"I do feel similar to Mimissa, but this also presents a great opportunity." Malfissa stood straighter, with a seriousness even she rarely showed. "You said your people found ways to safely utilise this material to generate power, correct? Do you believe you can find a way to replicate this yourself?"

I considered it. I was really tempted to mine the stuff, as if something or another wanted me to. It just made sense, I even called the tyuyamunite 'incredible' after all. All kinds of ideas went through my mind; the main issue was safety, Mr. Imp's beaten - but thankfully nowhere near dead - body a stark reminder that power always comes with responsibility. I grimaced for a moment.

(I won't fail a second time!)

"I believe I can. No, I'm sure I can. Radioactivity protection suits are a thing, the balm we used can deal with the damage, and as long as I keep it in small doses I should be able to not get harmed beyond repair. With a proper shift system in place, we can reduce the harmful effects to basically nothing." (Not to mention its potential use for weapons, should things ever turn that desperate.)

I sincerely hoped that wouldn't ever have to happen.

"Then I advise absorbing the material, but you must go at a very slow pace. If you feel too sick... no, if you even believe you begin feeling too sick, you must immediately stop and take a break. Also have someone else mine the ore, Mr. Imp will almost inevitably refuse now and I cannot fault him for that. Your best bet is using a mindless monster for the task."

Mimissa hugged me tightly, clearly in fear of the task ahead, but I steeled my resolve and nodded.

"Of course, making Mr. Imp do this is out of the question. I promised I'll try to do good, so I will. Thanks, Malfissa."

I patted Mimissa's head. She looked at me, teary-eyed.

"And thank you for everything."

She didn't smile for once, but that too was proof how worried she was for my well-being.

~~~~~

The first task was to get a monster, ideally several, that could mine the tyuyamunite without suffering radiation sickness.

"I think some form of rock monster would be best suited for this, Czara."

"I advise that as well; these 'Hazmat suits' are very expensive."

A single suit cost 3000DP, nearly half a Dummy Core and way over our current budget, and even if they had the property of changing size by being equipped, we still needed a strong monster to do the actual mining. I kept looking.

"This 'Rock Eater (ape form)' sounds about right. Judging by the picture, it kind of resembles a gorilla in build, but it's made of boulders and soil. It costs 800DP base, but that's no problem since I got nearly 600DP just a few minutes ago. I think if we buy two more in a few days, we should have a decent production of DP down."

We decided to pay the DP and thus went into the Core Room. Cute ratsies aside, this was actually the first time I properly bought a monster, so I was excited. Mimissa and I pressed on the button together to make it more official. A summoning circle started forming on the ground, then a copy of it - both spinning in opposite directions - floated into the air. The area between the two began to glow, the DP ticking down so quickly, the numbers on the counter blurred together.

When the lights dimmed back to nothing, a roughly 4 metres tall monster stood before us. The rock eater, as per the full name and picture, had a build similar to that of a gorilla, standing on its hind feet and fists. It looked around, its grey stone reflecting some of the light of the room. I could see sand-coloured sediment between the boulders making up its various body parts, but its head was about as simple as can be, lacking even a mouth and sporting only two slits from which shone green lights.

It suddenly stood on its hind legs and rhythmically clapped its open palms against its chest. That was a good sign since it meant it could grab things like a pickaxe. Aside from the sound of rock banging on rock, it was completely silent though.

"Rock Eater A, and no that is NOT your official name, I am your Dungeon Core, Czara. Will you obey me without question?"

He looked down at me, and instantly nodded once. I specified that it was not its name since we needed drone-like monsters for this task. Robots, if you will.

Incidentally we could have gone with golems, but Malfissa objected to the idea on the grounds that golems utilise magical circuits which might just possibly get fried by strong enough radiation. Also, while a golem can do commands such as 'Mine this rock, put mined material aside, repeat.' they had a very limited memory. The rock eater may have cost 8 times as much DP, but it was stronger and would be able to follow more complex commands. But its main boon was that it was able to learn to become more efficient over time, which a golem apparently can never do even if you do name it.

"Why'd you ask if it will obey you, Czara? All monsters of a dungeon must obey."

"I just wanted to say it to be cool..." I said with a pout.

Rock Eater A was given the pickaxe and the task to mine the ore. It looked a little small in its hand, but down the line I bought it a bigger one. Since I didn't want it to crouch needlessly I made the air gap a little bigger. It hacked away with gusto, and even half an hour later its health had not dropped by even a single point nor did I get any notifications that it got poisoned. That was a relief.

~~~~~

Mr. Imp had woken up, and we all hurried to his side.

"Mr. Imp, how're you feeling?"

"Weeeeaakkkk... but willlll fiiine."

He wasn't shaking and his health points had become nearly full again, so it was probably more of a psychological thing. The signs of radiation poisoning had nearly fully disappeared, and the Geiger counter proved it had only been a little worse than skin-deep. Still we, Malfissa in particular, insisted that he must keep resting until he would feel better again.

"Is there anything you want? We're going to mine the ore, but this time we're using a drone monster immune to the effects, and we'll give it rest even so."

"Ffffff..."

"F?"

"Fffffeeasssst-"

"A feast? Of course, we'll hold one tomorrow or the day after once you've fully recovered." I smiled, happy that he was feeling well enough again to want food. "Anything else?"

"Nnnnooooo uncurse..."

"Uncurse... who? Me, or Anastelle? If it's her, I can't just not. This whole thing's done for her."

"Ah, then nooo waking yeeeet. She... baaaad."

I could see that at least. She'd literally enslaved him, after all, so I just nodded. I checked the [Menu], and his point could be easily fulfilled since - and I would have known had I just bothered reading the full red text - [Turn Off] actually has a 100 day cooldown, i.e. a full season.

(How fitting.)

"Okay, we won't wake Anastelle yet, and you'll get a feast in your honour. What else?"

"Juuuussst ressst."

That made sense as well, so we left him alone for the time being.

~~~~~

Days passed, and Mr. Imp did a full recovery. Our DP counter rose by an unprecedented ~1500DP per day. We bought two more of the rock eaters, working names Rock Eater B and Rock Eater C, and made them work in shifts. The vein turned out so big they were really busy, though from what I could tell it was still more than 90% bornite.

Since the tyuyamunite was very dangerous if handled carelessly, I installed a box made from a solid 85 centimetres of lead encased in 10 centimetres steel and another 5 centimetres of acrylic glass in one of the corners of the Dungeon Core Room. The box itself was inside a reinforced tank of water. Every chunk of the bornite/tyuyamunite was only put into that box, and only then did I turn it into DP. Each time I did so, I felt a little sick from it so as per Malfissa's advice I kept it slow and steady. One time I overdid it by accident and promptly vomited on the spot. I spent the rest of that day in Mimissa's arms, after she used her chocolate to clean me up.

Malfissa came over, having learned of what happened via Mimissa's tagging message.

"I really advise against you doing that. If you become genuinely sick and start malfunctioning, who knows what might happen."

"Awww, so you do care."

"I don't actually care about you as a person, you know?" She turned around. "Stop insinuating things, idiot."

"Tehehe... thank you, Malfissa"

~~~~~

About a week after the project began, I had also manoeuvred my mana field so I could claim everything within its corners for the sake of emptying out a large chamber below the small cube room housing the Dungeon Core. As it turned out, you can kind of compress space with the mana field to claim a pretty large amount all at once. Similarly you can use spatial effects to make the volume of the space bigger than it looks like from the outside. Yes, it was time to make Floor 2!

While we were in the Core Room we thought about what kind of dungeon we should make, but I had a question before we would start.

"Say, can a dungeon control gravity?"

"Gravity? What is that?"

"Gravity is, uh, basically it's the force of attraction between objects with mass. Objects with more mass tend to have a stronger gravity pull and if the difference is really big, then smaller objects will fly around or stand on them."

(Or stand if there's ground to stand on, anyway.)

"Ah, I understand what you mean now, I just did not know the word. Yes, gravity can be controlled by a dungeon even on a floor-by-floor basis. You can have no gravity, more gravity than the outside, even direct it with traps I believe? Of course, all of this costs DP to make and maintain."

"Cool, because I want to make a dungeon that goes up, but the mountain might be too small so I kinda want to invert the gravity and go up by going down.

Malfissa smiled. It seemed I had woken up the scientist in her with our talk about nuclear stuff and chemical elements.

"I would love to see that."

~~~~~

I was getting so excited I started shaking. Forget inheriting floors and monsters, forget tiny cube rooms. This was going to be a capital-F Floor!

"[Menu]!!! And also [Breeze]."

Yes, I had bought a [Breeze] scroll for 100DP solely for the sake of making some dramatic wind billow around me. It was childish, but it felt cool so I didn't care.

*Ding* [Floor declared. Assigning number '2'. Size specified. Select biome.]

"I want a [Grassy Field] biome in honour of the old Floor 2. Daytime, grass, rivers, light wind, trees, the whole thing. Also [Spatial Effect: Inverted Gravity]."

The dungeon map expanded. Since we stood by the Dungeon Core, we had to wait for a moment until the option to place the staircase came up. I selected a spiral made from polished granite since the distance between the two floors was quite a bit. We went down the spiral staircase and saw a Floor with rolling hills in the distance, entering the Floor proper by a glade with a pond fed by a small river. It took a moment to get used to walking on walls and then what should logically be the ceiling, but we managed quickly. The trees were lush and green, and smelled slightly sweet. Of course, no animals could be heard since none existed.

"It's very pretty."

"Meh, I rate it 7.8/10, not enough water." I resolved to fix that. "Let's see, geographic alterations... Here!"

A waterfall rose in the distance. If you go by the shadows the fake sun in the sky cast and think of its position as being around noon, we were in the south-western corner of the Floor. We left the glade via a path I mentally drew, which removed some of the trees in the way. Once outside, I needed a moment of rest since the process did give me another headache.

"Ugh..."

"Are you alright, Czara?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to become better at this so all I need is some practice."

I got up and pointed towards the south-eastern corner. Or what I knew was that corner since the Floor actually looked as infinite as its predecessor.

"Watch."

I had thought of water coming down from a hill, flowing down into a basin, and then via a large river snaking across the landscape the water flow would culminate roughly middle-west. Water came from the hill alright, but I got the order wrong and promptly flooded that part of the Floor by accident.

"Uhhh, not good!"

I focused again and drew a mental line from the waterfall's basin to the intended end point, and deepened it. The mental view I got was simplified, not unlike see-through polygons on a computer screen, but I figured the actual water would smooth it out once it got flowing. The water receded and started filling the large ditch. At the end I tried to make some kind of drain in the earth that would automatically teleport the water back on top of the waterfall, so I added some big rocks at both spots to hide the process. It had to look good, not be real.

"*Huff, huff* Alright, there. One infinite dungeon river."

Both Mimissa and Malfissa looked on, as quiet as Mr. Imp was most of the time, but they were smiling. Mimissa did eventually say something.

"So what's next? You said you wanted to help people, but... people need things, right?"

"Food, water, shelter, places to relieve themselves. Of course, this place isn't exactly real, but maybe we can eventually have actual people live here. And for that…"

I focused again. On a particular memory. A memory of a town in summer, when flowers were blooming, the sky was clear, and even the smell of industry was for once as faint as if non-existent. I was younger and less worldly, but I got to visit my grandmother in her dacha. She lived a little ways away, but it was always fun when I got to see her. She had a lovely garden where I helped her grow things like strawberries. My grandfather, born after her - though neither had to witness the Great Patriotic War - was a car mechanic and had a nice dog.

I could feel it, the memory, the sound and sight and smells. Mimissa told me that my eyes were shining brightly during that moment. The earth split perpendicular to us and I raised a black road from the depths. It ran along the forest where we were standing, pavement to walk on its opposing side. I lowered the terrain beyond. Laid out foot paths made from gravel. Hedges and tiny houses that, for the time being, were mere props appeared, constructing themselves in physically impossible ways straight out of a computer game.

Further in the distance I made another road, a bridge from large smooth stones crossing the river, one side of it connecting to the first road in a y section. The ground was flattened and three monoliths of light grey stone rose. Buildings made of concrete and rebar. They had rows of windows, one side each dotted in balconies. Grandmother's dacha? I placed it in the optimal spot with the largest garden, of course.

"What... are those? They are as large as some forts, but resemble no buildings I have ever seen."

"Those... are housing complexes from my grandmother's home town."

If people were to live on this Floor, they should have housing. If they were to gain food, they would get fields on Floor 3. I decided I would look into weather patterns next.

The dungeon "Mimissa's Hope" would be a success story fit to turn into a legend.

"I'm scared of these blocks!"

...Once I managed to convince Mimissa that the apartment blocks were perfectly harmless so she wouldn't need to close her chest in fear. And I got less headaches from doing this stuff.