As I watched the trio escape, I finally let myself relax for a moment.

‘Do I have anything that needs to be done quickly?’ I pondered this for a short while. ‘Oh, whatever. To tired. If it’s important I will do it better when I’m not delirious.’

Finally allowing myself to sink back into the single room containing my core idly looked over the core, making sure that i weren’t about to loose a large part of me.

After noticing a few spots that were nearly dead or already necrotic I systematically removed those spots, carefully gathering anything harvested from my core into a new bowl. Letting my focus go fully I went into a trance, idly shifting parts or rock over to my core into patterns, creating new tendrils to connect to the walls and ceiling and taking a few bites of sand every now and again.

I rested, without any focus to allow myself to gather myself mentally once more and in a form of half torpor like state, where only a small room were focused on. Nothing else mattered, only the room, the core and my aimless thoughts on the present.

Soothing idleness.

Suddenly I snapped out of it with something gnawing at one of my veins. I panicked for a moment, future worries crashing back into my mind once again. After realizing what awoke me I regained my calm. It was merely a feeding ground for the scorpions that had gotten low on supplies. The ever hungry horde of scorpions had managed to dig into the wall and started nibbling on a a vein instead.

Rectifying the problem for the feeding ground and all others in a similar situation. I thought back on the encounter with the trio of forward scouts.

And I’m rather sure that this was a forward scouting party. Sure they had some rather dangerous tools, those exploding needles and that strange cube that could spew the elements.

But considering they took the time to both scan and explore signifies that they don’t have a base nearby. If they had they would simply go back once they got the scan data and come back better prepared. And they are not the assault, they seemed to be too lightly equipped for a serious attempt at assaulting my dungeon. ‘Thus they didn’t know I was here until they spotted me. That is a relief.’

So then, a forward scout. To find the meteorite and report back on the location of it. And anything else they might have found.

And they did find something strange indeed. That is, me.

They also got carcasses of both my defenders, which the fact that they took the corpses themself is another point of them being simple scouts. I should assume that the next wave will have some sort of defense against my defenders. Antidotes for my scorpions and possible something for the Wrappers.

Perhaps some sort of shredder grenade? The slashes from the leader of the scouts seems to be very effective against the Wrappers. Don’t know if that is due to the Wrappers fragility or the strength of the scout leader. Don’t have a baseline for the Wrappers, since this was the first encounter with human invaders.

‘Or, well, humanoids. I’m not sure that mad lady with the helm was actually a human. The fact that the other two allowed her to keep that absurd armor combination is just baffling.‘

‘What else was there about them? Let’s see, they had the same pants, so they are most likely from some sort of company or military group. Their weapons were all different too, and each weapon were strange.’ Sinking halfway back into my core room, I proceeded to go over each weapon in detail.

‘Starting with the cube. That thing intrigued me. Why a cube? Isn’t a sphere a better shape for efficiency? Also, how did he use it? He didn’t press the sides of the cube or any part at all, so some form of distant energy transfer? Perhaps something like my manipulations. The cube would be the least useful out of all the weapons short term, assuming I couldn’t use it or have a defender use it that is. But long term it might just be the most valuable weapon out the three they had.’

Idly grabbing some stone to grind it down into easily eaten sand, I took a moment to imagined how useful the cubes abilities would be for me.

Creating glass, creating stunning traps. The most useful would of them all would be the ability to cool down the air in my water harvesters to increase production even more.

Sighing with wishful thoughts, I continued onto the mad lady.

‘Needles shot at that high speed, without any seeming form of gunpowder? Or any other propellant? That would be useful for the traps, not to mention if I managed to understand how the explosion worked. Oh, that reminds me.’

Swiftly shifting my gaze back to the two rooms that were invaded, I unfortunately didn’t find any of the needles. Only small fragments of metal.

‘Well, it’s something.’ Gathering up the metal pieces, I investigated the shards carefully. Slowly I tested the metal.

Was it soft like gold or aluminum? Nope, seems to be something along the lines of iron or copper. Not at steel or titanium hardness. What about the ability to manipulate? Extremely easily I found out, as I accidentally, well, err, liquidized the metal. While it was at room temperature.

After loosing a portion due to it falling and mixing it with the sand, at first I attempted to turn the now liquid metal inside the hastily made bowl back into solid metal via will alone. No such luck after a few attempts. After a sigh and sealing off the rest of the liquid I proceeded to use the contaminated sand for the last test. Eating it and absorbing it.

After carefully transporting the sand to my core I first tested absorbing it half of it, with little to no results. ‘Darn, was hoping for another rush like the meteorite had given me.’ Sighing once more, I instead took the mixed sand and brought it to my mouth.

Oh My. So crunchy, what fine texture, so... sweet.

Before I knew what had happened, I had consumed the rest of the sand. And part of the tendril I had used to shovel it to my mouth. Watching nonplussed as the tendril pearling small amount of blood at where I had bitten it off, I felt a bit embarrassed.

‘Right!’ I thought with false certainty and cheer ‘Leader weapon analysis now!’

Settling back down I rooted through my memories. ‘That weapon, the strange shifting of the blades with and length. How does that work. Is it the same as the needle? Or was that just a coincident in function since I couldn’t make it solid once more?’ Pondering a moment I eventually decided that it was irrelevant. I would do more experiments if or when I got a part of the weapon. And perhaps mix it with some parts of the needle. Or maybe just metal?

Getting lost in fantasies of how good a whole sword of liquid metal would taste I felt a pang of regret. ‘Wish one of them had died in here. Actually on second thought I think the rest would have just taken anyone that died out of me. Oh well. I doubt this is the last time I receive invaders with strange weapons. One day I will gain those kinds of weapons.’ Or you will die before that point.

Eventually I got back on track. ‘Regardless, if i managed to get a hold on the method or material of how to make it I could perhaps mix it with the Wrappers. Having a metallic skin would be really effective, if expensive.’

Thinking back on both the delve and my defenders, a weakness stood out to me.

I had two kinds of defenders.

One excellent at ambushing, aggressive enough to rush to it’s death and finally being well suited at attacking unarmored targets due to it’s stinger. Said strike hopefully containing enough toxicity to be lethal, still need that confirmed.

However they were lacking in individual strength and durability thus easily dispatched via and area attack. Also, not fast enough when charging over open ground to be effective shock troopers, so to say.

The other, durable and it to deal with armored and unarmored foes alike, be it via strangulation or raw crushing power. That and particularly good at dispatching singular foes with it’s overwhelming numbers and binding nature.

Yet being opportunistic attacker it is quick to flee if not starved, thus not good at attrition tactics. ‘Also unfortunately weak to slashing attacks.’ Thinking back to the leader with the transforming blade I were reminded of how fast the man managed to swing that blade. A magnitude faster than the usual invader I have gotten used to.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

‘Point still standing. I have nothing to simply throw at the enemy to attrition them down. I was lacking something that could pose a constant danger that wasn’t too expensive to keep their numbers up.’

I needed something that could cause some attrition and exhaustion for any incoming invader. An exhausted or wounded foe would make the Wrappers more aggressive and stubborn.

The scorpions would do in a pinch but their venom makes they rather expensive to create swarms of. And their fragility would simply compound the costs if they were to be fielded in swarm quantities.

‘So, either cheap enough so absurd numbers could be used so that the mere act of killing all of them would exhaust them. Or something durable and aggressive enough to continuously assault invaders without it costing too much water.’ Shifting gears for a moment from new defenders to modifications. ‘I might be able to modify the scorpions to achieve the swarm size and cheap part, simply reduce the toxicity of the scorpions and perhaps the size.’

Pondering on that option for a while, I eventually rejected it. The scorpions were fine as they were now, and it would be too difficult to keep the two strains separate. All that I would end up with would be the middle ground of cheap and toxic. While still being too fragile to stand up to the initial problem of area attacks.

Taking a deep breath I decided on my unfortunately most time consuming process. Recreating old creatures.

‘If I had known they would take that long to come scout me out I would have started this process as soon as I woke up.’ Grumbling I first plumbed the depths of my memories for a suitable creature.

‘Aggressive is needed, preferably to their death. Either cheap to produce in great quantities or being durable enough to take a few hits before dying. Can’t be stymied too easily by anything singular, needs to be a problem for all invaders. Even if it were to be a lesser problem for some.’

Delving deeper inside my own memories, I kept rejecting creature after creature. ‘Desert canine? No, can be intimidated away. Dust devil? Elusive and hard to kill but too docile of a monster, I need it to chase and attack ruthlessly, not just if they are casting inside of their territory. Rending ravager? Absurdly aggressive and hard to kill, but too expensive. Also would depopulate my other defenders to fast if it were to be deployed.'

One by one I examined and rejected my potential candidates, sometimes due to me simply not remembering exactly how their biology exactly worked. Since I didn’t have time to experiment I had to find a defender that already were fit for purpose.

After going through several hundreds of designs I finally settled on two potential creatures.

The Sandfisher and the Half Salamander.

The Half Salamander was a snake with three pairs of fins spaced evenly along it’s body. Slightly shorter than a full grown man in length and with strong scales it is durable enough for my purpose. With long fangs capable of piercing light armor and a burning substance either injected via the fangs or spat out at a short range makes it dangerous enough to not be ignored. Finally it is aggressive to it’s death when it’s start hunting, and with some minor tweaks long ago it now hunts just about everything that it is cognizant about.

‘Originally I called it the ‘fire snake’, but after I got several more creatures that suited that moniker better it’s name was changed so I stopped mixing them up in my mind.’ Going over the design of the creature to confirm that I remembered it’s biology correctly, I realized that there were some parts of the creature I didn’t fully remember, such as the exact bone structure.

‘There were some sort of strange bone that was important somewhere in it’s body, I remember that much. But where and which bone was it?’

After taking a few more moments to try to remember that detail, I eventually gave up and focused on my second choice, the fish.

The Sandfisher was instead a form of manta ray, kind of. Flat as the fish yet more arrow head shaped than the pancake verity than it’s oceanic cousin. It’s durability is nothing too sing praises about, however it’s ability to dive into the sands and rapidly ‘swim’ in the sands makes it a surprisingly hard to kill creature. Also, it’s surprisingly cheap creature. Small and simple brain with a similarly small body with an oversized tail and stinger.

Hell, most of it’s body is the tail and the stinger. One third of the creatures length were it's tail and another third were it's stinger stinger.

‘Usually travels in packs of around five to eight adult and their young, splitting into separate groups when the group grows too large and mixing with other groups when they meet.’ I kept almost disqualifying this one for it’s subpar offensive capabilities against heavily armored foes. It’s stinger most dangerous when the Sandfisher spreads itself out beneath the sand and uses it’s body as an anchor to help spearing its targets above the sands. ‘Still haven’t figured out how they see their target when they are down there.’

But it’s boon was the speed the offspring grew up was astonishing. A group without offspring usually mates after a good meal, and the offspring themself growing into adults themself within a few days if fed continuously. One week and the children were fully grown.

‘So what to choose. A durable and dangerous snake that isn’t easily killed by anything, with weapons capable of wounding or even killing anything, yet will reduce my total creature count as a result of it’s aggressiveness. Or an enormous swarm of fish, thus making it a near impossibility to sneak past them while constantly causing attrition for any group inside of me, thus causing a massive headache and obstacle for invaders. But a heavily armored invader could simply wade through the entire swarm, or they could all be slaughtered with a singular spell if one were to be able to ignore the sand covering.’

Considering the abilities of the scouting group, with their strange cube and delayed explosive nails, I had to assume that they would be able to figure out a way to kill them en mass. So they would simply be there to die in large numbers while exhausting the enemies.

‘Low but certain gain in the form of exhausting the enemy.’ I summarized the Sandfisher as.

The Half Salamander were much better suited for attrition warfare. ‘On the other hand if I don’t get the bone right for the snake I might just loose the entire batch. I remember that it had some sort of necessary function that without could cause all of them to simply keel over dead within days.’

Loosing every creature I had worked on might just cost me my life. But the half salamander was so well suited for my needs right now.

Anguishing over my choice for a while, eventually I decided on the snake.

‘An armored foe is too large of a weakness for me, I need something that can help with that. And if my first batch dies quickly enough I might be able to remember or figure out what bone that is missing from the design.’

Choice thus made, I prepared to make the starting generation of snakes.

Choosing a full storage room of water for fueling the creation process I then isolated a few rooms to be a safe breeding ground until they were numerous enough to set free.

‘Oh, right.’ Focusing for a moment I got some tendrils to automatically shovel sand into my mouth. ‘Can’t forget that, rather not launch into another dormant period.’

Energy supply thus secure while i focus, I got to work.

‘First the embryo...’ Gathering tendrils near the breeding ground six tiny mounds of meat were spun into a homogeneous soup of meat in a stiff shell. From there I carefully shaped the form of a Half Salamander embryo into each of the incubating mounds. Six carefully crafted dolls made from organics. Three males and Three females.

After checking my memories and adjusting a few small details, I snapped my focus into a singular task. Simulating the growing patterns of the snake the six embryos were swiftly shaped into first hatchling, then adolescence and finally an adult form.

Letting my focus go and allowing my swimming head to calm down for a moment I hoped for the best. ‘Will I get lucky on the first attempt?’

Glancing now at the engorged shells and their occupying replicas I tenderly dragged my gaze and touch over each and every part of the biological copies.

Nothing. No flesh twitching, no odd movements, no nerve firing whatsoever.

No cell managed to be animated. ‘And I need multiple cells to manage to create a working reproductive system. After that I can actually start to grow my defenders.’ After resigning myself for the long haul and tossing the failures out of the safe grounds for my defenders to clean up another attempt were made with slight differences.

And then another.

And another.

Attempt after attempt made, each and every singular one failed to give me the beginning of the next step, a living cell.

After glancing at my fodder and water supply for my core I decided to take a harvesting break. First creating a new room at the bottom of my home by fusing stone into a shell and then fusing the remaining sand into gravel, I went on auto pilot for the rest of the steps.

‘Get it to the core room, filter out all metals that could be found and then splash with a dash of water. Powder the gravel into sand and mix with the sand covering of three older rooms. Then shovel that mixture into the bottom of the core room and—’

An sudden wave of discomfort and dizziness crashed over me. The walls were swimming. Tendrils burrowing out of nearby walls, cooling tendrils quivered uncontrollably.

‘Focus. FOCUS.’

Tracing the origin of the feeling, my gaze shot upwards. To the surface.

Nothing. Water harvesters still there.

Except one.

Recognition flashing like a warning siren through my mind, I roared my command over towards the surface, shooting it off at high speeds towards the rest of the water harvesters.

Before the command could reach them, the culprit came back for more.

‘Damned bird!’ As the bird, nearly twice the size of the harvesters, grabbed a hold over another of the harvesters and proceeded to attempt tearing it out of the ground my command finally arrived.

Hidden pockets of irritant gas opened up and unleashed their payload. Except the one the bird was trying to uproot, with it’s interference blocking my command at the end. At the back of my mind I were surprised that the nearby harvesters didn’t fail as well.

Still, the gas were pressurized enough to reach the bird, whom squawked with surprise and let go of the harvester, before with a singular mighty flap launched it out of my sight again.

Interference swiftly receding, commands and intent were flowing out from my core with alacrity. My mind a hurricane of urgency, commands and simmering rage. Not fully boiling with hatred, that were saved for another creature of the desert.

A slew of commands finally hit the surface and various explosive compounds were starting to be catalyzed to an active form, with a ignition point dangerously close to the assortment of compounds. All water were also ordered to be drained as fast as possible, i knew that the bird wouldn’t be deterred for long by the irritant gas.

Then another dizzying wave hit me.

Greater in scope compared to the first one, but since I were not caught as off guard this time the feeling were thoroughly ignored I snapped my gaze downwards. Rage had preemptively started to seep into my mind before I even had managed to get a confirmation of my foe.

After all, there were but one creature I knew that comes from below.

WORM.

God. Damned. WORM.

‘Of course the damned worms would attack when I were being raided by a bird!’ Raging thoughts seared through my mind while I violent shot my gaze downwards, anger activating all countermeasures that my gaze passed over without my explicit orders. They simply activated from my raw hatred of my foe.

There, adjacent to the room I had just dug out for sustenance the damned worm were burrowing through the walls. Eating their way through rock and my veins with a mouth with three lips and a maw of countless spiraling teeth. Thankfully it was not a massive worm. Not a small one, this one a bit longer than an average room and as thick as a tunnel, but not the size of a massive one where it’s length would be counted in dozens of rooms.

Still, small or large, the worms have to be evicted and the bird dealt with.

‘If only I could find something to kill the basted worm with.’ Lamenting the worm as usual, I hoped that this situation wouldn’t cripple me.

As it had done so many times before.