I stayed in my sanctum the majority of the night, not wanting to walk in on something that could possibly scar me for life. I probably could have left sooner, once I felt my newest member join, automatically bonded to my core as soon as they finished their own “bonding”. I shudder at the thought, although he wasn’t the ant I was rooting for he was probably my second choice from the lot of them. His thorned black carapace and silver wings and eyes like oval mercury jewels set into the sides of his head was in my opinion the most aesthetically pleasing out of the group and his colors contrasted pleasingly with Cardinals. What to name him though, black, black… hmm,
“Vanta?” I say out loud, standing in my avatar from trying to acclimate to my body, “No, that's dumb.” I muse, while shaking my head and, looking at my core, hmm, gemstones, what's a black gemstone.
“Hematite is black but that doesn't have a nice ring to it.” I'm now pacing back and forth in my sanctum, deep in thought watching the orange whisps curl off of my skin as my fingers stroke the hair in my beard.
“Don’t much like that one either.” I hear a new voice sound out from the entrance corridor as the newcomer slowly moves into my sanctum. His voice is smooth and warm but somewhat gruff, like a full cup of black coffee, no sugar, no creamer, and just the right temperature. But I can tell by the way the sentence is strung together his mind isn't as refined as Cardinals’.
“Do you have any suggestions?” I ask, holding a hand out and raising an eyebrow.
“No.” was the only reply. Staring into the inky darkness of his carapace, his name comes to me. “Onyx” I say out loud, more certainty in my voice and a slight air of authority. I watch as an orange glow wraps around him, the embossed sigil of his bond to my core pulses and flashes and he collapses twitching as if I just gave him a seizure and I'm worried for a moment until I can feel his lifeforce growing, not in size the way cardinal’s did but more dense and rigid, the image of a shield comes to mind as I watch the glow fade and he picks himself up off the floor.
“This name resonates well within me, you have my gratitude.” The stark change in his demeanor almost has me picking my jaw up off the floor but I maintain my cool.
“How do you feel?” I ask ,"The light show and loss of control didn't happen with Cardinal when I named her."
“I feel as though I could split a tree with one snap of my jaws.” He says while flexing his mandibles and looking at his graspers absentmindedly. "but as far as your mana enveloping me, Names are powerful and resonate with different beings in different ways. the name you gave me resonates with what I am very well, a sharpened mandible to protect my queen, children, and home, and if need be a wall to slow down my enemies that they have to break before they can get to what I hold dear." he says. "It's a strong name."
"You know quite a bit about names. I say not really knowing how to continue. "Did I give Cardinal a bad name that doesn't resonate with her?"
"I am not the first of my lineage to receive a name. In fact I am the third."
"Do Dire Ants receive names commonly?" I ask, surprised at the revelation.
"No my lord, I am among the first among my line to receive a name in almost twenty generations, and lineages are not in a straight line. As kings and queens pair, their children with access to ancestral knowledge, young royals, will receive the memories from both lines, and that effect is compounding over time. Eventually over an interminable amount of time we eventually lose the memories from our queens of queens and kings of kings many generations passed, but as I said, that takes an extremely long time, and a very large number of lineages compounded on top of one another. My named ancestors hail from very distant and spread out nations, none of which are likely standing anymore." He stops and considers something for a moment. "As far as my queens' name not resonating with her, I cannot say, nor can I ask for you at the moment, she is... agitated at me." I can almost see him wince at the words and I have to bite the inside of my lip to keep from letting out a grin.
"In the dog-house already, what'd you do?" I ask suppressing a laugh
"I do not know what a 'dog -house' is, but I misplaced some large branches in the pile of unprocessed substrata for the fungal gardens and the side collapsed, smashing some of her already produced crop seeds. I already told her I would remake them but it did not satisfy her agitation."
"It'll pass chief, don't you worry." I say now actively chewing on my lip to avoid laughing and I turn to my core, losing the humor in my face as I think. the orbs of liquid mana calmly morphing into each other and splitting apart, bouncing off of the walls inside myself just millimeters from the surface.
“Is everything alright?” he asks “ you seem deep in thought about something.”
“ Yeah, I'm just worried about defending this place. I'm not sure how to set up traps that won't interfere with you or Cardinal but can still protect us from outsiders.”
“Worry not my lord, you can leave the defenses to me for now until Cardinal and I can rear our young, we will make fine foot soldiers for you until you can find a fitting balance for defense.”
“You can drop the liege and lord stuff, I don't mind you being casual around me, and I will take your stance on defense into consideration for now.”
“I appreciate your kindness my lord but I don't feel I can, I'm a soldier through and through, as all male royals are. Cardinal shared with me the memories she received from you in your life previous and from one soldier to another, not showing decorum to my betters would be dishonorable, and I am proud to serve under one as strong as you.”
I let out a small chuckle, “I won't keep you from doing what you feel is right.” I say. ”Just remember to let yourself rest every now and then.” At this Onyx bowed his head and clicked his mandibles in what I can only imagine was his equivalent to a salute, I nod my head at him and he leaves the sanctum.
“Well he's an interesting one” I think to myself and chuckle again, I get the feeling I'm never going to get used to the whole “My Lord” schtick.
Walking through the dungeon in my avatar feels strange, I can feel every step I take inside me and I can't see in the dark but I know where everything is, like how you know where your toes are even though you can't necessarily see them. I formed a walking stick about as tall as me and fused a lumen crystal into its head, giving me a kind of lantern staff the thing is ornately carved with my Celtic designs and it provides a decent amount of light, enough to see about ten feet in front and behind, I can also feed it mana directly but it creates a steady drain in my reserves so I don't do it, especially since I can’t regenerate mana in this form. I will admit that having a nice stroll is very relaxing and helps clear my head, I passed Onyx on his way back inside from foraging, a little silk bag full of sticks and debris slung over his back from his mid shoulder, and in his mandibles was a large lizard similar to a monitor lizard only it was an emerald green with a yellow underbelly, I poked him through the bond and asked him to leave me a bit of the meat and scales to absorb which he had no issues with and he hurried down the corridor towards cardinal who has been grooming an absolutely massive clutch of eggs, each one was the size of a water bottle and there were around eighty of them, it was going to get very busy around here very quickly I had a feeling.
Walking up the steps to the courtyard and into the outside world, I pulled my hat from its pocket out of habit and placed it on my head, leaning my new light stick up against the empty door frame to grab on my way back down. I was elated to the fact I could walk around outside, the sun was shining in the green sky and there was a gentle breeze blowing, my domain had extended enough that I could now step up over the lip of the bowl, and take a look at my surroundings. Taking a seat on the ground to relax for a bit and enjoy the nature from my new vantage point, taking note how a small field of pale green grass had begun sprouting up in an almost perfect half circle around and inside of my bowl along with a few small tree saplings where there weren't any patches of solid stone, giving me a nice visual border between my domain and the unclaimed land around it. I started taking it all in, there were a few sparse trees in the immediate vicinity, and a hundred yards or so heading away from the foot of the mountain there was a thick vibrant tree line, the woods were bustling with activity and I could even see a stray ant here or there.
They were rather small compared to Cardinal and Onyx, and lacking the massive mandibles that define trap jaws. But that would make sense I guess, similar to earth ants where the workers were usually a lot smaller than the queen, and it's possible that only royals had the giant trap jaw style of mandibles. If that was the case then I wouldn't have to worry about space as I had been before. Granted they were still massive as far as ants go.
Then something in the tree line caught my attention, a person, a child? My eyesight was inhumanly good yet it was hard to make out their features in the shadows of the trees, and they seemed right at home in the forest like they'd been living in it their whole life, there was a leather bag slung over only one shoulder and a small shield on one arm, I could see a scabbard for a sword, or a large dagger really but for them it was a sword, my heart swelled at the sight of another person, child or not they only had two legs and two arms, and no giant mandibles that could cleave my leg clean off my body.
Not that I dislike my ants’ company, it's just unnerving occasionally to spend time with them, their bodies move in ways that mine can't and the references they make trying to draw comparisons between ant things and people things, it's just exhausting. Also, a sword and shield? How far along is the technology in this place? I guess Onyx could sense the excitement I was feeling and he came scuttling with vigor out of the entrance, and poked his head over the lip a few feet from me. I guess the child was watching me as well, because the moment Onyx crested the bowl their sword was drawn and they were barreling in my direction.
“HEY, HEY YOU, LOOK OUT. BEHIND YOU” the child was bellowing between breaths and sounding a bit too gruff for a child, I glanced at Onyx and he looked up at me quizzically, almost as if asking me to let him charge, mandibles splayed. I nod my head over my shoulder in the direction of the dungeon and Onyx relaxes his mandibles. I can sense a feeling almost like disappointment over the bond but He shuffles off obediently after closing his mandibles.
The kid running my way nearly trips when seeing our interaction, I guess a man in strange clothes seemingly speaking telepathically to a giant ant isn’t exactly commonplace around here. I can now see that it is a he, and he has slowed to a brisk walk in my direction instead of his full-bore sprint. I stand up to my full height, keeping my back straight to appear taller, and cross my arms, the orange wisps of mana catching the rays of afternoon sunlight and the gentle breeze wicking them away.
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“Can I help you sir?” I ask in as flat a tone as I can manage, hiding my eagerness to talk with someone humanoid, and hoping that my first interaction with someone doesn’t end in bloodshed. Getting a better look at him, he comes up to about my waist in height and he has stubby pointed ears that are nearly hidden under his shaggy curly brown hair. I try not to stare but I'm losing the mental battle with myself.
“What was that?” he asks in a disbelieving tone and stopping a foot or so outside the grassy ring. “Do you have a Dire ant as your familiar?” he says looking past me trying to see down into the bowl, but his height prevents him from seeing much even while craning his neck.
“Something like that.” I reply, trying to avoid the question with a nervous feeling creeping up my neck. I decided to use discern on him, his features look like that of a middle aged man, the crows feet creased into his eyes and wrinkles on his forehead make him look like he has spent a very long time smiling, and there's a friendly air about him, like a greeter at a supermarket.
“Level 48 Halfling, sword and shield specialist. ”Aspects: Fortuna, Tenebris,
That was the only information available with discern, which was concerning in its own right, no big long paragraph on what a halfling is. The obvious elephant in the room though was that this guy is level 48, I'm only just about to pass into level six so I get the feeling if I get on his bad side he could wipe the floor with me, and he has two aspects I've never seen. It's at this point that he actually starts looking me over, and his face goes flat as he takes a few steps back when he sees the wisps of mana curling away from my uniform and skin, tightening his grip on his sword.
“Say friend, why don't you relax a bit, I'm not planning on causing trouble for you.” I say putting my hands up and gesturing in a passive manner and taking a step back myself, granted the deepish undertones in my voice make it sound almost like a threat and I mentally wince. Not good, I’m not sure what to do to defuse the situation. Not easing his grip he squints his eyes at me.
“What are you.” he says plainly, not exactly directing it as a question.
“I don't think that's very important right now, do you have a name friend?”
“No, I think it's very important.” He insists and leans forward slightly, I can see the mana swirling around his blade building density.
“You're kind of putting me between a rock and a hard place pal, I doubt who I am is anything of use to you.” I say, trying to act nonchalant but I'm racking my brain for solutions.
“Answer the question, this is your last chance.” The venom in his words is palpable and I don't know what to do so I tell the truth.
“I’m a dungeon avat-”
“Bullshit, don't fuck with me, dungeons only manifest things like wolves or brundels, now what are you.” I'm at a loss for words, I just give him a questioning look,
“Frankly, I don’t know what else to tell you. Believe me or don’t but that was the truth, don't insult me and claim I'm not what I am. And what the hell is a brundel?” This throws him for a loop and I see the hesitation in his face for a moment as he thinks, he obviously wasn’t expecting me to push back I guess, especially with him obviously having the upper hand in this one sided interrogation, and I certainly don't know what dark corner in my mind that retort came from.
“Fine, prove it.” he says, the venom in his words still prevalent and ignoring my question about the brundel. I close my eyes and focus, still have 60 mana and if it keeps me from dying it's worth it, but if I over exhaust myself and don't convince him it could spell my death, again. I begin materializing an antwing bottle and inside I put a mote of Ignis, suspending it in a dense cloud of mana so it doesn’t jostle around and explode. Neat little trick I discovered last night by forcing high density mana into an enclosed space and dropping a pebble into it, of course the mote constantly consumes mana to grow so it wont stay floating forever but skimming over the info I have on them, a century or two to fully grow at a slow pace, it should be fine in the bottle for a couple weeks at least, well, maybe a week, the bottle also slowly leaks mana due to the nature of mana itself, slowly diffusing through the material over time, but I digress. The cloud holds anything less mana dense than itself in the center of the container and the amount of mana needed to hold a mote of Ignis was ridiculous, probably about three points, right now I could probably manifest a half ton of rock for that. I felt the sealed bottle land in my hand and checked my mana again, 4 of 75, shit, if this doesn’t go well then I won't have enough to defend myself. I open my eyes and the halfling is just standing there slack jawed, and no longer holding his sword in an aggressive manner. My confidence in surviving goes up a little and I toss him the bottle, he catches it with his sword hand I wince as I hear it knock against the grip. To my credit the mana stasis field is doing its job perfectly and the mote does not explode from the rough catch. He takes the bottle and holds it up to the light and lets out a long whistle while slightly shaking the bottle making the contents rotate in lazy spins.
“That's one hell of a parlor trick, is this a pure mote of Ignis?” The question sounds genuine and friendly as if the little standoff we just had didn't happen.
“As pure as I can manage, I extracted it from a lumen crystal.”
“High quality then, fine I believe you. And for the record, I still don't trust you.” the halfling says flatly, as he tosses it back to me. I catch it in one hand and toss it back in one fluid motion to his confusion, “Understandable, the feeling is mutual, go ahead and keep it, I already spent the mana on it and I won’t gain anything back for consuming my own creations, a lesson I learned the hard way somewhat early on.” The halfling just lets out an amused huff.
“Well that's mighty generous of you dungeon. Here, take this as an offering then, to recoup some mana.” He says as he slips the bottle into his pocket and out of the same he pulls a little mesh bag and throws it to me, I can see the mana weaving in and out of it, and as I catch it I use discern
“Mana root tea, uncommon, average quality.
This tea is made from dried mana root, an uncommon plant that grows along clean running rivers and collects ambient mana storing it in its roots and stems, the leaves and stem are toxic but the roots are perfectly fine for consumption after boiling. When dried it can be brewed into a revitalizing tea or smoked from a pipe to give a short burst of energy.
“Much obliged. But why give me mana if you don't trust me?” I say, still looking at the bag of tea.
“Well, if you wanted me dead you could have sicked your pet ant on me already or spiked me with some stone spears or whatever you fancy doing to kill people.”
“Ants.” I correct, “And you're the first person I've been able to talk to that doesn't have six legs or mandibles that can sever an arm, I’d rather try and negotiate to figure out where I am rather than outright kill. I've already had plenty of that in my life.” I say the last part quietly to myself not thinking of the implications of my company.
“You talk to your ants? “ he says incredulously. And I can feel the judgment in his voice
“Yes, and they can talk back, frankly they are a slightly more well mannered than you are being right now.'' I cross my arms for effect while speaking. After saying this he takes a small leather notebook and what looks like a burnt pencil out of his pocket and starts scribbling something then stops and eyes me suspiciously.
“Wait, you just said I'm the first person you've met, how can you be reminiscent of past bloodshed.” his arms are tense and he still hasn't sheathed his dagger-sword
“That is a very.. personal story. And I don't know you well enough to elaborate on it.” I can feel a cold sweat on my back as I attempt to dodge a very fast moving bullet but I seem to land unscathed when he just frowns at my words but relaxes his arms without saying anything, I unfold my arms again and hold up the bag of tea dissolving it in my palm, both of us watching as the bag disintegrates and the particles wisping off disappear before the wind can take them.
”Minty with a bitter aftertaste.” I muse to myself not really thinking, then I close my eyes and focus on my mana mana 28 of 75. Not bad.
“You can taste things by consuming them?
“Yeah… It's been an interesting experience so far, some flavors I'd rather not have tasted,” thinking back to the dire ants and how the overwhelmingly pepper taste made me scrunch my face and want to take a bite out of a bar of soap. “I can't recommend Dire ant as an appetizer.”
The halfling let out a hearty laugh and shook his head, “I can imagine.”
“You've seemed tense this whole time,” I say as I sit back on the ground, “I take it that most other dungeons aren't quite as apprehensive to fight?”
“Ha, no, most dungeons aren't, I can't say I’ve ever heard of a dungeon that is so well tempered let alone one that can speak,” he stops and looks around seemingly for something but I can't tell what.
“Nor have I heard of a dungeon that can manifest its avatar outside its walls.” I look over my shoulder to the mountain then back at the halfling.
“Well you're standing about two feet outside my domain, this whole area is me.” I say bluntly, and gesturing to the sprouting grass around me not realizing it was something of an oddity until his eyes widen, noticing the perfect half circle of grass sprouting around the mountain's foot.
“Now that is interesting, a dungeon that has claimed the space outside an enclosed area.” he stopped to think for a moment and jotted some more things down in his booklet. ”I was an adventurer for a long time before I retired, and in all my delves into the depths, dungeons have always been restricted to enclosed areas, in one case it was the ruins of an old castle, and the dungeons sphere of influence was limited to inside the buildings and walls, it had no power over the open air in its courtyard even though it was completely surrounding it.” I take in the information and mull it over, interesting.
“You don't look very retired.” I say, gesturing to his sword and shield. He looks down at them and his face flickers with emotion and he puts his dagger into its scabbard, and touches a ring he has on a thin chain around his neck,
“Things have become.. Complicated, recently.” He says with a somber tone.
“My apologies, I didn’t mean to dredge up painful memories if I did.” I try to sound sincere but I'm not sure the tone was right.
“It's fine, " he says and looks back towards the tree line rubbing his chin. “I best be heading off, I want to get to Hoagen by nightfall and the sun is already in the latter half of the sky. It's been a pleasure, dungeon. I'm sure you have more important things to do than sit around chatting with an old hobbit like me.” he begins to turn but I ask him to wait and he looks at me questioningly with a raised eyebrow.
In my hand I form a medallion made of quartz with wood inlay, and is carved with a circular weave of knots resonating with my mana and vibrating softly. Oddly it doesn't seem to take any of my mana to create so I feel it should be fine given I'm running on fumes at the moment.
“I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this but there isn't exactly a rule book for me to follow. Take this, if it's on your person my ants shouldn't attack you, Unless provoked of course. I'd love to have another chat if you pass through here again.” I don't know how I know that my critters won't attack him while he has it, or how I knew how to make it, but I guess it's just part of that dungeon knowledge I have which presents itself when it becomes relevant. I flick the medallion over to him and he catches it. Tilting his head and then holding it to his ear his ears twitch a little.
“A singing medallion. And it's beautiful.'' He holds it up to the sun and the light pours through into a rainbow of colors upon his face. "Quite the token of trust" he says, eyeing me suspiciously for only a moment before dropping his gaze. “I’ll be hunting a band of goblins in the area so I'm sure I'll be through again, brew us some of that tea next time and we can talk for as long as you want.” he says with a grin and pockets the medallion while giving a slight bow. I give a deep nod in his direction as he turns to walk away, I switch over to my ethereal form to begin recharging my mana.
“Oh, a brundel is…” He looks back to where I was sitting and there is nothing there.
“Never mind then.” he says, giving a quick look around before returning to his walk, making way towards the river to follow it I presume.