I watched as my new bat friend turned their attention over to the group of mice as well. Though I wouldn’t call it hatred, a strong emotion of what felt like mix of disdain and disgust came from my bat. It still felt strange feeling these new emotions from something not myself. My new creature knew that those mice were not mine, that they were basically intruders. Even if I was the one who showed up out of nowhere and restructured the cave they were dwelling in to become my own.
But watching over my bat also gave me some anxiety. As I had noticed earlier, this was not some mindless monster that just blindly followed commands. They were a living, breathing, thinking creature that I had basically brought to life with dungeon core magic. Calling it a child of mine would not be far from the truth I felt, which filled me with a small sense of dread that I could be sending it to its death.
I looked at this template that had formed when I had finished making my bat and noticed a notification symbol on the corner. Clicking it caused a message to appear.
Due to the nature of your unique magic you have created a brand new species not yet existing of this world. As such you have the right to rename this creature and have a small discount on future creations of said creature.
I looked at my little fruit/vampire bat mix and paused. I had never been great at naming things before and the possibility of this happening what could possibly be every time I create something distressed me. I decided for now that I would leave it blank, hoping it wouldn’t cause any problems at the moment. First things first, I needed to see what the possible fate of my new creature would be.
Would this be the kind of magic that allowed me to respawn my creatures with past experience, or would I be having to replace them if they should die. Just the thought of possibly sending this relatively intelligent creature to its death bothered me, but it was the only way I could survive and most likely grow.
I focused in on the template, currently labeled
Congratulations
You have created your very first Monster! A brief rundown tutorial of how monster spawns work is available if you would like.
Yes/No
Clicking Yes sent me to the grey room once again. Knowing what to expect I quickly focused on the board on the wall.
Congratulations once again and thank you for following the System guidance tutorial. Going over the ability to spawn monsters should be quick and relatively brief.
When you choose to spawn a monster, the amount of Mana and Will you put into it will affect the outcome. Also adding any extra parts, such as a Mana core, will affect not only the power but also the intelligence of your monsters. Once you have made your monster you will receive a template for said monster that will make creating more monsters of that type easier and at a flat rate. You will have the options to lower the intelligence on specially created monsters to make a more drone like creature.
Doing so will make these creature unintelligible, mindless drones that will follow base directives given to them. They will also be unable to upgrade, evolve, or change in anyway if done so. This option is not recommended unless you are making swarms or hive mind like creatures.
The death of an intelligent/semi-intelligent creature can be final, but some monsters if designated will be respawned after a set amount of time at half the initial Mana costs. They will lose experience and if too many deaths occur, can negatively impact their chances of evolution and growth.
Drone creatures are not able to be respawned.
If a creature gains enough experience they will be given choices to evolve. You can set it so that you are in control of these evolutions, or you can give control to the creature themselves. Early on it is recommended you control creature evolutions.
Finally monsters can earn achievements that allow them to be or become named. Being Named gives monster upgrades to not only stats but also evolutions. Monsters labeled as Boss creatures tend to earn names faster than just roaming creatures.
Thank you again for following the tutorial and Happy Hunting!
A flash of white and I was back in my own dungeon. I took note again to the fact that time seemed to have slowed while I was away, but had not fully stopped. I based it on the fact that my new bat that had been slowly crawling on the stalactite for a better vantage point had moved, but only slightly. I once again looked at the template and saw the cost for making more bats went from 24 down to 18. Unfortunately that meant that until I leveled myself I would not be creating any more bats. Luckily I could designate my new creature to respawn and it would cost me 12, half of the original cost.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
I focused on the nest, counting out the mice inside. There were 4 adult mice, 2 adolescent mice, and what seemed like 6 babies. I tried to focus my Mana Integration spell on the babies, wondering if since they were younger I could possibly take them easier. Instead it felt like they actually had some kind of bubble around them, making it impossible for me to put any Mana into them. The adolescent mice also had some kind of bubble, though I instinctively knew that if I truly pushed I could get past it. But the cost to break through and keep pushing my Mana into them was still high and not worth the amount of time it would take.
Of the 4 adults, I was still slowly pushing my Mana into them, but I still had barely gotten through the skin. At the rate I was going it would probably take days to get through, and that was if I only focused on just one of them.
As I focused on the nest I saw one of the adults start sniffing, before it slowly venture out of the its nest. The nest itself was a small bunch of grass, twigs and pebbles in a hut shaped backed up to a larger crack in the wall. Thankfully the crack did not go deep, which what is allowed me to see within due to soaking my Mana into the walls themselves. But even then, My Mana was not soaking into the material of the nest, the mice’s Mana creating a bit of a haze around it.
Watching this one mouse slowly venture out, I saw it sniffing and focusing on a beetle just a foot away from the nest entrance. As it focused its attention there, I sent my thoughts towards my bat.
Not sure if it could understand me I tried talking to explain my plan.
“One of the mice is slowly leaving, wait until it goes to pounce on the beetle then try swooping in to attack”
I saw it glance over at me, looking at my core, before a near imperceptible nod. Thankfully it looked like I could convey my plans via words and not just images. I wasn’t actually a hundred percent sure how this bat would hunt the mouse, but hoped it had its own natural instincts it could follow like I did. Maybe it would even get a tutorial.
Realizing it may skip said tutorial I spoke again, “Listen little one, if the system prompts you with a tutorial I would recommend taking it, unless you are in a dire situation.”
This time the glance over at me only held confusion, so I figured system tutorials were not for everyone. Since that seemed the case, I just sent a brief message to ignore that for now.
As this was going on the mouse had slowly snuck closer to the beetle, lining itself up to strike. My bat had also did a small flight over to a closer stalactite, maneuvering itself to launch at the mouse when it came time. When the mouse pounced so did my bat.
The mouse landed on the beetle, using its front paws to grab hold while it bit the head off. My bat on the other hand had used its legs to help push itself off before diving down at the back of the mouse. I watched, enraptured, as it curled its wings in to dive, unfurling them only at the end to slow down enough to hook the talons at the end into the sides of the mouse. After it hooked on, it lunged and grabbed the neck of the mouse, holding it in its foxlike mouth of needle sharp teeth. The mouse squealed trying to unseat the bat on its back, but it seemed my bat was a little heavier than it looked.
Size wise the mouse wasn’t all that much smaller than my bat. Where my bat was about 8 inches long with a 16 inch wingspan tip to tip, the mouse was about 6 inches long not including the tail. It was only about 3 inches wide though, which meant my bat was able to wrap its body with its wings, limiting its mobility even more. Slowly I watch the life drain out of the mouse before the unexpected happened.
A second mouse had left the nest, jumping and biting onto the tail end of my bat, causing it to reflexively let go with its mouth. It had not let go with its talons, but the new mouse being on top of it didn’t allow it to release it to escape. My bat, realizing it couldn’t quite just push the second mouse off it, instead used its wing talons to tear at the mouse below. The mouse, having already lost blood through the bite on its neck, began to bleed even more from the scratches in its side. Finally it let out its final breath, where my bat could now focus more on the second mouse.
Using its wings, it pushed itself to one side, causing the mouse on top of it to now be hanging off as it was parallel to the floor. I know the mice could only use the Mana in its body to give it better vision to hunt in the dark, but as of yet my bat hadn’t used any kind of skills or Mana. Thus when I saw it breathe in, I was surprised I could notice it build up Mana within it. Then in blew out the Mana in a large vocal blast, causing the mouse on it to become stunned as its ears no doubt rang. Stunned it lost the grip on my bat’s back, letting it to gain some space before turning toward it. This time though I noticed the other mice also react and begin rushing out.
I let my bat know, who turned and used echolocation to see the new mice heading toward it. Pushing off the floor my bat rose up, flying into the air. Expecting it to grab onto a stalactite I was instead surprised when it dove down and grabbed the still stunned mouse. This time using its back legs it grabbed the mouse struggling slightly to lift it into the air. Once airborne it flew up almost to the ceiling before letting it go, directly on top of a stalagmite. Though it was only a fall of a few feet, the tip of the stalagmite tore through the left ribcage of the mouse, killing it near instantaneously.
The brutality and cunning of my bat caught me off guard, but I could only offer praise at its quick thinking. Feeling my praise I watched as my bat puffed up in pride before it began to circle the other 2 mice, like vulture in the dark cave. Normally many creatures would struggle to make out the bat due to its coloration, but it was obvious the Mana imbued mice did not have that issue. It would seem the Mana allowing it to see in the dark was strong enough to see through the natural camouflage.
As it circled the mice, I took a glance to see if I had gained anything. I noticed I had gained a new template, labeled Fanged Field Mouse. I noticed the cost to make them was only 5 Mana, as they were literally just a regular mouse with a minuscule mana core. I compared the size of the Mana core of the mouse to my bat and realized that when I had created it, I had given it a relatively large mana core for a creature of that size. That explained why it was so expensive to add that to the bat. If I had used same sized core as found in the mouse it would have only cost me 2 Mana, which meant I could have had my vampiric fangs as well.
No use crying over what had happened, plus the Mana core had obviously boosted its skills ability and intelligence by quite a bit. The Voice blast had left that second mouse reeling for quite a few seconds. It also quickly thought up the strategy to grab it and drop it on the stalagmite, making sure the fall was deadly.
I looked over again to see the 2 mice warily watch my bat before slowly backing up to their nest, leaving the 2 dead mice where they lay. When they had fully pulled back, my bat once again flew down and grabbed the first mouse, flying it to the near opposite side of the cave before it began to eat. Instead of trying to cling to the ceiling and eating, it dropped it on the ground and ate it there. Using its wing talon to hold it, it tore chunks out, swallowing them in bite sized morsels with little chewing.
I figured that now that the fighting was over it would be the perfect time to see if I could pull up the bat’s status page, as well and see if killing the “intruders” gave me any experience. Something I still wasn’t sure how I gained myself.