So, all my captive creatures are dead and I took a good nap, I’m bulking with energy and ready to move.

I open a dry way to the big cavern through the river bed and massively pour my mana through it in an attempt to make the big room mine as fast as possible. I widen the passage to allow more to flow through it and feel that it’s working.

My mana infuses itself really fast through the stone and the air of the area and in a few minutes the stone walls are mine and I can feel all of the things in there.

The cave is really bigger than my previous room, I graduated from a 1 meter cubic sphere room to a whole different grade. My new room is something like 15 meters long, 7 meters wide at the widest and 2 meters at the narrowest. The room is slightly inclined in the length of it, allowing the river to flow from a side to the other and forming a small pool at the end. There is also a crack in the wall on the left bank side it allows some air to enter the room.

Now that the room is mine, first thing first, I need to put some securities in place. I would not like for big creatures to enter my dungeon until I’m ready to take them, but I need small fries to eat mana and perform experiments. So I put some grids on the enter and exit of the river and the airway.

Next thing, widen the actual puddle into a pond, it will allow me to raise fishes and crabs in much bigger numbers than previously. I can already sense that they are now in the 2 digit numbers, almost 3. And if the new mana gathering rate is already much better than before, it still can’t replenish my mana pool as fast as I would like. My new fishes and crabs will need a bit of time to grow big enough to satisfy me.

There are also some new creatures. There are bugs flying in the air and some furry creatures crawling on the roof or flying and catching the bugs. I mana poison one of them and lean that they are bats. I’m now in possession of fishes, crabs, bugs, and bats, it’s a good thing to diversify a little, especially since the bats give way more mana when dying than the others, but they’re not dying as easily and have no predator in my cave. The bugs give almost no mana when they die, but they are so much more numerous it’s still profitable to keep them, plus they serve as food for the other creatures. I decide to alter the size of the airway grid to allow the bats to go through it, they could eat all the local bugs and starve. I don’t want that, I’m starting to make plans concerning them.

I also still need a way to control the creatures and made them truly mine, but I have a theory on the way to do so. I will now be able to test it, I only need some eggs and there is some here. There is a patch of 10 crab eggs.

I want to move my core to the new room, but I won’t, not until I manage to claim some of the creatures as mine.

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So I start with one of the egg, I brutally infuse mana into it to see the effect. The crab’s embryo in it starts to grow really fast, faster than anticipated. It grows so much and so fast that the egg explode and the fetus dies. I was expecting it to die, but not in such a gruesome manner, I’m also absorbing the remains faster than I usually absorb dead fishes or crabs and gaining far less mana out of it.

I infuse mana into the following egg, but a lesser amount this time. I try to steady the flow of mana, but it seems I poured too much of it as the egg dies. This time it did not explode, I simply feel a bit of mana coming back to me, like with each dead.

I try again with the following eggs and fail again, and again, but I’m feeling that I’m nearing my objective. I fail until I have only 3 eggs left. The last one managed to hatch alive, I felt it was connected to me in a way the other creatures weren’t, but it was so deformed it die in less than 5 minutes and wasn’t able to move around.

I repeat the process of infusing mana in the 8th egg. Slower and stabler than before and I feel the crab in the egg starting to grow. It’s almost ready to hatch, I feel the excitement getting to me, but I must not rush the last part. And finally the egg hatch. And it’s a success! Almost…

The crab is slightly deformed, it has a big left pincer and a small right one. But the most important fact is that I can feel a connection between it and me. I try to make it move, and it does.

The little crab is obeying my order! I succeeded in claiming a creature! I would make a little victory dance if I had a proper body to do it. I’m not making the crab dance in my stead, I’m not… ok, I’m completely doing it.

I observe the crab a moment, waiting for it to die, like its older brethren. But no, it seems to be able to live a much longer life - not as if it was really hard to beat a 5 minutes lifetime - and I let it do as it wants

Ok. Next egg. Less mana and more steady flow. Less mana and more steady flow. Less mana and more steady flow. Less mana and more steady flow. Less mana and more steady flow. Less mana and more steady flow. Less mana and more steady flow… - 1 hour later - Less flow and more steady mana...

Success! This crab is alive! And well-formed! I’m a genius. New victory dance, with 2 crabs.

Now I must look after them and ensure their immediate survival. I would be really bothered if they were to be eaten by some other crabs. Mines are still young and weak, I poison a fish and move the body for them to eat safely.

I’m starting to feel very tired, I didn’t see how much I was emptying my mana pool with those experiments and I need to sleep. But first, I need to put my crabs in a safe place, I drag them and some dead fishes in my core room and make sure nothing but little and harmless bugs can come in here.

And now I’m going to take a nap.

The last egg? I’ve moved it in a separate and secured little room next to my core room. I won’t make it hatch myself, I want to see if creatures born naturally in my dungeon are also mine or not. So stop bothering me and let me take my nap, I’m dead tired.