I awake from my stasis, and while I groggily try to take stock of my surroundings, I decide to follow protocol. It concerns me a bit that I am not fully awake, but memories tell me that it is very normal to not be effective after waking up from a temporary stasis.
“Status”, I think.
“Name: Charlie.
Gender: neutral.
Alignment: Neutral
Area: 30 cm
Core Diameter: 3 mm
Force: 0.001 N.
Level: 1.
Experience: 14.915/16
Mana: 10.921/12
Mana Regeneration: 1 per 24 hours.
Mana Storage: N/a
Ressource Nodes/Types : 1/1(Mushroom)
Upgrades:
Layer (Layer / Number/ cost for next Level): 0/2/4, 1/0/4, 2/0/8, 3/0/16, 4/0/32, 5/0/64, 6/0/128, 7/0/256
Minion: 1 / 2.
Minion 1: Ant “Langton” / 10 XP/4 mm / Levelup possible.
Activity: 1/week”
I am ready to tackle the world of problems, of waves in the mana, of improved stats, of heightened states, when I am made aware of a way more important issue.
Langton… looks fat. And no longer as lively and bitey. Fat is perhaps not the right word, as my perspective shifts, but Langton most definitely has been hitting the sugar and the water pretty hard. I feel sorry for the little ant, until a few details come into mind. Details that I can most likely thank “Cold Thoughts'' for finally noticing. Details I should have gotten sooner?
That shield plate over Langtons back? That looked a bit loose? As if something was missing?
The fact that only Langtons backside was big and chunky?
The fact that Langton does seem to be content?
The fact that Langton seems to be more in favor of sitting down?
I sigh, and focus on my number one Ant Minion.
“You are a Mommy, Langton? The fuck?”
I do not know what I expected. That Langton, underlaid with violins, now confesses to me that SHE is going to be a mommy, and I am the daddy? (Was I actually male? How was it possible? )
Instead, I just see Langton, wiggling antennae, and looking slightly uncomfortable, as far as an Ant is able to convey that. Poor fucking thing. Must have been pregnant all along.
Okay, so, nothing with hounding Langton, letting Langton build…. I was not a jungle sort of being. I wanted to at least give it a try.
First things first.
I make sure that Langton, the soon to be queen ant has a place to rest, and be happy. The hollow hidey hole seems to do fine. I can do fine by myself, but the fact remains, that that queen ant is the beginning of having a labor force. I have a vague idea of ants being famous builders, and save that away for later.
Second point, close to ressources?
I check the improvised water dispenser, and the sugar farm. I don#t know how much water a growing ant needs, but I have a feeling sugar is more important. Now glad for the small hollow, I create a nice big sugar crystal in there. I have a rough idea how much Langton eats, so it is easy. I assume a week, tops, in between my period of activity. I can refill the feeder once weekly, that makes the base load. I take the weight of Langton as a unit (5 grams), double it (I am guessing that having to eat for two now is a thing, even with ants), and create a crystal of a whopping 20 grams for Langton. That should take care of all eventualities, and a few spare smaller crystals for snacks and such. I note the amount of food I left down on the floor. It is not like anyone checks anyways. This way, the next time I am active, I can see how much Langton has eaten, how much I left Langton, and adjust.
The water is nice and steady, but I make the hole in the wall deeper. That is right, exactly a small dribble, for me it looks like a lot, but I am guessing if you are laying eggs and having larva you would need a drink or two.
The immediate problem is the placement. I have no idea about ressource density, but what worries me is temperature. Langton has survived for this long, but Langton had work. If the trend continues, Langton will be full of the ant baby, and sit on the floor for a while.
I know. From the same deep and dark and murky pool that makes smiles and the knowledge about cursing and math, that sitting on the ground is bad for you.
I check my build library, and stare. That is a task for someone who can do it. I think I have nothing better to do. Sue me.
I hold on, and check the mushroom sensors. Taking aim at the waves is pretty instinctual now, and despite my area being a bit bigger, few new things have arrived. So, I deduce, I have SOME time. Not too much, but some.
I gently take the focus, and move it towards It is easy to move it, and Langton tries its best to follow it. I chide myself for that, and go, her. Sorry, but if an ant is full of the baby, I am calling that ant a her.
So, one thing after the other. I use a bit of mana to lift the stone up to make a pedestal for her, and give it a slight dip in the middle. This way, if Langton gets any bigger, she will fit in there nicely. Then, using the hollow, I use a bit of sugar mixture, a bit of the mushroom sugar with the mycelium in there, and some sand stone dust. Adding a few drops of water here and there, I stir, until there is a slurry. Then, I let it sit and rest. I dust it off with another layer of sandstone dust, then a layer of slurry, and then a final layer of sandstone dust, before finishing it with the strange mixture from the mushrooms.
I poke it a bit, and find to my amusement that it has some bounce. The sandstone dust is not too sharp, but also not too soft, and the sugar makes it stable and solid. IF in danger, or running out of food before the babies are grown up, Langton can eat the bedding.
With that settled, I can lean back, as far as it goes, And watch the laborious process. That ant will most likely lay very comfortably, and fit for a proper queen.
ON a lark, and because I have too much mana anyways, I create more of the mixture, and spread it around the walls of the small cave. The trick is not that it is a lot, the trick is that it is little. Air that gets trapped in between the mycelium and the slurry acts as a sort of insulator, and keeps the temperature stable.
I am tempted to summon up more, but better safe than sorry. I check, and make sure that the mixture is spread evenly in five layers, hoping that eventual kids will get the message, and not feed themselves to the mushrooms.
IF this works out the way I think it will, AND Langton stays head ant, I can easily see myself commanding an army of ants. Or, at least, if I grow some more, those ants will be quite the practicality.
I now have an insulated chamber for the ants, and possibly, for myself as well. That takes care of some of the mess.
Langton takes the time I spend pondering, and Lifts herself on the small pedestal I made for her, and I know, it should be time. There are some processes that nature takes over, where even the most well meaning rocky marble can not help, no matter how much I may wish otherwise.
That means, it is now time for a review. I look over my area again. 30 centimeters is nothing to sneeze at, when you are 3 millimeters in diameter. I resign myself to what I should have been doing a long time ago. Review.
“Status”, I think as clearly as possible, and “Cold Thoughts” is here again, immediately with the answer. .
“Name: Charlie.
Gender: neutral.
Alignment: Neutral
Area: 30 cm
Core Diameter: 3 mm
Force: 0.001 N.
Level: 1.
Experience: 14.915/16
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Mana: 8.215/12
Mana Regeneration: 1 per 24 hours.
Mana Storage: N/a
Ressource Nodes/Types : 1/1(Pimple Mushroom)
Upgrades:
Layer (Layer / Number/ cost for next Level): 0/2/4, 1/0/4, 2/0/8, 3/0/16, 4/0/32, 5/0/64, 6/0/128, 7/0/256
Minion: 1 / 2.
Minion 1: Ant Queen “Langton” / 10 XP/4 mm / Levelup possible.
Activity: 1/week”
I ponder that. So, the status is updating in real time….
It deserved some merit.
“Cold Thoughts, I want to upgrade layer 1.”
It takes a while.
LAYER 1 UPGRADE COST 4 XP. Yes/no?
“Yes”, I think, and am swamped with new information.
I am a dungeon core, yes, already got that… movement of the perspective is what is covered under camera … Okay, this is new.
I get a memory of what to do with a unit. I examine it closer…. Personalizing units… named units…. I know this stuff already, I have not skipped learning my lessons. I have few memories, but what I have, feels good and well ordered.
I skip forwards through my flooding thoughts until …
I have the idea.
I can not lose Langton. Langton is my first minion, my first reprieve of the boredom of watching mushrooms grow. Langton is not a proper queen by her own right… But she can help the queen. A dark part of my mind tells me a proper title for that. Queen Mother. The mother of the current regent.
Nobody is around to care for the new eggs or larva. Nobody around to help out but me.
I focus on Langton, and try my best to be calming, and for a second, I think it helps. She is looking a bit calmer, not wiggling too much.
I focus on her, and can see traces of the status popping up, but unformed. It feels wrong, as if….“Ant queen” only told one half of the story that nobody wanted to hear.
“Cold Thoughts, ” I think, and mentally separate the area in even parcells, as soon as I see the first diminutive eggs come out. “I want to see if I understood the titles right. I can give a unit a title to customize it, right? Customized units become minions, right? Well then, I want to give Langton a new title. ”
“Ant Queen “Langton” is currently in the process of fulfilling biological duties. ”
I stop, and if I had eyes, I would have squinted at Cold Thoughts. The volume was way down. Had cold thoughts been listening to that part? What exactly was cold thoughts?
“Yes. Ant queens lay eggs, eggs that need to be taken care of. The ant queen has nobody to take care of her eggs. She would have to do it all by herself. It would kill the unit and put the minion out of commission. But if she were to wait until she laid 24 eggs, and have her then changed in title…. She would be able to take care of the ants. ”
Cold thoughts is silent for a second, then it asks.
“This is possible. What new title is suggested? ”
“Empress Ant, as a proper Empress outranks a queen, as far as I can remember. .”
I am not very certain, but it seems to me that there is a measure of respect in the cold thoughts.
“This is possible”, go the cold thoughts. Careful, if I go by how the cold thoughts feel.
“Also, I would like to make a resource spawner, but for units. IF this was regular, I would ask to establish an anthill that spawns ants, but since I am new to this, I would like to turn the subsection into an ant spawner. You know, a place that makes ants. ”
I cross my intangible fingers as cold thoughts seems to warm up to the idea.
“Do you mean you want to create a unit spawner? ”
Now it is on me to ponder this.
“Can I make it so that Langton stays in command? Like, that the ant queen follows the ant empresses commands, as in chain of leadership? Proper chain of command, and this way, I have a bit more leeway with expanding what I have. ”
“This is possible. Unit spawner ant hill, Precondition shelter: fulfilled, Precondition food?”
IT is difficult to know when Cold Thoughts is asking a question, but I think I get the gist. I wasn’t as smart as I think I was.
“For now, the sugar from the mushrooms. IF they need variety, They can have roughage from the mycelium. Grows good enough as it is. ”
“Precondition food: Resource spawner Pimple Mushroom. Precondition building material? ”
That tells me something new. I can link things like that up.
“Hold that for a minute. Can all ressource spawners be linked up like the mushrooms? Can I just buy one resource spawner, and build more and link them up to each other? ”
I get no answer for a while, which I carefully accept as something good. So, cold thoughts access to myself is not as complete as I had suspected.
“Yes. ”
I begin to understand.
“Okay, cold thoughts, I want a resource spawner , no, they are referred to as resource nodes by you. I want an additional “resource node” for sugar, sandstone and water inside the queen's chamber. ”
I flex my magical trickery a bit, and use my mana to create a resource node sandstone, a resource node water, and a resource node sugar into the chambers. I decorate the basins a bit, but make sure they are sufficiently nice.
The spawners look like their element, and what I can pull for them.
The water spawner, I decide as much as possible to leave to the ants. I sink down the floor enough, with steps, so that you can easily walk inside the pool. The wall spout out of which the water comes, I put into somewhat of a raised position. That should keep the bacteria and stuff and things to a minimal level. Water from a hole in the wall, just enough to half fill a small basin.
The sugar spawner, I trick a bit, and make four simple elevations around the water pool. I fill them with the glowy pimple shrooms, and link them up to the network, for some light. Soon, with myself feeding mana all around, the balloons pop up, and begin to glow in a soft light. I adjust the needles in each of them, making sure just a bit drips out of the big balloons. A network of smaller basins that produce sugar water.
The sandstone spawner, I am unconvinced. I remember, from another dark pit of memory, that stone has to be taken, but I have the idea that I had from the beginning of the cave. I make a small tunnel into the wall, until the material changes. Big enough for two ants, slide by side, to come in, take a bite, get out.
I relax my focus again, then focus on the spawners, holding it there for a second, to make sure the title giving is good. .
“Water spawner”, I name the basin.
“Sugar spawner”, I name the glowing balloons.
“Material spawner”, I finally name the sand stone tunnel.
Cold thoughts, I think my order clearly, register these new spawners.
“Registering 3 new spawners…. Costs 2 experience each, 6 total. Proceed Yes no? ”
Yes, I think.
I am relieved to see the core of myself glowing less often, and feel how the first droplets of water, sugar, and sandstone crumbs start coming down. It may not be much, but out of a dark corner of my mind, I have a couple of ideas of what could be done with a proper unlimited resource node. The same thing that tells me that smiles are nice, smoll is also nice, and cursing is good, tells me that the ability to place resource nodes is …
Broken, say my memories.
I have a vague memory that adventurers should get those resource nodes. They should travel from far and wide, just to get to them. Take a bit of the resource nodes, get home again.
This memory must have been wrong.
I massage the mana carrying roots of the mycelium outwards, flowing under the walls of the labyrinth. It is one thing to leave a resource node out for anyone who comes along….
It is an entirely different hallmark to leave it out for someone who likes to build. Unlimited resource nodes are a big deal. I review further bits and bobs, catching as much as I can from that yet dark part of my memory that tells me of smiles, math and measuring. I can feel that it is out there, that I almost have it, but still, it eludes me. I feel like I have done this before, or at least spent a very long time doing precisely this. Planning, ordering units around, managing resources, measuring, forming plans, expanding…
And soon, I am disturbed from my preparations by a soft yet cold thought, in a predictable manner.
“Empress Langton has finished her assigned tasks. ”
I check myself, like an expectant father, nervous, but thrilled, until I figure that I lack the body to do anything about that. Thoughts do count, I suppose. Then, I shift my focus, so I am inside the hidey hole now.
I see Langton, poor Langton, lying on the softish mattress I made for her, with 24 eggs underneath her. Her lower body is grossly distended, seeming like half again the size of her upper body. I am cursing myself for not having a body, or so much as a voice. All I can do is to use my force to wave a bit of cold air in the room, and try not to wince.
I use my focus on her, and directly give her some mana. To my surprise, while before, she seemed hesitant, as if trying to put water into a stone, now, it is like water that is making the stone moist. I swear, I can feel the distended abdomen shrinking myself, the more mana I pump into the empress Langton.
I don’t know if she can hear me, or even understand. But I know it is possible.
I tell her she did wonderful with the first generation, and they will be a very very useful and busy lot (Hopefully. Thus far, most things seem to have gone well. ). I tell her, I do my best to get them food and water, but now, she will have a bit more freedom.
I try to impart in her so much, the shame I feel for not having properly given her a good name, the pride in her being my first minion, the affection for her tireless service, appreciation for her intelligence, toughness….
I have no idea if she gets all of this, or if I am just a piece of rock with delusions of grandeur, trying my best to weave others in. BUt since she can hold mana, if only a tiny part….
IF mana is force, and potential, something like a blueprint should be doable. I visualize it in front of my inner eye, and to my absolute amazement, it is like a skill that I have done a million times over. The blueprint contains fine measurements, precise instructions, and a LOT of math. But not math with numbers and abstract concepts, more like the math of a CAD program, (whatever CAD is), that tells you where to put what, and what to take away.
I mark the things and borders nicely and with great care, the areas I want done, The lanes, ant highways, the edges, and the materials. I mark that for now, I would appreciate if the areas got build out of sandstone crumbs, with sugary slurry as mortar and daub, I even give ideas on how to dig into the stone, at least for a bit, and hollow out areas like sleeping chambers, nurseries, and small farms. I mark the mushrooms, show them in a side section, so that the ants can see what is dangerous, and what isn’t. I go over everything again, to make sure I have not forgotten anything, and then feed it to my minion with a bit of mana. It is an experiment. IF I am right, she will pass that on to her daughter, who will then become queen, and in no time flat, I will have building ants. I can’t wait, if this works it will be more than grand.
I lean back, and am content. Slowly, I get the idea that my rest period draws closer, and I once again slide into inactivity. I worry a bit as to what happens during my inactivity, but things do progress nicely.
“Name: Charlie.
Gender: neutral.
Alignment: Neutral
Area: 31 cm
Core Diameter: 3 mm
Force: 0.001 N.
Level: 1.
Experience: 4.915/16
Mana: 8.215/12
Mana Regeneration: 1 per 24 hours.
Mana Storage: N/a
Ressource Nodes/Types : 4/4(Pimple Mushroom/Water/Sugar/Sandstone)
Upgrades:
Layer (Layer / Number/ cost for next Level): 0/2/4, 1/1/8, 2/0/8, 3/0/16, 4/0/32, 5/0/64, 6/0/128, 7/0/256
Minion: 1 / 2.
Minion 1: Empress “Langton” (Ant)/ 10 XP/4 mm / Levelup possible.
Unit spawner: 1 (Anthill)
Activity: 1/week”
That is nice, I think, and try to be as cozy as a rock marble of a dungeon core can be.