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    [A Quiet Island, Night 5, Midnight]


    I’ve finished with my core. It’s grown to about a foot in diameter, and I gained mana capacity exponentially. Probably. I felt the same wrongness I felt claiming the island for a while, but after ignoring it enough it went away. There isn’t a lot to do on this island, is there? I could work on my dungeon, I guess. I return to the dungeon and look at what the ants have done in the time I was gone. Goodness Gracious! There’s an entire tunnel network going up the mountain! It’s not gone very far, but I can see them trying to work their way up in my direction, even now digging. I quickly contact every one of them at once, and ask them why they’re digging towards me. There’s enough ants here that I can make out a few solidified concepts, and most of their reasoning is because they want to be closer to me in order to protect me. I politely ask them to stop, because most threats won’t be able to reach me, and any that do, I can deal with. They seem a bit sad, but I assure them that the best way to protect me is to act like I’m inside the dungeon instead of at the top of the volcano.


    Most seem confused, but some of the smarter ones seem to realize what I mean, and their belief is enough to sway the rest of the ants. I check in on Alectryon next, and she’s doing fine. She’s valiantly defending the temple, as I instructed. I praise her for her efforts and return to the colony. Let''s see here… Egg room… Waste storage… Food storage… Queen room… Farming room… Yup! Everything that seems necessary is here. Something I do notice in the waste room though is that the ant’s poop seems to be full of what the fungus would consider a good meal, so I advise the smaller workers to try mixing ant poo into the food they use for fertilizer.


    Most of the food the ants eat is the vine fruit I made earlier, so I decide to make a few more changes to one vine and bring it into the farming cavern to grow. The first change I make is that the plant no longer produces chlorophyll. Instead, it grows a big pitcher that acts like a stomach, allowing the plant to eat without light. I don’t make the pitcher hard to get out of, not wanting any unlucky ants to get eaten, but I do leave the top slightly open so that they can put food in there. The fruits grow around the rim of the pitcher, hanging down a bit on cherry like stems allowing for easy access to the bounty. The fruits remain the same, still as edible as before, and I move the vine into the farm room before instructing the farmer ants what they need to do.


    As I’m about to leave, I have an idea. These workers specifically only ever work on farming. They’re the pale pink smaller ones, and they use that size to step around the fungus’s stalks. Hmm… I decide to change them again. I order every farmer ant into the farm and start changing them. The legs I make longer and more flexible so they can move easier within the fungus. I change their mandibles into sharpened scythes. The outer edge is sharpened, requiring a side to side motion to cut, and the inner edge is dulled for grasping food. I add a second, closed off stomach to their abdomen which runs along the bottom of their bodies, making sure that it’s elastic enough to expand and carry about a cubic foot of food. I leave it at that, and feel curiosity bloom from the farmer ants at the sight of their new bodies. I tell them how to use their new parts and then leave them to it.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Hmm… what now?


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    [A Quiet Island, Day 6, Sunrise]


    Well, tomorrow will mark the first week since I''ve gotten here. I think I''m just going to build. There''s a small bay on the island, so I start solidifying sand into obsidian in the very center. What will I use it for? I don''t know yet. I play around with the growing chunk of obsidian, stopping once I notice that it''s gotten to the size of a house while I was zoning out and shaping different designs. Ah. Oh! I had an idea!


    I start shaping the house sized chunk of obsidian into a cube shape before carving it into the shape of a head, blocky and very stylized. I shape it into a realistic enough shape, making sure the eyes and jaw have joints to move. Next I tilt it a bit and then start working on making a body underground, buried beneath the sand. I make it as proportional as I can, eventually ending up with a bunch of jointed obsidian blocks arranged like a human torso.


    The arms and legs are next, and I make sure to keep the same trend of making joints wherever I need them. I take a step back from my creation, using my altered awareness to observe the entire obsidian golem. As far as I can tell it''s about 1000 feet tall, but the majority is buried underground, only the head sticking out above the water. Next I take a species of mold I found on the island and began modifying it. The mold would form into extremely tough and strong filaments, each cell able to shorten and lengthen itself as it wants. I also make sure that it conducts mana very well, and place the new mold in the brain cavity within the head.


    I carve channels in the stone and shape it to have space for the mold to grow into as muscles. I direct the mana vortex above me to swirl faster, feeling oversaturated once again, and shoot out a river of mana from my core, aiming it to directly impact the head from above. The river of mana slams into the obsidian skull, and the thing begins glowing! I channel the mana to spread evenly throughout the whole body, and the entire statue begins glowing so brightly that the light is diffusing through the sand burying it. The ground cracks as the altered mold bursts from the channels I created and darts underground, filling up every empty piece of the statue. The eyes of the statue light up like spotlights, and the mold digs into the statue, reinforcing the empowered obsidian and forming a net to hold everything together.


    It''s at this point that I notice the mana vortex has disappeared and my own mana is draining rapidly, so I stop channeling mana immediately. The glow dies down after a few minutes and the statue falls silent again. It''s still saturated with an immense amount of mana, which begins swirling and coalescing into a sphere before bursting and spreading through the whole body of the statue. Did every cell form one of those balls? I really need to investigate those things at some point.


    Suddenly, I feel a loud booming voice that resembles the roar of a crowd echo through my mind, as the statue begins talking to me.


    “FATHER…”


    Oh. At least it didn''t rebel. Erm… “Yes my son?” A feeling of happiness flows over out connection as I speak.


    “WHAT IS MY PURPOSE, FATHER?”


    “To protect the island. You shall strike down any threats to this island and those inhabiting it. Do take caution when defending though. Do not attack unprovoked, the peace must be upheld.”


    “I SEE. AND MY NAME?”


    “Your name shall be Sentinel, an unwavering bulwark that deflects any attempts to harm our homeland.”


    “SENTINEL… I LIKE IT.”


    “You should rest for now my son. Conserve your energy until it is needed.”


    “I SHALL.”


    I watch the giant’s eyes dim as it goes to sleep, the bright purple spotlights turning off as it tries to conserve mana. I hope I didn''t come off badly. I''ve never been very good at conversations.