Chapter Six: All work and no play_How to engineer a Dungeon.

“Status”, I try, in order to keep me from not sinking into inactivity.

“Name: Charlie.

Gender: neutral.

Alignment: Neutral

Diameter: 2 mm

Force: 0.001 N.

Level: 1.

Experience: 9.124/16

Mana: 9.297/12

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”

Activity: 1/week

“

I had succeeded in teaching “cold thoughts”, the eerie foreign presence, to quiet down a bit. The volume was excessive when all it had for me was background information.

I focus on the single, solitary ant that is in my area. At the moment, it is quietly munching the crystals, that I very much suspect to be sugar, and seems to be pretty content. I guess that means I have a pet now. (Sorry, pimple shrooms, you are now my second favourite thing to observe.)

But first things first. Let me order my thoughts.

Mana. Mana, as far as I can tell, is a unit used here. Seems about right to me. Mana is work, work that I can do. I can transform mana into things, and non things. I can't form better thoughts, but I have a vague idea that making holes in stone, even though they are very small holes, is not something that happens. It is stone, I think, stone is solid, stone is hard, stone is practicable. Stone is not the first material I can think of when I think, wanna make a hole? Stone would be the type of material that straight up goes, “No thank you, go away, and let me be stone. ”

The idea does not sit right with me, and I stop myself, as I feel one of those rare flashes come over me, when I remember something that seems important.

COMPOSITE.

Okay, let's take the bait and think about that for a while. Not like I have other things to do.

I check on Langton, my number one ant minion, and see that it is happy as it can be. Or, at least, I assume that is what happens when it enthusiastically munches on the sugary mass of the mushroom liquid. Hopefully, I think to myself, that is tasty. Do ants appreciate tasty? Are ants able to taste? So much to find out…

I have a vague, itchy feeling. Living things have a gender. I know that one, Biological necessity. If things are alive, a fair assumption is that at some point, they have not been. IF they have not been alive, but now are alive, it was fair to say that other ants were involved in that. Two genders are involved in creating Life, this much I still can remember. But here is where I run into problems.

How do I tell the gender of an ant? IT is not, as far as I can see when I really focus, and shift my perspective, that ants have things to tell them apart. They do not have mighty ant beards, dragging behind them on the floor. Also, just out of fairness, I see no big bouncing ant breasts. Do ants have breasts or beards? Maybe beards AND breasts? Too little information. (Plus, thinking about ant breasts leads to thinking about ant milk. I feel a reluctance to think about ant milk. I trust that kind of feeling)

You are not making this easy, Langton, you know that. Maybe a hint? .

I decide, on a whim, Langton is kind of like me. NO gender, as of yet, until it decides on one. It is barely long enough in time that I debated if I existed, so, I thought to myself, it would only be fair to give Langton the same Courtesy. I am not yet ready to have Langton make that decision, if it was an ants decision to be made. Could it also be possible that ants get questionnaires about their ant gender?

So, why composite? I need to get away from thinking about ant sexuality and gender for a bit, or else, I end up running hot again.

I have enough mana to play around a bit, so I look into the matter more. Remember, I tell myself, complex thoughts seem to be rewarded. And just by the feeling, the thoughts up to now seem to have been very complex.

So, composites, I seem to remember, are two things put together that form a new thing. Not really enough, but good enough to think about it. I do not have much, but I have a few things. The liquid that the mushrooms make, mycelium, and ….

I stop, and ponder a cross thought. Mycelium. Mycelium was a living thing. I could shape it, to a degree, but….

I register that Langton has finished enthusiastically chewing, and looks at where I am. Correction, it looks at the area where my focus point is. Can It see me?

The instinct to find out more wins. I think for a bit about what goes on in the ant brain right now, throw away thoughts if the ant actually considers me a god, or if it just feels something is off. I move the focus from the left to the right, and back, and a little ant head follows it. I move it to the food crystal, and wait a second, wiggling it a bit. Come on, that is something unexpected, surely, you are a proud and mighty ant, you wanna …

Langton gets the idea faster then I would have thought possible, and gives the crystal another chomp. Out of surprise, I let go of the focus, and the view snaps back. When I manage to adjust my perspective again, it stands at the miniscule crystal that has just been rudely chomped off, and observes.

That’s it, buddy, just a bit more. I see those feeler antennas moving, you look at the result, come on, do what comes naturally (Please, don't go too naturally, I have no mouth and I can not scream, but if you start humping that lump of sugar we are going to have a problem)….

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Langton does the predictable, and chomps the crystal. It seems to be a fat little ant, I don’t know if it is body shaming, but I have only one ant. If I had multiple, I would not see it as that bad if one ant is a little chonk, but my ant buddy, you almost got yourself a belly. Relax it in the feeding, I know, sugar is good for ants, that much I seem to get, and there is more than enough….

I leave the ant a few experiments, and get it to bite off increasingly big pieces of sugar crystal. Then, what I expected to happen much earlier happens, and the ant looks at a piece as big as its head. NOt attempting to bite it, but it made it. THAT is progress. I am reasonably proud of myself, and the experiment, and I think even Langton looks accomplished.

I stop, and focus on the piece of big sugar, and move the focus to my core.

Langton follows through immediately, what a smart and beautiful and rather fat ant, as it deposits the sugar against my core, and returns for a well earned snacc.

I focus, this time on first checking my status, and am rewarded. Aware that I am able to do this myself, I run a few tests, by getting Langton to place more and more sugar crystals against my core, each followed by intense thinking of well deserved praise to the beautiful , stunning, brave and very smart and very entertaining ant. A gentleant? I decide that Langton is a very strong and proud ant, and smart as nothing else.

I compare this to a few attempts at using what little force I have, and my assumptions are justified. Doing it via vector force manipulation is incredibly more costly. Even all the playing around with Langton, the misadventures, and all that, has not yet cost me as much as moving just one grain of sugar by vector.

I am content, and Langton, after a long and hard work session, does nothing more than turn around once, and leaves for the safety of the small cave I made for it. The next bit is a bit uncomfortable.

“Cold Thoughts, I know you are listening in, I want to add this to my build library, yes, and thank you, and you don’t have to ask, I am willing to pay the price. ”

I am a bit surprised to feel the rush, and nearly pass out when instead of the 1, perhaps 2 experience, it drains 9 from me. I feel the light almost completely dim, as cold thoughts informs me With a gleefull tone in its thoughts

COMPOSITE ROCK (FELDSPAR+QUARTZ+MICA = SANDSTONE) ADDED TO BUILD LIBRARY

COMPOSITE (CARBON + OXYGEN + HYDROGEN = SUGAR) ADDED TO BUILD LIBRARY

COMPOSITE (HYDROGEN + OXYGEN = WATER) ADDED TO BUILD LIBRARY

TOTAL COST: 9 EXPERIENCE.

The blinking, now dull, is now almost constant, as my thoughts race. I see the entire formation of crystals, crystal matrixes, that form towering structures…. I see the understanding of how water is made, in front of my mind. I see sugar being produced, almost the same.

I do not know how much time passes by, but thankfully, I have enough mana to tide me over. A bit shaky, I see that the exercise was too much for Langton, and it seems to have gone to rest. I try to give my pet enough privacy, and resist the urge to celebrate. Now, it is my turn to shine.

I rest, and settle down to plan. Ants, I know, are good at eating sugar. So, food itself is not a question. Food is done. The mushrooms can take care of that, in an emergency, so food is double done.

Shelter? I managed to build some out of mycelium, but that one could be a problem. If I wanted to have an ant, I could not do everything out of the same stuff. Sandstone, that was nicer. Harder. Better. Respectable.

I get to work, and produce a single kernel of sandstone, and massage it at one end. I can watch how the crystals grow, and increase, and I am tempted to do more of it. BUt, I tell myself, I have enough time.

I make a small shelter for me, and Langton, out of a thin wall of sandstone. I take care to not cover the mycelium, and form the sandstone around the vital network. The sandstone comes into existence with the same urgency of the mycelium, and I almost make the same mistake as before. I notice the trickle of mana disappearing, and stop myself.

Observation is key here. Sandstone seems to be able to block Flow, to a scary degree. Mycelium, on the other hand, seems to gather flow.

I stop, and ponder this. On the one hand, this is scary as hell. On the other hand, this gives me a new problem.

Tearing the flimsy shelter down, I realise I have to plan for the future. I can hide away for a long time, but just by observation, I would most likely grow in size. Size needs to be accounted for in shelters. How big would I grow? HRM.

I think and ponder, until I realise, I can form inside my area. Anywhere where there is enough space for me, I can stay. I want to keep Langton close, but if Langton can just wander into the area of where I am, so can other things. And I have a vague idea that the next time something finds me, it will not be as nice.

Questions over questions.

I amuse myself by making a small basin for Langton, outside its shelter, in case it gets thirsty. Then, I get to work.

I take the sandstone behind me, against which my wall pimple shroom rests, and start to deconstruct it. The ground, which I have realised by now is also sandstone, gives me the idea, and I try to leave as much of it over as possible. I might be able to disappear it by using mana, but that would get rid of one of my best tools, would it?

Langton stirs awake, and looks outside of the shelter, just as I am finished with its basin, and a second one. Beneath them, I form a small connection to the mycelium network, and test it. TO my absolute delight, it behaves as I have expected. The second connection goes directly to my resting place, and then, it is a shifting of mana. Instead of creating water at the edge of myself, I can now create it a short distance away. I only manage a bit of it, and it costs me some, but Langton seems to appreciate it. Still a bit slow, it moves over, and dips its mandibles into the liquid, talking tiny sips.

Have at it, buddy, Get in good workout shape. Quench that Thirst. After all, I have work for you soon.

I dissolve as much as I can of the stone behind me, taking care to leave enough decently sized kennels of sand in the area. I drill a small hole underneath, and spindle mycelium through it, connecting it up as I go.

I consider the way this must look for the ant. Here, in the middle of nowhere, at its least 5 legs, ready to die…. Some force takes care of it, makes it heal, provides it with more sugar then it can eat by itself, and now, there is water out of nothing….

I swivel my perspective, as Langton moves its legs around the few bits of water, and seems to be pretty happy. Lots of clicking of mandibles,lots of enthusiastic antenna wagging, and for whatever reason there is, I think it is genuine. I have to spend a bit of time to get its attention again, and focus it on a single grain of sandstone.

Excuse me, you buff wondrously absolute majestical unit of an ant, would you like to look at this grain here? Isn’t it at the wrong place? Carry this out, repeat a couple of times, and would you look at that? There are a few grains of sugar, just miraculously appearing, in the middle of the second basin that just comes out of nowhere.

It takes a couple of attempts, but Langton seems to get the idea. Very busy, I have to give it that. Langton the ant makes its way to the pile, grabs a single corn of sand, and piles it to the others, creating a tiny hill. I try to think encouraging thoughts, and skip the impulse to pet Langton. It seems to work right now.

By my calculations, Langton has a lot of work cut out for itself. SAND, pure sand, in the form of a tiny hill, tasty tasty sugar and water…. I refill both bowls, and despite the drain on my mana, langton works like a tiny ant sized worker.

It is a risk, I tell myself, but a calculated one. I can take that risk.

As an afterthought, I let my mana flow through to the hidden basins inside the pile of sand, and create more sugar inside, and more water. This way, Langton gets the idea of what I want, even if I do not pay constant attention to it.

So, Langton has a job now. It has food, it has water, it has shelter, and the second it is serious about this….

I realise I have to take this bit by bit. For some reason, this sequential thinking is easy for me. I have ideas, most of them hollow and scattered, but enough of them very solid. I am going to help Langton, because it is listed as my Minion, and if that means I take care of the occasional odd job, so be it. Maybe Langton learns.

Langton is a very model of a modern ant, and it deserves to be as happy as it is excellent.

After having made sure that enough of the food is in there, and there is more than enough water, I ready myself for another rest period. I am a bit concerned about how long I rest, but on the other hand, I now have something to keep me company.

Langton the ant, the most magnificent ant that I know, an ant without equal, and very, very much entertaining, more than watching mushrooms grow and prosper. Tiny legs, but now, with a purpose.

Status, I think for a last time, as I doze off to inactivity, my perception soothed to sleep by the hurrying and scurrying of my most favourite ant.