"Project TRHTANWAADC1 is going well. Less than 5 minor changes during the experiment overall and only 1 direct intervention needed."
~Excerpt of Project Report 3 to [REDACTED]
First things first! Making the proper environment! Since the buffalo likes rocks, that should be easy. I merged all the rooms together including my core room by removing stone. I widened the newly expanded room and dig a tunnel way back where I transport my core by moving my pedestal. I created my new core room to look the same as the last one, except without the weird small tunnel and room. I expanded the whole buffalo room to cover an even larger area, around 50 by 50 by 10 metres, which increased my Mana capacity to:
T1 Mana:~8.4k/8.4k
Yes! I exclaim. I then expanded the thin room underneath with the cockroaches, to span the entire length and width of the cave above, except with the same height as before. I also add more tunnels for my minions to exit out of. More cockroaches? I ask myself. No. Hmm. I ponder upon what to put in the thin cave. Let's take a look up here. I change my view to focus on the surface. What small creatures can I use in my dungeon? I looked thoroughly across the plains and found something that might work.
A meerkat type of animal. Like a meerkat it lives with other members of its species underground in burrows, and it also can stand on two legs. As I look at them, a few meerkats on the surface stared in the direction I was looking from and barked multiple times. Huh? I was confused. What are they looking at? I stare at the place they were looking at and saw nothing but grass and buffaloes. I change my focus to go around the pack of meerkats to see if other meerkats were doing that. To my surprise, all 10 of the meerkats aboveground followed the general direction of my viewpoint. They then all dismissively barked at me and a shockwave hit me and dazed my senses enough that I withdrew my focus from them. W-what... J-just... H-happened? I stuttered from the impact. I took a break. Okay. I thought once I recovered shortly after. I want them.
~~~~
A short weave of Mana later, aka. 10 minutes (I was really improving my creation skills), a trio of buffalo spawned several metres above the meerkats. They landed heavily upon some of the sentries. All of them survived with only a few bruises. Oh wow, now I really want them. I ordered the confused buffaloes to attack all the meerkats and to do it as fast as they could. They mooed loudly and a red glow appeared on their jaws which for some reason seemed much fainter than with the other buffaloes. They quickly locked on to the nearest fleeing target and chomped on them. The meerkats squealed in pain, but attacked the faces of my minions with claws and teeth. The buffaloes shut their eyes and bit down harder. Eventually, their cries of pain were cut short by bones crunching and the cows opened their scratched eyelids. Unfortunately, the meerkats that successfully retreated came back with reinforcements. An army of meerkats 50 strong angrily glared at my buffaloes and barked together with conviction. Previously, there were only 10 meerkats doing this which just caused dizziness from me.
The poor cows were not so fortunate.
They got flung high up into the air and a couple dropped the meerkats in surprise. The other one just bit down on their meerkat like it was a stress toy. Flailing in the air, to my surprise, one of the buffaloes that dropped their meerkat got snatched by the invisible talons of a purple feathered bird of prey. I knew that because as soon as it caught the unlucky beast, it crunched its giant claws inwards that caused a spurt of red blood to splash its eyes. The giant crow-like being cawed in outrage and turned visible in all its 4 winged, sun-blotting glory. It raised its meal up to its beak and swallowed it whole. The bird then disappeared without a trace.
What. THE. ACTUAL. F-!
By this point, the cows had landed. They made craters that were deep enough to hide their bodies in. Both were alive with heavy injuries and the one with the meerkat had it almost severed in two. Oh yeah. You. I recalled, stopping myself from swearing. Thanks. I told them even though I really didn't need to. Just drop that meerkat over there now and come inside. The buffalo reluctantly released it from its mouth and I got straight to absorbing it. And also, pointedly ignoring the fact that there was a massive invisible hawk stalking the skies which could very easily kill me along with a whole other bunch of creatures.
~~~~
5 minutes later, I got 1 Mana and the pattern! A small 20 cm tall pattern when standing up that costs a whole 2 T1 Mana to create, but still, a useful pattern! I quickly got onto expanding the cave underneath and the tunnels to be able to hold the meerkats. I also got rid of the cockroaches because, who wants cockroaches in their home? I then started simultaneously spawning in 1000 meerkats, when I remembered what happened last time, and I reduced it to 100. I then stationed 5 of those meerkats in the cave above to call over the rest of the meerkats if they spotted any enemies. Just as I finished creating the meerkats, I had a brilliant idea! I hollowed out another 9 levels of meerkat space below the first one and added 100 meerkats to each level so that there was a grand total of 1000 meerkats! As for how they could get out, I created tunnels on each level so they could make their way up to the next level or even to the very top. I ordered for only the top 100 meerkats to attack the enemy, and if they get defeated, for the meerkats to shift up a level and wait for the next enemy.
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Phew! I thought in satisfaction. Almost done!
I eyed the fat happy buffalo and decided to separate him from the rest. I created a room along the hallway to my core room that was 20 by 20 by 10 metres and ordered him to come stay there. He looked back at the rock chunks longingly, but walked into the room anyways. Heh. I chuckled and created boulders around him. He mooed in joy, chomped one into little pieces, and started chewing on it happily. I focused on the big wide room with only a few meerkats on lookout. I controlled my Mana and created 3 buffaloes spread out in the room along with the two injured ones that seemed slightly healthier than before. I ordered them to attack intruders on sight.
I observed the two cows from the expedition and chose to let them heal on their own as they had the ability to do so.
I looked between the meerkat setup, and the buffalo setup and decided, What the heck, I'll do the same thing. So I hollowed out a hallway to a room, the same size as the current one except only 5 meters high, and absolutely stuffed it with buffaloes. Around a hundred in total. They don't need to eat or drink, right? So they should be fine packed together like this.
The buffaloes shifted in discomfort, eyeing each other every time they bumped together in the cramped space.
Now to hide this... I wondered what I could do. A door? No too obvious. I 'hmm'ed in thought and it came to me.
A wheel door thing! Whatever you call it!
I removed stone on all sides of the passage, mostly to the left and right, and only deep grooves on the floor and ceiling. I then created a circle of stone 1 meter thick and stopped. How are the buffaloes going to move this? I know I could have just removed and created stone manually, but I want a Floor that is mostly automatic.
I looked over the buffaloes to give myself ideas for what they could do and my gaze landed on their mouths. Their jaws are really strong aren't they? So they should be able to hold a handle on the stone circle and twist the whole thing to the side.
I implemented my idea and ordered them to test it.
My buffaloes stared at each other indecisively, but the one closest to the wheel stepped forwards and set his jaw on the handle. He strained his muscles and the door slowly got pushed into the hole at the side.
Good good! Close it for now, and let's see if I can make myself a boss! I internally smiled.
I turned my attention to the buffalo in the boss room. Maybe I can add Mana to him? I pushed 1 T1 Mana into his body and it soaked in. 2, and he was still fine. 5, still okay. But with 10, he dropped the chunk of rock he picked up and froze. The Mana inside of him started to condense and form a sphere. Ah! I know this one. I forced my will on it and it further grew in density. When it hit the 1 cm in diameter mark, it stopped. I looked inside of him. A blue sphere of crystal remained where previously, there was only space.
Cool! I thought happily. But why does he get a cool looking crystal and I just have a small brown rock?
I sighed and ordered the buffalo to show me his new abilities. He concentrated for a brief moment, and rammed at a wall with his bright red aura covering his whole head. As he backed away from the wall, I could see. The entire side of the wall was heavily cracked. A moment later, it crumbled into boulders and small stones. The new boss dove into the rock pile with glee and started eating all the rock he could see. Now, the room looked like a cave with a random large 2 meters deep hole in one of its walls.
That ability will certainly be useful!
~~???~~
The Master abandoned us.
He created me, his first servant and protector.
Then he summoned my kin, but once He got impatient, He mass created, and mass-acred us in the first Extermination.
I pity them.
Mindless slaves, happy to do His bidding, not knowing the evil that He is.
I was once like that.
A lookout above the home, watching for His enemies from the outside.
They didn't come. The Scaly One did.
The Master summoned someone too powerful, too intelligent to fully be submit under his control.
They locked gazes with each other in a staredown, but The Master won.
The Scaly One tried to attack him with his mental power to break free, and succeeded in taking him out.
He curled around Him and almost ended it right then and there.
Unluckily, He woke up and sent him to the newly created prison.
On his way there, he looked at me sidelong into my dull unthinking eyes.
Just from that, my brain changed.
It became capable of thought and holding long term memories.
One of them appeared in my mind.
The Light.
It held Him back, it made Him change the way he worked.
It wasn't enough.
Exiting my memory, I saw a flash of light.
It barely affected Him.
As a last ditch effort, chains grew out of thin air and restricted Him.
This was clearly from The Scaly One attempting to protect us from Him.
It still wasn't enough.
Most of the chains retracted from him and disappeared.
I noticed His attention was focused on the prison and the sense of confusion from Him.
I took the time that He was distracted to follow The Scaly One's instructions, and flee.
I scurried out and into the sunshine.
I stared around me in amazement. Everything around me was so big!
Observing my surroundings, my heart tightening as I realised I was out in the open with hardly anywhere to hide. I made up my mind and raced downwards to the wide open fields of grass.
This would be the first step in my journey to strike back against Him, and hopefully, true freedom.
It took me a long time to get there, perhaps longer than the whole of my dull life before my escape.
As I finally found my way into the tall grass, my heart unclenching, my first thought was;
Praise be to The Scaly One.