Empress was slowly looping around her ((CORE)) as she waited for the beastkin to be brought in. She had already decided to spend the ((MANA)) on the mosquito spawner. Although the swarm wasn’t as versatile as her ants, it most likely had much higher offensive capabilities. It appeared that she would need them. Her colony wasn’t as powerful as she had hoped. It appeared that beyond the white void was a world filled with her enemies.
She was lucky to have taken Erak, who knows when another, friendly Biped would’ve appeared. If there was a war, it would probably be a bad thing for him to leave. If other elves attacked him, and not elves attacked him, then where was his colony? Did he not have one?
Perhaps it had gotten over crowded, and they had pushed out the drones. Still, Empress thought it was strange to push out what was so obviously a leader caste. Well, it was unorthodox, but her colony already had two kinds of colonists, why not three?
She doubted that the third spawner would give her an option for another type of ant, so it may eventually be four.
The thought of the third spawner made Empress stop humming. How stupid. She had a maximum of five rooms, and had received a spawner each level, and two of her rooms couldn’t hold a spawner. Unless she could upgrade her room cap, her next room would be the last place she could put a spawner, and that was going to be a boss room! The chances where she couldn’t even place it there.
While she was mulling over her discontent with the first real plateau in her development, a runner burst through the doors. The twin doors slammed against the walls behind them as the runner collapsed in front of the ((CORE)) pedestal. The pores that brought in oxygen visibly dilated on her sides. A drawstring bag was twisted up in her mandibles. She waved her antennae weakly at Guard, who gave her a complex sequence of concerned and strict pheromones.
Empress didn’t bother to identify them, because she was too busy staring at the bag. Her ((CORE)) pulsed in indignation. Her ((GAZE)) dimmed. Her instincts were telling her that another dungeon was inside that bag. Her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged that that was impossible. Empress absorbed the bag, causing seven wooden disks the size of an ant’s eye to spill out onto the floor.
Instantly Guard reared back from them, hissing, as she rose to her full height, now standing over the ((CORE)) pedestal instead of curled around it. The runner crawled weakly away, while the current shift of guards on the ceiling of the ((SANCTUM)) scurried down to the floor and circled the threat.
Empress froze. She stared at the coins, fairly certain that the image of the unknown animal on it was staring back at her. It was foreign in a way that nothing before it had been. When the other elf and Erak had come, she was surprised. When the spider and wolf attacked, she was furious. But both of those were tempered by the fact that people were meant to enter her domain. If they never did, she would stagnate.
This thing was never meant to find its way into her home. She tried to absorb the coins, but found that they resisted. It fought against her the way a living being did. Empress felt fear bubble up inside her. She activated ((MANA MANIPULATION)) and ((MANA INFUSION)), then focused on the ambient ((MANA)) in the room, the world shifted into different shades of gold. The ((SANCTUM)) was filled with Empress.
The coins sitting on the ground were not.
A tightly knit grid of green enveloped the seven wooden circles, condensing in the eye sockets of the creature engraved on the coins. Empress pushed herself into the wood. Green flared against gold, thin tendrils lashed out from the coins. They pulled pieces of her in from the air and twisted them up in their web of green.
Empress hissed. She pulled the ((MANA)) away from the coins, they pulled back. She hissed again and forced the dead space to appear. The green tendrils lashed out farther, but she pulled her dome of nothing back further then they could reach. The coins didn’t wither as she had hoped, instead they seemed to be slowly filling the dead space with green. The tightly woven threads came partly undone as each of the seven tried to repair the imbalance.
She gathered up her ((MANA)) into a solid point, sharp as a needle, and drove it into the eye of the creature. The emerald lattices shattered and a small box appeared in the corner of her vison.
INVADER DESTROYED 1/7
She gained no ((MANA)) for killing the coin. She gathered six more needles, ignoring the feeling of strain on her ((CORE)) and pierced the eyes of the remaining coins. Her ((GAZE)) blurred with pain and she lost her grip on the ((MANA)).
It took what felt like an eternity before she was able to pull her scattered mind back together enough to see. She was greeted with several messages from the ((SYSTEM)).
YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY REPELLED AN INVASION FROM AN UNKNOWN FORCE.
YOUR MANA MANIPULATION HAS LEVELED UP!
YOUR MANA INFUSION HAS LEVELED UP!
YOU HAVE GAINED THE SKILL MANA SIGHT!
YOU HAVE GAINED THE SKILL MANA PROJECTILE
YOUR SKILLS HAVE BEEN COMBINED INTO MANA CONTROL LV 2
MANA CONTROL LEVEL 2 RANK 1
You are able to command the mana around you to an extent.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
DUE TO PUSHING YOURSELF BEYOND YOUR LIMITS AND FACING DOWN A FOE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE POWERFUL THAN YOURSELF, YOU HAVE GAINED THE UNDERDOG TITLE.
SINCE YOU HAVE GAINED A TITLE, YOUR STATUS HAS BEEN UPDATED TO INCLUDE THEM, (VIEW TITLES?)
Empress blinked. Her ((CORE)) ached. She pushed some of the boxes out of the way and looked at it. Nothing seemed outwardly wrong, unless, maybe had the crack in the center gotten a little larger? She couldn’t tell. She groaned a little before absorbing the husks of the coins.
Guard, the runner and the guards in the room all relaxed. The guards climbed back to their posts and Guard curled back around the pedestal. The runner had recovered enough to get to her feet. Empress spent a moment to memorize her pheromone, then sent her on her way with a slight mental push.
Then she turned back to the messages, dismissed most of them with a thought, and opened her ((STATUS)). Sure enough:
STATUS:
LV 3 DUNGEON
Name: Empress
EXP 23/290,042
Size: Small
Gender: Female
Gaze type: Light-based
Affinities: Ento, Water
Class: none
Race: Dungeon
Nodes: Lummi moss LV 5
Spawners: Basic Ant LV 5, Mana syphon mosquito LV 1
Retainers: Guard
Alignment: _____
System message type: Glass based
Communication type: auditory
Spawner orientation: Visual
Traits: Introspective (Expand?)
Titles: Underdog (Expand?)
Notoriety: 1
Fame: 0
Infamy: 1
Kills: 1
She expanded her titles without a word.
Titles:
A verbal or written mark of blessing or curse that grants or takes power from its holder.
Current titles:
Underdog (I) (COMMON) (ALL): You have faced down a being sufficiently more powerful than yourself and lived to tell the tale, because of this you gain +1 to all attributes during combat with a being 10+ levels above you.
True Heiress (ROYAL) (HEREDITARY): You are the first in line for the throne. This title can be lost if it is granted to another in your kingdom. This title will be replaced with the culturally correct Sovereign title when you ascend to the throne. Your legitimate offspring will gain the Royal title. Your illegitimate offspring will gain the Bastard title and Royal Blood trait. Any creatures produced by you indirectly will gain Noble traits.
Nearly Noble: (ADOPTION) You have been officially adopted into a family ranking noble or higher. You can now gain and pass on noble and hereditary traits.
Almost Royal: (ADOPTION) You have been officially adopted into a family ranking royal or higher. You can now gain and pass on royal and hereditary traits.
Blessed: (COMMON) (ALL) There are at least three blessings upon you.
Cursed: (UNCOMMON) (ALL) There are at least three curses upon you.
Child of Bastion: (DUNGEON) You are descended from Bastion.
9/16: (SYSTEM) (UNIQUE) You are beloved by the System component 9/16
Entitled: (COMMON) (ALL) You have at least five titles.
Loyal Accomplice: (FAERIE) (UNCOMMON) Someone has killed for your sake without strictly having to do so.
COLONIST TITLES:
Royal Guard: (ROYAL) You are charged with the direct protection of your Royalty. +3 to defense when taking a fatal blow for your charge.
Unnamed: (MONSTER) You have no name.
Named: (MONSTER) You have been named
Renamed: (MONSTER) you have had more than one name in your lifetime.
Echo: (MONSTER) you have been forged from a soul echo.
Empress’s ((GAZE)) spun as she skimmed the list of titles. Her ((CORE)) still ached, and she barely remembered to be offended at being called ‘almost royal’ before swiping the titles away without truly committing the knowledge to memory. Runner and her squad brought in the pieces of the wolf beastkin for absorption. Empress finally relaxed as the fresh ((MANA)) from the corpse eased the pain in her ((CORE))… somewhat.
She paused for a moment, before floating limply toward the flooded hallway to upgrade the swarm. Propelled by the need to do… something. She could’ve simply appeared there, but Empress was worried that if she turned off her ((GAZE)) the darkness swimming at the edges of her vison wouldn’t let her turn it back on.
9/16 allowed himself to feel annoyed for o.5 seconds before deleting the ((9/16)) title from Empress’s ((MENU)). It really shouldn’t even exist, but he wanted to see her reaction. Which, appeared to be nothing. He glanced at the equally forgotten ((TRUE HEIRESS)) title. Well, he couldn’t exactly fault her. Poor dear. It would all be over soon.
He glanced at the elf, Erak, crouching over the half flooded hallway from his window in the quest boxes. He wondered how much further he could push it, maybe just one more side quest? He would want to save it for later, though. If he did anything too quickly 3/16 would take notice, and ruin all of his fun.
Really, if everyone wasn’t preparing for the world event, he would’ve gotten reprimanded ages ago for giving a newborn dungeon a skill like ((UNDERSTANDING)). Oh well. A promise is a promise. 9/16’s attention was suddenly caught by a young dryad being coerced into adultery by a significantly older dryad.
It was technically 11/16’s domain, but 11/16 was currently trying to set up the rift gate in Ladora, and would totally miss this one. 9/16 snickered and flicked a message their way.
WARNING: CONTINUING PAST THIS POINT WILL RESULT IN BANISHMENT.
The elder dryad stiffened and began to look around wildly, while the younger began to panic. 9/16 stuck out his tongue. He didn’t understand how 11/16 could work in reproduction, it was disgusting. He had to pass out red titles and classes like they were candy. Bah. Why couldn’t everything just use spores and spawners like normal, reasonable beings did?
