It took another two weeks, but finally my Dungeon Lord can be reasoned with, or at least that's what I had hoped for. While becoming more intelligent, it turned out that the wormqueen only placed me on a higher level than herself and is willing to follow commands, simple ones that are understandable that is.
The good news was that there were some mutations in my war pit. The most useless one was that of the worker ants. It became able to release pheromones which made the bull ants protect them, seeing them as the same species. Those two were slowly integrating tanks to the pheromones.
The bull ants increased slightly in size, but more importantly their pinchers were now able to rip through stone as well, and not just biological tissue. Their deadliness turned up a notch thanks to it, and they were also able to extend their hive, developing further.
The hornets changed their poison, slowly letting the infected victim rot away alive. Gruesome to watch, it was truly effective. However, the most gruesome mutation was that of the black widows. Their reproduction method got downgraded, it now only lay one to three eggs in total. However, the survival rate bumped up to almost a hundred percent.
This was possible due to the spider laying her eggs in the head of its victim. The hatched spider would slowly infest the brain with its poison, turning it into an obedient slave. The spider would grow while feasting upon the living host while the host would consume its food like normal, which would further become growth material for the spider.
The main interactions of the brain were kept intact, mostly the pain signals were blocked. At least at the first stage. How longer the host was kept alive and part of its group, the stronger the hatchling spider could get. Only after it would outgrow the possible living space inside of the host, would it take full control over it and move it to a secluded place.
By ripping open the host, the spider, no longer a hatchling, would crawl out and feast one last time upon its host. The downside was that this method would most likely only be effective on either hiveminded creatures or solitary ones due and not on creatures which have a individual mindset but live in societies.
The most interesting change however was not any of that, but with one of the prey species that I set up. The mice did have something as well, but they just became a little more resilient against each type of poison. No, truly the most intriguing change was with the moths.
Ah, this is the true joy of building your species. Sure you can follow the set out lines and rules, but discovering and creating is way better. I never imagined or heard of a moth species that preyed upon their natural predators. I saw it even eat mice.
Due to the overload of poisons, venoms and all sorts of pheromones and who knows what else being released all the time, it seemed like this moth had started to produce its own. It was applied by secreting it from the main body, letting it cover the wings and would be spread during the flight.
The poison would paralyze the area it fell upon as well as create an open wound, on which the moth would feed. It didn't truly feed on the flesh, but on the blood and other body liquids instead.
Both mutations on their own, or even together were not that rate, the ability to create a poison and feeding on body liquids. However the real catch was with a prey species turning into a predatory species, and even a universal predatory species at that. It did not specialize, but optimized.
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"Hey guys, it seems there is a new exploration quest up!" Marvin called to the rest of his group, while he was looking at the request board. As the leader, it was his job to find any good quests, even though they all together would decide if they would accept it or not.
"Bring it then"
"Just pick something finally"
"Woop woop, exploration!"
"..."
His party replied, all over the place. While sitting in the pub, it was not like their noise stood out, even more it was barely heard by Marvin. Grabbing the post in question, he brought it back to their table and sat down, laying it in the middle.
"As you can see, it's a low ranked quest but the reward is not all that bad, but it's an exploration one guys, exploration!" Marvin explained enthusiastically.
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His party, existing out of three different kind of mages and two melee tanker/fighter doubles, was only partly as hyped as he was.
Adrian, their healer/buffer, was just as frantic as Marvin for the exploration, urging to finalize this pick. The two tankers however, Iren and Steve, had a different opinion.
"Of course you two want it, you're not going into the unknown headfirst. I'm not too fond of face checking caves, or especially not unknown dungeons like this one" Iren said.
"You've it especially easy, you just spam everything and be protected Marv, and don't have it as your job to get attacked on purpose" Steve added.
"Well, maybe you shouldn't have chosen to be a tank then and spent all your time training your body and earning enough money for that ridiculous plate armour of yours, I mean, why would you pick a lime green one?" Adrian added, as he felt his much wanted quest being endangered.
"James, what do you think about it?" Marvin asked, turning his head to the last guy sitting at the table.
"To be honest, I don't care, as long as it pays" James replied, shrugging at the same time.
"Iren, Steve, it's up to you guess now, both Adrian and me want it, James withholds his vote"
Deeply sighing, they both gave up on resisting, accepting the quest as the one to go with. They both knew the reason why Marvin and Adrian were so excited, themselves even were as well. Exploration quests came with huge awards, especially if new discoveries were made, but even more it was the promise of adventure that brought forth the excitement.
Due to it being afternoon, they all decided they would spend the rest of the day preparing enough gear and consumables and that they would start tomorrow morning at sunrise. The request asked for an exploration in the mountain range about one and a half day away from their current town, Majei.
Their party containing three mages was a bit unusual, but not that rare. The standard party required a rogue and/or an archer to stay true to the stereotype, but a mage could do the same thing in most cases, if trained. Assassinate high priority targets? Send an earth arrow. Gather intelligence? Have a mage cast invisibility and silence on himself as well as a sense spell. Sweeping tracks? A combination of earth and wind magic could cover that.
Another reason why the party formed like this, was because they had all get to know each other during several raids of dungeons and bodyguard quests. They preferred being unusual over teaming up with unknown people, which after all could be a very dangerous business.
Marvin, their area of effect wave clear mage was designed as their leader, mostly because everyone else couldn't be bothered by it. Adrian was designated as the healer, while James got the role of rogue/scout assigned. Iren and Steve were the tanks, rotating between that and damage dealer, depending on what was needed in the situation.
The next morning they all stood outside of the town just after sunrise, all in a foul mood due to waking up so early. None of them were morning people, however they did know it was necessary to do so to reach their designation in a reasonable time.
"Okay, before we start this and be on our way, I want to get the contents of this mission clear one more time for everyone" Marvin said, holding out the quest in front of him.
"There has been found a mana anonymity in the Majejie Mountain Range, which is suspected to be from a newfound dungeon. Investigation is required to confirm or deny the hypothesis. If it is to be found a dungeon, bring proof of the type of dungeon (three different monsters, or if not possible, monster parts) and submit its estimated ranking. If it found to not be a dungeon, find out the reason and report this to the guild. If dangerous and possible, erase the abnormality. Expected difficulty, unknown. Required rank, at least 75B. Reward, all spoils found, all expenses covered. Extra note, spoils to be found dangerous by the guild will have to be yielded and will be compensated estimated worth plus ten percent"
Looking each of his party members shortly in the eyes, he asked "Do we all agree?"
Nodding at each other, they all confirmed their willingness to take on this quest. They didn't speak much, because the first one to open up his mouth except for business, would most likely get punched by all others. They were a brunch of moody, cranky adventures waking up too damn early after all.