Back inside the dungeon, I curse as I realize I left my light stick leaning on the wall at the entrance, whenever I switch between my ethereal form and my avatar or vise-versa my position is reset at my sanctum. I don't have enough mana to manifest a lumen crystal big enough to give me light to see granted I don’t really need it since I know where everything is, and it would cost even more mana than that to pick up and transport it using my ethereal form, I consume the meat, bone and scale scraps that onyx had left me from the lizard he caught as I had requested but it didn't give much in terms of mana.

I check on my ants and Cardinal is tending to her young as any dutiful mother would, all eighty-ish of them. She has also lost her wings, which I was a little sad about but she seems elated over it, being a sign of her fully becoming a queen. Onyx is outside the dungeon again, he doesn't seem to enjoy being underground too much but puts up with it to stay close to Cardinal. Currently, he is moving somewhere along his small patrol routes from the base of the mountain and down to the tree line, leaving a scent trail claiming the large crescent shaped clearing as his and Cardinal's territory. I will have to ask him to pick up my walking stick on his way back when he enters my domain. I assume he hasn’t also lost his wings due to his subspecies trait of retaining them and common ants also having them, I wonder which traits will be lost between them when the lil’uns are born, I'll find out soon enough I’m sure,

The days have ticked by as I lounge about, teaching Onyx how to play chess when he isn't busy and making additional small rooms and hallways, they are basically all empty aside from a few where Onyx and Cardinal have stashed the woodpile and fungus sacks, separately this time to avoid another accident. The fungus sacks are actually starting to sprout fine little hairs and the buds of pale mushroom caps so I assume they are doing fine. I have also started decorating my sanctum. There is now a desk with a chair, a wardrobe I've filled with copies of my uniform that I have made in different colors, though it's only limited to the woodland, desert, and snow patterns, from my memories along with the accompanying accessories like holsters and such.

Next to the wardrobe is a tool rack where I keep the infused hammer that I, for some reason, can’t absorb now that it is a “magical item”, hopefully I can fix that with an attribute, and my light stick. Preferably I'll have more things to put in it soon but for now I will have to do with the sparse pickings. On the opposite wall. I have made a small cooking area of sorts and a stone kettle, where I have been brewing the tea I got from that hobbit a couple days ago. It has a pleasant aroma and taste and on the plus side, it allows me to regenerate mana for a short time after drinking it while in my avatar; although it usually just equals out to the amount of mana I spent on generating the water and tea in the first place. After a bit of testing I have found that I do not need to sleep while in my avatar, however, I do need food and water to keep the form stable, otherwise it begins draining mana. Not to mention the hunger pains that come with it are horrible.

I have idly been carving out giant-ant sized corridors between all the rooms, embellishing them with my Celtic designs even though it is likely nobody will ever see them, but I see them so I may as well. The ant-ways are still relatively small compared to a regular sized hallway and I’m hoping to make it so my army will be able to traverse the dungeon quickly and with ease, preferably faster than any dungeon divers that come to visit with less than likable intent. Once they pupate, of course. The first batch of eggs hatched three days after Cardinal laid them, which was unexpected, apparently, according to her, she can lay a batch of between sixty and a hundred eggs in one go every week but can pause her ovulation if it is required.

While I like the thought of having a massive army of murder ants to protect me, we simply don't have the room for it so I asked her to hold off on another clutch until we can expand. She wasn't the biggest fan of the idea but said she understood. I carved out a long rectangular room connected to hers to turn into a nursery of sorts yesterday and she has already covered it about halfway in silk cocoon cells lining the walls, it's very similar to a wasp nest and I'm starting to think they are some kind of chimeric compound between the two, given the way that their behavior blends occasionally. As they hatched, Cardinal placed them into their own cocoons separated by a thick wall of silk, because apparently, if they are left to their own devices without separation they will eat each other, the thought of which makes me shutter and gag a little but that's nature for you, completely unforgiving and cruel.

After segregating the little cannibals she fed each one by hand, claw rather, with fresh meat caught by Onyx and I supplied them with a few large slabs of lizard and rabbit to help lighten his load which he was grateful for. The little grubby bastards are almost cute with their bond sigil stamped on their foreheads if you can get past the glistening moist undulating bodies, beady soul-puncturing eyes, and sharp interlocking rake-like teeth. They also all chitter happily and bob their little black heads up and down whenever I walk past which gives me chills, like a demonic chorus of imps waving and calling for Satan's attention, Cardinal and Onyx both insist it's happy chittering, but I'm convinced that they know I'm made of meat and they want a taste. I still can’t understand toddler ant-speak so I’ll just leave the translation to the pros. Now Sitting in my sanctum after my trip to Hell's daycare I use discern on my core.

Level 8 Unnamed Rare Dungeon Core — Aspects: Terra II, Ignis I, Vita II, Mors I, — Mana Volume: 63 of 75 Mana Density: 94 of 100 — Attribute Aether: 3 Attributes: Avatar Form I, Mana I, Metalworking I, Gem Crafting I, Alchemy I, Bonded Creatures: 86, Named Creatures 2

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Just as I expected my bonded creature count has skyrocketed, and I've gained a few levels from Onyx’s constant hunting. If he kills something outside my sphere of influence I only get about half the experience I normally would have, and it has been inefficient for me to consume what he brings back and generate an equal sized slab of meat for them to use instead, so he has started trimming the useable meat off the corpses and then leaving the remains for me to consume, maximizing the meat to mana ratio.

I have gained a few more attribute points but I haven't spent them yet, as I'm trying to save up for level ten, I'm hoping that some attributes are level locked and I want to have a small bank of funds to unlock the higher tier ones. On a side note, the size of the diggable area for my dungeon also seems to go up exponentially as I level, my area is about the size of a football field now but I can't quite tell since I only have the visible area outside to measure without gouging out massive rooms and tunnels into the mountain roots. I have been frequently going on walks outside because it’s calming and I like the sounds of the nearby forest, although yesterday someone I couldn't see tried shooting me with a bow and arrow or maybe it as a crossbow, it narrowly missed me, bouncing off of a rock and flinging itself outside of my domain, I was able to get back inside before anything bad happened to this body, I'm not sure if I will have to waste another attribute point on it if it dies but I would like to not find out if I can help it. Also, the appearance of other ants in the nearby forest has all but disappeared, Onyx’s doing if I had to guess. He has expanded his scent markers clear down to the river according to him, so it looks like I have quite the large domain to marshal over, even if I can’t control the large majority of it.

Another two days have passed, and the little grubs are beginning to seal themselves into their cocoons one by one at a steady rate, not that I'm upset about it, they are the stuff of nightmares. In other news, Onyx had what I initially thought was a strange request, he wanted me to build a tree or some kind of scaffolding for him to build with outside, I didn't understand why until I recalled that his Subspecies prefers building “hive structures” outdoors instead of digging into rock and stone and he has been acting a bit skittish lately and has been spending more and more time outside like the underground air is acid, so on the mountain side of the bowl I built a large stone tree for him, it's about the size of a California redwood so to say it's big is a bit of an understatement. As it turns out my domain extends VERY far into the air above my dungeon, which is something I hadn't even thought about if I'm being honest, and I haven't been able to find the top yet, I’m not exactly a fan of heights so I don’t plan on finding it any time soon.

The thing took me two nerve-wracking days of floating much higher above the ground than I liked to make it and the inside of the trunk is partially hollow in a spiral so the ants can go straight from inside the dungeon and into the tree like a very tall highway, and I've already carved out a few tunnels for them to use as access. The spiral highway is big enough for me to use to get to the larger lower branches in my avatar but I have a sneaking suspicion I probably won’t be visiting often. The larger branches themselves are also hollow, however I don't think Cardinal will be able to fit in them and Onyx will only be able to barely fit, the smaller worker cast should have no problem though and there are access holes onto the tops of said branches to allow easy access.

I don’t believe Onyx was expecting me to go this far with his request and he was utterly speechless when he saw the finished product. The way he went up to the base of the massive trunk and began tapping on it with his antenna he was happier than a kid in a candy shop with a twenty dollar bill. Of course, I have no idea how he is going to build on it or what he is going to build, but hopefully at least a few of the young ants will possess his trait for building outside hives otherwise Onyx is going to have a very big, very empty, castle all to himself. To see if my gamble paid off I float my way into the nursery where I'm greeted by Cardinal and a whaling cacophony of tiny screeching mouths, I use to discern on the nearest one after feeding it a strip of deer, nearly losing a finger in the process. I have no idea how Onyx managed to catch a twelve-point buck but I'm not complaining about the new rack of antlers above the cooking pit I'm now using to hang my cooking tools.

Female Dire Ant Larva, (sterile) level 1

This is an infantile Dire Ant, after hatching it requires nearly constant care from its mother or siblings as it is mostly helpless aside from its powerful bite and sharp teeth-like growths which it will shed just before weaving its cocoon. It is always ravenously hungry and will starve quickly if its caretakers are unable to provide for it, all sub-adult Dire ant rate of growth is determined by ambient mana density and purity. Larval Dire Ants are able to produce a sturdy silk that their siblings will use to construct colony structures such as fungi garden growing platforms and hanging walkways, in subspecies that build outdoor hive structures this silk will be used as a main building material and foundational glue for support lattices. Dire Ant larvae are often stolen by elves and humans to be farmed for their silk, And later on for alchemical ingredients or food when they begin to pupate.

Note: this subspecies was born bound to a dungeon core, and as such all negative traits are removed, all positive traits are kept, all neutral traits will be mixed

This subspecies is able to mimic its environment using chromatophores in its translucent carapace, in the absence of light its color reverts to its base colors, all members of this subspecies retain the organs necessary for producing silk after leaving adolescence, non royal caste members of this subspecies will pupate with wings and royals will not lose their wings after mating, this subspecies will build both internal nest structures and external hive structures, This subspecies is evenly split between diurnal and nocturnal sleeping patterns.

"What monsters have I just unleashed on this planet." is the only thing I can think before I feel something intrude on my domain.