The core was exciting things had been changing in the dungeon, and they had been ever since it had halted its upward expansion. New creatures were now periodically entering its domain, and the core was very pleased with how its list of templates was growing. It had recently gotten a new template of something called a beetle. It was pleasing to have the template even if the beetles weren’t especially useful. They were a little larger than the ants but had even less combat ability than them. Unfortunately, that was the case with a lot of the new templates, and the core was frankly shocked at how effective the ants were compared to some of the useless things that found their way into its dungeon, caterpillars honestly what do they even do?

Regardless, the core was quite pleased with adding new templates to its collection for the simple reason that they expanded its knowledge of its creatures. Getting the template of a beetle might not be too helpful to it directly, but this new template helped it understand the intricacies of life a little better and was a little more efficient at making its other creatures. Also the more the core learned about living things the easier it was for it to gain a full template, which was why it was making an effort to appreciate all of its templates even the useless ones. Maybe not the larva though they were just too useless.

Few of the core’s new creatures would see actual combat but there was one that certainly would, its prized scorpion. It had taken killing a few more of them but the core finally had an upgrade to its ants. The one issue was the amount of mana it took to make the scorpion. Logically the core understood that for something so much better than an ant it would make sense that creating a scorpion was so expensive. It just annoyed the core a little bit that the scorpion template took all of its mana, all of it. It passed out completely after making the first one, and the core swore it had seen cracks on its precious core right after waking up.

So it just had the one scorpion, for now, the core was almost ready to try making another one but it just wanted to wait a little longer and make sure it had plenty of mana to handle it. The core did not appreciate the second forced nap that it had taken. It had been unpleasant enough the first time, but the second time sleeping had somehow been even worse.

Without the ability to easily create scorpions the core had held off making any major changes to its dungeon, keeping the tunnels more or less the same and maintaining its ant population. It had however decided to create a small chamber for the scorpion to fight in. The small cave was taller and wider than anything the core had created before, but it was well worth it as the scorpion was incredibly lethal with enough room to move around. Anything that made it through the small contingent of ants above it had been demolished by the scorpion. Its venomous tail was particularly potent now that it could bring the weapon to bear with the higher ceilings.

The other major change that the core had made was to ensure that all of the higher tunnels had to pass through the scorpion’s room before continuing further into the dungeon. It was incredibly embarrassing when a few creatures hadn’t even fought the scorpion because the tunnel they were in didn’t connect to its chamber. Most things that came into the dungeon were easy enough to kill with a big enough ant swarm, but the core had gotten into the habit of letting some things get to the scorpion’s room so it could see it brutally demolish the invaders.

There was one other thing that the core had found as it was expanding this weird stuff called grass. The grass was far less complicated than even the simplest creature the core had discovered, but the pattern was a lot more complicated than something like dirt or stone. When the core had created some for the first time it had gotten a distinct feeling that the stuff was supposed to be considered living but it didn’t understand that. The grass didn’t move or eat or do anything except just sitting there.

That wasn’t quite true because when the core had passed out making its scorpion it had awoken to find that grass had spread throughout the dungeon. It had been a bit of a surprise but all of the grass still had the feeling of the core’s creations so it wasn’t too concerning. The ants also seemed to like eating the stuff, and it never really spread too deeply into the dungeon so the core decided to leave it alone.

Speaking of ants it had lost a few of them to the scorpion of all things. The ants had just been passing through its chamber when the scorpion had pounced on them and devoured their corpses before the dungeon could even absorb them. After that incident, the core firmly ordered all of its creatures to not fight each other, and not eat any bodies before it could absorb them. They survive just fine without food, the ants had been doing great since they had been created and there had never been any problems, maybe the scorpion was just a little temperamental.

All in all the core thought the dungeon was coming along very well, with its aura almost constantly expanding further and further. Just as it was about to go back to growing its domain the core felt something start digging its way through the entrance. It wondered if it was another scorpion, if it was it would probably be best to have the ants take it out in the tunnels no need to risk its one current scorpion in an even fight.

However what dug its way into the dungeon was definitely not a scorpion, the core didn’t know what exactly the thing was. It was not any of the creatures it had fought before, it wasn’t even remotely similar to any of them. For starters this new creature was huge, it was even bigger than the scorpion, which had been the largest living thing the core had ever encountered.

The invader also had four limbs it was using to dig downwards, and it was also covered in an obscene amount of hair. Some of the creatures it had the templates for had some hair on them, but this was just absurd. The core even with its aura sight could see nothing but hair for most of the creature’s body.

When the core’s ants reached the invader it opened with its tried and true strategy of going for the eyes. It had first developed this tactic against the scorpion but since that point, it had proven itself against many opponents that had disturbed the dungeon’s realm. Its ants clambered up the face of the creature, which was protruding slightly forward as it dug, and launched themselves mandibles clashing towards the vulnerable eyes.

However, disaster struck as a fleshy covering slid down to protect the exposed organ. The jaws of its ants bit furiously but could not breach the invader’s new armor, the creature then shook itself fiercely, dislodging the ants clinging to its body and laid into the core’s ants. It grabbed them in its paws and brought them to its huge maw and bit the core’s poor ants into pieces. Some were reduced down into only a few wiggling legs as they were devoured almost entirely.

The core called in its remaining ants for the upper dungeon, swarming the intruder from both ends of the tunnel. The ants bit at anything they could but it seemed like a futile venture. Their powerful mandibles that had served the core so well in the past couldn’t bite through the thick hair of the enemy at all. It was even worse than the first scorpion, at least it had been able to make some sort of impression on the creature’s chitinous flesh.

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The core had some limited success attacking the tail of the invader but its ants weren’t inflicting anything more than scratches. They were just making the interloper angry more than anything else, thrashing its tail around behind it but otherwise ignoring the ants in favor of continuing forward.

The core wasn’t losing many ants by attacking the invader from behind but its frontal assault was facing heavy casualties. The creature was continuing to pluck up its defenders and feast on their corpses, as well as smashing its paws down on the thicker clumps of ants, killing or injuring many of its ants. The core was however having more luck with this method of attack, it had found another not exactly weak point but at least a sensitive area.

It was on the face similar to the eyes but it was further down the creature’s face at the end of its muzzle. The core still wasn’t scoring any significant blows against its enemy but whenever it attacked that particular spot on its face, the creature would pause what it was doing and furiously swipe its paws over its face to get rid of the offending attacker. It was a suicide run for whatever ant the core sent, but it was slowing the advance of the invader which seemed like the best it could do for the moment.

Realistically, the core realized, only the scorpion had enough attack power to have even a shot at finishing off the intruder. The core also realized that if it just threw its one scorpion at the enemy it would be easily dispatched just like the ants. It had to play this smart and surprise the invader and give the scorpion at least the opportunity to try and puncture the thing’s hairy armor.

Continuing to spend the lives of its ants to buy time, the core carefully positioned its strongest defender directly to the side of its room. Hopefully out of sight of the invader when it first entered the chamber, which would afford the scorpion the critical opportunity to get the first strike off on its enemy. The core also mobilized the reserve of ants it kept deeper in the dungeon and had them stand ready to assist or distract the scorpion.

The core grimly realized that all its hopes were being pinned on one creature and briefly it considered attempting the creation of a second scorpion before the invader breached too far into its dungeon. However it quickly discarded the idea, it needed to guide its creatures if it wanted even the slightest chance of success, and it couldn’t do that while unconscious. If this didn’t work it would need to hide behind its shield of water and hope that this creature wouldn’t be able to get at it.

Preparations complete the core watched in trepidation as the invader dug its way closer and closer to the scorpion, it was still following the core’s original tunnels which it was grateful for it would never have had a chance otherwise. Finally reaching the scorpion’s chamber, the creature paused and stuck its head into the new area, swiveling its head around and examining the new space.

Sensing an opening the core hurriedly ordered its scorpion to attack. Its brave defender sprang forward, lashing out with its deadly tail towards the invader’s exposed eyes. The creature saw the attack coming and the fleshy defense dropped into place once more, but the scorpion’s vicious tail still struck true, digging through the layer of flesh to strike the horrid black or of an eye beneath. The enemy yanked its head back through the opening squealing in pain and thrashing about in the first display of actual pain the core had seen from it.

The creature scrambled madly around just in front of the scorpion’s room, scratching its claws down its face leaving a bloody furrow through its hair. The core sent its remaining ants flooding onto the invader, the ants bit and tore and the existing wounds on the creature’s face widening them and causing more bright red blood to leak from them. The core also made the risky decision to send the scorpion in after the interloper. Normally it would be practically useless in the narrow tunnels, but the core was banking on the excavations made by the intruder giving it enough room to maneuver properly.

The scorpion charged out after the wounded creature, its pincers dug into the hair-covered flesh and new wounds on the flanks of the enemy. The ants then targeted these new wounds as well, trying to bleed out the creature before it could recover its senses enough to either attack or flee. The scorpion narrowly avoided a flailing limb lashing out with its tail and scoring another hit on the creature’s arm.

After a few more close calls the core directed the scorpion to try and keep its distance. The core’s defender was forced to retreat several times into its main room to avoid getting crushed. Many of the ants were not as fortunate, and they ended up crushed by the enemy’s pained thrashing. Those thrashings gradually grew slower and slower, until it finally lay still on the floor of the tunnel twitching feebly. However, the core refused to relent in its attack until faint streams of its food began leaking from the enemy’s… Mouse ...the mouse’s cooling corpse.

The core paused for a moment as it was flooded with information about the mouse. It failed to grasp most of the information and it faded from its mind, but the mouse was just so different from any other creature the core had encountered. What was the deal with it, and why were bones necessary? None of its other minions had bones, it seemed like the core was a long way off from understanding this new template. Regardless the core basked in the feeling of power as the food from the mouse entered it. It was probably the single largest meal it had ever, it could practically feel its mana capacity expanding.

Now the core faced a new problem, what was it going to do when it encountered more mice? Whenever it encountered a new creature more of that species would inevitably follow, and it had spent almost its entire force to just bring down this one mouse. Taking a second look at the information it had gotten from the corpse the core realized that what had killed the mouse had been the venom of the scorpion reaching its brain. None of the other attacks had done much damage at all and the core was suddenly very grateful for its scorpion.

This meant however that if the core wanted to be able to reliably kill these new mice then it would need many more scorpions. Checking its new mana capacity the core slowly formed the scorpion template with its mana ready to abort the process at a moment’s notice if its mana dipped dangerously low. The template formed successfully and the core’s new scorpion popped into existence, checking its mana again the core found it to be extremely low but it hadn’t passed out meaning it could start remodeling its defenses around the now reliable available scorpions.

The core began altering the layout of the dungeon as it waited for its mana to return. First, it drastically widened the tunnels allowing its scorpions to move around freely, and hopefully, they would be just wide enough for the mice to squeeze through. If they didn’t dig their way through the dungeon the mice wouldn’t be able to use their paws to grab the core’s creatures.

Next, the core made several chambers throughout the dungeon. These chambers were wide but not extremely long, with narrow entrances that would allow the scorpions access but hopefully would encourage the mice to stick their heads into the room before they entered. This would hopefully set up more reliable kills for the core. It might be able to overwhelm a mouse with many scorpions, but it was better to stack the deck in its favor, to begin with. Creatures smaller than the mice wouldn’t be much of a concern with more scorpions around so the core decided to virtually abandon the ant template in favor of the more superior creature.

Several unplanned naps later the core had finished the new layout of its dungeon. Scorpions patrolled the newly enlarged tunnels, and the core had added eight new ambush chambers, with two scorpions permanently assigned to each of them. All in all, it had a good two dozen scorpions to work with now. Its ant population had continued to dwindle as the core threw them at enemies while it was changing the dungeon. The core would not replenish their numbers but it seemed like a waste just to kill them or leave them lying around.

The core had also figured out that although it was able to create scorpions without too much issue, it strictly needed to be at full mana to do so. On several occasions, the core had attempted the process before it was completely recharged and every time it had resulted in it waking up sometime later wondering what had just happened. It had gotten more careful eventually and had made more of an effort to judge its mana level before creating something. Despite that speed bump, the core was now finished, it just needed more mice as fortunately, none had arrived before it had finished with its changes. It was just a matter of time now before it got the mouse template, the core could hardly wait.