The ant scouts, Dragon Core had sent out, easily found the tracks of the lone human. He had been fleeing, with no concern he might be followed. A more experienced ranger would have tryed, to make sure that his trail wasn't so obvious.
Dragon Cores scouts arrived at the settlement, they stopped, making sure to stay hidden from the walls of the settlement. From here it looked to the ants, that the humans were swarming, as the small village was bustling with activity. They were ants, they had no real experience dealing with humans.
To them, the actions they could see, would be the logical reaction. If a soldier ant had returned with news of another ant colony, too close to their territory. The colony would be preparing for action just as this Village was doing. The lead scout turned to one of the smaller scouts and signaled it to return to the dungeon.
When the scout returned, Dragon Core, took the images directly from the mind of the scout, dismissing the ant. Dragon Core examined the ants images, it too had no experience with humans. But it did have access to the memories of the two it had absorbed. Those memories suggested, that the activity the ants had observed, wasn't normal.
Dragon Core was alarmed, if they came to soon, its defences would fail. The only logical action would be to attack first, if it could destroy the village. Surely that would buy it time to prepare. From the memories it could see this approach would work, though the ones that found the Village destroyed, would likely search for the cause.
The memories also suggested that the area was important to the humans and their allies, there weren't to many safe area's around. The Dragon Core realised the result of its existence, was leading it's possible destruction right to it.
Without further delay the Dragon Core pulsed attack orders to its monsters. All of them had laid eggs or given birth already, Dragon Core had replacements. Every single monster surged for the entrance of the dungeon, they boiled up into the forest, moving onto the scent trail left by the ant scouts.
It was nighttime, a perfect time to attack, Dragon Core had used the images from the scout, to set the advanced orders into its monsters, the humans were already facing the forest. Therefore, they would come from behind and in stealth.
Typical for ants they didn't move in a military way, they swarmed. Along with them were the rats and the diamond spiders. Quietly but with incredible speed they reached the walls, unseen, in a mater of moments they had breached the walls. The bulk of the horde of monsters, hit the sleeping village, while the rest encircled it. The was no escape.
It wasn't a grand fight, it was a slaughter. Very few villagers even managed to defend themselves. All from the very young to the oldest, died and were carried off to the dungeon to be absorbed by the core. Behind them the village sat, it had very little damage done to it. An odd fire here and there, that died out fairly quickly.
Helped along by a thunderstorm, that struck three hours after the last ant had left, carrying the carcass of a horse easily in its jaws. Heavy rain washed away the evidence, to those that regularly came to the village, it looked like the attack had come from the west. With no survivors to tell them otherwise, it was assumed by the ones who found it that slavers had attacked and taken the entire village.
Dragon Core had also instructed its monsters to take anything lose or laying around. The entire village, had been strip clean, of even the smallest rag. This had further convince the humans that came after, since everything of value was gone. The blood found in the buildings, that the storm couldn't wash away. Was taken as actions of slavers, since they only took able bodied people. Anyone to old, young or useless in some, way were usually killed.
The only oddity was the lack of bodies, slavers didn't bother to clean up after, or take bodies away. They didn't know what to make of that, by the time they returned to the main town to report the loss of the entire village. They had convinced themselves, that this lot of slavers, for some reason had tryed to cover up the attack.
Dragon Core had ant scouts out watching from the safety of the trees. It observed the group as they arrived and then left. The memories of the villagers it had absorb, seem to suggest nothing alarming in the groups actions. It left a few scouts with orders to watch the village site, to alert it when something different occurred.
The dungeon was bustling, the young monsters were growing fast. Dragon Core examined them, they were suitable, it order the older monsters to bred again. It would rather have too many, then not enough.
All of the memories it had found in the villagers had a reoccurring theme, the village would be replaced. This time it would have guards as well as rangers to protect it. The walls would likely be made stronger and higher. This wasn't likely to stop its monsters, if it had to attack again. The stronger guards however, would be trouble.
The core returned to directing the worker ants, it was digging out the entrance to the second level. Like the first level this one would be split, the weaker monster in the first easily accessed part while the main part of the second floor would be hidden it's access hard to find. On the first floor it had used slender passages, in dark areas, they were impossible to see if you didn't already know they were there.
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On the second level it made the entrances to the second part in the ceilings. Only accessible if you could climb or jump extra well. With high ceilings, which were naturally dark, hanging tree roots, dungeon ferns and mosses, they were better hidden then the first floors.
The weaker monsters on this level, were the adults, from the hidden level on the first floor, which left the youngsters in the hidden part of the first floor. Dragon Core realised it needed to feed all these monsters, fortunately the Village had been abundant with food sources, Dragon Core used the knowledge it gained, on reconstruction of a few animals.
It modified them a little so they would flourish in the dungeon, then set them loose in all the different rooms, they would find the right places for themselves. Their purpose was to breed, they were food not defence. Next Dragon Core turned its attention to the various food plants, most would be for its new food animals.
The rest however, might prove useful in diverting attention, from destruction to usefulness. Human's and Elves seem to need a lot of food, in the interest of keeping itself alive, it could see no wrong in supplying that food.
Interestingly enough, humans also seem to need a steady supply of conflict. The Core couldn't see a reason for this, but every memory showed, how each villager had dealt with conflict and then thrived. This contradiction to the way of things, astonished Dragon Core, these creatures were more monster, then the strongest monster in its dungeon.
This trait had even crossed over into itself, when it absorbed all the humans. It now had conflict and it was to all purposes thriving on it.
Pushing away such existential thoughts, Dragon Core continued to work on making the dungeon appealing enough, that it had a chance of survival. All of the memories from the older humans showed that dungeon's could be destroy.
It had no intentions of allowing them to do that here, it would play nice until they gave it more reason not too. At the same time it would endeavour to make itself stronger. If it managed to get its dungeon sunk to about ten levels, it's instincts told it, that it would be safer.
Weeks went by, the Dragon Core had almost finished the second level, when its scouts that were stationed by the village came dashing back with disturbing images. Large wagons full of people and objects, more people driving herds of animals. Had approach the vacant village. There was easily three times more people then it had destroyed the last time. Some of them were the guards it had seen in the memories.
Another scout charged into the dungeon, this one show still more arrivals, also the guards were spreading out, exploring the country around the village. They must not find the scouts!
It sent out a pulse, recalling all of the scouts, calling all back to safety, adding instructions to do so in stealth, to not lead the humans to the dungeon. This would leave it with no information, the scouts couldn't climb trees, they were to big.
Dragon Core stopped, they might be to big but it could make a much smaller version, one that could hide easily in the trees and still provide it with the information it needed.
This creature would need speed over strength, but at the same time it must not be weak. For the basics of the creature, Dragon Core chose both ants and spiders. The ability of strength that ants possessed, combined with a spiders flatter body and fluid movements. It gave it fur like the squirrel, and the jumping ability of the large river frogs. Combining all of this resulted in a really nightmarish monster.
Dragon Core wasn't finished there, it poured dragon magic into it and like the previous time, the creature began to change even further. It had eight legs. The last two on its flat body had extra muscles for jumping. It's structure was crystalline, crisscrossed Crystal fibers making it's form very strong. This same structure made it possible for the creature to go through places normally not accessible.
It could to a certain degree change its shape, it was small no bigger then a chicken in body mass not height, but longer, stretched out it measure around sixty inches. Dragon Core examined it for flaws, find nothing wrong with its body, The Core began to strengthen its mind, it would need the ability to know when it was time to defend itself or flee.
Also Dragon Core wanted some way to be able to see, without having to recall the creature from its post. It formed a bond with it, this would make it possible for two way communication. Once the creature was finished Dragon Core made a second one. This one was female, it's purpose was only to breed, so it had none of the modifications. It would however breed males with all the modifications intact.
Once the female was egg bearing, Dragon Core connected with the male and sent it out on its first scouting trip. Dragon Core rode with it passively, just watching as it made its way to the village. It was impressed with its new monster, especially with the ability it gave, allowing Dragon Core to see outside the dungeon.
It was very fast, when it was nearly to the village, Dragon Core had it take to the trees. With a few jumps it was in the high branches, it's body showcasing it nimbleness by flowing around, over and though obstacles. It's mottled colouring making it difficult to see even when it was moving.
Dragon Core was sitting in a tree, watching though the eyes of its monster. As the humans below, went about repairing and rebuilding. It could see they had already expanded the wall, it now encircled the entire clearing. New buildings, houses the memories called them, were being built. All the animals they had with them, were in pens on the far side.
Just going by the amount of building's going up, this was going to be a larger village then before. Dragon Core was uneasy, this place was now to big for it to over run. It had brought time, but was it enough? The first floor was complete, the second floor would be finished by tomorrow. The dungeon's beasts were mighty, but even they could not keep up this pace for much longer.
Dragon Core would be forced to let them rest soon, or risk loosing the lot of them. Already they were thinner then they should be, from lack of proper rest and food. This would impact the young, Dragon Core knew, they needed more time before working them like the adults.
It left instructions with the Spidermorph, disengaging from its mind and then sent a pulse throughout the dungeon, plunging all into a restful sleep. The scout would warn of danger, if the humans started to move towards the dungeon.