The broken dungeon core

The next several days were hectic, some people did become inhabitants and got positions which helped further unlock more available positions.

Greg and the other hunters decided to join up and got positions as scavengers, which is a position that rewards them for whatever they bring back into my dungeon.

The rewards also vary based upon what they brought back, plants give them boosts to forging and harvesting, identifying and quality improvements.

While bringing back prey hunted or caught in traps provided improved tracking and spotting prey, and improved trap setting and identifying locations suitable for the traps.

All positions provide stat boosts as well but it seems like stats are not given as frequently while dungeon loot is given out more often, granted the dungeon loot isn’t that significant as I am still low level.

They were able to unlock several new positions and some of them have been trying out the different positions just to figure out what benefits each one has.

We experimented on registering people as dungeon inhabitants through my dungeon flesh only to discover that Luna was required to act as a mediator for it to work.

I also discovered that I have a much stronger instinctive aversion to exposing my dungeon flesh to people who aren’t registered as inhabitants, even if it is to register them in the first place!

Rimmy also decided to reveal what happened with Rita which was quite the event as Tina even struck Rita after having found out about what Rita was going to do to her children.

With the plans to sell of the village traitors to the city it wasn’t much of a change to add Rita to the list of people who would be sold off.

Rimmy had also decided to reveal the truth about their origins as city dwellers before eloping and becoming farmers, and he even prepared a letter of introduction to the brothel that his family worked for generation after generation.

Although no one can go there until spring thaws the roads and they have prisoners to sell off, the letter of recommendation also has an apology letter to his family and the owner for having been tricked into eloping.

The prisoners would be sold only to them rather then putting them up for auction which would get them less money but it would also be much easier and time saving on top of allowing Rimmy to make amends with his family.

Another big change is that since everyone now knows that I am a dungeon, I no longer have to conceal my expansions.

The new floor level beneath the kitchen area is now exposed which is great news for me, because my dungeon instincts have been very strong in pressuring me to expand my dungeon and I found it out to be particularly for the second floor more so than the first.

I am enthusiastic today as I have plenty of energy to expand my second level as I had been previously using most of my energy to resist my instincts and to make changes for my residents.

I go crazy expanding and adding things, I create a room across from Rita’s prison cell, carving out the area as I take control of the space.

I make it as large as the kitchen room and I line the walls with planters which I filled with various plants, being particular about making all of them be food sources.

I organized them out by what type of food source they would be, which ones would be eaten raw on one end and the ones that require cooking to eat on the opposite side while the ones that can be eaten either way would be in the middle.

I still couldn’t be satisfied so I dug the room down deeper until it had the highest ceiling I could manage, even requiring me to put some support pillars around halfway between the walls and the center of the room.

Then I planted some trees in the center, still sticking to keeping them all to the food theme and I also decided to put some planters around the base of each pillar to have food bearing vines grow up them too!

I feel amazing as I had definitely got carried away with developing my dungeon and I received a notification as I had finished my handiwork.

[Congratulations on making a second floor room in your dungeon, you have met the requirements to level up your dungeon! As your core has been repaired sufficiently to receive some of your previous and current level up upgrades they will be unlocked shortly.]

[Level 1 dungeon rewards being added…. All mundane plants will have their mana requirements reduced to a minimum, grass level plants will require a maximum of 1 mana, all vine level plants will require a maximum of 2 mana, all bush level plants will require a maximum of 3 mana, all tree level plants will require a maximum of 5 mana.]

[Level 2 dungeon rewards being added….. dungeon flesh will be reinforced, range of expansion from the main dungeon region has been improved, durability improved, recovery rate improved, range of material manipulation improved…..your actions of exposing your dungeon flesh has been noted, warning there are many dangers to exposing your dungeon flesh, use caution as the consequences have yet to be determined.]

[The presence of inhabitants have been confirmed, the presence of various facilities have been verified, the Kitchen and Dining Area will be officially designated as the Kitchen!]

[The Kitchen will provide a passive food preservation feature, food nutrition loss will be reduced when prepared in the kitchen]

[The Washroom facility has been designated and expanded on, waste management recognized, sewage treatment into fertilizer…. Fertilizer has been designated as a new resource for enhancing plant growth rates.]

[A Greenhouse has been developed, the room designated as the Greenhouse will automatically make use of fertilizer resources as needed and will provide year round food production.]

[A Prison has been detected! Prison facilities have opened up a new category in your dungeon database menu, new positions have been added for the prison facility, dungeon food spawned in the prison will automatically have additional effects.]

[A prisoner has been detected in the dungeon prison, your actions have been noted. Prison passive effects have been activated… submission effects have been automatically selected.]

[Failure to detect dungeon monsters!!! Warning failure to obtain monsters has consequences! You have been penalized for having failed to meet the minimum monster quota!]

[Failure to detect a monster spawner! Warning there are consequences for failing to possess a required facility! You have been penalized for the missing facility!]

[Failure to detect a breeder! Warning there are consequences for failing to possess a required facility! You have been penalized for the missing facility]

[You have failed to comply with standard dungeon requirements on multiple accounts, all other level up rewards have been revoked until further notice!]

[Multiple dungeon requirements having failed to be met has warranted penalties, side effects have been selected to encourage compliance!]

My mind is boggled by the intense wave of notifications but although the ones at the beginning were something I had been looking forward to seeing I am horrified by the ones that followed!

I make sure to have my notifications sent to Luna as I can’t help but panic!

Luna returned to my dungeon at a sprinting pace and she is out of breath by the time she arrives and it causes the people in the kitchen to be startled.

She comes to my core room and she grabs her father along the way, who is confused by her actions but he doesn’t fight her and simply follows her.

She speaks with concern immediately as she enters my core room.

Luna, “Was that your level up notifications?!!!”

I respond with a yes as my anxiety spikes.

Rimmy, “A level up! That’s great news! I’m sure everyone would want to celebrate, especially since it also means that the rewards cap will be raised!”

Rimmy looks excited and happy but notices somethings wrong, his daughter looks worried more than happy and he stops to ask.

Rimmy, “Wait a minute, What’s going on, Luna what’s wrong?!”

Luna looks like she’s about to cry as she informs him.

Luna, “The dungeon leveled up but most of its level up rewards have been removed and it’s been given penalties for failing to have met certain requirements.

The dungeon will now start to suffer side effects that will force it to meet those requirements.

It will not only have to get monsters but there’s apparently a minimum number required that isn’t mentioned!

It also has to create a breeder and monster spawner otherwise it will keep suffering penalties!”

Rimmy blanched more than I thought he could as he started to get concerned about the situation as well.

Rimmy, “What are the side effects so far?”

I don’t really know yet but the itch to create more dungeon rooms is already creeping back in and I am concerned that it is going to be worse than before….

I make a map of my dungeon on the wall of my core room and I draw out new areas to convey my desire for expansion and Luna gets the idea.

Luna, “So far I think it’s going to make it want to expand more than before…?”

I responded with a huge lump of clay saying yes and implying a lot.

Rimmy, “Well that’s not so bad, It just means it’s going to become a bigger dungeon and there will be more space for people to make use of.”

Luna, “No, I think it may be a bit bigger problem than we might think it is, since the dungeon leveled up because of it meeting certain expansion requirements.

So if it can’t help but impulsively expanding itself then it might level up again before we can get the requirements met to avoid additional penalties.

If that wasn’t bad enough apparently locking Rita up in a cell has also effected the dungeons level up, and it’s created new positions to go with it.

Right now none of us understand what the consequences of that is but it seems our decisions have ended up affecting the direction it will level up.”

Rimmy looks darken as he realizes that they as inhabitants have been having a much greater impact on the dungeon than they thought and they might have unexpectedly already made a mistake that could have lasting consequences.

Rimmy, “I think we had better inform the others who have become inhabitants and have them help come up with solutions.”

They summoned up a meeting in the new greenhouse room for the inhabitants to discuss the situation.

The talks were held from around noon all the way into the night before it ended and there were some suggestions for things to try.

The Hunter suggested having me avoid expanding for now would be the best option for avoiding another level up before being ready.

I don’t know how much I would be able to resist as resisting requires energy and that energy seems to be getting stored outside of my access, which is giving me a sense of foreboding that I haven’t experienced before.

I will try to resist for as long as I can because I agree that continuing to level up without meeting the requirements that I am getting punished for could become increasingly damaging to me, so I have to at least try.

Luna has redoubled her promise to me as well!

She has promised not only to be my first mate when we unlock my breeder but she’s also decided to birth monsters to try meeting my quota, which we still don’t know how many I need.

I am having concerns about that and what effects it will have on Luna, because I don’t want to risk losing her since she has become increasingly more important to me as time passes.

Some of the other ideas that were presented was to try capturing some live animals and see if they could be registered as dungeon animals in hopes that they could mutate into monsters as animals sometimes do in regions where high mana levels are present.

If the animals can mutate into dungeon monsters then it could likely help me meet my quota and save Luna a lot of hardship, as apparently pregnancy and giving birth can be a difficult process which could even lead to death.

The very thought of Luna dying is unacceptable, I can’t tolerate the thought of losing her in anyway so I reject relying solely upon her for my source of dungeon monsters.

The hunters have decided to devote the next few days to capturing live prey for my sake.

I can’t help but feel indebted to them for their efforts to help me out of this situation, and I impulsively thought about improving their living spaces as a thanks.

I……Wait a minute,… what was that! I had just decided to avoid expanding so isn’t improving their living space completely contradictory to that!….. I think something is wrong here!

I try to convey what just happened, but I can’t figure out a way to let them know what’s happening!

How do you even convey that your thoughts are being influenced by your instincts!?!

Even Luna’s usually spot on guesses have failed me this time as she seems to have thought that I must be impatient and she has left to see if she can catch a live animal for me before the others.

Even in the dark of night Luna headed out with bait and traps that wouldn’t kill the captured animal!

All for my sake, Luna is going out of her way in an above and beyond fashion!

I really can’t let anything happen to Luna, she’s definitely the best inhabitant there ever was!

I……. I feel like I can’t think straight?

Whats going on?!?!

I want to make a new room just to focus on something only to realize that I fell in the trap again!

This is starting to look really bad, how long do I have to keep this up, I was already dealing with a vague itch to expand and now I’m having invasive thoughts that keep trying to trick me!

I Need Help!!!