Standing before the opening in the ceiling Crete observed the same energy that he felt rushing into evolving creatures as it trickled from above. Although it was in a weaker form and appeared to be diluted, he was able to make the connection due to the way it faded away slowly until half of the way down it was no longer traceable.

For a good while, Crete was trying to analyze the significance of this energy being present here, no evolving creature in sight, but the disgruntled squealing that echoed from the opening brought him back to reality. He noticed, however, that with the squeals the cutoff point of the energy receded, flowing back up into the ceiling as if being pulled.

By the time Crete saw the first grub spiraling to the floor the energy was long gone, sucked back into the darkness of the opening. Rearing its ugly head again, his curiosity was aroused by this weird occurrence. He felt the need to understand what the heck had just happened, and seeing the energy without an evolving creature nearby was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

However, the procession of falling grubs reminded him that he couldn’t approach this unknown situation carelessly, lest his body be crushed under the combined mass of the creatures. Crete was fairly certain he wouldn’t have the crazy resistance to falls that the grubs did, so he would have to investigate carefully if he were to enter the hole. But first, he would notify his siblings of his plans, to ensure they don’t freak out if they notice he’s missing.

Making his way back to the colosseum, he entered the chamber just in time to see Amore dealing the final blow to her opponent. Thinking of her great investments into agility, Crete had already determined the battle wouldn’t be that hard for her as the biggest danger fighting the beetle was its charge and quick slashes. Bringing his mind back to the nymph that had just ripped out the underside of the beetle’s neck, he watched as she collapsed onto the floor, the strain the battle had put on her weak body taking its toll.

The nymphs hadn’t even realized Crete had entered the chamber until he was right beside them, their attention fully captivated by the nymph now being carried out of the arena and up the stairs by Vito, who had noticed him already and said in an even tone, “You’re done already brother?” “No, I didn’t get to start, because something else came up…” Crete responded in the same tone.

“I just came to tell you all I’ll probably be gone for a while, I noticed something weird happening in the hole in the ceiling” letting the cat out of the bag, he watched his younger brother's face for any negative reaction before sweeping his eyes over his other relatives. The apprehension and unwillingness he had predicted nowhere present on their expressions, only understanding, and yearning to go with him taking their place.

“You’re off doing weird things again brother… just hurry up and come back before sister wakes up” his younger sister, Aretha reminded him “Yeah, she doesn’t like you doing dangerous stuff or any of us for that matter…” Althaia chimed in. “It’s almost stifling sometimes, how much she cares I mean” The last of the triplets chipped in, making Crete remember once again how much of an overprotecting but caring termite Amore was.

Chuckling he responded, “Yeah I’ll make sure to come back before then, oh, by the way, Vito can you feel a ball or something spherical in your thorax?” remembering halfway the burning question he had on his mind. “A ball? … I don’t think so, well at least I can’t, why do you ask?” his even tone faltering for a moment in confusion.

“No reason, I just noticed that every time I saw a creature evolve there was this weird energy flowing into them and it felt like it was forming a ball inside of them” Vito’s obvious confusion made Crete even more sure that him staying awake during his evolution was an abnormal case. Because if he hadn’t, he would be unaware of that ball that had formed inside him, for he couldn’t feel it no matter how hard he concentrated after evolving.

Curiosity was evident on his brother’s face, however, and deciding to placate it Crete informed “I don’t know if you’ll be able to feel it, but just look at Amore, don’t you guys see energy flowing into her?” all eyes snapped onto the unconscious nymph until moments later 5 heads shook in disagreement. “I don’t know… I feel like something is happening, but I can’t sense any energy…” the only head to not shake, Vito said unsure if it was just a trick his mind was playing on him.

Crete, however, was able to make a quick connection between the inability of the nymphs to detect the energy and his newly evolved brother’s ability to just make out something was happening, perception. The stat that allowed him to observe things very closely in an increasing range most likely also increased his sensitivity to the energy.

Observing his sleeping sister closer, he urged his mind to search for the energy and he found it, a little closer to her body than the last time he tried sensing it. Crete also tried tracing back the energy again only to have his efforts cut off at the same 11 and a half inches away from where it was flowing into Amore’s body, and once again into a core. The mountain that blocked his efforts, ever-present.

With this new understanding of how he was able to sense this energy, Crete wondered if it was just a matter of perception. He also wondered if any other stats would affect his ability to sense it. Putting a pin in the thought, however, he suspected it was not that simple.

“Alright, don’t worry about that for now, I’m still investigating into it, but I presume it has something to do with our evolution, so I’d advise everyone to allocate some points to perception, in the event that it’s important. For now, I’m going to adventure into the opening and see where the energy is coming from. You could bring out the next beetle for the battle in the meantime Vito, and the termites who aren’t fighting, search for your opponents in the grubs that just dropped or sift through the level 9 ones to see if any of them are ready for evolution…”

Leaving instructions with them, Crete set out to explore the unknown once more in search of greater power.

{Crete POV}

Making my way back into the chamber and towards the opening, I quickly dispatched and fed on any grubs I came across to fight off the hunger crawling upon me and prepare for my journey. I hoped to make a quick look around the hole, but I had to be prepared if my exploration was longer than intended. I didn’t want to find myself weakened because of hunger in a foreign environment so I made sure to stuff myself and stored some of the food in my social stomach in case I needed it.

It didn’t take me long to make it back to the hole, and I realized I had not thought about how I would make it to opening… But remembering my ability to climb walls, as your friendly neighborhood termite, I set about it. One leg after the next I ascended vertically until I was close to the ceiling and raising my legs, I firmly pierced the first into the ceiling, then the second and third before my body followed.

The sensation was new, looking at the world inversely and the increased pulling sensation that tried dragging down my mass to the floor, the word for that mysteriously came to me, gravity. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, however, and firmly piercing the roof I continued my walk, although a little slower. At my pace it took only a few minutes to reach the opening at the center of the room and looking down, around the chamber I saw the nymphs scuttling around to grubs, taking a glance at me every now and then.

I watched them for a while before bidding them goodbye in my mind. My head disappeared into the dark opening, eyes slowly adjusting to the lack of light, the light the green moss provided and the light that I had unconsciously overlooked. Nevertheless, I was still able to make out indentations in the wall that gave my legs purchase as I climbed.

The walls of the hole extended a good way up, completely vertical before starting to incline. The earth at bottom of the incline, however, was extremely smooth and if I wasn’t careful, I could find myself slipping and falling back down to what could be an early grave. At the realization I stopped for a moment, analyzing the layout of the tunnel, it became obvious that trying to climb along the smooth surface would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Observing the upper part of the tunnel, on the other hand, I noticed the earth was of the same texture as the vertical portion of the tunnel, so I had to choose between possible death or a continued discomfort, an easy decision, so bracing myself once again I ascended the tunnel.

At some point in my journey, however, after what I estimated would be about 5 minutes of climbing, my senses were able to pick up on the energy once again. This time it was slowly crawling, making its way down the incline. I stopped briefly to examine it, the forefront of its procession inching along the smooth surface, I tried my best to trace it back and to my surprise I was able to feel it pumping, spilling from somewhere further up the tunnel…

The thought that this energy, whose source I could never detect before being within my reach excited me, and with quicker steps and increased alertness I was eager to unveil this mystery. The further I went, the more clearly I could feel the energy, it felt as if its concentration was increasing, to the point that I could feel a change occurring in my perception of it.

The mountain that felt so impossibly high was slowly being eroded by the increasing concentration of the energy and as a result, it felt much easier to sense it. I was able to see it clearer now, the reason as to why the energy was crawling making itself known to me. Looking at the stream before me I realized the forefront was only the furthest trickle of the energy, and observing how it pulsed, almost like a heartbeat I noted, I understood why it felt so different.

The energy that was present during evolution felt as if it was being sucked into the creature from the surroundings, most likely by the core, while the energy I witnessed now was apparently being pushed from somewhere. Pieces of the puzzle falling into place, I was eager to see the whole picture, and taking a few more steps a new type of notification graced my eyes.

You have entered a dungeon

*Criteria met*

Achievement gained. Grants a bonus of 3% faster experience gain and 5% increased recovery when inside a dungeon

I stared at the notification for a while, trying to make heads or tails of what the hell a dungeon was, as well as the odd achievement that I had gained. It did, however, make me aware of one thing, whatever a dungeon was, there were things in it that I could kill for experience, and by extension it was very possible that it contained things that could kill me…

Slowly I began to move again, the need to figure out exactly what a dungeon was, as well as getting to the bottom of where the energy was coming from, driving me onward. I didn't walk much longer before reaching the end of the incline, at who’s end lay a room of sorts. Reaching the mouth of the incline, I laid my eyes upon the circular room, and what I saw left me gobsmacked.

Littered across the small circular area, I saw a few dozen grubs happily eating dirt and rolling around in satisfaction. In another corner, however, I was able to witness a few empty cocoons that looked particularly old, their inhabitants a few days old, if they were still alive. Another corner was home to 5 particularly familiar sleeping creatures, one of which was significantly larger than the others, in fact it was slightly larger than me.

In the center of the room lay the reason for much of my surprise, there in the dead center of the room lay, well not exactly lay because it was hovering, a revolving and pulsing orb of blue, from which the mysterious energy overflowed, in a quantity never seen before. Unable to restrain my curiosity, I quietly crept into the room, careful to not alert any of the rolling grubs lest they awaken the sleeping beetles.

When I was close enough to the orb, I could no longer help myself and used on it and the bright flash of light, as well as a droning buzzing sound that accompanied it, came as a response to my actions, along with the notification of what exactly I was looking at.

*Status*

Name: #6535269

Species: Dungeon Core (Cleial Scarabaeidae)

Gender: N/A

Level: 8

Health Points: 300/300

Endurance: N/A

Strength: N/A

Vitality: N/A

Agility: N/A

Intelligence: N/A

I would have stared at the extremely weird table for way longer had the loud SCREEs not interrupted my internal considerations, and reluctantly tearing my eyes away from the Dungeon Core my eyes fell on the now no longer asleep beetles. They were all glaring at me, and if looks could kill I’m sure I would have dropped dead by the way the largest beetle was looking at me, and in another moment of irrational curiosity I quickly used on it as well.

*Status*

Name: N/A

Species: Cleial Scarabaeidae (Alpha Beetle)

Gender: Female

Level: 3

Health Points: 210/210

Endurance: N/A

Strength: N/A

Vitality: N/A

Agility: N/A

Intelligence: N/A

Looking at the health points of the beetle that was nearly double that of mine, as well as the group of angry campers that were charging over towards me, stepping on and crushing their younger relatives to death, I cursed myself and my damn curiosity.