My senses poured over the pattern I had drawn within the domain of myself, and marveled at how I had matched the patterns of the books. With this I suddenly felt safer from the world, and more comfortable with where I was. Then, I focused in on my creation with the same wonder in which I explored the pages of the books. Each angled wall was another place I could place a trap or pitfall for those Adventurers to walk into. Perhaps I could send my creatures out to fight them so they would be hard pressed to reach the end. My sense flowed out into the wide spaces of a room filled with flowers, bees, grasses, and so much more. Light came down from above in a gentle radiance that I found myself enjoying so much that time skipped by me.
It was when I realized how the bees fit into the pattern of the room, and they, like others, maintained the balance of it all. If I sent my creatures to attack, or even defend, the harmony that I had created here would be at risk. These creatures that I had trapped and made were precious pieces of the outside world I brought within myself. I focused myself within this random room of my maze, pulling almost all of it to be just here. In this moment, looking towards the light and feeling the life around me. I felt suddenly more connected to this all then just a place I had made and monsters that I had raised. This was me and was also a home to all that lived within, even if I hadn't made all of them with my mana and will. I knew that I would continue to grow and create more and more complex things as time went on. After all, I had a dream of creating something that could journey the world for me, or even a form that I could use to walk the land above.
Something had to be done to protect this maze, even though it was meant to protect me, I wanted to protect it. The bees buzzed within the confines of the room, moving between the flowers and their hive homes. While they were big enough to be threats to others really they just wanted to gather their nectar, and protect the queen within the hive. They didn't need to have anything more than that, and my attention was then caught by the small trail of ants within the dirt I had created and moved here. They even moved outside of the room and into the hallways, so I expanded my senses slowly outwards while still focusing on the tiny creatures. To my surprise I found them having connecting tunnels into other rooms, and even working on spreading out beyond that. They were industrious creatures that spoke to my own interest in growth and exploring the unknown.
Seeing their large colonies throughout the maze I knew that they would eventually reach each other. It was only a matter of time until that happened, and they were messing up my hallways with the trails of dirt they were dragging out of the hills to make safe tunnels within my own. They were only in the corners, and the ants were the normal size of ants I had found above, but it was an itch to my senses. I had the urge to keep them in their rooms and clean up the hallways, and then add the traps I was thinking about earlier before I got distracted. Then, I had a thought about the ants that I decided was perfect. If they wanted to create tunnels throughout their area, expand, and even shape the dirt. Then wouldn't they make the perfect form of defense for the maze? I could let the ants create the paths between my main rooms, and even encourage them to change them often. Making the maze a living thing like the paths of ants themselves, and then my little inner world would be safer. However, I would need to make some changes for that to happen.
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The ants were great movers of the earth, and had potential considering their loyalty to the colony and myself. Yet, I would need them to be bigger, stronger, and have the ability to shape stone in some small ways. So I considered my choices and brought up the pattern I had made long ago of their forms. Until now I had made simple changes in things, like increasing their size or their poison. Now I would have to change a few things at once to make a creature that would work for what I had intended. So, I tinkered with the pattern, trying to push symbols to be larger and making others smaller at first and seeing the results. At the same time I took a group of ants, and put them in a new room that I filled with dirt and stone chunks of various sizes. This group of ants received a flow of rainbow mana from me along with the desire to see them grow, become strong, and shape the stone.
Time melted away as I focused on these two projects within my core. A steady light flowing from the small puddle of water with a rainbow sheen that had been forming since I dug this floor. It was giving my mana recovery a boost, so I left it alone but also slowly expanded the bowl it was pooling in. The ants within the special room were seeing signs of change, but not all of them in the same ways. Some were gaining size and a shiny black carapace that seemed as tough as some stones I had been finding deeper down. Others were seeing changes in color, but with powerful jaws that could cut through the stones around their size. Still others gained twisting patterns of a dark green light on their carapace, and seemed to be able to melt the stones and dirt far easier than normal. I pulled up the altered patterns from within the greatest of these changed creatures to study.
Each of them had seen growth in their patterns, and also shrinking in others that I had been tinkering with myself. Yet, the last group of the ants, the ones with the patterns, had whole new sections added onto them. I decided that was the reason for both their markings and the abilities that they were showing. With the big question being if I could combine each of the altered patterns into a new whole.
Once again the time sped past me as I worked to incorporate all the changes that the ants had shown, but it seemed like there was a limit to how many changes or how much mana could be present in a creature at once. Yet, the ants in the special room kept seeing changes and even improvements all the time. Their patterns altering to become more than what I could piece together from the first of the altered forms. So, I decided to change my attempts, and separated out the improved variants into their own rooms. The larger ones I tried to focus more on shaping the stone and magic. Where the hardy and powerful ones I focused on gaining in size. With the magical ones focused on increasing intelligence. Luckily there were altered queens for these new groups that I hoped would make it easier to see results, and my efforts were rewarded within days.
The ants had undergone a massive change, and even got me thinking about other types of mana I could use. Now the first group was large enough to be half as tall as the hallways I wanted them to shape, and had the ability to melt and shape stone. While the second group was smaller, but able to cut through some metals I had found with ease. Then, the last group were actually organized well, and when I introduced them to another group they quickly took over and began to manage them. So I opened up a way back into the maze, and spoke my command to the dungeon.
"Create a maze to confuse and protect this place and it's rooms of life. Be my hands and jaws against any that try to enter it." A wave of white energy raced outward from my core with my words, and the intent of them flowed throughout all my domain. Creating a connection between the words and intent I felt none could break. Then, I found myself falling away, barely having time to reach towards gathering mana.