Chapter 1 – Building My First Layer

I started building the first defensive layer of my dungeon. To protect me against the dangers outside of my influence. With my "vast knowledge”, I created a plan for the first layer protecting me from any intruders. 

Directly after the entrance tunnel, the first protection would be a system of tunnels and caves. I used the information I gained from the fox and mouse to finetune the environment to its future inhabitants. 

The tunnels would provide a living place for various creatures. Insects would flourish in the slightly moist smaller tunnels with moss and stale water. Small animals, like mice, other rodents, or critters, would burrow into the soft ground or live in small tunnel complexes. 

Caverns and rooms would provide the needed space for the foxes and larger creatures to live in. Finished with the terraforming of my first layer I took a look at my current situation. 

Once an intruder entered my domain, which sadly couldn’t spread into the area beyond the entrance, they would be met with a long tunnel. After I pondered why I couldn’t spread beyond the cave entrance I realized that the airflow was exchanging my personal mana too fast. 

Back to the first layer, the entrance tunnel would branch off into smaller side tunnels which created a labyrinth for my smaller creatures. The main tunnel would lead into 5 caverns with the largest one in the center.

Inhabiting my dungeon were creatures of various sizes and new ones I absorbed while building the first layer. The rodents were used as food for my foxes and bobcats. The cats I had just claimed ownership of lately. 

That was my hardest fight up until now. The cats worked in a pack of 5 and would have defeated me. Luckily a snake, hanging in one of the trees, was able to shift the fight in my favor. 

But these weren’t all of the creatures that visited my domain during terraforming. The process took quite a long time. So now tens of creatures lived inside my domain. Rabbits shared their burrows with rats and mice. Snakes slithered through the smallest tunnels and wound up and down trees. 

The different predators build a primal ruling order. And on the top stood a surprising apex predator, a mouse. This creature was a very special one to me. It had developed a hunger for flesh while it feasted on my first intruder to ever enter my domain, the fox.

Its most favorite meal was the aforementioned race of foxes, this also showed in its fur. The Grey hairs had changed into a reddish-orange, coming from the blood and foxes it consumed. 

One day when it had just defeated a rising alpha fox who challenged its rule, something happened. The mana inside the creature formed into a complex pattern and was infused throughout the mouse's body.
 
During the mouse’s evolution process an instinct informed me what it was all about. Evolving was an intricate part of nature that happens when a creature has absorbed enough mana. Its outcome is influenced by everything the creature does while it cultivates the necessary mana to undergo evolution and its intent, if intelligent enough. 

Every tier is split into different steps marking average strength across the animal kingdom. 
Weak, normal, and peak divided every tier and could be used to give a more detailed analysis. 

Though the tiers were mostly an indicator of average strength they were not always all too accurate. This was because a creature got stronger in its cultivation to the next tier without the three subcategories changing all too much.

While few creatures were born with tier one and some even higher, most creatures started at tier 0. At this stage, the animal was at its starting stage of cultivation

After my little escapade into the tier system I went back to the mouse’s evolution When the savage mouse evolved, it transformed into a “red mouse”. It grew to double its previous size and got unnaturally stronger. Not only was it now larger and stronger but it was even more intelligent. 

The mouse was now blood red and had an aura of rage around it. Its long claws and teeth were built for hunting. A prehensile tail with a spike at the end completed the powerful tier-1 creature. 

Just after I had a look at it I got a little scared when I felt it revolt against my dominion.
But I instinctively knew that a beast that wasn’t a higher evolution than me wouldn’t be able to revolt against my control. 

After the little shock from the revolt, I again looked through my domain. I had planted various plants to flesh out my ecosystem. They would provide the needed food and living space for different animals and critters. And also protect me against intruders through entanglement and poisons. 

With the inhabitation of my dungeon with plants and animals, I also realized something that was missing. Normally light would be needed for the plants to photosynthesize but my dungeon made some other things possible. The dark environment slowly led my creatures and plants to change into variant species.

Together with a large amount of mana various changes began to happen. The snakes became darker, to fit into the shadows and the foxes developed a unique ability to stun their prey with a flash of their orange fur. The tree leaves turned black and synthesized my mana or lived off the glowing mosses’ light. This glow also brought some much-needed ambiance into my dungeon.

The transformations slowly stopped, finally stabilized, and fitted to their environment. The tunnel and cave system were now much more active than before. In a modestly dark environment flashes of light would brighten up the darkness. While others used the rare light to attract partners or lure in prey. 

It looked spectacular, but I still had a problem to solve. The amount of water inside my domain was very scarce. The rare droplet of the stalactites or the small flow in the spring and after a heavy downfall was heavily fought over. 

Every hint of moistness was guarded to death by the most powerful creatures and created a problem. But luckily towards the end of the transformation of my dungeon, I discovered a stream of water.  The stream now made its way through the caverns, providing a new environment and much-needed water.

Apex predators could finally go around my domain and not guard their waterholes. And the small critters were able to get access to the before scarce resource. With the water came Marine life, especially fishes which now began to inhabit the small pond in the largest cavern.

They too adapted to the large environment and brought with them many new species and intruders. Horrendous angler-fish inhabited the deepest lakes and bright koi fish blinded their predators.

Once I finished observing and going through all that happened while terraforming my first layer something peculiar happened. I pondered this feeling when I suddenly noticed its similarity to something I had felt before. I sensed the same thing as in the mouse when It was about to evolve and now knew.

I was ready to evolve
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Once I committed myself to evolution, I felt ideas form inside my mind. They informed me of what I was about to become. I analyzed the information I got. 

Now,  I could order my dungeon into different zones making management easier. The evolution would also turn me from a dungeon core into a zone dungeon.

Beforehand I just had my area of influence and could do what I wanted within. But now I could arrange different areas into zones and thus order my dungeon. The creatures would still be able to interact with each other. But now they would remain in their perfect habitat.

Having analyzed the information, I got started with my evolution. Slowly the mana inside my core formed an intricate pattern and I felt my mind become sluggish. Until I finally fell into a sleep-like state, with hope and excitement filling my crystal.

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When I awoke, I was invigorated. The control I had over my influence had increased significantly. After looking at the changes, I noticed some more subtle things.

The small tunnel and room system I built looked more natural. The area was now my first zone. And everything had changed slightly to better fit my and the inhabitants’ needs. Natural-looking tunnels and organic rooms could be seen. Creating the perfect environment for the creatures living within.

Adding to that, a lot of information came with the evolution. I now knew more about my first zone’s natural inhabitants. This allowed me to create a better picture of my current situation. And it opened up new ways to improve my dungeon. 

The added intelligence, wisdom, and clarity I got helped me even further. But I now also realized how weak and unprotected I was. I had to improve further and become even more powerful.

With the new information in mind and my raised power, I set myself up for a large expansion. I would increase the size and diversity of my cave system and inhabit it with various plants and new animals. To start my plan, I first laid out a schematic for my first zone, the entrance. There wouldn’t be a lot of changes. I only slightly modified the area to protect me even better.

I chose to make the mice the primary animals of this zone. For that, I developed the environment to fit their needs. The cracks in the walls grew more numerous and small tunnels started to dot the walls. The insect population of the caverns grew, to feed the large mice swarm.

As a last touch, I ordered the mice to work together in an ant-like kingdom. Sadly, they split up into two rival powers. An evolved Mouse-queen ruling over the quicker mice. As their competitor was a mouse-king inhabiting the lands of the larger and stronger mice.

Now with my original cave system changed into something more fitting, I expanded my domain. It spread into the unexplored earth and further increased my influence. I planed out the first 5 zones of my dungeon. The first, already finished zone, was the entrance. 
Protected by the mouse kingdoms and the red mouse guardian. 

The guardian was an intrinsic part of the evolution I achieved. It allowed me to improve some of my creatures. Limited to every zone I could infuse creatures with mana. This would make them stronger and more likely to evolve. Though I couldn’t simply infuse every creature with enough mana to make them a full guardian, because a guardian used up a lot of control

The guardians came in various different modes. I could infuse a single guardian or a whole tribe of them. Furthermore, I could create the craziest and weirdest guardian combos imaginable. For the first zone, I decided to make the red mouse and its descendants into guardians. This guardian mode was called, family guardian.

With my first zone now finally finished I concentrated on the second one!!!