Waking up groggily, I began to take stock of my surroundings. I was back at my gem core. While I could generally sense my whole domain, I needed to move my consciousness about to perceive more detail.

This time I knew for certain that the large influx of energy from the ubee queen made me pass out and relive a memory. Like a dream I couldn’t remember all of the details, but it felt extremely real. At least I know for sure that at one point I was human.

If I used to be Lindra, a human, how did I end up as a dungeon? Why did my memories disappear and why do large amounts of energy seem to make me relive these memories? Or maybe that was not my past at all and I somehow stole someone else’s memories.

After a while of pondering I decided that for now there was no way for me to know. Instead, I should investigate the results of the ubee battle. Moving my consciousness directly up through the dirt above my core, I then flew to the battleground.

Ubee corpses scattered across the forest ground, in the beginning stages of rot. My ants happily broke down their bodies for a feast. I did not see any pixie bodies though. Furthermore, the ubee hive was gone. With no other signs of the pixies, I completely lost track of them. Their home must be nearby but they don’t leave any tracks while flying.

Perhaps the pixies’ disappearance was a good thing. I am not sure how I want to interact with them yet. While I helped them to survive, I do not know if I wish to make contact with them or how they would receive me. They might immediately attack me. Dungeons are supposed to be evil after all. Furthermore, I don’t even know how to speak to them. Perhaps I could spell out words with rocks?

Soon or later I will run into them again regardless of my wishes. So I take a few rocks and move them onto the battle to spell out the word “Peace”. Hopefully, if they return and see this they will consider peace with me before turning hostile. If they do attack me though I need to be ready.

Right now the radius of my domain spans two tall trees, about two dozen zicks. I currently have five ant colonies providing me passive energy, some trees, shrubbery, various insects, and general forest life. My tunnel to the surface is still the worm tunnel. When I try to close the tunnel however, my domain’s edges slowly began to shrink. Reopening the tunnel does not renew my domain so I spend a little energy to restore it.

Well, unfortunately, I apparently cannot close myself up underground as a defense without serious sacrifice. I am also not a fan of hiding and hoping an attack cannot find me. Certainly digging me up would not be difficult.

My determination renewed to create legitimate defenses, I began creating an ubee queen. The original queen’s corpse only slightly deteriorated at this point, but I will still need to be creative. Carefully, I inspect the body. I slowly go over each individual detail. Comparing the queen to the bodies of the other ubees as well as the ubee mold I still remember, I pieced together the differences that made a queen.

The primary differences were the capability to reproduce rapidly as well as her larger and tougher body. From the fight against the pixie commander, I knew that she could gain greater speed but also suffered greatly in agility. I want to resolve this weakness somehow. My queen needs to be able to defend herself and I.

As I created the mold for the queen in my mind, I tweaked her wings, giving them greater flexibility. This should allow her to fly in various directions. To support these new wings I also strengthened her tendons. Additionally, I added a flap on each side of her body. When she extends a flap the increased air resistance on one side will cause a tight banking turn at the sacrifice of some speed. Then I further reduced her gestation period. My ant colonies are not limited by food, only reproduction speed. I suspected my hive will be similar.

Finally, I finished my queen ubee mold. I tried to pour energy into the mold. Yet for some reason, the creation process refused to start. Confused, I placed the mold over the queen’s corpse to compare the two. When I did so something partially clicked into place. Suddenly I felt the mold almost snap more into reality but parts of it held back, specifically the modifications I added.

On a hunch, I took some of the other ubee corpses and piled them onto the queen. As soon as I placed the last one the creation process instantly began. Parts of the bodies deconstructed and flowed together. The mass twisted and formed different shapes. So far this process took surprisingly little energy from me, only the amount to move the weight of the body parts around.

Once the lifeless body of my new queen formed it started. An endless void began ripping the energy from me. Despite my large reserves the void barely seemed to be filled. More and more energy it demanded. Panicking about what would happen if I ran out of energy with the void still empty, I rushed over to the ant colonies and began to slaughter ant after ant.

The massacre seemed to go on forever, but in reality only lasted maybe ten spins. Eventually, the void was satisfied. All but half of one ant colony lay dead. In addition, every beetle, spider or other insect I could find in my domain also fell to my barrage of rocks.

What happened? The ubees I made in the battle did not take nearly that much energy. I could have created hundreds of regular ubees using the same amount. I rushed over to where my queen now hovered.

As I approached, she turned to me as if she could see me.

“Bzzzz, bzz!”

She flew to me and bobbed up and down. What’s this? She’s different than all my other ubee constructs. Before my constructs seemed almost empty, shells who mindlessly obey my commands and nothing else. Yet my queen appears to be truly alive. That must be the reason for the large amount of energy required. Somehow I made a monster, not a construct. Now that I think about the battle, I did not need to use ubee corpses to make new ones either. Instead they formed out of pure energy. While the outside looked the same and fought evenly, there was a fundamental difference between my constructs and the true ubees.

As I pondered she flew over to one of the ubee corpses and nudged it. Somehow her wings seemed to droop and her countenance turn sad.

Certainly, the queen is special. Wanting to cheer her up, I created two regular ubee constructs. Yet when I did so they simply hovered there, two empty drones without orders. The queen flew up to them excitedly.

“Bzz bzz, bzzzzz.”

The constructs did not interact with her at all. Even when she began nudging them, they simply floated there. That is a bit disappointing that my constructs seem so lifeless.

“Follow the ubee queen’s orders and imitate normal ubees as much as possible” I ordered the two constructs. Immediately they began to fly around and interact with the queen.

After flying around with the now lively constructs, the queen approached me and appeared to perform an ariel bow.

“I name you Eva. The first of my living monsters, future founder of a great colony and defender of my core. May your reign ever be prosperous and together may we thrive.” I declared.

The sentiment seemed to have a noticeable effect on her. In fact, she swelled up a little larger and drained more of my mana! I apparently can't do anything without causing some new event. My mana reserves can't keep up with this and I almost drained my whole domain earlier.

No more, I am just going to wait until my insects repopulate.