Rose cleared up my misconception about our new companion. It wasn’t that it thought I was its parent. Instead, it had assumed I was its queen. The newly born ant hadn’t known anything else, but its race had been hardcoded to follow a strict hierarchy.

My new pet was a worker ant, the lowest of the bunch. Though I couldn’t see through its combat abilities, it was clear they would be lower than the other ant minions summoned by the queen, at least until its level rose high enough to unlock more skills.

But that didn’t matter. The rest of the summoned creatures had turned to smoke after the queen had been defeated, but this little one had stayed alive despite that. Speaking of her defeat, I checked my guild card and confirmed my level had risen from eleven to thirteen. I felt like complaining for a moment before I realised that most people might not even level up once from these battles.

“Don’t worry about it, Rook. You’ve gained a lot from these battles.” Rose spoke out as she noticed the reaction to my new level. “The world only allows you to gain a maximum of one level per enemy defeated, and that’s only if you completed the battle without assistance.”

“Wait, really?” I looked up from the card. That would explain how I had only levelled up twice despite my involvement in the large scale battle and my solo takedown of a dungeon boss.

“Yeah, remember the slime queen? Even though that was likely over level one-hundred, your level still only rose by one.”

“Oh, Right.” That did explain it. Whilst I hadn’t thought about it too much, it had been an irritation at the back of my brain since Claire first mentioned the Slime Queen’s level.

“Well, ignoring that, we need to decide how to deal with our new friend here.” Rose turned from me to the creature who watched our back and forth with interest.

“Do I need to…” I looked down at the ant. It was peculiar, but I didn’t feel an ounce of hostility from the creature. Even so, this was a summoned enemy in a dungeon, and I knew well enough what they were created for.

“No.” Cory hovered above the ant. Its head twitched back and forth as it followed the glowing crystal with its gaze. “This is strange. Everything is strange around you.”

“What do you mean?” I folded my arms and stared at the former dungeon heart. “I didn’t do anything. How are you going to blame this one on me?”

“Overflow.” Rose floated to the ground and held her hand out towards the ant. It moved forward to rub its head against her hand, but jumped back in surprise as Rose’s hand passed through its outer armour. “The ant queen must have been created at that time and stored. There’s no other explanation for this.”

“She’s right.” Cory piped up again before I could respond. “Dungeons don’t change without a reason. This one hasn’t upgraded, so the only cause could be what happened during your last stay.”

“Wait, wait… you’re saying I created the ant queen? That I created this thing?” I waved at the ant. “That seems like a bit of stretch…”

“Oh, really?” Cory floated next to one of the ant queen armour pieces that had dropped nearby. “Check this and tell me what you think then.”

After I analysed the piece, my mouth opened in shock for a moment. It was classed as a material and could be processed as such, but an additional line was tagged on the end that left me speechless.

Ant queen Armour Piece - External armour plate from ant queen. Can be processed and reformed by a skilled crafter. Due to the process of creation, provides large bonus to Transmutation experience gain.

After I read the description for the third time, a small grin formed on my face. This was perfect. My Transmutation had reached the advanced rank, but my main aim had always been to master it. Once it passed that point, I would have another choice of utility skills.

“But what about her?” Rose waved at the ant, who had crept up behind me as I inspected the ant queen drops. I jumped in shock at its stealthy approach, but it merely stared at me with its huge, clear eyes.

“She isn’t a part of the dungeon.” Cory tapped on the back of the ants head, which caused her to snip at him as he darted back up. “I can’t feel any link to her, and she didn’t disappear when the ant queen was defeated.”

“We can think about her later.” I shook my head and turned back to the ant queen armour pieces. “I won’t ask how you know her gender all of a sudden. I guess it doesn’t really matter.”

“Well, she is technically an ant queen.” Rose moved to ghost-pat the ant, but it scurried around until I was between her and the floating menace. “She’s just classed as a worker for now. When she passes her advancement tests, she’ll rank up.”

“Wait, monsters can have tests?” I looked up from the armour plates and gave Rose a side-ways glance. “You didn’t mention that before.”

“I thought it was obvious. How else do you think this world works.” Rose grinned at me. “Creatures are born into their roles on your world, but here they earn it.”

I ignored the subtle jab as I glanced at the scattered pieces of ant queen armour. Some were small enough for me to pick them up, but several of the larger chunks would crush me if I tried to lift them.

This should be enough to reach the master rank, I hope. I wonder what Infusion is like.

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I had already decided on the next utility skill I would select. Perception would be useful if I had any ranged attacks, but the current me had nothing of the sort. I had heard something about an advanced skill that gave Supporters a long-range attack, but those were mostly of a supportive nature, which did make sense given the class.

So I set to work. My inventory was still relatively clear, so I managed to pick up half of the ant queen pieces before the voice warned me of the capacity issues again. I dropped them into a corner and collected the rest, after which I had one neat pile.

Well, neat compared to what it had looked like not too long ago.

“This inventory of yours is amazing.” Cory had hopped back into my internal space as I collected the loot. “Seriously, you should become a trader. It would be an easy life for both of us.”

“Until an evil god wakes up and destroys the world, yeah.” I shook my head and picked up a small armour plate chunk. “I did have a question about that, though. Are you sentient?”

“I feel like I should be insulted, but I can’t tell…”

“Well, the Inventory skill doesn’t let me pick up sentient creatures, but you can jump in and out at will. Bit odd.” Cory popped into existence in front of my eyes. “See? Weird, right?”

“Well, technically I’m not going into your skill, I’m joining it.” Cory tilted back and jabbed at my face with one of his points. “I can’t control it unless you let me, but there do seem to be a few interesting options.”

“Oh, right.” My gaze dropped to the armour plate in my hand again. “We can talk about it later. First, I have a small task for you.”

“Your wish is my command, ‘master’.”

“I want you to pass on a message for me.” I continued on unabated as I ignored his snippy comment. “I want you to speak to Anne. Ask her to work with the village leader to pick out anyone they feel might be an issue.”

“Wait, Rook.” Rose span around to face me, her face taut as she moved close. I ignored her as I finished my order to Cory.

“Just mark them out. Oh, and move the entrance about when it's attacked. Clive will get bored otherwise, right?”

Cory spun slightly to look at Rose before he hovered towards the distant wall. With that issue solved, I turned back to my work.

“Rook, can you not trust them?”

“Not without proof, no.” I glanced up at her and forced a smile. “I saved them to pay back the leader’s trust. Believing that they will pay back my deed with their actions is asking for a knife in my back.”

Rose clamped her mouth closed before she vanished back into my mind. She could sulk for all I cared, but it wouldn’t change my mind. Being optimistic was a nice idea, but I would rather plan for the worst and be happy with it didn’t happen.

With my silent companion in tow, I started my work on the armour plates. Though I couldn’t actively see the experience gains for my transmutation, I knew that it would be high. That would have to be enough to sustain me for the time being.

And it would give those idiots outside enough time to refresh my dungeon's energy reserves. I grinned to myself as the first chunk of ant queen armour melted and twisted in my hands. Each pass of the skill shrunk it slightly, but it took many more uses to fully destroy even a smaller piece.

I wonder how Clive will react when he finds out. I really want to see his face, before I punch his lights out of course.

After an hour of constant grinding, Cory returned. His light was dim as he floated back through the wall and landed next to me.

“I told them. She wasn’t happy at first, but the bandit king agreed with your thought process.”

“Oh.” The fact that the bandit king had backed up my idea didn’t please me, but at least it had stopped Anne’s refusal in its tracks. “So they’re looking into the villagers and the bandits?”

“Yeah.” Cory’s voice was muted as he answered. I looked up from the armour plate I was in the process of using up. Each one lasted through a good number of transmutation uses before they crumbled to dust, but the voice had yet to reward me with the rank up I desired for my hard labor.

“Is there a problem?” I patted the crystal, who shook under my touch before he floated up in front of my face.

“You’re different, yet you’re also the same.” I opened my mouth to ask him what he meant, but he continued before I could get a word out. “I’ve seen three marked ones before you. None of them cared about this world or the people in it. All they wanted to do was go home. But you do care… and you don’t.”

“What?” The piece in my hand crumbled as my attention was pulled aside. I shook my head and reached for another armour plate.

“You saved the villagers, but now you don’t trust them. You went into the bandit camp to find the king, then you attacked him.” Cory's movements became more erratic with every word he spoke. “I trusted you, I still do, but my friend died the last time I trusted a marked one. This time, I don’t have anything to lose.”

“Your friend?” I dropped the ant queen plate to the floor and gave Cory my undivided attention. Losing friends due to trusting people was something I was well acquainted with. “What happened?”

“Nothing much. A marked one came in with her party. She wanted to level up, said she would save the world. Like you.” Cory vibrated softly for a moment before he continued. “They had a great plan. Force a large quantity of mana into the dungeon and increase the spawn rate. They would get what they wanted, and our dungeon would upgrade faster. Win-win, they said.”

“Oh.” I frowned and glanced away guiltily. His story sounded eerily similar to my current plans. “I’m guessing something went wrong?”

“They forced too much mana into the dungeon. We told them to stop, but they just kept going. When I broke off the link… they killed her.” Cory dipped to the ground again. Before I could try to comfort him, Rose appeared beside me and waved me into silence.

“You were a twinned core.” Her words were soft as she floated down next to the distraught core. “She took the surge for you, and that broke the link, right?”

“Yes.” Cory floated up from the ground again as his voice regained its lost composure. “After that, I locked them out. The dungeon failed not long after, and I woke up here. I wanted to prove to myself that I could make the greatest dungeon ever, so I focused on increasing the amount of mana it could take and sustain. Though we can’t reuse mana in any battle rooms, any other sources can be picked up with enough practice.”

“Ah.” I glanced at the area where I had fought the ant queen. The overflow had been the spark, but Cory had laid the kindling with his previous works. Since it had happened whilst I was in the dungeon heart, and not a specific battle room, the mana had invaded the dungeon system. Without the two sides combined, it was likely the mana I had produced at the time would have killed me. “Thanks.”

“It’s fine.” Cory brightened slightly as I thanked him. “Like you, I don’t trust people easily. The fact that you have Rose by your side helped, of course.”

“Right, the alpha-guide.” I glanced at Rose, who avoided my gaze. “You’ll have to explain that to me eventually, you know?”

“I will. Get past your second advancement first.” Rose shook her head before she looked back at me. “I promise you, when you’ve got past that point, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” I turned back to my work with a smile. It felt as though a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Though there weren’t many people I trusted in this world, I had at least managed to gather a few comrades I could rely on.

I’m changing, bit by bit. They’re changing me.