Twenty hours later, I was starting to understand them a bit, but I was getting really tired of it.
In two hours, they would have been in the dungeon for exactly one day, and during that time, they had made significant progress. They had the beginnings of a town and had even defeated a powerful creature.
...
They were talking again, and by now, I could grasp individual sentence components.
"Have you... adapted… to … pressure?" the oldest lizard asked.
"Not entirely, it's possible... to reach… limit!" a relatively broad lizard replied.
"Oh, I completely forgot about that!" I exclaimed.
Because the [Space-Hardened Stone] doubles gravity, or at least that's what I think it does.
"Hmm..., and the limit, probably the maximum possible at a certain level?"
That would explain why my creatures are so strong. Even if they're a hundred years old, it takes time to build up their status points, and one point can make a big difference. The double strength has allowed them to accumulate more power.
"That's why the panther killed so many well-trained soldiers," I pondered, "because the lizard people had additional challenges, even with a handicap."
Although I suspected that many were at level one, I thought that some might already be at level two, if not three. They weren't sent on this mission without a reason.
I continued to listen to the lizard people and noticed once again that I was learning faster than usual.
I had to admit that I wasn't too dumb in my youth; after all, I didn't become an astronaut for no reason.
But understanding a language, even in fragments, in just 20 hours was unusual.
"What's the reason for this?" I wondered but couldn't come up with an answer.
Gradually, my interest waned, and I returned to the control room, which was as dull and white as ever. The only things in the room were me (Core) and two notebooks lying nearby.
"I can't take this much longer!" I exclaimed. "This is practically my head!"
That's why I wanted to make an effort to create a sense of home within me. Even though the room wasn't large (100x100x40 meters), I wanted to create a feeling of spaciousness.
First, I sketched out roughly what I had in mind. I may not be a garden architect, but I had enough time and imagination to do it right.
What I wanted was a small house in the middle, with large windows that could be opened. I wanted lots of greenery, a small path out of stone, a lake, and a seating area with outdoor sofas.
I went to the Core, placed my spiritual hand on it, and accessed the building menu.
First and foremost, I needed suitable materials, which I wanted to select carefully since I now had access to different or better materials, giving me more options.
But first, I needed to lay the foundation and quickly found a suitable bedrock.
[Chronit-Bedrock] had the ability to stabilize time and influence plants in its immediate vicinity. These plants could maintain a certain state for a long time if they wished.
"Does that mean they can continuously bloom or bear fruit, for example?" I wondered.
I immediately placed a 12-meter-thick layer, and I watched as a slightly silvery-brown layer of stone covered the ground, shimmering in the room's white light, which now looked completely different.
I excavated a spot, as there would be a small lake and a little stream later. I spent some time finding suitable materials for the control room.
Two or three hours passed, and I was finally relatively satisfied.
My [EC] was now almost completely replenished, and I could put my full effort into this.
------
[Status]
Name: -
Age: 0 years, 0 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 2 hours
Species: Dungeon Core
Level: 3/4
Exp: 36,273/40,000
EC: 369/450
----------
For the earth layers, I chose almost the same as on the first floor, but the humus was slightly different, and the other two layers had the same abilities, only stronger.
---
1. Humus -> [Timeless Humus]
2. Topsoil -> [Space-Time Topsoil]
3. Weathered rock fragments -> [Space-Time Weathered Rock Fragments]
---
I was about to place them when I felt that intrusive sensation again, just like the first time.
[Intruders detected]
"Oh, more of them?" I asked myself. "Probably another army!" I joked and teleported to the first floor.
The entrance in the forest of the [Big Spring Trees] lit up.
"What a coincidence!" I said in astonishment because it was the forest near the lizard people.
I flew to the center of the forest, the [Big Spring Tree], and observed as a circle lit up at the lakeside.
The first thing I thought was, "Not again." What I saw were silver suits of armor!
There were a hundred soldiers and four horse-drawn carriages entering the first floor. They looked around and seemed to be waiting for the entrance light to extinguish.
Then they started talking.
"Oh, that sounds like the lizard people's language!" I said, pulled out a notebook, and wrote down words I understood.
The system seemed to be the same, but the translated words that came out were in English!
"Hmm, do the two races understand each other?" I wondered, but I couldn't continue that thought.
Two surprising things happened at once, and I didn't know what to focus on.
First, I felt and saw it again.
[Intruders detected]
Second, I saw a man in white robes and adorned with gold jewelry stepping out of a carriage.
Without the helmet, I could tell that these were humans, but that wasn't important for now.
I watched the older man kneel and pray.
I only understood individual words like "Manara" or "Redemption," while the rest were small words like "we," "the," and so on. I didn't understand a lot of the longer words.
I had to say, small words worked quite well.
Nevertheless, I saw him rise again, and there it was again.
From among the soldiers, I heard a mysterious murmuring.
The eyes of 30 soldiers glowed slightly green, and a red ball formed in the air.
"Fire!" I said. After a moment of realization, I had a thought.
"No... DON'T DO THAT!" I shouted, but the people didn't hear me.
The 30 soldiers randomly launched the fireballs into the forest, which quickly caught fire.
Then another and another.
Each mage threw 20 fireballs the size of basketballs into the forest, which soon blazed.
The mages seemed to have run out of mana as they stopped and panted.
"Why are they doing this...?" I asked in disbelief.
I floated there, with my mouth and eyes wide open, in the air, watching the forest burn.
Behind the hundred intruders, there was a lake into which they fled, but the animals didn't, so they ran out of the forest.
About 400 animals like rabbits, wild boars, and even a few deer ran toward safety, straight into the lizard people's city.
I followed the herd of animals and heard bells ringing in the city. Even though the animals were safe, they ran senselessly out of fear.
[Intruders detected]
They kept running back towards the city wall, and I could already see some archers nocking their bows.
The situation was escalating as the panicked animals rushed toward the city walls without a clear direction.
In the city itself, the residents began seeking safety. Some barricaded themselves in their houses or tents, while others went to the walls to prepare for defense.
The city bells continued to ring alarm, and the lizard people were ready to defend their city against any threat.
A cloud of smoke slowly drifted toward the city.
The archers released their arrows, which flew rapidly toward the herd. However, very few arrows hit their targets. Not because the archers were poor shots, but what I saw made me chuckle.
Despite their fear, most of the animals used their magical abilities to evade the arrows.
This didn't improve the situation, as they charged towards the city gates, which had been completed through the hill.
*BOOM*
*Crack*
It sounded as they collided with the gate, which was made of stone, and after the 300th animal, it toppled over.
Fortunately, behind the gate were the army with shield bearers at the front.
[Intruders detected]
After the massive stone gate gave way under the assault of the magical creatures, chaos briefly ensued.
The lizard people's army was ready to confront the threat, but it turned out that the animals had regained their senses after the hard collision.
Some of the lizard people recognized the sudden change in the animals' behavior and acted quickly.
Instead of continuing to see them as a threat, they tried to de-escalate the situation. Some brave lizard people cautiously approached the animals and attempted to communicate with them.
It turned out that the animals had panicked and rushed towards the city without bad intentions.
After calming them down and seeing them collapse from exhaustion, I understood that some of the lizard people explained they wanted to capture the animals to breed them.
"Not a bad idea," I said with relief.
While the small group of lizard people tried to capture the animals, I saw the commanders on the wall having a discussion.
I flew closer and saw them looking towards the burning forest with serious expressions.
"I... humans... Iron... are here," one of the commanders, who appeared to have the highest authority, said.
He seemed to be the decision-maker. It is the same from the start.
The other one simply nodded, and the senior lizard commander assembled an army.
[Intruders detected]
"More of them?" I asked with slight annoyance because I could see on the map that they were setting fires as well. On all four entrances!
A short while later, I felt it again.
[Intruders detected]
On the beach, I saw soldiers entering the first floor again, but this time not a hundred, but thousands.
"Oh no..." I said in fear.
It didn't stop; more and more were coming, and there were four other areas on fire already.
"What can I do?" I cried out. "What?"
I was desperate because I couldn't intervene in the events unfolding.
600,000 soldiers, and there was no end in sight.
100,000 more, and then another 100,000 carriages.
I could curse if I hadn't lost the words.
"800,000... and a few more."
I felt powerless, my creation, my home, ME, was being destroyed!
"It's like back then... I could only watch her fall, but I was out of reach."
„Was it the humans who are the real conquerors and my enemies?"
"But... WHY?"
In my bewilderment, I could only repeat myself while the grassy fields in front of me became increasingly ablaze.
I couldn't bear to watch any longer, so I flew to the city.
During my flight, I saw smoke rising from all directions, in front of me, behind me, and to the left, but not to the right, as the sea was there.
I got closer and saw that the lizard people had sent a reconnaissance team to the forest.
However, they couldn't enter the burning forest. They returned and came back with an army of soldiers and mages.
The small army stood perplexed before the blazing forest. Their iron armor gleamed red-orange in the light of the firefall.
I heard mysterious murmurs, and small rain clouds formed above the trees at the edge, but they were only a few dozen using magic.
The flames were already too high and hot for them, causing the rain to simply evaporate and be of no use.
"That's it!"
Nonetheless, the rain gave me an idea that I immediately wanted to put into action.
Because on the map, I saw that more and more areas were being destroyed by the fire.
The army was also retreating because the situation wasn't changing despite repeated attempts.
The army was getting closer to death with each passing minute, as smoke enveloped them, and the fire gradually spread more to the grass.
Upon arriving at the city, I saw that the smoke had come to a halt. This was due to the wind blowing from the sea into the bay.
This created a "protective shield," causing the smoke to dissipate just before reaching the city.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the hills were blocking the wind, allowing it first to be carried towards the city.