Waking up to an aquatic worm is a bit jarring.

Honestly, it would have been a lot less jarring had it just been swimming around when I awoke, but...

It most certainly wasn't. In fact, I don't think it could be any closer with itself almost completely covering me.

I mean, I don't blame him. I basically radiate steroids. I don't think anyone would refuse free negative-consequence-proximity-steroids. I know I wouldn't.

And Veteran most certainly wouldn't, considering his new form. His body, now adorned in fish-like scales, was adorned with a small set of fins. Honestly, he was more of an eel or fish than a worm, especially so because he had formed a primitive set of eyes. If you could call them eyes. It was basically skin that was much more receptive to light.

Now that I think about it, that's how eyes were apparently evolved to begin with. That wasn't all that changed, however. His mouth, compared to the four pincers of the grotworms had cut itself down to three pincers, forming a triangle-shaped mouth. Additionally, the pincers were longer and the membrane of the skin was able to completely cover his mouth from water.

Looking at him, a curious thought came to mind. "Does he still survive on land?"

So I ordered him to poke his head out of the water.

And, he seemed fine. So I made him come out fully... And?

No problems. I guess versatility might be the best trait for these worms. Glancing about the dungeon, I checked for any differences. Aside from the grass growing longer, not much changed. There were seven new worms, so I learned natural reproduction does still happen with dungeon monsters. Two more adult worms had died, with no new evolution's so the population was decently stable.

The flower was still un-bloomed, but, it seems to have developed primitive roots and shed most of its former grass-like nature. Perhaps it's in some sort of long metamorphosis. For now?

It would be something to keep an eye on. Floppy is still resting, mostly inactive. I was curious as to why then I remembered some of my past orders. "Don't hurt yourself."

With no orders to dig, and orders to hold back from harm, I gave him but nothing to do and took away his ability to hunt. So, he was mostly just sustaining himself off dungeon mana and waiting. Not wanting to destroy the population of the worms immediately, nor be in danger in case of an enemy, I decided to change his orders.

Firstly, he would dig out a large room. It would not be completely square, in fact, I ordered him to just dig any shape.

I was a bit worried he would not understand complex orders like that, but he seemed to get along quite happily. Quite happily, in fact, chewing away stone at a pace about one-third the speed of myself. While he worked, I adjusted his behavior with three different specific rules.

Firstly, do not hurt yourself digging. Secondly, dig only dirt and stone, and ignore all else. Thirdly, do not harm any dungeon creature without provocations. This way he won't eat something he is not supposed to and won't die a stupid death a brave worm.

Well, I don't know if "Don't hurt yourself" would translate well to self-defense if attacked but I can't really afford to risk it. With expansion settled I begun to-

I stopped myself, sensing something entering the dungeon.

The rabbit. The one who got away. I know it's the same one, I still sense my mana lingering on him.

The fool. Laughing maniacally, I delayed floppy's orders. I had some new ones in mind...

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The rabbit twitched about cautiously. This was the place it had been attacked by an unknown assailant.

But, it was also the place of bountiful and rich mana grass. Its natural survival urges were overtaken with greedy urges for growth and sustenance. To it, the leaves had begun to gray and the cold would come. It had in the past survived several colds, each one extremely difficult, and each one by sustaining off scraps and its own mana.

It was a survivor, and survivors sometimes needed to take risks. Subconsciously, it knew, whatever attack it suffered would not be able to take hold immediately. It had speed. It would not perish.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

All sorts of thoughts just like these were racing in its head as it munched along the edge of the strange hole.

Then, a new thought came to its head. Specifically right after seeing a piece of grass.

THE piece of grass. So mana rich, so long. And only five or so feet into the hole.

It would be quick. Its plan was simple, sprint in and out and eat the piece as it moved.

And so the rabbit moved. And just as it was about to taste victory, the entire roof collapsed. And from that collapse, it saw it.

To the rabbit, it was both a great serpent... And its demise.

And then the rabbit was consumed.

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Floppy ate that rabbit in one bite. Holy shit that was cool. So cool that I almost forgot to order him to spit out the corpse of the strange, scaled rabbit.

I promptly absorbed it too, and it filled me with a whole forty or so points of mana. Realizing that the excess mana would just be released into the dungeon, I quickly summoned twenty more worms around the dungeon. Unfortunately, the rest of the excess mana quickly seeped out of me. That left me with a full pool of mana and the potential to create rabbits of my own. Gazing into my mind, I noted mental blueprints for two new things. A full-scale rabbit for thirty mana, and a recipe for a rabbit infant. Two mana.

Oh. That kind of makes me a bit guilty...

Well, at least I now had five fresh spawned infant rabbits roaming around. I, of course, repaired the roof from floppy's sneak attack. It wasn't aesthetically pleasing. I don't really know why looking pleasant mattered though. Maybe I was some sort of designer or something before I died.

But, my focus should be on the rabbits. Specifically, because there are many creatures in my lovely hole with baby rabbit-sized mouths. So I ordered the entire population to ignore the rabbits.

Mostly because they were fucking adorable. Even though they had scales, just like their parents, they were very basic and barely gave and protection.

What was protecting them? A thick layer of fluff and fur that made them look three times the size.

Just looking at them erodes my manliness and leaves me a dawing mess of a sentient rock. These guys are dangerous!

They received their own orders as well; eat anything but the flower. The flower was a bit of a pet project and I don't want to see it get eaten before it blooms.

Still though... Daw...

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A thought came to my mind as I stared at the rabbits.

Where will I hide them if something big invades? And so, I set out to start digging out mini burrows into the walls.

The holes would be wide enough for a full-grown rabbit to fit into, but not enough for anything bigger. I can't let the infant creatures be slain in my dungeon, it would be a waste. I doubt that children can really evolve anyways.

I have a hypothesis about that, specifically because I tried to fuel mana into an infant worm and it only made it grow into an adult, rather than an infant grotworm. So my conclusion is to protect the children. After finishing three burrows around my humble little hole, I tried something new.

Rather than give orders, I gave suggestions. Simple mental recommendations. The rabbits seemed to twitch at the information, then, some went into holes while others continued grazing. So I can communicate with statements and thoughts.

Neat.

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I continued to watch the rabbits. For purely scientific purposes. At some point, all of the rabbits had entered a burrow out of curiosity before returning to graze. Additionally, they seemed to be quite amicable to each other. Three had taken control of one burrow, and the other two took their own burrows. One of the solo rabbits drew most of my attention, however.

If female rabbits had balls, this rabbit's would be bigger than its entire body. I call her "Bitey" because she had the sheer gall to walk up and eat grass near Floppy mid dig. That's not all she did, however. After he shuffled a pile of dirt her way, she snorted and charged. Biting right into him, or at least attempting, she lit her face on fire. I barely stopped floppy from flattening her as she rolled around in the grass trying to put out the fire on her face.

It took me dropping a whole small puddle on top of her to put her out. During the whole process I was laughing which made me feel a bit guilty but...

It was totally hilarious. I didn't give her any orders not to do that again, but I did give a suggestion.

Maybe not attack something much bigger than you.

I don't really think she needed it after that but better safe than sorry. After that sheer gall, I had decided to create a mana trickle to her, the other solo rabbit, and the biggest of the three rabbit clan. Any more and I would completely stifle my mana generation so I held back on anything else. With nothing else of note happening, I continued to watch the rabbits.

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The flower bloomed! Its bud popped open, revealing a nearly pure white flower. The only other color was the green of the stem and several small traces of black lines on the flower petals themselves. Admiring it for a moment, I then consumed it, claiming the flower itself and its seeds as recipes.

The seeds? One mana. The flower itself? A whole fifteen. I was kind of baffled. A whole fucking rabbit is forty and yet the flower was worth fifteen? Jesus, this must be some miracle of a fucking flower. Out of curiosity, I spread ten or so seeds around the dungeon and recreated a fully bloomed flower. Just to see whatever the fucker does.

Next, I investigated Floppy's work. Size-wise, it would equate to about a five by five by one and a half meter room. It wasn't perfectly square, just as I intended. The walls, roof, and floor had a large amount of variation. I quickly spread a layer of dirt and grass around in all the areas but a small perch floppy had created for himself.

No point wasting grass when he just burns his image anywhere he sleeps. For now, I'll just leave the perch to him.

I also spread some more flower seeds into the room as well. They won't be able to do any pollination, however, as there is no real way for them to spread it. I guess I will need some more insects...