Even Matthias was a bit surprised by the passives he had chosen. The first was [No Time to Explain]. It caused his monsters to reach maturity 75% faster. It cost him two passive slots, and he had earned it after 1,000 of his minions had died. The second was simply called [Fertility]. It increased all stats pertaining to the fertility of his monsters by 50%. He earned this one after 1,000 births in his dungeon. He had no idea why this passive only cost one point, but he was not going to argue.

  He chose these because it was not mutation rate he wanted, but generational adaptation. He wanted natural selection. He was building for inevitability, not luck.

  Given these passives, he supposed he should not have been surprised when his insect populations exploded. Spiders had only been in his dungeon for a week, and already he was contemplating moving them down a floor.

  Speaking of floors, he had been putting serious work into his second floor. He had vastly expanded the fungal forest and was beginning to let some of his chimeric beasts populate the area. All in all, he was very happy with the alien feeling the floor had taken on. Antionette was training her troops against the ever-multiplying creatures of the second floor while he took a personal interest in renovation.

  Steve was still sitting in the gazebo, despite Matthias having placed a new lesser hydra boss nearby. He had not named this one, and it did not seem to have the same level of intelligence. That fact alone made his heart twinge with lingering regret.

  Steve, on the other hand, was even more upset. Matthias was unsure why, but the pangolin seemed to be spending a lot of time in meditation. He used his bulk to block the way further down, as if keeping an eye out for something Matthias was neglecting.

  The next surprise was slimes. They took to the swamp with gusto. Within a single day, there were already twelve variants.

  "Matthias, you need to take a break," Lucy called out. "It has been three days since you and the guild master last talked. You need to take a breather before the new delvers get here."

  "She is right," Chloe chimed in. "Nothing causes more chaos than people who have no idea what they are doing."

  That caused an idea to buzz in the back of Matthias’s mind. He pinged one of the goblin villages and gave them orders to move. Only then did he turn his attention to his fairies.

  "But I need to speed up, not slow down," he argued. "There is an endless amount of work to do."

  "Matthias, your core has not grown in days," Lucy scolded him. "You are spending too fast. Don’t make us do a financial review of your dungeon," she threatened.

  "Heaven does not have those kinds of taxes," he called her bluff.

  "But demons do," Chloe added. "It is one of those things sapient creatures created that we demons thought was a really good idea. It helps cleanly centralize power."

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  "You wouldn’t," he began.

  "Matthias, cores grow by accumulating mana," Chloe interrupted. "You probably could have broken through to the next rarity if you had just let your mana grow. I know you have hit the limit of how far your influence can spread. I have been keeping a close eye on that. The fact that you have all that land but your core is not growing means you are spending like you are in panic mode."

  "You are not mortal anymore," Lucy reminded him. "You are functioning on immortal timescales. The only thing that can threaten a dungeon core is another dungeon core. Mortals cannot actually harm one. And if issues arise with other dungeons, there are systems in place to warn you. You will have time. You need to slow down. You cannot micromanage every detail."

  "But if I can—" he tried.

  "No," Lucy cut in. "Matthias, a guild team of elites could not even fully penetrate your swamp. That fungal forest is possibly the most terrifying thing I have ever seen."

  "Same," Chloe agreed. "And I have seen the Hells. Matthias, you need to slow down, because it has become obvious to us that there are things you do not understand. Let us actually do our jobs and explain everything. I know you like to discover things on your own, but what you do not know will soon begin to cause you problems."

  "Like what?" he asked, finally devoting his full attention to them.

  "That there is a limited but steady flow of adventurers," Lucy began. "That nearly every dungeon is so old that it becomes a death trap for anyone below a certain level."

  "And you can already bury some of those people in sheer numbers," Chloe added.

  "My point," Lucy continued, "is that when adventurers stop going to other dungeons, those dungeons will notice. That is why choosing a side is important. It means that other dungeons in that faction can cover for you while you stabilize. You do not have the power to rival some of the older forces. You really do need to choose a side."

  "So if I do not, the other dungeons will try to take from me what they think they deserve?" he asked.

  "They will try to take everything," Chloe replied. "Dungeons have been at war for a very long time. There are entire skill sets you cannot even begin to experiment with until higher rarity, simply because of how much mana they require. Enchanting, for example. Some dungeons can create pylons to remotely spread their influence. In a battle of influence, density matters just as much as rarity. Older dungeons have far denser influence, and they can simply push yours aside."

  Matthias thought deeply about that before asking, "And how do I improve my influence?"

  "Refinement and age," Lucy answered. "It will naturally thicken as you grow older, but you can also process your influence more to achieve similar results. From my training, having your influence ripped into feels like something is taking bites out of you."

  Matthias’s core began to rotate faster as he thought. He set aside a thread of his mind to begin further processing his influence. He had a few ideas about how to close that gap, but nothing he could yet be sure of.

  "So you both have general knowledge, but nothing specific?" he asked.

  "I was trained in the oldest dungeon of the Celestial faction," Lucy admitted. "The influence there was so strong that any mortal below level one hundred—or an equivalent—cannot even breathe the air. They drown on dry land."

  "The oldest Infernal dungeon is the same," Chloe added.

  "And if I remember correctly," Matthias said, "each dungeon also has an apex species. A trump card. A signature monster that only they can produce."

  A pulse rippled through the dungeon as something ignited within Matthias—a pulse like the beating of a heart. Like the heart of a beast far larger than his fairies could ever truly comprehend.

  "I will save mana for now," he decided. "I will need it for what I have planned. If I truly have as long as you claim, then I may have a response to all of that."

  "What was that pulse?" Lucy asked, eyes wide.

  "That would be telling," he teased, just to see her cheeks puff out in a pout.