Chapter 11

John was too worried that if he lost his focus, he might lose control over the mana and lose this opportunity to corrupt the snake. In fact he didn't want to be distracted anymore so he purposely shut his mind to whatever is happening with his golems and just focused on stuffing more of his mana into the snake. After what seems like a long time but was actually not that long, the snake's movements became more and more erratic before finally collapsing into a twitching mess of muscle that rolled about randomly. It was only at this point that John finally relaxed, a overwhelming tiredness overtook him and he went to sleep almost instantly. John woke with a panic start. Wheres the snake! He then felt a big relief on seeing the snake still unconscious in front of him. The team of golems were also still stupidly holding on to the snake and awaiting new orders from him. Sigh! Such are the limitations of having dumb golems. The snake was still alive, it was breathing and appear to be in a deep sleep.... Or more likely a deep coma from all that dungeon mana injection. The snake was transforming, like the boar corpse but with major differences because its still alive. The dungeon mana coursing through its body was corrupting all its natural functions and forcibly making it a dungeon creature. Its soul remains untainted by the dungeon corruption and still fighting against John but its body was already destined to be bounded and compelled to obey. All this changes will take time, right now the snake was still in the early stage of transformation and still in deep coma. John ordered the golems to bring the snake to the third floor and keep it in a fake shop. He also got his golems to gather some magic soil for burial in the mass golem grave and keep working on the almost completed 6th floor. In the meantime he created more golems to increase his minion army. Time passed and the 6th floor was finally ready, John originally planned for a peaceful trading dungeon but since his fate seems to be leaning more towards a path of violence and bloody murder, then so be it. The 6th floor only had 1 staircase on the extreme right for access and can be easily defended against intruders. John also made the distance between the 5th and 6th floor wider so as to make it harder for enemies from tunnelling through. The entire 6th floor was currently empty and filled with golem poop. It was divided into 3 large sections seperated by thick walls and connected by only a single doorway between each section, with the staircase to the 7th floor on the extreme left. John had thought of putting fortifications behind each doorway but his golems fought with their hands, making fortifications will backfire against him if enemies using spears or other long range weapons can hide behind his fortifications while his golems obviously can't reach them with their hands. So the best strategy for his golems is to have empty space where the enemy cannot find cover.

His plans for the 7th to 10th floors were all the same, large empty rooms seperated into 3 sections, with the staircase between floors on the extreme opposite ends of each other, making a zig zag pattern. Originally he was going to wait until the 10th floor was completed before moving his crystal again but now he felt it was better to move earlier. John got his golems to carry his crystal body down to the 6th floor and place him near the stair case to the 7th floor. His new personal room was much more spacious then his previous room and this gave him a refreshing feeling of freedom. He stationed his 2 female bodyguards at the doorway and the 3 smarter golems near his crystal. The rest of his golems were either reinforcing the 6th floor with runes or excavating the new 7th floor. After settling into his new crystal room, John switched view to check on the corrupted boar corpse, he was sure there should be obvious changes by now. Suddenly he felt the presence of living beings around his dungeon entrance, strange, he didn't have any lure spells active ?. John switched view and stared at the ceiling opening. A rope ladder swished down from above and a green head popped out to survey the area, the goblins are back ! John stared at this goblin and realised its facial features were really ugly, like a misshapen creature, there was nothing even remotely elegant or beautiful about its face. imagine a person dipped into acid, or a candle melting, its face was something like that. The goblin cautiously climbed down the rope ladder with a dimly glowing stone hanged around his neck. After making sure there was no enemies nearby, he shook the ladder 3 times and another goblin came down, then another until there was 6 goblins, all with dimly glowing stons around their neck. John then suddenly realised that his dungeon was dark, but somehow he could always see fine. The goblins gathered around the rope ladder, looking like a bunch of skinny 14 year olds whispering away in some unknown language. A goblin bent down to grab a fist full of magic sands, the remains of his golems squeezed to death by the snake. The goblin seem excited about this sand but the others weren't too keen and distanced themselves from him, leaving him behind with another reluctant goblin to assist him in gathering the magic soil. Soon the others split into 2 pairs and went their seperate ways. A pair of goblins entered the nearby shops, carefully searching the place for anything useful while trying to keep as quiet as possible. The other pair of goblins continued to cautiously explore the first floor. John was feeling excited, goblins!. He sent an order to his golems, sending 20 quietly to the 5th floor and keeping 17 to defend himself. He was going to try to capture some goblins for himself.

The pair of goblins exploring the shops didn't find anything useful and left disappointed, the goblin gathering the magic soil was still excited and trying to get his companion help him carry more soil while the last pair of goblins seem to have smelled something good as they excitedly crept downstairs to the 2nd floor. John had a feeling he knew what excited them and he was right. The goblins made a beeline for the room with the corpses, this gave John a sense of deja vu, didn't those rabbits do the same. The room was unguarded and the goblins quickly entered the room with gleeful expressions on their ugly faces. They pounced on the nearest dead body, the mid size herbivore John killed awhile ago and started intensely sniffing and smelling it all over. After being satisfied with the smell, they took a little taste to test if its edible. Afew seconds passed and they didn't die or feel pain, to the goblins this was good enough and they started taking big mouthfuls of the pale bloodless flesh. Damn!, They really look revolting even when happy. In truth John was thinking of capturing afew goblins to work in his dungeon but right now, looking at their disgusting faces, John was starting to hesitate. Did he really want such minions around his beautiful and aesthetic dungeon? He sent another order to the 20 golems waiting in the 5th floor, quickly come up and kill or capture all the goblins. The golems however responded with confusion, they could not understand even slightly complicated orders like kill or capture, to the simple minded golems its either kill or capture. John felt a slight frustration at his golems, sigh. Ok fine kill them all and hopefully some of you will get smarter !. The dumb golems shambled up the stairs, alerting the goblins by the time they reached the third floor. The goblins eating the corpses were the first to react, they each carried a corpse and ran for the rope ladder, the other pair of goblin saw them running and immediately turned tail as well. The fastest to run was the pair of goblins picking up magical soil, they simply scurried up the rope ladder without waiting for their comrades. In a short while the goblins and the rope ladder were gone, leaving John kinda disappointed as he was anticipating an exciting fight, with the goblins being beaten down and squeezing out their life energy and souls. Oh well, whatever. They stole 2 useless corpse and distracted him for awhile, at least now he knows how ugly goblins are. John left 10 golems to hide near the entrance in case the goblins came back and sent the rest back to work. This encounter with the goblins got John to start thinking about having more security. In the past animals only came whenever he casted the lure spell but now goblins and in future other intelligent races will target him and will come whenever they want, he needs 24hours security, a team of dedicated golems to keep guard.…..and maybe its time to make doors too. John created blueprints in his mental map for 2 large boulders made from soil and reinforced with runes. This boulders of soil, although not really a door but can still act as a barrier during times of emergency. They needed 2 golems to carry and should be able to block off weak enemies for awhile.