According to what the Queen had said about the tunnel behind the Core’s Main Domain, it was about two hundred meters of tilted walking before the surface was reached. The outside was quite green, having some major signs of life around it, and a river was getting dangerously close to the opening of the cave. That was what the Entity had been told, at the very least, it not having seen anything close to it for itself. It needed to expand its borders beforehand, after all, and that was going to take some time.

There were several stages to the creation of the new space. The first was to sketch up how big the new tunnel would be and how much energy would be required for the Panelling. The Cave itself was wide enough that it's ten [Giant-Ants] could easily stand side-by-side without pushing against each other. And it was also high enough that a few of them could be stacked on top of one another without hitting the roof. The Core had perhaps tried to make that happen and failed but who was to say? Certainly not the Queen Mother who chastised the Entity for fooling around with the Children who had gotten hurt because of its actions.

So two hundred meters of slanted and slightly curved open space. The Core estimated it to be nearly eleven thousand cubic meters of space. It was an incredible amount to fill up, to the point where it would have been impossible mere hours ago. There was no chance of being able to survive such an experience, after all, the Entity was only able to contain a tenth of such space before its mind started to beat in the wrong way. Yet, now with the added ability to distance itself from the input, it became possible to fill up the inside while only having direct manipulation of the sides.

Not that the sides would be even slightly thick, of course. That would make it impossible as well. With how thin the Entity was able to make the Panel, it was relatively sure it could keep the cost to be below five hundred cubic meters. Since it had previously estimated its maximum size limit to be one hundred cubic meters for every point of intelligence it had, there was no trouble with this idea. As long as it held that plan up at least.

What was it to do, then? Just create it all in one fell swoop and fell in the middle just after? Well, the Core supposed it could have done something like that. It would have been more than possible with its current repertoire of skills, at least. Yet… it decided to go a more safe route. Instead of forcing itself to accept the first set-up, it would rather create a rough outline of where the outer wall would sit. The Entity would of course still create a wall of Panels to keep in Mana, yet it would not be of the density required to have Mana in the Cave. It would simply be a proof of concept instead of the actual product, just enough that the Entity could see how it worked and check for any improvements that could be made during the actual building phase of the wall.

The actual wall would be hard to create at the end, since it apparently led up into a grand entrance, wider than what the cave was in the middle. According to the information given, it expanded into an entrance of twenty entire meters in width and nearly ten in height. From that description alone, the Core had the idea about cutting its area short to a few meters inside the cave before anything else was done. There was no real chance at creating a barrier at such a wide entrance at the current moment, it being too susceptible to breaking when at such a size. And since the outside surface had many more magical creatures to watch out for, the last thing that the Entity wanted was to have a brittle first defence. Extremely so when such a weak point could create a larger loss of Energy. While the Entity had already planned to create many weaker barriers inside the longer passage being cut out to make sure no accidental leakage ruined the whole tunnel, it knew that there was no chance at minimizing the risks down to zero. And a smaller entrance was required to actually make it passable.

Now how would such a thing be done? More tethers? More layers in the barrier? Perhaps so many Panels that it stretched several meters inside? While the ideas might have seemed good at some level, the Core instead decided that terraforming the entrance would be smarter. By narrowing it from the start, it could also make sure that no large force could enter at once. The idea of having a stampede was not something it enjoyed. And the process required to narrow the tunnel was more than well-known at that point. The Core had certainly become quite adept at making changes to how the stone was placed. It could make small tunnels several hundred meters wide without even trying. Or, maybe that was already a step too far. It had tried very hard during that time, making sure that everything worked perfectly. Yet the point still stood perfectly on top. It could do it at a higher skill when compared to what it imagined the average level to be. Not that it actually knew the average, the lack of socialization with pretty much anybody but the Queen making it quite hard to know. She was apparently stronger than the average being so being on her level must have meant something.

Though that was only true in a general sense. In terms of winning a battle, she could likely beat most Enlightened, just as she had said previously. But that didn’t mean she was better at them at everything. [Talking] with those mouths of theirs was certainly a point the [Giant-Ant] couldn’t beat them at. The Core had seen the biology of those ants and they most certainly had no real vocal cords. While they could pulse air through their body and create a semi-whistling noise, it still didn’t count. And what about walking on two legs? Mother Carapace could certainly try but she would also most certainly fail. Ants had six legs for a reason, after all.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

So while ignoring the possibility of the Enlightened being more powerful at certain tasks that they were more biologically inclined to do, the Core began to move along with its previous plans. There were more things to consider, after all. After making the entrance tighter, it would have to start the actual process of filling in the Mana in the middle, just like the Queen had talked about previously.

The actual process of that seemed rather easy. The Core would just take some Mana from inside the Tunnels, quickly cycle it through its Mana-Pattern to make sure the colouring was perfect, and then just dump it out into the designated area. But… then came the question of how long such a thing would take. Early estimates guessed at it being a few hours before it would reach the perfect density. Later estimates guessed that it could be up to a few weeks.

It was safe to say that there was no real clue on how long that final step would take. It all depended on how the Energy naturally distributed itself. While the Entity hoped for a natural even development, it was slowly beginning to realize how little of a chance there was of that. Some manual redistribution would likely have to be done, and that would just cut into the time needed for the process by an extreme amount.

But there was no reason to truly wallow about it. Instead, the Core began the actual working part. The start was just as it had previously intended, the bare-bones of a framework being created. It was a wall with two sides, just a bit of space inside it. Just enough for the Core to have a semblance of vision there. It allowed it to tether the Panels perfectly while also making sure that the wall wasn’t being damaged by the intrusion. The Stone did not enjoy much Mana inside it, after all, and the Entity was cautious about making sure that didn’t happen. If that material was to explode, it would be quite an event.

Nevertheless, it moved on and on, building the framework on all fronts at once. It didn't just take one wall at a time, it all needed to sit together perfectly, meaning that the entire tunnel was being encased one slow step at a time. Was the process slower because of this? Most definitely. Yet it also removed the chance of failure significantly.

And it also allowed the Core to see the Cave in a new way. With how large the space had gotten, it viewed the area it inhabited much like a three-dimensional rendering of an area, every piece it didn’t own blacked out. Yet those that it did shined ever so brightly, allowing the Core to see all the details it needed to see.

One of those details was that the curve of the upper tunnel made it so that it got nearly directly on top of the Main Domain. It was still a slight tilt forwards, but the Entity was starting to think it could create a direct passageway up if needed. Perhaps a staircase? It would certainly allow for the ants to travel at such a high angle. And the benefits of having short-cuts would certainly show themselves when enemies came to steal and gather resources. Nobody could freak out about a [Giant-Ant] they couldn’t see. Ideas about allowing the ants to jump from the ceiling and down to the people beneath came to the Core. While the creature’s size did stop them from tall jumps, their physique could easily survive the distance between the ceiling and the ground. Yet the momentum built up? That could very easily kill an Enlightened if given the chance.

Storing away that idea for later, the Core continued its progress. With much of the work being the same, the bare-bones versions of the wall were created easily, with some more distance outside created as well. It wasn’t enough to witness its beauty but the Core didn’t mind that too much, wanting to save the sight for a time where it could appreciate it. Instead, it started the process of [Terraforming] the entrance, pulling together the [Stone] with its additions. The gap where one could enter became much smaller at that point, going to the level where it was only two meters wide and three meters high. It was still massive, yes, but it was now within the realm of possibilities when it came to sustainable barriers. With the help of a few well-placed Tethers, it was in place.

Since the ideas of improvement gained from the weaker version of the walls only became possible later in the Dungeon’s creation, the Core instantly started on making the Mana-Panels dense enough. That was quite the task, each needing more than a hundred Mana. And since there were several thousand, it took quite a while, bordering on several hours or days. The actual measurement was out of the Core’s reach, it not truly paying attention. Yet it knew when it was done so who truly cared about such things?

As it began to fill the new space up with disconnected Mana, it felt the presence of the Queen once again. After having seen the previous display of stacked underlings, the Intelligent Ant had found it needed to explore the outside. The Core was accepting of such ideas since it wanted to know more than it could see for itself. And the information about the river was already such a grand thing to be told yet it had only been an observation gotten from walking a few steps outside. What could be found when hours of searching were had?

‘Do you bring good tidings?’ the Core asked.

‘I bring that and more,’ the Queen answered. ‘The first good news will be that I have found signs of civilization. It seems that the Enlightened is not too far away.’