The array collapsed upon itself, pulling stone towards it before each thin wire hit some critical point and exploded outwards. Dug six inches into the stone the effect was devastating. Shrapnel tore through the ratfolk all too literally, bodies seeming to detonate in the hail of rock. One second the tunnel was filled with scrabbling vermin, the next with dust and gore. The invaders were pulped so furiously what remained couldn't even be considered corpses, just a slaughtered mess of mangled flesh and powdered bone. Argent's arm was pulped, torn apart where she had released the working too close to herself. The only saving grace was the force of the explosion in the tunnel had flung her backwards, saving her life. Once again my most loyal servant lay bleeding to death on my floor, pockmarked with ragged wounds torn by the devastating hail. I had no need to worry however, as the slaughtered ratmen dissolved into mana at my will, Argent wresting enough away to begin healing herself.

Moreover, I saw she had gained enough from her slaughtered foes to achieve evolution. My new Cave Shark was still evolving in its arcane cocoon however, so like the Scincids she would have to wait. The river continued to go well, the horde drying up and being slaughtered by the score. I directed all the sharks ready to evolve into their caves, bringing up their choices and focusing my attention on them with thoughts of slumber and satisfaction. I chose another seven to become Cave Sharks, six to become Greater Frilled Sharks and on a whim a single Goblin Shark, to see how it fared. My Viridiscent Scincid Spiders had a bizarre choice of evolutions and I pondered longer on them while I regained mana from the last dying vermin.

Your creature is undergoing evolution.

You may allow it to evolve as it wills or feed it mana to shape its future.

Giant Cave Spider (Uncommon) - Sacrificing its reptilian ancestry, the spider grows into its powerful relative. Cave Spiders are strong, resilient hunters capable of ensnaring and consuming prey far more powerful than them with their strong webbing and virulent poison. They do not weave webs to catch prey but instead hurl it at their prey, able to project it up to fifteen metres away in a straight line. Basilisk Spider (Rare) - This diminutive creature is a fearsome predator. It weaves its webs of mana, invisible to mundane life and slays its prey by meeting their ensnared gaze. A sapient caught in the Basilisk Spider's web has their persona stolen by the beast when they meet its gaze, leaving a living husk for the spider to consume at its leisure. Saurian Mage Eater (Rare) - Sacrificing its arachnid ancestry, the scincid embraces its mutant genes to feed on magic. This four legged monster grows larger and more powerful the more mana it consumes, becoming able to modify its own body to respond to threats. Vermillion Scincid Spider (Unique) - The creature draws from all its ancestries, shimmering green scales taking on an ochre hue. The Vermillion Scincid Spider's legs extend, gaining the length and multiple joints of the arachnid, the powerful jaw of greater Saurians, the scything forelimbs of the Cave Crawler. Chimaera (Mutant) - Gain traits from the most potent enemy consumed. Now containing bloodlines from several phylum, the creature becomes a twisted hybrid. Uniquely Dungeon Spawn, Chimaera may be directly reworked by their creators to tailor their traits and abilities. This entity will manifest with primarily arachnid, reptilian and rodent physiology and abilities.

I was seized with indecision while the last vermin were slain, unable to decide. I had no desire for any traits of the pathetic ratfolk but the ability to directly tailor and affect a living entity in my dungeon was too useful to reject out of hand. An adaptable thaumivore was incredibly tempting, though I strongly suspected its upkeep would be dramatic and unsure if the evolution would remain affected by the schema. The same went for the Giant Cave Spider, a powerful and natural creature, both selections forfeited some of the Scincid Spider's ancestry and so might become excluded from the schema's affects. Doing so would make them an expensive luxury I could not yet afford. The Basilisk seemed very powerful, if frail.

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The obvious selection was the Vermillion, a more potent version of my creations that was beginning to manifest the genes of the mutant thaumivore I had layered into them. The Viridescents only had a hint of the creature in their potent stomach acids, the Vermillion would be a gateway to greater effects. To give up the other options altogether though...Ultimately I was lucky, with six surviving Scincids capable of evolution when the last of the horde fell, I chose two Vermillions and one each of the others. The Vermillions could breed and I would be able to view the others and their effects. I fed them with the glut of mana gained from the dead intruders and prepared to examine my own options - even at a measly 6 Dungeon Points apiece, the one hundred and thirty six dead rats had been enough to propel me well past the threshold to level.

My foe was an experienced and cunning one. I now fed twenty-one ongoing evolutions and had levelled not just once but twice myself. It was the greatest bounty I'd encountered in my short life. My defending monsters were reduced to a handful, seven Frilled Sharks and ten Viridescent Scincid Spiders. Only three sharks and one spider remained unharmed and searching for additional prey, the wounded beginning to retreat to their burrows and nests. I was just responding to the alerts in my log when I saw the first armoured boot enter my dungeon. Two cohorts advanced, ordered lines of warriors into each of my tunnels. The difference between these soldiers and the filthy vermin who had first invaded me was like the difference between a cave spider and my Scincids. Their movements were steady, no twitches or spasms. No appalling cloud of stench. These ratfolk were healthy, nourished and disease free. They had sent the horde of barely sapient vermin ahead, some kind of underclass, as cannon fodder. They had revealed traps and enemies, fed enemies into evolution, allowing them to be bypassed. One shot workings like Argent's had been exhausted. Now the true invasion began.

The warriors marched in lockstep, clad in leather jerkins covered in bronze scales. Their helms were tall and conical, taller than the rodent's snout was long. Fetishes hung from cord or string, hung through a ring at the crest - fingerbones, hanks of hair, teeth and tusks. Camails attached at the base, protecting the necks and hanging like a shawl of fish scales over the shoulders. Their limbs were unarmoured but for the boots, a large dorsal scale with four protruding elongated nails poking out from under it to protect the toes. Their hunched posture meant they held their domed, figure of eight shields at an angle that left the feet vulnerable, if not for their boots. Their weapons were a hooked polearm, a gleaming serrated iron spearpoint with a flanged hook and long backspike. Calloused pink fingers held them low, a third of the way down the shaft to prevent catching the weapons on stalactites or low ceilings. On each shield was a painted image of a purple eye held in a bloody hand. Thirty of them entered along the river, ten advanced into the scree covered side tunnel. The debris was piled past knee height, forcing them to push it aside with their shields, literally wading through stone. Here their discipline failed, casting nervous glances at the cracked and creaking ceiling.

Along the river the warriors easily dispatched two spiders that attempted to knock them into the ravine. With easy practiced motions they raised their weapons, allowing the rapid action to slide the shaft through their fingers and bring its reach into play. The first was caught with a hook around the abdomen, pulled to the ground after a second bill caught it in the belly with the backspike and hacked to pieces. The second was impaled upon four spearpoints, its falling body pulling its killers off balance but together they managed to retrieve their weapons and avoid falling.

If I'd had blood to run cold, it would have frozen solid when I saw another group of ratfolk enter. Four warriors, clad in iron armour and limbs protected by aillettes, wielded heavy two handed axes. They were larger than the rest and guarded a fifth intruder, evenly spaced around their leader. Though it walked straight-backed, it held an ornate brass staff topped with a crackling field of electricity that kept a hollow orb in place. It wore long leather robes covered in eldritch symbols and stained a rich deep red, the same purple eye in a scarlet claw embroidered on its breast. A brass mask set with copper showed a noble visage, as noble a visage as a rodent's snout could be given by rat hands. There was a palpable aura to the monster. At first I took it to be the aura of a mage before it occurred to me there was no such disturbance around Argent. Even as it entered, I saw the evolving Basilisk Spider's arcane cocoon pulled from the ceiling to be carved open and butchered.

It was, I realised with dawning horrow, the same form of aura that emanated from me - and it was centered not around the ratling but the hollow orb of its staff. Inside that cage was a trapped Dungeon Core.

With so few creatures to defend me, my mana engaged in so many evolutions, all that prevented me from sharing its fate were the recovering Argent and the Granite Mob tribe.