After the sun had moved most of the way across the sky while I was expanding my influence, Ash let me know we had enough area to start thinking about making our first minions.

"They should work a lot like the ants you saw earlier. The drones will behave like the worker ants ideally, whereas you the core will act as an impromptu queen. For most dungeons they are able to tune into the image a dungeon core brings up of its domain, and work to clear tunnels or build traps and what not. Now where as they are not necessarily required because you could technically change your environment using your mana, it is far more efficient to create drones to do most of the work for you, and polish off the changes yourself."

While I was actively spreading my influence, I managed to claim a sizable area around my core. During this time I learned a few things. I was on a small hill with a hole in the side that proceeded downwards into the first floor of Cara's half of the dungeon, and I managed not only to claim the entire hill, but also about 800 meters worth of land in each direction around me in a rough circle, as well as about 5 meters deep. I thought I would be able to claim more but it started costing more and more mana to claim the farther I went from my core, and Ash was in a bit of a rush to start our beautiful forest.

As I expanded my vision I observed that whereas I was not in a forest, there were a couple copses of various trees around me. Not only did I now have a scattering of Maple trees and Oaks within my boundaries now, but I had also seen various species of creatures. These included various insects (including a mound of southern wood ants which I found fascinating in the way that they behaved) and a couple breeds of small animals that Ash told me were called hedgehogs, voles, squirrels, and even those musical noise makers from my dream, birds. Neither of us were sure of their exact species of birds, apparently the dungeon Ash grew up in didn't have a lot of them.

I looked down into Cara's domain to see what kind of drones she had created in order to get a better idea of which of these creatures I should try to evolve.

Cara's domain was much more extensive than mine, although a lot of it was still compact earth. I felt that she had many of the insects that I had above ground as well as a few I didn't recognize. However what I was really interested in were her drones.

Although I wasn't awake when she claimed and evolved her drones, Ash had already explained the basics to me. Essentially the dungeon core would pick a species within their domain and claim it by pouring their mana into it and overwhelming its' will. This got progressively more complicated the more sapient or powerful the beast was, they would usually only join a dungeon of their own free will. Then to evolve it into something beyond a regular beast or animal, the dungeon core would pour even more mana into their target and attempt to guide its evolution in the correct direction. Once again this got more complicated based on power and sentience, and those would usually have to gain enough power to elevate themselves.

Cara seemed to have picked some sort of burrowing beetle as her drone species. The effect of her mana enlarged the insect as well as hardened its mandibles, allowing it to chew through dirt and stone with relative ease. As a newly appointed dungeon spawned species, her beetles also benefited with enhanced reproductive abilities allowing them to spread rapidly.

I watched her drone beetles as they ate away at solid rock for a few minutes, and thought about what I would need my drones to do.

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I wanted a species that could till the soil to make it easier to plant trees and dig up stumps or dead plants. I also wanted them to be able to either live high in the tree or below the surface soil so that the adventurers Ash told me about wouldn't slay them in droves. My first instinct was to use the squirrels I'd found. They were very agile, could climb the trees and hide, and I'd also already seen them digging and burying seeds from the local trees.

I ended up changing my mind because I thought the squirrels had some of the highest combat capability of the fauna at my disposal. Instead I went with the hedgehogs.

The first step was to claim the hedgehogs around as my own. Inside my roughly 5000 meter circumference, I'd found 19 of these little hedgehogs. I only needed a male and a female so that they could copulate after my modifications. I picked the largest male I could find and tried to claim him the same way I claimed the land around my Ash tree.

What I found was that it was far more difficult than claiming dirt, or even the grass was. There was a thin barrier of invisible mana surrounding the hedgehog that actively tried to repel my influence and made it hard to operate near it. When I asked Ash, she let me know this was how it was for most living creatures larger than a blade of grass. Nevertheless I was determined to claim this little rodent as my own.

I surrounded its barrier with my own mana and condensed it a bit. The hedgehog, which up until that point had been shuffling through the brush, froze and looked a bit panicked. It could tell something was going on. I exerted pressure around the hedgehog for a couple minutes until finally I felt a pop, and the hedgehog was mine. I repeated the process for one of the younger looking females and found it was much easier the second time. Perks of knowing what you're doing, I suppose.

"Hey, I claimed a couple creatures to turn into drones, they should be on their way over to our tree now."

Ash's squeal nearly 10 minutes later let me know that my rodents had arrived in our clearing. She rushed over to them and scooped them up, rubbing them against either side of her face. "They are so cute! Look how soft they are!"

"Right...”

"Okay okay, let me calm down a little bit. We still need to evolve them into a drone class monster."

With Ash's semi-professional guidance, I was able to pour my mana into the hedgehogs very slowly and deliberately. I little over quadrupled their size, sharpened their claws, improved their eyesight, and enlarged their teeth so they could chew through wood and dirt more efficiently. As a dungeon spawned creature, I was able to watch as their reproductive organs also passively modified themselves. I predicted that the female would be able to birth a litter nearly twice the size as before, and would carry the litter to birth almost as twice as fast as usual.

After all that was said and done, the night had begun, and I found myself low on mana. With Ash's approval, I had my new drones make a new burrow nearby. Instead of concentrating my mana outwards, I started working to claim deeper into the ground, 20 meters deep than the 5 or so meters I'd been claiming so far. Ash said it would make it easier to claim the trees if I encompassed most of their root systems, as well as easier for us to grow a forest much faster.

And so I passed my first night awake on the surface in a relaxing mana cycling trance.