Uno

Soon the battle entered its heated phase, as first of my underwater monsters arrived and immediately clashed with the Progenitor. In the meantime land forces (or rather what was left of them) were making a full retreat. Like I mentioned before - while Lebirs were in relatively good shape the same couldn’t be said about the Ratlings. Only a few remained of all their warriors… which was at least partially my fault. Exploding Lebirs and all that jazz being a nasty surprise. On the bright side they reproduced quickly which was obvious to me since from the twenty minions I summoned, in the beginning, came this forty-strong army.

Anyway… right now it didn’t matter at all. We were retreating. Every minion of mine heeded the orders and tried to desperately get out of enemy range. That tentacle was no joke after all.

It still managed to squash more than a few abominations, even while being badly injured itself. The Progenitor formerly colorless skin now reminded me of the Moon surface, riddled with bigger and smaller craters. There was also some kind of liquid leaking from cracks and burns present on it. Its presence turned the water thicker and stickier by the second.

Which filled me with unwanted memories.

Thankfully both the existence of the underground stream and the simple mass of water present made sure that the change was temporary. However, it forced the being to remain still for a moment, which in turn allowed use of the Analyze. For the first time since encountering it, I was absolutely sure what type of monster my forces were facing.

Glass Progenitor

When a Glass Snake Maw collects enough energy and mass it can evolve, ending up as such being. This allows it to grow near indefinitely and changes its core being from an animal to a plant. In turn, the new being is forced into a sedentary lifestyle, often devouring all life in the process. This creates artificial dead zones in the underground seas.

As its name suggests the Progenitor is capable of spawning Glass Snake Maws, but only when it has eaten enough. While capable of devouring plants it prefers fish and meat of the land creatures.

At first glance, its thick skin and regeneration capabilities are certainly impressive, but when comparing the Progenitor with other creatures of the same danger class it feels somewhat lacking.

Threat level: B--

Hooooo. Just like I thought.

So the big tentacle was a B class monster, albeit of a lower class. That explains a few things, like its ridiculous resistance to damage or the pure power of even the most basic attacks.

The mention of the Progenitor regeneration might, however, bring my plan to a grinding halt… After all, it was mostly dependent on the continuous exhaustion of the enemy, after which I planned to deal a finishing blow.

Oh well.

If it doesn’t work I’ll simply…

Leave it alone.

It didn’t have an ability to move since the Glass Progenitor was basically a plant with a big, toothed mouth at the base. This forced it to stay in one place. Forever. Even if it wanted to spawn more Glass Snake Maws I had a contingency in place just for that.

In the long run, it didn’t matter if the beast was under my control or not. The important thing was that anybody stupid enough to walk around the lake would end up devoured.

I would still try to gain control over it…

Ah.

Just in time.

My little creations had arrived.

Erosion Ray

This underwater monster looks similar in shape to a manta ray, with silvery-gray colorization and a toothless smile on the bottom part included. However, while the outside looks pretty much harmless, its insides are a different matter. A large part of innards is comprised of a stomach laced with a regenerating layer of zinc. This makes the real body resistant to corrosion.

Erosion Rays live in symbiosis with Acidic Freshweed and Drowning Man Razor, storing their acid and poison, while combining them into a corrosive liquid. It can then use the said mixture to propel themselves by expelling it at high speed. This, in turn, tends to create a deadly cloud that is hard to dispel by an ordinary means. While not entirely immune to poison and acid they nonetheless boast great resistance.

Threat level: D-

The system description didn’t really do these Rays justice. It even blatantly omitted the most important part about them - the fact that said symbiosis allowed seeding of both plants in their surroundings. The new greenery changed water content, making it both more poisonous and acidic, which deterred most of the other living beings. And while the latter wasn’t that dangerous - acid was simply lowering the pH of water, which made it more sour, but not much else - it was the former that bothered me.

Drowning Man Razor was a plant bred to kill. Its mellow taste made accidental consumption a real danger (since it was a new, unknown species) and its mere presence poisoned the water around it. At least its growth was strictly connected to the Erosion Ray presence. As long as I didn’t let them propagate outside my dungeon the damage done should be minimal. Still - letting Drowning Man Razor grow freely could lead to some unforeseen consequences.

Alas. The process had already started. There was no way to back out now.

I strained my sight while claiming the surrounding land. My Erosion Rays were dancing around the tentacle, each leaving a trail of greenish water in their wake. Time after time the Progenitor tried to scoop or smack the buzzing enemies, but lack of sensory organs and overall clumsiness was working against it.

The thing I was most afraid of - its greedy maw - was immobile, relying on the tentacle to hunt. It seemed like turning into the plant wasn’t the best evolution choice.

I nearly finished taking control over this part of the cave when the rocky underwater started to turn yellow and green. The Razor and Freshweed speed of growth was truly awe-inspiring and to tell the truth - even a little scary. I guess my dungeon mana had a hand in it.

While the plant's presence started to change the water color it didn’t detract from the Progenitor ferocity, nor did it seem in pain.

I left them to play.

Like I said before - this battle was already won.

After all Glass Snake Maws were already extinct - the ones who survived the battle were poisoned and died a few minutes after Erosion Rays arrived.

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Thus I could turn my attention to many things that required it.

Like for example excavating a new Fake Core Room for my Mechanical Core. It would be after all too conspicuous to leave it on the first level. Especially since the second floor was coming together so quickly.

After a few moments I had an idea - why not dig the tunnel underwater? With four tunnels in cardinal directions, it should take the adventurers some time to explore my artificial pond. More so with the poison and acid being a constant danger.

And there were still some Drones trapped on the bottom - why not use them?

Thus my minions started to drill into the south-east direction. Call me a perfectionist, but it simply made sense in my head.

The work was slow, but I had time.

And other things to work on.

Returning to the first floor I moved my presence into the Forge Room. The name was false until now, though, since I haven’t gotten to creating a smith. The problem, which I was now keen to remedy.

My ability to create was still pretty measly. I had rats, skeletons, snakes and few mechanical contraptions, but not much else to use. And somehow creating plants was easier than building minions.

Sigh.

Since my plan was to create a smith I had little to work with. Opposable thumbs were a must unless I would make a machine who had them built-in. Like my iron arms that were made from mostly wires. This however made changing them a bit of a chore.

So a humanoid then.

The bones were a go-to material when making skeletons, but since they would be exposed to heat most of the time I instead opted for iron and added a bit of insulation - a mineral wool layer which should protect it.

How did I make it?

Well, the Forge Room was lacking its namesake - the forge, so I installed one in the beginning. Not the normal kind - since there wasn’t a lot of space where smoke could go and some of my minions needed to breathe. Instead, I opted for an electric forge.

That may be an overstatement - it was only a large tube made from thick stone, with wires spiraling in its inner shell. They were connected to my network which was feeding them power and generating heat when needed. It worked well enough.

I even installed a small water wheel near the lake on the second floor to allow for electricity generation if I ever was low on mana.

Afterward, I simply melted the stone inside it and dragged the remaining material with my artificial arms. The temperature was a bit too much, so each time I had to rebuild them, but you gain some, you lose some.

In the end, I kinda understood how it was made and mineral wool was added to the list of available materials. Which was good, since I was trying to create it for a few long days until the system recognized my sample.

Then everything started to move quicker. First I summoned a large skeleton (about two and a half meters tall) and made sure that its bones were empty inside. Then I sawed off the upper part of its skull, leaving it open for now.

Then came mineral wool - which wrapped my whole creation, making a pseudo-flesh for it. I wasn’t stingy with the material, so it started to resemble a real humanoid in only a few hours. Not counting the creepy skull of course.

After that came a summoning of Bileflesh Brain which I tried to force into the skull and animate the prepared pile of bones.

Which didn’t work.

It took me a few minutes to understand why…

The skeleton wasn’t made from metal!

Obvious hindsight.

But also easily remediable.

I simply created a sort of metal cockpit in the head of the skeleton and made sure that each of the bones had its own wire coming through. It was a bit similar to how my own dungeon network was being run.

Which reminded me to create two mechanical eyes to add to it.

This time the Brain wasn’t even hesitating, quickly stretching its tentacles into prepared holes. It took a few minutes for the monster to recognize and connect into every available space, but somehow it managed to finish before I lost my patience.

Then with a smile on my face, I only created the full-metal helmet, leaving an open space for the eyes to see - and still no mouth - and my newest minion was complete.

[Analyze.] I said, full of expectations.

Bile-brain Golem

This creature is a fusion of bone, dead flesh, metal and stone created to do its master bidding. While strong and robust its not very intelligent, but due to being made partially from earth it retains its stubbornness. Given any task, the golem will try to finish it to the best of its abilities.

The large mass and slow movements make this being a perfect shield for the others. It is however slow to heal as the material it was made from is somewhat rare. At the same time due to its rarity knowledgeable adventurers will hunt it down to the end of the world.

Threat level: D

Did I fuck it up? That was a warrior chassis, not the smith one…

Full of hesitation I ordered the golem to pick up the hammer I made a few hours earlier. And then to simply smith.

It just stood there, dumbly staring at me.

[I don’t see your arms moving.] I said and it waved back to me.

A failure?

I made a few hammering motions and the golem repeated them clumsily.

And then stopped as soon as I did.

Next, I ordered it to pick up a piece of ore. There were some already stored in the room. The replenishing magic was added to them, in order to make sure that the smith would never run out…

[Not like that! With the tongs!] I screamed as the golem grabbed one. It only started to get worse with time...

[You need to heat it up…] I continued, but it waited for me to demonstrate. So I did. [And hammer it into shape.]

Yup.

It was worthless.

No point in sticking around then. At least the room wasn’t empty anymore. Shaking my invisible head I left, leaving the golem to its own devices.

I’ll try to work on the real smith in the future.

For now, let’s do something else.

Right.

The fauna.

I could use the snake design to make a dragonfly-like creature. The basic frame was a bit too floppy, but a bone here, a metal reinforcement there… Then add the wings, like those in Leonardo da Vinci sketches…

Yes.

Lovely.

Avaricious Glass Dragonfly

This strange flying monster is clearly an amalgamation of the flesh and the machine - joining the see-through body of a Glass Snake with quickly turning wings and fangs made from metal. The transition is seamless and as such a natural predator is born.

The resulting monster tends to nest high above the ground, joining in pairs and laying eggs. While feeding on the ambient mana should be enough for it to survive this race of monsters prefers to stuff their bellies full at any occasion. They also tend to collect sparkly items, similarly to crows.

Threat level: D--

I could feel my enthusiasm returning!

Now to create something for it to hunt. Something small and harmless. A herbivore that would cull the otherwise inedible plants. Like… that?

Blue Hopper

This non-aggressive animal survives mostly on a diet of leaves and insects. It tends to live in packs of five to eight members. Clearly, biomechanical in origin uses its metal hind legs to jump long distances - both to catch its prey and run away from danger.

It’s small, easily fitting in a grown man's hand and can’t really grow any bigger. Besides its blue coloration and the ability to jump it can also generate weak electric shock when in danger. It is, however, a very exhausting skill and as such, it can’t be used continuously.

While otherwise unremarkable its stomach contains powerful acids capable of dissolving flesh, metal, plant matter and even stone.

Threat level: G

The Drones finished digging out the northern passages? Good. Then they should enlarge them into about three rooms, two for the Lebirs and one for growing Battery Devourers. Get to work, people! I mean, Drones!

A room deep in the pond was getting finished? And it was even within an air pocket? Lovely. I should also add one at the other side of the underground Lake - just to fuck with people. And move the Fake Core! I had to remember that.

Oh, and should I summon some Ratlings for experiments, maybe add a few more parts? Or check out how they communicate? What variants there are available? So little time, so much to do!