It didn't take long for my Ants to near the Golem Dungeon, and within a few moments, my small army of ants came rushing into the sky scrapper, tearing and ripping apart any Golem they came across.
It didn't take long for the Dungeon to start sending out its Combat and Soldier Golems to fight. When they came out, Vest began spitting out multiple bolts of mana that impacted the chests of the Soldier Golems, visibly burning the surface around the impact and slowing down the deadly Golems.
Joining in the fight, Vesh sunk her mandibles into a Combat Golem and began sending out Mana Bolts every once in a while to slow down or help damage a Golem other ants were fighting.
I soon noticed that I already had an Ant casualty from the fighting and more than a dozen minor and major injuries on some of the ants.
Those with Major Injuries I had stay at the entrance to heal, while those with only minor injuries joined the uninjured Ants in entering the Dungeon.
Looking at Vesh's mana, I noticed that each time she cast Mana Bolt, it cost 20 Mana with her current mana. So she could cast quite a few Mana Bolts before she has to stop and regain her used mana.
And with her being a named monster, her strength hasn't been reduced, making her my strongest Ant in the battle and my best weapon against the Golem Dungeon.
Delving into the Dungeon, through my Ant's eyes, I found that the interior of the Dungeon seemed to resemble an inferior version of the Dwemer Ruins I saw plenty of in Skyrim, a popular Game from Earth that I and many others played thousands of hours of.
The only difference between this Dungeon and the Dwemer Ruins from Skyrim was the lack of Dwemer Metal. Instead, the entire Dungeon was made of Stone, cleanly cut, decorated, and engraved.
Walking down the stairs to the first floor of the Dungeon, my Ants began slaughtering all the incredibly weak Golems on this floor.
They were all below level five and were made of terrible materials.
And with their sizes even smaller than the Golems I was used to seeing, the Ants quickly cleared the floor, soon finding the stairs to the next.
On the next floor, I noticed an increase in Golem Size, Level, and Material, with more Combat Golems and Soldier Golems coming up from the lower floors to assist the Golems on this floor.
Luckily, my ants were destroying the Golems faster than they could arrive, allowing the Ants to slowly but surely move down to the third floor.
On the third floor, besides the Combat and Soldier Golems that kept coming from the lower floors, the Golems of this floor ranged around level 10, with them all being a mixture of materials, such as Mud, Wood, Metal, Stone, etc.
I even noticed that the arms of the Golems on this floor had been molded into tools, some having Hammers instead of hands, others having axes, pickaxes, etc.
The more I saw, the more I wanted to keep the Dungeon Core for myself and use it as a Workforce to expand my Dungeon.
As my Ants traveled down floor by floor, more casualties began appearing. By the time my monsters reached the 7th floor, more than 9 Ants had died, with most having some form of injuries on their carapace.
It was becoming a brutal fight with stronger and stronger Golems waiting on each floor.
On the eighth floor, after fighting hundreds of Golems, my Ants finally seemed to reach the end of the Dungeon, and floating at the center of the room floated a Core bigger than my own.
And standing before the Core protecting it was another Golem.
Iron Golem Guardian - Lvl 45
The Golem seemed to have a body meant for combat, with its left arm being made in the shape of a shield, while its right arm was in the shape of a sharp longsword.
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With it being made from Iron, the Golem would prove to be a tough challenge against my low-level ants.
But the Golem lacked one thing that my Ants had: numbers.
With a single command, I ordered all of the Widow Ants to swarm and attack the Golem with all their might while Vesh stayed behind and threw her Mana Bolts.
It didn't take long for my Ants to start dropping like flies, but with each Ant the Golem took out, another Ant managed to latch on and start bitting down on the Golem's body.
Soon the Golem's entire body was covered by Ants and tumbled down to the ground under their weight.
While the other Ants pinned the Golem down, Vesh rushed in and tore its head off, crippling the Golem's senses.
Then with Vesh's help, the Ants managed to claw and dig into the Golem's chest until one of the Ants managed to crack and destroy the Golem's core.
Instantly upon death, EXP was split between all of the Ants participating, helping a few of them reach the threshold and hit level 10, gaining the ability to evolve.
Looking to the Dungeon's Core, I instructed Vesh to carefully remove the Core from its pedestal with her Mana and return to my Dungeon.
Within a few moments, the light emitting from the core dimmed as the Core lost its connection with the Dungeon.
After asking the System why this happened, apparently, if a Normal Dungeon Core gets removed from its pedestal, it will lose its connection to its Dungeon. The Info Packet also informed me that if I were to get another Dungeon Core and place it on that pedestal, it would, in turn, gain the control of this Dungeon, but only its structure.
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A little while later, 18 of my Ants returned from the original 30 that left returned to my Dungeon with the Golem Dungeon Core in tow.
Having Vesh bring it into my Core Room which was hidden in a wall on the first floor, I created a smaller pedestal next to my Core and started branding the Golem Dungeon Core.
[Congratulations! You have branded your first core and unlocked the Achievement: Dungeon Lord I !]
[ Dungeon Lord I (Achievement) - You have obtained your first Dungeon Subordinate! +100 EXP and +25 SP]
[1/1 Subordinate Cores]
[Every ten levels, gain another slot for a Subordinate Core]
Instantly I felt a connection with the Core's Mind upon branding it.
While I could tell the Core's mind was simple, I could still feel a primitive fear from the Core, a fear of what I would do to it.
I sent a reassuring feeling to the Core and opened its status.
Core Name: None
Dungeon Name: Unnamed
Race: Dungeon Core Gender: None Type: Natural Dungeon Core Level: 9
EXP: 1,030/7,500
Floors: None
Monster(s): Golem Type
Mana: 250/250 (?? Per Day) Abilities: Dungeon Manipulation, Rule Creation, Spawn, Observe, Claim Territory, and Monster Domination Description: A Young Dungeon Core that has become the Subordinate of an Unnamed Dungeon.
Reviewing its status, I found that there wasn't much importance besides the Core's Mana Capacity.
I also realized it would have to regenerate mana on its own with its core since it wasn't connected to my Dungeon.
Deciding to be friendly, I made a tiny thread of mana between our cores that would periodically send part of my regenerated mana into its core.
And for now, I left the Core alone. I had no reason to rush and force the core to start producing Golems for me.
And now that I was currently not in danger, I could start focusing and upgrading my Dungeon and my Core.
It would also allow me to start experimenting.
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A week later and a wide arrange of experimentation with several Da'gba, I managed to create my first 'Mana Core.'
A small orb that would lay in a Monster's body improved their Mana Capacity and Regeneration.
And although I could have put it into all my Monsters, I did not want to start making them even more expensive than they already were.
Besides that, I have also started creating animals from my past life to inhabit the Weeping Woods.
I first started with smaller critters such as Squirrels, small birds, insects, rabbits, snakes, and even a couple of foxes.
From there, I upgraded to creating larger animals such as Boars and Pigs, to Cows, Deer, Wolfs, and even experimented by creating giant snakes that could eat men whole, spiders as large as a person, and finally, my most useless creation of yet...a Slime.
Wanting to create a famously weak and useless monster from Earth, I was surprised at how cheap and easy a Slime was to create...
But mostly, I was surprised by the Slime's unique traits.