A/N: Well, I just went with something for the Dungeon Lord I found interesting, I'll see where it will take me
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A Dungeon Lord, it's not just your protector, it's your partner, it's your friend, it's everything you want and need. If possibly I want a dragon! They are really hard to get though, so I'll have to settle for something smaller first. Luckily I can have more than 1 Dungeon Lord though.
Somehow humans believe we Dungeons can only have one Lord. I've to admit, it's not that weird, I used to think the same thing, but why do we think so? Only because no one has ever seen two Lords in the same dungeon, doesn't mean there can only be one. It's even possible that there are several Dungeons Masters of the same dungeon, however only humans do that, but still, it's possible.
I'll need 10 mana for the upgrade, the contract forming costs no mana, but I'll need to add a core at the very least. Cores are really valuable and important. It's what allows me to control the monsters and animals and also helps them evolve. A core in itself is worthless, but it's powers start to manifest once implanted.
The core will start to accumulate mana, giving the body more power. The maximum amount of mana that can be stored depends on the species and on the core size. Once it reaches full capacity, the core will start to fuse with the body!
Generally, you can place the core in two different places and depending on where, the effects of fusing differ. Placing the core along with the heart (or a similar organ) will result in a physical change and placing it in the brain will result in a mental change.
Of course, it's not limited to that area, but since that's where the core fused, it'll focus on it's respective aspect. It is possible to have two cores in the same body, but only a few species have it, such as the dragon.
It's really costly to place a core, but it's worth every single penny, or mana point actually. The cost is about 100 times the cost of the creature itself. It'll start to appear permanently on it's own in their bodies, but only like 3 generations after the original core owners. That is, if every generation in between has gotten it by shear chance and passed it on.
New possibility added to Extra options from Summoning Menu, Core, due to knowledge about the subject.
I nod wisely, or that's what it feels like, I still don't have a physical body that I can move. It seems I need to explain the knowledge before the system recognizes it. It feels sort of weird, after all why can I not place it when I already have the knowledge?
I know why though, even if you know something, you still need to be able to explain it before you fully understand it and control it's aspects. It's just another part of the knowledge, and you need the complete information, otherwise you might just create a dummy core.
Placing cores is all in the future, with just worms I won't even be a proper dungeon. I do wonder what kind of evolution path worms have. I made my decision, my first boss monster will be worm based! Wait, wasn't I thinking about my Lord? Well, I do need a better base than just a worm for that.
Maybe if it evolves later, I might use that, but for now, let's focus on getting more worms and upgrade my dungeon.
I got lucky! It's been two days since I've set up my worms and already I've been able to get some new animals in my cave! I'm now the proud owner of 3 bats, they're wild though, not placed, but it's perfect. They'll grow accustomed to the mana in the air and they've a food source ready.
The mana regen I get from predatory animals is way better than that of insects, the only problem is, if there's not enough food, they'll die. They are constructed by mana, but they're still real creatures with basic needs after all.
With 2 days passed, I've now 26 mana in total, of which I need 10 to upgrade my [nest] to a [breeding place], leaving me with 16. I'll get another [nest] and, from the animal list, mice. They were under the expand option and cost 1 mana for 5 of them.
With a new food source for the bats, they will more likely stay and even attract others, while the mice will feed on the worms and grow accustomed to the environment. I will place 25 mice in the room with the [nest], another 15 in the room next to it and 10 in the entrance room as more attractive food for the bats than just the worms.
Stolen novel; please report.
Now for where to place them, I think I'll go with the first room on the right side for the [nest] and the first room on the left side for the other mice. It might be a bit confusing to state it like that, let's think later about how I'm going to keep things organized.
Warning, you've less than 1% mana
Yes yes, I know, I'll just from now on ignore all the warnings I cause myself, way easier than having it pop up all the time. I'm spending a lot but it's good to get myself a proper base first. I could sustain my creatures with mana instead of food, they'll grow hungry nevertheless but they won't need the energy from it. The major problem I have with that approach is the upkeep that will keep growing.
Monsters and animals in my dungeon give me mana I can absorb, if I use that mana to feed them, I will only get more mana if I get invaded and either the invaders or my defenders die. With more rooms, I'm no longer afraid of animal invaders, they'll only benefit me, because they are not able to threaten my Heart anymore.
Instead of a unknown threat in their possible habitat, I'm now a vague appearance somewhere deeper within, while the total first three rooms are totally safe to settle in. I'll get more mana regeneration, based on absorption of their excess mana, more animals that I can evolve into monsters and more protection, because humans are even less likely to travel.
Currently my extra mana regen is pretty worthless, I've to wait 38 hours to gain 1 extra mana. The benefits at this point is meagre, but imagine what happens when I've millions of insects and thousands of all kinds of other beasts.
Being a dungeon is a lot of hard work, but even more it's a lot of waiting and planning. With all the waiting you do, you've plenty time to plan though. Another way to instantly get mana is having creatures die, and having them die by your dungeon animals gives you experience, especially if you direct them and control them.
Leveling up is always a slow business, there's no easy way of getting a few levels really quick. When you're low leveled, you don't have the mana nor the regen to create predatory animals enough to threaten both invaders and defend yourself. Even if you somehow manage to accidently get a wolf or even a bear in your dungeon, how will you control it?
Even worse is that a strong animal will attract attention, smaller animals will tend to avoid the area, your animal will have to hunt further away so you won't get any mana at all. You might even get wiped by humans who will then discover your Heart.
Later on, you will have plenty of mana and mana regen, but since you've already amassed a lot of experience, the effectiveness will deteriorate and you will still be leveling in a slow manner.
With my worms and newly gained mice and bats I've a small ecosystem in place. The dung from the mammals will be nutrients for the worms who in turn will be the food for my little mammals. I don't have to worry about any of them dying out, after all the natural birth is still an occurrence.
It'll be slow but experience will start to accumulate along with mana from the kills. I guess I should start already with trying to start creating my first Dungeon Lord now. First I'll have to give them cores.
Luckily worms are quite cheap, after all their size and structure doesn't cost that much mana to construct out of all the particles. Even though they aren't costly, mana itself is not to be underestimated.
Now, I'll start by giving 1 worm a core, which will cost me 1 mana in total. I'll place him in my Heart room, where the mana density is the biggest so his cores can suck up the mana at an increased range, and even more important, it's easier to contact him through his cores.
Right now he's just a meagre worm though, so it's also important to prevent him from getting eaten by the mice and bats in the front rooms. To help preventing that, I should also use the giant version option. With 1 mana I can upgrade 10 worms to their first giant version, making sure they'll still be able to reproduce and not only with standard worms.
Of course, I'll including the cored one. It doesn't cost me anything extra to enlarge a cored animal or core an enlarged animal, so that's something I save on at least. The downside is that a cored creature doesn't give me any mana regen, since it collects it all into its core.
It all costs me 2 mana, 1 point for the core and another for 10 enlarged worms, bringing my current total down to 4. I will call it a day for now. I can't do a lot more with my current mana towards my goal of Dungeon Lord.