This was not good because a broken sword implied conflict of some kind and the lack of much rust suggested it was relatively recently. The last thing he needed was to get blindsided by some army marching through and completely destroying his mighty little army just by stepping on them. Not to mention that little gem with all the fun little options would probably wind up either destroyed or in someone's pocket. Thinking about that weird little gem he wished it was up against the wall so it would be less likely to get stepped on. To his surprise the praying mantis that had been standing guard suddenly hopped down off the gem and began rolling it over towards the wall.

"What was that" he wondered thinking perhaps the praying mantis had somehow sensed that he wanted the gem moved. He decided to test this by imagining a pile of grass covering the gem and sure enough moments later all three mantises began gathering grass and carrying it over to cover the gem with. "Ok I can work with this" he thought feeling like he was finally starting to get somewhere.

Now he wished he had a lot more of that mana stuff that he gets from his mantises killing thing. Sadly, mice seem to be in short supply right now and the odd bug the mantises get every now and then barely even registers. After what feels like an eternity of not being able to do anything but wait nighttime comes and with it come all sorts of things for his mantises to hunt. For some strange reason everything seems to be drawn to that little gem he only just now realized is actually glowing. The way everything is drawn to it further cements the idea that he needs to keep it hidden.

By morning his diligent little soldiers have killed enough stuff to equal 1 and a half mice worth of mana. He still wasn't sure why it was called mana or how he knew that but had decided to stop questioning it at this point. With his new mana pool he decided to do a mental walk around. Expanding was tempting but he decided that it wouldn't do much good without the ability to control it. Three mantises can only do so much after all. Now that he was thinking about it though he decided to take a look at their spawner. He realized that he could spawn 3 more mantises right now or he could wait and get an upgrade that allowed the spawner to automatically spawn new mantises. He decided to spawn one more and then wait until he had enough for the upgrade.

Somewhere between a few minutes and an eternity later Logan notices something new. A large lizard enters his awareness. Well, large might be a bit of a stretch but it is by far the largest creature he's seen since waking up here. Shortly after noticing it the mantises noticed it as well and moved in to attack. He was nervous about this encounter having grown quite fond of his little army. They managed to come out victorious though, even if it did take all four of them. As fond as he was of the little guys the mana he got from that lizard almost made him want to see them fight another one, especially now that he knows they can do so and win.

Now that he has enough mana he decides to go ahead and upgrade the mantis spawner which then immediately spits out another praying mantis. This new mantis is about half the size of the others but seeing as it didn't cost any mana to spawn he doesn't feel the need to complain. The spawner can be upgraded some more but he decided to focus on expanding a bit more for right now. Mainly he just wanted something new to look at. The expansion options were a bit confusing. It seems that some expansion options are now 3 times as expensive, and the cost of expanding down which has always been expensive is now ludicrously expensive. Looking a bit closer it doesn't take him long to discover why. It would appear that while it only goes out by three meters each time the new expansion does extend all the way from one corner of his perception to another. In the case of expanding down this means his entire territory would expand downward. Expanding up however was relatively cheap. He guessed it was because he didn't really seem to gain anything from expanding upward.

Buying the upgrade to go past the wall will have to wait a bit longer it seems but if his calculations are right he should get most of the first floor. Hurry up and wait seems to be all he does any more. Fortunately, he doesn't have to wait long as a group of three mice enter his awareness soon after. This time the fighting is a lot more intense due to them being more evenly matched in numbers. The outcome was the same however and soon enough all three were dead. This gave him enough for the expansion, but he was suddenly nervous about what he would find once he expanded. He didn't really want to expand only to discover a house full of corpses. You see, something had been gnawing at the back of his mind lately and he only just now realized what it was. He had been here nearly two whole days near as he could tell, and he hadn't seen a single person. If he was in the middle of a field somewhere this wouldn't bother him but being beside what he believed to be a building made it more than a little strange that he hadn't seen anyone yet. After a lot of going back and forth arguing with himself about whether it was worth it or not he finally decides that there is only one way to see what is on the other side of that wall and so he buys the expansion.

Letting his curiosity guide him was apparently the right move because now there is a lot more to look at besides just grass, bugs, and the occasional larger creature. Most of it he doesn't recognize but he can make out what appears to be a kitchen type area. In one wall there is a stone structure which he believed based on its design served more of a purpose than just providing heat. In the center of the room there is a large table with six chairs around it. Poking his head through the cabinets he also discovered what could only be metal plates and cups, as well as something that doesn't seem like it belongs. Looking closer at it he gets the sense that this is a rat spawner. Although he is still curious about the source of all his newfound knowledge, he gave up questioning it long ago. Instead, he focuses on the rat spawner and discovers that it isn't active yet. The mantises outside are still providing a small amount of mana now and then so he decides to splurge and activates the rat spawner which rather predictably gives him the option to spawn a rat. Spawning the rat, he watches as it makes its way over to where a bunch of the biggest roaches Logan had ever seen were gathered. Wasting no time, the rat attacked one of the closer roaches causing the others to swarm all over him. The battle was way more intense than it had any right to be but soon he had enough to spawn a second rat. Just in time too as the first rat is looking pretty rough, but the big guy refuses to yield. At some point a third rat becomes necessary but eventually the wandering swarm is dealt with. There is still the occasional straggler which doesn't provide near as much mana as a mouse but way more than most other things he has encountered so far.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

With his now expanded stream of mana income, he is starting to feel more comfortable. After letting it build up for a little bit, he decides to upgrade the rat spawner to make it spit out rats automatically. Just like with the mantises before these rats are smaller than if he spawned them himself but the added benefit of not costing anything more than makes up for it.

Taking a look outside he notices that the weird gem seems to have grown. At least he's pretty sure it hasn't always been that big. It has also taken on a more rounded appearance. Not quite completely spherical, but he is certain that it used to be a lot more gem shaped. This proves to him that it is somehow important, so he decides to have a rat come collect it and bring it into the house. For a brief moment he worries that the mantises might attack the rat or vice versa but they seem to recognize that they are on the same side. The mantises even help guide the gem as the rat rolls it into the house. He wasn't sure if the gem couldn't fit in the rat's mouth or if it just didn't want to risk its sharp teeth damaging it. Either way the rat mantis team soon has the gem over near the rat's nest which will have to do for now.

Now he turns his attention to something else that he has been thinking about lately, expanding downward. He isn't sure what he will be able to do with it, but he gets the feeling it wouldn't be an option if it was completely useless. Part of him wants to expand and get the rest of the house but a larger part also wants to see what would happen if he tries expanding down. So against his better judgement he decides to wait and let the mana build up. It takes almost two full days and nights but eventually he manages to save up enough that he can finally afford the expansion. Wasting no time he purchases the upgrade aaannd ...nothing. Well, that was a bit anticlimactic. He wasn't sure what he was expecting but he thought at least something would happen.

Focusing on the ground he tries mentally clawing at it. The idea that this would actually work seems crazy, but then again he is commanding a small army of rats and mantises which in his mind seems way crazier of a concept. It takes a lot of effort but eventually he has a respectable hole in the ground. Ok so respectable might be a bit of a stretch but it is almost big enough to put his fist into. If he still had hands. It's also getting easier to dig the more he practices. Starting about 50cm from the wall he begins designing a staircase going down. Why a staircase? He's not really sure, but it just feels right. He designed each step to be 19cm tall 31cm long and 92cm wide. The bottom step ends up being about 4cm to short but there isn't really anything he can do about it without redesigning the entire staircase which he isn't willing to do. It took him three days to complete the staircase as it is. True it wasn't like he had anything else to do but still it was the first thing he'd ever made by hand, so to speak, and he was mighty proud of it.

Because it took so long he did now have enough mana to do a few interesting things with. To start with he expanded further into the house finding one of the other walls and a small patch of grass outside. The house was 5.5 meters from one wall to the other. He still didn't have the entire house however, and to make matters worse he didn't have enough mana for the expansion to get the rest of the house. What he can see of the house though needs a lot of work. Specifically, and perhaps more immediately, the house needs a door. He has no idea how to create a door. Unlike with the stairs, he can't just take material away until he is left with a door. He also can't seem to create a door out of thin air or purchase it with mana. After thinking about it for a while he decides to try an experiment. He is supposed to be helping the people of this world so surely, they must have provided some way of doing that he reasons. Although he still isn't sure who they are, he has decided to trust them. Even if he didn't, he can't just turn his back on the people of this world if they really do need his help. With that in mind he decides to try and reshape one of the chairs. It's a lot harder than just digging in the dirt but eventually and with a great deal of practice he finds that he is able to mold the wood much like silly putty. However, he just can't add mass to it without getting it from somewhere else. That gives him an idea and he decides to see if he can add his clump of wood to an existing chair to increase its size. The process is painstakingly slow, and the chair is slightly lopsided, but it is noticeably bigger than the other chairs which in his opinion is enough to serve as a proof of concept. Wanting to fine-tune his control a little more he works on perfecting the look of the chair until the only difference is the size.

Feeling like he needs to relax after all that mental exertion he decides to go on a spending spree. By carefully observing the shadows he has determined that the house is on the western part of his territory. With that in mind he decides to expand south and hopefully claim the rest of the house.

Well, he managed to claim the entire first floor at least. There is a set of stairs leading up to a second floor that was apparently beyond his perception until just now. In his defense though he wasn't expecting a house with rooms over 3 meters tall to have a second floor. Putting that aside for now he decides to upgrade his spawners just to be safe, starting with the rat spawner. At first it doesn't look like anything has changing but after watching it for a while he realizes the rate of spawning has now doubled from one per hour to two. He is about to upgrade the other spawner when he notices that he has another invader, a ... child?