Ants spawned at uneven intervals, so far, she had twelve. She had tried to guess what caused them to spawn, but it seemed to be at random, the only hint she had was in the spawner status where it simply said the spawn rate was ‘300’. Empress had noticed that the newest ants acted different than the first. The first seven ants where more distinct than their younger sisters. They seemed to congregate together, even to boss the others around. It interested her, and she spent a long time watching them. Perhaps she would name them later.
Empress was unsure of what to do with herself. The appeal of simply existing had already worn off. She needed a reason to exist, a purpose, what was her purpose? She could do nothing but watch. She could do one thing, she corrected, learn. Her ((MENU))’s needed further study, but the idea of returning to the void of gray boxes was mind numbing.
Zooming in on one of the more ‘aware’ ants, she ((COMMANDED)) her to come to the ((SANCTUM)). The ant looked up and scuttled down from the ((SAFE_ROOM)) walls, she quickly made her way through the tunnels, taking care not to step on the moss, and soon stood in wait in front of the ((CORE)). Now what? Empress thought to herself. She clicked and slowly floated around the ant. She thought for a moment, before her mind wandered back to the white barrier that kept her in her ((DOMAIN)). It didn’t seem to apply to her ants, she had seen one of them poke her head out. How could she use this? Her ((GAZE)) grew closer, as if on accident.
The ants couldn’t very well report what they had seen, the communication between Empress and her ants was limited at best, confined to basic inferences and empathic signals. They could bring back things from the outside, Empress mentally shelved the idea, she didn’t have the ant-power for anything like that yet. It was worth considering in the future. The only real way to tell what was out there would be if Empress found a way to see for herself. She hissed in frustration. The ant shrank back, fearing that Empress’s anger was directed at her.
The sound echoed throughout the room and Empress fell silent. She calmed the ant with a thought. She moved her ((GAZE)) closer, looking her ant directly in the eye now. How did she reach out to the ants? She used her mind, so there was obviously some kind of connection between them. Empress stared at the ant, trying to focus on sensing the link between Dungeon and Monster.
Her ((CORE)) was a glowing teardrop of light, of her own light, the ants, the spawner, even the air held bits of her light in them, everything was Empress. She pulled her ((GAZE)) through the channel between the ((CORE)) and the ant, and for a brief moment she glimpsed a fuzzy field of view, she was looking at her own ((CORE)), but from the ground, most of what she ‘saw’ was a complex myriad of scents that twisted, each with its own profile, the dirt was rich a fresh, and the ((CORE)) was grand and regal in a way that transcended light based vision, Empress thought it was beautiful but it was only a glimpse.
A thick bubbling rush of energy quickly built up, with a silent roar it hurtled her out of the mind of the ant, thrusting her out with such force that she spun rapidly through the room, her ((GAZE)) spinning unbeknownst to gravity pull, unable to get her bearings she bounced around the room until she slammed forcefully into a wall, a sharp stinging pain erupted across her ((GAZE)) Empress gasped, her vision swam, spots flashed across her sight, the ant trembled similarly affected, she didn’t seem to be able to comprehend what she had seen. Empress dismissed her and slowly lowered her ((GAZE)) to the floor, even though it gave her no physical support. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots from her ((GAZE)), the pain still throbbed through her being, but eventually she calmed down enough to slowly float over to where the ant had been standing, she turned to look at her ((CORE)). The picture was a thousand times clearer, but it was from the same perspective, she could almost paint the complex mosaic of smells onto the scene, she focused and she could sense them, but she didn’t feel them the way the ants did.
She had been able to, if only briefly see through the eyes of one of her ants. It took her a moment to understand this. Excitement surged through her mind, thoughts raced, how could she refine this? Make it practical to use? Then the image of the trembling ant flashed into the forefront of her mind, along with a searing reminder of the pain. She sighed, and pushed the thoughts away, perhaps in the future, she thought somberly, perhaps when she was stronger.
What now? She thought. Then she left the ((SANCTUM)). The thick green moss lit up the tunnel in soft bursts, it had already begun to spread, it reached out in thin tendrils to unoccupied areas, small growths of the moss had cropped up on other parts of the tunnel. A single ant, Empress recognized her as one of the more aware ants, was standing on the ceiling, scraping at the earth. Intrigued, Empress floated closer.
The ant held in her mandibles a pad of moss, she carefully placed the moss in the hole, holding it steady, she tried to push dirt around the sprout, but it only fell to the floor. Empress tilted her ((GAZE)). The ant didn’t seem to realize the problem. Then she let the pad go, and it fell to the floor. The ant let out a thick cloud of dismay, which caused a second ant to rush into the room. The second ant ran to her sister, trying to figure out the problem. They touched antennae, then the new ant responded with a small spritz of annoyance. She dashed away.
The Moss ant, trotted down from the roof and picked up the pad of moss again, then she crawled back up to the roof, this time, choosing a different spot, and began to dig a second hole, although she held the moss in her mandibles, which she used to dig, and it began to look slightly mangled. The second ant reentered the room, running on the left wall and skidding to a stop, shortly after, a third ant walked into the moss hallway, she was calm, and slightly larger than the other two ants.
She called the moss ant down from the ceiling, who quickly slipped down the walls to meet the third ant. The two ants became involved in a deep and complicated conversation, pheromones wafted into the air and the quick ant waited impatiently. The third ant took the mangled moss pad from her sister, and she inspected it carefully, then she handed it back to the moss ant and dug her mandibles into the soft earth, pulling up a section of the ground.
She twisted the chunk in her mandibles, using her mouth parts to soak it in saliva, the dirt morphed from an irregularly shaped crumbly chunk to an almost perfect ball that was soft and mailable. The two ants climbed back to the ceiling, the clever ant spread her ball of mud thickly across the earth, then the moss ant gently placed the damaged moss piece on the mud, it adhered, and the moss ant let out a spray of satisfaction. Empress laughed and the trio turned to look at her, perhaps she really would give them names.
The moss ant stayed in the moss hallway, while the quick ant dashed away, why she was always in a hurry, Empress had no idea, and the clever ant left as well. Following her back into the spawner room, Empress watched as she stood on the side of the room, having no task, cleaning her antennae. A thirteenth ant spawned and Empress pinged her to wander.
Empress’s mind began to hum. Her ((CORE)) wasn’t really safe, she had two rooms, only one that she could actually defend, and two hallways, she didn’t know if she could make any traps for the hallways, she could dig a pitfall, it wouldn’t be a problem now, but in the future when she had more ants it would slow foot traffic. She needed to expand, but in what way? She glanced at the clever ant, and pinged her. The ant stood to attention.
Her mind was swirling with ideas, but the simplest one was the one she chose, she would start making a secondary branch of the ((DOMAIN)), three hallways, three rooms, running parallel to the moss hallway, that way she could block off the ((SANCTUM))’s entrance once it was connected, and make a new one with more space for defenses.
“Ant.” The ant seemed to nod, “Your name is… Builder. You will build a hallway, in that direction.” Empress had no way to indicate direction, but Builder seemed to understand.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Builder began to carve into the wall of the spawner room, after watching her for a moment, Empress realized how long it would take, and she ((COMMANDED)) three of the ‘regular’ ants to do so as well. She felt the ((MANA)) drain and in a moment, the three ants arrived and instantly Builder took command. The four ants each worked on a section of the wall, cutting out a loose shape that was the same height as the other hallways, not settling to just make it ant-sized. A growing pile of dirt began to form beside them. Empress hadn’t thought of that.
The quick ant dashed into the room, she was running on the ceiling at first, but once she noticed the pile she went to the floor, Builder dropped a mandible full of dirt on the pile and that caused the quick ant to clack her mandibles at Builder. Builder let out a spray of annoyance mixed with indifference. The quick ant huffed and scooped up some of the dirt, she moistened it with her mouth parts so that it would stick together, then she ran out of the spawner room, then through the moss hallway, which caused the moss ant to hiss in at her for stepping on her moss, then she dropped the dirt in the ((SANCTUM)).
The dirt seemed to sink into the ground and vanish, Empress felt a small rush of ((MANA)), it was about the same it took to ((COMMAND)). Empress bobbed up and down in delight. She ((COMMANDED)) a lesser ant to help…, she struggled to find a name, Runner, with her new job.
Empress was watching her ((MANA POOL)) slowly tick up from her first form of income and the new hallway slowly begin to be carved out when the ant that she had been experimenting on slunk into the ((SANCTUM)) and laid down in front of the pillar. Empress tilted her ((GAZE)) and stared at the strange ant, had she messed up her brain somehow? She pinged her, but all the ant did was turn her head away from the ((GAZE)), as if she was ashamed. Curious, Empress grew closer, and was going to ((COMMAND)) to figure out what was going on, ((MANA)) conservation to the Inferno, when she received a frantic pinging from Builder.
Her ((GAZE)) shot up in shock and she didn’t bother floating over, and instead she materialized in the spawner room the four builders where franticly swarming over a specific point of the wall. Once Builder noticed Empress’s presence, she clacked and her crew all pulled back, allowing Empress to see. Something was sticking out of the dirt wall. The Builders had dug less than a 1/16<sup>th</sup> of a HA and they had already hit something.
The object in question only had one corner uncovered, even just that was thickly encrusted in what might’ve been centuries of caked on dirt. Whatever it was, it was obviously very delicate. Empress ((COMMANDED)) Builder to remove it. The ant climbed up on the wall and at first chipped away at the dirt surrounding the object, revealing it to be a small rectangle. Then Builder carefully scrapped away the dirt around it with the flat of her mandible. The other ants in the spawner room gathered to watch. Runner slid into the room and stared as well.
The rectangle was embedded deep into the earth, it was longer than Empress first guessed, and after what seemed like an eternity, Builder carefully pulled out the object in her mandibles, and carefully set it on the floor in front of Empress’s ((GAZE)).
The box was enveloped in a thick coat of dirt, the wood underneath was barely visible, and that that was, was almost entirely rotted, the box was held closed by a metal hinge that had long sense rusted away, and the entire chest seemed to be about halfway to fossilization. Doubtless it contained some lost treasure. Empress inspected the box from every angle, it was a miracle that it survived being moved in the first place, the box was barely a skeleton and the dirt that was meshed into its frame was the only thing stopping it from collapsing.
Empress pinged Builder and she, without hesitation, smashed the lid of the box in with her left mandible. Runner squeaked in shock. There was a distinct cracking sound as the wood finally fell in upon itself, as if it had been holding back a great sigh. Builder picked out the fragments of wood, seemingly as eager as Empress to inspect their treasure. Tilting her head, Builder reached her head into the box, causing the rest of it to collapse, and pulled out a sheet of tarnished metal, thinner than an antenna on it where etched hundreds of small runes that where indecipherable. The title however, was written in large script systematic.
<u>TO THE FUTURE, FROM THE PAST, MAY THIS ONE DAY FIND THE HANDS OF THE ENVISIONED CONQUEROR, AND MAY THEY LOOK KINDLY UPON HOPE.</u>
Empress tilted her ((GAZE)), trying to find an angle where she could understand the runes. Builder pulled out a second sheet, and then a third, she continued to removed sheets from the dust until there where six in total. They were useless, Empress concluded bitterly. She could not read them, any knowledge was lost to her, they were only worth the metal they were made of. She did not care that they would never be given to the ‘envisioned conqueror’ The small crowd of ants felt the disappointment and disbursed, the builders returned to their work and the others meandered
She pinged Runner and told her to bring the tablets to the ((SANCTUM)) for absorption, Empress wondered how much ((MANA)) they would give, surely more than dirt? They where by far the most valuable thing she had found, but they seemed to lose more value when she realized that she could not learn from them. Curious. Runner picked up the sheets all at once easily, they warbled as she ran. Runner dropped the tablets in the ((SANCTUM)) and quickly left again. Curious of their value, Empress waited for the rush of ((MANA)), but instead she was greeted by a message from the ((SYSTEM)).
ANCIENT ORC TABLETS ABSORBED. YOU HAVE GAINED 150+ MANA. DUE TO THE CONTENTS OF THE ABSORBED ITEM, YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE REPUTATION TAB.
ERROR, (Program.76854/DUGN) DOES NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT LEVEL TO RETAIN INFORMATION
RESOLVING…
“What?”
RESOLVING…
ERROR RESOLVED. (Program.76854/DUGN) SKILL (Understanding.wiz.XDHY) WILL GAIN A MINUET PERMANENT BUFF,
CHECKING SOLUTION VIABILITY….
….
….
SOLUTION VIABLE.
Congratulations Empress. - 9/16
MENU
STATUS ABILITIES HELP LOCKED REPUTATION OVERVIEW
STATUS:
LV 1 DUNGEON
Name: Empress
EXP 15/145021
Size: Small
Gender: Female
GAZE type: Light-based
Affinity: Ento
Class: none
Race: Dungeon
NODES: Lummi moss LV 2
Spawners: Basic Ant LV 1
Retainers: None
Alignment: _____
System message type: Glass based
Communication type: auditory
Spawner orientation: Visual
Traits: Introspective
Notoriety: 0
Fame: 0
Infamy: 0
Kills: 0
Empress blinked, then she closed the tab. What the-?