Unnamed Queen Ant, Location Colony throne room
The ant queen stood on her throne, looking over her children. Her gaze lingered on her children as they fulfilled their roles. The workers tending to the eggs she laid recently, the scouts patrolling the borders and venturing out to discover resources and threats that lurk in the shadows.
She sat content on what she built for the time being. She could still remember the day when she ventured out of her mothers colony. She looked for a good place to start her colony and she found one in an oasis and a cave near it. She remembers laying her first eggs, she recalled how she took care of the first batch of eggs.
She stood once more to return to her duties, when one her scouts came barging in into her throne room
“Scout! Report, where is your team?” She demanded, she release pheromones that indicated that she was not pleased.
The scout bowed to his queen and spoke. “Dead, your majesty. A large four legged beast roam the tunnels and it killed my team without Mercy”
Shocked pheromones could be smelled in the throne room. The queen pondered for a moment before speaking.
“Inform the scout team 3 to advance to the area where the beast was last seen, a beast as large as that is bound to leave a track we could follow. You will accompany them in this mission as well, understood?”
“Yes, Your Majesty” With that the scout left the presence of the queen. The workers that watched this spectacle returned to the task they were attending.
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Dungeon POV, Unknown Location
“Ok, I know how to expand my territory and grow in terms of mana control and mana absorption but how do i defend myself”
“Traps will do great but dungeons usually have monsters that defend them. I do want some monsters but I don't know how to get them”
It took me a long time to think about what I can do to have monsters in my dungeon. Then the idea struck me.
“What if I do what I did with the stone around me? I will use a mana net to capture my soon to be minion and I will force myself onto the monster!”
…
“That sounded wrong…”
“What I meant is that I could force my mana into the monster like how I did with the stone around me.”
“Ok that was better but now I face a different problem, Where are the animals, the insects? Did nothing really come inside my chamber after all this time?!!”
Looking around my domain, I saw nothing I could assimilate.I Cursed myself for killing the lizard and not just trapping it somehow.
Sighing deeply, I remember I couldn't sigh and that made me fall into deeper depression. I resigned myself to making traps for the time being.
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Unnamed ant scout, Location cave passages
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Scout
All she has ever known in her life is that she was a scout nothing more nothing less. So when her fellow scouts died to the four legged beast, she felt nothing.
She escaped after staying still for a long time, the stupid beast didn't notice and that was it's mistake. It lets one survive to inform the queen and soon the Queen's wrath will smite it.
She led first in front of the group, following her pheromones that she left when she escaped. They walked passed over the dead body of her comrades, she felt no remorse for them for they only did what was expected of them, their jobs.
They were now relying on the tracks the stupid beast left behind, they followed the track into a large chamber that stops abruptly near a stalactite. They circled around the stone that rose from the floor to only find blood and legs of the beast jutting out beneath the stone.
She was annoyed but her temporary companions celebrated, happy that they found a new source of food. They started to encircle the lizard's body, prodding it to see if it was truly dead, when it was confirmed they started returning to their colony.
The scout informed the leader of Team 1 that they would use the shortcut she used to escape. The Leader gathered her team's attention and informed them of their new route. They walked to the stream of water, using a path that wasn't there before and seemed too straight to be natural.
They were in the middle of the path, when suddenly both the entrance and the exit sunk into the waters. They were trapped and panic swept through the ants. Scout and the Leader of the team tried to think of a way to get out of there but soon they felt a presence behind them, an ominous presence.
One that made her blood run cold, a face made out of mana. It was the face of a creature she had never seen before but She knew it was a face due to its predatory grin, a grin only a predator would have when its prey is already trapped and darkness soon filled her eyes.
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Dungeon POV, Unknown Location
After grumbling about not having any monsters I decided to just work in traps. I thought about what traps I could and came up with a few ideas. Falling stalactites, rising stalagmites, passages that have their ceilings cave in and Pitfalls.
“So how do I activate them? Let's think about that later, let's focus on making them first, especially the pitfalls. Making them should be enough.”
Focusing my sight near the entrance of my chamber, wondering on how I could make my trap. Idli molding the stone around and thinking thoughtfully. That's when an idea came to me, carefully carving a round shape hole 10ft deep in the ground and using the leftover stone I displaced to cover it up. The layer of stone that I used to cover the hole was severely thin, thin enough to break when an adult steps on it.
Pleased I focused my gaze on the ceiling and on the naturally formed stalactite.. I wondered how to make it fall. Then it struck me, quickly softening the base of the stalactite. Making it fall when enough mana is placed inside it.
Going near the stream where I made a straight path before and that’s where I saw ants passing through the path. I unknowingly grinned, my grin reaching where my ears used to be. Unintentionally gathering mana and forming a face resembling what I used to look like with said mana. Realizing what i done, I panicked and used the mana to form mana blanket and threw it over the ants
“Shit, I wasted too much mana. Oh, well. Now how do I go about this? Maybe just pumping mana into the ant might work?”
I reused the mana within the mana blanket and slowly inserted the mana on an ant, only for it to explode.
“Maybe, that was too much lets lower the amount a bit”
Lowering the amount of mana I was about to use, after that I slowly pumped the mana into my test subject. I could see the ant's exoskeleton thicken fifty percent of its original width. I was about to move on to my next vi- I mean volunteer when suddenly the ant moved.
Quickly refocusing my gaze to the ant, I watched as it barely could move. Thinking about why it could barely move, it dawned on me.
“It's exoskeleton must be to heavy, I will need to alter its muscle so it could support its new weight”
Making my mana flow into the ant's muscle…
“Wait, do they have muscles? Whatever, let me just pump mana on whatever made them move”
The ant could move freely now but not as fast before the transformation. It was big and tanky. I wanted it to have more offensive ability but I ignored it for now telling myself to deal with it later, I just wanted to celebrate for I made my first monster. I quickly addressed my first monster, as it began pacing around their confinement.
“Greetings ant knight, I am your creator and you will serve a new queen. Exit for now, I will give your task later”
The path reemerged again allowing the ant to leave before it left the ant bowed towards my aetherial eye’s general direction.
“How did it know where my eyes were? Did we make a bond or a link?”
“... I think we did”
Leaving my attention off the knight, I pondered on how to make a queen.
Remembering that all workers were female and all the I have were workers. I quickly went around trying out methods that I thought might work.
After making a few explodes and killing more in my frustration. I remembered something, that all workers were infertile ants.
I then grew furious at myself for not remembering that sooner and the fact that I wasted many ants and mana for nothing.
Sensing my frustration through the link the ant knight quickly moved to an unconscious ant and I could feel the ant's thoughts through the link, It was faint and I couldn't understand most of what it's trying to say but understood enough.
“This….. Ant….. Potential… Queen”
Upon hearing the ant knight's thoughts I made my way into the ant in question. I could feel the difference between it and the others
There was something different about it, it had something that the others lacked and I began safely experimenting. I began experimenting by adding only tiny bits of mana, making it grow larger than even the knight and I knew why it had potential.
“I see… This was supposed to be a future queen. Welp that made things easier for me”
Swiftly adding more mana to the ant so that it could grow quicker. After pumping a few more mana in the ant, I could see she reached her prime. She should be able to lay eggs when she wakes up.
I remembered to make a connection with the new queen right before I averted my focus elsewhere and accidentally woke her up. Taking advantage of this I greeted her