It had been two weeks since I spawned the monsters to live in and guard the first floor. The monsters had completely adapted to the rooms and corridors. Surprisingly the sudden outbursts of arousal that I would occasionally feel had stopped occurring since the time I had added the monsters into the dungeon.


    The Basic Slimes had multiplied to about twice their original number from consuming mushrooms while the Corrosive Slimes had only increased by two to three more. These slimes live alongside each other and eat the mushrooms at the same rate, I guess the Corrosive Slimes cannot duplicate as often as the Basic Slimes due to their strong corrosive traits.


    I found that the animal type monster’s offspring mature at a very quick rate. The Horned Rabbits born a week ago had grown into adults and had migrated to another location. The new batch of Horned Rabbits had created another nest somewhere with an abundance of mushrooms. This nest was also close to the entrance.


    These rabbits now occupy most of the rooms and corridors in the early parts of the floor, I also approved of the Horned Rabbits as the first monsters that the adventurers would face in my dungeon. The ten or so rooms and corridors close to the entrance have effectively become their territory. They wander these places alone or in pairs as they guard their nests and search for food.


    The Giants Bats had an average increase in numbers and a few had moved to the places where I heightened the ceilings. The bats occupy certain points in the floor and move about to search for prey in almost all the rooms and corridors. They hunt alone when far from their nests but would attack in groups if provoked close to them. These hunt the Horned Rabbits and have skirmishes against the Giant Rats on a few occasions.


    The Giant Rats had the most population growth of the monsters. The original four pairs that created nests in the dungeon had increased to about twenty five in number. Although the offspring increased the size of the nests and they didn’t make new ones. The size threshold of my dungeon is starting to reach the limit because of all the rat tunnels they keep making. They eat mostly mushrooms but would occasionally attack Horned Rabbits that stray too deep into the dungeon.


    Because the only Giant Spider I have won’t leave the dungeon core room, I like having her company though. I had to create a few other Giant Spiders which I spawned in separate parts of the dungeon at a time. These ones created their nests in the deepest parts of the floor where the miasma gather the most and hunt mostly the Giant Rats and Bats. The Horned Rabbits were too far away from their nests to attack, which meant that the adventurers near the entrance wouldn’t have to worry about being attacked by these monsters. Adventurers moving in the middle parts of the floor would occasionally encounter a Giant Spider on the hunt if they are unlucky enough.


    If the population of one of the monster species gets too low then Sapphire is tasked with spawning original ones from mana to regulate it. And if the population grows too large I could order the Dungeon Core activate the built in mechanism in the monsters that will disintegrate the monster cores to deduce the population.


    And in these two weeks I had been continuing my routine of using miasma to strengthen myself.  The pool is now ten meters deep and a few meters wide below the surface. The tentacle like limbs that I have had gotten slightly stronger and the pool now has a small paralyzing effect on contact. But I will stop the routine for now because I am going to start altering the monsters in the dungeon.


    I won’t alter the Horned Rabbits and Slimes so the low ranked adventurers wouldn’t get surprised by altered monsters as they delve the early parts of the dungeon floor. I don’t have any plans for the Giants Bats yet and the Giant Spiders are strong as they could be for a Rank F monster and cannot be altered.


    This leaves the Giant Rats. I already had ideas on a variation of these rats when I was watching them take control of most of the floor. The Giant Rats are the most common monster in this floor so I decided to add some new types that the adventurers will fight as they move through the rooms.


    Sapphire implement the plans for the Rat variants.


    [Are you sure Master?]


    Yes, I’m positive.


    [Acknowledged]


    As I watched a screen that showed one of the rat nests, the Dungeon Core glowed brightly as it exuded out a large amount of miasma. Sheila made a few screeching noises as she was startled by it but calmed down quickly afterwards.


    The screen showed the Giant Rats being enveloped by thick miasma for a moment. The rats instinctively knew that something was going to happen and they immediately went back to their nests and started hibernating.


    Within two days the rats had woken up.


    Many of the Giant Rats stayed the same. Of course I won’t change all of them. I was just planning on creating some variety in the rats and I altered the genes that all the rats had to spawn the altered ones once in a while. Two of the Giant Rats had larger teeth than the others. It seemed this nest had the affinity for this variant for two to appear already.


    I named this variant Razorfang. These Giant Rats only had one difference to the normal ones they had larger and sharper teeth. These ones are straight forward, they hit harder than normal ones. They appear once in every fifty Giant Rats born.


    I switched the view of the screen to a different nest as the rats were coming out of it. The first one that went out of a nest was an altered Giant Rat, it was slightly small than a normal one and had faint horizontal stripes on its fur.


    These are what I designed as the Leaper variant. They are more agile and nimble than a normal Giant Rat but can’t take as many hits. Their name comes from their ability to leap at a target from a meter away. This ability is was designed as a initiation move, a Leaper will latch on to an adventurer and the rest of the Giant Rats will follow, adventurers that come across these should remember what they do from their smaller size and the stripes they have or they will likely end up in a dangerous situation. These guys appear once in every fifty Giant Rats born.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Another one came out of the nest that the Leaper came out of. This one was larger than the normal ones and looked rugged in appearance. These are called the Armored variant. Their fur had hardened and infused with soil that they are able to take more hits and are slightly resistant to magic. These act more of a tank for the rats. To compensate for its defenses they are slower and less intelligent than normal Giant Rats. These appear once about every seventy five offspring.


    I changed the view again, this time still inside a nest. One of the rats was digging fast at a tunnel. This variant is called a Burrower.


    These rats are not the combat type and their primary role is to dig tunnels that the other types will go through to use in surprise attacks. These don’t have any combat ability with claws and teeth meant for digging, but their role poses a threat to adventurers. The Burrowers will make half created tunnels to the walls and wait for adventurers to pass by before completing them, thereby blocking off the path they came from unless they kill the Giant Rats that came along with the Burrower. As the adventurers learn more about the kinds of rats this variant will surely be killed on sight because of how threatening their ability is and to compensate they appear only once out of every two hundred.


    There are three variant that didn’t appear right away. They are the Needlefur, the Shinyfinder and the Pack Rat.


    The Needlefur is the only ranged variety and is currently the only ranged monster implemented into the dungeon. From its name it is easy to guess what it uses as a ranged attack. Their furs are hardened needles and will attack from a distance while other kinds of Giant Rats charge from the front. These are easily identified due to looking like a spiky Giant Rat. They only appear once in every one hundred and fifty rats born.


    The Shinyfinder is a variant that would fixate on a shiny object and steal it if it is carried by an adventurer. This variant will be known by its shinning blue eyes. Adventurers should be wary of using their items because Shinyfinders would snatch them and run away to a tunnel and escape with it. These are rare though with a once in a three hundred chance.


    The Pack Rat is the rarest variant appearing in a one in four hundred chance and only one will exist at a time. These are like a weaker version of a normal Giant Rat except for one thing. They are smart enough that they could lead other rats in using some form of tactics. I had designed them to make full use of the Armored, Needlefur and Burrower variants. With a Pack Rat and a group of other rats, there is a good chance to take down a group of adventurers if they are inexperienced.


    But it will take some time for these to spawn and I will just have to wait.


    *             *             *


    It has almost been five months since I had been reincarnated. Because of the tunnels that the monsters keep making, the dungeon will be forced to create an entrance in a week. Luckily the first floor had already been completed and only needed an entrance.


    The Giant Rat variants hadn’t made too much of an impact on the other monsters.


    The Horned Rabbits had learned not to venture into the deeper rooms and corridors after a few had been killed by a Razorfang that spotted them. The Leapers would occasionally take down a Giant Bat but many normal Giant Rats are killed by the bats in turn. The Armored Giant Rat could only eat mushrooms because of their large size and are a favorite of the Giant Spiders to hunt.


    The Giant Spiders are still on top of the food chain, demonstrating this when a group of Giant Rats led by a Razorfang attacked a spider nest only for the entire group to be wrapped up for later consumption.


    Speaking of consumption, Sheila won’t leave the Dungeon Core room to hunt for prey. It seems to understand that it might not be able to get back here if it left. How can we deal with this then?


    [Suggestion: Termination of rogue monster.]


    Do you not like Sheila or something?


    [The presence of the rogue Giant Spider monster was not in any of the plans proposed and laid out by Dungeon Master Vorxes.]


    I like having Sheila here though. It’s good for my mental health to at least have a pet. I’ve already named her and she seems docile towards me. Where’s the problem?


    [The rogue monster refuses to go out and hunt for food and has now reached a state of starvation.]


    How can we get Sheila to hunt for food?


    [Suggestion: Allow the Core A.I., Sapphire, to make the rogue monster follow its commands and create a nest outside of the Dungeon Core room.]


    Hmn this is the first time Sapphire had been responding like this, the A.I. had felt more human to interact with over the course of these few months.


    I’ll allow you to try and convince the spider to move out.


    [Affirmative]


    I don’t know how Sapphire and Sheila were communicating but I could see that Sheila wasn’t listening to any of Sapphires commands. Although the Core A.I. had some control over the dungeon and monsters, it didn’t have any effect on the strange spider.


    Later that day, I couldn’t help but feed Sheila some miasma when I saw her writhing in hunger. She let out happy screeches when I fed her the miasma.


    [Master, please refrain from feeding the rogue monster.]


    [The success of the Core A.I., Sapphire’s attempts will lessen greatly with the inclusion of Dungeon Master Vorxes actions.]


    Sapphire suddenly said on screen. I was a bit surprised, I thought the A.I. only responded to questions or alert me in an emergency. And I don’t consider this one an emergency, really.


    [Please refrain from intrusive actions in the task the A.I. is performing.]


    Okay, okay. I understand.


    With the opening of the dungeon close at hand, I am now putting in the final touches in the first floor.


    The first on the list was the Floor Boss of the first floor. The Floor Boss will be situated in the end of a floor that will prevent any intruders from getting to the next floor, or in my case the Dungeon Core room, unless it is defeated.


    Sapphire had said that I could set a monster living in the floor to be that floors Floor Boss. The monster set as the Floor Boss will become one rank stronger and would enhance its traits. Meaning the monster in the boss room would be Rank E and would be stronger and harder to take down than when it wasn’t the Floor Boss.


    Sapphire had also suggested that we use Sheila as the Floor Boss, but it wouldn’t work because Sheila still wouldn’t leave the core room. Sheila had apparently learned how to consume the miasma as food herself and no longer listened to anything Sapphire might command.


    [Master’s actions had resulted in this outcome. By feeding the rogue Giant Spider miasma it had learned to consume the miasma autonomously and no longer needed to hunt for food. Please refrain from any impulsive actions in the future.]


    I don’t remember you being naggy when I reincarnated.


    [From the observation of the Core A.I., Sapphire, Dungeon Master Vorxes’ thought process and actions had slowly become more impulsive as time went by. As the Core A.I. of my Master’s dungeon it is my duty to protect my Master from any harm, even from himself.]


    I will keep that in mind.


    But I need to decide on what have as the Floor Boss because I will open the entrance to the dungeon very soon.


    [Suggestion: Use rogue Giant Spider as the first floors Floor Boss.]


    No, we have had this same discussion a few times already. And Sheila won’t leave the core room so even if she became the Floor Boss it would be wasting it when she is in here with the Dungeon Core. Do you have any other suggestions?


    [Processing…]


    [Suggestion:  The majority of monsters on the first floor are the Giant Rats and their variations, a Giant Rat as the Floor Boss would be a logical choice.]


    Hmn… I like the idea, some kind of Rat King as the Floor Boss of the first floor. This will also create a feeling of structure in the floor for the adventurers. I’m still planning on altering the Giant Bats a bit though, but let’s begin with the Floor Boss for now.


    I chose the Razorfang variant of the Giant Rats to be the Floor Boss of the first floor. I saw one of the Razorfangs leading a group of Giant Rats to attack a Giant Spider Nest. Although they all got killed by the Giant Spider, the way the Razorfang charged in with the other rat monsters in front looked gallant. So when the idea of a Rat King got suggested, that charging Razorfang was the first that came to my mind.


    Not a king that commanded his generals and grand armies to do his bidding, but a king that fought alongside his men bravely. I created an original Razorfang from miasma inside the room that will become the boss room.


    Sapphire turn this one into the Floor Boss.


    [Are you certain Master?]


    Yes, I am certain.


    [Acknowledged]


    The Razorfang began to glow and then grow in size. After a few moments the glow disappeared and the rat monster had turned into the Floor Boss as the Rat King. It gave a howl that reverberated across the dungeon signaling its arrival.


    It was twice its original size and its fangs were visibly sharper. The claws on its feet were also longer and the muscles on its legs were thicker making it quick even with such a large body. The fur it had was as thick as those of the Armored variants and a bit more resistant to magic as well. Although it wasn’t tanky for a Floor Boss it made up for in its attack power and speed. But this isn’t where its main strength lies.


    After a while about a dozen Giant Rats came into the boss room and bowed before the Rat King. There was an Armored variant and a Razorfang while the rest were normal Giant Rats. These will be the Rat Kings royal guards. The Rat King is weak for a Floor Boss but it has a group of other rat monsters to protect it. They look majestic for a bunch of rat monsters.


    The adventurers will need to overcome a group of monsters with a strong capable leader before they can get deeper into the dungeon. Of course strong adventurers could probably solo the entire group but this isn’t meant for those people. This will be a test for the low ranked adventurers’ teamwork, and a contest of leadership.


    Of course the final guardian of the Dungeon Core is me, a special rank E monster disguised as a pool of water. I will count in Sheila too.


    The next thing on the list is the rewards the dungeon will give.