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[A Quiet Island, Day 8, Early Early Morning]
“Harv, are you really sure we'll be alright? This doesn't seem like a good idea.”
“Shut up Burt. That damn nerd said that the monsters didn't attack them when they went in. And did you see that cloth they came back with? It looks expensive as hell! Imagine if we could get our hands on something like that! We'd be rich!”
Burt considered the man's words silently before hesitantly nodding his agreement. “Well, if the monsters are friendly, I guess we could do it… what did he say they were again?”
“He said they were ants. Hate those things.” Kent said, spitting on the ground as he thumbed the blade of his cutlass. “Can we get going already? We're wasting time.”
Kant nodded at his twin’s words. “Yeah, we need to get going. Sun’ll be up soon.”
The four men double checked their weapons before turning to the temple in front of them. “Should still be open. Right where they said it was too.” Harvey took the lead, holding his torch high as the four walked into the ancient temple. They quickly found the door to the dungeon, still yawning into the darkness of the dungeon within. They carefully walked down the tunnel, a few wary looks being directed towards the carvings on the walls.
“This place creeps me out man. Let's finish this quickly.”
The men's pace quickened as they hurried down the tunnel, quickly coming across the pillar room. “What do you think those were for?”
“Looks kind of like a doorway.”
“Leading to where, smart guy?”
The men's bantering quieted down as they felt the atmosphere shift, and they entered the first room of the dungeon. A tense silence filled the room before they moved on, taking the doorway to the left. As they turned a corner deeper into the cave, Harvey shouted in surprise as a massive ant walked past him unexpectedly. The ant seemed just as surprised, jumping back a few feet before freezing.
Kent was the first to move, kicking at the ant and landing a solid hit that sent it stumbling back a few feet. “Friggin animal!” The rest of the group looked surprised before quickly regaining their wits and relaxing, seeming more annoyed than worried. “Dammit Kent!” Harvey said, sighing and putting his fingers up to run the bridge of his nose.
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“Just make it quick. We ain't got all day.” Kent nodded, his gaze focused on the giant ant in front of him.
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[A Quiet Island, Day 8, Early Early Morning]
Oh no. No no no no no no! Nope! That ain't flying! Come into my house, kick my ants, and think you can just get away with it!? Not on my watch! Majors, kill that guy!
I send a pulse of mana towards the nearest majors and tell them about the group of soon to be victims. Almost every major rushes towards their location, slowing down just before they enter the range of the torch’s light and sending out communication pheromones to each other. They coordinate their approach, and by the time that's done five more majors have arrived, picking up quickly on the plan and blocking off any escape routes.
All of the majors open their jaws, letting a series of clicking noises ring out through the cave, causing the group of humans to freeze. A second passes before the majors charge, running straight towards the offending intruders and… oh my goodness! Can't show that on television. I didn't expect the major's jaws to be that powerful. I guess I underestimated them. I should probably tone down the ant encounters when the adventurers get here.
As the first human’s heart stops, I notice something float out of their body. It's a cloud of silvery grey mana that shimmers gently as it rises through the air and collides with the ceiling, coming to rest in the highest point. The small cloud is quickly joined by three others and they melt together, forming a pocket of mana at the top of my dungeon. I can feel it pushing against the ambient mana that's floating around in the dungeon, apparently wanting to touch the majors that killed them but unable to overcome the density of the surrounding mana.
Hmm… it's one of the first new colors of mana I've seen, and I'm kinda interested in what would happen if I claimed it. I decide to push it out of the dungeon and let it float up to join the vortex of mana at the peak of the volcano, pushing it further inwards into the vortex so I can absorb it faster. It quickly gets pulled deeper into the vortex, entering the inner swirls and quickly getting absorbed.
I feel a rush of information force its way into my head as I suddenly gain the memories of the humans the mana belonged to. Hmm. None of them lived lives that were particularly interesting. Just a generic life where nothing bad had happened yet, all slightly different but overall the same. The only notable thing was being approached by something called “the guild” who offered them this job.
I didn't look at them for too long, bringing my focus back down to the first floor and telling the ants to collect what's left of them and their things over by the loot room. What I'm most interested in is the gun one of them was carrying. Taking a closer look, it appears to have a wheel lock instead of a conventional flintlock or percussion cap. I'd have expected the weaponry to be a little more advanced, but as I look through the memories again, it looks like the most advanced firearm mechanism is currently the wheel lock.
There isn't any rifling either, but I didn't really expect any on a pistol like this. The most interesting thing, though, is the reddish powder the guy used. It doesn't appear to be corned, the grains are irregularly sized from each other and from his memories of the shop he bought the gun from, the powder isn't made conventionally.
It's some kind of product from a dungeon called boom powder, presumably made by grinding up a kind of dried fruit that was explosive. The mechanism itself was apparently pretty recently made though. Well, at least I don't have anything to worry about in terms of advanced weaponry. Just magic. Something I don't know anything about.
I sigh and move on to the swords. Two cutlasses and an expensive looking hunting sword, as well as a small knife carried by the leader. They don't have any money on them, but I do find a pouch with a flint and steel in it and a leather bag which would've held the roll of cloth if they'd got to it. I haven't replaced it yet though, so they wouldn't have gotten anything.
I order the ants to strip everything from the bodies and dump them into the pitcher plants I made earlier, making a small bubble in the stone to hold everything until I can think of a use for it. Now then, I can't exactly move the sand I make out through the front entrance once the humans get here, so I dig a tunnel that runs over the two floors and leads down to the lowest point of the ocean floor I can get to. I'll just dump all the sand there for now. It's a big pit that doesn't have anything in it, and though I'm not sure how it formed, it's pretty useful as a dumping ground.
Well, with that dealt with, I guess I should get to work digging out the third floor. I want to make this one pretty big, and I'll have to find a way to light it up at some point. I sigh as I get back to the repetitive work of turning rock into sand.