Thea’s eyes fell on the golden orb that held the life force of the Dungeon. Her health bar was getting dangerously low, but once she shattered it, the infernal ant around her neck would despawn. where was Quil? He should’ve been here by now. She stalked over to the ((CORE)), climbing over a ruined pillar. The ant detached itself and fell limply on the floor. Thea frowned, had it really given up so easily? She had invaded several dungeons in her life, it wasn’t in their nature. It didn’t matter, it would only take a moment. She had shattered one before, she had gained four levels, but had been plagued by dreams of gently guiding along what felt like a stream of water for weeks afterward.
She shifted into her manform and began to siphon the ((MANA)), and the air around her shuddered. Glancing at the black ant, it seemed to be shuddering too. Strangely, the ant made no move to attack her, had it accepted its fate? The ((CORE)) began to dissolve, but it was going slower than it should, was it that ((MANA)) dense? Thea, not for the first time, wondered why it was called ‘shattering’ when the crystal just… faded. Suddenly shadow fell over her. Without leaving time to think, she shifted back into her beast form, letting the ((CORE)) fall to the ground, and met the assault of the now even more monstrous ant.
Thea’s fangs pushed against the curved mandibles of the creature, holding it at bay. She stared into its two, pupilless eyes, somehow, it had grown, in both size and strength, within only a minute. An empty black husk sat on the floor where it had once been. Now, she was on the defensive, already exhausted and on low health, this… this wasn’t not good. where was Quil? Infernal blade when she found him- The ant pulled away from the stalemate, and jabbed lower, at her ‘neck’.
Thea ducked and used her eight legs to spring upward, trying to land atop the ant so she could let her venom do the work. The ant had grown, but had not lost its agility, it ducked out of the way, standing over the ((CORE)). She hissed, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the hoard broke through her web, she needed to end this now. She charged the ant, but it didn’t move to dodge or even move to meet her attack.
As she grew closer, she felt the venom in her fangs begin to drip, the ant didn’t move. She tackled the it, her fangs poised right above its abdomen, she was about to strike when she felt something sharp and cold in her chest. Thea realized her mistake too late as she tried to pull herself off the ((RETAINER’S)) newly sharpened mandibles. The mouth parts stabbed through the mail on her underbelly and sliced through any amount of her internals as they opened and closed. Thea groaned weakly, gasping for breath as the mandibles nicked one of her lungs.
The ((RETAINER)) pulled away, and Thea’s vision blurred as she fell to the floor, she was barely able to make out the ((RETAINER)) picking up the ((CORE)) and replacing it on a pedestal. Quil? where was Quil? She pulled herself to her feet, not even realizing that she had shifted back to her man form. The gash on her stomach looked fatal, but strangely, it didn’t hurt. She had no trouble standing up and walking toward the doorway. She had to find Quilian. The ant, seemingly knowing that its job was done, made no move to stop her. Her armor felt heavy, much too heavy, she reached up to take off her helmet but her hands were shaking and her arms felt weak. where was he? She needed to find him before… Goodness, why did her eyelids feel so heavy?
Thea sunk to the ground, the gash in her stomach had begun to hurt. She would find him; she needed to find him- just a little further… The world turned gold.
------------------------
Empress watched as the spider lady’s corpse was absorbed. She felt her ((MANA POOL)) refill after upgrading Guard had drained it. Her tiredness vanished, her ((CORE)) regenerated... partially. It still wasn’t as large as before, and the thin black crack seemed to have grown wider. She stared at it, and suddenly felt as if her ((GAZE)) was being dragged to the floor. Something danced along the edges of her vison, which shouldn’t have been possible because her sight was circular. She wrenched her ((GAZE)) away, and they shadows vanished.
Empress exhaled softly, her frantic mind slowing down. She felt her ((MANA POOL)) surge once more, and it was followed by a feeling of expansion. Her voice felt tight and she gasped slightly. For a moment, she was confused by the ((SYSTEM))’s silence, but then her ((GAZE)) brightened.
“Unsilenced.” She said,
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE LEVELED UP! EXPAND
CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR RETAINER HAS REACHED LEVEL 3, EXPAND
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED YOUR ENEMIES, EXPAND
DUE TO THE THREAT LEVEL BEING UNDER 7, ALL COLONISTS HAVE REVERTED TO THEIR REGULAR ALIGNMENTS.
Pushing the box to the side for a moment, Empress took stock of her casualties, she had lost twenty-three ants in all, most of them were guards, the moss hallway, spawner room, and ((SANCTUM)) had all been damaged, and there was a magical web of some kind blocking the path to the ((SANCTUM)). Erak looked to be working on the last one with his blue fire. Empress nodded, she pinged Runner and Gatherer to bring all the corpses to be absorbed.
She turned back to the text box and pressed ((EXPAND)) on the first message.
+1X SPAWNER NO VALID PLACEMENT OPTION
+400 MANA
STATUS:
LV 3 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: Guard
Alignment: _____
System message type: Glass based
Communication type: auditory
Spawner orientation: Visual
Traits: Introspective
Notoriety: 0
Fame: 0
Infamy: 0
Empress nodded sourly, “No valid placement option” she muttered, and opened the next tab. How annoying.
LV 3 RETAINER ANT
Name: Guard
Gender: Female
Languages: Ant, Systematic
Notoriety: 0
Fame: 0
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Infamy: 0
STR: 12
CON: 8
INT: 9
WIZ: 5
DEX: 3
CHAR: 1.5
HP: 10/10
Ascend chance: 5%
Traits: Dungeon-touched, Guardian
Affinities: Ento
SELL
FORCE LEVEL UP
EVOLVE
GO TO SPAWNER
she opened the final tab.
1X HYBRID WOLF/FALCON BEASTKIN, LEVEL 19, PALADIN, + 100 MANA, NOT ABSORBED.
1X SPIDERKIN WIDOW, LEVEL 21, TANK, + 120 MANA, ABSORBED 10 Pounds: Enchanted gold armor plating, 15 pounds, Onyx chainmail
Empress blinked, her vision instantly drawn to the gold. enchanted? With what? She shook her ((GAZE)). She didn’t have time. She would experiment later, now, she had lost a large chunk of her colony and two swarms. She had gained an absurd amount of ((MANA)) for it, but that had been only two adventurers. How would she survive if more came? It seemed like Erak’s arrival had opened the floodgates. She needed to use the ((MANA)) she had on fortifying her ((DOMAIN)). Erak sprinted into the ((SANCTUM)), a blue light blazing at his side, he seemed shocked as he stood in the ruins. Empress tilted her ((GAZE)), ah right. She opened the ((SYSTEM)), decorative options filled the room, but she ignored all but one.
REPAIR ALL?
She selected the button, and for a fraction of the cost it was to build, the ((SANCTUM)) was restored. Erak made an ‘Oh’ face and ran his fingers through his tangled hair. The door reformed and the light level in the ((SANCTUM)) lowered. Empress repaired the spawner room but left the moss hallway to the gardeners. Guard stood in the ((CORE)) room, she was twice her previous size, and her mandibles were now silver with serrated points. Her eyes were larger as well, and there was a glimmer of something in her eyes that wasn’t there before.
Empress pinged Guard to bring Erak to the ((SAFEROOM)). Guard looked at her ((GAZE)) snorted and shook her head, pointing her antennae at the now reduced in size ((CORE)). Empress blinked in shock. Unsure of how to respond, she said nothing, instead, she pinged Runner, who was coming up the moss hallway carrying a fallen sister. Runner burst into the room, dropped the dead builder, who was instantly absorbed, and began to circle the elf excitedly. Eventually, Erak began to follow Runner, sprinting after the red ant.
It wasn’t long before the pair arrived in the ((SAFEROOM)), where Doktor and Empress were waiting. Erak noticed her presence and the silver words appeared.
“Hello milady, how may I help you?” he asked
Empress ((COMMANDED)) Doktor, despite the ((MANA)) cost, and the ant began to drag her feet through the sand, in complex patterns, a smile appeared on Erak’s lips as the words began to take shape.
“MUCH DANGER. KNOWLEDGE.” It read,
Erak slumped slightly, but smiled. “Of course, there is much to discuss.”
He sat on the ground and smoothed out the sand in front of him. He began to draw sharp triangles, and the silver words spoke for him as he drew. “You are around here.” He pointed at a spot in the triangles.
“The mountains make it hard for anyone to get to you, there are very few paths through Inth.” He drew three circles on the left side of the mountain range, and two on the other, “There are, however, several major cities nearby, and people do need to cross the mountains, there is a path, but it isn’t a good path,” He drew a dotted line through the mountain range that passed near where he said Empress was. “Mostly because of the frequency of wars, no one wants an army being able to pass through Inth, it’s been used as a natural border since before I was born.”
He added detail to the map, a forest between two cities. “This will both help and hurt you, right now, you don’t have very many defenses, you don’t have a boss or any traps, and most of your creatures are focused on production.” He drew a river that ran along the base of the mountain range. “But very few people will actually come out here to challenge a young Dungeon without any proper loot.”
Empress scoffed, she had moss.
“You have probably a year or two before people start planning their trips over the mountains to pass you, more if I don’t report you to the ((READER’S)) guild.” He drew in more rivers and minor towns. “So far you seem to have done well, but if you continue to expand without any adventurers or a source of external income, you will end up having to stop or will overextend yourself and starve.”
Empress stared at the ground.
“You might want to look into defenses, a boss room or higher level monsters” He pulled away from the map and nodded to himself before writing names over the major cities, Filadonta, Dunsbarrow. “Traps or puzzles maybe?”
Empress nodded, “OK.” She said aloud, her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged, as she tried to commit the map to memory.
“You could try to be a Trove if you don’t like fighting,” Erak offered, he couldn’t get a read on this Dungeon, she didn’t have a clear alignment, she didn’t follow a specific Dungeon structure, he guessed that it was from being cloistered for most of her life, maybe she was aggressive but she focused on production because she didn’t have a good source of ((MANA))? It didn’t make any sense, he couldn’t think straight.
Empress shook her ((GAZE)). She sighed; a boss room seemed like a good idea. The flooded hallway was almost finished, she pinged Builder, who was doing a head count of her crew, the room was going to be a boss room. Builder acknowledged and began preparations.
“You have a Retainer now…I think?” Erak said, “You don’t have too much to worry about, so far, I don’t think there is anyone else in the valley. As far as defenses go, you have time, especially with the latest war stopping any chance of trade over the Inth.”
“War?” Empress asked aloud, hoping that the message would be conveyed. “Fight? Conflict? Attack?”
Erak didn’t say anything, then he nodded, “Litone is at war… often, this is the fourth war in my lifetime. This time it is a war between the Council of Litone, a collection of the more… barbaric… species, and the RNL, Returning Nobilities of Litone, a newly formed coalition of several small city-state kingdoms that are looking to expand their territories and subsume other kingdoms. The war is almost evenly split across race lines, but that is typically how things go, the animalistic versus the civilized. I believe the conflict started when a Faerie settlement was inhabited by a tribe of nomadic Trolls.”
“Nomadic,” Empress whispered as her ((UNDERSTANDING)) struggled to define the concept. As a stationary being, it was hard for her to fathom that a group of people was able to be constantly on the move.
Erak didn’t write anymore, he had nothing left to say, Empress did not ask any questions. She left the ((SAFEROOM)), leaving Erak to his thoughts. She stopped in the spawner room, nodded to The Nameless One, who was pacing the newly restored walls and accessed the spawner.
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
FORCE LEVEL UP
Empress tilted her ((GAZE)) and pressed “Force Level Up” Her ((MANA)) instantly drained, she sighed, ignored the text box, and pressed it again, the drain was nearly doubled this time. She leveled the spawner once more, then the price grew too high. She glanced at the three boxes:
CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR BASIC ANT SPAWNER HAS LEVELED UP!
CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR BASIC ANT SPAWNER HAS LEVELED UP!
CONGRATULATIONS! YOUR BASIC ANT SPAWNER HAS LEVELED UP!
Empress swiped away the new boxes and refreshed the spawner page.
LV 5 BASIC ANT SPAWNER
A spawner found in Dungeons; it spawns Ants without any specific classification that embodies the PERCEPTION of the species.
UNUSED STAT POINTS: 6
SIZE: 0.3
STR: 5
PWR: 2
INT: 3
DEF: 2
SPD: 3
AFFINITIES: NONE, EXPAND?
ALIGNMENT: CHALLENGING
TRAITS: DUNGEON-TOUCHED
ASCEND CHANCE: .002
COOLDOWN: 300
FORCE LEVEL UP
After thinking for a moment, she allotted the stat points: Two into INT and DEF, and one each into INT and SPD.
LV 5 BASIC ANT SPAWNER
A spawner found in Dungeons; it spawns Ants without any specific classification that embodies the PERCEPTION of the species.
UNUSED STAT POINTS: 0
SIZE: 0.3
STR: 5
PWR: 4
INT: 4
DEF: 4
SPD: 4
AFFINITIES: NONE, EXPAND?
ALIGNMENT: CHALLENGING
TRAITS: DUNGEON-TOUCHED
ASCEND CHANCE: .002
COOLDOWN: 300
FORCE LEVEL UP
Glancing at her ((MANA POOL)), which had only a fifth remaining, she mentally shrugged and appeared in the flooded hallway, she checked the spawner, but, as she thought, the level was too expensive. Empress instead pulled up the room upgrades. It was only a hallway, and there were only two upgrades still available:
CONSTRUCT CHEST?
SUMMON BASIC UNDERGROUND LAKE NODE?
Empress hummed, and summoned the Node, which used the last of the ((MANA)) she had gained from the fight. It was strange how it had seemed to expensive before. It still was, but compared to the ((MANA)) she had gained from only two adventurers... At the bottom of the flooded hallway, a small, golden orb appeared and began to spin around without disturbing the dirt it sat in. Around it, clear slime began to form on the mud, turning it more into muck. Curious, Empress zoomed in and saw strange featureless creatures without brains, her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged, but it only gave her a name, ‘Amoeba’, other than the amoebas, thin snaking roots began to stretch out through the water, they grew small blubs that blossomed as she watched. Purple flowers began to dot the bottom of the swamp, her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged once more and she was given another name, ‘Witch’s Diamond’, lastly, tiny blind fish that where barely larger than a mosquito began to spawn, they were called ‘Cave Guppies.’
Empress pulled away from the water, her curiosity sated for now. Pinging Gatherer to meet her at the entrance hallway, she floated lazily through her ((DOMAIN)). She felt calm, filled with a sense of satisfaction that only a Dungeon can know from the feeling of proper expenditures. As she drifted through the ((SAFEROOM)), she spied Erak cleaning a sharp metal object, some weapon she was unfamiliar with. She entered the Entrance hallway, Gatherer was waiting at attention, Empress glanced at the carcass of the wolf monster, and pinged Runner to bring it to the ((SANCTUM)) for absorption, and to give its clothing to Erak.
“Gatherer, recommence expeditions. She also wants the Swarm to go out when it grows.” Empress said, there was no point in fearing those who would become her prey.
Gatherer stood a little straighter and nodded vigorously. She stood around for a moment before scuttling off, excited to return to her purpose. Empress nodded, and then for a long moment she looked out at the white wall that blocked her from the rest of the world. She could only guess the time of day from the light that streamed in. She could expand into the mountainside however she wanted, but not out. How was she supposed to claim that land? It bothered her. Why couldn’t she? Gatherer knew her purpose, what was hers? Why did she exist? What was she made of? She slowly pulled away from the light, her mind was full of ideas, but to execute them, she needed ((MANA)).
Empress shook her ((GAZE)) to clear it. She was equally excited and terrified of the adventurers that would eventually delve into her ((DOMAIN)). She thought back to the chest option in the flooded hallway, and Erak’s words about her lackluster loot table came to mind. She needed to attract Bipeds to her ((DOMAIN)), not hide from them and if she was going to be a Siren, she was going to need a song.
