The growth of the dungeon core vines gradually increased the size of the worldlets both by claiming more void and by stretching the space already inside the worldlets. In the outside world, a young wizard student once asked his instructor how something inside a space could then also stretch that space. The student was told to get back to work and not ask such a question again until his beard reached down to his toes. As the student was unable to grow any beard at all, he never learned the answer.
A side effect of stretching the space inside the worldlet was to slightly increase the size of the entrance into the dungeon. The entrance reached the ground in the forest and small creatures began to walk, crawl, or slither into the dungeon. The first creature to enter the dungeon was a millipede.
_ Intruder Detected. Select Automated Response:
* Absorb
* Banish
* Mutate
* Claim
* Dominate
* Ignore
_
_ Random Selection: “Banish” selected _
_ Banish Attempt Failed. Insufficient Mana to Retry. Make a New Selection _
_ Random Selection: Mutate. Available Mutations:
* Water Alignment (spray)
_
_ Random Selection: “Water Alignment (spray)” Selected _
The millipede (which had been completely unaware and munching on dropped leaves) turned blue and swelled in size to that of a stick that a small human child would use as a sword. The millipede let out a spray of water from between its mandibles and returned to munching leaves. It crawled under some of the larger leaves and laid some eggs. While the millipede did all this, the dungeon core regenerated the mana spent in the banish attempt and the mutation.
_ Intruder Detected: Select Automated Response:
* Absorb
* Banish
* Mutate
* Claim
* Dominate
* Ignore
_
_ Random Selection: “Banish” selected _
_ Banish Attempt Partially Successful. Insufficient Mana to Retry. Make a New Selection _
_ Random Selection: Claim _
A few of the millipede eggs vanished from the dungeon and appeared nearby the entrance in the forest. A complicated pulse of mana shot from the dungeon core into the millipede and the remaining eggs. As that mana settled into the creatures, they began to absorb dungeon mana from the air and the dropped leaves. The millipede eggs hatched unnaturally quick and the baby millipedes happy munched away at the abundant leaf litter. Their new instincts as claimed dungeon creatures kept them a minimum distance from the entrance and gave them improved control over the water spray attack. Over the next few weeks, millipedes multiplied and spread into the sauna worldlet as well. The rivulets of water in the delta worldlet made walking on a hundred little legs difficult, so the millipedes did not thrive in the delta worldlet.
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More creatures entered the dungeon, mostly millipedes and beetles. With each creature, the System prompted the dungeon select an automated response and then randomly selected a response for the dungeon until each creature was either absorbed, banished, claimed, or ignored. Creatures were equally likely to be mutated before or after any of these actions. Claimed but unmutated creatures would absorb mana and grow in size but could not compete with the mutated claimed creatures and were few in number.
A couple frogs and a handful of salamanders were also claimed by the dungeon. The water mutation did not make significant changes to the amphibians as they were already perfectly at home in the water. The salamanders adapted well to the delta worldlet and were the only creatures to spread through the whole area.
Domination succeeded only one time. Through inexplicable random chance, the mindless dungeon core mentally dominated a large hunting spider. Through System-provided instincts, the vine began to perceive the hunting spider as part of the vine and tried to send water and mana to this “new growth”. Mana successfully transferred over the mental connection, and the spider began to grow along with all the vines.
*bloop*
A vine behind the dungeon core pushed into a new worldlet and sank its roots into the soil. Unfortunately, there was no soil, so the vine only pushed some roots into a blob of floating pebbles. Under the roots, a few pebbles were glowing softly and one or two had dew drops on them. The space of the new worldlet was filled with darkness and clumps of floating pebbles. With no gravity providing direction, and no strong light sources or concentrations of water, the vine’s plant instincts struggled.
Leaves and vines stretched, pale and thin, in all directions. Like a potato left in a dark cupboard, the vine tried to grow far enough to catch enough light to sustain its growth and justify the energy expense of the new rooting. The dungeon core vine (as well as the all the dungeon claimed creatures) did not actually require much sunlight or nutrition to survive, but the plant instincts driving it reacted to the darkness to send increased water and mana to help the vine find the sun. Mana from all over the vine swirled together in the dark worldlet vine. As the mana concentration swelled, the System offered options.
_ Forced Mana Evolution Attempt Underway. Select Upgrade Path for ‘Poison Berry Vine’:
* Low Light Vision
* Glow Slime
* Light Alignment (spray)
* Dark Mana Alignment
* Do Nothing
_
_ Random Selection: “Low Light Vision” selected _
_ Error: No Vision System. Augmenting ‘Poison Berry Vine’ _
Mana swirled in the vine. The swirls migrated to the leaves that stretched in all directions. The mana concentrated down to a small circle in each leaf and pulsed hard. Every leaf opened a single small eye.
After eyes evolved on the vine in the dark worldlet, excess concentrated mana flowed back across the whole multi-worldlet vine plant. The mutations from the blue vine and the eye vine could not take hold in the main worldlet vine, but dropped fruits began to occasionally produce vines with the water or eyes mutations. These vines were the same natural size as the unmutated vine spawns and did not have any real advantage over the unmutated vine spawns except in the dark worldlet. In the dark, the eyes could track the glowing stones and could draw sufficient light energy to sustain vines. The few blue vines that survived in the dark were small and very close to the brightest stones. As water mist sprayed weakly around the glowing stones, the eye vines could track either the glowing stone or the rainbows that shone against the black background.