might be ancient," he murmured, more to himself than to the young people before him. "It's an incredibly fast learning speed. Although, given that it's also ancient and accustomed to being inactive if not challenged for many years, it's more likely that it's relearning things it once knew as it fully awakens."
The rogue, hearing this, felt some fear. If on the first floor, hunters like them of C-rank almost died while it was just beginning to awaken, he couldn't imagine how terrifying it would be once it was at full capacity.
"Did you venture to go up to the second floor?" the old man asked.
"No, we didn't. It would have been too dangerous if we had stayed longer." The old man nodded satisfactorily.
"That's a good choice. Ancient dungeons learn quickly and like to understand those who challenge them to keep improving. When you're inside a dungeon, always prepare for the unknown and be alert to anything that seems strange," Velkor advised in a lecturing tone. With a gesture of his hand, the guild master dismissed them from the office.
"Come on, I need to finish the paperwork and inform the local lord of the discovery. He'll probably want to colonize the unnamed forest and explore the dungeon," the old man sighed tiredly. "I'm getting too old for this..."
The old man looked ahead, and then an idea crossed his mind.
A cunning smile drew on his face as he looked at the silver-haired woman.
"Miri, my beloved and dear granddaughter! Could you do a favor for your dear grandfather?" the old man asked.
The now-known Miri looked at her grandfather, feeling a very bad premonition about this.