Apinsig
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Chapter 323 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”
🕑 Added 2025-04-14 16:06:08 +0000 UTCPov Dungeon Core
The next solar system I was going to steal was not the next closest one. The reason was quite simple: that sun was bigger than the one I stole, and I had no confidence in actually being able to teleport it into one of my floors. The trip wouldn't be too much longer, only about 6 months, but that sun was smaller, which means that we shouldn't have a problem taking it.
Once again, I started to accelerate, leaving the area a solar system used to be in. Sometimes I questioned if what I was doing was the correct thing to do, but it wasn’t like I was destroying the solar system—it was just relocated.
It was also incredibly satisfying to just move around. Honestly, I thought that I would hate moving about because dungeons were usually creatures that didn't move at all. We only expanded from our original location. But I really liked moving about.
It was time to expand the 99th floor. It was going to be smaller than the 100th, but not by too much, and the size difference between the two wouldn’t matter for my purposes. When I finally had my ten solar systems, we would need to find a good location to hide, and then we would have a lot of work to do.
Not only would we need to make my dungeon—the huge ball I currently was—a lot bigger, I would also be expanding all of the floors I currently had. I think that would be a nice surprise for everyone, but it would also then be time to continue advancing and getting myself new floors.
The next solar system should fix my problems of losing mana, which means that I would have an unlimited amount of range. Because of that, I’ve asked my scientists to find interesting solar systems, because what would be the fun of taking ten similar solar systems if there was so much variation out here?
The adventurers and creatures continued to live their lives with barely anything changed from the time when we were still on our home world. The biggest change that barely any of them noticed was that they were no longer connected to their home world.
Turns out we dungeons have a curious property. I have always been upkeeping my creatures to a certain degree, with the world helping just a bit. Well, now I needed to upkeep everything—even the adventurers.
It was similar to what happened to Rafe—the world rejected him because he grew too strong for that world. This time the reasoning was different. We dungeons have absolute control inside our territories—well, that wasn't entirely true, but it was close enough, and in our floors, that was certainly true.
These people are so far away from their world that my influence eroded that connection that otherwise would have remained firm no matter how far they went. And now I’m upkeeping everyone fully.
Surprisingly, it didn't change too much thanks to the solar system I already had, but if I didn’t have that, things could’ve gotten a bit dicey. It was a good thing that the disconnection was complete, otherwise I was unsure if there was a way we could be found even if I was hiding. But now I was certain there would be no way anyone could actually track me down.
When we reached the solar system, it was quite similar to the last one, but it was a bit bigger, with one gas and one rocky planet more than the last one. The sun was smaller, which means that I wouldn’t be struggling and needing the support of my adventurers and creatures. Of course, there are now a lot more monsters that could help with that task, so even if the sun was bigger, I would no longer need their help for this.
The biggest surprise in the solar system up to this point was on one of the moons of the closest gas giant to the sun. There was actually life here—and I’m not talking about small patterns; there have been those already on many moons and a few planets.
No, there were complex forms of plant life. Perhaps ‘complex’ was the wrong word to say—they were incredibly simple compared to the ones from my home world, but it was the beginning, and it was so amazing to see that.
Unfortunately, if the environment didn't change on that moon, those would be the most complex life that was going to develop there. But now that this moon was on the 99th floor—well, I could make those changes and see what happened.
In fact, I would need to do quite little. Its environment was already going to be changed, because the gas giant would be closer to the sun, which means that the moon would get more heat, which would change the environment to be more suitable for life.
Still, I think I would give it a little bit more of a kick in the right direction. Unfortunately, as time continued to pass, the rest of the planets and moons that were now in my dungeon were not as interesting.
Just before I got ready to start teleporting the solar system's sun, we got a huge surprise. I could see a faint glow of a diamond-ranked celestial core. So it happened faster than I thought. It seems that my home world was advancing.
That would mean that it could support me if I wanted to return, but I didn’t. It took me a month to finish and teleport the sun into the 99th floor, and then I felt it. No longer was I losing mana from my core—instead, I started to gain it once again.
Yes, I would definitely not be returning. It was just so much more interesting to move about. I lingered for a bit until we located an interesting solar system, and then I started to accelerate towards that.
Pov Leader of the Beasts
After we watched ETG fly into the sky and then out of the solar system, we understood that we needed to do something fast. We had this feeling of urgency—I do not know why—but it was certainly made worse when we saw a star disappear from the night sky.
I do not know what it was doing exactly, but if it could steal stars, what could stop it from coming back here and taking our entire solar system into one of its floors, if that’s what it was doing.
No, we needed to be stronger, and because of that, all of our efforts went into relocating everyone from the entire planet and other dungeons into this one—and it finally paid off. This dungeon was able to advance at a rapid pace, and just a few minutes ago, the dungeon finally reached the end and triggered the making. We chose the most honorable of us to make the wish.
The wish was a simple one—it was to fix the dungeons themselves so they would once again have no contract but a bonded person, like it used to be, alongside its guardian. Hopefully, to that wish, we can also add that every dungeon would know more from the very beginning. Because obviously, controlling them the way we did before was a recipe for disaster, and of course, it limited the development of the dungeons quite a bit.
Now that we knew that the next rank was not the limit, we needed to also prepare for what’s to come after this making. This making should also be a lot less violent, but I didn’t think it would be as peaceful as we hoped. That’s why basically everyone was brought here.
It didn't take long for me to start hearing the sound of cracks and crashing. So the making had now properly started.
I have experienced this twice before, but this time it was gentler somehow. While I could still feel the earthquakes, even a normal human could stand here, unlike before.
Beside me were the very strongest, and one of them was actually at the next rank. He did so just recently to test things out. He was no longer connected to the world.
None of us could sense anything when he was disconnected. So, the thoughts of some that ETG might still be diamond rank were crushed utterly. The only difference we could see of our friend was that he had a green glow, but the way he described losing mana was disturbing. If things didn't change, he would be dead in a couple of months.
Night turned into day quite fast, and the shaking continued. All of us who were strong enough to be out here, knowing that nothing could hurt us, continued to spend our time watching the world around us change.
We could not see the changes directly because they were happening far away, but our diamond-rank senses could tell a lot of things. It seemed that continents were moving about, and I’m pretty sure a few new ones were being made.
The speed of it was mind-boggling. It had only been a week, yet I was pretty sure our world was now nearly twice as big as before.
Three weeks in, and the one of us who was ranked above us was able to reconnect with the world’s will and be supported by it. All of us wanted to immediately advance, as some of us had been ready to take the next step for a few thousand years. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it right now, as we all wanted to wait for the making to end.
It was one of the cruelest years I have experienced. The making took a lot longer than expected—a bit over a year. During this time, a lot happened. The world grew much bigger than we expected. We could feel monsters stronger than diamond-ranked on this world, along with quite a lot of diamond ranks. Another sun also disappeared from the night sky. That was simply terrifying.
But now it was finally over. The dungeon underneath us was dead, and all of its floors will crumble in the following decades, so it was time to start rebuilding the surface world so we could bring civilization back.
But before that, there were nearly 100 diamond ranks, including me, waiting to finally be able to take the next step—and so many more diamond ranks waiting to go out there and start fighting the stronger monsters so they could also advance.
Comments
Apinsig
No he would not have gotten his next specialization in fact non of the ones he had would be active any more
brennon Petersen
Out of curiosity would ETG have gotten his Dimond ability specialization if he had fused with the planet and if so would that have looked liked a massively increase to landmass more than what his floors would suggest or would it take the form of a continously expanding planet?
Brudog2
Can’t wait for them to stumble upon someone while stealing stars, will make for a funny conversation
