From current experience and research performed on dungeons and dungeon cores we have concluded that they are somehow intrinsically related with the SYSTEM. The understanding we’ve come to concerning their purpose is however rather troubling. Firstly, we know dungeons are numbered, but that begs the question, by whom? Is the SYSTEM sentient? Or is there another unknown SYSTEM force at play, a SYSTEM “moderator” perhaps? Whatever is numbering them is unimportant though. Secondly, the dungeon houses monsters created using the ambient mana it absorbs. And in cases where the core absorbs an ample amount of the energy a phenomenon known as a dungeon “break” occurs. That brings me to the final point. The existence of such a phenomenon denotes the need to regulate dungeons by clearing them out periodically. Why is that, however? What is the purpose of requiring lifeforms to clear dungeons? To cause them to level and evolve? But how is that beneficial to the dungeon, and by extension the SYSTEM?

- An extract from “A Philosophical Approach to The Functions of the SYSTEM” Volume 2

Every termite was about doing something, the triplets training with Vito and Amore, and Dynamis eventually taking inspiration from them started to train too. A few hours ago, hopefully, what would be the final batch of grubs for us had dropped, and luckily just the right number of cocoons were present in the group.

Althaia had stopped tending to Meneo the second she felt his health was increasing on its own. And based on the fact that Crete had entered the room searching for the source of mana being attracted, she determined he was now in the process of evolving. Oh yeah, she had learned the name of the energy that her oldest brother spoke of when he gathered and imparted the knowledge to all of them. Her other brother, Vito, called him an enigma, but she considered him more of a pioneer. Always running ahead of everyone else, figuring out new stuff, before coming back to share it with his siblings, that was Crete.

Crete meant more to his siblings than he could understand at this point. His wanting to share new things to improve them was just part of his personality, well "was" part of his personality. The target of all his brothers’ and sisters’ emotions now stood before the massive stone blocking them from the “outside world”. He was in deep thought about how they could make it out. He didn’t say “escape” because, by the time he would enact his plan, hopefully, all termites would have experienced the “first change”

He also concluded that the time taken for all of them to do so, had he not taken the initiative to creature the Colosseum, to be a few more- days? weeks? He wasn’t sure how time progressed because he never kept track. But that was beside the point, as he understood if it were left up to the termites outside to free them, they would be in here for way longer than they needed to. So, he needed to try and get out as soon as possible.

But how could he do that? He doubted that even with all 8 of them trying to push the stone to the side they would barely be able to move it… The feat the generals performed seemed all the more impressive the more Crete thought about it, and he idly wondered if they were Tier 3 creatures. That would explain their ability to do something that even the 8 of them couldn’t do.

Nevertheless, Crete decided he would still try to move the rock when everyone was finished evolving. But he was also hatching a backup plan at the same time, one though a little bit more tedious, had a higher chance of actually working. So setting about trying to see if it would be feasible he moved to inspect the surrounding wall around the rock.

Meanwhile, the triplets had already finished their training with Vito, and a few hours later their opponents were ready in the colosseum. Their battles were less intense than the first few, but intense nonetheless. Amara had wanted the honor of the first battle, and she made quick work of her beetle, with only minimal damage to her body, before she passed out ready to evolve. Surprisingly, Aretha had wanted to be next, so Althaia let her go ahead of her. A battle that involved a lot of “tactical retreats” then commenced but she was still able to defeat her enemy, with the least amount of damage so far in fact.

With one more termite left to battle, Althaia had made her way down to the arena. Her fight, however, was a mix between Amara’s strong offensive stance and Aretha’s timely tactical retreats. So after she had finished the beetle, the damage she had taken was in between what the both of them had sustained. The last of the termites now evolving, Amore and Vito eliminated the remaining evolving grubs and beetles. They wouldn’t be of use anymore, because by the increased interest their brother had placed into the rock blocking the chamber; they judged it would be only a matter of time before they had to leave.

Somewhere else in the chamber though, about halfway through the triplets’ battles. Dynamis had noticed the rapid physical changes their unconscious brother was experiencing. And coming close to the end of the there sisters' duels, he determined his evolution was about to be complete, so he moved to go call the other termites to witness it.

{Meneo POV}

The last thing I remember was seeing the [Elite] beetle under me, and the distance between us rapidly closing as I used my body like a spear to disrupt its charge. Then one second later the world was upside down and I was hit with an unholy amount of pain. It wasn't long after that before my body quickly decided my brain would be damaged if the experience was allowed to continue, and darkness consumed my vision. However, right now as I felt my eyes opening, I noted my body felt different- not in pain anymore.

Furthermore, as I raised my eyes from the floor, I was greeted by a host of giants, 4 to be exact, my brothers and sisters. But standing on my own 6 legs I realized the number of giants had increased, for the only termite I had to slightly look up to was Crete, the others lay eye level to me. Taking a backward glance at my body, the reason for that was made clear to me.

I had apparently evolved while I was passed out, the experience I gained from my aerial assault just enough to push me over the edge. The satisfaction and contentment I had previously predicted were nowhere to be found, however. For all I felt was guilt looking into my brother, Crete’s eyes. He had trusted me to keep everyone safe and I had selfishly put them in danger to accomplish my own goals.

“I’m sorry brother… I failed you” the words left me with the expectation of punishment or receiving some level of scolding, but I was wrong. “It’s okay Meni, you did your best to try and fix that mistake. Almost dying in the process, I just hope that you- all of you think about the consequences of your actions before you decide to do something like that next time.” His words betrayed his intentions, as I could feel the glee in his eyes seeing I was okay…

But that only made me feel worse. The blob I could only vaguely remember after evolving was now replaced with a stone. A stone that had the weight of 8 lives and was bearing down upon my conscious. A stone that would probably always serve as a constant reminder that my life could no longer be my own. The selfish pride I initially had, transformed into something else… And as I watched the palpable happiness on all of my other sibling’s faces as well, I knew what that pride had become.

It was a "pride" that could only be sated by ensuring the continued well-being and happiness of others. One that no longer lived for individual gratification but instead for that of a collective. I felt happy that I had changed- a good change- that would no doubt inspire similar feelings in others in the future. I wanted to try my best to make others’ lives better, and I understood what I could immediately do as I spilled the beans on my discoveries so far.

{Crete POV}

I was mindful of the information my younger brother, Meneo, had just enlightened us about. The ability to create skills by repeating a specific action was extremely intriguing. And I wondered exactly what actions would elicit the creation of a skill. For example, I have been doing a lot of wall climbing, but I haven’t received a skill for it. So it’s either the action doesn’t allow a skill to be created, I haven’t done enough climbing yet to initiate the creation of the skill, or I was doing it incorrectly. There were so many explanations and theories that I could develop due to that new knowledge, but not right now.

Right now, I was focused on investigating how feasible my backup plan was, and I had finally gotten some concrete results. The thickness of the soil wall drastically increased the further you moved away from the stone, which made me curious. But I just concluded it was designed that way to ensure that creatures like the beetle wouldn’t be able to escape. That design, however, didn’t consider the presence of 8 evolved termites, creatures exceptionally talented at digging.

That had brought me to the basis of my backup plan. I had hypothesized it would be possible to dig our way out from any point in the wall. But based on the results of my inspection, it appeared we would have to dig around the immediate area of the boulder. That would be slightly more tedious than just digging from any other point due to our enlarged bodies.

I was intent on finding out how tedious though, as I started hacking away at the wall next to the boulder. However, I soon found out that the soil in that area was just relatively easier to remove compared to the other spots along the wall. Because although it was indeed softer, I still found one movement of my mandibles only being able to remove about a few inches at a time. This was going to take a while…

A few hours later-

I had just exited the cavity I recently excavated in the wall when I saw Amore walking towards me. “The triplets are almost done evolving... So... you mind telling us what you’re doing now?” Ah- I had forgotten my siblings weren’t able to read my mind. “Oh yeah sorry, I forgot. Bring everyone here, I’ll give you guys the rundown of my plan” and as she nodded her head and went to call the others I fell back into consideration.

The idea of digging through the wall was a lot easier to think of than to actually accomplish. From memory, I deduced the length I would have to dig to be about 5 meters. However, I was only able to excavate just barely 2 meters of the soil so far. The main issue slowing down my progress was the increasing sturdiness of the wall, the further I progressed. I hoped that after the halfway point it would get a little bit easier. as I assumed the reason why it was so difficult was due to the soil having been compressed.

No worries though, I was confident in being able to succeed with the plan, and it would only take less time with my siblings helping out. I had realized about 1 meter in that the task was too much for one termite because on top of digging, I had to remove the soil periodically to ensure I didn’t block myself in and suffocate. Speaking of suffocation, I was increasingly concerned with our continued existence in this chamber. The only source of oxygen was the glowing green moss. Something that was already either crushed into a paste or forgotten in the dungeon room.

It only served to reinforce my decision- that we had stayed in this room for long enough, and thinking back to the queen. I wondered what her reaction would be to all 8 of us successfully evolving in such a short time. I just hoped our reception was a good one though, plus I was getting more curious about the reason for our existence. What reason could the queen have exactly to label us “special”? And what purpose would we serve in the colony now that we were “Champions”? I was eager to ask her and find out.

I continued to ruminate on the significance of all of this until Amore returned with the rest of my siblings, the unconscious triplets were also carried along for some reason. “Alright everyone, I’ve gathered you all here today to discuss our current situation. As all of us- well almost all of us- have experienced the first change, I believe it is time to leave this chamber. Our caretakers, however, have most likely underestimated the time it would take for that to happen though. So it is now our responsibility to liberate ourselves” I let my words sink in before continuing.

“I have a plan- well two actually. The first and most straightforward being moving the giant boulder,” my eyes turned to face the massive rock “The second, though more tedious, requires us to dig through the wall. And as you can see I’ve already started. But I need your help to finish it. For I, just like all of us, am weaker by myself” stopping once more, I let my eyes hover over each and every one of my siblings before beckoning their help. “So will you help me?”, an unnecessary question really, as everyone was already shaking their head in agreement since “I need your help- “.

Their verbal agreement was a lot more meaningful to me, even though I knew they’d probably help me regardless of if I asked or not. So with their assistance, we developed a system where 3 termites would dig, and the others would move the excavated dirt out of the way. We continued doing that for about half an hour and reached about 3 meters into the wall before the first of the triplets finished evolving.

It didn’t take long after that before the other two had evolved as well, and with that we were ready to try my initial plan. I instructed the 7 of them to move to one side of the boulder with me, and bracing our legs and a loud “PUSH!!” from me, we released the built-up force onto it. From the first thrust, I could feel the boulder jerk and by the second I felt it move. Although by only a few inches, it confirmed our ability to move the rock and shouting once more, I put more force into my legs “AGAIN!! KEEP PUSHING!!”

We felt the rock slowing moving away from the entrance and we succeeded in moving it for a few more inches in fact, it was slowly lifting off the ground from its original position. But that’s when things got difficult, the boulder seemed heavier the more we moved it, and I felt our progress slow to a crawl when we had moved it by a few feet. A pitiful distance compared to how much we would need to fit through. And our efforts were made futile, as eventually, we were unable to support the boulder anymore. And I could feel the struggle of my other siblings as they tried to continue holding the boulder up, any more and I felt that they would break something.

So I had to make the decision to quit while none of us were injured “STOP!! EVERYONE JUMP BACK ON THE COUNT OF THREE!! ONE! TWO! THREE!” the force keeping the oversized rock up now removed. The 8 of us watched as it titled back down and hit the sides of the wall once again with a dull thud. If only it ended there, because after it hit the wall I watched in shock as the force of the boulder’s collision spread to our tunnel…

It shook the soil above and on the side so much that eventually the whole tunnel collapsed, hours of effort wasted… I was unable to process how quickly things went awry at the moment. But the realization that the failure of my initial plan also set back my backup plan soon set in. And not long after that the depression that followed failure pressed down on the 8 of us with a heavy atmosphere.

We stood in silence for an unknown amount of time, before I heard Aretha break the silence. “…What’s that sound…?” I turned to face where she was looking, focusing my attention as much as I could. It was only a moment after trying to sense something, did I hear it though. It sounded like- scraping? No- it was more of the sound of something grating across a rough surface…

I wasn’t given much time to think about what that something could be though, as the answer literally moved in front of me. The boulder that all 8 of us struggled to move, was now rolling to the side at a constant pace, 1 foot- 2 feet- 4 feet. Eventually, it got faster and faster until from the right corner of the opening, we saw the boulder’s edge rolling to the left. And behind its movement, I witnessed the two, still giant, general termites pushing the object.

They continued pushing for a short while until there was enough space to enter the room. From the closest one's eyes, I could see the initial curiosity transform into surprise as it looked at our figures. While I saw the one further behind stop to transit something to the other before briskly walking off away into the distance. The other was now approaching us in a steady strut before stopping before me, the largest and the termite at the head of the bunch. I saw him struggle with a few words quite visibly before deciding on just one...

“H-how?”