《Chaos Point》


 Chapter 1

    It''s foggy. Not outside, just in my head. I feel a dense fog filling my skull, my mind slow and crude compared to how it normally is. How is it normally? Fast? I don''t remember. All I can do right now is think. I''m sure that if I try to sleep I won''t wake up. But it''s so cold.


    The frigid cold seeps into my bones, and I feel like I''ll split apart at the joints from how cold it is. Joints? Wait. I don''t have those right now. I can''t move. There''s something nibbling on my ear. Stop. I hate it. Get off. Get off!


    GET OFF


    Oh. It''s gone. I can''t feel it moving. It''s dead. What? What is it? Something I hate. But I feel safer now. I think I can sleep. Good night. What''s night? Night is the time for sleep. Good night.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day One, Sunrise]


    I groggily try to blink away the blinding rays of the sun as it rises, only to find that I can''t blink. Actually, now that I look closer, I can see in just about every direction at once. I think. Half of me is buried in some kind of black sand. The gentle roaring of the ocean waves lapping at the shores of whatever island I''m on brings me out of the deep confusion I was feeling, reminding me that I need to be doing something.


    Okay, so I''ve got black sand under me, the ocean is¡­ that way. I guess. I don''t have a left and right anymore. In the opposite direction of the ocean, the beach continues for a while until it meets a small cliff of dirt that''s been carved by the waves into a concave shape. Beyond that is a dense jungle, and beyond even that, a smoking mountain peak towers over the rest of the island. A volcano then.


    As for where I am¡­ I turn my attention inwards, or rather, direct it towards myself, and my perspective shifts. I see the black sands of the beach and buried halfway in the sand is a heart sized gleaming obsidian orb, polished to a fine sheen and shining iridescently in the sunlight. When I look at the orb, I get a feeling similar to peering into a mirror, so I''m pretty sure I''m the rock.


    I sigh in exasperation as I realize the situation I''m in, but a sudden flicker of light draws my focus to the sky. It''s suddenly filled with a gentle spattering of glowing blue specks. I spot one nearby slowly inching away from me as I breathe out. I immediately shift to inhaling deeply, and see the small particle float towards me. As I continue inhaling, I remember vaguely that I''ve read a few stories where the protagonist is in a similar situation. Hmmm¡­ I guess that means that whatever I''m pulling towards me is ¡°mana¡± then? It fits the description I''ve always read.


    Ah. The mana particle is almost here. I wait patiently for the particle to touch my surface, and when it does a feeling of ownership overcomes me. The mana is mine now, and I control it. I eject the small particle by exhaling, nothing that it''s a deep glowing purple now, and find myself enraptured by it as I move it around. It moves however I want it to, following my thoughts exactly, drawing a grin across my¡­ mind? I don''t have a mouth anymore. I try using it to bat around another particle, only to find it pass through the unclaimed mana.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    It isn''t like nothing happened though. The unclaimed mana stirs like a fluid, slowly following the claimed mana before losing momentum and slowing to a stop. The fluidity gives me an idea, and my claimed mana immediately begins tracing a small swirl as fast as it can, the unclaimed mana following and being drawn to the space in the center, forming a small ball of mana after a few minutes. I draw it towards me and absorb the ball of mana, finding that it contains nine more particles to control.


    I gather all my particles into a slightly bigger ball of mana and repeat the process, this time tracing a vortex shape around my core. The unclaimed mana begins to follow, and I continue the pattern, eventually seeing the stream of mana gain enough momentum to continue the pattern on its own. By that point, I feel full, as if I''d just eaten a big meal. Okay, now for the next part. I''m pretty sure that I am a ¡°dungeon core¡±, so I should be able to control the land around me to a certain degree.


    I try willing the sand under me to form a pedestal, but nothing happens. Next I try sending a stream of my deep purple mana and trying to push the sand along, which does leave a trail in the sand, but not enough of one to be the way I actually control things. I hope. Next I try pushing my mana into a grain of sand, and feel a faint resistance before I suddenly feel the grain snap into place and become mine. I try moving the grain, and find that I can move it with enough force to drag itself across the sand, but not enough to fly around.


    At this point, I feel even more saturated by mana, the vortex surrounding me refusing to let up, only getting bigger. And I''m certain that when I claimed that sand I didn''t feel my mana return. I think I could pull it out if I want, but I don''t really need to do that. So that''s one way to ¡°spend¡± mana. I try infusing my mana into the beach, feeling more and more sand become a part of me. It only takes a few seconds, and once I collect enough sand to form a large mound that I can move around on, I stop.


    I try melting the sand into a solid stone, and it merges into a roughly human sized slab of obsidian. I try bending it and twisting it, finding that I can shape it freely. Another idea crosses my mind and shape it into a vaguely humanoid form. I leave the hands and feet as giant spikes and bend over, the head of the body wrapping around me and embedding me in the center of its face.


    I can still see though the backside of the head, so I guess that whatever I''ve claimed is something I can use as an extension of my senses. I start walking the stone body towards the jungle, a plan forming in my mind. If I''m going to be a dungeon, then I''m going to be the coolest one. There will be no others like me. The stream of mana follows me into the jungle, but now that I''ve left the center of the vortex I don''t feel as much pressure as I did before. But it''s still a lot. I still feel too full. So I infuse everything around me, using as much mana as I can as the stream continues to grow.


    I leave a trail of purple light behind me as I trudge through the trees, my spiked legs stabbing into the ground to keep me upright. By the time the trees thin out and the land transitions to mountainous rock, it''s noon. This island is small, but even a small island is still an island I guess. I''ve had to use my extended perception to guide my mana to infuse places farther and farther away from me as the stream of unclaimed mana has increased its pressure. The slopes of the volcano are steep, and quickly become steep enough that I can''t climb them, so I claim the rocks around me and create footholds, shaping my vessels limbs to slot into them securely as well.


    I know for certain that nothing would be able to climb this mountain without the proper tools or assistance, closing up the footholds behind me so nothing can follow. Dungeons have to protect their core, right? And given the heat I can sense on the back of my head, the mana stream won''t take kindly to any attempts to block it. Luckily I can absorb it before it does any damage to the obsidian, but I don''t think it''d go very well if I wasn''t doing that. Anyways, that means that a volcano like this would be a great place to hide my core, especially because of how difficult it''d be to climb it and because of the easy access to the sky.


    I just have to keep it from exploding, and I can probably do that by using the magma as a source of building material. I reach the peak of the volcano by the end of the day, and peer over the edge of the crater down at the giant pool of lava hiding a bit deeper inside the mountain. Yes, this''ll do nicely for a base. There are a few problems though. Namely the ever growing pressure of the mana stream behind me.

 Chapter 2

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    [A Quiet Island, Night 1, Sunset]


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 2, Sunrise]


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


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


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


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


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

 Chapter 3

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    [A Quiet Island, Day 3, Sunrise]


    It took a while for the ants to move, but with my help they were able to pack everything necessary onto leaves and then drag those with them. Luckily this colony is pretty small, only about a million individuals, so I don''t have to worry as much about space. While they were walking to the dungeon, I prepared a bit for them. At the end of the entry hall I carved a large round room with two pillars in the middle on a small raised area. There are four doors arranged like a compass¡¯s face, and two of them are ¡°collapsed¡±. I kept the Roman arch aesthetic, and left the walls of the entry hall flat and smooth so I could carve more bas-reliefs into them.


    Behind one of the collapsed hallways, I make another room that''s around the same size, leaving that one empty. That room shall be the one the ants live in. Well¡­ start in, more like. Outside, I modify a nearby species of vine, creating my first modified plant. I make it curl around the pillars and cover the roof of the temple. The leaves are smaller and denser, with a higher amount of chlorophyll, and I make the vine itself very thick and succulent. Every foot or so I make the vine grow flowers, which grow into large, nutrient dense fruit within a day. I try to make sure it tastes good, but I won''t know until the ants taste it for me. The whole process takes an hour or two, and by the time I''m done the ants have arrived.


    I order them to drag their leaves over to the door and then to group up into a circle. I form a pillar underneath the entire patch of ants and raise them to the roof of the temple, letting them free of my control to eat as they wish. I''ve noticed that the ants are a bit smarter and more self aware than before, so I leave them to eat while I transport their leaves inside. Once I''m done with that I carve a small tunnel where the temple meets the cliff, leading into the dungeon room where I''ll have them start their new nest.


    As the ants slowly make their way down the small tunnel, I think of how to modify them. Eventually the whole colony has made its way into the room, ants covering the walls, ceiling and floor to the point where I can''t see the stone underneath. I decide to take the one I originally claimed outside, and single it out from the crowd. This ant I make into a door guard, for now. I saturate the ant¡¯s body with mana and begin shaping it. The ant grows to the size of a large dog, the carapace thickens and the muscles strengthen. I grow a pair of lungs and extend the leg carapace to cover the ant¡¯s joints, but it¡¯s the final addition I¡¯m the most proud of.


    You see, some leafcutter ants of a specific genera have an adaptation which causes them to grow a thin coating of minerals on their exoskeleton. Also, unrelated observation, I¡¯ve noticed that the basalt making up my temple, which is mostly infused with my mana, is ever so slightly tougher than regular basalt. I noticed this when I grew the vines on top of the temple. It was a bit harder for them to take root in the temple basalt than the basalt cliff the dungeon is embedded in. Now then, I wonder how I could utilize this knowledge. If you were thinking what I was thinking, you¡¯d think that I thought that we thought that I was very smart.


    I modified the guard ant¡¯s carapace to be covered in tiny pores, from which I grew small filaments of obsidian I¡¯d overcharged with mana. The obsidian¡¯s properties changed a bit, the volcanic glass growing tougher and harder, and much less brittle than before. It also gained a bit of a purplish sheen. I also made the pores secrete a thin coating of oil that the ant could use to prevent the obsidian from catching on their body. The final additions I make are to the ant¡¯s jaws, which I modify the bits closer to the mouth to be flat and designed to crush, and the parts further away are sharpened to a point supplemented by a modification to the obsidian hair that makes it all come out as a thin shard that hangs over the edges of the jaws.


    I add more power to the ant¡¯s jaws, and make a few changes that are mostly just sizing and intelligence tweaks. Once I¡¯m done, I see the excess mana left over in the ant begin to gather around one point, swirling into a small ball right next to the heart. Not sure what that means, but it¡¯s surely important. I feel a sense of awe and gratitude flow up to me through the mana tendril I used to connect to the ant, which I return with a sense of pride and care. Didn¡¯t know I could send emotions, but I guess that¡¯s a thing. Your job is now to guard my temple. Do not let any intruders in without my express permission. The last thing it¡­ wait. She needs, is a name. Hmm¡­ I think I¡¯ll name her Alectryon.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


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    [A Quiet Island, Day 3, Evening]


    Now that I¡¯m done with Alectryon¡¯s changes, I leave her to her duties and return my focus to the ants inside the dungeon. They¡¯re still waiting patiently, in the exact same places as I left them. The first thing I do is add a carved out ring around the top of the room for the ants to gather in instead of covering the walls and floor. I then call forth the ant queen and ten majors, the warriors and protectors of the nest. I make the queen about the size of a small pony, adding lungs and wings, but mostly focusing on the size. Her carapace goes from a dull red-brown color to a regal deep red, her wings getting a golden sheen and a formatting of spikes jutting from her head in the shape of a crown. Her egg laying rate is decreased so I don¡¯t have to worry about overpopulation as well. I spend a lot of mana enlarging her brain too, and I let the excess mana coalesce into another sphere like the one I saw Alectryon make.


    The majors I modify to be the size of a large dog, like Alectryon, and they get stronger muscles and thicker carapaces that resemble plate armor. Their carapaces gain a blood red coloring, lighter in shade than the queens but still imposing. The biggest change I make is again their jaws, which I modify to be made specifically for cutting, shaped similarly to side cutters. I give them much stronger jaw muscles, and mimic the mechanism used by trap-jaw ants to let them hold their jaws open like bear traps. I make sure to make the carapace that acts as a spring to close the jaws as strong as I can without being impossible to open the jaws, and I add lungs as a given.


    I move the queen and her guards into the rooms with the pillars, and then call forward one hundred workers. I make them the size of a large cat, but only change their muscles to be stronger and more enduring, as well as modifying their jaws a bit to be tougher so they can cut through the rock of the mountain when making their new nest. Lungs again, and I make them a lighter shade of red than the guards, approaching more vibrant, brighter reds. The smallest workers are then modified, another hundred of them being called forth. These ones are a lot smaller than the other ants, and I only ever saw them inside the nest doing chores, so I make them the size of a large kitten, and a pale pink color. No changes other than that though. And lungs. Again. Because I don¡¯t want to take the chance that the ants might suffocate from having too big a body.


    I should probably make a first floor now so the ants have somewhere to live. I move the rest outside, setting the larger ones to guard the smaller ones, and apply the changes I made to the first batches to every single ant from the colony, and then I begin carving out the first floor.


    I carve out a large labyrinth as quickly as I can, adding in stone bricks to the walls and making the corridors 10 feet tall and ten feet across. I add a few bigger rooms where I could place loot later, and then let the ants in to colonize the hurriedly constructed labyrinth. The whole thing is massive, nearly 20 acres, and the maze is as complicated as I could make it in the time I was building it. Hopefully the ants already being familiar with winding tunnels lets them not get lost. I don¡¯t make any rules for their new nest, other than it has to include the labyrinth as a main feature, though they can have as many side rooms as they want to keep the queen in and lay their eggs and store food and such.


    A sense of worry reaches me through my connection to the queen ant, drawing my attention, and I realize that their planned food source of fungus isn¡¯t enough to feed their colony anymore. So I modify the fungus a bit to glow faintly and grow quicker and bigger, making sure that the form the fungus¡¯s growths assume is an easy to harvest tube of mushroom stalk. I also add antimicrobial properties and make the fungus as nutritious as possible. Very refreshing. I leave the doors open for now, since the ants haven¡¯t made any of their own exits yet. I leave the labyrinth saturated with mana and try to think of what I should make next.


    Oh yeah, I was gonna claim every animal on the island. And then claim the island.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 4, Sunrise]


    Oh look, the sun¡¯s rising again! At this point I¡¯ve claimed every animal on the island, but I haven¡¯t done anything with them yet. I already have my ants, and I won¡¯t need much else until the first visitors leave and send back an exploration team. Unless I get a military vessel as the first visit. I really hope someone visits soon. The next thing I do is get to work claiming every part of the island which isn¡¯t alive. It¡¯s a bit difficult for some reason. It feels¡­ wrong somehow to claim land which isn¡¯t inside. Oh well. Instincts can be crazy sometimes, and I guess I got some new ones since I reincarnated. Explains how I know how to change animals and plants to my whims. I continue claiming parts of the island, focusing mainly on the mountain and spreading out in a circle from there.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 5, Evening]


    It took me a while, two days I think, and I¡¯ve managed to claim the entire island. That feeling of wrongness only increased as I claimed the land, but it went away after I made it clear that I won¡¯t listen to it. Hmmm¡­ Maybe enlarging my core next? I¡¯m pretty sure I should be able to do that. I return my focus to the peak of the volcano, and try forcing a mana particle into my core without absorbing it. I¡¯ve already noticed that I gained a quarter of an inch in diameter, presumably from the amount of mana I¡¯ve been pushing around, but it isn¡¯t enough. I feel a bit of resistance at first, but eventually the mana particle snaps into place and¡­ no visible difference. But I did feel something happen, even though it was accompanied by the feeling of wrongness, and I do feel a bit emptier than I just was, even though I was just at the maximum mana I can store without feeling oversaturated. I¡¯m gonna do it again.

 Chapter 4

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    [A Quiet Island, Night 5, Midnight]


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


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


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


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


    Hmm¡­ what now?


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 6, Sunrise]


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


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


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


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


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


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


    ¡°FATHER¡­¡±


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


    ¡°WHAT IS MY PURPOSE, FATHER?¡±


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


    ¡°I SEE. AND MY NAME?¡±


    ¡°Your name shall be Sentinel, an unwavering bulwark that deflects any attempts to harm our homeland.¡±


    ¡°SENTINEL¡­ I LIKE IT.¡±


    ¡°You should rest for now my son. Conserve your energy until it is needed.¡±


    ¡°I SHALL.¡±


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

 Chapter 5

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    [A Small Boat, Day 7, Just Before Sunrise]


    Anya peered out over the open ocean, her eyes tracing the massive rivers of water mana running below their ship and off into the horizon, her sightless eyes unable to see the sun peeking over the waves as the day began. The journey to even get here was a long, boring process that she had never wanted any part in anyways. Confirming dungeon reports should be done by regular guilders, the ones who were more powerful than her and wouldn''t die when faced with a monster. But her grandmother had insisted that she go because of some stupid problems with the mana compass those merchants were using to get around.


    Of course a dungeon''s mana stream would interfere with mana compasses, that was normal, but those sailors wouldn¡¯t shut up about how the compass ¡°just kept spinning, faster and faster¡±, as if that was something that could actually happen. They were probably just drunk and couldn''t keep a proper eye on the compass. Ugh. Despite all the advantages mana compasses held over regular ones, they were still useless if you brought them too close to someplace like a dungeon.


    She huffed and turned away from the railing, heading back into the cabin to eat breakfast. The rest of the day was uneventful, but there was only a day left before they''d reach the coordinates the sailors had written in the report.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 7, Just Before Noon]


    Well I''m pretty much done with everything on the surface, so I decide to carve out the loot room for the first floor, placing it right after the exit. Trouble is, I don''t exactly know what to make for loot. Well, I did just get a super strong fiber from the fungi. I should probably name it. Meh, Silkshroom works. The fibers are made up of individual cells, so they''re really fine, like silk, and it''s a fungus so shroom. I grow a large enough patch of Silkshroom that I can use it to weave cloth from the fibers. I start weaving, intending to have a full bolt of cloth by the end of the day.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 7, Sunset]


    Alright. I''m done with the cloth. It''s extremely thin, but very strong. Even Alectryon wasn''t able to cut it with her jaws. I wrapped it around a dowel and placed it on a pedestal in the loot room. I haven''t figured out much else, but I''m sure the cloth will be enough. It has very high mana conductivity too. I just hope visitors come soon. I start working on digging out the second floor now. I have a good idea for this one. The second floor is deeper into the volcano, but still not close enough to the magma chamber to be in danger.


    _______________________________________


    [A Small Boat, Day 8, Just Before Sunrise]


    Anya was out on deck early again today. She liked watching the ocean currents swirling around below the water. Although, there was a weird curve in most of the smaller ones she''d seen recently. They were all curved the same way and all flowing in the same direction. Weird. The captain was complaining about the mana compass acting up too, which meant that they must be getting close to the dungeon. She sighed and went to eat breakfast again. Anya hated the food on this boat. It was too salty and hard, and it never filled her up enough.


    After eating, Anya went back out on deck. Today was the day they reached the coordinates they were going to. Hopefully those sailors had marked an area near the island. But as they got closer, Anya felt an increasing tension begin to build up, as if fate was telling her that she shouldn''t be here. It was after the tension had reached its peak that she finally saw IT. That horrible storm. It was as if the gods themselves had thrown a spear from the heavens to end some ancient battle. Swirling and circling, the eye of the storm was centered directly above a smoking volcano.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Anya lost balance, her legs becoming dead weight as she collapsed to the floor. ¡°Anya? What''s wrong?¡± ¡°Someone get the doctor!¡± ¡°Anya? Anya!? Are you okay!?¡± Voices cried out around the ship as she fell to the deck, unable to tear her eyes away from the gargantuan cone of pure mana, all coming down on one point. It could be a dungeon, but dungeons are always found underground, hidden away from the world at the bottom of a maze. There isn''t a good way to channel that much mana through the earth and into a core without significant loss. Even weirder, as it got closer and closer to the peak, a gradient formed of purple colored mana, a color that she''d never seen before.


    Eventually Anya was able to pull herself away from the storm, one of her party members, Freddy, dragging her back into the hold and blocking her view of the supernatural phenomenon. She quickly stood up, clinging to Freddy for support for a bit before standing up on her own. ¡°I- I''m fine, Freddy. I just got a little lightheaded.¡± At this point, one of the other guilders, Eva, chimed in. ¡°Fine!? You call collapsing so suddenly like that fine!?¡±


    ¡°It wasn''t because I''m injured! I was just startled.¡± Anya stated indignantly.


    ¡°Startled by what?¡±


    ¡°Well, there''s definitely something here, though I''m not sure it''s a dungeon. I''ve never seen mana do something like that.¡± She said, slowly gaining her confidence back. There''s a tone of unease in Anya¡¯s voice, as though she isn''t as confident about her answer as she seems. Suddenly, a voice rings out from above, belonging to the ship¡¯s navigator. The three guilders hurry up to the deck again, Anya making sure to ready herself for the sight of the storm again.


    ¡°Confound it all!¡± Yelled the navigator, frustrated by something as Anya rushed over. ¡°There an issue here?¡±


    ¡°This damned compass won''t stop spinning! It''s never done this before, and no matter what I do it won''t stop! Should''ve listened to gramps and brought a magnetic one too¡­¡± he muttered under his breath as he turned back to the map. ¡°Well, at least we can see the island. I should be able to pinpoint the location once we land.¡± the navigator rolls up his map and walks off towards the captain''s quarters.


    Anya shudders at the thought of landing directly under that whirlwind of mana, but she can''t deny that burning curiosity it awakened. At least nobody seems upset by her news, but she decides to keep it to herself for now, just in case.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 8, Just After Sunrise]


    The sight of white sails on the horizon makes me feel both excited and anxious. On one hand, it means that there''s a species out there intelligent enough to craft boats. On the other hand, intelligent species might not be the friendliest towards entities such as myself. Maybe I should fortify my platform a bit. I lower the bridges to be closer to the lava, raising a wall around the edge of the central platform. I carve it into more bricks, and the doorways leading to each bridge have symbols engraved into them in the same style as my doors, polished obsidian circles embedded in the keystone and fancy geometric lines circling the rest of the way.


    Next I add a dome over the top, adding a few portholes to allow mana to flow into the room. With that, my new house is complete. Not much, but it''s better than being exposed and out in the open. I ask Alectryon to move into the boss room, not wanting her to die as soon as the people find my dungeon. I do a once over of the island to make sure everything is normal before the boat gets here. Odd. Everything is a bit bigger, and some of the animals are slightly different. Well, it shouldn''t be a problem. Probably.


    Now I just need to sit and wait.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 8, Mid Morning]


    The sailors landed just a few minutes ago, and I can already tell that I''m not on Earth anymore. They''re human, but the language they speak is very melodical. The closest analogue I can think of is Simlish, as ridiculous as it sounds. Honestly though, I''m a bit disappointed that they''re human. Like, I''m not as surprised, because of the similarity between the life on Earth and the life here, but I was still hoping for a non-human sapient species.


    Notably, the boat and style of these people is reminiscent of fantasy Europe as it''s often portrayed in media. The most surprising thing though, is the amount of mana they store in their bodies. They only have a small amount of mana in their body, flowing through a point which looks like one of the little balls I see in more mana-saturated animals, but the human¡¯s core is more angular and edged. I''m pretty sure that these points could be called cores, and there would definitely be something there if I cut them open. I haven''t, and won''t, of course. Every creature with a core seems to have some kind of heightened intelligence, though I''m not sure to what extent.


    However, there is a group that''s different. They have more mana than the other humans, their cores are more defined, and what they''re wearing differentiates them even further. One of them, a unit of a man, is wearing a set of plate armor and carrying a longsword. Another one, a woman, is wearing light leather armor and form fitting clothing, carrying a set of daggers with her. The third, also a man, is regular sized and is wearing what looks like a set of scholar¡¯s robes and because he''s vigorously scribbling away in a notebook with a piece of charcoal, I''d assume that he''s a scholar. He even has a pair of glasses.


    The most interesting one, though, is a woman with pure white skin, wearing a fancy blue robe that''s suspiciously close to the shade of unclaimed mana and a black blindfold. She''s got a lot of jewelry too, and the hood of her robe is pulled up to shield her from the sun. That''s not the interesting part though. The interesting part is that she''s walking around normally despite wearing a blindfold. And, she keeps glancing up at my mana vortex. She looks like she''s trying not to worry, but I can tell that she feels uncomfortable being here. Maybe I''ll mess with her a bit.

 Chapter 6

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    [A Quiet Island, Day 8, Late Morning]


    So, something about the ambient mana on this island that I''ve noticed is that it''s a lot denser than it used to be. Also I''ve claimed it all. But that leaves a lot of room for me to make cool shapes in the mana to test if the lady can actually see mana or if she''s just faking being blind for some reason. Something I noticed is that I can''t move the mana near them, but it doesn''t stop being mine. It''s just that the closer my mana gets to the humans, the less control I have over it. I''ve noticed it begins about 100 feet away, and by the time I''m at 10 feet I have barely any control, only able to make the mana float gently towards them.


    I can still move mana underground and through animals, even able to shape stuff underground, but I can''t move it around in the air. Good thing to know that I''m defenseless against the biggest threat to my safety and wellbeing. Either way, I''ll wait until after these guys eat lunch to mess with them. For now, I''m just going to tell my ants to get ready for potential intruders. Ooo, they''re quick! I''ll have to tell them not to take first blood though. I don''t want a reputation as a dangerous dungeon. I take a peek back at the special group, and they seem to have finished early and started gearing up to explore. I still can''t understand them, so I''ll have to name them myself.


    Hmmm¡­ Armored guy will be Tank, rogue lady will be Perry, scholar nerd is Johmmy with two M¡¯s, and the mana sight lady will be Miss Witch. Yeah, that''ll work. Oh look, they''re already walking towards the mountain. Quite quickly. But they aren''t heading in my direction. Alright, now the fun begins.


    _______________________________________


    [A Quiet Island, Day 8, Just After Noon]


    Anya was still uncomfortable as the group walked through the dense jungle. The dense mana in the air made it a bit harder to breathe, and it also limited the range of her vision by creating a hellish purple fog covering the whole island. She couldn''t escape the color, even looking to the sky, and every time she looked up she felt woozy again at the sight of the mana tornado.


    Hopefully they''ll be able to find out what''s causing it. Suddenly, she notices some movement in the corner of her eye, but it quickly disappears. There''s nothing but a tree, filled with that odd purple. She can''t even see through it. Then again, in the corner of her other eye. Anya¡¯s head whips around, trying to catch whatever''s moving but finding nothing.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Anya? What''s wrong?¡±


    ¡°Well, I just thought I saw something, but¡­ I guess it''s nothing.¡±


    Eva paused for a second at Anya''s words. ¡°Maybe it''s a wild animal or something. The air here is full of mana, so everything is bigger than normal.¡± Another flash of movement, this time a bit more visible.


    ¡°Ok, there''s definitely something here.¡± Anya says in a hushed voice. She grabs Freddy and Harold''s arms, causing them to stumble a bit before turning around. Well, Harold stumbled. Freddy was fine. ¡°Wh-¡± Harold almost says before Anya puts her finger to her lips.


    ¡°We''re being followed.¡± Silence falls over the group as they realize why Anya stopped them. ¡°Let''s just continue for now. I''ll pretend I can''t see anything, and you all just act normal.¡± With that, the group starts walking again, this time with a tense atmosphere surrounding them.


    Nothing happens for a good while after that. The suspense grows as they walk through the jungle, until Anya sees another movement. But this one is slow. Anya¡¯s eyes widen under her blindfold as she stops, barely able to believe what she was seeing. A robed figure made entirely out of mana stood a small distance from her, its face and body hidden from her. Its arms met in the middle of its chest, hands hidden under the robes sleeves.


    The figure raised its arms in a beckoning motion, still not allowing anything to be revealed under the robes, and then began briskly walking away from Anya in a different direction. She couldn''t believe what she was seeing. Something like that shouldn''t exist. There were such things as mana beings, like spirits and sprites, but nothing like this. The others in the group couldn''t see it, and the figure didn''t seem to have a physical form, nor did it resemble anything Anya could remember reading about during her studies.


    She darted after the thing, running as fast as she could to follow it but never seeming to get any closer. ¡°W- Anya!¡± Freddy cried out before gritting his teeth and chasing after her. The other two follow quickly, and the group run through the dense jungle as fast as they can, following right behind Anya.


    The figure is too fast for Anya to catch up, and it bobs and weaves through the trees like second nature. The rest of the forest becomes a blur as Anya sped up, trying harder to close the gap between her and the figure. But it matched her pace and after a while running, the figure started moving even faster. It ran faster and faster until it finally disappeared past the point where Anya could see, but she kept running. The trees started getting even denser before suddenly disappearing and opening into a clearing.


    A second after Anya, the rest of the group bursts through the foliage behind her. ¡°Anya, what¡­¡± Freddy trails off as he slows down and looks around the clearing. He often remained silent because it was too much of a bother to talk, but this time it was because of the awe he felt at the scene before him.


    A crumbling building covered in vines was pushed up against a cliff, and though he couldn''t see very far into it, he knew the construct was hiding something. The building resembled some kind of antiquated temple, large pillars holding up a massive stone roof to shield any idols or statues from the elements. There were stone walls a bit behind the pillars, cutting off the light and sound of the jungle.


    Anya stepped forward, her blind eyes unhampered by the darkness inside the temple. Eva, as just in awe of the ancient temple as everyone else, was the first to break the silence. ¡°W- Wait, Anya! How did you find this place?¡± Anya turned to face Eva, a wide grin on her face.


    ¡°Eva. There''s a door in there. I think we found our dungeon.¡±