After making sure the room has enough air inside, I create another Natatory Wasp. This time it doesn't suffocate, quickly twitching its antennas, flying around, and exploring the small first room of my dungeon.
Something shifts inside my core as the Wasp gains life, the generation of mana slowing down. This feeling is similar to what I felt as a tree when the day turned to the night and I lost all that sweet energy from the Sun. Right now, my core is trying to grip the world and my surroundings, yet it has no power to do it.
I have to quickly expand to put my creatures outside and use the Title; I don't like this sensation, and I don't like being inefficient. At least my Trait is shrouding my core since I now have a creature.
Seeing the Wasp still alive, I create another 9; a few sterile female workers, a few males, and one fertile female. To make the Queen, I have to spend 5 mana instead of 1, so it's not a good idea to create more of them for now. I don't have a place to let them nest, not enough food to feed the larvae, and no information of what is going on outside the first room. And even if the Queen is much larger than the others at 30 cm in length, the cost is just not worth it. The males cost slightly more mana than the sterile females as well, but the difference is not so steep, and, at 25 cm in length, they are proportionally bigger. At the very least I learned that a single pattern can cost differently based on gender and other characteristics.
The Natatory Wasps all start to observe each other, with some looking actually hostile toward the others. Seeing that, I give them the order to collaborate before they attack and try to kill one another; I can't risk losing all my defenders like this.
They reluctantly stop what they are doing and begin to examine the room instead. A few female workers are drawn to the bits of wood covering my core on the bottom of the hollow sphere, the queen mating with one of the males instead.
I let them do as they wish, only ordering them to not touch my heart or make a nest inside this room. I don't want any accidents to happen nor do I want them to stay here after I expand my dungeon a bit.
I ignore the droning sound of their wings echoing inside the closed space and spend the remaining mana to finish the tunnel, providing the Wasps the chance to go outside. A few of them are already within the carved tunnel, and I give the first to reach the opening of my dungeon the order to check out the glowing moss. I want to see if I can gain the pattern for it.
The creature reaches out of the opening and lowers itself, touching the plant on the edge with its mouth. I don't think it knows how to kill something like the moss. Making sure the Wasp is still inside my domain, I direct it to consume a stem; I doubt it can sting and poison something like a plant to death.
The creature freezes before hesitantly chewing some, and after a few seconds, I receive the message and knowledge I was waiting for. The Wasp keeps twitching in place for a few minutes. I hope it will not die from something like this.
Congratulations! You have acquired a pattern, Luminous Moss.
Luminous Moss (Common): This species of moss can be barely recognized as a Common creature, and if not for the minuscule chance of Evolution, it would be a mundane species instead. It usually grows in dark and humid places, such as burrows and caverns, and it is often referred to as Goblin gold. Non-sapient humanoid monsters like goblins and kobolds discover small rocks covered by the Luminous Moss and collect them for their nests. When adventurers or hunters slay them and loot their caves or dens, they find the greenish glowing baubles and think of the small stones covered in moss as precious jewels. Only to be disappointed after they come out of the dark tunnels and the stone loses its luminescence in the daylight, their prized loot exposing itself as a useless rock covered in Luminous Moss.
Interesting.
I quickly create a small patch of Luminous Moss near the end of my tunnel, and I notice it needs much fewer mana than the Wasps to gain life. I don't even need to attune the mana to a specific element as well.
It is not as impressive as the Wasps, and pretty useless for defending myself.
Well, not every creature has to be exciting or powerful.
As a tree, one of the few things I dedicated myself to was keeping the ecosystem around me healthy and diverse. Many of my species in the years reflected that role; always making me a sort of central figure that positively influenced its surroundings with its aura. I guess that even as a dungeon core, this didn't change very much. I'm just taking a more direct approach than before.
Because of all those years of experience, I know how critical small creatures and plants are. Back then, I quickly realized that the world is a complex web of Life.
Plants and small insects are the producers and decomposers that feed the primary consumers like birds, frogs, and herbivores. Some of those are food for secondary consumers like large rodents and bigger birds. And at the top there is an apex predator that hunts large herbivores or some secondary consumers.
Plants, however, cannot grow without fungi that decompose organic matter and release nutrients within the soil; woods would be pretty quickly covered and suffocated in dead plant matter without the little things as well. Yet, even fungi cannot live without plants or dead animals since they feed on them.
Everything is connected within a woodland, a complex and incredible order. And while I don't have much experience managing anything else, I saw the same thing happen in swamps and rivers just outside my grove. And if possible, I want the same for my dungeon as well. I want it to be a place of Life, not some dull rooms with starving monsters.
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Spurred by my thoughts and plans, I start to pay more attention to what is happening, and I see that the Wasps are curiously watching the outside world from the hole but not going farther yet. I don't understand what is happening until I realize that they are barely inside my domain but not pushing even a feeler outside of it.
Interesting.
It seems like my creatures will instinctively stay inside my domain until I order them otherwise. This is great. I don't want to lose them just because I wasn't paying constant attention. Yet, right now, I need them outside.
I know that I will not lose my link with them if the Wasps return inside my dungeon every hour or so. And I can just make sure they do so. I almost order them to spread outside when a thought I separated from myself stops me. It had the job of double-checking my decisions and telling me if I did something that could affect me negatively. And absorbing the knowledge, I realize why it held me back.
There are creatures outside, and if the Wasps kill them while they are not inside my dungeon, I will not gain their patterns for a long time. Who knows how far they can reach in search of food, killing everything they meet. And I really want every single pattern I can get my roots on as quickly as possible...I don't have roots anymore. Get my dungeon on? No...Ah, get my creatures on. They are the equivalents of my roots and leaves right now.
In the end, I think it is better if I let the Wasps go only as and where I grow my domain. I can go much faster now that I don't have to fight against my old wood, and the way is free of matter struggling back.
I expanded inside my first room in a day or so, and it was only air as well; I should be able to do the same again. And while my mana regeneration is going to be slowed down a lot for this time, I think it is still better than risk letting the Wasps kill everything around me and lose those patterns.
My immediate future planned; I start to expand my dungeon as soon as my mana regenerates. I cannot see over my domain, so I don't know what is out there, but I only meet my old wood as a material and nothing else. I am pretty sure I'm still inside my old trunk at this point. If so, why is there moss and air inside?
As I keep going, I have a lot of time to observe the other creatures inside my domain. I can tell that those small insects are not my creations, and my instincts push me to eliminate everything that is not mine inside the dungeon.
I don't have any problem with that. This is not Corruption. It is not killing everything around me just to become more powerful alone. My creations are alive too, and they are no different than any other creature; they deserve to live as they want. They are Life as well. And while I'm not going out of my way to eliminate every single creature that is not mine, if my monsters can compete and win against anything else, I will not interfere.
While I would like to send a Wasp to kill some of them and gain their pattern since they are inside my dungeon, something else is bothering me. On the other side of the now open tunnel, they were crawling around since 10 hours ago, yet, I did not gain any kind of pattern for all that time. Maybe none of them died, but as I don't have enough mana to spurge and create them anyway, I want to check something else.
I continue to expand my domain in a half-sphere for two hours and slowly notice the wood curve on the sides. I am probably inside a vertical tunnel from how the walls are bending and how the insects are moving.
Were there always shafts inside my trunk that I didn't even notice?
It could be. My perception originated from my entire body as a tree, so I could not check how it was inside. I even had problems with pests a time or two, but I could ask my children to take care of them pretty easily. Maybe those carved the tunnels?
Something immediately grabs my perception while I keep thinking and expanding; a tiny mundane spider caught and killed a mosquito inside my dungeon. Yet, I did not gain a pattern for it.
Ugh. The message about being able to obtain attuned patterns of creatures slain inside my domain gave me hope, and within the knowledge I received wasn't specified if my creations had to be the ones killing. I had an inkling it would be this way, though. There is no free growth in the world; every nutrient and water has to be searched for with roots, and every bit of sunlight has to be caught with leaves.
This is how the Akashic Records always was.
To confirm this, I send a Wasp where I see the satisfied spider resting inside the shaft. Fortunately, it didn't run away from my domain after its meal. My monster quickly kills with one bite and devours it. The tiny creature did not even have any time to react; it was just a mundane animal, after all.
A moment later, I understand how to create it. However, as I expected, there is no message or anecdotes from the Akashic Records. They do not have a link with creatures that cannot Evolve. At least I can still produce it since the pattern works as the Natatory Wasps' one.
Out of curiosity, I create the spider outside my first room. The amount of mana necessary to form the small thing is almost irrelevant, so they can at least work as food for the Wasps until I obtain a pattern for a Common prey, even if the mana cost will pretty quickly add up if I need to create all of them.
I leave it to do as it wants, but a male Wasp is quicker and immediately catches and eats it whole. If the spider didn't immediately try to run or hide between the moss, it didn't deserve to live. Survival of the fittest and the Akashic Records are the only true rules in the world.
I soon forget about the dead spider and enter into a trance again, leaving a big portion of my consciousness to check things inside my domain and another one devoted to expanding inside the shaft in all directions. Soon I will have to decide if I want to go up or down, but until I reach the other side and confirm this is indeed a shaft, I want to keep my options open. And this is the best way to have my creatures outside the first spherical room as soon as possible.
As I think that, I stop everything I'm doing, my whole being shuddering in shock. Why did my other thoughts not inform me?
All that efficiency and time wasted just because I'm a fool... I lost hours of more mana regen for no reason at all.
I order the queen and two females still lingering inside the room where my core is to fly out. As they enter the small tunnel, something inside my core shifts, finally taking hold of reality, and I start to generate 50% more mana than before.
Damn it! I was right.
While I gained the Title only after finishing the tunnel and reaching the shaft, that doesn't mean that part of my dungeon is my first room. Only the hollow sphere is, and I just have to make sure there are no creatures inside it.
Damn.
While the Wasps might be a little bit cramped there, some having to stay over one another, I'm being much more efficient this way. They can wait for a bit until I expand inside the shaft.
To calm myself after this immense blunder, I start to grow my dungeon again. The quicker regenerating mana almost tastes like touching a rotting corpse with my roots.
After noticing my huge mistake, I arrange a few other small consciousness fragments to observe and reflect on what I am doing. I don't think this can help me much, but it can at least give me some peace of mind. Apparently, even with all of this focus, there are still some big things I can miss out on. I can still be negligent and not perfectly efficient. Or maybe my thoughts are too floaty since I do not have enough mana right now.
If this happens to the bigger part of my thoughts, it can happen to the smaller pieces as well, maybe even more. I will have to pay more attention to what is happening inside my dungeon; constantly check if I am truly using everything I can do and know to the most potential.