I began to absorbed everything in the tunnel. Glowing Stool, a species of mushroom that lives in caves. Poisonous and deadly if ingested.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Blue Glowing Stool(Common)

  Without needing light itself, this mushroom has become bioluminescent to attract those that would carry its spores, spreading far and wide with even a single sprout.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Red Glowing Stool(Common)

  Without needing light itself, this mushroom has become bioluminescent........

  New Schema Unlocked

  White Glowing Stool(Common)

  Without needing light itself, this mushroom has become bioluminescent........

  New Schema Unlocked

  Silver Glowing Stool(Common)

  Without needing light itself, this mushroom has become bioluminescent.......

  New Schema Unlocked

  Limestone(Common)

  Limestone is a sedimentary rock, primarily composed of calcium carbonate. It's often formed from the remains of marine organisms, such as shells and coral.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Cave Moss(Common)

  Cave moss is a type of moss that thrives in the dimly lit and humid environment of caves. These mosses often have adaptations to survive in low light conditions.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Black Algae(Uncommon)

  A rare species of algaes that has adapted to live in caves. It doesn't needs sunlight and merely survives on water.

  The lizard was sleeping, obviously tired from the journey. I was not for I was a dungeon core. I absorbed everything I could in the cave, filling my mana.

  I planted some glowing stools, mosses and algae back as well as some grass and a thornberry shrub. The room was filled with my mana. Even though these were plants that couldn't live in this environment, they could last until they adapted.

  Then I began to dig. I want to lengthen the tunnel more. Twisting and turning, I began to carve the tunnel. I absorbed the soil and rocks, gathering what little mana they could give me. By the time, the lizard woke up I had carved a tunnel that was a thousand feet long. The path I took was opposite of the cave system, so there was little risk of digging into another cave.

  One of your creature, a thornberry bush is about to undergo evolution. Select the desired path.

  Dungeon Thornberry(Common): Adapting to the darkness, this thornberry has traded it's need for sunlight and has became dependent on ambient mana for survival. Still it gathers most of its nutrients from water and soil.

  One of your creatures, meadow grass, is about to undergo evolution. Select a desired path.

  Black Grass(Common): Learning from the black algae, this meadow grass had shed its need for sunlight and turned towards water and soil for nutrients.

  There was nothing to choose. This was less an evolution and more of an adaptation, put forward by my mana.

  The plant shudder and began to glow dimly. I stared at it but nothing happened. The dim light hid away the features of the plant. Evolution takes its time I suppose.

  Before long, my lizard returned again. While I was observing the evolution, he had gone out of the tunnel. Something was caught in its mouth. He put it down before me.

  A small fish. Black and tiny.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Cave minnow(Common)

  A specie of minnows that lives in underground rivers. Feeds on underground plants.

  Ah.... This will come in handy. I remember seeing water running in the cave. So there was such things living there.

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  Thank you. I said through our connection. I felt a sense of pride coming from the lizard. He was getting more intelligent day by day.

  I planted cave moss and glowing stools in the tunnel. The algae had to wait as the tunnel was not big enough to have flowing water. It was only two feet wide and three feet high, smaller than our tunnel, which was five feet wide and eight feet high.

  As for the evolving two, I didn't had the schemas.

  Hundred cave moss and twenty glowing stools cost me 9 mana. I still had thirty mana left. It was time to dig again.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Copper(Common)

  Copper is a reddish-brown metal with high electrical and thermal conductivity. It's malleable, ductile, and easily shaped

  New Schema Unlocked

  Quartz(Common)

  Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silicon and oxygen, often found in sand, beaches, and rocks.

  I found two new schemas. They were oh not so important schemas for now. I was digging underground so it was fair that I was gonna find some minerals.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Clay(Common)

  Clay is a soft, fine-grained material formed through the weathering of rocks, especially feldspar, and is a major constituent of soils and sedimentary rock.

  Okay. Let's move on.

  My plan was to make a large endless single room floor. It was gonna be the starting floor. This will be where the challenge will be the lowest in terms of danger but in terms of exhaustion. Nah.

  I am a dungeon core. Why am I making a low difficulty floor? That question does bug me but I also knows the answer.

  Dungeon that has no delvers cannot grow strong. They become stagnant, no matter how much creatures or floors they have. Such stagnant dungeon in times weaken and when powerful delvers arrive, they are taken down in one swoop.

  I don't want to become that. Moreover, I have a reason. I have to take revenge not against one person but many and they are all powerful and influential people. For that, I need strength. And to grow strong, I need to welcome delvers, whether I like it or not. This was decided when I accepted myself becoming a dungeon core.

  2500x2500 feet floor with a height of fifteen feet, supported by large pillars, which will in turn divide the floors into rooms. It will considerably take some time to achieve but in the end, it will be worth it.

  Life was peaceful as I spent digging my first floor, carving and shaving away the soil and rock, shaping the floor with my mana.

  The next day, my lizard bought me another schema.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Cave Orbweaver(Common)

  This spiders are photophobic and live in places free from light, frequently in caves and tunnels, though they can sometimes be seen outside of caves and mines as they will emerge around dusk to hunt, often using a single silk lasso line and swinging down upon their prey.

  As big as an adult human thumb with eight spindly legs and black with red and white stripe. Spiders were one of the most common danger in dungeon, ranging from tiny but highly venomous species to gargantuan giants. But they had to wait. There was no prey so far.

  Not even five percent of the floor was done. I had low mana storage. The mana gathered from the soil was the one that was leading mana exhaustion.

  The dungeon thornberry and black grass had also evolved. It took half a day for them to evolve.

  The black grass as the name implies did not change much except it's color. Dungeon Thornberry on the other hand look utterly different. It no longer had green stems nor leaves. It had dark red stems with thorns all around it. Its fruits was still red though.

  I took their schemas. I planted five nodes of thornberries in the excavated first floor and a hundred of black grass in the tunnels and floor.

  Two days later, I decided to introduce the insects: bush crickets and green grasshoppers as well as cave slugs and snail species that I had schemas of. These had not been brought by my lizard but entered the dungeon on their own, attracted by the plants growing around. None of them costed much.

  I introduced these species because the plants were taking over the tunnel, especially the cave moss and black grass.

  Go forth and multiply. I commanded them. I always wanted to say that. It was from the holy scriptures. This was what the Creator God said to all creatures.

  On the seventh day of my life as a dungeon core and six since I started creating the dungeon, I decided to introduce the Orbweavers as well as the rats and toads. I was done with a quarter of the first floor.

  The dungeon was now full of plant eating insects and the plant was threatened. This will create an imbalance in the ecosystem.

  Twelve Cave Orbweavers, five pairs of forest rats and six grass toads.

  I put the creatures far from each other, in pair of sexes except for the toads, who were hermaphrodites.

  The Orbweavers started to weave extricate webs; The grass toads hid themselves among grass, their brownish coat making them look like rocks; The forest rats began to dig burrows to hid themselves.

  It was a wonderful life.

  The lizard slept while not hunting. It had brought me several fishes, which had helped in recharging my mana. Most of the time it was minnow but I did get two new schemas.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Blind Perch(Common)

  This specie of perch have lost their eyesight, likely to conserve energy, and instead have developed highly sensitive lateral line systems on the sides of their bodies to sense tremors in the water.

  New Schema Unlocked

  Banded Tetra(Common)

  The Banded tetra is a small, schooling fish. Banded tetras are omnivores, feeding on a variety of aquatic plants, insects, and small fish. They are typically found in a range of habitats, including rivers, lakes, and ponds.

  I wanted to create an interlink canal with the underground river but it was not feasible right now. First let me complete atleast half of the first floor.

  On the tenth day, I had my first interloper.