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    [A Quiet Island, Night 1, Sunset]


    Peering down into the lava filled crater, my mind overflows with ideas for how I should construct my core room. Hmmm… I think I''ve got it. I flood the pit with my mana, claiming the inner walls of the volcano''s crater and the surface layer of the lava. I raise the lava out of the pit and begin using it to form two crude bridges perpendicular to each other. One I make parallel to the path the sun takes each day. Both bridges end up being made of some kind of basalt looking material, solid and unmoving. I made sure to arch them properly so they don''t fall.


    Once I''m finished with that, I begin carving the bridges into a more chiseled form that resembles large stone blocks, carving the top to resemble decorative tiling. The keystone of the bridges where they both meet is made extra large and protrudes from both the top and the bottom of the bridges, forming a central platform for me to rest on. I raise a throne from the center and go to sit down in it, my obsidian body shaping itself into the form of a statue. I shape the head into a bowl, letting my core rest in the center of the divot.


    And now I have to deal with the stream. It''s forming a sort of pillar now, flowing down into the volcano beneath me and saturating it with mana. I should probably try the vortex again. Maybe slower this time. I form a massive ball of mana and float it high into the sky, reaching just below the cloud level, and start swirling it in a whirlpool shape. The mana stream slowly begins getting sucked upwards by the pull, and atmospheric mana begins following the vortex as well. I make sure to slow down the speed of the vortex too once it gains enough pull to continue itself. I let it swirl down in a drill shape to finally meet my core, and by then it''s flowing slowly enough that I won''t have to worry about it anymore as long as I spend mana regularly. Though, it might be a problem if someone else is able to see mana. The giant tornado of mana in the sky would be a pretty obvious pointer to where I am.


    Now then, considering how much mana is floating above me, I think I should try spending a while working on my dungeon before anything else, so I can be prepared for the first visitors if they come earlier than expected. I fully expect that it''ll take a few years to get any, but after that I assume visitors will be coming in droves to loot me. They won’t be getting anything for free though.


    I start digging at the base of the mountain on a cliff that sticks out a bit from the rest of it, carving out a large hole in the cliff by turning the rock into sand. I''d melt it into lava, but the jungle is right next to the cliff and I don''t want to start a fire. I carve an arched doorway about twenty feet tall and ten feet wide at the base, carving out enough space for the door to slide back into the walls. I stylize the rim of the doorway into a Romanesque brick frame, and carve a set of gears and stone bearings into the cutouts I made for the door. The doors themselves I make from two massive interlocking slabs of stone, carving bits out to fit them into the bearings and gears properly.


    I''m left with a sliding door which only opens when the gears are rotated from inside, and I doubt anything could open them without my knowledge, considering I made them two feet thick. I carve a bas-relief into the doors depicting a group of robed humanoids worshipping me, using a bit of obsidian embedded in the doorframe to represent myself, which I make sure to polish to a fine sheen. The carving shows them sending mana into my vortex, which I then use to produce a pyramid. I give the humanoids a couple of non-human features like mouth tentacles and elongated skulls as well. Might as well try to include some “lore” behind the dungeon.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    Next I focus on the outside of the entrance. I have enough sand left over to make a stone platform in the dirt that''s about 100 feet by 40 feet, adding on a sloped roof held up by pillars protecting my door. I make sure to leave a decent amount of space inside for any future campers, and move on to trying to clear a few trees to make some space around my entrance. I claim the trees with my mana, and I feel something else click into place in my mind. Claiming the trees feels far different than claiming inorganic material or mana. I can feel every part of the tree moving around, instinctually feeling that I can manipulate the tree to grow however I want.


    But that’s not what I’m here for. I just want to politely ask the tree to move. And so after a little fanagling, most of the tree line around me has thickened and receded a bit to leave me with a small dirt clearing, clean of any debris. After that, I start acting out an idea I had when I claimed the tree. If I can claim the tree and feel through it, why couldn’t I claim the whole jungle? Maybe claiming animals will let me control them too.


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    [A Quiet Island, Day 2, Sunrise]


    The rising of the sun over the horizon surprised me a bit, mainly because I realized that I could still see fine at night. Anyways, I''ve managed to claim the entire forest and every plant in it, but I''d left claiming animals for when I finished. I wanted to familiarize myself with plants first. And familiarize myself I have, but I haven''t changed anything yet. Most of what I claimed was standard jungle flora, a few nice flowers, a couple ferns, grass, a variety of trees, etc. I didn''t want to change anything yet. I''d prefer to have everything else under control first.


    While claiming the jungle I saw a lot of interesting creatures roaming about. The most significant was a species of large ant that I noticed gathering materials while I was claiming a tree on the southern side of the island. At least I think it''s south. The world I''m on could be completely differently oriented than Earth and I wouldn''t be able to tell from here. Anyways, they act like leafcutter ants, but are as big as carpenter ants.


    The first one I claim is one who''d strayed off the trail for some reason, and when I flood it with mana I feel it come under my control. And then something extraordinary happens. I''m suddenly able to feel everything the ant feels, see everything it sees, hear everything it hears. I have become the ant. As disorienting as it is, I withdraw my presence from the ant, noticing that something strange happened. I can see a network of purple mana flowing through its body that I hadn''t noticed before. It follows the nervous system, and I can see it pulsating faintly but not moving.


    I also know that I can change the ant too. But I don''t do anything drastic at this point. I just leave a little indent in its head shaped like a scratch mark to distinguish it from other ants. I let it resume its business, feeling the ant return to the task at hand. It''s good to know that I won''t have to control claimed animals every single action. The ant continues, eventually reaching a recently fallen fruit on the ground. It chews off a piece and begins walking towards my little temple. “Hey! Little guy, that ain''t where you''re supposed to go! Go back to the nest!” I feel a sense of confusion coming from the ant before it turns around and begins walking back to the nest.


    I watch it return to the nest and enter. I take advantage of my new abilities and watch it through its eyes. It''s dark in the ant nest, and the tiny ant follows a tunnel into a storage room filled with other pieces of food. I stop there, and flood every corner of the nest with my mana, claiming every single ant I can find. I make them all stay in the nest until every single ant has returned and been claimed, and then begin a colony migration towards my dungeon. These ants shall be my first dungeon monsters.