The Tower in the Shadows

Krag was beaten again, but he had not gone down easily.

Six adventurers had entered the room to challenge him. Forward, leaving carrying the dead bodies of two of their comrades. Another two rushes of essence confirmed the deaths to me. I was close to my next level.

This heralded the fact that I needed to decide what the minions were to be for this floor. I was leaning towards undead, but I wanted something else, something new.

I had access to plenty of mana of different types. I'd used Infernal to create Maximus on the 10th, and I did not want to make another Infernal-infused minion. Nor did I want to create just another more powerful undead monster to control the 11th. My initial plan was to create lots of weak, low-level skeletons to distract any adventurers on the floor while the real danger, the floor Guardian, came into play.

But what would this floor Guardian be?

I have gone through all the lists of possible candidates among my minions. I have thought about different combinations and enhancements, but they didn't pull me in convincingly. I was hungering for something new.

Looking over the undead, it was easy to create low-level skeletons and outfit them with basic gear. They would be relatively easy to defeat and would serve only as a distraction. If only I could figure out…

Golem.

The thought came to my mind suddenly. I remembered that when I gained the first undead amongst my minions, I realised I could use the basic mana flows in its body to create other animated constructs. I had dabbled with the thoughts of a golem then, but it had not led to anything.

What about now?

I went back in my mind to all the research I did on golems. In theory, it was possible, and tonight will be the start of a great deal of experimentation.

## ## ## ## ##

The following twenty days passed relatively well. The adventurers and miners during the day, and I experimented at night.

I created small humanoid figures about an inch in size out of clay. I then enchanted the bodies with Mana, creating energy flows that allowed movement through them. My first few were disasters, but this did not deter me.

I study the revenant more, learning about its energy patterns and the essence of its body. I delve deeply into its form and design, examining the patterns that comprise a web throughout its structure and how they enable it to move.

I learned a great deal from these nights, which showed me that my initial concept was sound, but it would take longer than I thought. Every night, I continued to experiment and slowly began to improve the little clay figure. On the sixth night, the figure took its first hesitant steps.

By the 10th night, it could jog a little.

On the 15th, it could do basic combat manoeuvres.

Larry and Puck had come down to the 10th floor and were watching my experiments. Maximus ignored everything as usual.

It was on the 20th night that I knew that this could work. However, my second significant problem soon arose. Mana.

The clay interacted with different types of mana—some have a positive effect, but most have an adverse effect.

I would need to use a different material to be the foundation of the golem. Thankfully, I had plenty of stone of various types and quality.

The sun was rising now, and I put away my experiments.

Depending on how today went, I expected to reach my next level within the next four days at the current rate.

I decided to reach out to Ranus and let him know that I would notify him once the next floor was finished. I don't want to be interrupted, and only a few people were allowed to cross the 10th to check if the new floor was ready.

## ## ## ## ##

"Errrwww."

I came back to awareness from my levelling.

Again, I cursed a particular God for inflicting this process upon me every time I levelled.

With my return to awareness, the Dungeon began to restore itself to its normal functions, and my minions returned to their usual places. I checked the time by looking to see if the sun was still up. It was dark outside, meaning it was still nighttime.

I briefly reviewed all my status sheets to ensure that there were no surprises. There were none.

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"Good, I could get some work done then."

I extended my aura and began to tunnel down into the rock below the room I created to act as the new stairwell starting point. The rock below me began to be claimed, and so far, I had discovered nothing unusual. I went down as far as I usually did for the floor and then began expanding back along the direction of the cavern above.

I was moving at a respectable rate, and I sensed the dungeon opening above me. I had left the doors unlocked so that the adventurers could start coming into the Dungeon as I worked.

I suspected they were checking my aura to see if there were any issues, but I was too focused on what I was doing to go and see what they were doing.

Suddenly, the rock before me vanished, and I started to claim an ample space. I instantly stopped and began to manipulate my aura to contain the flow of CP.

"Shit, another cavern."

"Okay."

The alert suddenly popped into my vision. I read it and wondered what it would mean for me in the long run. I was a bit anxious about accessing this new place, but I couldn't procrastinate for long, as I needed to work on the new floor.

The next few days were spent by me slowly claiming this new cavern.

The Adventurers' Guild had not sent anyone down to check on the 10th floor to see if access to the 11th floor was available, which would have allowed me to continue working. I was stopped by adventurers passing the fifth floor, but they were few and far between at the moment.

Once I claimed the space, I encountered several interesting things. First, it contained a naturally occurring crystal that generated a pale yellow light. I absorbed them and found them to be a light-based mana-infused crystal.

"New options for lighting the dungeon."

There were a few new types of mushrooms available in this cavern as well, but they were nothing special. I reviewed the notes I had taken when they were absorbed and found that they could be used in a few alchemical concoctions, but nothing more.

The most disturbing aspect of this cavern, which I found the most troubling, was the two access points located on either side of it. The ground between these two holes in the wall clearly showed signs of travel. From my limited sight beyond my aura, I can make out that the holes were access and egress points for tunnels.

This led to a problem. Should I keep these exits and entrances to my Dungeon open, or seal them up? We never use them as a travelling point, which could be dangerous enough to break through my reinforced Dungeon, more than I would have another problem on my hands.

I pushed on, claiming the rest of the space that I wanted for the floor. I ended directly below the entrance to the 10th-floor stairwell. I carved out more of the cavern, expanding the space to cover the area I desired.

This took another few days, and nothing came through the tunnels during that time. I went back and carved out the area that would be the access point to this floor.

I used this time to procrastinate about what to do with these tunnel egress points. I have been thinking that this could be the hook for the floor—access to the Underland. I can remodel the egress points and turn them into doorways, each with its own set of doors.

Or not.

I left the light crystals in the cavern, creating more illumination throughout the entire space instead of just in small areas. I then begin adding moss and grass to the area, along with soil to help them grow.

Still, nothing appeared.

Typically, I would create the minions and then the floor Guardian. However, as all of them would be present in the same cavern, I decided to start with the Guardian to act as a defender in case something came through those egresses while I worked.

I had hoped for more time to think about what I was going to make, but I was forced to make a decision now.

I was going to make a golem construct.

I created the new Core Room, but I haven't moved down just yet. I then made the stairwell to link to the floor above, but again did not connect it. The floor mirrors the rough size and length of the one above. The difference was that you had to cross the 10th floor to access the 11th. I planned for you to cross the 11th to access the future 12th. This was a break in how you access the rest of the Dungeon, but I figured if you had gone this far, it was time to make things even harder.

Still nothing from the tunnels.

I reviewed my Mana list and considered what to use for my new Guardian.

I had experimented with different types of stone and realised that marble was an excellent conduit for mana. Clay was the best overall, mainly due to its flexibility, but most other types of stone struggled with an infusion. Mentally smiling to myself, I realised what I was going to do.

I formed a large block of marble. I had some decent quality marble, which made creating such a large block of it costly. I had to wait an entire day to regenerate my CP before I continued.

"Time to channel my inner Michelangelo."

I began to form and shape the stone. I had an image in my mind, and I started using my CP to bring it to life. It took another three days to complete the statue. I had to separate it from the plinth on which it stood. But when I was finished, before me stood an image of an angel with its wings folded back but dressed in armour and carrying a sword with a shield. The angel is looking slightly down with passive features. It was the stereotypical image of a Western angel heavily influenced by Roman Catholic imagery.

The armour was based on Roman design but was very similar to the style used by the old empire of this world.

"Looking good. Now, see if this will work."

I began to concentrate and channel mana into the statue. I manipulated its flows and began forming a web throughout the statue, which would allow it to move.

It was one of the hardest things I'd ever created in my life up to this point. It was also different from other types of Guardians I had made, as I was working from an already formed body.

My first attempt failed.

So did my second.

Each time I had to wait and rebuild the statue as it was destroyed in the process, but each time I learnt.

On my third try, I succeeded.

With the new Guardian finished, I dug through the mountain of alerts, making a slight change to the loot table. Then I went on to create the rest of the floor. Compared to building the Guardian, this was a simple task.

Still nothing from the tunnels.

## ## ## ## ##

The message arrived from Ranus.

The 11th floor was open.

Elian shared the contents of the message with the other two people in the office. Albrot and Averance looked at each other, all thinking the same thing.

"Who would go?" Albrot asked.

"Doltum is available; we will send him," Averance said, but looked at Elian. "I want you to go as well to map the new floor."

"Are you sure? Searider will complain."

"Let him. If he has any issues, tell him to come see me." Averance's tone was firm.

Ablrot smiled slightly at it, wondering if he could watch if Searider took her up on that offer. Elian nodded in understanding what was required of her. Secretly, she was slightly glad to get out of the office for a while from the dreaded paperwork.

"We were heading first thing tomorrow morning. I will send word to Doltum."