The Invaders did not leave instantaneously after The Core signed the scroll. They lingered for a few moments until The Core remembered that it had to dismiss them for them to leave, a truly arduous thing to force it to do; couldn't they scamper on their own?

  Thankfully, they left when it told them to, again without turning their backs to the rest of the dungeon. Was it out of politeness or fear? The Core didn't know, but the faint interest it might have shown was quickly blown away by its desire to finish the 14th floor. The more combinations and changes it tried out now meant the faster it would get its desired green flower.

  With renowned excitement, it continued its previously interrupted tests. Its enthusiasm dimmed considerably fast, however, when its desired outcome did not instantly appear. The Core preferred mind-numbing work over doing nothing, but its most favorite thing in the world was building floors, which this plant was obstructing by not fitting into The Core's idea for the floor. Its stubbornness was the only thing propelling it onward, considering that it truly didn't need green flowers.

  The Core's mind wandered briefly from its current activity, lulled by its repetitiveness. In that single moment, it had a thought that would prove critical. Why is it that only the flower isn't green, but the stem is? Wouldn't it be easier if the petals were the same color? It's not like the Sporefull Bloom needs insects to spread its seeds. It uses wind that doesn't bother with discriminating based on colors.

  The Core discarded yet another failed result, absorbed the mana it got from destroying it, and then remembered that chlorophyll existed.

  With reinvigorated enthusiasm, it quickly placed chlorophyll inside the petals of the flower it was currently creating and planted it into the wall. What it sensed with its mana almost caused it to scream from excitement; the only thing that held it back was its lack of a mouth. The flower was green! The way the light bounced off of it proved it! Of course, the floor wasn't brightly lit; in fact, it wasn't illuminated at all. The Core simply transformed its mana into light waves to check in the absence of it.

  This completely repeatable outcome gave The Core an idea, and soon the entire floor was covered in green flowers, not all of them Sporefull Blooms, although it would be hard to see them even with light due to them blending in with each other because of the similar color.

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  With joy at finally finishing its 14th floor, it installed the light runes at the top of the tunnels; the luster illuminated the floor in a soft glow, casting shadows that were the only thing making it possible to distinguish one plant from another from afar.

  The Core deftly began digging another entrance. Its plans for its 15th floor were grand, for it would be the last floor it would be able to make for now. The Manual stated that while at first killing only 10 invaders would allow it to expand 5 floors, every new expansion would prove more arduous, with the next one requiring it to kill 30 invaders and the one after that 75. It also stated that the number of floors it could make would be lowered, amounting to 4.

  Before, The Core tried to ignore all the milestones it could potentially achieve, already believing it never would even touch the possibility of them. Now, however, it could only brim with excitement when thinking about them. It didn't know when it would kill this many invaders and attain those floors, but it knew it would, at some point.

  While it was excavating the space needed for the 15th floor, it finished the design it had for this layer. The plan was to make floating islands of lava with some more solid rock in them. When it made this floor with no invaders and thus could freely redesign its halls, it didn't include that. But now, when it knew that, most probably, humans would come in to delve, it didn't want to discourage them by making an impossible floor, even if said floor would be housing its core. Even the contract it had that guaranteed that the sect would be sending it invaders didn't calm it down. They never mentioned exactly how often they would be sending their disciples for slaughter. A major oversight on The Core's part, but it didn't think of it at that time, too distracted by the major parts that it disliked during the reading of the first version of the contract and too focused on deciphering the wordy text of the second edition.

  Nevertheless, it decided to go back to planning; no amount of worrying would change its decision. On the surface, there would be a thick layer of freezing cold water, with the biggest portion of it being on the ground for thermic shock purposes—a more extreme version of what it had done with the entrance between its 9th and 10th floors.

  Its core, which was currently temporarily hidden among the thick foliage on the previous layer, would be placed on the last island. When it finally acquired more floors, the final island wouldn't be moved closer to the wall; instead, the Invaders would be forced to jump. But that was for later, so The Core stopped fantasizing, lest it get so caught up that it would make a rookie mistake and the room end up not being the right size for its plan.