Dungeon is hungry, need mana. Want new flavor of food.
New invader full of feathers. Like leaves, feathers made for air. New food must like air.
Invaders are quick and eat ants. Ants are weak and die. Insects need to be stronger. Need to evolve.
Ant hill full of ants to evolve. Mana fill colony and makes them bigger, stronger. Ant majors become super majors. Bigger better-er ants are more stronger. Many upgrades almost evolve ants.
Feathers appear, ant dies. New invader always attacking. They [hunt], [kill], and [consume] my ants. Job of dungeon is to kill. Feathered invader not allowed.
Shimmer attack with ants. Swarm and attack, kill and eat feathers!
Feathers got away…. Again.
Need better monsters. Need bigger ants.
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The Core’s focus upon the anthill flooded it with mana as it bought upgrades en masse. Initially quite cheap, every upgrade caused both the ants, and the cost to grow.
No longer tiny insects scattered across the dungeon, they had become more. Their populace ballooned as their size increased to match. Originally the size of a grain of rice, the smallest of the species had grown to become two inches across. Their hill towered over the landscape as their tunnels reached ever deeper. A single thought united them all: for the hive, for the Crown.
The shared strength of the enhanced ants was never enough, though. The Core’s plan failed to come to fruition. Birds were always too fast to be caught, yet always able to snack upon the insects.
A rock capable of flight brought the ever-prideful birds down low as they were shot out of the sky. An attack from an unseen enemy that allowed the Core to taste the mana of those that touched the sky.
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Feather invader on ground. Ants swarm and attack. Feathers must not flee again.
Ants catch invader and eat it. Killed it becomes food for dungeon and ants. Mana that tastes new.
> Understanding Increased: Blood and Bones
Words are useless. Blood just like sap of plants. Bones not matter.
Wait… body full of mana. More food in blood than in ants. Blood is very good. Need more, must eat all in sky. More feathered invaders fall and be eaten.
Why rock fly?
> Monster [Ant] has Died
Like feathers, rock appear out of nowhere. It kill the ant. More rocks flying.
> Monsters [ (4x) Ants] have Died
No, bad rocks. Rocks not supposed to kill ants. Rocks not move and hunt. Dungeon hunt and kill, not rocks and not feathers.
Found big invader. Must be friends with rocks. Rocks are minions of invader.
It has two legs and no feathers. It is a featherless biped. Ants must attack. Dungeon must kill invader for tasty mana.
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On the precipice of the dungeon stood a thin and pale human, slingshot in hand. The clothes and wards he used to get here safely had burned up, making his return trip not guaranteed. Yet his focus was absolute as he fired more magical stones into the swarm of ants that descended upon him.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
With mute horror, he watched as the birds he shot down were consumed by the dungeon. The thought crossed his mind, ‘a dungeon shouldn’t be attacking its own minions…’
He had no time to think. The birds were shot down first, but now the ants swarmed. Large and easy to hit, but far too numerous. The next shot he fired into their ranks exploded on impact, killing many as their march slowed.
Though he had bought himself time, he had to move to stay at a distance. With quick steps perpendicular to the center, he stayed within the safety of the dungeon’s aura. As his eyes focused on the enemy, his feet became careless. A miss-step as his foot dove into a hollow in the earth.
An abandoned ant's nest had swallowed his foot to trap him.
Immobilized, he watched as the ants marched towards him. Amongst their ranks was a slime that refracted the sunlight to brighten its surroundings. Trapped and on the verge of panic, he quickly reached for a magic item to save him. He didn’t care what he was reaching for as long as it could save him.
Pointing his wand towards the swarm, the mage let forth a torrent of flame that incinerated the vanguard.
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Slimes were not born with the blessing of sight. They sensed the world through heat and the flow of mana. These senses allowed the detective below the earth to know the exact moment the war was no longer in their favor.
Mana-fueled immolation struck the earth to tear asunder the dungeon’s minions as carnage raged.
The detective could feel all of it. His senses sharpened by his line of work. The bodies of ants burst as the Informant tallied them all. The only saving grace was that his sister was not among their numbers.
He wished to be there to help turn the tides of the battle, yet he knew it was a fool’s journey. His body’s sensitivity to light betrayed him. His home was deep below the battlefield. Forced into the role of an observer, the detective could only watch as lives were taken.
Watch as his sister’s protective shell saved her from the heat, but chipped away with each second that passed. Helpless, he watched as her waxy protection melted and encouraged the flames to climb ever higher. The same wax shell that covered the entire dungeon. The fuel that caused the flames to spread, to creep along the lattice of Shimmer’s footsteps.
Countless paths that all lead back to her favorite place, the ant’s nest. The home of those who had collected the gift of wax from their friend and stored it below the earth. Unknowingly they had orchestrated their own demise as the fire entered their dwelling. Their young burned and charred as eggs popped, never to hatch. It was the genocide of the entire population.
The heat filled the earth and burned away at the one that hid below the ground. However, the Informant gave the detective a gift to save him. A gift from his sister to make sure he survived.
> Effect of Title ‘Candlewick’ Applied - reduced effectiveness due to not holding the title directly.
The explosion of the ant’s home was enough to stir the survivors into action. Footsteps of the invader thundered upon the earth as they ran towards the center of the dungeon. Their goals were clear, he was after the Client. The very same master the detective had sworn to protect.
‘Over my dead gelatin.’
The Client was below ground, within the same back allies the detective called home. The invader had hoped to strike during the confusion, yet he was unprepared for the detective. They thrust a hand into the earth and grasped around blindly, hoping to find the buried crystal that gave them all life. However, they only found acid.
In the darkness, the detective was in his element. His acid was far more potent in the dark. The hand burned like the fires that raged around them.
> Understanding Increase: Skin
The hand wretched away, pulled from the earth as the invader went tumbling back from the pain. They weren’t the only one sent reeling, for the detective was the same. The mana that coursed through his body after the attack was more than the dungeon had accumulated over its entire lifetime. The mana so dense and potent that it spewed out of him like a fountain.
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Fires raged as they burned away at everything inside the dungeon. Years of progress, of plant growth and evolution, reduced to cinders because of the actions of a single adventurer out of his depth.
An adventurer that ran for his life. Afraid and unequipped, he ran into the dead mana that kept him from his home. His skin burned through his winter clothes as the mana that gave him life was sapped away by the unforgiving environment he had so willingly entered.
In the adventure’s wake, the dungeon burned. The essence of the gorse plant had infused the green slime as it traveled through the dungeon. Gorse, a plant that would orchestrate its own demise, only to grow back far stronger without competition.
The ants had died, but they would rise anew from the spawner they called home. The moss had burned, and seeds baked, yet destruction was not absolute. Before their death the harvester ants had buried seeds, unconsciously sowing them.
Through ash and brimstone, the slimes had survived. As the smoke cleared both were forever changed. They vowed to become more to protect what they had lost. Their bonds only strengthened as change overtook them.
> Title Evolved: Candlewick -> Candlelight - The title of gorse has been incinerated to fuel fresh growth. The Green Slime’s love for light has modified the outcome; All plants within Shimmer’s illumination will grow 15% faster.
> Monster Adaptation Available: Cavern Slime