"Aaah… I can't keep up like this…!"

I drop my whole body weight on the table. The posture is slightly uncomfortable, due to my elongated rat face, but I'm starting to get used to it after so long.

"Marta… I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you're a bit too much."

When I heard all those ridiculous tasks imposed by the gods on their believers, coming from all kinds of mythologies and religions, the only thought I had was that people like to exaggerate. But now, having been under Marta's training regime, I've changed my mind.

Celestial beings actually do like to abuse and torment their followers, almost to the point that they drop dead in exhaustion. And they do so regardless of their purpose, both to provide help and to punish.

"Uugh…! My whole body creaks, and my soul feels like it's about to ascend."

I mean, who in their sane mind can keep up with three 'training sessions' a day for a whole week? And there are still another two weeks remaining!

Just in case, so you don't think I'm exaggerating. A single 'training session' is everything from getting the info on 50% of Marta's dungeon to the review meeting at the end. This includes the planning and strategy meeting and the actual dungeon invasion, having to adapt our strategy as we go.

By the time night comes, I feel like my brain has turned to mush… Just to have to repeat it as soon as I wake up the next day!

"It's only training, all day, every day! Who in their sane mind can keep up with that!?"

Well, maybe Marta can. That's why she's one of the top players…

But we aren't! We have the time to do it because we're in the middle of summer break, but being able to do something and enduring it are two very different things.

"Rebellion! Strike! Yes, that's it! I declare myself on strike!"

Fuck the training! Fuck Marta…! Please don't tell her I said this, or otherwise…

"Well, at least we don't have to train today… Thank God."

Is it because today is Sunday? Is that why she gave us a free day? I wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason. But since we return to the same schedule tomorrow, I'll have to enjoy this free day as much as I can.

And when it comes to enjoying my free time, there's just one thing I can do: create some monsters that will bring the invaders to tears!

"Fufufu! Hahaha!"

In truth, there are two things I can do. But spending my only free day watching videos of people suffering inside my dungeon isn't as satisfying as the other. There's a reason it's called a 'guilty pleasure' after all.

If there's one problem with my idea, is that I didn't have that much time to go and capture bodies to use. But don't worry. This won't matter much today because what I want to create doesn't require much.

"To the laboratory!" I stand up and shout.

Technically, I'm already inside it. But, for some reason, I wanted to shout that.

I stand up from the chair anyway and leave the control room. From this place, it takes no time for me to reach what I call the 'central room': the Minitaur Queen's boss room.

There's no secret behind the reason I call this room the Central Room. It's because it directly connects to almost every other part of the laboratory, including even the passage to the dungeon core. The only important areas not connected to this room are the cave, the tunnels, and the Rabbit Paradise, all of which can't be considered part of the laboratory.

Well, that and the Freezer. But who cares about such a minor detail? Certainly not me.

"Alright…" I excitedly rub my hands together. "It's time to get rid of some trash! Fufufu! Hahaha!"

Both literally and figuratively. You'll surely understand what I mean as I go.

When I was thinking what to add next to my dungeon, I realized I've been forgetting a crucial element. Something that, without it, no specialized industry can properly do what it does.

Regardless of what they say, my laboratory is a specialized industry, okay!? It's an industry that turns useless monsters into amazing ultra-advanced units to crush my enemies. An army maker of sorts. If that's not a specialized industry, then there's no specialized industry in the whole world! Hahaha!

Khm! Anyway, what I've been missing is a waste disposal zone. Somewhere to dump the residues generated through all my experiments. And that's what I'm going to create right now.

Oh, oh! And this is something important! When most people think of waste, they immediately think of radioactive and toxic stuff. Substances that will cause mutations and turn critters like rats and cockroaches into dangerous mutants.

Well… they're wrong.

Why would a laboratory like mine generate those kinds of substances? I don't have a nuclear reactor; all the energy I use is a hundred percent generated by renewable sources!

I don't destroy the environment by polluting it, I'm completely against that! When I affect the environment, it is by creating nature freaks that inevitably invade and devastate any ecosystem they live in. But I don't call it 'destroy', I call it 'improve'.

Otherwise, why would I have created giant hamster wheels for my failed clones? They aren't the only source of energy I have, but they're certainly the most uncommon.

"Ah, this reminds me…"

Note to my future self: add giant hamster-like wheels for my failed clones inside the sealed area and make them spawn there.

Where was I…? Ah, yes. The waste disposal zone. Do I really have to tell you which kind of waste a laboratory like mine generates? I don't, right?

Yep, you've got it right. It's meat chunks, bone waste, and rotted corpses. I knew you would.

Of course, I'll also add other kinds of residues, as I can't pass up on such a great opportunity to add special slimes into my dungeon.

But they won't come from toxic substances! They'll be generated from dangerous materials used to perfect my creations! Which means… very, VERY nasty slimes. Not being limited to a single monster when creating them, and given the slime's ability to change shapes and climb over any surface, I'm sure I can come up with some ridiculous ideas.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Though that'll have to be in the future, because I don't have any slime bodies ready to use yet.

What a shame. Indeed, what a shame.

"Anyway, let's start."

Before starting, I think for a while. Where will be the best place to put the main entrance?

"It makes sense if I use the same elevator that connects to the botanical garden, right…? I just need to extend it another level below this room…"

Contrary to the Sealed Area, the Waste Disposal Unit – yeah, this'll be its name – will be a facility used all the time. That's why I want to connect the latter to the elevator, while I keep the former in an isolated corner.

In case you don't understand the difference between the two, let me give you a heads-up. While both are used to dump things, the Sealed Area is where all my failed creations (roleplay-wise) end up, a place where there's usually no need to enter. Instead of destroying them, because the Mad Rat is too attached to anything he has created, he keeps them sealed so they don't interfere with the laboratory's normal operations…

That's the explanation.

In contrast, the Waste Disposal Unit is where I dump all the useless parts and products after the experiments, something that happens all the time. All the monsters here are just unintentional products from the crazy experiments, or monsters that have intruded from other areas.

I start by extending the elevator down. Looking at the 3D map, I continue extending until the elevator is the element at the bottom of the whole dungeon. If all the waste ends up in this place, it's easier to achieve if everything else is above it. After all, gravity always pulls down.

The next thing I do is create the entrance.

Right in front of the elevator stop, I put a large security door with a biological hazard warning. When I say 'security', I mean the door type, because to open it, there's no need for anything fancy: just press the big red button next to it.

I pause here. "Now what?"

I observe the solid rock wall in front of me for a while, lost in thought.

How do I go about this? Since the monsters living here aren't planned by Mad Rat, it'd make sense if they behave like a real ecosystem, something closer to the giant cave and tunnels than the laboratories.

If so, it'd mean I should add places to hide, as well as something they can eat…

"Ah, I know!"

Following my instinct, I create a long and tall room, placing it right on the other side of the door. The ground is curved and tilted, in a shape similar to a half-cone. Starting near the door at the highest point, the slope falls sharply towards the opposite end.

It's a perfect setup to collect 'something', using gravity like a funnel. And that something is nothing else than meat chunks and rotten corpses.

Which I immediately add. A true mountain of them.

The meat chunks and corpses are similar to those inside the Freezer, only that these aren't covered in frost. I know I shouldn't force players through gore elements, and that's why there will be no need for them to go close to them in this place. The most they'll have to put up with is looking at it from a certain distance.

Above, I add a massive hole in the ceiling. This is where the meat drops from.

I'll later add drop areas inside the laboratories, connecting to this place. If the invaders use them and end up puking because of the awful smell and disgusting touch when falling inside the meat mountain…

Well, it's not my problem. It's theirs. Nobody forced them to use those.

"Hahaha…!" I chuckle, laughing at my thoughts.

I also add a massive, house-sized incinerator at the end of the funnel-shaped slope, as well as an equally large chimney traversing the whole dungeon. The incinerator's mouth looks dangerous, and it's continuously spewing fire.

I make the chimney cross the Minitaur Queen's room from bottom to top, creating a large and impassable obstruction, and extend it even further up, until it comes out of the mountain near the Botanical Garden's glass dome. Visible from the garden and the Rabbit Paradise, the chimney will continuously emit black smoke.

This chimney will be the perfect way to fast travel to the Waste Disposal Unit… as long as the invaders don't mind being burned to ashes when they land, of course.

In the future, I might add some fire elemental here, as it'd fit the theme quite well. But not today, as I have no available bodies.

"Bodies, bodies, bodies. It's always the same shit! Why can't we create units like most other factions!? It's unfair!"

I know I won't achieve anything by complaining, but… I complain anyway because I can!

The final element is a metal platform, railings included, to avoid falling into the meat funnel. It has stairs going down towards the incinerator, too, for safety. Nobody wants to be a victim of their own creation, after all.

"And this concludes the meat disposal. Now for the other stuff."

While creating this room, I've come up with two interesting ideas, which are somewhat related to the slimes I want to add in the future.

The first is really cool. And it's the light source, which makes it even cooler!

Starting from the elevator, before the security door, I install human-sized pipes going in and out of the ceiling and walls. Within, a bubbling liquid slowly flows; one that's very similar to the liquid inside the stasis capsules.

As the liquid flows, it slowly changes colors, going through the whole rainbow. And it glows, illuminating the surroundings!

This will be the only source of light. But oh man, if it's a cool one!

Alright, you're right, you got me… The incinerator will emit a large amount of light, too. What's more, it'll be the one providing the most light. But please, ignore it because the other one is way cooler.

On the other side of the meat disposal funnel and incinerator, I fabricate machines to purify the impurities of the stasis fluid flowing inside the pipes, as well as machines to resupply it with the required nutrients and reagents to keep the bodies in suspended animation.

How do you fabricate machines in DMA? It's easy. You just need to smash decorative elements – cables, machine parts, glowing tubes… – together until you get something believable.

This is a game, not reality. It doesn't matter if they don't work, just what they look like.

I then go for the second idea. I make all the tubes converge into an underground pool. The bubbling liquid flows from one corner to the opposite one, glowing in all imaginable colors, drowning the surroundings with light.

"It looks as if taken out of fantasy…"

Which, if you think about it, it's true. A fantasy game, that is.

I also create more machines and smaller tubes to process other kinds of waste. But unlike with the glowing tubes, there are several leaks in these. They create large puddles of suspicious colors and textures, releasing pungent smells into the air.

Oh, and there are lots of columns everywhere! Between the columns, the low ceiling, and the large machines, the vision is quite limited. Except for the glowing rainbow pool, for obvious reasons.

…Kmh! Because it looks cool. Kmh!...

The reason why there aren't any columns in the meat disposal part is that the meat would get stuck on them. Makes sense, right?

If I feel like it, I'll add a few traps in the levels above this that will drop the invaders into this place. I might also add drop platforms that the players can use at will, but they'll only be one-way.

After I finish, I observe, mesmerized, the flowing liquid and rainbow pool. How much time? I don't know, I lost track of it.

I suddenly awaken, shaking my head.

"Now for the best part… The monsters! Fufufu! Hahaha!"

I told you it was time to get rid of some trash, both literally and figuratively, right? Now that I've prepared everything to get rid of the real trash, it's time for the latter.

"Stone Lords

Difficulty: Medium

Special Characteristics: Runesmithing

As tough and unbending as stone, the Stone Lords are famous for their resilience. It doesn't matter what you throw at them, they'll withstand it and then strike back. The dwarves are the masters of stalling tactics and fortifications, and, as long as they don't have to move, they'll always have the edge in battle.

Even then, their lack of mobility is offset by their ability to craft support equipment with custom properties. Siege equipment, guns and elemental weapons, enchanted armor, mass-destruction bombs… Everything, check. All equipment pieces increase the unit's cost, compensating for their power and making them expensive to deploy, but that doesn't matter when they can create units with no weaknesses and enough firepower to put the strongest mages to shame. Overall, the Stone Lords will always be a solid option."

- From 'A brief introduction to all factions'.

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