4)

Still under a fridge. Mood- Concerned.

The next three roaches are assigned as Warriors, or as I think of them, bribes. According to the manual, a normal mouse will have no interest in doing anything to a core other than sniff at me long enough to determine that I was not something to eat, fornicate with, or run away from.

But if I can keep them coming around until I can do something about them. Well then losing a Warrior every now and then is just an investment.

So I’m pretty good there. However, this world has been developing magical beasts for up to seventeen years. Only copper levels creatures, but some of those are small enough to fit underneath here with me.

However, I think Buttercup’s presence is enough to keep low ranking beasts away. Of course, by the sound of it, she isn’t doing much of a job with the mice.

[You have discovered a sample of a Mouse. Advance to Base 7 to add it to your summoning list.]

See what I mean?

As the night passed, the cat wandered off every now and then. Sometimes for hours on end. The one mouse that showed up ran for a hole in the back corner of an adjacent wooden cabinet on one side of my shelter when Buttercup came running in. Leaped onto a cabinet below the window, and then dropped down into some kind of depression up there.

Only the tips of her ears and her insane yellow eyes were visible as she stared down at her domain. At least until she jumped out and raced off again. Stupid cat, if I did sleep, I wouldn’t be able to with her antics.

I soon had seven gatherers who pretty much cleared out the floor below the fridge giving me 13.8 units of undesignated material. At which point I reset all of them to builders and they proceed to stop scurrying about and begin assembling a small box like room large enough to count as a core room. At least for a core of my size anyways.

It wasn't much, but the opening which I was required to have was too small for even a mouse. At least until I leveled and had to make it bigger.

[You have received build points for building a core room. Reward 1 BP]

[You are now level two]

[You have acquired an ability. See ability list.]

[You have acquired a spell. See spell list]

Well. All righty then. Let’s check the manual to figure out how to do that.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

So, ability wise. I had a rather miserable choice of Remote gather or Remote vision. Since having my gatherer send me material as quickly as they found it, instead of dragging things back into my reach would speed things up. It was an easy choice.

Right now I could see about at far as I was comfortable sending out my gatherers. So taking Remote vision in order to send them out father could wait for now.

Since I wasn’t going to send my Workers out from below the fridge, to where Buttercup could snag them. I set them to go climbing up to the bottom of the fridge. My roof was nearly as nasty as the floor and they could go all the way to the front of the device while staying out of sight of the cat.

[ You have discovered mold samples. You may add mold as a dungeon resource.]

Joy? What is it good for? Let's check the manual. Oh, it can attract creatures that feed on mold. And if I build an alchemy room, I can research additional uses for it. Neat. I guess?

[ Your Workers are under attack.]

[Worker #5 had been destroyed.]

Nooooo! Not number five. Seriously, what the heck just killed one of my units?

Up in the bottom corner of the device above me was a tangle of webs which now had a long legged spider wrapping number five up in webbing.

Right, that’s enough of that. “Get ‘em boys.”

[ Warrior #1,2,3 assigned to seek and destroy mission.]

And then I summoned number four since I imagined there will be losses. My little Warriors headed out to the support leg of the fridge as the spider went still at the sight of it’s oncoming death. Number four meanwhile appeared, saluted, and took up a defensive position in my core room doorway.

The fight took a while. The terrible trio managed to knock the spider down along with two of them dropping as well. After they landed they kept the enemy pinned down so it couldn’t run away. While number two did the cockroach equivalent of a flying bear killer elbow down from above right into the spider’s middle section.

Then it was down to a close up mandible fight as they sort of nibbled at it until it died.

[You have won your first battle, Reward 1 BP]

[You have discovered a sample of a Spider. Do you wish to add Spider to your summoning list?]

Now that sounded interesting. Yes.

While it seemed a poor reward for his service. Number three was pretty torn up and ready to retire. Dismissing him turned him into a ghostly gray image of a battered looking cockroach that then faded away, leaving me a slot to replace him with a spider.

Whoops. I got twenty slots now since I’m at second level. Sorry number three. Let’s go ahead and bring my roster up to an even four Warrior roaches, four Warrior spiders, and sixteen Worker roaches. At least when I have the magic for it. On second thought let’s make a few gatherer spiders.

Nope. Spiders took up two slots. So three roaches of war. Three spiders at arms. One spider gatherer and finally nine roach Workers in total. Now to start my recruiting.

Same blue circle as my roaches, but this time a spider. But it looked nothing like the one that had been killed. Instead, it had a bigger, dark brown body, and shorter, thicker legs.

So, what the what? Manual time. Oh, I don’t get specialized versions of spiders until I get an evolution research room. Instead, I just get a generalized version.

Hmph, total bull crap. But I guess I can work with that.