Owyn says that like it's easy. ‘Just destroy the enemy core’- as if!

As we have just established, I cannot use magic! And apparently neither can my monsters! I could do literally three things and three things only. Submit creatures to my will, shape the environment that I owned, and evolve the creatures that I controlled. That was it!

“Well yeah,” Owyn said, after Grant voiced my thoughts. “But you’re smart. And you can force evolutions. Why don’t you do something smart with that. Have you tried camouflage? Use that and have one of your snakes or something sneak down and destroy the core.”

No good. I tell him, dismissing the idea outright. Us dungeons know where every living thing is within our territory. ESPECIALLY enemy creatures.

“Well then drop a boulder on it, you said you could shape the terrain, right?”

Again, the fortress protects it. Besides, I’m basically out of mana. I’m only gaining slivers from you two being here. So how about this, why don’t you tell me of all the ways I can supposedly gain mana.

Owyn shrugged. “Two ways, as far as I know. Killing things and having humans stay in the dungeon. If humans stay in dungeons too long our mana runs dry, and we get sick. Mana deficiency. A good rest outside the dungeon can fix that supposedly.”

“Never experienced it ourselves.” Abby mentions.

Three then. I can overstuff my monsters. Any extra food they eat beyond being full gives me small amounts of mana.

“Have any of your monsters starved yet?”

No. And with the corpse room, hopefully that won’t be an issue for a while.

“Actually, I have a question. Do your monsters poop?”

“Really Owyn?” Abby deadpanned.

“No! Seriously! It’s a big debate! Some people say monsters just straight up don’t shit- sorry, poop. And others say the dungeon forces their monsters to eat their own poop to save resources!”

I consult my monsters. The results surprise me. Huh. They don’t. I’d ask Felecia if she’s had to go, but she’s out of range and I don’t feel like wasting mana to boost my signal calling her again.

Grant relays my message before asking me a question. “Does that mean that I don’t poop either?”

You’re undead. You don’t even need to eat. Speaking of which, I supposed that made four things I can do. Resurrection doesn’t really feel different from subjugating living things though. Although there wasn’t much resistance when fighting a corpse… still, the mana cost made me not like the option. And the fact that they couldn’t heal worried me.

Let’s shift topics back for a second. What’s the limit for the ‘things’ that can die? Does microscopic life count? Also, does old age count?

“Yes, old age counts. But I don’t know what microscopic life is.”

Well darn. I could tell that I was passively gaining some mana from the moss room, but who the hell knew if that was from insects eating each other or bacteria.

I felt a new dungeon touch against my territory.

Oh, hello. I purred. Excuse me gents, I have something interesting going on.

“Wait, where’re you going?” Grant asked. “What’s happening?”

“What is happening?” Abby reflected the statement back.

New dungeon found its way over to me. I told Grant, already in the room where the new dungeon was. I can’t see it though. Care to check it out with me?

“Another dungeon?” Owyn asked after Grant repeated my words. They followed him back through my dungeon. “Is it dangerous?”

“Probably not.” Grant correctly guessed. “Lucid already has another dungeon in his territory. We passed by it on the way here.”

“Wait, really!?” Owyn seemed incredulous. “Why would he tolerate another dungeon in his territory?”

Have I really not introduced you before? I thought back. Huh, suppose I hadn’t. Well, new guy’s a red cube. We had another pet dungeon before, a pink one, but I killed that one on accident. Which is how I know killing dungeon cores counts towards giving me more mana.

The newest dungeon remained within its little crevice in the corner of one room. It was rather deep in the dungeon, enough so that Abby and Owyn didn’t pass the red core to find it. I’ll show them on their way out. In the meantime, I ordered a particularly ugly rat to go down there. I had an experiment I wanted to try.

Owyn got on his hands and knees to peer into the crevice with his headlamp. A mouse leapt out. He shouted, scrambling away in a hurry. On instinct, Abby drew her sword and cleaved the mouse in half, granting me mana from the kill.

Thanks. I tell her.

“I thought you said we were safe here!” Owyn grumbles.

Not my fault. Blame that guy.

Die! The hidden dungeon shouted.

Shut up.

“Mother-” Owyn glanced at Grant “-father. Are you going to do anything about it?”

I told Grant to translate. I want to try something. So far, I’ve been kind of helping my minions rebuff other dungeons trying to claim them as a matter of course. I want to see what happens if I don’t help them.

My ugly rat runs into the room after a while. It ignores the humans and dives for the crevice.

I should have probably asked if there’s anything else in there.

“Not that I can see.” Grant responds, watching the hole in the wall with Owyn. “I can see the other dungeon though. Bright blue. Like the sky! It’s a sphere like you too!”

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Thanks Grant. I settled in to watch, and more accurately feel, the results of my actions.

The rat touched the enemy core. Immediately, I can feel its will clash against the rats. A struggle takes place, although it only takes a second for the other core to wrest control of the rat from me. I lose signal.

What’s happening?

Die! The blue dungeon shouts one last time. It disconnects from me.

“Looks like it’s retreating.” Grant says. “Aw, I liked that one. It was pretty!”

You can go play with the other one.

Meep! The red cube notices my attention.

Play nice. I say, giving it a little side eye.

Mercy?

I roll my eyes.

The trio leave the room, but I remain behind, staring at the crevice in the wall. Everything Owyn and I had discussed about tactics so far was entirely true, and I really couldn’t sneak any of my troops into Depths, no matter how hard I tried. But maybe I could get close. Get into places where they weren’t expecting. Undefended places.

I consulted my own defenses. Besides the fortification at the deepest end, I didn’t have much. Just a few bodies in my secure core room. Granted, those ‘few’ bodies numbered in the hundreds when the guppies were counted, but that was just a quantity. Quality counted too, and of those, I had my mimic crabs and maybe a few dozen fish things. But they were secure. My core room was safe.

I recalled the hole in the ground I’d arrived in.

Hm.

I teleported to my core room, staring at one corner in particular. With the thought that I could use the small crevices and tunnels to infiltrate Depths, the horrifying thought that the same could happen to me crept into my mind. My eyes wandered to the fish patrolling lazily around a slowly crowding pond.

I gave a blanket statement to the fish.

Guard the drain. Nothing- NOTHING comes through. Take shifts. Don’t arouse suspicion.

I teleported to my human entrance. A new group of critters were arriving with a core from the upper caves. I mentally combed through them until I found one I liked. A snake. Young. Small. Perfect.

Your turn.

----------------------------------------

Understanding that I couldn’t do anything supernatural, I combed through my memories for useful biology facts that might be able to help me. Subsonar was based on a lot of my mechanical and engineering knowledge, but that was where my expertise ended. Biology was simply not my subject.

Still, I knew some things.

Sneaky, my precious snake, was going to be tasked with sneaking into enemy territory in order to gain backdoor information. That meant they were going to need a few things. For one, they had to remain small. It would help with mobility. I also wanted them to be perhaps a little longer than normal, in case they needed the length to help them climb things. Of course they would have to be smart, I feel like that was just a given. And finally, they needed survivability. I wanted to be sure they returned from their mission.

So I took inspiration from worms.

Now, I didn’t know how worms worked, but as a kid, I was told that if you cut a worm in half, the two parts would turn into full worms. I couldn’t say for sure whether those rumors were true, but I wanted to give it a shot.

So Sneaky ate some of the cores I had laying around, and I began her evolution.

It took a few hours, and Abby and Owyn had left quite a while ago, one core richer for their time. While I liked the speed that full cores offered when evolving, and I did have a few of those by now, I could afford to waste a little time and make Sneaky perfect.

Instead of one single brain, she had several, running down the length of her body. She also had several hearts, several lungs, several eyes, and many other backup organs, each segmented throughout her sleek body. While I didn’t want to hurt her in order to test it, theoretically each segment of her super long body could function entirely independent of the other. As in, entirely independent. She could be cut in half and still fully function, for a time.

Your orders are to go down this crevice and scout out potential pathways to the lower caverns. I told her. If you are ever injured beyond a minor bruise or scratch, you’re to retreat right back for treatment. If you encounter young dungeons and their monsters, and you feel confident in a victory, I want you to feel free to engage. If you eat more cores along the way, I’ll just reinforce your evolution to be better. Somehow. Got it!

Sneaky hissed, nodding. She slithered away, her many eyes watching every direction along her body. Maybe I should give her additional mouths as well, in case something attacks from the back or the side… Wait a minute, wouldn’t I just be making a hydra at that point?

I chuckled, rubbing my hands together. Not a bad idea actually.

I still didn’t know what sort of boss monster I wanted to create. Because obviously I didn’t want to give up on that idea! Maybe I should take inspiration from myths and such. Consider what it would actually take to make a dragon! Ah, but that would ultimately be impossible, due to the square cubed law. A creature as large as a dinosaur couldn’t exist, simply because its density would crush its bones under its weight, not to mention the fact that breathing would be impossible.

…

I teleported to my core room, staring at Rab. He seemed to notice my attention and raised a giant claw in greeting.

How are you alive? I pondered. Your shell should be WAY too heavy to exist. Is it because I’m a dungeon?

Rab settled back down. Protect dungeon!

It’s because I’m a dungeon. So I decree! No point thinking about it.

Well, unless I wanted to take advantage of it.

Grant came running into my core room, holding the red core above his head. Two frantic ratkin followed him, squeaking and waving their arms. Grant just laughed, running in circles between piles of rocks and the statues I’d created.

Please! Gentle! Mercy! The red core asked of Grant.

Asked. Not demanded.

I smiled happily. Thank you for playing nice.

Help! The red core finally directed at me.

Normally, I would have chuckled and said something cheeky to let the fun last a while longer, but instead I watched Grant with a serious eye. He playfully tossed the cube between his hands, and when one of the ratkin tried climbing him to take it back, he tensed his arm like he was going to throw the cube. The ratkin backed off immediately.

Grant, stop that. I commanded.

He flinched, like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. Immediately the two ratkin moved to retrieve the core.

No. I denied the red core its wishes. It understood me instantly, and the ratkin remained at bay.

I stared hard at the child-core duo, considering my next words very carefully.

Core. Do you have a name?

No… The core said meekly. Mercy.

Fine. Your name is now Mercy. Congratulations. Tell me, Mercy, do you wish to grow stronger?

Yes. Mercy said instantly. Stronger. Bigger. More territory. Powerful.

I tilted my head, silently commanding Rab to go touch the core. He did so without question. When they connected, I felt Mercy gasp. Or whatever the dungeon core equivalent was.

Would you like a monster like this?

Yes! Obey! Mercy immediately attempted to submit Rab.

Rab clicked his chest plates disapprovingly. He retreated back to Mimi, leaving the core behind.

No. I gently scolded Mercy. Rab is my monster. I asked if you wanted one LIKE him.

Oh… mercy?

I sighed. I have a mission for you Mercy. Do as I say, and not only will you gain a powerful monster, but you will also grow stronger yourself. I will protect you along the way. Does that sound fair?

Mercy… grow? Mercy… stronger?

A malicious grin grew on my face. Sure. Why not?