As the horde of gigantic ants skittered closer and closer to their enemies they were driven into a truly insane rage. The mind of the dungeon, now vaguely aware that it was actually at risk, was filling its minions with rage.

The virtually empty minds of the ants were filled with thoughts of murder and destruction as they raced towards their foes. That said, their enemies weren't making it easy for them to get within biting or even acid-spewing range. The enemies of the ants had an array of ranged attacks that allowed them to whittle down the army of ants that surged towards them.

Blasts of potent cosmic energy fired by the one awakened deity sped through the air, as well as bolts of plasma, and powerful missiles, each of which annihilated ants they hit. The ants screamed in rage as they made their way closer and closer to their foes, and they surged fearlessly towards their enemies. That said, when they got close enough for Sofia to be able to aim at them she also joined the fray. 

The potent half-elf rose her hands and began to cast an array of deadly magic, bolts of lightning, spikes of ice, and pillars of fire suddenly erupting into existence between the horde of ants and further slowing their progress as they raced towards their hated foes. Raul watched as the progress made by the ants was suddenly dramatically slowed and chuckled. He rose one of his hands and suddenly the amount of magic in the dungeon's depths more than doubled. 

The area between the invaders and the guardians of the dungeon was suddenly illuminated by massive pillars of fire. Raul turned around and spoke to the followers he had gathered.

"Ready yourselves! We are going to charge in a few moments. We'll get behind them and inflict havoc on them!" I informed my followers, as I surveyed the situation. They silently nodded at me, not happy about the situation but aware that our enemies were approaching us and that going through them was the best way to make our way through this ordeal. 

The ants continued to race towards us, hurling themselves into the pillars of fire that Sofia and I had set up as obstacles without hesitation. I chuckled as they raced towards us, and opened a portal in front of me that led us behind the army of the dungeon's guardians. I leaped through the portal and even as I appeared on the other side of the massive army of ants I saw my followers race towards me. The second before the first of them managed to leap through the portal I closed the portal in front of me and opened another one connected to the space right in front of the boss room of the dungeon's first floor. 

They managed to throw themselves through the portal and arrive safely in front of the boss room, where no ants currently stood watch to try and harass them. I chuckled and watched as the ants charged onwards, unaware of our deception for a few moments. I wasn't about to let them turn around and face us.

I reached one of my hands out in the direction of the flaming pillars I had created. They were a powerful barrier and a potent obstacle that obscured the vision of the ants and now they were doing to be the very thing that destroyed them. I closed my hand and pulled it back towards me, which caused the pillars of fire to begin to race towards me, violently incinerating the ants that stood between the entrance to the dungeon and myself. 

The pillars surged towards me, ruthlessly destroying thousands of the person-sized monsters making their way towards where I had been. As the walls of flame and heat made their way towards me I heard the roars of the fire overpower the noises made by the ants until there were no more ants left to make any noises.

When the solid walls of fire were mere meters from me I grinned and destroyed them with a thought, causing them to harmlessly dissipate. I took a moment to study the area I had just cleansed of thousands of massive insects. 

Before me, I could see a gigantic open area, the largest open area of the dungeon's first floor. This place's purpose was seemingly to be a trap for unwitting explorers and adventurers who'd come here and mine in search of emeralds, which in doing so would earn them the wrath of the dungeon itself as greedy intruders. 

The gigantic open area in front of me was devoid of life since I had incinerated the dungeon's inhabitants with the aid of Sofia. There was also minimal air in this area, but fortunately for me, I was a deity and thus didn't need to breathe. I stoically examined the area in front of me and sighed. 

"Soon... I'll fix this place." I muttered as I gazed at the subterranean area. There were a number of ways we could use this cavern. We could it settle it, giving people homes, we could mine in it and then export the emeralds we could turn it into a sort of underground farm with Alpha's aid, or we could use it to breed monsters that were friendly to us and could serve either as training fodder or as pets. All we had to do was make it ours. I chuckled and inwardly resolved to do this quickly before turning and facing the portal.

I touched the portal in front of me and keyed it to the area in front of the boss room, where my companions were curiously waiting for me. I stepped through it and returned to the side of my companions with a smile on my face.

"Sorry about that, I needed to handle the ant army behind us." I told them, a smile on my face as their eyes widened when they heard that I had taken care of the massive, thousands-strong, ant army. One of the guards watched me, shock and awe visible on his face.

"Sir... There were probably hundreds of them..." He said, awe audible in his voice. I chuckled and glanced at him.

"Tens of thousands actually. And now there are none. They were reduced to less than ash. Fire is an extremely powerful element." I said, idly. I felt the respect and awe my servants felt towards me skyrocket now that they had seen the power I was capable of manifesting. I also felt their respect for Sofia increase as well because they had seen what she had done to impede the progress of the ants as well. They had already highly respected Riezel and Alpha so their respect for our two longest-distance snipers was unchanged.

I glanced at the gigantic door in front of my team and I and sighed. Thanks to my decision to prioritize efficiency we were now in front of the massive, meters tall and meters wide, door that when opened would allow us to face this floor's boss monster. The door in front of me was enormous and made of the same-colored stone as the floor beneath me.

It radiated a sinister energy and loomed taller than any of us. I could almost feel the dungeon wanting us to step deeper than we ever had before and to open the door so that it could hurl the first truly great monster at us that we'd have to overcome to accomplish my seemingly impossible dream.

The dungeon itself concentrated its endless rage and vengeful wrath on the quiet deity who had invaded it. It's "eyes" if the mana-sensitive receptors that it used to view what was occurring inside of it could be called that, were locked onto the young hero who had resolved to win it over. 

"That... Boy... Will... Die..." It whispered, to no one in particular. Dungeons, in this world anyway, hadn't had contact with one another in centuries. Dungeons no longer had the ability to speak to one another, but they had lost this ability long after ancient accords, signed by gods and dungeons alike, that Raul had broken by being a deity who entered dungeons in the world of Vanheim, had been signed. This was the true cause for the dungeon's attempt to strike Raul down in the most fierce way that it could, with an army of monsters.

Now, after lashing out, the relatively young dungeon was relatively helpless to resist Raul's invasion until he entered the dungeon's first boss-room or somehow bypassed it and went into the second floor. But the dungeon wasn't just staring at Raul in impotent rage.

Inside the boss room, something strange was occurring. The room's lone inhabitant was on its knees and it was radiating intense light.  The powerful, large creature was becoming larger as the dungeon itself prepared an unpleasant surprise for the party of invaders. 

The strange almost bovine monstrosity in the center of the room was inaudible praying to the dungeon, grateful for the drastic increase in power that it was receiving. It was also committing itself to the mission that the dungeon had provided for it: to defeat the strange deity moments from entering the dungeon. The minotaur's body was growing and growing as it was given power by the dungeon. 

"Huhhhhhhh..." The creature groaned, delight, pleasure, and bloodlust mixing together as it greedily devoured the magical energy that the dungeon was pouring into it.

"We are minutes away from changing the world, forever!" I declared, to raucous shouts of approval from the people whose lives I had just saved. 

"When I open this door, we will enter the room and defeat whatever foul guardian awaits us!" I shouted, raising my weapon to the air. My companions mimicked my gesture and made me smile. I turned and faced the door, before gently placing a hand on it. The instant that I did, the door began to slowly open inward, and I laid my eyes on the creature within. And it looked back at me. 

The creature in the chamber was a massive, almost seven meter tall, minotaur. It had the shaggy black fur of a wild bear but was dimly glowing for some reason, and the proud, imperial horns of some sort of mythic dragon. Its eyes were locked onto mine and they were the strange, silted, yellow eyes of a powerful snake.

The hulking creature held onto some sort of flaming axe which it pulled up from the ground, as it rose almost the very instant that the doors were opened enough for it to reach its massive hands through. The creature pulled its axe up with it as it stood up and then leaped at me, swinging its axe in mid-air, clearly intending to cleave through me. 

I used telekinesis to hurl everyone back a few steps and ran into the room, moving at a speed much swifter than the minotaur could. The creature roared at me, the sound akin to one a wolf might make, and began to swing its powerful axe downwards so as to slice through me. I grinned and when the creature's axe was almost upon me I effortlessly danced out of the way of the weapon and watched it whiz harmlessly in front of me, slicing through where my head had been a mere moment ago. 

The creature huffed in irritation and focused on me. We stared each other down for a moment, and I tapped my sword onto my shield, causing my shield to brightly come to life. 

"Come on then!" I told the beast, unafraid of it while shifting my sword so that it was pointing at me. As I did that, I asked the system if this was indeed the boss monster. The instant before the beast dashed at me, I received a response that made me inwardly smile.

[Yes it is. It appears that the dungeon itself is angry and has empowered this beast with potent magic and even a strange weapon.] 

The beast bellowed angrily and began to hurl itself at me, ready and eager to strike me down with its axe, which hauntingly illuminated the air around it with faint lines of fire and intense heat.