Empress stared at the newly christened Guard, her ((GAZE)) narrowed as the ant shivered, and flexed her antennae, then she cleaned them in her mandibles, then grew still. The brown chitin exoskeleton began to bulge, seeming to crack at the joints, a thin line ran down Guard’s thorax, it began to grow larger, spreading down her abdomen. The narrow slit quivered as something began to push against it. Empress watched, enraptured at the sight. A black mass pulled itself out of the dead husk, Guard struggled to pull her head from the molt. The surrounding shell cracked and she pulled away.
The ant was bigger than Guard had been before, and was a deep onyx in color, her head was large compared to her body, attached to it were heavy mandibles that almost looked like pincers, they were sharper and serrated unlike the dull graspers of her sisters. Empress knew a major when she saw one, although her spawner had only made workers up to this point, Guard’s enlarged skull and thick chitin assured that she could not be mistaken for one. Guard flexed her mandibles and she looked up at the ((CORE)). She skuttled around the ((SANCTUM)) for a moment, before settling back down at the foot of the pillar.
Empress hummed, what had gotten her so frazzled? Something to do with the spawner? It was a strange feeling, to know that you had forgotten something, but not remember what, she focused on quickly fading oversaturated memories. A feminine voice floated through her thoughts, it was warm, and kind, but she couldn’t make out any words. Empress shivered. She needed to look at the spawner. There was no doubt about it.
Something deep in her ((CORE)) warned her against returning to the spawner room. A small dark crack in the small teardrop that held her essence seemed to grow darker. Like a forgotten scar growing puckered and purple in the cold. Pushing down the thought, she slipped from the ((SANCTUM)) and hesitated for a moment in the moss hallway, before she crossed the threshold into the spawner room.
There was no change. Builder and the others still clawed away at the selected area of wall, making surprisingly fast progress, while other ants mingled, she paused, and counted the ants digging at the wall. Seven. where had the other three come from? Empress was almost surprised, she turned to peak into the ((SAFE_ROOM)), the three ants still dug at a pit in the center of the room. She giggled, the nearby ants turned to look at her. One of them clacked her mandibles.
She turned to the spawner, and was about to open the status when she noticed a small number above the golden pillar of light.
139
She blinked.
138
She blinked again.
This continued, Empress blinked, and the number was one less. It seemed to near zero and she was curious as to what would happen when it reached its supposed target. She didn’t blink, and the number continued to go down. Huh. The spawner began to spin faster, the timer hit zero, and restarted at 300, an ant appeared beside the spawner and stared up at her for instruction. A nameless leader ant called her over and they touched antenna and the nameless one sprayed her with a set of pheromones Empress didn’t recognize, and the new ant dashed over to the pile of dirt, and began to help Runner transfer it to the ((CORE)).
Momentarily distracted, Empress tried to think of a name for the leader ant, but none came to mind. She glanced back at the spawner, in realization, a surge of triumph flared through her ((CORE)). It had worked, whatever she had done while in the spawner had worked. She had been able to transfer it to draw from her ((MANAPOOL)), instead of the ambient ((MANA)).
She bobbed up and down. The ants, surprised at the sudden excitement that filtered from her ((GAZE)), paused once more to look at her. A drifting notion of apprehension whispered in her mind, but she discarded it, it hissed more violently as she approached the spawner and she stopped, memory of a splitting pain suddenly jumped to the forefront of her mind. Empress suddenly felt cold, and she didn’t know why. Something had happened, vague vibrant shapes flashed once more in the forefront of her mind. She felt as if something was pulling her downward, strange things flickered at the edges of her vison, Empress floated away from the spawner.
The feeling of dread vanished, and Empress hummed quizzically. She starred at the spawner for a moment, before turning around and floating over to the hallway that led to the ((SAFE_ROOM)).
Other than the moss hallway, the hallways were rather bland, she pensively jittered, but couldn’t think of any way to improve them. She floated pensively, trying to think of something to ad. Her first thought was a trap of some kind. But what? It would need to not affect the ants… She tsked, flinching at the echo. She looked intently at the hallway, and her ((GAZE)) became grainy as she zoomed in farther and farther than she ever had before, until the world itself seemed to shift and change. she became aware of an innumerable amount of impossibly small creatures that were seemingly beyond her control. It irked her more than she liked to admit, she tried to push her ((MANA)) toward the creatures, but they didn’t respond and the ((MANA)) seemed to glide over them.
She hissed in annoyance. Pulling her ((GAZE)) back so that the creatures vanished, Empress once again turned her attention to the concept of traps. Her colonists could build them, but only if she directed them too, Empress felt like she was missing something. Her ((GAZE’S)) slight shake increased. The something clicked, what if, instead of zooming her ((GAZE)) in, she zoomed it out? She hadn’t tried that yet, and it was worth at least an attempt.
She took a breath, and was once again reminded that she didn’t need to breathe, then she pulled on her sight, her ((GAZE)) expanded, and after a moment the entire hallway was in view, Empress pulled back farther and a few grey text boxes appeared. She floated closer intently staring at the small text.
CREATE SMALL UNCOVERED PITFALL?Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
CREATE HARDENED DIRT STALAGMITE?
CREATE CAVE IN TRAP?
Interesting. Empress couldn’t afford any of the traps, they were a much higher cost than they would be to ((COMMAND)) an ant to build one of them instead. She closed the three boxes and continued to the ((SAFE_ROOM)). Empress didn’t really need a trap yet anyway; besides, she thought as she saw one of Runner’s ants run from the ((SAFE_ROOM)) carrying a load of dirt, it might make it harder to travel through the tunnels.
The three ((SAFE_ROOM)) ants where still digging the pit in the center of the room. A small pile of dirt beside them. The leader glanced at Empress and clacked in her direction, then she transferred a clump of dirt to her sister’s mandibles, before digging into the ground again. The leader ant worked with her two subordinates differently than Builder and Runner did with theirs. While Builder supervised her crew and Runner led by example, the ((SAFE_ROOM)) leader ant seemed to work in perfect harmony with her workers. Leading them while shouldering a large portion of the work herself. Empress had meant for the ((SAFE_ROOM)) ants to be a temporary contingent, but she would feel bad separating them now.
“She names you Saferoom.” Empress said to the leader ant.
Saferoom beamed. After watching them for some time longer, Empress saw a flicker of movement coming from the entrance hallway. She hadn’t felt anything enter. Narrowing her ((GAZE)), she moved closer. “She asks who is there?”
A sharp clacking sound replied. She relaxed slightly. She floated into the hallway curiously, what was an ant doing over here? The glowing forcefield came into view and Empress instantly felt annoyed at the sight of it. The ant was standing on the ledge that led into the outside world.
Her little brown carapace bathed in the light of the impassible dome. She was staring out into the glow, Empress realized that this was the second ant that had spawned, and she was still… standing there, where she had left her. Suddenly feeling guilty, she pinged the leader ant to be at ease. Her antennae relaxed but she kept staring at the field, or through the field.
“What is it that she wants Empress askes?” She said,
The ant looked at her, then took a hesitant step toward the forcefield. Empress instinctively flinched, despite knowing that the ants weren’t trapped behind the field and the ant turned to her. Empress looked into the ant’s dark black eyes, she relaxed, “Go, go she says” She pushed the words into the air quickly, so that she wouldn’t change her mind.
The ant slipped through the bright haze. Almost instantly, Empress couldn’t sense her anymore. Panic quickly took root and she began to pace the hallway. She had never felt concern before, and she didn’t have time to study the emotion before it overtook her. The rounded earthen walls seemed to close in on her, and her ((GAZE)) blurred and she tried to clear it, but it didn’t respond to her commands.
Her ((GAZE)) dropped to the floor as her inner turmoil increased, a wordless and indescribable panic clawed its way through her ((CORE)) and wound its way through her ((DOMAIN)). The first fledglings of what loss must have felt like twisted through her and a heavy restlessness fell upon the dungeon. One of her ants, gone, not just any ant, but a leader, could she even replace the leaders?
An eternity seemed to pass by, Empress was about to return to the ((SAFE_ROOM)) when a flicker of green pushed through the forcefield, followed by brown, her ((GAZE)) narrowed, the leader ant slipped back into the dungeon, and the connection was regained. A sprig of a deep green vegetation was clasped between the ants’ mandibles, the plant was extraordinarily different than the moss, it sprung out from a thick brown rod that slowly melded into a deep hue of malleable green, the leaves where akin to the shape of her ((CORE)), but longer and thinner, not quite the perfect teardrop shape, orange buds pulled from the leaves, shimmering, magical, undefinable.
The leader ant held up the sprig to Empress’s ((GAZE)), then she stood still as she felt her ruler’s intense glare on the pretty green thing she brought as tribute. She could sense the emotions of the Empress, but to hope for the ant to understand Empress’s curiosity, or awe or worry would be unreasonable to ask of a young dungeon monster, she had her own versions of these emotions, but they were not the same. She did understand that these things meant satisfaction and therefore, she was happy.
Empress pinged Runner, and she appeared in the entrance hallway after a few blinks, Runner paused, and with no urging from Empress, took the plant and began to dash toward the ((SANCTUM)).
“Huh.” She said, turning her attention back to the leader ant.
The two looked at each other for a moment, the ant glanced back at the forcefield, Empress, nodded, a knot of apprehension still tied up somewhere in the small amount of physical mass she had. The ant left, the connection broke, then a moment later, she returned with another treasure from the outside world. A rush of ((MANA)) followed through the dungeon as Runner deposited the plant. Empress shivered; it was much larger than the amount given for the absorption of dirt. Perhaps because it was alive? Or because it was outside of her ((DOMAIN))? Higher chance of Risk equaled a Higher chance of Reward. Runner took the second piece of plant life from the leader ant and then was off once more.
Empress thought for a moment, the leader ant was waiting to see what she would do next. “She names you Gatherer, so she says to gather.”
The leader ant’s antennae shot up, Empress watched for any changes like with Guard, but other than a distinct change in Gatherer’s mood, nothing happened. Gatherer left once more. This time Empress felt much more at ease when she watched the ant slip through the white forcefield, but she wasn’t sure what the difference was, perhaps it was greed? She didn’t like the sound of that, and decided to chalk it up to confidence instead.
For a long time, Empress watched Gatherer and Runner work, Runner seemed to treat this as a more important task than shoveling the dirt, which made sense on a purely economic scale. What could she do with ((MANA))? It was a sudden question that popped into her ((CORE)). At first she laughed at it, but then she furrowed her ((GAZE)), she could buy things with ((MANA)), yes, but what would she buy?
Now that she had thought about it, she wanted to buy something, like a child given a handful of coins with no idea what to do with it. Floating away from the entrance hallway, she began to inspect her surroundings, looking for something to do with the sudden wealth she had discovered. The pit in the ((SAFE_ROOM)) was complete, and she was at a loss for what to do with the seemingly cavernous space. Deciding to leave the ((SAFE_ROOM)) for another time, she continued to the spawner room. Once again, nothing stuck out to her, she simply did not know enough about how things were supposed to be to change anything. She glanced at Builder and her crew, hard at work on the hallway, they were making an astonishing pace, but even though she didn’t give them a specific length, she could sense that they were not anywhere near done, and that gave Empress an idea.
She floated up to the construction site and stared at it appraisingly, she mentally tried to gather up the ((MANA)) in her ((CORE)), it slipped easily from her mental grasp. The faint light her ((GAZE)) gave off flickered in annoyance, Builder gave her a glance. Empress floated back and forth in front of the half-finished hallway. She tried to activate the ((SYSTEM)) but none of the previous tags appeared. She made a clicking sound and tried to ((COMMAND)) her ((MANA)) to hollow out the area. She felt a vague surge of energy but it died before it exited her ((CORE)). She tilted her ((GAZE)), trying to focus on the ever-building energy within her. The more that it grew, the more she wanted to get it out. Like an itch she couldn’t scratch.
Given the fact she had never felt an itch, this was notably, very frustrating. Builder sensed her growing annoyance and clacked in her direction. Perhaps… Empress thought, staring at the leader ant. Instead of directing the ((MANA)) toward the tunnel itself, she pushed it toward the steadily growing workforce. It wasn’t quite a ((COMMAND)), but the ((SYSTEM)) still activated, transferring the ((MANA)) to the builders. For a moment they all froze in place, Builder shuddered, seeming to grow slightly in size. Empress felt her ((MANA)) drain exponentially. It was exhausting and liberating at the same time. The builders seemed energized and redoubled their efforts. She stayed and watched for a while, shocked by the increased efficiency, so much so that the runners were having trouble keeping up with the extra dirt.
It seemed like hardly any time passed when the tunnel was finished.