Chapter Three

Pan continued summoning skeletons for the man for almost a week. In that time he had summoned dozens of the bony minions, and had increased his mana stone’s storage to almost fifteen hundred mana. He was now slowly filling it up so he could reach level six. He was currently one mana injection away from reaching his goal. After the man filled the gem and received his skeleton, Pan used all of the mana he had collected to level up.

Level Six

Need 1500 mana for level seven

+15 Dungeon Points

Pan was more than a little miffed. He had been hoping for some skill to help him resist the necromancer. Instead it seemed like level six was only a filler level, and did nothing but expand his mana capacity. Mana capacity meant nothing to him, he didn’t even get to use his mana anyway. He needed to work on plan B now. It would take too much longer to go for level seven, and he had no desire to wait and hope the necromancer would follow the same routine. The man was obviously planning something, you don’t just create a dungeon and turn it into a skeleton factory for fun.

Pan started using his mana to extend his influence again. He moved his mana stone further away as well, as that much mana concentrated in one spot might register to the mage’s senses. He decided he would have to expand his domain, and hope it opened up some more options for his future.

He continued to expand his influence further and further into the rock, and fought the instincts screaming at him to create caves and rooms to hide his gem behind. Pan had a feeling his captor wouldn't appreciate that. By the third day of this he had claimed a space almost three times his original volume, and he noticed his passive mana regeneration had more than tripled. It seemed that his territory would draw in the ambient mana and concentrated it, and the greater area he controlled collected much more mana. The collection was still significantly slower than using the mana given by the necromancer, but every little bit helped.

He now owned an area that extended more than ninety feet behind his room, and measured almost twenty feet across and ten feet high. He could have claimed less volume and reached further, but his control of smaller tendrils felt incomplete and fragile, and the wider areas collected and refined mana more efficiently.

After the fourth day, something changed. He had reached another thirty feet out, and had touched something new. There was an empty space beyond the stone he had claimed. When he pushed into the space, he found a small cave, extending down into the rock. The cave was even smaller than the room he was currently bound to, but it had something his room didn’t. Access to the outside.

A thin shaft of light extended from the crevice that led into the cave, and Pan could tell a forest existed above the crack. There was a collection of decaying leaves and twigs below the crack, and insects crawled around the cave. There were small pools of standing water collecting in the bottom, and things wriggled and swam in the puddles.

He could feel the life in the room, and he wanted it. Bad. He pushed his influence into the cave. He spread it thin, but was able to claim the entirety of the cave, all the way to the surface crack. He was surprised to find the crack was only inches high, and extended horizontally for almost a dozen feet. He could tell the crack was at the base of a cliff, and excess runoff and debris would slide down the slope into the cave.

As he solidified his hold on the cave with whatever mana he could steal from his master's summonings, he noticed an effect on the invertebrates in the cave. He could feel them, and he could feel that they were becoming his. They would respond to his will, and follow his commands, but for now, he decided to let them live like they normally would.

Claiming the cave had other benefits as well. There was a lot more mana pouring into his stores passively. Its seemed to flow in from the outside and pool in the cave. However he felt like something was impeding the flow, and if he extended the cave to his crystal the mana would flow much quicker. He had no desire to do that however, and decided to save that action as a backup in the off chance it was ever needed. For the time being he had no reason to disrupt the status quo, and potentially aggravate the necromancer.

After another day he had used his mana to completely infiltrate the minds of the denizens of his cave. Enough so that he knew they were all his. And even better, every time one died, whether it was his or not, he gained a minuscule amount of mana. He directed all of the mana he gained into the mana stone battery he had hidden.

As they died he also got alerts telling him he could spawn the insects for a cost. He had gathered earthworms, ants, spiders, beetles, flies, and even a centipede. He had many species of bugs to chose from after a short time. Despite their weakness, he knew this was the start of something grand, and he would cultivate this cave to the best of his abilities. He could summon dozens of the most basic creatures for a single point of mana, and he did.

With his excess mana he was able to extend the carpet of moss and plants further into the cave, and with his mana around, the moss changed to no longer depend on sunlight. The moss instead drew energy from the ambient mana he had pooling in his cave, and stored any excess it gathered. The plants were harder to extend into the cave, as they needed light much more than the moss, but he was progressing slowly.

The moss had changed into Dungeon Moss, and the description hinted that the moss was a much better energy source for the fauna of his cave, as well as containing the trace amounts of mana it collected. The moss actually increased the density of mana in his cave, if only slightly. The moss also glowed slightly, but it was enough to give much needed light to the cave, and allowed the creatures to venture further into the cave where the mana was denser.

The moss was the base of the ecosystem he had created in the cave. The worms would eat the detritus that had piled up in the back, and the beetles would eat the moss. An ant colony started up in the back, and they ate the worms and beetles. Spiders and centipedes were at the top, and ruled over his little invertebrate empire.

Pan noticed strange things happen to the bugs in the back of his cave. The mana in the moss pooled in the creatures who ate it, and it was refined by their bodies. The ones who had more mana were stronger and larger than their brethren who had less. And their predators gained more and further refined mana from consuming them.

The boost was not very significant, as even the strongest had less than a full point of mana stored in it, but Pan noticed the effects, and cataloged the advances each being made. Observing how the process worked could help him improve his plans for retribution.

He had started saving up for the next level once more, and his passive regeneration was increasing greatly as well. He could gain almost ten mana a day from the deaths of the insects and the mana he pulled in from outside. It wasn’t a lot, but it would be helpful.

He started to expand the cave deeper into the rock, and closer to where he resided. He had no idea how to fight the mage yet, but he needed to have options. There was no way the man could be overwhelmed by basic bugs, and he felt that connecting to the outside would not go unnoticed.

Since he had plenty of mana, and the creatures he had used so little mana to advance, he started experimenting on them with mana. At first, many of them exploded when he pumped mana into them, even if it was only a single point. However after dozens of experiments he was able to slow down the speed that he put the mana into them.

When he started he was stuffing the mana into them in a fraction of a second. Now he had the ability to control the mana and inject the energy into them over the course of minutes. The ones he targeted didn’t advance in the same manner as the ones growing naturally. His experiments just grew larger, but didn’t necessarily become deadlier than the natural ones in his cave.

In fact, he often witnessed ones he had poured dozens of points of mana into be killed by bugs who had gathered less than a point overall. The killers would grow rapidly from the influx of mana they received from killing the behemoths he created.

He started to focus on these creatures, and tried to work out what made them so special. He noticed that the mana wasn’t just pumped into their whole body. It would be directed to certain places and refined there.

Some would go to their muscles, improving their strength and speed. Some would focus on the nerves and increase their reaction times and further boost their speed. Some went to their exoskeleton, and made it denser and stronger, as well as thinner and less encumbering. Most of the elite had as much as five points of mana invested in this way, although some had more, and they were a wonder to behold.

They were the undisputed kings of the cave. Their armour was half as thick as their weaker brothers, but it was much stronger, and much harder to crack. They were significantly stronger, and their nerves signaled faster to muscles that would respond to the signals quicker, as well as contract in less time with more force. The effects were still small, but were distinct and offered a huge advantage. They may only have a twenty percent advantage at most, but that was an insurmountable advantage to their weaker competitors.

Any excess mana would be absorbed by their bodies and boost their size. He had ants that were over an inch long, A spider bigger than his palm when he was still alive. And the prize of his cave was a centipede that was the size of a man's leg. That monster had almost fifty mana stored in its body, and was impervious to anything else in the cave. It had been attacking the giant experiments he had created, and the mana influx had given it an astounding boost.

All of the strongest made their homes in the back of the cave, where the mana was densest. They would absorb a miniscule amount of the ambient mana, and even though it was an incredibly small amount, it was much more than they could get near the mouth of the cave.

Seeing this, Pan devised a new method for experimentation. He created an isolated pocket and summoned a queen ant. It was a small ant, under a half inch long. It ran around the nearly cubic foot room Pan had created for his experiments. There was a good coating of dungeon moss in the room, and one property he had noticed about his dungeon was that the air was always breathable, so there was no fear that the ant would suffocate.

He started his experiment by giving the ant mana to increase its size since he wanted something bigger to work with. When it was over four inches long he stopped. Now he started working on what he wanted. He targeted its muscles with mana and was excited to see the same changes start there as he saw in the best of his natural specimens.

He started working on her armour next, and he pushed the armour further than he had seen in his natural inhabitants. What’s more he directed his intent at making the chitin stronger, not thinner. A mage's intent was what directed the mana in a spell, and Pan hoped he could create changes he wanted by focusing his on the mana he gave to the queen.

His experiment worked, and the armor remained bulky, but became much stronger. Stronger even than the giant centipede ruling the cave outside. With this Pan grew excited and started improving her as much as he could. He strengthened her organs, and improved the speed she could create eggs. Her digestive system changed. He devised a way for her to pull the mana out of what she consumed to create eggs quicker. Eggs that would also hatch stronger workers.

She was quicker, and to top it all off he focused on her head. He made her smarter. Now she was by no means sentient, or even close. But now she was clever, and could plan ahead in a very limited way. She was on the level of an average bird. If not intelligent, she was approaching it.

When he was done, he mentally stepped back from her and observed. She came to after all the changes had been assimilated, and seemed to observe her room for a moment. Then she surprised him. She started eating the glowing dungeon moss that covered her chamber. He was confused, until he saw her processing the mana in the moss into her reproductive organs. Within minutes she had laid almost a dozen eggs, and was tending to them. Pan could see that the eggs would hatch in a few days, so he left the queen to her clutch, but not before attaching the small cave to the outside through some small tunnels. He was sure the now six inch long queen could defend herself and her clutch, as she was now by far the most powerful inhabitant of his cave. She might even be able to challenge the much larger centipede.

The moment he completed his task he was rewarded with a new message.

New Skil: Targeted Evolution

Can modify creatures in the dungeon to whatever specifications are desired. Major changes from the base creature's original abilities will cost exponentially more mana based on the degree of change.

New Achievement: Evolver

Instead of doing what every other Dungeon has done and just let creatures evolve on their own, you’ve created your own evolutions and your own creatures to fill the roles needed in your dungeon.

+250 dungeon points

-25% mana cost for targeted evolution

-Created species are much more loyal

The unexpected windfall of dungeon points would be useful whenever he could find a way to spend them. For now, Pan figured the wizard was blocking it, whether or not it was intentional he didn’t know. Well, it was just another entry on the list of reasons to kill him.

Pan checked his mana reserves and was shocked to see he had lost over three hundred mana from evolving his ant, but he did notice another species he could summon. It was a Dungeon Ant, and cost fifty mana. Pan was disappointed to notice his cave was too small for two ant colonies, and figured if the other regular ant colony didn’t also evolve into Dungeon ants they would be destroyed when the queen's eggs hatched. He didn’t care if they survived anyway. His dungeon was survival of the fittest, and he needed the strongest monsters he could get. Many were going to die to fuel the growth of the strong.

Pan started saving his mana again. He now had the tool he would use to craft the weapon that would kill his master. No longer would he push for level seven, he had his edge now, and intended to hone it. He would create the deadliest creatures he could with what he had.

He noticed the queen ant had gone from a tier 0 monster, what was basically the bottom of the food chain, to a tier 1, or a basic monster. It was potentially deadly to an enemy. His giant centipede was a tier 0, since it hadn’t yet evolved. His menu showed the queen and and the skeleton as both tier 1, although the skeleton was ranked as a stronger monster.

He decided the centipede would be his next project, but he chose to wait since he wanted the queen to have some time to establish herself. While he bode his time he continued to extend his cave further into the rock over the next week. It extended almost three hundred feet horizontally into the rock, and dove vertically almost fifty feet. Deeper in it was over ten feet tall, and almost thirty feet wide. He had used over a thousand mana to claim the territory and create the cave. It was now a large sloping tube passing under the room he was captive in.

The mana was growing denser and denser in the base of the cave. However the cave was completely still dark in the back, and Pan needed a way to fix this. Even the soft glow of the dungeon moss wasn’t enough, and Pan wanted his creatures to hunt in the light.

He used his targeted evolution skill on some of the dungeon moss. He created a plant that was a small bulb suspended from the ceiling by a stem, and held in place by strongly adhesive roots. The ball would absorb ambient mana and emit light that was actually quite strong. It was close to sunlight, and was actually enough for small plants to grow. Pan figured that as he kept expanding and the density of mana grew, the bulbs would become more effective and he could grow bigger and better plants.

The plants provided much-needed ground cover for the weaker insects, and gave them a chance to hunt amongst themselves and advance. The plants were growing in soil he created with his skills, and the remains of plants that had built up in the mouth of his cave. He was composting these to create the perfect soil to grow his garden, and the hunting grounds for his creatures.

At the end of the week Pan decided to start creating more evolutions for his creatures. His ant queen was a resounding success, and the colony now boasted hundreds of ants. The ants would leave the nest and collect moss and bring it back to the queen for processing. They would also overpower and bring anything they could capture back to the nest. Even more impressive, the ants were able to carve into the rock with their jaws and extend their nest. Each ant was over an inch long, and despite their power, they were still a tier 0.

The ants on their own might have been weak, but a group of them could take out almost anything in the cave, and Pan was certain the queen could take out an untrained human. Actually, a few dozen worker ants could probably take out an untrained human as well. They were quite strong with razor sharp jaws. However, Pan knew that they would be completely defenseless against the mage and the nearly one hundred skeletal minions he had created for him.

Pan turned his attention to his pride and joy, the unevolved centipede. He called it over to a secluded crevice he had created just for a workstation to evolve it in. He started pouring mana into it. It more than doubled in size to over five feet long, and could raise up to almost six inches off the ground. Compared to everything else in the cave, it was gargantuan.

Next, he started working on its strength. Instead of pouring mana into strength and speed equally, he focused on making it as strong as possible. He modified its jaws to be like the ants, razor sharp and with its new muscles it could bite a rock in half. He had no doubt it could cleave through leather armor as well.

Next he started bulking up the natural armor of the beast. This was why he had invested so much in its strength. The carapace grew to be inches thick, before he compressed it down to just over an inch. He used some of the trace metals he had gotten from absorbing the stone to further strengthen the armour and jaws. The natural defenses created a massive shield on its back that protected the less armored legs under it. Its bottom was also strengthened, although not nearly as much as the top.

Its armor was strong enough to deflect anything short of a warhammer or great axe. It would be nearly impossible to penetrate it with arrows or a sword. He needed something that could shrug off the skeletons, and this was exactly what he needed. He was certain they could not create enough force to injure, much less kill it. He had studied the skeletons extensively, and they were quite weak, but could fight through any injury short of severing the neck or destroying the head.

He had designed the centipede as a counter to them. It could wade into the middle of them and sit down with its shield against the ground. There it would be impervious to them and they would have no way of flipping it over to attack its weak side. It could probably shrug of quite a few spells like that, as the carapace would be very resistant to temperature changes, and most other attacks would have no way to penetrate it enough to damage it.

He named it a Stone Centipede, and was pleased to see it was a tier 1 as well. He could also summon one for three hundred mana, but he hoped the other centipedes would be able to evolve into one. He knew that once an evolution was opened it was much easier for that species to evolve in that direction, and a few other centipedes had come quite close to rivaling the giant over the week.

He released the behemoth into the cave and watched as he asserted his dominance over the cave. He claimed the portion of the cave with the densest mana and consumed anything that dared to encroach on his domain. After that he simply laid down and sealed himself under his carapace to rest. He was impervious to anything in the cave when he did this, since nothing could get under the shell to attack the weaker areas in his leg joints, if they could even think to attempt that.

Pan could see the elements of his plan all coming together, and knew that the mages days were numbered. He just needed to gather more information and plan accordingly.

Dungeon Menu

Level: 6

Type: Sentient Dungeon (Bound)

Name: N/A

Titles: N/A

Mana: 136/1500 (+1287)

Rooms: 2

Levels: 1

Animals: 4782

Plants: 9592

Monsters: 2

Skills: [Dungeon Menu], [Dungeon Manipulation], [Dungeon Absorption], [Dungeon Creation: Level 8], [Dungeon Expansion], [Dungeon Summon], [Targeted Evolution]

Dungeon Points: 305

Achievements: Evolver