“SCRREEEE!” My hob-bat-goblin shouted into the darkness. It hardly made a difference. The enemy bats were just too numerous. Too loud.
I drummed my fingers against my cheek, staring out into the inky veil that separated me from the enemy. Between us was a cage of stone, with slits perfect for arrows. If I had any. Although I wasn’t really a history buff, I liked fantasy enough that I took an interest in how castles were made. Things like the deliberate design in arrow slits, the fact that the top part of the wall had holes in the floor made for dropping things on people below, all sorts of small fun facts came in useful when designing this blockade.
Too bad stone didn’t dampen sound.
“SCREEEE!”
Shut up! I shouted into the void. You stupid bats- shut up! You’re annoying!
I mimicked throwing my shoe at them, if nothing else just to help my mental sanity. As if I had any left.
Right now, my hobgoblin-bat thing was standing guard, patrolling back and forth between the arrow slits of my fortification. The other four, the giant ratkin, urik, and mimic crab were taking rests a few rooms back. Mimi, who couldn’t really move without it hurting, somehow managed to fall asleep in the corpse room, stroking my core with two fingers. The petting motion seemed to calm her, so I didn’t argue.
Technically, since I didn’t need sleep myself, I could guard the fort alone and let everyone else just do whatever, but I didn’t have a body. If any of the other dungeon’s bats decided to get cheeky, I wanted one of my monsters to kill it before it got too far into my territory.
This was war after all, and in war, information was king. Within my domain, I was god. I knew everything there was to know about it. I knew exactly where all my minions were at all times and where the wild creatures roamed, right down to the most insignificant fly. More than that, I knew- knew when an enemy dungeon’s monster entered my territory. It was as if my dungeon senses were specifically tuned to knowing and hating other dungeon’s monsters.
Instincts were a funny thing. They came, well, instinctively to you. And generally, those instincts kept your predecessors alive. It’s why humans almost always had universal fears of heights, spiders, snakes, and other things that could potentially kill them. It made sense to me then that a dungeon, whose life was in danger from other dungeons, would instinctively hate them. But that raised two questions for me. One, who did I inherit these instincts from? Did dungeons even have parents, in the typical sense?
And two, as I teleport my avatar to my pet dungeon, why didn’t I hate this one? This little dungeon, slowly growing its army of three rats and one ratkin. Why did I not hate this one?
Go away. The pink crystal grumbled. It could tell my attention was on it.
I complied, allowing my interest to wander back to the enemy dungeon.
Weak. My pet dungeon sniggered. I irked, but ignored it.
I was at war with this other dungeon. Not some schoolyard scrap, war. My life was on the line just as equally as the enemy. We both wanted the other dead, and there was no going around it. Our motivations were simple, I could tell through our connection. I wanted the power that conquering this other dungeon would provide. And I was in the other dungeon’s way. It wanted to expand, and I was blocking its escape.
What’s your name? I asked. I’m tired of calling you ‘the enemy’.
The other dungeon scoffed. No name. Now move.
The words were not backed by any effort of will. Was the other guy weakened enough that they couldn’t even attempt to fight me? I wanted to test my theory, but I really couldn’t. If my minions left the fortification, they would be torn apart by the hundreds to thousands of bats that I couldn’t see. Not to mention all the things that I really couldn’t see beyond the veil. So was this it then? Were we at a stalemate?
I smirked. Well isn’t this a predicament. What’s it like down there? Are there other dungeons like you? Or are you the strongest?
Strongest! The other dungeon affirmed. Control biggest territory!
My avatar floated through the stone fortification and came to a rest at the top. I crossed my legs and rested my chin on one hand. Is that so? You must be so proud. Please, tell this obviously weaker dungeon, what does having more territory grant you?
More hunting grounds! The other dungeon said proudly. More than you! Can send creatures further! Even more hunting grounds!
I heard that more territory makes your will stronger too. I said.
Not true! It laughed. Stupid! Bigger core, bigger will! More creatures!
Is that so… I mused. So having more territory and having a bigger core wasn’t the same thing. Was there a balance then? Some optimal ratio of core size to territory controlled? Or did it all depend?
So are you a big core, or a small core? I asked, already knowing the answer it would give. Questions like this had to be asked, to make the other dungeon feel good for itself. Make it feel powerful and in control, so it would feel better about giving me more information.
Big core! It shouted. Control hundreds of creatures! More than you!
Clearly, you are superior. How do you know you control more than me?
Smarter than you! Send expensive units for you to capture! Waste your will! Cost me little to evolve them back to big. Cost same will when evolved as when small. Cost you much to claim evolved!
I sat a little more upright, attempting to digest their butchery of words. According to it, it costed me a bunch of will and mana to convert evolved creatures. But in turn, the other core could capture base level creatures, like bats, mice, and other normal creatures, and evolve them with mana alone. And since it evolved them from base level, it took less will to maintain control over them than it took me to maintain my control over the converted evolved creatures? That certainly was an interesting mechanic, and one I would have to test myself if I ever had the chance.
I judged Mimi and my converted mimic crab, trying to determine if one was harder to control over the other. To the best of my judgment, neither were particularly difficult to maintain. Was it because they were both evolved? But Mimi was further evolved than the new mimic crab, clearly. Was it getting more difficult to maintain the creatures that I had the further they evolved? Everything took so little will, it was impossible to tell the difference.
You still didn’t answer my question. I told it. You haven’t told me how you know you have more monsters. Maybe I have hundreds of silvery minions awaiting my command deeper in my dungeon.
The other dungeon pouted slightly, its earlier bravado deflated. Liar. Weak. You may have few guards at other exits, but this is your army.
I sighed. I could tell that it was assuming this information, but it wasn’t exactly wrong. Rab and the guppies were guarding my only other exit, which meant that this current force of five converted minions plus Mimi really was my entire army. But I didn’t like how it knew that.
I could feel the dungeon grow a little more smug after I had that thought.
I scowled. Don’t get cocky. I’m still going to kill you.
Weak. The other dungeon purred. Stupid. Just wait. I’ll build an army that will give you awe, little dungeon.
I stood, placing my hands on my hips. The name’s Lucid. And you’re not the only one that can build an army.
My avatar fell through the stone back inside my fortifications. As it flew through the corridors of my territory, I could hear a mirthful chuckle come from the dungeon behind me.
Its blood thirsty nature rubbed off on me. Just a little.
Mimi, come. It’s time I break a promise I made to myself.
My avatar appeared in front of the human entrance to my dungeon.
I need more. I need to grow.
Rab slammed his shield claw on the ground, excited. He very much agreed with my decision.
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Mimi wandered through the cave system, holding my core close to her human stomach. Before she took a single step into any one room, I ballooned my territory to encompass it. Unlike my earlier bravado, I was slowly becoming dejected with the results of my expansion. Although the rooms were getting smaller as I went, and therefore easier to claim, I didn’t have the mana to maintain such constant expansion. The frankly pitiful amounts of mana I was slowly gaining over time from various sources, like the guppies gorging themselves on a corpse Mimi brought back, or my pet dungeon slowly killing everything it could get its hands on, it simply wasn’t enough. I needed more mana, and the only way I could get more would be to send Mimi out on expeditions.
Well this was a bust. I mutter. Just bring me home Mimi. After that, go out into the rest of the cave system and see what you can kill. I’m thinking we should bring back all the dungeons we come across as whole cores. Their evolutionary potential might tip the scales in this war.
Mimi obliged, taking me back to my original core room. She placed me on my old pedestal, since the new one still wasn’t done. Before she could leave the room however, I had a thought.
I turned my attention to the guppies. Which one of you can last the longest without being in water.
Two silvery guppies approached my pedestal, crawling ashore. One of them looked nothing special. Maybe a little larger than average, with the regular fish body and two weak arms to pull itself along. The other one looked the least amount like a fish out of every one of the guppies available. It had two dorsal fins, mirroring left and right sides, a long neck, and four legs. It still had a fish tail, and if it curled into a ball, it might be smaller than the other guppy. Both guppies were shoving each other, trying to stand taller than the other.
Good enough. Mimi, take these two with you. Evolve them with the first cores you find. Hopefully they’ll be useful.
Mimi picked up both guppies and walked away, fish in hand. I smiled, thinking it would probably be easier for her to carry them on her shell instead of in her hands, but she didn’t seem to care. In fact, she seemed to think that by holding them in either hand, they’d maybe stop fighting.
I snickered, teleporting myself to the front lines again. I resigned myself to waiting for something interesting to happen.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
A few hours later, I received a report from Mimi. I’d had some reports from her before, but they were mostly just warnings that she found a new dungeon and was going to attempt to conquer it. They passed without incident. This report was different.
The men with the symbol are outside. Mimi told me.
What symbol? Outside where?
I could feel Mimi trying to send me an image. Unfortunately, without a direct physical connection, such a feat was beyond her. She mentally huffed in exasperation.
Shapes. She said. The ones that killed Faux.
The church. My eyes narrowed.
Getting nervous? The enemy dungeon asked smugly.
Shut up. I told it. My attention returned to Mimi. Have they seen you?
Maybe. She said. They don’t seem to be moving.
How many of them are there? What are they doing? Where are they?
Mimi shirked away from my connection slightly, overwhelmed. Still, she tried her best to answer me. Three humans. They’re sitting around a fire. They’re outside the cave. There’s running water. Small amount.
Can you avoid them? I teleported back to the core room, consulting Abby’s flow chart map. If Mimi was in the mouth of the cave, that meant she could either retreat down one of two ways. Back to me, or the other way. Have you explored everything on our side of the cave?
Yes. She said, probably to both questions.
She had only found five dungeons. Baby dungeons, no larger than my pet dungeon. The first four she had split between the two guppies, keeping the fifth for later. It wasn’t much. Not nearly enough.
I clicked my tongue. Bring back the other dungeon. We’ll use it for auto hunting and mana generation back here. Can the two guppies walk by themselves yet?
Walk. Mimi responded. Not run. Not fast.
Obey? The dungeon Mimi held asked.
Shut up. Mimi and I both told it. It did as it was told, quieting back down.
I sighed. Bring them home. We need to think of something else.
Quite frankly, I was getting tired of this. Running out of resources. And now I was running out of options? I needed a temporary solution. Something to boost my productivity without costing me anything in the long run.
Obviously I wasn’t gaining headway against the enemy dungeon, so no solution there. I could interrogate it more, but I doubted I would get much of true value. Besides, I didn’t like talking to it. The stupid thing gave me a headache when I tried to decipher what it was really saying. My alternate avenue of sending out expeditions was equally useless it seemed. With the church guarding the mouth of the cave, I couldn’t really risk sending out high value minions. And if I gained lower value minions, I’d have to feed them. The corpse room would probably help, but it wouldn’t bring me far.
Unless…?
Did I really have to feed all my minions? Well sure I did, but only if I wanted to keep them. What if I did what this other dungeon was doing to me? What if I sent out sacrificial minions?
I teleported to my pet dungeon. It had two ratkin and two large rats. It was also in the process of capturing a small snake, using the two ratkin to drag it back to the core.
Go away. My pet dungeon grumbled.
Not this time. I grinned. I’ll tell you what. Give me your two ratkin, and I’ll give you a corpse to feed on.
Liar. The other core growled.
With the barest effort of will, I quashed its territory, shrinking it down to match the size of the core itself. It cried out in surprise and anger, immediately fighting back against me. I allowed it to slowly regain the territory I had stolen.
I don’t have to let you live. I told it. The only reason I do is because I think you’re interesting. So tell me, would you like to trade?
No. The core stood firm. The snake disappeared into its territory.
Your will will shrink if you claim that snake as your own. I warned.
The small core scoffed. Stupid AND weak. More creatures means more can be done.
Mimi and the two guppies re-entered my territory. I grinned. I couldn’t agree more.
The one guppy that used to only have front arms had grown explosively in the hours it had been away. It now walked on two legs like a human. Its webbed arms were heavily muscled, and carried bloody stones in either hand like Mimi. It still had a fish head, but I could see rows of spindly teeth in the massive head. It also didn’t have a neck, interestingly enough. It just went directly from body to head. All told, the new creature stood a little taller than a ratkin would.
The second guppy remained smaller than the other one, but this one I was most proud of. It was beginning to really look like a dragon. Four powerful legs, a long neck and tail, and the fins along its spine could collapse and expand at will, mimicking wings. It was unfortunate it was still about the size of a chihuahua, but I certainly wasn’t going to complain.
Mimi. Boys. Welcome home. But your jobs aren’t over yet. Hunt as many creatures as you can. Everything that I can enthrall, I want to enthrall. Everything in my territory WILL be enthralled. Understand?
The miniature merfolk and dragon roared, immediately running into the rooms I controlled. Mimi calmly went about the other route and just came to fetch my core itself. She returned to the merfolk and mini dragon, allowing them to touch the mice they captured to my core.
I smirked. Obey.
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A veritable swarm of creatures raced beneath me, collecting everything that wasn’t already bound to my will. Mice, rats, bats, snakes, all working in tandem with my evolved creatures to bring other animals under my control. That’s when we reached the room containing my pet dungeon.
Four minions stood at the back exit. Two ratkin, one mimic crab with four extra long legs, and a snake that could almost double as a thin carpet. My swarm of dozens of smaller creatures blocked the other exit, along with Mimi and the two evolved guppies. Mimi entered the room.
My pet dungeon retreated all five of its monsters back into its core’s territory. I shared Mimi’s vision to understand what was happening.
Should have taken the deal. I said with a devilish smile. I’ll tell you what. Mimi will attack you alone. If your monsters manage to kill Mimi, I’ll give you a monster of your choice. Anything that you see here, you can have.
The other core stewed. I could feel it contemplate its best method of survival.
Deal.
It wasn’t even a fight. The instant the other creatures raced for Mimi, she swiped at them with my core. One ratkin fell under my control instantly, and the second managed to score a bite on one of Mimi’s leg joints. Mimi’s crab hands clamped down on it, holding it in place while I claimed the second one. The small snake struck next, slithering into the hole the ratkin had created with its teeth. Mimi straightened her leg, pinching it in place. It soon fell under my control as well.
The two large rats that hadn’t yet fallen under my control retreated. I could feel my pet dungeon quivering in its metaphorical boots.
Mercy. It murmured.
I pretended to think for a second. Fine. Mimi limped her way towards the core. I’ll let you live. I’ll even let you keep these two rats! But you must understand one thing.
Mimi reached my core out to the pink crystal. Our cores touched.
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I stood in the center of several swirling galaxies. Orange balls of solid light floated around me, swirling in invisible eddys. Nearly three hundred flecks of lights, nine small marbles, and two large marbles marked the center of the many galaxies. My evolved monsters. Mimi and Rab. All my minions.
We all towered before a pink star. Something half the size golf ball, with two motes of light rotating around it.
I leaned in, baptizing the smaller lights with my presence.
Mercy means you admit I am the stronger between us. I am your master, and you will do as I say.
The pink light flickered.
Understood. It whispered weakly.
I stood upright. Good. Mimi, let’s go.
…
Mimi?
The pink core made a noise to get my attention. Cannot leave.
What?
The pink core cowered, bringing both of its motes of light between me and it. This space. Cannot leave. Only one can leave.
I felt a prodding of will to my chest. A cautious outreach from the pink core. It wanted to share something with me.
I allowed it.
Instantly, I relived a memory. The pink core was fleeing in the mouth of a mouse. I didn’t know what it was running from, but it seemed scared. It found a crack in a stone wall, and immediately the mouse squeezed itself inside.
A second mouse stood inside, standing over a yellow core in the shape of a pyramid.
The mouse dropped the pink core and lunged for the yellow one. The mouse under the yellow cores control did the same, and the two mice collided. The pink core rolled into the yellow one, and suddenly, they were in this space. With the motes of light.
Each core had one star floating around it. Massive, from their perspectives. They felt an instinctual hatred for the other, and the assuredness that they were the stronger between them. So they collided. Will against will, neither willing to give the other anything. Kill or be killed. For hours they fought, until the pink core tried something new.
It absorbed its star. The mass of the tiny mote of light added to its own mass, and suddenly, it was gaining ground. The yellow core panicked and did the same, but it was too late. The pink one had gained the advantage.
Bloodied as one could be for a core, it tore into the yellow core. It tore it apart, consuming its very essence. The yellow core grew weaker and pleaded for mercy. But mercy would not give the pink core the power it desired. It destroyed the other core, consuming it entirely.
The world returned, and the pink crystal finished colliding with the yellow pyramid. Not even a second had passed in the real world. Both mice, in the middle of fierce battle, collapsed to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. Dead.
The memory ended. I was once again staring down at the pink core and its two tiny stars. Having just relived the memory, I began to fully recognize my own size from its perspective. I wasn’t just ‘big’ to it. I was planetary.
I see. I said quietly. I didn’t know that only one of us could leave.
Mercy. The core began to weep. Mercy, please!
You didn’t fight me as I tried to enter this space with you. I told it. You knew what you were getting into. I felt bad now. I only wanted to give it a warning.
Submit me! It cried desperately. Do not kill me! I will obey! Please!
And I could feel that it was telling the truth. Its barriers lowered. Its will retreated, inviting me to subjugate it to my will. I suddenly recognized the feeling. Mimi and Rab had done the same when they were still small. They lowered their defences to invite me in. And I whispered to them in the same way that I whispered to my bats. They obeyed without question. WOuld they have been harder to subjugate if they resisted?
I took a breath. I cannot. I said. Not like this. You’ve lowered your defences too much. I’ll just kill you on accident if I try.
NO! It cried, louder than before. I SUBMIT!
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My consciousness launched back into the real world. I reeled, hearing a crystalline crack. The pink core before me crumbled into dozens of pieces. Then hundreds. Thousands. Color faded from it, even in my own vision as a dungeon. It went to black, the dust becoming so fine I swear I watched it sink between the literal microscopic cracks between the stones that made up the floor.
A flood of mana flowed into me, as well as the will of two more beings. The large rats that were still under the pink cores control.
I judged myself. That was… intense. The cores mana became my own so seamlessly that I found myself retroactively reliving memories of other times that I gained mana. Nothing felt exactly like this. It was… invigorating.
I could force things to submit to me, or I could have them submit to me willingly. And clearly, one was so much better than the other.
I took a breath, just to savor the moment.
Go.
My swarm of lesser creatures understood my intentions instantly. As one large mass, they ran for the exit of my dungeon. They’d head out and explore the other wings of the cave system, exploring it in its entirety.
Each of you, consume the first core you encounter. Bring the subsequent ones to me. Work together, and do not be upset if someone else gets the core first. Rewards will be given for every core you bring back to me.
And before I could forget…
Kill all of the evolved creatures you find.
Either they would die in the process, or I would gain mana from the kill. A win-win as far as I was concerned.
Mimi held up her other hand, showing me the core she had collected herself. I floated down beside it. A red core. Cube in shape, and smaller than a die.
Emergency rations. I decided its fate. But! If it can play the role of a good pet, I suppose we can let it live.
Mercy. It whispered.