The territory of Valterra Unok’Davaas had expanded rapidly and quickly, taking over a large portion of the shaded area that lay under the eastern section of Calamvor’s porch. Home to quite a few different kinds of insects and other small critters, the now Aether-rich land drew the gaze of other such creatures.
The first to arrive were the ants. They had sensed the territory of the third floor and had come to investigate but now they encountered an enlarged domain and many other contenders for the same land. Those contenders had no inclination to share the space and so the ants went to war. Their conflict sparked a larger engagement with various other insects and tiny mammals refusing to submit when offered such a rare chance for growth.
Mammals fought against mammals, insects against insects, and insects against mammals. All were seeking to carve a place for themselves within this new environment. It was within this chaos that the ants stumbled upon the pheromone trails of their sister ants, leading deeper into the territory.
Upon following that trail they found an even richer land with but a single guardian. Great and terrible though it was, the ants could feel the richness of the Aether beyond. So they obeyed their instincts, laying a large pheromone trail before leaving to gather more forces. They did so by returning to the colony and relaying the information there.
As ants returned they read the pheromones and began streaming forth. The might of the colony was turned toward a single purpose as their queen had commanded. They would take this guardian’s domain for themselves and whatever lay beyond.
The larger turf war continued unabated as more and more creatures sensed the Aether involved and flooded to claim a piece. Throughout all of this the snake guardian watched carefully, dealing with any creature that came too close. Most of the creatures were content to battle it out over the territory outside of his domain.
The majority of the creatures were mundane and while they could sense the Aether and their instincts cried out for a place within the territory, they were rather blind to the richer stream that led deeper. The ants only knew because of the pheromone trails laid down by their sisters at the moment of their deaths.
It was these pheromones that saw an uptick in the snake guardian's duties. First one at a time and then two at a time, ants began to approach the entrance to the dungeon proper. These invaders found a quick death at the fangs of the green snake, a simple bite or flex of sinuous coils being enough to deal with them. At least for the initial invasions.
When they started arriving in larger numbers, it was then that the snake began to truly fight. The grass was quickly flattened in a short area as the combat area expanded. Ants were crushed and thrown off but they were persistent, attacking without regard for their own lives. Panicked, the guardian instinctively called out to the one who had created him.
POV Valterra Unok’Davaas
This was taking forever.
Valterra had been “breathing” for the better part of half a day and had only found how deep the basement was.
Spoiler alert! It was really really deep. Like, feet in the double digits deep.
On the other hand, the Core had discovered that if he went about claiming the stone rather than simply breathing Aether into the air he could get about much quicker. By using the stone he had previously claimed and breathing directly from that spot he could claim more stone even faster. He had to pause now and again to get used to his larger dungeon body but it was easier this time since he was simply claiming more territory in one direction rather than having it balloon outwards every which way.
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Once again he found that the more territory he claimed, the more Aether he needed to draw in from the outside to join the vortex above his pedestal column. His new Name somewhat mitigated the strain but the details of how it did so were lost to him. So he ignored it and continued doggedly claiming more and more stone from the basement floor, walls, and ceiling.
A couple days later he felt his mind sag in relief.
He had done it, namely, he had claimed all the stone a few inches deep surrounding the entirety of the basement. It was obscenely long and convoluted going ever deeper down into the earth. It even had side passages full of stuff, stuff that would be ruined if he just simply poured water on all of it.
So, even though it had taken still more time, he had sealed off some of the more interesting places, meaning to come back to them later. He also felt bloated as a torrent of Aether now flooded through his first rooms and joined the raging storm against his Aether Funnel. It had been necessary in order for him to claim his new territory but now that Aether was filling him up a little too rapidly.
That said, he was a little oblivious to everything right now, exhaustion pulling at his mind. Well, exhaustion might be overstating it, it wasn’t like he had a physical body that could get tired. It was more like his mind was tired from the same repetitive motions.
Towards the end, he even thought he heard squeaks from some high wooden contraptions he hadn’t claimed. Valterra really couldn’t be bothered to check. Shrugging off the fog, the Core looked inward, reaching toward the next thing he needed, his Authority over the basic elements.
Valterra had been thinking long and hard about how to fill up his new room with the water needed for his Framework as he claimed his new territory. That was when he remembered his Name had properties he hadn’t explored yet. This Authority thing took some figuring out but if you changed Aether in subtle ways and then matched frequencies with an element’s natural authority to burn, or be wet, and so on then you could simply summon the element out of thin air.
Or Aether rather.
Learning how to summon elements while also claiming stone had been a stretch but he had done it. Now he just had to get rid of all this Aether and maybe feel less bloated in the process.
Summoning the frequency he wanted, Valterra began to feed the Aether into it until water began to drip steadily out. Having another idea to make it go faster, he pushed the majority of his Aether storm out into the basement and then synchronized it with the Authority of water. Almost immediately water began to gush forth in thousands of droplets that began to rain down.
Pleased with this development, Vaterra locked it into place before beginning to harden the bottom and the walls of his new giant floor. It would take awhile but already he felt less bloated as the stream of incoming Aether coalesced around his pedestal before being funneled off to fuel his contained miniature weather pattern.
He left the basement after he had finished hardening what he needed to before turning his attention to his wider dungeon body. And not a moment too soon either as a clarion call of alarm from his third floor’s guardian swept over him. When he went to check he found the poor thing swamped with ants, the little insects biting at the snake's body, their numbers mitigating the reptile’s strength.
A little alarmed Valterra immediately sent a summons to his other guardians who responded with alacrity. The mouse bounded up the tunnel from the first floor and entered the fray immediately while the Danian Queen sent two of her newly hatched Danian Nobles. When they entered the conflict it gave the group some much-needed breathing room.
Against the veritable flood of ants, however, it wasn’t quite enough. So Valterra sent for more help. With little bass squeaks of their own, the younger mice flooded forward to engage with the ants and though they were still young and growing the added numbers were a big help. Eventually, the ants began to retreat, leaving their dead behind but something told Valterra that this wouldn’t be the last time he saw them.
He almost flinched, therefore, when the whole host of his defenders lit up in golden light. Well, not the Danians which was interesting because as he watched, he noticed the flood of Aether they received was distributed through their Aether Conduits and then left them. He had to put his curiosity on hold, however, as a screen popped up in front of him.
Valterra froze before excitement bubbled up inside of him. What was this?