Chapter 14

The 4 golems showed signs of intelligence and the ability to think for themselves more then any golem before. Their body movements also became smoother and more graceful, far from the robotic movements of the dumb golems. Hmm... John thought he should have a better naming system then dumb golems or smart golems, after thinking for awhile, he decided on a new ranking system. From now on his dumb golems will be called level 1 golems, and this four intelligent golems will be level 3 golems. Next time he should get the female golems to participate in combat so that they can upgrade to level 2 too, otherwise they are starting to appear a little useless. John helped to repair the worst injured level 2 golems by stabilizing the magic circulation of those with near fatal injuries. Once he was done with the urgent cases, he ordered the level 3 golems to make sure all the golems are properly repaired. Actually he wanted to give the golems a string of commands so that he can stop constantly checking on them and focus on his own plans but he felt that the golems were still too dumb to handle more complex instructions.

While waiting for his golems to repair themselves, John started a through review of the floor plan for his dungeon. This invasion taught him a big lesson and his dungeon will have to be more defensive from now on. The original 7th floor was supposed to be as big and spacious as his 1st to 6th floors, in fact his golems had already excavated the majority of the floor and if he continued on, he could probably complete the original design in another 2 to 3 days but John decided to stop the construction and just divide the excavated area into 2 sections. The first section is a spacious area with the staircase from the 6th floor and the 2nd section has some rough parts where the construction was stopped, as well as the staircase to the 8th floor. For his 8th floor and beyond, John designed a new type of interior layout. The distance between the staircases remain the same, but instead of a spacious interior, he made only 1 tunnel big enough to fit his crystal body plus the golems carrying it. This was designed so that his small number of golems can easily use the narrow tunnels to their advantage. Past the tunnel is the stairs to the next floor and also a small room on the left and right of the tunnel. This rooms are big enough for his crystal and guards or they can also be used as a general store / barracks. This new layout is easy to defend, it is also very fast to build and John thinks he can complete a floor in about 1 to 2 days max.

The bad point about this design is the sense of having no space, of being in a cramped space deep underground. Even worse, with the bare soil all around, John can't help but feel like he designed a rat tunnel and not a dungeon. Will he feel happy living in something like this ? Ideally he wanted a big, spacious and grand room for his crystal body, with lots of nice interior decorations and furnishings. He also can accept something like his 5th floor, a blend of security and space. John reluctantly looked at his design again, wondering how to make it more like a dungeon and less like a rat tunnel. Maybe he could spend an extra day making the side rooms bigger then the bare minimum ? .… yeah maybe he could do that after excavating and reinforcing the floor first..... and if there is enough time, he can also get the golems to try drawing some murals on the wall. John repeated this design for the 9th floor as well, which is also the final floor until his domain can expand deeper downwards.

After completing his re-design, John took a look at the 52 goblin souls. He briefly considered whether he should eat 1 of this souls and see what the benefits might be, will it give him more powers or new skills ? Maybe something surprising ? But the memory of their disgusting ugly faces really put him off. Also this goblins are humanoid too, so he felt a certain disgust towards eating their souls. But then again, didn't he already learned his lesson that his a monster in a strange new dangerous world. Clinging on to human morals might make him regret and suffer latter. John didn't know what to do with the goblin souls so he focused on the next task. John got those fully repaired golems to help him gather any usable weapons and strip the goblin corpses so that he can search for loot. However after a through search of the belongings, John felt somewhat dissatisfied, this goblins were really poor !. All they had was some rations, the glowing stone around their neck, some misc equipment, maybe a random lucky charm or keepsake and random collection of shiny stuff. John took a closer look at the shiny stuff, hoping to find something valuable. Unfortunately he didn't recognise most of it...However after a closer inspection and sending a probe with his mana, John detected tiny energy signatures from afew of the goblin items. The goblins didn't have the skill to make jewelry so they just carried around the raw gems or raw crystals that they found or dig up. John can feel a tiny amount of strange energy within this raw gems and he thought its very interesting. The rest of the shiny stuff and random items he left on the ground, only the few raw gems were ordered to be placed next to his crystal body, he had a feeling that something might happen if this tiny gems are kept next to his crystal body.

For the glowing balls, John and his golems never needed any light for vision, still they were interesting and John put them around his current room for some decorations. He also put the usable goblin weapons near his crystal, the weapons are actually too small and fragile for his golems and its better for his golems to just use their fists and legs since their movements are not as agile as genuine living creatures. The problem is he also can't leave the weapons on the ground for the next wave of invaders to use. This was irritating.... John never knew he, the dungeon lord, had to solve garbage issues in his dungeon. Hey, this was never mentioned in any games or novels that he read before. His golems already poop all over the floor and now he have to deal with the leftover trash of defeated invaders too.

Where can he put all the unwanted trash? Johhn had no idea..... He didn't want his dungeon to slowly turn into a garbage dump. Hmm.... Previously he sent out his golems all over to explore for minerals and usable stuff but that exploration failed to find anything useful. However he could use 1 of the long tunnels to dump the trash at the edge of his domain. After his golems came back from the failed exploration, he had covered up the tunnel holes with soil so that his dungeon looks nice again. Now he selected one such tunnel on the 3rd floor that extended in a straight line all the way to the edge of his domain and ordered 2 golems to reopen the tunnel. His first priority is still building and reinforcing the new floors, then afterwards he will get rid of the unwanted goblin stuff, maybe have a new area to keep the corpses and move the golem mass grave to a secure location deeper below.

By now most of his golems are fully repaired, John ordered those level 2 golems in good condition to follow the new plans and continue building the 7th and 8th floor of his dungeon. Meanwhile he created new golems to replenish his forces again. After making the 4th golem John needed to stop for a rest, this golem making spell really made him tired. Maybe he should switch back to using basic creation instead of advanced creation but upgrading the golems later are a chore too. John took another look at those goblin souls flying around his dungeon perimeter. Its now or never, he needed to either replenish his mana faster or accept sub standard golems, masses over quality, something that offends the perfectionist streak in him. Those goblin souls are obviously somehow stronger then animal souls, they glow brighter and seem to have some sentience too.

They..... Look so yummy when they glow like that.... Gulp, John was starting to feel hungry even though he had no stomach. Should he try eating one? But thats kinda wrong right. But he needed more power to fight against the goblins, who knows when the goblins might come back and if they come back it should be with a stronger raiding party. He really needed more power....