Chapter 11 - Here We Go Again

I sank down the hot magma tube. The high mana concentration and heat were pressing on my core. I could feel my shell slowly give to the semi-liquid magma.

Though I held on and slowly got lower and lower. At first, I could still hear the maldarxxi’S grunts and vibrations, but they slowly faded.

After a while of silence, a screech filled the surroundings. I could briefly feel a connection to the sound's origin. In this second of contact, I ordered the creature to flee and abandon the cave.

I was sure that it was the narcullian. It had come to fight my near executioner, the maldraxxi. In the everlasting silence of the tube, I hoped that my most powerful defender was able to flee, so I could again see him one day.

After the screech, there was nothing else disturbing the calming silence. I meditated while I floated down the tunnel, absorbing the mana-rich magma and calming down its high heat. After an undistinct time, probably in the weeks or even months, something happened.

I felt my core tumble against a side tunnel. Desperate to finally escape this predicament I pushed myself with the saved-up mana. Somehow I made it over the ledge and began to build up speed.

The side tunnel flowed significantly faster than the main tube and transported me far away from my first home. After countless days of travel and infinite divisions, I reached the end of my journey.

With a gush of magma, I was catapulted outside the tube. Before the dense mana from the magma and the passive movement has prevented me from reforming my cave. But now I finally was in the open air, well as open as it gets in a cave.

I spread out my domain, far faster than when I first had to do this. Because I was able to supply myself with mana I didn’t have to burn up my cultivation. My presence moved along the smooth walls, carved out by the magma. Sprinkles of black crystal created layers of stone, after absorbing the material I learned it to be called, obsidian.

Created because of the high pressure and heat deep in the network of magma tunnels. It held a passive heat, hot enough to burn flesh.

Not again in position and having observed my surroundings I began to reform my dungeon. The plan was to use the same layout I had before. I would carve out my previous zones and only slightly alter them to fit the environment.

So I got to work, slowly reforming my dungeon. The mouse kingdom was again founded, the queen of fire and the king of rock would rule over them.

Their kingdoms were attributed to two different mana types. It made them stronger and better suited for their environment.

The red mouse guardian formed into a burning version. The blood that spilled from its body was sizzling hot.

Further, into my domain, There were the snaking tunnels. They were now filled with steam from the boiling tunnels, creating a unique and slick environment. Its inhabitants accustomed to the different weather, learning to live in the hot, and attuning to steam mana.

The triangle challenges had vastly different approaches. The anguillians caverns were contrary to expectation covered in a layer of misty ice. Temperatures were close to zero, coming from a protective mechanism of the eel-like creatures.

Once they had begun to heat up their guardian had expelled his mana. His servants followed him and the deep sea mana transformed the temperature of the cavern into the negatives. Over time this changed into the ice mana it was now, changing the Anguillans into white versions.

The two other caverns shared their changes. Manipulated by the clash of ice and fire they had drastic transformations. The bats of darkness and death transformed their environment into one without temperature. It was neither cold nor hot, something I didn’t understand and would have to get to later.

In the slimy caverns, things looked quite nasty. The high heat had melted the slimes and transformed the before normal-looking cave into a Riverland of slimy lakes and streams. Its inhabitants, the slimes, swelled in size and now flowed inside the squishy waters.

Further in, the canyons of the ancient cycle looked very dangerous. Geysers of hot water provided an optimal place for the moss and humongous crystals of ice were inhabited by snow mushrooms. To live in the steamy environment the moss had pushed itself of the ground.

Now its green outgrowths stood at heights of 10 to 20 centimeters (4-8 inches), absorbing the warm steam. The freezing air of the ice crystals provided a cold humidity for the freezing mushrooms.

This mixture created an abstract environment, canyons split apart the slick or icy ground. Dotted throughout the cliffsides geysers shot up boiling water which was frozen in the air. Resulting in hails of ice raining down on the ground and forming new ice crystals.

The guardian race, the moist warriors weren’t left out from the change. Their bodies now were a mixture of ice and boiling water, creating a dangerous combo. They changed into the folk of boiling ice.

These were the zones I was able to build up again. The mana I cultivated while floating in the magma tubes was now empty. I would have to wait until I was able to build up more of my defenses.

In the time I waited for my mana to fill up I meditated and spread my domain. I had been approximately 2 and a half years down in the depths. It had taken a long time to carve out the zones and inhabit them. My domain had already spread far enough to house all my zones and have some space left for extras, like the experimentation room.

During my excavation, I also found various different kinds of stones. Some denser and some more brittle. Though the most interesting material, besides the rare obsidian, was a redish-orange rock. After absorbing it I knew it to be iron ore, a robust material, harder than every stone I found before.

I tried to cover my core room with the material but it cost a lot to create. The iron ore stone itself wasn’t all too expensive, mana-wise. But the pure iron had an astronomical cost. To cover my whole core room I would use more mana than was needed to build my full dungeon.

So I set aside my plan of reinforcing the core room. Instead, I used a mixture of obsidian veins, and the rest I covered in Iron ore. When I infused this new shell with mana, to make it even more sturdy something happened. The iron ore, instead of getting denser, transformed into something else.

I didn’t know what happened but slowly the iron got harder and harder. While not increasing in density, but it began to glow. The obsidian on the other side got hotter and hotter when infused with mana.

At one point I had to stop infusing it with mana. It took away too much from saving up for new zones and was beginning to melt the surrounding iron ore.

I left my core room alone. It looked quite dangerous with pure black lines running through redish stone. The redish stone glowed bright orange and was slowly melting and cooling. It was unbelievably hot, enough to create mirages.

With again nothing to do, I returned to meditating. But got interrupted not long after I started. Now nearly three years after my, not willing, departure from my previous home I again saw something living.

It started with a rumble, similar to the magma tube that broke through from the depths. The vibrations intensified, and my creatures started to flee into their protective homes.

At the apex of the grounds shaking a wall in my first zone exploded forth. From the dust and rubble the mouth, filled with teeth, made it's way forwards.

The teeth were glowing from the heat created by friction and were now calming down. The creature I knew to be some kind of worm continued deeper into the zone. Judging by the mana I could sense, coming of the creature, it was at least at tier 6.

Something outside of the realm I thought possible, strength-wise. The worm's teeth started to again speed up, hundreds of sharp bones created an eerie sound. Once arrived at the cavern's other wall the teeth bit into the stone. Shattering my reinforced dungeon stone like it was sandstone.

Behind the creature's mouth was the full length of the worm. It was covered in stone-like scales, creating an impenetrable barrier. It had no visible eyes or nose but small hair-like scales covered its length, propelling it forwards and sensing its surroundings.

I ordered all of my creatures to stay back, not wanting to anger this all-powerful creature. Once its head left my domain it still hadn’t fully left me. The creature's mouth was nearly as large around as the smaller caverns of the first zone. At about 8 meters (26 feet) it was going to be quite long.

Though I underestimated its length greatly. It took a full day of movement for the creature to fully leave my domain. It was hard to estimate its full length but I set it at about 200 meters (650 feet - 0,125 miles).

At the end of the worm, another mouth was extracting a semi-liquid mass. This was what I assumed to be its excrements, though I still absorbed them. They were filled with mana, even more than the main magma tube, or the corpse of the ephyn.

The shit I absorbed was enough to allow me to again build my fifth floor and get started on the sixth. Furthermore, hints of various metals and stones were present in the remains, allowing me a lot of materials to experiment around with.

But before starting with that I rebuild my dungeon. The fifth zone, the shining forest got a new name, fitting its look. The blazing forest, heated by the fire sun crystal in the center of the clearing, was aptly named.

The dryer bushes and trees immediately caught on fire, resulting in an ever-burning timberland. Though the high amount of energy coming from my mana and the sun crystal allowed the plant life to outgrow the fire. Once something burned down, a new tree would be growing from the ashes within hours.

This mix resulted in an everchanging environment, with the solar bear at its center. The bear would wander the floor, a clearing of ashes following its steps. The most precious loot of this zone though was the soil. It was filled with mana, nutrients, and materials, exploding the growth of any and every plant.

While I created the fifth zone I had accumulated enough mana to finish the sixth and for now final, zone. The hot environment of my surroundings didn’t really change the zone, it only got a bit more extreme.

The obsidian stones dotting the lava lake were now too hot to use. They created a spring of magma around them, resulting in geysers of magma. The zones’ inhabitants didn’t change at all and nothing else was touched.

I was now ready to again further myself. A full three years I have been at this exact spot, about 3 and a half with the travel through the magma tubes. I was again waiting for any intruders, so I could speed up the process and challenge my changed zones.

The tunnel the gigantic worm created would be the most likely origin of my future divers. To entice any creatures living down there I send a wave of mana their way.

I waited and waited for something to happen. Slowly building up more mana, though I didn’t spend it yet. I could invest it into my attackers, the narcullians or nargacugas. But the underground environment was not optimal for their specialties, wings.

A new attacking race could of course always be created, but I wanted to first with what I had to work with. Instead, I just send out some spies, small insects, trained in espionage and hiding their unnaturally high tier mana.

They were also the first that told me of the visitors. Finally, I would again have something to do!!!!