Two delvers and a long brewed chest. Indeed, I have mana to spend. First thing first. Spawner upgrades. I think I will double my evolved spawners. Meaning from 1 rat, 1 assassin rat, 1 pack rat, 3 moths and 1 acid moth, I am going into 2 assassin rats, 2 pack rats, 3 moths and 2 acid moths. No point to keep regular rats around, but regular moths are good for expeditions, flowers and keeping an eye on the neighbourhood.

So far, I kept making the fight more difficult without increasing the reward. Time for chest upgrades, top chest gets some healing supplies, while lower one a lot more valuables.

Then finally, the territory. I am claiming the flower patch as my, and including some surrounding greenery. Excluding it would about as costly, so might as well. And, done. It is mine. It is also quite uncomfortable. Flowers, grass, even trees, they all are a hostile presence, tearing into my soil.

Flowers I be assimilating, that’s for sure. I want them, might as well reap some mana from their growth. Grass, on the other hand? No need for that. I would rather grow my strawberries in its place.

Looking closer at it, there are some herbs I might want amongst the grass, like mint. I suppose it’s time for a transplant. With the help of my rats, I plant strawberry bushes near my entrance. Looking into the planter, looks their roots were quite dense, perhaps too dense. Good thing they will have more space to spread out. Meanwhile, inside I assemble a planter with chives, oregano, and mint. I supposed I be assimilating them as well.

In terms of spreading out. Plants are slow. I can use acid moths to remove plants around them to guarantee them a monopoly on undergrowth resources. This has the added benefit of moths gathering pulp, I suppose.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

This leaves the trees. I think I will have to assimilate one and then take over the forest. This, however, is a long-term plan. For now, they extend too far underground and too high up to fully take over, anyway. I suppose I can withstand their roots, at least, until I come up with something to do about them.

Flowers assimilated fairly quickly, might have something to do with my moths monopolizing them for a while. They have a special property. When pollinated, they generate a bit of mana. Interesting. Normally it’s related to genes and reproduction, but here, it seems everything runs on mana. This makes some sense, but I have to watch for weirdness resulting from this.

Something I haven’t considered too much are all the herbivores interested in my territory. I suppose target practice for Lilliana and food for rats. That’s almost right, turns out acid moths are more than happy to process meats and even chew on bones. I had some foxes try to steal my bones… only to join them. I think there is a den nearby. Looking at them, they are quite cute. I wouldn’t mind taking them over at some point.

All things consider, this territory is more profitable than expected, but still overshadow by what Ashie and her friend can produce. Even when accounting for them, only coming ones every 10 days. However, I am yet to get anything larger when a fox. Perhaps when I do cover this area with strawberries and start getting larger animals, perhaps then this will be my main income source.

On the other hand, by the time those berries grow to cover this area fully, Ashie and Marle will be going through 3 or 4 rooms, maybe 5 if Lumi joins them. Then again, I don’t have the best record when it comes to estimating future growth. For all I know, I will end up specializing strawberries or something like that. Wait, can I specialize strawberries? Focus… and… I can. Options are far away, but I can do something. I could dump a bucket of mana to reach one, but without a clue what they do, not worth it. How about flowers? Same story. I suppose nothing else to do but see what do the girls bring this week.