I look around my sanctum, at least that is what the mist tells me it is when I look at the doorway. I wasn't able to put up a door, which is typical of the whole dungeon trope, I guess if I'm a dungeon then I can't exactly lock myself away where nobody can get to me. I mentally shudder after I think that the that fly earlier didn't die in my home it died in me, along with all the other insects that have been crawling, flying, fighting, and dying in that shallow bowl outside, it could explain how I got to level two gaining ones and twos from the bugs and spiders just living their lives out front.

I try to push the thoughts out of my mind, but That would also explain my apparent fascination with Celtic knots. If the whole dungeon is my body then I'm just giving myself a giant, very complicated tattoo reminiscent of the ones on my old body? I idly shake my head at the idea, or at least the mental equivalent of shaking my head. That just seems like a whole level of thinking that I don't want distracting me at this moment. Telling myself I'll mull it over later knowing full well I'll probably forget. I turn to the door going outside and get back to the task at hand, beefing up my defenses. Currently I only have a single room so I start with hollowing out a corridor in the wall opposite my stairwell until I no longer have any room up against an invisible wall keeping me from progressing. I guess I have a directional boundary dictating how big I am and if where I was laying in what I could now consider my courtyard would be the center, that gives me an area roughly the size of a basketball court give or take and almost half of that is outside. At the end of my new hallway I begin to hollow out a room to the right but if the glow of my core is to be any sort of warning, or rather, the lack-there-of of any glowing would mean I'm close to my limit for the time being and I'll have to wait.

Hours have passed and I'm looking more like my shiny self, to pass the time I was playing chess again, the pieces are so small that moving them costs such a small amount of energy I can't even tell I'm using any. Either going to "sleep" accelerates my recharge rate or I'd been under longer than I'd realized when I did black out. Maybe I'll find out one day but now that I'm charged back up I can continue construction on my new room. I widen it out into an oval shape and without thinking add the embellishments of the Celtic knots and ropes wrapping around intricate stone lattices, giving the room a warm feeling atop the drab granite. Now done with the basics, I carefully unwrap the cage from my pedestal and anchor myself to the stone pillar by sinking the bottom quarter of the gem into the stone. It would be a shame to drop and shatter myself into a thousand pieces before I actually got to do anything with this life. After uncaging myself I wrap my core in a coil of stone anchoring myself to the pillar even further while still keeping the feeling of claustrophobia at bay, perhaps I'm being a little paranoid but this is nothing compared to how I encased myself in a reinforced granite case about the size and shape of a car tire to roll myself into the first room before thinking of a pillar.

Fully encasing myself was nauseating and it cut off my ability to sense anything except the immediate foot and a half-ish around myself and most of that was the inside of my stone wheel. I couldn't tell how far I had rolled and overshot the room slamming myself into the far wall, which is when I devised the pillar idea. The base of the pillar simply moves through the stone like dragging a knife through snow and I simply fill in the space behind it with fresh stone. there are downsides of course, If I move it too fast the thing cracks and the first time I nearly cleaved the pillar in half trying to go more than a snails pace. Slowly migrating myself atop my pillar to my new soon-to-be sanctum is a nerve wracking experience even though there's no bumps or jostles. Maybe it's just the act of moving in general since I ordinarily can't? Something about it just puts me on edge.

With the pedestal slowly making its migration down the corridor I turn half of my attention away to start building what I can in the first room, my reception hall of sorts, and what kind of dungeon would I be if I had no traps. I'm somewhat surprised about how little I feel about possibly killing people here, but then again, I caused the death of a fair number of others in my old life, not that I particularly enjoyed doing so and thinking about it now there is a subtle but unsettling hunger in the back of my mind. Of course here I'm not so sure everything will want to kill me, or break me or if there's even people. I take a long piece of wood and draw it out thinner and thinner until it looks like a long thin hair almost unnoticeable in the dim lighting and I string it across the doorway one end secured seamlessly into the side of where the door jam would be maybe three inches off the ground, perfect for someone to step on coming off the stairs. The other end I string through a pinhole I made in the other side of the doorframe and lead it upwards, I begin to dissolve a rectangle chunk of granite leaving a sizeable indent where I place a newly formed wooden log. Tapering down the sides and attaching two dowels at the top on a pair of deep stone hooks making a crude hinge, at the end I round off the log giving it a mace-like appearance and hollow out the center of the head filling it with granite for weight and attach the end of the the hair-thin tripwire to the back end of the now suspended cudgel. A simple mechanism, break the wire and the mace drops.

I will be the first to admit that I was wholeheartedly expecting the impossibly thin strand of hair like wood to not hold the weight of the hanging club but to my utter surprise it held, in fact a little too well and I was worried it wouldn’t snap if someone walked into it but I'll just have to see. I guess I'll just chalk that up to whatever the hell is going on in this world that allows me to shape and manipulate solid granite like some magic stone fairy. To test it I manually cut the tripwire in the middle and watch as the cudgel swings downwards through the center of the doorway and out into the stairwell, the hinge is completely silent even though its made of unpolished stone and wood which is another plus, I don't however think this trap can actually kill anyone, it would hit me in the chest if I were standing in the center of the doorway with my old body and quite possibly break a couple ribs but that's about it. I'll have to add some spikes or something later but for now I just reset it and mend the tripwire so it stays poised for any intruders who aren't expecting anything from the get-go.

About 5 feet from what the mist named a "common simple gravity trap" I begin preparations for a second trap, a pitfall I plan on concealing with a paper thin layer of stone seamlessly cut into the floor; but I return all of my focus to my core which was about three quarters of the way to its new room after an idea struck me, I won't block myself off physically per say, but its seems that as long as there is an open air connection to the outside world I should be fine. I start hollowing out a small shaft in the left wall of the oval room at an angle going up steeply, maybe just big enough for a scrawny kid to fit and this shaft continues upward almost twenty feet before hollowing out into an eight sided room with a flat ceiling and floor to mimic how my core looks. And of course before I'm able to enact my plan my energy runs dry, only this time I was not paying attention to myself, only making sure the pillar didn’t stop moving or tip over. The world was washed out by darkness and the feeling of static.

When I came back around I was not quite topped off on energy, however my tripwire was broken and it sent off alarm bells streaking through my mind like lightning, I turn my consciousness to the entrance, and to my surprise there was no man or woman delving into my first room, it was however a giant ant, If I had to guess it was about the size of a medium dog with its mandibles splayed wide and locked, and cautiously moving passed the sudden movement from above where the mace swung at empty air. every few moments it would tap the ground or vibrate the air with its antenna eventually relaxing its jaws as it no longer felt threatened. it was a giant trap jaw ant, and if I had boots I would be shaking in them, this thing looked mean. Its carapace was a pearlescent white almost like staring at a marble and bone statue with mother of pearl inlay and its eyes and wings were a deep fiery amber that reflected streaks of blue-green like someone wiped a thin veil of oil on them. The ants four hind legs ended in sharp dual hooks that made climbing anything that wasn’t smooth a breeze and its two forelegs had hooks as well but they were slightly longer and segmented like its legs allowing it to grasp objects in a menial way. I saw for the first time as it wrapped a hair bristled claw in a circle around its antenna and began wiping dust off of them. I focused on the creature waiting for the mist to show up and it was taking a lot more effort than usual to get it to appear. I kept pressing until a word popped up in the forefront of my mind, another lightbulb. "Discern" I read the word out and my vision blurred. I began making out words and finally after a small struggle the text appeared in the mist.

Female Dire Ant alate, Rare (unfertilized). After reading this I mentally blinked trying to get the feeling of water out of my eyes and my vision was enveloped by a deep gray-blue haze when a flood of information began filling my mind "Dire Ant, this colony based predator is known for its strong bite with paralytic venom it can inject through its mandibles, and its minor psionic powers along with the striking variations in color they can be found in. Colonies, also called nations, can form in a few months and if left unchecked can swell to vast numbers. No two colonies are exactly the same with exception to the Brown Dire Ant, which is the common ancestor to all Dire ant breeds and is the most prevalent among the ant nations. All subspecies of Dire Ant are able to crossbreed.

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This beast holds a spark of intelligence and knows not to over hunt its local area else it would starve itself so it farms a specific fungi in vast chambers to feed the bulk of its numbers and avoid overhunting of local prey animals. A female alate, or princess, will take a clump of mycelium on its nuptial flight to seed its own gardens. This creature is well suited to mining and can dig through solid stone by gouging out rock with its extremely durable mandibles and the help of an acidic Sulfuric compound it excretes from its abdomen able to weaken or outright dissolve most common stones but is unable to break down crystalized rock such as volcanic glass and gemstones which are mined manually by workers and tributed to the royal pair, the queen will use these to adorn her chambers along with royal silk, the acid is expensive to produce and is generally never used offensively aside from few uncommon subspecies.

Other than the queen only larval stage ants are able to produce silk. Silk produced by the queen is stronger, fire resistant and waterproof, whereas common larval silk is still strong but will absorb water over time becoming weaker and is not fire resistant. during a Nuptial flight the New alates will spread out hundreds of miles to form their own colonies princes will go out in search of females ready to mate by forming gangs of 3 to 20 individuals, and gangs will coalesce into swarms of hundreds. The princesses will dig out a nest or locate an already formed cavern then release pheromones signaling a willingness and readiness to pair, and then wait for a gang or swarm of males to find and court her. Unlike mundane ants the new king won't die immediately afterwards, instead they will stay paired with the queen until they die, the average natural lifespan of a king and queen pair is 25 years not including unnatural deaths due to violence, disease or weather.

The queen will take care of the nest and brood while the male, being more expendable as the queen only needs to mate once in her life, will go foraging looking for food and dry wood to start their fungal garden. These ants are known to form strict borders with their neighbors after establishing themselves and will participate in border disputes and full on wars for territory and resources as well as trading with other nations after evolution. after finding a suitable nest the colony will grow until it is able to produce majors, Shortly after which the queen and king will undergo evolution becoming bipedal and vastly more intelligent showing the initial signs of sentience, and as the colony grows they will gain more and more knowledge from their ancestral memory until they reach an intellect equal to that of most humanoid races. the whole colony will undergo this transformation and then they will search out a nascent colony of Dire Ants to turn into beasts of burden, war mounts, and hunting companions very similar to humans and wolves or Orcs and Wargs.

Subjugated colonies will never evolve past the addition of majors due to the pheromones from the evolved colony subduing their own, they will however begin to develop more specialized majors for both work and war. Unlike mundane ants both male and female ants will be born showing minor sexual dimorphism however common drones will be Sterile. The colony will only produce alates after evolution and only if the colony is stable and healthy. New male and female alates will be born devolved to before their evolved state to avoid the stresses of founding a new colony however they will still be smarter than unevolved common drones.

This specific subspecies of Dire Ant is a chameleon weaver variant, able mimic its environment using chromatophores in its translucent carapace, in the absence of light its color reverts to a pale white, all members of this subspecies retains the organs necessary for producing silk after leaving adolescence and will use this utilize it through their everyday lives, this species is primarily diurnal commonly sleeping through the night or staying inside the colony in hours of darkness.

I finished reading and was mildly perplexed, I didn't get a paragraph of info when I looked into myself but maybe that's because I'm already supposed to know about myself or maybe I didn't use that discern thing. Was that a spell or skill of some kind? At least this confirms that there are humans, and orcs apparently and other "humanoids", does that mean I can come across elves and dwarves at some point?. This is beginning to feel more and more like I'm in some kind of twisted fantasy story more than real life. I turn my attention back to the ant princess and the realization dawns on me, the light bulb flashes on again and I instinctively know I can claim this creature for my dungeon, following the feeling I force my energy into tight twisting metallic-ish band that when I look deep enough into it I can see myself beautifully swirling vortices of energy like evening sunlight caught in particles of mist. I snap myself out of my mild trance and continue melding this energy into a shackle of sorts. The ant harmlessly passed over the unfinished pitfall I started and continues its curious meander through the room until it finds the hallway.

“I'll have to finish that pitfall sooner rather than later.” I muse to nobody, kicking myself for leaving myself unprotected. About half way down the corridor I'm beginning to get nervous, this thing is getting closer and closer to my sanctum and in the excitement of finding something in my home I had forgotten to finish moving my core. Terror floods through me and I fervently work on the binding, pouring as much energy as I can into it feeling myself dropping dangerously close to the cusp of passing out, the ring is now showing the Celtic detail I've absentmindedly etched into the entirety of my domain like a theme I can't help but bend to. The ant is now in my sanctum and there's another flood of terror, then anger, and then finally grief as I am powerless to stop this monster from doing whatever it wants to me. And then nothing happens, at least nothing bad, I think.

The thing be-lined for me and I thought it was going to eat me or crush me but instead it just lightly tapped me with its antenna circling the pedestal curiously and then tried to wrap its little clawed fingers around my core almost like it was petting or cleaning me. The feeling of being touched was interesting, I would get flashes of intent every time contact was made, mostly in the form of single word thoughts or feelings like, Home? Safe? Nest? Friend? To my great relief it gave up but that last one really caught me off guard. I'm not sure how I feel about being asked by a giant ant if I wanted to be its friend but that's better than being turned into food or used as an adornment for its throne. Do ants have thrones? The Dire Ant settled back on the floor and began its tapping and prodding around my sanctum mapping out every last inch of the ground and peering up the entrance to where I would be moving my core but didn't go any further. Instead it turned back and stopped next to my pedestal and just dropped its underbelly to the floor spreading its legs outward. Not even her antenna twitched which was odd given that they were almost always moving and they began to sag a bit, leaning towards each other until they were crossed and gently ground against each other creating a soft chirping akin to a cricket, only much quieter and less harsh. If I had to guess she was asleep or whatever an ant's equivalent to sleep is. I finished the binding ring over the next couple hours, taking breaks to allow my mana to build and took a good look at it now.

It was an intricate amber orange band in the shape of an octagon, cascading intricate knots winding their way around and across its surface and they moved lazily in a single direction as if they were all a single long snake slithering endlessly, it had a striking resemblance to an ornate dog collar even complete with a loop to attach a name tag and leash. I almost felt bad using it on the ant as it was almost friendly with a temperament to my first dog, a red bloodhound named Cardinal, but it didn't seem to stir from its slumber, not even a twitch in its antenna when the intricate ring disappeared into its head and an octagon in its likeness embossed itself into its carapace over its abdomen, complete with Celtic outlines and inlays in a deep amber orange that pulsed in sync with my core. I went back to the first room and disabled the swinging cudgel for now by disconnecting the tripwire and fusing the cudgel straight into the ceiling. I know that she can't fall into the spike pit because it isn’t built yet, but I don't want her accidentally killing herself with the cudgel. I'll have to reimagine the traps at some other time to be completely ant friendly, turning my gaze into my sanctum I now focused on my new friend, she was stirring in her sleep, dreaming? and I was able to peer into her mind, it was odd, not really any real intense thoughts but it was more put together than the individual words and feelings from earlier, the most prevalent being a sense of admiration and the Phrase I’m home over, looking into a dream I saw vivid details of caves and passages and a large cavern filled with large hanging Spheres of silk suspended from the ceiling sprouting more soft blue glowing mushrooms that have flat irregularly round caps and flat tops, bathing the cavern in a soft light akin to moonlight, silk rope bridges crossing between them and ants navigating the tightrope lines expertly milling from one sphere to another, gathering mushrooms into small silk bags while spores drift through the air, all of the farms connect to a thick silk pillar in the center of the room forming a highway of sorts where the ants pass off their full bags for empty ones to return to their fungal orchards. this wasn't just a wild animal, she had feelings which I guess lent itself to the tidbit of info from earlier stating how they are mildly intelligent. She was cognitive and aware and I was going to have to think of a name for her, but I already had one, didn't I.