《Ento the Dungeon》 Preface & Achieving Existence CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED EXISTENCE! were LUMMI MOSS NODE LV 2 A special kind of bioluminescent moss that, unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic. Unused Stat Points: 3 Taste: 1 Toxicity: 0 Glow: 2 Spread: 1This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Growth: 0.5 HP: 3/3 Alignment: Please select EXP: 0/100 ASCEND CHANCE: .001 BENIGN FATAL LUMMI MOSS NODE LV 2 A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic. Unused Stat Points: 0 Taste: 1 Toxicity: 0 Glow: 2 Spread: 2 Growth: 2.5 HP: 3/3 Alignment: BENIGN EXP: 0/100 ASCEND CHANCE: .001 LV 1 DUNGEON Name: Empress EXP 0/145021 Size: Small Gender: Female Gaze type: Light-based Affinities: 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 Notoriety: 0 Kills: 0 MENU STATUS ABILITIES HELP LOCKED LOCKED OVERVIEW ABILITIES TOGGLE GAZE LV 1 RANK 1: You can adjust the amount of light you perceive with your primary sensory ¡®organ¡¯ to some extent. RARE UNDERSTANDING LV 1 RANK 1: You gain a certain amount of knowledge and comprehension when you encounter a being or concept for the first time. RARE UNPREDICTABLE LV 1 RANK 1: Due to not being a match for your species¡¯ compatible alignments, you have gained the ability to adjust the alignments of your colonists LV 1 BASIC ANT SPAWNER A spawner found in Dungeons; it spawns weak Ants without any specific classification that embodies the perception of the species. UNUSED STAT POINTS: 2 SIZE: 0.2 STR: 5 PWR: 1 INT: 1 DEF: 1 SPD: 3 AFFINITIES: NONE EXPAND? ALIGNMENT: PLEASE SELECT TRAITS: DUNGEON-TOUCHED ASCEND CHANCE: .001 COOLDOWN: 300 ALIGNMENT: BENIGN CHALLENGING AGGRESSIVE FATAL MENU STATUS ABILITIES HELP LOCKED LOCKED OVERVIEW To the future, from the past. 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 1/16th 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. TO THE FUTURE, FROM THE PAST, MAY THIS ONE DAY FIND THE HANDS OF THE ENVISIONED CONQUEROR, AND MAY THEY LOOK KINDLY UPON HOPE. 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-? Time to tell 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 Re-reading her status for the third time, Empress tried to figure out what the new stats she had gained meant. ((FAME)) ((INFAMY)) ((TRAITS)). Her ((UNDERSTANDING)) was silent, despite its apparent buff. ¡°((FAME))¡± ¡°((INFAMY))¡± Empress sighed, ¡°((TRAITS))¡± TRAITS: A faucet of one¡¯s personality or being that affects your actions and thoughts. Current Traits: Introspective, you spend more time within your thoughts than without. Colonist traits: Dungeon-touched, Due to the influence of a Dungeon, the colonists grow both in mind and body. ((INTROSPECTIVE)) ¡­ Did she spend more time within her mind than without? Yes, she did, but was that a good thing or a bad thing? It would make her expand slower, she wasn¡¯t constantly editing and improving her ((DOMAIN)), but she was learning so much, did it even out? She didn¡¯t know, and strangely, she realized that she didn¡¯t care, it was an interesting feeling, apathy. What was next? She still needed to look over ((REPUTATION)), but there were also still two other tabs she hadn¡¯t checked out yet. Empress hummed ¡°((MENU))¡± A larger box appeared to the right of the first one. She thought for a moment, looking over the tabs, then she picked on at random, ¡°((OVERVIEW))¡± MENU STATUS ABILITIES HELP LOCKED REPUTATION OVERVIEW OVERVIEW: A list of the CONCEPTS, PERCEPTIONS, ¡­ECT that you have learned. PERCEPTIONS: CONCEPTS VICES LOCKED EMOTIONS FEELINGS OBJECTS OTHER INFORMATION: Gazes Affinities Classes Races Nodes Retainers Alignment System Spawners Traits Evolution Ascending Speaker EXPAND? She whistled as she looked at the list, she had heard of almost all the things on the short list, all but one. ¡°((SPEAKER))¡± SPEAKER: The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. A living being, usually not of dungeon origin, that is bound and, if necessary, uplifted, by a dungeon for the purpose of communicating the dungeon¡¯s wishes to the bipedal populace. There can usually only be one Speaker at a time, although in some rare cases, there have been up to four Speakers at once. Unlike Retainers, or Contracted Monsters, Speakers do not respawn. Like Wards, Vassals and Prot¨¦g¨¦¡¯s however, they do stop aging and can easily gain affinities held by their Dungeon. Huh, she wondered if she would ever get something like that. She assumed that she would eventually, but right now it would be useless, as she had no bipeds to communicate with. She pressed ((EXPAND)), the box expanded to almost her entire field of vison, the words written on the box where small and hard to read at her current magnification, she zoomed in and skimmed the page looking for something that mentioned ¡°aging¡±, only to realize it was scrollable. She blinked audibly in frustration, going back to the start of the box picking out the ones that had caught her interest. ORC: An occasionally extinct species of sentient bipeds, they are similar in appearance to Ogres, and even are compatible breeding partners, some say that the System sequenced their CODE from the same Child of Light. Their defining characteristics are long horns, akin to a dragon, and their aptitude for chronal magic. CONTRACTED MONSTERS: A monster not born of a dungeon that gains dungeon-monster status, these are usually smarter and stronger than average dungeon-monsters, only beings that are spawned, (not born), have a soul level that is at least a minor rank 2 (semi sentient), and must not have been created by a being that is still living, (other than the System) can be contracted. Skimming a few more descriptions, Empress soon grew bored, ((OVERVIEW)) was just putting things she already knew into words, some of it was interesting, but others like the entry for ¡®ant¡¯ were useless. Perhaps in the future when she had existed for¡­ however long she had existed, she would need a review. How was Empress going to tell time? She didn¡¯t need to be able to gauge things yet, but a ¡®short¡¯ or ¡®long¡¯ amount of time could only get her so far. She paused her exploration of the ((MENU)), her mind easily switching to the new and exciting task. What was something she could use as a basis for time? She hummed happily and began to think, her ((BASIC ANT SPAWNER LV1)) had a cooldown but that was listed simply as ¡®300¡¯ but ¡®300¡¯ what, the length of time between ants was erratic, to say the least. She had almost twenty ants now, but the first couple more ¡®aware¡¯ ants, had been spawned fast than the newer ones. Empress blinked; it seemed like it ¡®300¡¯ wasn¡¯t even a measurement of time. She bobbed over to the spawner, the ((MENU)) opened, and she stared hard at the box, it somehow gave too much and too little information. Empress let her humming stop, she knew that the spawner had what she needed somewhere, she just needed to figure out how to access it. Closing the box, Empress mentally prodded the spawner, reaching out like she would to an ant, her ((UNDERSTANDING)) buzzed softly in the background. Strangely, the wall between her mind and the spawner was squishy and mailable, it was her first time experiencing the sensation and she recoiled from it. After a moment, her curiosity enflamed and she floated her ((GAZE)) closer while she steadied her mind and pushed on the barrier tentatively, she filched, expecting the enraged whirlwind like with the white forcefield, or to be quickly expelled like with the ant. Nothing happened, her mind gently pushed through the membrane. Suddenly, her ((GAZE)) seemed irrelevant, it was like she was seeing- really seeing- for the first time. The world went gold, the sea of ((MANA)) pulsed and flashed in trillions of numbers, ones, zeros, sevens, the ((CODE)) surrounded her, flowing past and through her mental projection. It was wound tightly in double helixes of pure magic. Empress froze, the world, which before had seemed complicated and mysterious seemed to have been laid at the foot of her ((CORE)), each number whispered of the enormity of existence, and her own insignificance. What was her purpose? Why did she exist over another being in her place? Why was she Empress? Questions, pulsed through her ((CORE)) to the same rhythm of the spawner¡¯s palpitations, the ((MANA)) grew thicker, coalescing into the center of the spawner. Empress followed, starstruck. The ((CODE)) began to swarm around the compressed ((MANA)). The ((MANA)) flashed through the ((CODE)), the numbers began to glow with neon light, not gold, but green, an iridescent green that was entirely familiar, yet wholly alien. The ((CODE)) rearranged into the numerical words that she knew so well, but had never seen before. SPAWNING LV 1 BASIC ANT ROLLING FOR TRAITS 36/1192 LEADER TRAIT NOT FOUND. SKILLED TRAIT NOT FOUND. LOYAL TRAIT NOT FOUND. GIANT TRAIT (SECRET) ASSIGNED ROLLING FOR MUTATIONS¡­ 5/20, NO MUTATIONS FOUND. ASSIGNING GENDER FEMALE ASSIGNING LV 1 DUNGEON-BRUTE PERSONALITY LV 1 BASIC ANT SPAWNED ((MANA)) twisted until it took form, Empress watched the ant, she watched as the first zygote began to divide, she watched as the growth exploded, cells for chitin, organs, antennae, each unique and complicated, each working a specific task that accomplished the same goal, keep the ant alive. It wasn¡¯t too different from how the ants worked for Empress. Childlike wonder and awe coursed through the ((DOMAIN)) for the first, and last, time, Empress was nothing more than a little girl, she wasn¡¯t a dungeon, but a child. She watched the ((SYSTEM)) clone the ant with the same apt attention that a child gives their father when he is fixing their favorite toy, though his work completely incomprehensible to them. Suddenly something clicked, Empress blinked. The spell that had fallen over the dungeon broke. She knew how the spawner worked. It seemed so obvious now, the spawner absorbed ((MANA)) from the air, and it turned it into an ant, that was why the ants spawned at different rates, it all depended on how much ((MANA)) was currently floating around. Her original goal of telling time came to the fore front of her mind. If Empress was able to stabilize the amount of ((MANA)), they would spawn every 300 not just when 300 had been collected. How could Empress do that? She pulled away from the spawner, her mind almost throbbing with thought. The spawner used ambient ((MANA)), which kept her from overextending her ((MANA POOL)), but it wasn¡¯t regular, and it severely lowered the amount of ants that would spawn, if the spawner could directly syphon ((MANA)) from her ((CORE)) ¡­ Her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged softly. Empress giggled. She reached into the spawner again, this time forcing herself to identify the twisting ((CODE)) around her. She rooted around the golden ocean of ((MANA)) until she found what she had been looking for. The block of ((CODE)) was larger than most of the other ones, the ebony numbers glinted as she floated past them. She reached toward one, and for a moment it flashed a shimmering yellow against the golden background. The ((MANA)) drain was burning hot and she flinched back, letting the connection sever. Empress looked at the wall of numbers, then she blinked, she squinted at them until they begrudgingly decoded themselves. Spreading out into neat lines of text, as they too, recognized her as the master of this ((DOMAIN)). Empress looked over the systematic, (which would be intelligible, so is not recorded here) she reached out and plucked a string of numbers from their perch, the words wriggled in fright, she examined them closer, careful to not activate the ((CODE)). She was dissatisfied and the ((CODE)) crumbled in her grasp. The remaining lines shrunk slightly, almost by instinct she manipulated the ((CODE)), twisting and ripping, and using the fragments to create new dialogue. The spawner began to spin faster. Something clicked together and Empress hovered back from her work, the tug on her ((MANAPOOL)) increased, a soft but constant drizzle as the energy flowed from her and into the spawner. A flash of green burned it¡¯s way through the sea of gold, it rushed toward her with inescapable speed. Empress screamed as she was enveloped in the mind of the ((SYSTEM)) Fire pulled her mind apart, each fraction of what was EMPRESS screamed, sensations that she should never have been able to feel, emotions that her kind could not replicate filled her being. She stood in the eyes of a man that floated in an endless ocean, he was not a man, however, but a tree, and the tree was filled with eyes. The tree covered all of Mazre, it was not Mazre, but everything on Mazre was the tree. She didn¡¯t have time to dwell on the image, pain rocketed through her mind, it twisted like a hot knife, tears pricked the eyes of the tree and it began to rain. Then a voice spoke, and the words where like a calming balm that drew Empress back together again. ¡°-Oh Bartholomew, you really are quite silly.¡± The voice said, ¡°Maybe, maybe not.¡± Bartholomew replied. ¡°I¡¯m not any less silly than you.¡± ¡°Ah, but you are, my horns are larger than yours, mama said that means my brain is bigger too.¡± Lumina said, ¡°The size of the brain does not matter Lummi dearest, simply the quality of it.¡± Bartholomew said, Lumina replied laughingly, but her voice grew faint, and Empress could not hear her words, instead it was replaced by the sterile coldness of the ((SYSTEM)) Your mind is unable to interface directly with the system at this stage in your development, please try again later. Her very being was surgically retracted, it was torn piece by piece from the fractal realm she had momentarily inhabited. Thick twisting invisible cords of golden ((MANA)) braided together into a single writhing mass, returning to their original form. Slowly, Empress regained control of her thoughts. She tried to remember what had happened, but her mind could not process what she had seen, instead leaving the memory as a vague lingering sensation. The last piece of her being clicked into place. Her ((GAZE)) tingled and shuddered violently. She blinked rapidly as her vision returned. Something was missing. A hollow feeling permeated the inner ring of her ((CORE)), she moved away from the spawner with a mixture of fear and disgust. What was wrong? What was missing? The world seemed dim, the rich and loamy browns and the deliberately carved caves couldn¡¯t compare to the blinding oversaturated blur that had seared itself into her mind. She ached, it was a dull ache that didn¡¯t come from her ((GAZE)) as the previous pains had, her ((CORE)) ached. Empress left the spawner room, slipping down the moss hallway and into the ((SANCTUM)). Empress looked at her ((CORE)), searching for the pain. her ((GAZE)) sunk, a crack had formed inside of the crystal, a small patch of darkness surrounded by golden light. The absence that she felt could be easily traced to the wound, she had lost part of herself. Physically, something was¡­ just gone. The strange ant sat perfectly still at the foot of the pedestal; she tilted her head in Empress¡¯ direction. The ant was posed protectively, although there was little one ant could do if an enemy attacked. Empress still found her presence relaxing. She let out a sharp and bitter laugh. Nothing had come to attack her, and yet she had already been injured, she didn¡¯t know what she had done wrong, the spawner had hurt her in a way she wasn¡¯t sure was going to heal. She took a breath to calm herself, trying to ignore the ever-present ache. She needed to do something with her life, she wondered what her purpose was, but she couldn¡¯t think of any. To grow her mind, to expand her ((DOMAIN)), but why? She decided that it didn¡¯t matter, Empress began to organize her thoughts, pushing the hazy memory away. She was not satisfied with her current existence, so she would improve it. Glancing toward the ant, she thought for a moment before speaking. ¡°Guard.¡± The ant trembled, it wasn¡¯t a ((COMMAND)), but it was something that held more power, a name. a small interlude (?) SEVEN MONTHS BEFORE THE EMERGENCE OF EMPRESS The murmur of voices drawing near caused him to tense. ((MANA)) flowed instinctively into his fingertips and warmed his clammy palms. He forced in back into his ((MANA POOL)) and took several silent breaths through his mouth. The air tasted of mildew. He was lying flat on his back on a slightly damp carpet that was more worn than the rest of the room, perhaps that was why the bed was above it. He had maybe half an inch of room on his sides, and his knuckles brushed against the rough wood of the rectangle crates that were stored beside him. He was starring directly into the hollow bedframe, which had become long ago a haven for all manner of spider, he recognized three species, although there were more than that, Gutterwailers, Dime Jumping Spiders and Sliver widows peppered the inside of the bedframe, curling webs around large dust bunnies. The door creaked open; three pairs of footsteps entered the room. ((MANA)) rushed back into his hands, he pushed it away again, any magic would be the death of him. Allucio greeted the newcomers warmly in dwarven. One of the men replied in gnomish common. ¡°Salutations, you are Allucio, correct?¡± ¡°Aye,¡± Allucio said, ¡°Might I be of service gentlemen?¡± ¡°I am Nuthian Drakcap, these are my brothers, we have been tracking down criminals by the name of Eithidien, we were told that you may be able to give us information on the three thousandth, twenty sixth born?¡± Erak flinched and held his breath. The grey text box in the corner of his vison seemed to grow a little bigger, but he ignored it. ¡°I¡¯ve been acquainted with a few of the Eithidien¡¯s,¡± Allucio deflected, ¡°I haven¡¯t seen any of them recently, what crime?¡± ¡°The line is being cleansed. They have been bred from a tragic seed.¡± Nuthian almost sounded regretful, almost. ¡°What in the name of the Eternal Goodness is that supposed to mean?¡± ¡°Erann¡¯d Eithidien has defected to the Council,¡± Nuthian¡¯s voice was monotone, Allucio was silent. ¡°¡­This is, in of its self, not the only reason,¡± Nuthian continued after a moment,¡±, but we have good intelligence that he has been given a very high rank in the army of barbarians, and, of course, there was the incident with those halfbred twins. Twins are rotten luck.¡± Erak felt blood rush in his pointed ears, the selfish dullard. Allucio began to speak and pulled Erak out of his thoughts. ¡°Last I heard of any of um¡¯ was when Erak, Erbin and Eros got drafted.¡± There was a long, calculating silence. Erak waited for Nuthian, or for his unnamed brothers, probably Navino and Neil, to call Allucio¡¯s bluff, or to accuse him of lying outright. The silence stretched on, the tension in the room grew until it infused the air like a thick blanket of smoke, Erak¡¯s chest tightened up, like he was suffocating, the smoke had decided to defy it¡¯s natural yearning for the stars to slither under the bed and steal the air from his lungs. The door flew open with a thud, air seemed to rush back into the room, along with a distinctly foresty scent. ¡°GentleElves.¡± A heavy voice said, the word seemed to carry weight itself, it was an old voice, that creaked like a squeaky board. ¡°M¡¯lord.¡± Nuthian said, Erak heard him drop to his knees, followed by three other thumps, which he guessed was Allucio and the others following his example. ¡°I am here to speak. Leave this place.¡± The voice said again, and Erak began to have a terrible suspicion on who it was. But it couldn¡¯t be, it was impossible. ¡°Of course, ((QUESTGIVER))¡± Neil said quickly, ¡°My apologizes, ((SPEAKER)).¡± Nuthian said, a bit more collected. ¡°Fair skies to you, FirstEnt.¡± Navino said, reverently. Erak felt his heart beat loudly in his chest. The door closed, and there was silence. ¡°M¡¯lord-¡° Allucio began. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Arulan.¡± The Ent said. ¡°Arulan, sir, how may I be of assistance?¡± Allucio said, ¡°For Eternal Goodness¡¯s sake stand up boy.¡± Arulan said, ¡°And tell your friend to come out from under the bed.¡± The floor creaked as Allucio stood. ¡°Erak?¡± he asked, Erak kicked an empty wooden chest and it slid across the room, light flooded into the small chamber under the bed, it didn¡¯t take long for him to wiggle out from his hiding place, although, it was rather undignified. He quickly jumped to his feet, blinking rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the bright light, he felt hot shame in his stomach. Allucio¡¯s room was like most others in the guild hall, a square shaped room with a wardrobe, a few shelves, a single window, and a rickey bed that always seemed unusually high off the ground, he had wondered about that for a long time, why the beds seemed to have so much extra space below them, he didn¡¯t wonder now, Allucio had added a few things, however. The walls were filled with paintings, they weren¡¯t of anything specifically, they seemed like random splotches of paint to Erak, but apparently, they were art. A thick bearskin was laid across the floor and hooks had been added to one of the walls, from which hung a quiver and an unstrung bow. Allucio looked like a ghost in the uncertain twilight, he was shorter than an elf, but tall for a dwarf, his skin was a marbled quartz and his eyes rubies, he was clean shaven, which his family found strange, but was a necessity, as some dungeons had adverse reactions to facial hair. He was also thinner than dwarves tended to be, but he hadn¡¯t visited a dwarven settlement for some time and found most other kinds of food bland. He wore the typical ((READER¡¯S)) garb, a white cotton shirt, thick beige pants, a dark blue jacket and heavy boots. The outfit was filled in every possible place with buttoned pockets, even the boot heels had a compartment. Arulan was tall as a giant. The eight-foot-tall Bonsai Ent looked like the figure of Myth that he was. He had a deep brown bark that was cracked and mended in many places, almost like wrinkles, his eyes were like yellow glass, or large fish eggs. Arulan did have a beard, it was green and full, made from some kind of vine, or maybe he braided it? Erak would never ask something as silly as that. His head sprouted into a crown of green branches, they were well pruned, but never gave off quiet the right look to be called hair. Leaves grew from various parts of his body, but mostly in the joints, he wore a blue and white toga that went down to his ankles. Erak brushed off his blue jacket and gave a low and professional bow, deciding against kneeling, ¡°Good eves, FirstEnt.¡± His voice was composed, even though his throat was dry, he did his best to seem dignified, ignoring the way his platinum hair was frizzed, or the way the faded lighting reflected off his sliver skin, causing him to glint. ¡°Good eves, Eithidien.¡± Arulan said, placing emphasis on his last name, then he cleared his throat. ¡°To answer your earlier question Allucio, I suppose you may be able to talk sense into your thick-skulled friend.¡± Allucio sputtered. ¡°Sir?¡± He asked, uncertain. ¡°I am here today as ((QUESTGIVER)), specifically because of him.¡± Arulan pointed a twiggy finger at Erak, who froze. ¡°I¡¯m sure you know what I mean?¡± It took Erak a moment before he was able to speak. ¡°I have received a quest.¡± He said, slowly. ¡°...of course you did¡± Allucio muttered. Erak cleared his throat. ¡°It doesn¡¯t make any sense¡­ ((TRAVEL TO ELI¡¯IN)), Eli¡¯in was destroyed when my father was a child.¡± ¡°Hmm. Everything must be crystal clear, eh? can¡¯t just accept things and get a move on.¡± Arulan seemed relatively annoyed not exactly talking to either of them, which made Allucio and Erak uncomfortable. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of Eli¡¯in, on which side of the Inth does it lay?¡± Allucio said, trying to ease the tension. ¡°You¡¯ve never-? And after that wonderful Dwarven ballad about the Eulogy¡­ the one that goes¡­ in Inth¡¯s loudest valley, ¡®neath ashes that tally, lay caverns of light¡­ No?¡± Allucio shook his head. ¡°What are they teaching these days? No one knows a lick about the Epoch of legends.¡± Arulan said, ¡°We focused on the Epoch of Myths.¡± Allucio whispered. ¡°Everyone does.¡± Arulan sighed. Then turned to Erak ¡°On another note. Erak. Pack a bag and leave. You are already going to be late.¡± Erak stared for a moment before hesitatingly asking, ¡°If I may ask sir, late for what?¡± ¡°So many questions... but I suppose¡­¡± Arulan said, ¡°You are a ((READER)) are you not? What do you expect you are meant to do?¡± ¡°How would one be late to a dungeon?¡± Erak asked, but Arulan stood up, and lifted a hand to silence him. ¡°Now, now, no time for more questions. I have to be present for the birth of a local folk hero in an hour.¡± Arulan said, turning to leave. ¡°And do hurry Erak, I¡¯d hate you to miss the excitement.¡± Arulan left, closing the door behind him. Allucio and Erak stood in silence until they were sure that Arulan couldn¡¯t hear them. Allucio finally spoke first. ¡°Damian¡¯s Beard, Erak, what have you gotten yourself into.¡± ¡°I... do not know.¡± Erak said, ¡°Where is this Eli¡¯in?¡± Allucio said, sitting down on the edge of his bed. ¡°It was in the heart of the Inth, its exact location is unknown.¡± Erak said, ¡°It was in the Inth?¡± Allucio said, surprised, ¡°No wonder it was destroyed, no civilized creatures could live in those conditions for very long, even those infernal warmongering-¡° Erak cleared his throat. ¡°From what my father said, the city itself was successful, the Orc¡¯s settled in the Inth directly after the FirstWar, a collection of scattered tribes was eventually brought together under a monarchy of powerful chronal mages.¡± ¡°Orcs? Really?¡± Allucio said, ¡°There is a road to Filadonta that was supposedly made by Orcs.¡± ¡°That¡­ is what my father said, apparently they were wiped out before he turned thirty,¡± Erak said, then his face had a dreamlike expression for a moment as he remembered the story he had been so often told in his childhood. ¡°He said that the Inth glowed red for months, it was visible even in Ladremoor, no one knew what had happened, the Knights said that it must have been in divine retribution, and none doubted them, it was only until six months later that someone had brought news that the Ogres had decimated the Orcs. He said that the local Gnomes all held a funeral feast for them.¡± ¡°They all died? How? Wouldn¡¯t they have been reintroduced?¡± Allucio asked, ¡°I¡­ am uncertain, evidently there is something happening, a thousand years late at least, but otherwise Arulan himself would not have shown up.¡± Erak said, beginning to pace in a circular motion around Allucio. ¡°Perhaps it was the One, smiting them for their sins, as He did so often for the Many.¡± ¡°Perhaps.¡± Allucio said, grimly. ¡°I hope not, for your sake, that you are not going to the burial pyre of the dammed.¡± Erak sighed, ¡°It has to be a dungeon, doesn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Arulan seemed to imply¡­¡± Allucio said, but then trailed off. ¡°I would assume so.¡± ¡°What sort of dungeon could possibly survive in the middle of the Inth? Nothing to sustain them, nowhere to expand into, they would starve, perhaps that is what he meant by me being late. Bating adventurers and ((READERS)) alike to go feed a hunger mad ((CATACOMB)). ¡°Erak.¡± Allucio said, warningly ¡°Do not speak like that.¡± Guardian 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. The orphaning of the Elive. He wasn¡¯t sure what it was that first alerted him to the attack, maybe it was the soft padding of fifteen sets of paws, or a faint growl, or maybe it was Alice, normally a quiet child, as she began to cry in his lower arms, it did not matter, all that mattered was that was the wolfkin that slunk behind him, and prepared to pounce, thinking that his blind eye was their cover, but Gawain was ready. As the first wolf sprung upon him, Gawain unsheathed his simitar with practiced smoothness, catching him in his stomach before his fangs could find his shoulder. The wolf¡¯s momentum slammed against the blade of the sword, driving its edge deep into his soft underbelly with very little effort on Gawain¡¯s part. He held Alice tightly to his chest as he drew two more of his swords. ¡°What is the reason for this treachery?¡± Gawain said, the Ogre¡¯s voice boomed, the night rippling, but the rest of his army didn¡¯t hear him over the sounds of revelry and songs. A snarling voice responded, in the slaking, raspy way of the transformed beastkin. ¡°You stall, we were promised blood, you take us from our homeland¡­ then dawdle¡­¡± Gawain turned toward the speaker, who had stepped forward, he recognized him by the white blaze on his chest. ¡°General Aegnt. If you surrender now, I will spare your pack.¡± The wolves howled in laughter. Then without warning, one of them lunged toward him, learning from the mistakes of his brother and aiming low. Gawain turned, slicing the head off the wolf with one clean stroke, far too fast to be dodged. The wolves were not laughing now. Their circle began to grow tighter, Alice screamed. Gawain tensed as struck out blindly to the left, the faint sound of paws scrapping against earth alerted him, and his simitar hit the attacking wolf with astounding force, severing his leg. He limped backward, whining in shock, the wolves snarled, and pounced. The remaining dozen or so wolves each trying to maul the ogre. There was something of a frenzied state among them as they tripped over each other, weakening their numerical advantage. Gawain cradled Alice against his chest, his deadly swords striking out at his attackers with precision and force, befitting of his title, King. A hungry maw dug into his side, unarmored in the compliancy of one who is surrounded by allies. Gawain shouted, and faltered, the wolves swarming him. He fell forward, covering the infant with his body. Fangs and paws dug into his back and limbs. Alice screamed, her voice unheard by all but her father. He couldn¡¯t see, he couldn¡¯t think beyond the exploding agony across his grey skin. It wasn¡¯t a surprise when a howl echoed through the night. To any non-canine, it sounded like the triumphant hunting cry of a wolf. To a wolf, it sounded eerie, and uncanny, like the shrill notes of a hunting bird, morphed into the cries of their people. The wolves stalled, and their ears perked up, they paused, as if deciphering its meaning, in a way, it was not too far off from the first meeting of an Orc and Ogre, or the Sol, Luna and Terra tribes, when they rarely interacted. The howl would have been the cry of a wolfkin, except, for some reason that none of them could place, it wasn¡¯t. Wolves are not cowardess animals, but perhaps, the same could not be said for the wolfkin of Aegnt. When the creature, the not wolf, barreled into their number, they scattered. Quilian was quite a bit larger than the other wolfkin, perhaps because he was not what could be called a wolfkin at all. He was tall, with greyish, almost silver fur, two large white feathered wings tipped with bronze shot out of his back, instead of front paws, he had two large talons, and instead of the thin, furred tails of the wolf, he had a feathered tail that spread out like a fan. Somewhere between a hippogriff and a bastard. He stood over Gawain, his lips curled back in challenge, his fur and feathers plucked upward. Gawain looked up, his breath coming in heavy ragged gasps. He transferred Alice to his upper right arm, and the infant cooed sympathetically when she saw her father¡¯s bloodstained state. ¡°Traitor.¡± One of the wolves growled. ¡°I cannot betray those to whom I was never loyal.¡± Quillian hissed back. The wolves where bruised, and many of them bleeding, Aegnt knew that none of them wanted to take on Quillan, in any form, he was a warrior born, as many of half breeds had to be, unable to carry on their family names by their own blood, they turned to writing their histories in the blood of their enemies. Aegnt sauntered forward, his teeth bared. ¡°Mutt.¡± He growled, his tail low, revealing his own uncertainty about his actions. ¡°leave to us our prey, go back to your deformed mistress.¡± Quillian roared at the insult, jumping toward Aegnt, his muscles rippled, and half opened his wings causing him to soar farther than the other wolfkin expected, he had bristled to meet Quilian head on, but he realized his mistake and began to turn. It was already to late, as he landed behind Aegnt, digging his talons into his flanks and gripping onto him like a mountain lion. Aegnt growled and snapped behind him, the other wolves were stunned for a moment, before they made their decisions, the older ones, and the ones injured fled, while a two of the yearlings, who had been whelped on the warpath, and were eager to increase their standing in the pack and fuel their thirst for blood, stayed. Aegnt bucked, trying to throw Quillian off him. The half-breed growled and lunged for Aegent¡¯s throat. One of the yearlings yipped to his littermate, and they crept toward Gawain, still struggling to regain his footing. Aegnt dodged lightly and tackled Quilian, his wings leaving him slightly unbalanced as they tumbled. Quillan¡¯s claws dug at Aegnt¡¯s underbelly, but Aegnt was able to find purchase around Quillan¡¯s neck. They rolled, neither getting the upper hand as they kicked and tried to get a stronger hold on the other. One of the yearlings pounced on Gawain, his swords had been long since lost, but the king let out a strangled cry and grabbed the small wolf, his four arms gripped the yearlings throat from each direction and crushing. The other yearling barked and watched for a moment, before lowering his tail between his legs and fleeing. The wolf went limp of Gawain¡¯s hands and he dropped it. Quillian spread his wings as he rolled, the wing caught them and he dug his talons into Aegnt¡¯s chest as he began to beat the air furiously. Aegnt realized what he was going to do and tried to release his bite on Quillan¡¯s neck, but he was too late. Quillian took to the air. They lifted, Aegnt tried to howl surrender, but Quillian didn¡¯t hear him, or he chose not to. Quillian floated above the campsite for a moment, his wings beating heavily. The rest of the army finally noticed the scuffle, the wolves silhouetted in the bonfire. Quillian let Aegnt drop. The wolf fell, he screamed, not howled, but screamed, a sound unfamiliar to his beast form¡¯s throat. He writhed in the air before hitting the ground and going still. Quillian spiraled downward. He regarded Aegnt¡¯s corpse for a moment, the wolf had started to shift into his man form. It was an unnatural transformation, slow and stiff. Quillian looked away. Gawain stood, Alice clutching to his chest, his shirt had been ripped to shreds, his grey skin was a patchwork of red, the bite in his side was the worse, it was far too deep, and was bleeding far too much, but Gawain stood, and he stood firm. ¡°Sir!¡± Quillian said, trotting over to him and quickly shifting to his man form, which didn¡¯t change much about his appearance, except for the fact that he now stood on two legs, and his armor had materialized from H?mur¡¯s space. Gawain looked the half wolf up and down, it didn¡¯t take him long to remember his name, beastkin rarely mated outside of their respective tribes. ¡°Quillian. Where is the elf?¡± Gawain¡¯s voice was strong, although it strained slightly. ¡°Aren? ¡­With the others I suppose¡± Quillian asked, ¡°He is not a healer, he isn¡¯t even that good of a mage.¡± ¡°I do not need him to be a healer.¡± Gawain said, ¡°¡­sir.¡± Quillian said, looking once more at his wounds. It almost seemed that the infant Alice gave Quillian a somber, almost regretful look. ¡°Come along then boy.¡± Gawain said, his voice was beginning to falter as he began to limp in the direction of the bonfire. After some raucous debate around the campfire, a young sliverling had been sent to check on to outcome of the fight, between the wolfkin and the mutt so that bets could be properly collected. The spiderkin cautiously walked closer to the tents, his eight legs carefully feeling along the ground. He smelt blood in the air, but that was no surprise. Before the silverling ever reached the tents, his many eyes widened and he scuttled back to the bonfire, shouting for a medic.Stolen story; please report. It was not long after that the Ogre King came limping into the circle of revelers. There was silence, it is hard to silence a group as large as that one. It is hard to silence any group of soldiers, much less ones of this side of the Inth, but they were silent. Silent as the betrayal that had snuck into their ranks. ¡°Elf!¡± Gawain barked, there was no doubt in who he meant, there was only one. Aren pushed his way through the crowd. The elf had short platinum blond hair cropped to his pointed ears, his blue eyes cut through the crowd and his silver skin glinted in the firelight. ¡°M¡¯lord?¡± Gawain shoved Alice into Aren¡¯s arms. Then, in a booming voice, he said. ¡°I, King Gawain Alume, declare Erann¡¯d Eithidien as the warden of my child, and the guardian of my throne until Alison comes of age.¡± There was the sudden shout of protest from the braver of the crowd. Gawain roared at them, and they were silent. He turned to Aren, and put a hand on his shoulder, before whispering in elvish that Aren didn¡¯t know he could speak. ¡°There are enemies in my ranks. Trust no one except the wolf and his muse.¡± Aren didn¡¯t have the chance to respond, because Gawain collapsed the moment he finished speaking. A goblin rushed past Aren, searching the King for a pulse, he didn¡¯t find one, and loudly declared him dead. Alison Hope did not cry. The Orc merely stared up at Aren pensively. The elf was suddenly aware of how adult her eyes looked. She had the eyes of an elder elf, someone who had lived far to many lives. Aren turned around, and walked away from the corpse of Gawain. He did not have time to mourn, not when he could feel Durn staring daggers into his back, and was certain that if he was not careful they would become iron and slip between his ribs. He tasted water on the air and wrinkled his nose. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The new tunnel was built, but¡­ now what? The builders didn¡¯t look tired, in fact they seemed more energized than they had before, she hummed slightly, what was the next project? Empress didn¡¯t like how exposed her ((CORE)) felt, even with Guard keeping watch, she didn¡¯t really have any defenses, she could make another room, but what was she going to use it for? The beginnings of a plan began to form in her mind, she mused for a moment, before turning to Builder ¡°She tells you to create a Storeroom.¡± Empress didn¡¯t ((COMMAND)) her this time, she didn¡¯t have the ((MANA)), and wanted to see if the leader ant would be able to understand her without it. Builder stared at Empress for a while, then she clacked at her crew and they began to dig, this time, instead of the straight tunnel, they began to expand horizontally. She giggled, her mind was racing now, Gatherer had begun bringing in all sorts of new things, she had been absorbing them all without a second thought, but now she would be able to keep them somewhere, did her ants need to eat? She paused for a moment, before deciding that, it was probably fine, and they would eat if they needed to, she would have a place to put food now at least. Next, she opened her ((MENU)) ¡°SKILLS.¡± MENU STATUS SKILLS HELP LOCKED REPUTATION OVERVIEW TOGGLE GAZE LV 1 RANK 1: You can adjust the amount of light you perceive with your primary sensory ¡®organ¡¯ to some extent. RARE UNDERSTANDING LV 2 RANK 1: You gain a certain amount of knowledge and comprehension when you encounter a being or concept for the first time. RARE UNPREDICTABLE LV 1 RANK 1: Due to not being a match for your species¡¯ compatible alignments, you have gained the ability to adjust the alignments of your colonists. Why where ((SKILLS)) called ((SKILLS?)), other than ((TOGGLE GAZE)) she hadn¡¯t really learned them, she wasn¡¯t sure if they had always been there, or if she had gained them somehow, she tried to remember when she had used ((UNDERSTANDING)) for the first time, it¡­ couldn¡¯t have been that long ago, but her mind drew a blank. Empress¡¯s glow faded slightly. ¡°Help,¡± she said MENU STATUS SKILLS HELP LOCKED REPUTATION OVERVIEW Edit Menu order: Edit Menu color: Edit Menu style: Auditory messages: off Volume: 100% Brightness: 32% If you need elaboration or assistance, say ¡°Help (your problem here)¡± Empress hummed. ¡°Help Memory¡± MEMORY 1 the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. 2 something remembered from the past; a recollection. She blinked, that didn¡¯t explain anything, ¡°Help¡­ ((UNDERSTANDING))¡± UNDERSTANDING A skill some beings can gain at birth/emergence/spawn that allows them to instantly learn varying amounts of information about a concept, object, or being when they first encounter it, or learn more about a concept, object or being as they become more familiar with it, the amount of knowledge depends on the level of the skill. Empress huffed and her light surged. It almost being stubborn. CONGRATULATIONS UNDERSTANDING HAS REACHED LEVEL 3. UNDERSTANDING LV 3 RANK 1: You gain some amount of knowledge and comprehension when you encounter a being or concept for the first time. RARE Empress shot back, how had she-? Had using ((HELP)) given her EXP somehow? Was it because she had specifically used ((HELP)) on ((UNDERSTANDING))? Or did she gain it gradually, and it was a coincidence? ¡°Help EXP.¡± EXPERIENCE POINTS The numerical value of how much work must be done before one becomes significantly better at using a skill, when enough points are gained, a level is achieved Experience Points can be gained by either practicing the skill one wishes to level up, or through doing related tasks that may in some way increase the comprehension of the skill. Levels can also be bought or given by beings of high authority. EXP is added to a beings overall level when they level up a skill or do a significant task. So then, did ((HELP)) count as a related task? Or did it give her comprehension? Could she level up her other skills in the same way? Would she gain EXP for ((TOGGLE GAZE RANK 1 LEVEL 1)) by just looking around? What about ((UNPREDICTABLE)), how was she supposed to level that skill? How did you buy levels? Empress hummed, and floated over to the moss node, she had another idea, something that had floated up from her ((UNDERSTANDING)) leveling. The moss hadn¡¯t spread much, she could tell that it had spread which was good. Gardener was hard at work planting pads of moss around the hallway, and they had already begun to root themselves into the walls. LUMMI MOSS Node LV 2 A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic. Unused Stat Points: 0 Taste: 1 Toxicity: 0 Glow: 2 Spread: 2 Growth: 2.5 HP: 3/3 Alignment: BENIGN EXP: 0/100 ASCEND CHANCE: .001 She blinked, how to do this? If she could give ((MANA)) to the ants, could she give it to the moss as well? Runner dashed past her with a green bough of a tree in her mandibles, and a moment later Empress absorbed it and felt the surge of ((MANA)). Reaching out mentally toward the text box Empress pushed. She felt ((MANA)) swirl inside her ((CORE)) and slowly make its way to her ((GAZE)), and she focused on the link trying to force the unwieldly element to bend to her will. It was like ((CODING)) but instead of going through the ((MANA)) she reached out to ((THE SYSTEM)) her former fears completely forgotten. The text box glowed brightly as the ((MANA)) fed in to it, the light kept growing in intensity, a high-pitched whine filled the air. Empress felt her ((MANA POOL)) emptying and she was about to cut off the link when a small crack began to form in the corner of the box, it quickly began to expand, and the words began to shake on the grey backdrop. Then the box exploded in a raw surge of ((MANA)). Shards of grey glassy material shot throughout the hallway, vanishing before they contacted anything. Empress yelped and flew backward; the cavern was suddenly illuminated by the excess energy, the light seemed to be delayed slightly. Then it collapsed in on itself and the ((MANA)) vanished. CONGRATULATIONS!! YOUR LUMMI MOSS NODE HAS LEVELED UP. CONGRATULATIONS!! YOUR LUMMI MOSS NODE HAS LEVELED UP. CONGRATULATIONS!! YOUR LUMMI MOSS NODE HAS LEVELED UP. Empress blinked rapidly as her ((GAZE)) readjusted to the darkness. Three grey text boxes floated in front of her, each saying the same thing. It took her a moment to understand what they said and when she finally wrapped her ((CORE)) around it, she cautiously floated toward the moss node again, opening its ((MENU)) LUMMI MOSS Node LV 5 A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic. Unused Stat Points: 6 Taste: 1 Toxicity: 0 Glow: 2 Spread: 2 Growth: 2.5 HP: 3/3 Alignment: BENIGN EXP: 15/100 ASCEND CHANCE: .003 Oh. Empress bobbed up and down nervously, oh she did something. The dungeon poked at the box gently, bopping it with her ((GAZE)), it wobbled slightly, but didn¡¯t move. Alright then, it didn¡¯t seem broken. She thought for a moment then divvied up her stat points LUMMI MOSS Node LV 5 A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic. Unused Stat Points: 0 Taste: 2 Toxicity: 0 Glow: 3 Spread: 4 Growth: 4.5 HP: 3/3 Alignment: ((BENIGN)) EXP: 0/100 Tears that drown Empress watched with childlike glee as the latest group of ants returned to her ((DOMAIN)), at first, she had been nervous and fidgety when they started leaving, but it soon became apparent that the rewards outweighed the risks. The first ant appeared in the entrance with a branch in her mandibles, it was green and leaking sap with several leaves still attached at the end. The other ants soon followed her through the entrance, they carried their finds further into the entrance hallway where Gatherer was waiting. The squad of gatherers after depositing their load, returned to the outside, never taking a moment to rest as the light slowly began to fade outside. The runners began to move the materials to where they would be needed, the branches were to be absorbed and the random plants and such were given to the gardeners, four ants that had started following Gardener and where¡­ erm¡­ pollinating? Yeah, pollinating, the moss. Empress wasn¡¯t sure what they were doing, but it was making the moss grow faster, it had almost overtaken its entire hallway now and the gardeners were keeping it from spreading further than that, they had also made some nice paths on the roof and walls so that runners would stop trampling the moss. They hadn¡¯t been able to grow any of the plants from outside yet, Empress guessed it might be because of the lack of natural light. Gardener wasn¡¯t the only one who had attracted followers. Guard now had a posse of fifteen ants, they where all Majors, like her, and the size of her group was only seconded to Builder, who now had thirty ants in her crew. Empress followed the runners back into the spawner room, then watched them head back to the ((SAFE_ROOM)) to pick up another load. She glanced at Builders progress, the storage room was going well, then she turned to the Nameless One. Empress hummed softly in thought, and then she bobbed closer to the ant. The nameless leader ant was different than the others, a new ant spawned, the two touched antennae, then she doused the new ant in a specific pheromone and off she went to Gatherer. Empress ((PEERED)) into the leader ant. BASIC LV 1 ANT STR: 3 CON: 7 INT: 10 WIZ: 2 DEX: 1 CHAR: 1 HP: 5/5 SELL FORCE LEVEL UP EVOLVE GO TO SPAWNER Empress bobbed up and down as she read her options, she only had vague ideas of what the stats meant, and she didn¡¯t know how good or how bad those numbers were, 10 seemed big and 1 seemed small, that was straightforward, but the details escaped her, the spawner had much lower numbers, was that why this ant was a leader? Because she had high stats? she decided not to worry about it and revisit it later. The options below the stats were much more interesting anyway. ((FORCE LEVEL UP)) was a new option that seemed to be in response to her experiment with the moss, she wasn¡¯t sure if she unlocked the option or if the ((SYSTEM)) was enacting some kind of patch, but the only thing that mattered was that the option was there, the price to level a single ant was much lower than what she expected, but then again it was just one ant, embarrassingly, even with Gatherers efforts her ((MANA POOL)) was still nearly empty, the price to maintain her colony was only growing. The third option was the one that was the most interesting to Empress was ((EVOLVE)), mostly because she didn¡¯t know what it was, her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged, but it only gave her a foggy glimpse about affinities and upgrades. Empress did have another option, however, ¡°HELP ((EVOLVE))¡± EVOLVE An option to gain an increase in power that differs from your current class due to affinities. Familiars or Bound Creatures can be evolved based on the affinity of their Handler, although the cost is normally high, in Dungeons, evolution means that a Dungeon colonist would typically become either a Boss or a Retainer and has the chance to gain a random affinity based on the spawner¡¯s affinity% ¡°So.¡± Empress said aloud, ¡°It seems like she has something new to play with, hm?¡± The nameless leader ant looked up at her voice and clacked her mandibles, Empress ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged and she realized just how strange that behavior was. ¡°HELP ((RETAINERS)).¡± RETAINERS Retainers are powerful Dungeon colonists that have increased stats and intelligence, they also have a level of control over the lower-level colonists as well as the ability to respawn. The number of Retainers a Dungeon has is often based on the personality of the Dungeon. A Dungeon that expands quickly but grows slowly tends to have fewer Retainers, while fast-growing Dungeons tend to have more. This is because only colonists with certain traits can become Retainers Empress hummed, and glanced back at the status for the nameless leader ant. It didn¡¯t show any traits, but she remembered when she had tried ((CODING)), there were traits, she prodded the box with her mind, mentally demanding that it fixes its mistake, there was an electric feeling and the bottom text fuzzed for a moment, before a sentence was added. TRAITS: Dungeon-Born, Dungeon-Touched, Noble Blood, Hive Mind She blinked, slightly annoyed at the lack of information, but then she realized that the words seemed to pull away from the text box a little, interested she looked closer at the list of traits, instantly they expanded to include descriptions. Dungeon Born: A trait gained by beings born in a Dungeon, allows the creature to interact with and understand the Dungeon and other Dungeon Born regardless of species or language. Dungeon Touched: A trait gained by beings tethered to a Dungeon. Allows the Dungeon to interact with the being¡¯s Status while the being is tied to the Dungeon¡¯s mana pool. Noble Blood (MONSTER): A trait assigned at birth/spawn/emergence of ENTO class monsters that have high INT that grants them a higher level of awareness and ingenuity, along with an increased life span. Hive Mind (ENTOPATHIC, MONSTER, TIED TO NOBLE BLOOD): A trait assigned at birth/spawn/emergence of ENTO class monsters that live in large groups. Removes individuality of weaker monsters in exchange for perfect harmony and efficiency. When in combination with Noble traits, allows high level monsters to gain the Royal title. Royal? She thought, how would she go about acquiring one? Her mind was instantly a buzz with ideas, royalty appealed to her greatly, perhaps it was baked into her ((CORE)), she was Eli''Vera after all. Quickly she opened her ((STATUS)) 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 5 Spawners: Basic Ant LV 1 Retainers: None Alignment: _____ System message type: Glass based Communication type: auditory Spawner orientation: Visual Traits: IntrospectiveThis story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Traits (EXPANDED): Brood Mother, Ennobling Hand, Conquerors blessing Notoriety: 0 Fame: 0 Infamy: 0 Kills: 0 A trill of excitement rushed through her; she opened the descriptions of the new traits. Brood Mother (ENTOPATHIC, MONSTER, RULER): A trait gained by ENTOPATHIC females when they gain supreme control over a Hive Mind, the Hive cannot be lost after this trait is gained, except in the case of Brood Masters, when in control of multiple Hives this trait evolves into Brood Master. Ennobling Hand (TIED TO BROOD MOTHER): A trait gained alongside Ruler traits, allows for offspring to gain a random Noble trait. Allows for named monsters to gain the Noble Blood trait. Conquerors Blessing (DUNGEON): Unique trait that may be randomly assigned to Dungeons with both BENIGN and VIOLENT in their personality type, trait will be lost if either BENIGN or VIOLENT are removed from personality type. This trait saps the energy of any HOSTILE or ENEMY beings in the domain of the Dungeon, while it infuses energy into any PEACEFUL or ALLY beings. Empress seemed to freeze for a moment, there were many new words and concepts in her expanded trait list, and her ((UNDERSTANDING)) whirled into action because of them. Information planted itself in her ((CORE)), then bloomed and sent out tendrils made of questions or idea spores that floated around her consciousness without answer, it took the soft scuttle of a new ant spawning to snap her out of her mental reverie. She ordered her mind and chose a question that she found most interesting. Apparently, she was both ((BENIGN)), and ((VIOLENT)). She knew of ((BENIGN)) the ((ALIGNMENT)), but this was different, after all ((VIOLENT)) wasn¡¯t quite an ((ALIGNMENT)) either. Personality type, why wasn¡¯t that in her ((STATUS))? It seemed important, but even after searching through her memories and absorbed information, she couldn¡¯t find another mention of it. How strange, besides Empress didn¡¯t think of herself as particularly violent. She wasn¡¯t sure if ((ENNOBLING HAND)) counted as a ((NOBLE)) trait, it could give them, but did that mean she could gain the ((ROYAL)) title? What do titles even do? Other than her initial attraction toward the concept, she had no reason to pursue something like that. ¡°HELP ((TITLES))¡± TITLES:
  1. A verbal or written mark of rank or renown given to a being.
  2. A verbal or written mark of blessing or curse that grants or takes power from its holder.
Titles can be gained through acts of great significance, assigned at birth due to blood, or they can be given by powerful beings. Empress briefly wondered if she counted as a powerful being. What would count as a powerful being? She hesitated before speaking again. ¡°HELP ((BOSS))¡± BOSSES Bosses are powerful monsters that can be found naturally or in Dungeons, Boss Monsters are typically huge and guard powerful treasures. In the wild, bosses gain their title from defeating powerful foes. In Dungeons, bosses are bought and normally stay in a boss room or on a specific floor, they are powerful tests of combat skill and unlike natural bosses, respawn after a day or so. Empress bobbed her ((GAZE)), she didn¡¯t think she had space for something considered huge, at least not yet, she figured that she would get one eventually, but right now she needed something more multipurpose. ((RETAINERS)) perhaps? she hovered over the ((EVOLVE)) option to see the requirements. EVOLVE LV 1 BASIC ANT BOSS REQUIREMENTS: LV 5+ (NOT MET) AT LEAST (1) STAT ABOVE (10) (NOT MET) BOSS ROOM SMALL (NOT MET) 1X UNCOMMON LOOT (NOT MET) RETAINER REQUIREMENTS: LV 3+ (NOT MET) AT LEAST (3) STATS ABOVE (5) (NOT MET) 1X AFFINITY Empress whistled, lv 3 and stats would be easy enough with the ((FORCE LEVEL UP)) as long as skill points stayed consistent, but an affinity? How would she get this ant an affinity? She knew that the spawner had a tab for affinities, but how did she get EXP for it? Her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged and she shook her ((GAZE)). She groaned aloud and the unnamed leader ant looked at her with confusion. ¡°It¡¯s fine, she says!¡± Empress encouraged and the ant went back to her work of assigning new ants to their jobs. She floated over to the ((BASIC ANT SPAWNER LV 1)) just as another group of gatherers returned, they clacked to her in greeting and she grunted in response. She opened the spawner menu and flicked to the affinities tab. AFFINITIES: Affinities determine what kind of abilities a being can gain. To gain affinities, a being could have a deep understanding of the affinity, and gain the affinity due to species, location, or magical items and plants. ((LV 1 BASIC ANT SPAWNER)) can gain the affinities ENTO: 59% (+50% due to Dungeon-Touched trait) HEAL: 12% PSY: 3% FIRE: 0% NATURE: 0% WATER: 0% ELEC: 0% LIFE: 0% DEATH: 0% ((EXPAND?)) Empress bobbed thoughtfully; the percentages had gone up since last time, she wasn¡¯t sure what had made them rise, but she supposed that there was nothing else she could do for now. Her ((MANA)) shot up slightly as she absorbed some brambles and she suddenly had an idea. Empress¡¯s ((CORE)) pulsed as she stared at the round hole doorway, she reached into herself and found¡­ wood. A dark collection of branches that she had absorbed and converted into pure ((MANA)), she focused on the doorway trying to force the ((MANA)) to return to its original shape, then the ((SYSTEM)) chimed. WOULD YOU LIKE TO CREATE ¡°ROUGH MIXED WOOD DOORFRAME¡±? YES NO Sighing thankfully, and pressing ¡°YES¡± ((MANA)) drained from her pool and a doorframe began to form out of thin air, the result was two thick knotted logs of a pale and dark wood blend wedged into the doorway, which now seemed slightly bigger, and atop them, was a similar but smaller log that was cut to link with the others, it was slightly crooked, but it was sturdy and gave the ((SAFEROOM)) the feel of a real room. She was out of wood now; however, she would like to add doorways to the entrances and exits of each room, then maybe some support beams. She paused her bobbing movement and turned to Gatherer, ¡°Gather wood, she says.¡± Empress said, Gatherer clacked in response and scuttled away. YOUR STOREROOM LV 1 HAS BEEN COMPLETED. THE ROOMS TAB HAS BEEN UNLOCKED Empress¡¯s ((GAZE)) shot half a HA in the air as the box appeared, she sighed in relief as she read it, then she floated with barely contained excitement over to the spawner room, then to the hallway that attached the new storeroom to the rest of her ((DOMAIN)). She floated, bobbing up and down erratically, the storeroom was much like the other rooms in the Dungeon, a small room carved out of a dirt hole in the ground, the ceiling was a bit lower than the other rooms, but the room was wider and had divots carved in the walls that could be used as shelving, on the floor there were three shallow collection pits. Some builders milled around the new room, evening out parts of the wall. Empress reached out with her mind, feeling for Builder, then she ((COMMANDED)) a new hallway be built parallel to the moss hallway. She felt Builder begin to rally her crew then she opened her ((MENU)) and selected ((ROOMS)) MENU STATUS SKILLS HELP ROOMS REPUTATION OVERVIEW ROOMS SANCTUM LV 1 ¨C a small room containing the ((CORE)) of a Dungeon without much grandeur or protection. Spawning chamber LV 1 ¨C A small room for spawning colonists inside a Dungeon. Safe room LV 1 ¨C A medium-sized room near the beginning of a Dungeon so that adventurers may catch their bearings before taking on the Dungeon. Storeroom LV 1 ¨C a small room for holding food, weapons, and other supplies in a Dungeon. Room limit 3/5 (+1) Available rooms: LV 1 Moss Garden LV 1 Boss room (empty) LV 1 Graveyard LV 1 Nursery LV 1 Sleeping chamber LV 2 Safe room LV 1 Empty room LOCKED (unlocked by gaining knowledge) LOCKED (unlocked by gaining knowledge) LOCKED (unlocked by gaining knowledge) LOCKED (unlocked by gaining knowledge) EXPAND? Before she could investigate further, something else grabbed her attention. A soft cool feeling, something new has found its way into her domain. Empress closed the text box and floatd over to the entrance, curiosity propelling her. A clear liquid driped over the edge of the white forcefield, slowly at first, but constantly picking up speed. Water slid off the ledge and over the small cliff, dropping into the entrance hallway proper. Gatherers began to rush into the cave, most of them not laden with any resources, the water continues to leach forward. Empress hums thoughtfully, she pinged the ants to evacuate the entrance hallway, which was quickly turning into a river, as more water filled the dungeon, the farther back the ants crept. The water filled the pit in the saferoom, it seemed to slow down for a moment, then water erupted from the entrance. Empress screamed, the entire colony ran for their lives. The ants all began to dash for the ((SANCTUM)) crawling on the floors, ceilings, and walls, the water wasn¡¯t clear anymore as it eroded the soft earthen walls of the cave, and it only came faster, the flood slowed as it reached the spawner room and had to split it¡¯s between the way to the storeroom and the way to the ((SANCTUM)). Empress flinched as many of the builder ants who had been working on the newest hallway began to drown. She felt them die. The water uprooted the moss and the muddy waves flashed green and cast bulbous shadows on the walls, it swept up the slowest of the ants in its unrelenting downpour, and it reached out to the ((SANCTUM)) with infinite greedy hands and ravenous hunger. The water rushed through the doorway; the ants began to swarm the pedestal hoping to protect the ((CORE)) with their water-logged corpses. Empress didn¡¯t quite breathe, but there is no other word for it, and that breath enveloped the ((SANCTUM)) then she inhaled, and the water began to be absorbed into the ((CORE)). it started off slow at first, barely stopping the water from overtaking the pedestal, but as time went on the waves were pushed back farther and farther until it hardly seemed like any water was entering the ((SANCTUM)). ((MANA)) saturated the air of the ((SANCTUM)), power pulsed through ever molecule as the water was absorbed, the ants wriggled and began to change, not by much, a slightly longer antenna, or a darker color, the leaders grew a little larger, not by much, but they changed, the ((CORE)) began to change as well, it grew larger and more gemlike, inside the depths of the crystal swirling dots formed, it sat upright like a golden tear drop instead of the thin oval it had been before; it thickened and gained depth and it seemed like it would grow too large for the pedestal that it sat upon. The water continually tried to push its way into the ((SANCTUM)) the water pressure growing with the torrential rains¡¯ intensity; however, it made no leeway, and Empress could not block its flow so they sat at a stalemate. Empress focused solely on absorbing the water as she felt her ((DOMAIN)) being torn apart, she felt each ant life that winked out of existence, she did her best to ignore the feeling of being ripped apart as the water eroded her walls. The moss node was swept up and almost seemed to be thrown into the ((SANCTUM)), where the gardeners quickly swarmed it. Waterlogged Guard was standing stiff-legged, she felt sore and exhausted just standing still, trying her best not to tremble, she was staring death in the face, The Tempest, she wrung her antenna nervously but refused to move from her post at the entrance to the ((SANCTUM)). She peered out into the murky waters as they raged against the Empress¡¯ might. She stood strong so that her guards would see that there was nothing to fear, so that no ant would lose faith in the Empress. Guard did not have nearly as much faith in herself as she did in her Dungeon. Most of the other ants were crowded along the back of the newly expanded ((SANCTUM)). Huddling together for warmth, comfort, and protection, you couldn¡¯t see the walls or the roof, so tightly they were packed, just a squirming sea of brown and black bodies. The nearer you got to the door of the ((SANCTUM)) the smaller the crowd, mostly, it was her guards, who she had commanded to surround the ((CORE)), and the other leaders who were meeting as far away from the others as they could, fear of the water not penetrating as deeply in their named minds. Guard had no interest in joining in the petty arguments, she was a general, and the enemy was directly in front of her, when they needed her to march, she would be given her orders. The Tempest swirled, and for a moment, Guard thought she saw something in the dark waves. She took a step forward without even realizing it, yes¡­ there was something there, Guard strained her eyes as a large blob rushed toward the entrance, it spun in the tide and was only visible near pockets of the quickly fading light given off by the destroyed moss. She gave no indication that she saw it and steadied herself, it would vanish, just like everything else, it grew closer, Guard clenched her mandibles, the Empress would protect her, and she would protect the Empress. The object burst out of the water and the built-up pressure flung it into the tightly packed collection of ants in the back of the ((SANCTUM)). Guard spun around and hissed to her guard, letting out a heavy blanket of warning. The crowd scattered and with a quick spritz of orders, the guards circled the foreign object. Guard pushed her way past the frantic group, the major¡¯s large mandibles snapping at the terrified colonists, as she reached the circled-off area, her guards opened a way for her. She touched antennae with those she passed and it only made her more worried, she finally came into view of the foreign object. Guard lowered her antenna and stepped back; her mandibles hung open. She stared not knowing what else to do. The ant was bloated and scentless. Her abdomen was ripped open, thick hemolymph oozed out of even the most superficial wound, her fourth leg dangled and contorted, while a few others were missing entirely, and her antenna had snapped, cripplingly her for the rest of her life, even if she had survived, the ant would be unable to communicate properly. A rough jagged crack had formed right down the middle of her left mandible. Guard clicked her mandibles nervously and she turned an antenna toward her guards who were holding the circle unsteadily, wanting to leave the scent of hemolymph behind them but not daring to disobey Guard¡¯s orders. She turned to leave when she saw something out of the corner of her eye- she instantly turned around and took a step closer. The ant had twitched. It was barely a movement, and one fractured antenna moved. Guard stepped forward and reached out with her antenna, she felt the ant¡¯s muscles twisting, and she felt the intense effort it took for her just to twitch her uninjured antenna. The ant¡¯s ((MENU)) didn¡¯t come up. ¡°SAFE ROOM!¡± Guard screamed, her scent glands excreting a thick mist of peril. Instantly the three ants materialized from the crowd, pushing their way through the dazed colonists, and dashing into the circle, they shared no scent with Guard and instead, the trio swarmed their patient. Saferoom instantly addressed the large cut on the abdomen, she called her nurses to push the exoskeleton tightly in place over the insides. It was messy but the loose flap of chitin was soon pulled back into place to the best of their ability, Saferoom leaned over the cut and gagged, a thin line of thick white salvia dripped out of her mouth and onto the cut, it quickly hardened and glued the severed chitin back to the abdomen. Saferoom repeated this procedure until the entire cut was sealed, the sticky hemolymph only reinforced the stitch, hardening when it touched the saliva. Nurse 1 gently realigned the patient¡¯s mangled legs, while Nurse 2 sealed off her ragged stumps. Saferoom touched the patient¡¯s antennae comfortingly, knowing that the antennae was too damaged to register the movement, and she clicked her mandibles. Saferoom swallowed, she looked into the ants¡¯ eyes- she could see that vague awareness that held the leaders above the other ants in those dim black beads. This was her little sister, and the first time she was able to meet her, she was going to die. Saferoom began to patch up the smaller wounds, but she knew that the thing that was really going to kill Stocker was the bleeding on the inside, her internal organs had been slapped around and smushed, and Saferoom didn¡¯t know how to save her. Guard didn¡¯t Speaker her concerns about this being the first serious injury that the de facto medical crew had dealt with, instead, she turned toward her guards, away from the gory scene. She walked up the circle of majors and focused on walking in a straight line. As she reached the border the circle opened and Guard saw pandemonium, the entire colony was scattered around the ((SANCTUM)), dozens of frantic pheromones filled the air, and ants shouldered past and over other ants. ¡°Keep the circle up until they are finished, then mingle a bit, I don¡¯t want to be caught by surprise again- understand?¡± Guard said, excreting more confidence than she felt as she addressed her guards. She didn¡¯t wait for a response and simply began to scuttle with a purpose toward where she had last seen the other leaders. The idea of conversation suddenly much more appealing. Guard had to force herself not to run. She needed to get away. The crowd scattered when she walked toward them, most of the colony had already started to huddle together again. Guard was surprised at how many runners she saw compared to the other two support classes, normally the runners would be dwarfed by the sheer size of the builders, and although only Gatherer really knew how many gatherers there were, she was certain that there were more than she was seeing. The crowd thinned as Guard got closer to the entrance, the colonists already starting to scurry away from the wall of water, the ring of guards was already lost to the crowd, the tight nit bodies at least blocked the metallic smell of the hemolymph. ¡°Guard! over here!¡± Runner shouted; she was a decent distance and the scent didn¡¯t easily spread through the noisy air. Guard turned and squinted toward the source of the pheromones then she began to follow it, picking her way through the overcrowded ((SANCTUM)), until she came to the point where her sisters sat in council, the worker ants avoided the spot out of respect and it was mostly clear of others, the five other leader ants were deep in conversation. Runner stood up and trotted up to her, offering an antenna. Guard reached out with her own and then she greeted the others. The group shifted slightly and made room for Guard, she laid down next to Gatherer, allowing her large head to rest on the floor, her neck instantly felt relief, she had been growing lately, and her muscles and exoskeleton hadn¡¯t caught up. She looked at her sisters, they had been growing as well. ¡°Why did you need Saferoom?¡± The nameless one asked, her abdomen seemed larger, and strangely, two bumps had appeared on her shoulder blades. ¡°You didn¡¯t, see?¡± Guard said loudly, recoiling in shock, ¡°An ant- she got shot into the ((SANCTUM)) through the wall of water- she was still alive¡­ partially. She must have gotten caught in one of the other rooms, how she survived so long without drowning is unknown.¡± She slumped for a moment before straightening, images of the pale fleshy insides blaring in her mind. ¡°I came here to inform you of the situation and to be debriefed.¡± ¡°¡®ell, then, the headcount came up 17 short, now 16, I guess, mostly my girls. 9 of um, drowned, I guess- lost a few gatherers, and the new one is missing¡­ I guess you wouldn¡¯t know ¡®bout her either.¡± Builder said, she shrugged and lowered her head, she seemed redder than before, thicker too, but stout and short. Guard¡¯s antenna drooped, that put the colony down to¡­ 76? She wasn¡¯t entirely sure. ¡°New one?¡± ¡°There was an 8th,¡± Gardener said somberly, she looked a little green, although, she always looked a little green. ¡°Poor dear, only a few cycles old, perhaps she was the one who made it.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Guard said she didn¡¯t meet Gardener¡¯s eyes, she didn¡¯t want to disappoint her, even if the 8th was the injured ant, Guard doubted that she would ¡®make it¡¯ ¡°We need a plan.¡± Gatherer said, her mandibles twitching, she looked reddish, and her legs were thin and delicate, but there was powerful muscle in the joints, ¡°The Tempest has claimed too many of our kin, The Nameless One said that the spawner isn¡¯t working, we need to prepare ourselves.¡± ¡°Do we? The Empress will protect us, we just do what she commands.¡± Runner replied, tucking her long powerful legs under her abdomen. ¡°Gatherer is correct Runner; everything will be damaged once The Tempest subsides.¡± The nameless one said. ¡°IF it subsides, we don¡¯t know,¡± Builder said, resting her head on the floor ¡°It will, I am sure of it,¡± Gardener said, fidgeting and cleaning her antenna. ¡°It might not, I know that you two are worried because your usefulness to the Empress is based on the Spawner and Moss, both of which have been Overtaken, but I guess, we may need to just start over¡­ and be fully subterranean, it would be the only way.¡± Builder sighed. Gatherer, The Nameless One, and Gardener looked at each other uncertainly, if The Tempest never subsided, they would all become obsolete. ¡°Well¡­ where it come from? The Tempest.¡± Runner asked, changing the subject ¡°It fell from the Eternal.¡± Gatherer said, ¡°My ants saw it, droplets of water, falling, there were so many it filled up the entire world and had nowhere to go but into the colony.¡± ¡°How¡¯d it get into the "sky?¡± Runner said incredulously, that she had never left the colony and doubted that there was such a thing as the sky, even with Gatherer¡¯s many testimonies. ¡°Maybe it climbed,¡± Guard said, deciding to reenter the conversation, she glanced toward where Saferoom was. ¡°No, the sky must be made of water, it is blue after all, nothing else is blue." Gatherer said, "It was only a matter of time before it fell down i suppose."Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°Not if it climbed from outside of the world.¡± Guard tried again, she didn¡¯t care how it got into the sky, but she needed to take her mind off the injured ant. ¡°There isn¡¯t anything outside of the world, the rock stretches up until it gets cold and it turns into Eternal,¡± Gatherer said, standing up. ¡°Have you sent any gatherers over the world border?¡± Guard asked. ¡°I tried to myself! But, I couldn¡¯t because it gets too cold! I couldn¡¯t see anything but clouds.¡± Gatherer lied, she had never climbed the border herself, in fact she only sent one patrol partway up to look for new forage, but they found barely anything and complained viscously of the cold so she never bothered with further exploration. ¡°Clouds.¡± Runner scoffed. ¡°You want me to believe that there are giant white floating things in a giant blue veil supported by mountains. That do nothing?¡± "They most likely do something." Gatherer said, "I noticed a fair amount gathering before the sky fell, they were darker, and large." "Ah, so these ''clouds'' have majors now?" Runner said, ¡°Maybe it flew into the sky?¡± Guard asked, absent-mindedly, ¡°You could always go look for yourself after this is all over Runner!¡± Gatherer growled ignoring Guard and instead focusing on the battle she knew she could win, standing up, her six legs finding solid ground and bending slightly. ¡°If it ends,¡± Builder said, curling into herself and closing her eyes, there was a deep ache in Builder¡¯s heart she had lost so many. ¡°Builder is right- I mean, at least I won¡¯t be obsolete when we have to expand down,¡± Runner said, leaping to her feet, her head low and mandibles scrapping the floor. ¡°Sit. Down.¡± The nameless one said, her pheromones hovering dangerously in the air, Guard stood up and flexed her large mandibles, the major looked at Runner, then at Gatherer, for just long enough to make them uneasy. ¡°We are all a little stressed from being cooped up in here; we don¡¯t need any infighting, understood?¡± The nameless one hissed. The two leaders sat, and for a while that is all they did, waiting in silence for the nameless one¡¯s eyes to drop. Guard looked up and turned her head, she spotted some of her guards mingling. ¡°I¡¯m going to see Saferoom and see how things went.¡± She said and quickly scuttled away. Gatherer nodded and waited for a blink, The Nameless One rolled her eyes and clicked her mandibles, Gatherer slipped into the crowd, Runner tensed up and curled her antenna, but then sighed and sat down. Before she got far enough away, she Guard whiffed her say, ¡°Well if the sky is blue... maybe it is made of The Tempest,¡± ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- She was tired, but it was a strange exhaustion, as if she had been asleep and had slept well, but wasn¡¯t ready to wake up yet. As if Dungeons could sleep, at all. Well, this Tempest was probably the closest thing she had gotten to sleep. The constant but diminishing intake of ((MANA)) from the flood waters was rapidly expanding her ((MANAPOOL)), but Empress didn¡¯t know what to use it on if she even could. Her mind flashed to the empty scar in her ((CORE)), as she grew, it did as well. She shivered, her ants were getting well¡­ antsy- she forced herself to relax, allowing her ((GAZE)) to expand and envelop the whole room. The world grew hazy and out of focus, but it matched well with this¡­ bloated feeling that came from her accumulated ((MANA)). Empress wasn¡¯t sure why she felt so calm- she really shouldn¡¯t feel calm right now, in fact, the more she thought about it the more she felt strange, she should be panicking- but instead she just felt numb, incomplete almost. What had woken her up? She pulled her ((GAZE)) together and floated above her ((CORE)), one of the ants had been injured and Saferoom was tending. Empress could tell from one glance that the ant would not survive. She floated closer, the spawner was offline, and she didn¡¯t know if she would be able to repair it. Saferoom looked at her ((GAZE)). These were the last of her ants, she couldn¡¯t afford to lose any. Empress reached out with her mind toward the injured ant. She grimaced as she entered the ((CODE)). Numbers, millions of numbers, each one meant something, each one quantified magic and life bit by bit. The ((SANCTUM)) was just blocks of empty numbers, and the ants were just fragments of Empress. She squinted at the injured ant, the numbers were crumbling, turning into dust, and colliding with the fragments in the air that turned into numbers that turned into Empress. The water exploded as it tried to enter the ((SANCTUM)) turning into billions of specks of blue that quickly turned gold, then became Empress. She looked at her ((GAZE)) which was nothing more than a higher concentration of Empress. She willed herself back into the ant, the glowing numbers mocked her. Empress hissed in frustration; the ant was degrading quickly. She reached into her ((CORE)) and drew out some of her ((MANA POOL)) the moment it left the ((CORE)) it disbursed and jumped into parts of the ((DOMAIN)) that were significantly less Empress than others. Empress hissed again and reached back into her ((CORE)) she focused on the ((MANA)) and held it tightly, it wiggled and parts of it leaked out of her mental grasp. Empress brought the ((MANA)) to the injured ant, but when she released the ((MANA)) there was hardly any left. The ((MANA)) flowed into the injured ant, new numbers formed, and the old one¡¯s crumbling slowed. Empress sighed, she didn¡¯t know if the ant would live or not, but she couldn¡¯t lose anymore ((MANA)), even if it felt good it spend some. The trio of Saferoom ants surrounded the injured ant and Empress turned to look at The Tempest, the waterfall of numbers and dust was slowing, only slightly, but Empress could tell. She pulled out of the ((CODE)) and bobbed toward The Tempest. She pushed her ((GAZE)) through the wall of water. She flinched at the strange feeling, her vision was murky, although, so was the water, and she felt cold, and once again wondered how she could feel. She pushed forward trying to make out her ((DOMAIN)), but the clouded water was messing with her ((GAZE)). There were flashes of light from the uprooted Lummi moss but it wasn¡¯t enough to see properly, to make matters worse, Empress found that the water had eroded parts of the colony. The tunnels and rooms were larger, and she couldn¡¯t tell where from what. She sighed and turned toward the glowing light of the ((SANCTUM)). She pulled her ((GAZE)) into her expanding ((CORE)) and unfocused her vision. Time passed, how long? She didn¡¯t bother counting and without the spawner, it was impossible to guess, she focused on her senses; The Tempest was waning; she was sure of it now. The water pressure that throbbed against her mind, against her ((CORE)), her ((DOMAIN)), was fading. She sighed and focused her ((GAZE)), she turned toward her ants, there was something strange about them, they were¡­ different, not that they hadn¡¯t been different before, but now they were changing, she circled around the room until she spied Gardener. The ant¡¯s eyes were larger than before, and they were a deeper black, her body had grown into a soft grey-green, and her legs were thinner and more delicate, but Empress saw the immense amount of muscle, Gardener touched antenna with one of her gardeners and Empress noticed that their mandibles looked like they could click together like puzzle pieces. Empress blinked, she searched the ((SANCTUM)) for one of her other leaders, her ((GAZE)) fell upon Guard and Empress bobbed up and down. Guard¡¯s mandibles and head were large and pronounced, which was to be expected from a major, but her sheer size made her stand ? an ant above the other ants, her legs and abdomen were heavily armored and her antenna were thick and short. Why had her ants changed? Empress was puzzled, she thought about vocalizing her thoughts, as she had when she just achieved existence what seemed to her like a lifetime ago, and, in a way, it was. Empress glanced at her ants, the longer she lived the more it seemed that they could hear her, and Empress wasn¡¯t sure if she wanted to have someone to talk to. Her ((CORE)) had changed, before it looked like a golden speck of an egg, barely visible on its pedestal, now it was a shining teardrop, multifaceted and almost teetering off the edge of its pedestal. Is the ((CORE)) an it? It is Empress, as much as her ((GAZE)) is Empress, in fact, it is more Empress, but it feels like it is less, the ((CORE)) does not see, it does not feel, it simply is. Empress hesitated for a moment, wondering if other beings had these sorts of problems, do ants wonder if their heart is their being, then she forced herself to focus. The ((CORE)) grew, because¡­ why? because ((MANA)), that is natural. Empress grew, the ants are little pieces of Empress, so then, the ants would grow- yes? Grow, is different than change, they changed. Empress stopped bobbing, and began a lazy circle around the ((SANCTUM)), did Empress change? The ants changed and didn¡¯t seem to notice, did Empress change as well, did the Tempest change her? She floated closer to herself and stared at her ((CORE)). Empress stared into herself and was unnerved. She did not particularly understand or like what she saw, the golden crystal with floating orbs of ((MANA)) inside it, the small dark crack inside of the ((CORE)). She did not know herself, and she did not know if she had been changed. Did it matter? Was she still herself, even if she wasn¡¯t the same self that she was before? If she had changed at all in the first place. Empress felt lost, she knew that her ants looked up to her, that to them, she was the highest power in the world. She knew that they were wrong. She was terrifyingly aware of her ignorance. She didn¡¯t know who was above her, The One was highest, the ((SYSTEM)) was ever-present, but where in that order did she land? Empress whispered something aloud, her ants all perked their antenna up, it was something between a song, a prayer, and a battle cry. Her voice was soft and nearly silenced by the Tempest. Her voice drifted off and she grew silent, she pulled herself into her ((CORE)) and she waited, and perhaps, if you would like to think this, she slept, the closest thing that she could¡¯ve done to sleeping at least. Perhaps she even ¡®dreamed¡¯ in a way, she ¡®dreamed¡¯ of loud sharp cries and thundering rain. She dreamed of voices, of shouting, the sound of metal striking metal, the sound of a wolf¡¯s howl, or the closest thing she knew to one. She dreamed that she tasted blood in the water that flowed into her ((SANCTUM)), and she dreamed that she ate a dead man. Empress suddenly felt the flow of ((MANA)) change, at first it gave her one quick jolt of incredibly highly concentrated ((MANA)), she ¡®awoke¡¯ frantically, and she reached for the ((SYSTEM)) to check what she had absorbed, but it was gone and the only sign she could see of whatever had flowed in was a slightly darker patch of water that was quickly gone, then, the flow of ((MANA)) slowed significantly and she turned to the entrance of the ((SANCTUM)) the water was still rushing in, but now when she looked, she could see a gap between the roof and the Tempest. There was a wild thrill in Empress¡¯ ((CORE)), she suddenly became aware of just how much ((MANA)) she had- and what she could do with it. It wouldn¡¯t be long now, then she could truly begin- She needed more rooms, maybe traps? She hesitated for a moment, before deciding that she could get Builder to make her whatever she needed and that she didn¡¯t need to worry about it. She turned toward where she had last seen Saferoom, the injured ant lay still on the ground, Saferoom and the others close by, Saferoom let the injured ant rest her head on her and Empress flicked into the ((CODE)) for a blink to see if the numbers were still degrading, they had stopped. She sighed in relief and a dark cloud that she didn¡¯t know was hovering over her ((CORE)) seemed to fade a little. For the first time Empress felt¡­ hope. Empress had a strange feeling like she was being watched, although, that was preposterous, the water still blocked the entrance to her ((DOMAIN)) and she knew that she would feel any foray into her Dungeon, even through aquatic means. She didn¡¯t know how she knew, she simply¡­ did. It was a calming and familiar feeling. She looked passively at the Tempest, there was plenty of space between the ceiling and water now and it seemed to rush in more slowly, she floated her ((GAZE)) above the water. Her rooms were significantly eroded, the moss hallway was almost round instead of square, and this followed through into her other rooms, the spawner room had several divots in the roof where the water had eroded patches of some softer earth, perhaps sand or clay, the hallway jutting out from the storeroom had been deepened, going downward at an angle, slowly lowering in height as the water weakened, leaving a narrowing downward slope. an ant would have no trouble crawling through even the smallest point with room to spare, but a Biped, from what Empress knew, would probably struggle, but the room with the most damage to it was the storeroom. Before the storeroom had many purposeful alcoves carved into the walls and pits in the ground, to properly store things, but the Tempest had smoothed these over, just giving the dirt room a rather uneven look. The room needed to be completely redone. Empress focused her ((GAZE)) in concentration. She mentally reached out to the water trying to force it away, numbers flashed and she hissed, the water was slippery, not like the spawner or her ants. She tried to grasp one drop of water and change it, to rearrange the numbers with her own. She could see the ambient ((MANA)) in the room writhe as she pulled on it, she pushed the ((MANA)) toward her target droplet, and it began to rush into the water, ((MANA)) condensing the droplet flashed gold, then it was washed away in the Tempest. Empress growled. She floated away seething, toward the entrance, and she noticed that the water levels were sinking quickly. She reached the entrance, and the water level was lowering quicker and quicker, the closer to the entrance, the faster, the water no longer spilled over the little cliff and made its way downward toward the ((SANCTUM)), and light, dim as it may be, flowed into the cave, Empress stared at it for a long while, her ((GAZE)) adjusting to the higher light levels of the entrance, she couldn¡¯t see past the wall of white, but she could feel the ((MANA)) pouring in and out of her ((DOMAIN)) no longer hindered by the Tempest, air flowed in tired and drained, then Empress absorbed it, and ((MANA)) floated throughout her Dungeon, and then it left, refreshed. Whatever had happened was over. Empress suddenly felt much better, she wasn¡¯t sure why, particularly, but she knew that things were okay now. Empress wondered how long she had existed, it felt like an eternity now, but she knew that it wasn¡¯t. She watched the waters fade, and she relaxed, her ((DOMAIN)) relaxed, the ants relaxed. The threat was over. Now they could go back to normal, whatever that was, they just needed to wait a little longer. Then they could go back to existing. Whatever that meant. A breath of fresh air Empress watched with impatience as the water drained away, the Saferoom was drained now, except for the pit in the center, which was still full of liquid. The hallways leading to the spawner room were half empty and were taking much longer than Empress thought it should. She knew why, of course, the storeroom was flooded and was running off into the spawner room, and the storeroom hallway was still full, without any signs of being drained naturally, because of its downwardness. She was, overall, very excited, once her ants were freed from the ((SANCTUM)) she could finally mess around with her full ((MANA POOL)). There was nothing worse to a Dungeon than having the ability to expand but being unable to. It would only be a short while now¡­ Empress watched as the ants all crowded the exit to the ((SANCTUM)), crawling on the ceiling and walls making a squirming ring of bodies around the door, and letting out any number of unexplainable pheromones. Empress paid special attention to Saferoom and the injured ant, she was thinking of assigning her to the storeroom and naming her something like ¡°Storer¡± or maybe ¡°Stocker¡±- She didn¡¯t know if the injured ant would be any good at it, but Saferoom had grown so attached to her that Empress didn¡¯t feel like she could just stay as a normal colonist, plus, she was mostly crippled. The ((MANA INFUSION)) that she had given the ant had kept her alive and caused her wounds to heal over, but she was still scarred, missing two legs, and had very little feeling in one of her antennae, so Empress doubted that she would be useful doing anything strenuous. The water much lower, but it was still high enough to be dangerous, it seemed silly to call it a Tempest at this point. Empress watched as the last remnants of the water slowly poured into the ((SANCTUM)), she forced her ants to wait until the only water in her ((DOMAIN)) was the flooded hallway, the pit in the Saferoom and some puddles. She looked one last time at the writhing excited mass that was her colony, and then she spoke. ¡°She says you may go.¡± Instantly the large group of ants rushed forward, the guards trying their best to stop any tramplings, Empress laughed as she watched the gardeners frantically trying to fight against the sea of ants so they could stay in the moss hallway. The ants all clacked at the sound of her laughter. Empress found Builder in the crowd and followed her to the flooded hallway. She felt Builder¡¯s dismay at the flood, she also noticed that there seemed to be¡­ less, builders than before, several where gone and her ((CORE)) sunk for a moment before she forced herself back to the surface. ¡°Can you just ignore it, she wonders, and continue as planned? Leave the flooded hallway below the proper hallway? She says¡± Empress asked. Builder clacked her mandibles and crawled onto one of the walls of the Storeroom, then she walked toward the flooded hallway, she tested the dirt in some places, she stopped where her crew had left off with a hint of melancholy, then she looked down at where the Tempest had burrowed into the earth. Empress felt¡­ affirmative, then confusion from Builder ¡°It would be easier that way, she thinks, might cause a bit of a choke point she knows- what with only three sides for foot traffic, no more than the moss hallway does, but she thinks that the flooded hallway if she can keep it flooded like that, would be a good obstacle for the Adventurers, maybe she could even put a chest down there. Affirmative, excitement. Empress bobbed her ((GAZE)) happily and watched for a moment as Builder rallied her crew, then Empress went to go find¡­ Stocker, yes, she likes that one more. Stocker was lying on the ((SAFE_ROOM)) floor around her, and the ((SAFE_ROOM)) ants scurried around, smoothing out the divots in the walls, floors, and ceilings. Empress looked closer at Stocker, her wounds looked mostly healed, and the ¡®stitches¡¯ that Saferoom had made had already begun to crumble, Empress wasn¡¯t sure though, so she dipped into her ((MANAPOOL)) and quickly infused it into Stocker, the ant shivered, but her eyes seemed much clearer and Empress didn¡¯t feel as bad about pinging her to go to the Storeroom. Stocker stood up, slightly unsteadily, then she began to hobble over to the Storeroom. Empress followed her with her ((GAZE)) until she reached it, then Stocker made a squeak of dismay at the sight of the room, Empress winced. Builder glanced over from her perch on the roof of the hallway she clacked at a runner who had just entered the room, the runner let out confused pheromones, and Builder redoubled with her orders. The runner lowered her antenna and went to help Stocker. Empress went to leave the Storeroom, but suddenly she felt strange like there was something far away that was just on the edge of her hearing. She spun around, looking for the source, it didn¡¯t seem to be coming from anywhere, the noise grew louder, a high-pitched whine filled her ((DOMAIN)), and she began to flash through her rooms, nothing was out of order. The noise grew in volume and in pitch. The ants all stopped their tasks, their ears finally picking up the sound. It grew louder, and Empress wished she had a way to turn off her hearing, it reached a loud crescendo and for a moment Empress wondered if something was going to explode. Then all was very, very quiet, and very, very still¡­ CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE LEVELED UP! +1X SPAWNER +150 MANA STATUS: LV 2 DUNGEON Name: Empress EXP 0/290,042 Size: Small Gender: Female Gaze type: Light-based Affinities: Ento, Water 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 YOU HAVE GAINED THE AFFINITY ¡°WATER¡±! INCREASED CHANCE FOR WATER-BASED EVOLUTIONS AND MUTATIONS IN YOUR COLONISTS. +50% PROGRESSION TOWARD THE WATER AFFINITY IN ALL YOUR SPAWNERS ALL OF YOUR COLONISTS CAN NOW SWIM. INCREASED CHANCE FOR WATER-BASED EVOLUTIONS AND MUTATIONS IN YOUR NODES INCREASED CHANCE TO GAIN WATER-BASED NODES AND SPAWNERS YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE ABILITY TO USE WATER-BASED ROOMS, TRAPS, AND DECORATIONS THE COST OF SUMMONING WATER AND WATER-BASED ITEMS IS HIGHLY REDUCED. ONE OF YOUR COLONISTS HAS LEVELED UP! BASIC LV 2 ANT STR: 3 CON: 4 INT: 9 WIZ: 4 DEX: 0 CHAR: 4 HP: 5/5 SELL FORCE LEVEL UP EVOLVE GO TO SPAWNER? GO TO ANT? YOU HAVE GAINED THE SKILL MANA MANIPULATION LV 1 RANK 1 You can, to some extent, control mana around and inside you, has many uses. YOU HAVE GAINED THE SKILL MANA INFUSION LV 1 RANK 1 You can, to some extent, infuse mana into objects and beings, has many uses. Empress flinched and shot back, then squealed, then laughed awkwardly and read the text box silently, and with embarrassment. ¡°Infernal Blade.¡± She said aloud, her ants did not respond, each of them seemed to be looking at the empty air in front of them looking at their own ((MENU)) or something. She closed the box hesitantly, and then another quickly shot up in its place. SELECT SPAWNER MOSQUITO DRAGONFLY A SMALL, FLYING, BLOODSUCKING A FAST AND COLORFUL INSECT THAT INSECTS THAT CAN SPREAD DISEASE. HAS NO RELATION TO DRAGONS, DUE TO CERTAIN SKILLS, WOULD DUE TO DUNGEON TOUCHED HAVE THE MANA SYPHON SUBCLASS TRAIT, WOULD HAVE THE GIGANTIC SIZE CLASS Empress carefully read the two options, her second spawner¡­ Dragonflies seemed interesting, the fact that they were fast was specifically pointed out, maybe they could work in tandem with the runners? They would also be gigantic- how big was gigantic? Would they fit in the tunnels? Could they be ridden? She shook her ((GAZE)) and tried to focus on mosquitoes¡­ how would they spread disease- did she want disease in her ((DOMAIN)) If she got mosquitos, could she¡­ turn it off somehow? What did ((MANA SYPHON)) mean? Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Empress bobbed her ((GAZE)), it was a choice between a safe option and an uncertain one. She tilted her ((GAZE)), her curiosity peaking, well, you never know. She selected Mosquito. The box closed and her ((GAZE)) vanished, suddenly she could see every inch of her ((DOMAIN)), except it was clothed in red, near her ((PRIME GAZE)) was a red pillar and a line of text above it reading, PLACE CONDITION, SUBMERGED IN LIQUID (ANY) Empress rolled her many eyes and pulled the spawner over to the Saferoom pond, it was still red. SPAWNER CANNOT BE PLACED IN ROOM WITH SPECIAL CONDITION. Empress hissed in frustration and focused on the Storeroom, the flooded hallway was lit up a bright green, Empress pulled the spawner into the deepest part of the hallway until it was fully underwater, then the spawner turned dark green. PLACE SPAWNER YES? NO? Empress pressed ''YES?'' And her ((GAZE)) reverted to normal. She felt the spawner solidify and Empress floated over to it. She dove into the water, adjusting her ((GAZE))¡¯s brightness as she sank. The spawner looked just like the ant spawner, maybe a little smaller, above it was a timer ticking down from 150. She waited for the timer to hit zero and out of the spawner popped five little wriggly worm things. Empress blinked in confusion, the worms began to swim toward the surface, once they reached the surface, they suddenly stayed very still and split open, then, five very small insects with translucent wings, light brown bodies, six lanky legs, and a strangely long nose, quickly matured and began to fly about the flooded hallway, barely above the water. ¡°Huh.¡± Empress said she thought that when the text box said ¡®small¡¯ it meant, maybe, half the size of an ant, she supposed that they did spawn five at a time and that their cooldown was only half the time as the ant spawner, but still. Empress dove back down into the water and opened the ((STATUS)) of the mosquito spawner. STATUS LV 1 MANA SYPHON MOSQUITO SPAWNER A spawner found in Dungeons; it spawns weak, but annoying mosquitos that can steal MP. UNUSED STAT POINTS: 2 SIZE: 0.01 STR: 1 PWR: 1 INT: 1 DEF: 1 SPD: 6 AFFINITIES: NONE, EXPAND? ALIGNMENT: PLEASE SELECT TRAITS: DUNGEON-TOUCHED, MANA SYPHON ASCEND CHANCE: .001 COOLDOWN: 150 Empress looked at the stats with dismay, she put both stat points in INT without much thought, why were they so fast but weak? She shrugged and opened the ((ALIGNMENT)) page ALIGNMENT: BENIGN CHALLENGING AGGRESSIVE FATAL She shrugged and selected Aggressive- she could always change it later. Another round of mosquitos spawned and Empress was glad that they seemed to not wait for her orders as the ants did, there were just too many already. Empress floated to the top of the flooded hallway, she felt the weight of her still mostly full ((MANA POOL)), even more now because she had leveled up and gained more mana¡­ She stared at the hallway and ignoring the construction going on next to her, she activated the ((SYSTEM)). It read her intention and instantly, little pop-up boxes appeared. Where the water and the land met it said, CONSTRUCT FLOODED ROTTEN WOOD STAIRCASE? At the bottom of the hallway, behind the spawner, CONSTRUCT CHEST? Directly above the lake, MAKE WATER SWAMPY? On the surface of the lake. SUMMON BASIC UNDERGROUND LAKE NODE? Empress looked at each of her choices, she saw the Node option, the price was absurd, even with the Tempest she only had half the amount, she selected the cheapest option instead ¡®make water swampy¡¯ and instantly the water swirled, it grew greenish, and blackish, it thickened and the water bubbled occasionally. Empress tilted her ((GAZE)) and bought the significantly pricier staircase option, it simply appeared, it was blackened and knotted wood, with crooked broken planks caked with mud, the wood had half rotted away and a plank floated up to the surface, the staircase went all the way down to the spawner. It was wonderful. Empress wanted the chest, but what would she put in it? Dirt? She turned around and purchased a Rough mixed wood doorway in the entrance to the conjoining hallways. She floated around her ((DOMAIN)) and bought doorways for each of the entrances and exits. She bobbed happily as she built the doorway to the ((SANCTUM)) and saw the moss node had been replaced and moss had begun to appear in the wet ground. Empress floated toward the Saferoom, and she was instantly assailed with upgrade notifications. DRAIN POND MAKE POND PERMANENT MAKE MOSSY ROCK SLATE MAKE MOSSY ROCK SEATS CONSTRUCT ROUGH MIXED WOOD SIGN MAKE WATER SWAMPY MAKE WATER PURE MAKE EMPTY FIRE PIT MAKE DRIED BRAMBLE BED CONSTRUCT ROUGH MIXED WOOD WALL SUPPORTS CONSTRUCT ROUGH MIXED WOOD PANELING CONSTRUCT FINE SAND FLOOR CONSTRUCT STONE SUPPORTS CONSTRUCT STONE WALLS MAKE CHEST CONSTRUCT ROUGH MIXED WOOD DOOR CONSTRUCT UNLIT TORCHES Empress blinked through her options quickly, first she bought the door, which quickly appeared connecting to the door frame, it was panels of wood tied together and separated into two sections, it didn¡¯t quite reach the top of the doorway, or the bottom, there was no handle and the door was opened by pushing, on both sides of the door was a roughly carved symbol of an ant, she bought another one to cover the path to the spawner room. Next Empress purchased the fine sand floor. The wet muddy floor shimmered and turned a dark grey, until it became a soft and fine powder, almost black, it was loose, except around the pond, where it was hard-packed and solid. Saferoom and the nurses gaped in shock Empress bobbed up and down¡­ did she want the pond or not? It was certainly better than a hole in the ground. Empress purchased the ¡®make pond permanent¡¯ and the ¡®make water purer¡¯, she looked around the room, and it looked completely different. The door blocked light but it also gave the room a much more protected look, her ants had no trouble with the light or opening the door thankfully. The sand floor made the room much drier than most of her ((DOMAIN)) right now, next she bought the unlit torches, and empty campfire, sticks with blackened heads appeared, bound to the walls with vines and stone nails, a circle of stones with fine ashes inside appeared next to the pond, a few scattered pieces of wood also appeared around the Saferoom. The pond was filled to the brim with sparkling clear water, it was still, but not stagnated Empress squinted at it and couldn¡¯t see any of those weird tiny wriggly things, kind of like the mosquito larvae, but much, much smaller, strange. Empress left the Saferoom, she still had about 2/3 of her ((MANA POOL)) left, she couldn¡¯t decorate the entire room, and she knew that she needed to do something about the ((SANCTUM)), but would she use the rest of her ((MANA)) in the ant spawner room or in the Storeroom? She couldn¡¯t decide, so she decided to start in the ((SANCTUM)). The ((SANCTUM)) was terribly plain, except for the ((CORE)) at its center on its dirt pillar, there was nothing. Empress did not like that, this was her room, and she wanted it to be nice. She pulled up the upgrade list. UPGRADE CORE PILLAR TO STONE CONSTRUCT STONE WALL SUPPORTS CONSTRUCT ROUGH MIXED WOOD WALL SUPPORTS CHANGE FLOOR TO STONE CHANGE WALLS TO STONE CHANGE FLOOR TO ROUGH MIXED WOOD CHANGE WALLS TO ROUGH MIXED WOOD CREATE GRAND ROUGH MIXED WOOD DOOR CREATE ROUGHLY CARVED PILLAR MURAL CREATE SAND PATHWAY CREATE LUMMI MOSS LIGHTS CREATE UNLIT TORCHES CREATE OFFERING TABLE CREATE OFFERING BOWL CREATE HANGING SIGN CREATE SIGN CREATE SMALL WALL FOUNTAINS ON EACH WALL CREATE STONE STEP Empress whistled, and she first bought the upgrade to her pillar, the pillar shifted from dirt to stone and expanded slightly, without the ((CORE)) atop it ever moving, Guard stood up quickly and looked around frantically, Empress calmed her with a whisper and continued. Next, she bought the pillar mural and watched as simple drawings of ants and mosquitos were carved into the rock. She bought the offering table and bowl and placed them next to the door but out of the way, the slightly uneven table materialized with a stone bowl atop it. Empress hung a sign that said ¡°Alms¡± from the table. She bought the stone pillar supports and eight huge stone towers formed, one in each corner of the room, but also four around the ((CORE)), they also were covered in carvings. She bought the sand pathway next, and it formed a slightly curved path to the ((CORE)), with a branch to the donation table. Empress floated back a bit to look at her work, then she glanced at her ((MANA POOL)) and bought the grand door. It appeared and it was much more even than the previous door, and it did not have any gaps, it also had much more ornate carvings of ants and mosquitos, in a ring around a teardrop. Guard nodded in approval. Empress left the ((SANCTUM)), went through the moss hallway, and floated down toward the spawner room, she glanced at her ((MANA POOL)) and mentally shrugged, she would just use the rest of it here. She pulled up the options. CREATE SAND PATH CREATE STONE WALLS CREATE ROUGH MIXED WOOD WALLS CREATE STONE FLOOR CREATE ROUGH MIXED WOOD FLOOR CREATE ROUGH MIXED WOOD SUPPORT PILLARS CREATE STONE SUPPORT PILLARS CREATE ROUGH MIXED WOOD DOOR CREATE ROUGHLY CARVED MURAL DEPICTING ANT PHYLA CREATE UNLIT TORCHES CREATE LUMMI MOSS LIGHTS CREATE BASIC PRESSURE PLATE TRAP (MUST BE LINKED FOR ACTIVATION) CREATE BASIC HIDDEN PITFALL CREATE BASIC WOODEN SPIKES CREATE BASIC UNLIT CAMPFIRE Empress tilted her ((GAZE)), traps? She supposed it made sense to not be allowed any traps in the Saferoom and ((SANCTUM)), but why not in the flooded hallway? Did she not have any water traps unlocked? Did Empress want traps in the spawner room? She thought for a moment before deciding that she didn¡¯t want to put her new spawns in danger. So, what about the other things? She bought the door, which looked like the one in the safe room, but this time she bought three doors, one for each entrance, they each had different carvings, denoting what room they went to. She bought the mural, and her understanding pinged for the word ¡®phyla¡¯. The wall behind the spawner was instantly filled with carvings of, what Empress thought looked like her leader ants and their colonists. She bought the wooden support pillars and four barkless logs shored up the edges of the room. She bought the sand pathway and it carved its way through the dirt, up to the spawner, and splitting to see the other rooms, the nameless leader ant was looking around wildly. Empress reached out to her mentally and she relaxed. Lastly, she bought the moss lights, four bundles of moss hung from dead branches of some tree hung from the ceiling like dim lanterns. Empress looked at her ((MANA POOL)) and bobbed up and down, she would need more ((MANA)) if she wanted to finish the rooms, but she was proud of the work she had done, she fed the rest of her ((MANA POOL)) into the spawner and it glowed brightly. CONGRATULATIONS, YOUR LV 1 BASIC ANT SPAWNER HAS LEVELED UP! LV 2 BASIC ANT SPAWNER A spawner found in Dungeons; it spawns weak Ants without any specific classification that embodies the PERCEPTION of the species. UNUSED STAT POINTS: 2 SIZE: 0.2 STR: 5 PWR: 2 INT: 2 DEF: 1 SPD: 3 AFFINITIES: NONE, EXPAND? ALIGNMENT: CHALLENGING TRAITS: DUNGEON-TOUCHED ASCEND CHANCE: .002 COOLDOWN: 300 Nodding, Empress put the stat points into DEF and INT. Then she looked back at the box. LV 2 BASIC ANT SPAWNER A spawner found in Dungeons; it spawns weak Ants without any specific classification that embodies the PERCEPTION of the species. UNUSED STAT POINTS: 0 SIZE: 0.2 STR: 5 PWR: 2 INT: 3 DEF: 2 SPD: 3 AFFINITIES: NONE, EXPAND? ALIGNMENT: CHALLENGING TRAITS: DUNGEON-TOUCHED ASCEND CHANCE: .002 COOLDOWN: 300 ¡°((EXPAND?))¡± she said. AFFINITIES: A classification for what type of MAGIC, SPAWNERS, NODES, EVOLUTIONS ((EXPAND?)) A being will receive. Fire affinity will gain fire resistance etc. To gain affinities, a being could have a deep understanding of the affinity, or gain the affinity due to species, location, or magical items and plants. ((LV 1 BASIC ANT SPAWNER)) can gain the affinities ENTO: 67% (+50% due to Dungeon-Touched trait) WATER: 50% (+50 due to Dungeon-Touched trait) HEAL: 16% PSY: 5% FIRE: 0% NATURE: 0% ELEC: 0% LIFE: 0% DEATH: 0% ((EXPAND?)) Empress hummed in thought, then she closed the box, she turned to look toward the moss hallway¡­ Moss to the North. The moss had been uprooted in the Tempest. Only a few scattered patches of moss were still clinging to the walls. The Node had been returned to its place by the gardeners, and the soft light was already beginning to pulse again. LUMMI MOSS Node LV 5 A special kind of bioluminescent moss that unlike many other neon glowing cave plants is completely non-toxic. Unused Stat Points: 0 Taste: 2 Toxicity: 0 Glow: 3 Spread: 4 Growth: 4.5 HP: 3/3 Alignment: ((BENIGN)) EXP: 0/100 There wasn¡¯t a line for affinities, but Empress decided that it had to have them. It said in the definition for affinities that Nodes could gain them. Light, and maybe Life? Did something need to have Life to be a plant? Her ants were bugs but didn¡¯t have the Ento affinity yet. Was that a dungeon thing or normal? ¡°((EXPAND))¡± Empress said, The text box shuddered and contorted for a moment, before opening a secondary tab. AFFINITIES: A classification for what type of MAGIC, SPAWNERS, NODES, EVOLUTIONS ((EXPAND?)) A being will receive. Fire affinity will gain fire resistance etc. To gain affinities, a being could have a deep understanding of the affinity, or gain the affinity due to species, location, or magical items and plants. ((LUMMI MOSS Node LV 5)) can gain the affinities ENTO: 50% (+50% due to Dungeon-Touched trait)Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. WATER: 50% (+50 due to Dungeon-Touched trait) NATURE: 30% HEAL: 16% PSY: 5% FIRE: 0% ELEC: 0% LIFE: 0% DEATH: 0% ((EXPAND?)) Oh, Nature, that made more sense. The Node hadn¡¯t gained an affinity yet. She didn¡¯t have any Mana left after her spending spree, but she didn¡¯t think she would need more than she was regenerating for this. She reached out, carefully inspecting the different percentages. Then with a mental flick she shifted the UI to show the ((CODE)) instead of the polished systematic. She pressed looked over the now expanded list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¡­ And so on. She picked a sequence at random, 41737472616C, and began to dissect it. She pulled apart each letter and inspected it, memorizing the faint mana signature it had. She hummed and slowly made her way through the word. ((CODE)) wasn¡¯t as instinctual to her as systematic, she could read it, but it didn¡¯t quite make words. It was more like a complicated set of directions, and, from what Empress could gather, ((CODE)) activated when those ¡®directions¡¯ where met. Which, theoretically, meant that all she needed to do to in order to gain a affinity was to figure out how to replicate the set of directions that told the ((SYSTEM)) that she had gained percentage in that affinity. Empress doubted that it would work more than once. The last time she had tried something like this, the ((SYSTEM)) had patched it almost instantly. That meant she needed to find a good target, she wasn¡¯t going to waste her newly discovered exploit on the moss, so¡­ that left the spawners. She was instantly inclined toward the ant spawner. Empress had barely had the mosquito spawner for¡­ what was it, 17 cycles of 300 now? She shook her gaze, and dropped the ((CODE)), the ((MENU)) shifted back to systematic and for a moment the affinity Astral floated in the air where the string of ((CODE)) had been. She sighed. Then perked up. The glow of her gaze brightening to an even greater intensity than the bedraggled moss around her. Could she give herself an affinity? Her excited thoughts where suddenly interrupted by a hesitant and rather embarrassed clack from Saferoom. Empress turned toward the leader ant in confusion. Interlude II
Once upon a time, when Mazre was still young, and the Epoch of Myth was still unwinding its tendrils into history, the Firstborn Evirynn committed a terrible crime. She left her perch in the mountains of Stonewreath, she left her clutch and her husband. Taking upon herself the heart of the land, she conceived and bore from the egg a manlike creature, whose ears grew sharp and whose eyes glimmered with the gift of Life. The child went on his way, and was named Terr. Then Evirynn flew to the sun, and after the night fell, conceived a child, and bore the egg, and came from it a similar creature, but he burned brighter than his brother, and he lighted the dark. The child went on his way and was named Aelius. Evirynn returned to her perch for a fortnight, and lived with her husband and her wyrm, but she grew tired, and flew to the moons, and conceived twins of different fathers, and they reflected the Light, and they saw through the shadows. The children went on their way they were named Selene and Janus. Evirynn then flew farther than she had ever before, and she met with the stars, and when she returned to her perch, she clutched three eggs, and her husband was filled with doubt. Then the eggs bore three creatures much like the others, but they glowed palely, and they shined with many colors. The children were named Astri, Zoriana and the youngest was named Mailon. The husband of Evirynn, who was named Zeus, in his fury called upon Arulan, who speaks for the ((SYSTEM)). Arulan came and Zeus told him of Evirynn¡¯s crime, and the ((SYSTEM)) was enraged, for she had committed the first adultery on Mazre. And was believed to be of the Light. She was punished and sent to the land of death and left to rot with those who bring it. Let all Memento Mori, for even the Firstborn may be exiled. Arulan named the children Elf, taking the name from the stories of the Many. As years passed, and the celestial children grew to adulthood, feeling a call to a certain place, they met in a grove near Stonewreath, and they spoke, for they had never seen others so like unto themselves. Those bore of sin and evil have hearts that are already weak to its temptations, and so it came to pass that brother fell in love with sister, and Terr married Zoriana, and bore two sons and a daughter, and Aelius married Selene, and bore five sons and no daughters and Janus married Astri, and bore seven daughters and no sons. Mailon was disgusted, but his siblings swore him to secrecy of their accursed unions. He honored his word and distanced himself from them. One day, the daughters of Janus and Astri wished to go for a picnic, and in searching for a proper place, they came across a glade of trees that they had never seen before. The glade was wholesome and near a pond, so they set down to eat. They laughed noisily and splashed the water and drew out of the glade an old woman, whose kind they had never seen before. ¡°What manner of being art thou?¡± Asked the eldest daughter, Aurora The woman replied, ¡°I woudst ask the same thing of you, as you are unlike any being I have yet drawn to this yew.¡± Aurora, young and unversed in the manner of the fae, said ¡°I am Aurora, daughter of Janus, and I am Luna Elf.¡± The woman laughed, ¡°And how is this be? Only Elf who live are bound by kith and kin.¡± Aurora realized her mistake, and she stood to flee, when the trees bound her and her sisters in their roots. The Fae called for Arulan, who appeared from one of the trees. The daughters wept, and Arulan called for The Fae to free them, and he told them to return to their parents, but since they ran, they would share in their guilt. The next night, the elves where once again called to the grove in Stonewreath, and they were met they¡¯re by Arulan. He asked ¡°Which among you hast child?¡± And they lied and scoffed, and blamed the other. Arulan asked again, ¡°Which among you hast child?¡± Again, they lied, but this time Mailon spoke and said, ¡°All but I, Speaker.¡± ¡°Why did you not speak sooner?¡± Arulan asked, ¡°I did not wish to break my word.¡± Mailon ¡°Very well, of this crime you are pure, for your heart shows no malice.¡± This was not Arulan, that spoke, but the ((SYSTEM)) ¡°For those who the crime does fall upon, your sentence is less than your mother¡¯s and more. Your crime will be the bane of your race, and yet twill define it, Astri and her daughters will bear no more daughters, and those of Selene no sons, Zoriana¡¯s children will have no more than three chances during their life to bring forth a living child, for one thousand generations, on the one thousand and first cycle of birth, the punishment shall be stayed, but not unto the next, until another thousand have passed.¡± Arulan began to leave, but Mailon entreated him to stay for a moment, ¡°Sir, I beg that I be taken from this place, any all places that the spawn of my kin may inhabit, for I feel naught but disgust for those whose blood is shared too freely among too few veins, I wish that I may be taken to my mother, so that I may live my days not in exile, but in hiding of the grotesque welps that will spring from the overripe hearts of my siblings. That I may fly from the lands of plague, and famine, and war, and leave to the land of death, I beg this of you, and I swear upon my stellar father that I will seek for my kind no trouble and evil, and I will do all that I can to mitigate this sin that has tainted my blood and those who share it, and these things I cannot promise if I stay in a place where they will meet me, and my disgust may grow into revulsion and hate.¡± Arulan and the ((SYSTEM)) consulted and then spoke to Mailon, ¡°You will go to Mori then, but be warned, one day, the place of exile will become reconciled with Mazre, and then, if you still live, none will stop them.¡± ¡°Very well, then I will train my blood to be cooled against them, and my heart to be guarded in the innocence that birth hath given them.¡± Mailon said, Arulan nodded, and a great beast with wings came and took Mailon across many seas, and the wind blew favorably, and the sun beat softly upon his brow, until the beast took him to the place where his mother was exiled. Evirynn welcomed her son warmly, her heart becoming chastised with her exile, and for many suns they lived secluded in the deepest [1]mori, however, as time waned, Evirynn said to Mailon. ¡°Go out, and find yourself a wife among the peoples of this land.¡± And Mailon did. He married a Morian by the name of Martha, and they had seven children, Bruce, Kalel, Bartholmew, Hal, Diane, Aruthur, and John, but the blood of Mori is thicker than the blood of stars, and the children were very little elf. The people of Mori are short lived, and before twenty years had passed, and Mailon arranged their own marriages. Then, forty more, and Martha withered. Filled with grief, Mailon returned to his mother, but after twenty suns she said again.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Go out, and find yourself a wife among the peoples of this land.¡± And Mailon did. He married a widow by the name of Suzane, but they had no children, and she withered. And many times, this repeated, until the blood of elves was mingled with the blood of the exiled, and they became something that was unlike themselves, and they lived longer, and magic came more readily to the hands it once avoided. And the blood of Elf and Fae over many generations mixed with the blood of the Morians who were once Many. These are the names of the Morian wives of Mailon. October, Ursala, Layla, Ruth, Barbra, Violet, Marigold, Ethel, Atalanta, Ester, Veria, Faith, Marie, Scarlet, Bri, Ivy, Hope, Lorelei, Mei, Angel, Donna, Gemma, Philomena, Cora, Gin, Tilly, Cassiopeia, Madelyn, Amy, Mira, and Roxy. After Roxy withered, and his children where grown, Mailon tired of his beloved dying, and retired from the world of mortals. For a hundred years, no whisper was heard of the elf on Mori. It was then that Evirynn grew old, for her soul was of the Many, and still held the curse of death, and Evirynn did not wither, but instead was placed in a deep sleep, and she became buried under stone, and now a mountain lays over her and a city atop it, named Marcsworth. Mailon, wrapt in grief, left the mori[2] glade and took to wander. For three years he wandered, then on the night of the fourth year, he stepped into a Fey Wild. Inside lived the Faery Talia, who met with Mailon and they broke bread. Mailon stayed in the Fey Wild for many days, and soon Talia and Mailon wed. The fae are long lived and their blood is strong, but Talia wished to give Mailon an elven child, so that he may have more of his kind. So, she carved a log into the shape of a child, and set upon it a glimmer so that it would appear alive. They named the child Justine, and Mailon did not wonder that his daughter stayed an infant, for that is the way of the Fey Wilds, and time seemed to stay frozen, for if the Fae lack one thing, it is time. But so many years passed that the magic drained Talia¡¯s soul, and she withered, and the glimmer faded, and Mailon was left with a corpse and a log. He cried over his wife who lied, and his daughter who never lived, and tears fell upon the log. The next morn, when Mailon awoke he found that a tree had sprouted, and laughter flitted through its leaves, and a child played at its roots, at first Mailon cried out for his daughter, but as he grew closer, he realized that the child was not Justine, but she had her eyes, and her voice, though she did not have the skin or ears of an elf, Mailon reached out to the child, but as if she was a ghost, she didn¡¯t notice as his hand fell through her shoulder. The child was not Justine, but Mailon named her Rose and stayed near her. The child was alone, and Mailon knew this loneliness, as though he had siblings, he was the only child of his father. And none of his children or lovers where elves, and none understood the loss of the elves. So, in the moonless night, Mailon found his father in the sky and called to him, and his father answered saying. ¡°Why do you call to me? You have not thought of me since you swore on my name.¡± And Mailon said, ¡°I wish to ask how I might spare another of the loss.¡± And his father said. ¡°I will show you. Reach out your hand.¡± Mailon did so, and starlight twisted around his fingertips, ¡°Weave the light into a form, and life will be born.¡± So, Mailon weaved the light into a tree. And in the morn, a woman was sitting beside Rose, and she gave her another name, and they did not see Mailon, and thus was born the Dryads. And Mailon wandered many years, and he was known across all of Mori, and the Ents came across the sea to Mori and they settled in a plain that became a forest, but they where old and weak, and fire charred their trunks, so the companions of Arulan slept and the Dryads from this forest very wholesome, and since then the Ents and the Dryads have never been separated. Mailon wandered and he settled in a cave near his mother¡¯s mountain. His father watched his heir, and the other stars where envious, so the stars that made up the Gemini conversed, and they came up with a plot. The north star heard of these whispers, and told them to the triplets of the summer triangle, and they told others and the rumors traveled far, until stars that did not look down upon Mazre heard of them, and they wondered of this place where stars had children. One of these stars, who had no name, for the Many had never given her one, heard these whispers, for stars only whisper, and she sent a message on a beam of starlight toward Mazre, and a star known to Ridoum as Ghith caught the light and sent it to Mailon¡¯s father. Mailon¡¯s father sent a message to the nameless star and they agreed that a marriage would be arranged between his own child and one that she would create. The nameless star called upon the Sun, (there is quite a difference between stars and suns, despite what the Many seem to think) and the Sun called upon Kwim the sea dragon, who would pull the cradle of Leona, and Kwim promised the Sun to make a daughter for the nameless Star. Kwim, not knowing how this could be done, came to the shore of Ladora, to the city of Volom, before it was raised into the sky by the Harpy King, and he called upon the goblin smith Edurn, who was a legend even in the earliest days. Edurn promised to teach Kwim the art of smithing if he would light his forge, and Kwim agreed. Now, as the Harpies and Dwarves who lived in Volom feared Kwim, Edurn took him to a beach, and he used his magic to build up a great forge, and he taught Kwim to build all manner of things, and how to use dragon fire to breathe life into golems, but the metals where far too coarse to become the daughter of the star, and wood could not be forged by a dragon. In his frustration, Kwim flew high and scorched the beach until the sand glowed red, but when he returned, he found that the melted sand and created a new substance, and when it was flung into the water, became clear and hard, but still fragile. Kwim showed Edurn the material and they together named it ¡®glass¡¯, and Edurn dismissed it as too frail to be forged, but Kwim worked many hours and days, blowing fire onto the sand, and twisting it with his claws. After three weeks, he had built a statue of a beautiful woman with the shape of an elf and skin of glass. He set one of his scales as her heart and clothed her in a gown sewn from rubies. And then the nameless star wove her light into the sculpture, and her color became the green of her mother, but it flashed blue, and sometimes red, like the scale she held as her heart. The glass became mailable like flesh, but she was always transparent, like a stained window in the chapels of the knights. The star¡¯s daughter was given the name Adelaide. And Kwim, though he was not her father, taught her to speak the language of dragons, and of elves, and of mori, (For he had been there to meet the FirstDragon), and he gave her a large sum of gold from his own horde, and many gowns and seeds that would grow trees made of silver. Then Kwim took her to Mori on his back. Mailon, at this time, had lived in the cave for a period of 150 years, and he had built himself a large house outside of it. And Kwim came with Adelaide and he left her and her gifts, and after bowing to Evirynn¡¯s mound, he flew away. And Mailon inquired to Adelaide who she was, and she said that she was the daughter of a star, and that her mother and his father wished them to wed. Mailon, whose heart had grown many scars, said, despite his loneliness, that she was young, and he had lived for many years, and the Epoch of Myth was ending, and that he could not marry her, because she to him, was a child. And Adelaide was quite troubled by this. For she had been created to be his bride, and she was not sure what she was to do, for she did not know anything of the world. Mailon saw that she was troubled and told her this: ¡°I will promise you this, if you follow me for two hundred years, and I show you every sight of Mori, I will teach you every secret of Mazre, every goodly place and every heart that beats upon its land, and if you still wish to marry me, then I shall marry you.¡± And two hundred years passed, and they traveled over every isle and forest of Mori, and they saw every sight and every secret was told, and when Adelaide was no longer a child, and she found that she loved Mailon because of his kindness, rather than of her birth, they married, and they had many children, and many stars called to Kwim to make them daughters and sons, and there was never too few veins in Mori, and they settled in the Ent-Forest and the Dryads made sure that no child was ever lost among the shifting trees. Mailon¡¯s father looked down at his son and he sent messages to Adelaide¡¯s mother, and they where happy in the knowledge that their arrangements had been successful. [1] Mori here refers to forest, not the land of exile, this was common in texts from the epoch of myth. [2] forest