With the makeshift carts they made with IKEA parts and furniture, they began trudging the edge of the Jungle and collecting logs, sticks, and whatever else they could carry.

Three of the Integrated who were [Aspiring Lumberjacks] were hacking away at whatever tree they could find, while the [Aspring Warriors] that guarded them helped by picking the logs up and placing them in carts.

The Warriors took care of anything and everything that proved to be a threat to the [Luberjack] and [Foragers], which thankfully only proved to be weak monsters that were more the size of small and medium-sized dogs. Luckily, they haven't had to deal with the stronger monsters that dwelled deeper in the woods, and not one person has died since the very first excavation.

The wood and other materials they brought back were slowly replacing the...houses made of furniture back at the settlement, slowly replacing every house they could with wood.

They first constructed a barn to store excess materials and furniture, and then they built three bunkhouses that were capable of holding 20 people a piece. From there, they began tearing down the old Furniture houses and using the excess furniture to reinforce and expand the wall around the portal.

Just outside the portal, hundreds of Staff stood around the portal, motionlessly and blankly staring at the portal, as if guarding it to keep something from coming in or out, yet those who ventured out every day found no trouble with the Staff.

Not to mention the increasing number of 'Black Stars' that were appearing in the sky above.

Essentially, everyone was on edge.

People were worried that the Staff outside, or the countless monsters that called the Biomes home, would attack at any minute and butcher everyone.

Little did they know, their fears were warranted.

--

Exactly four more weeks had passed as the Integrated of the Ark Settlement expanded and thrived inside my dungeon.

I was now generating nearly 400 mana a day, the Ark Settlement had 3 new Integrated, and I had 34 V.E.Cs now. 

Everything was progressing quickly, and I would soon be able to make a V.E.C. every day, though strangely, I was getting strange feeling the closer I got to 50 VECs.

I don't know how even to begin to describe the sensation...but if I could, it felt...foreboding.

I had no idea if it was my instincts trying to warn me of something or maybe it was just me worrying.

I didn't know, but once I get closer to that number, I may be able to find out more.

With the excess mana I've been getting, I have been attempting a new...project.

A Monster Spawner.

You see, I'd like to create some sort of machine or device that could gather ambient mana and create monsters by itself, allowing for a zone that perpetually spawns monsters until it runs out of mana or it doesn't have enough.

What that means is that depending on the environment, such theoretical devices would spawn monsters at a rate dependent on the ambient mana around it, so, in areas with dense ambient mana, theoretically, monsters would be spawned every single second, while in areas where mana is sparse, it would take a long amount of time to create even a single monster.

I just had to figure out how to make such a thing, automate it, then observe.

It means I would not have to interfere as much and waste my mana respawning every monster that is slain by the Integrated, though I had no doubt I would have to personally respawn any 'unique' monsters unless I dedicate a Monster Spawner to respawning them specifically.

Hmm...That gave me an idea. Boss Spawners.

Setting a monster spawner to a specific entity would mean I could create entire repeatable boss fights or Boss Raids for the Players to... 'enjoy.'

However, I have no doubt that the stronger the monster, the longer the respawn timer.

Shaking my core, I focused back on the task at hand.

At the moment, I have only one...version of a monster spawner.

This...version was based on Minecraftian Monster Spawners that were enchanted cages with a monster egg floating at their center. The cages were relatively simple to make, as the enchantments were easy to engrave on the metal bars; however, the problem I found with them was their sheer size.

My first prototype rivaled a bus in size, and that was only when it came to length and height.

As for the egg...well, that was more complicated.

The 'egg' was essentially a...template, if I could describe it.

Though I guess it could also be described as a program.

Inscribed within the egg was a set of...instructions along with templates that would...create monsters inside the cage and then push them out.

The monsters created from the spawner would then have a critical weakness, one that I'd need to account for if I used it.

That glaring weakness would be if I only used the same 'Template' and instructions, the monsters created would all follow be the exact same. Same weakness, same abilities, same thought process, and so on. It would essentially be cloning a single entity for all eternity so long as there was 'Mana,' which, while would be okay with weak monsters, I absolutely refused to have such a glaring weakness if used for stronger monsters.

So, what I was trying to do now was see if I could tweak the 'Template' to add variables or possibly even combine multiple 'Templates' and 'Instructions' into the same 'Egg.' 

Sure, it would be complicated, but for my future plans, such a thing would be necessary if I wanted to create Raid Zones and other such areas that would be treacherous for the Integrated.

Speaking of which, I was hiding the prototype underground in a cavern in the desert biome and had the Spawner create basic Giant Scorpians, though none of the Integrated have ventured into the place yet, which was good for them, as a majority of the monsters were ambushers, armed with toxins and venoms that would easily cause them problems, and more noticeably, very few areas to find water and shade to battle against the heat.

The Desert biome was a mix of rolling dunes, sparse Oaises', and sandstone rock landforms that formed jagged 'spear-like' mountains and rock formations across the desert.

In the desert, dwelling within a cave of the largest rock formation, what I called 'God's finger' as it resembled a middle finger giving the bird to the world, lay the Sand Elemental, which, in its natural environment, proved to be one of the more dangerous Elementals, in some cases, even more dangerous than the Fire Elementals that roamed the Rolling dunes.

Elementals were still quite rare as compared to all of the other monsters available in the biomes, but with the increase in my Mana Generation and the ambient mana in the air, the natural-born monsters have started spawning more frequently.

Almost 5% of the Jungle was now Spirit Trees, which were somehow growing stronger from absorbing the blood of the monsters that hunted each other around them. None were exactly intelligent, at least by my standards, but they still felt emotions. Well, the Wood Sprites and I would call what they experience 'Emotions,' but for Humans, it would be even more 'child-like' or 'basic.'

What did you expect? They are trees. They don't exactly have ears, eyes, or any other sensory organ, though some of them were sensing the mana in their surroundings, so I guess that would count as a 'Sense.'

I couldn't help but feel curious about how the natural-born Monsters would develop and grow, especially the Spirit Trees; after all, what exactly would be considered a 'strong tree?'

Suddenly, my attention was ripped straight from me as I felt my portal open and stay open.

Shifting my view, I growled in annoyance.

A tidal wave of Staff was flooding through the portal like white-blood cells trying to destroy any invaders in a human's body.

Foolish.