I halt my expansion, my whole focus on the last Natatory Wasp. I don't know why, but its final moments touched me.

I feel some bitterness for having lost six of my creatures so soon. I am puzzled as to why I did not acquire the snake pattern yet. I am angry with myself for not having checked their route better.

However, I still want a few minutes without doing anything else but acknowledging this creature. It deserves at least this.

It fought and bled until the end. It tried everything to live and prevail even when it was clear it would probably die anyway from its injuries.

It persevered no matter what.

This is what Nature is. This is what Life at its core is; a constant fight for survival and growth.

I keep observing the dead creature, and I realize she is the same Wasp I ordered to eat the blue vine and the Luminous Moss eleven days ago. To remember her, I want to give her a name. I know I cannot condense a Name yet, I don't have enough Renown, whatever that is, and there is no meaning to give a dead being a Name, but I still want something symbolic to remember her.

She didn't live for long, but she was the creature I interacted with the most. After thinking about it for a few moments, I decide to name her Twitchy. From her reaction the last time I requested her to eat the azure vine.

I doubt she would care at all, but I feel better for doing this. And it's all I can do.

I don't want to leave the bodies for other animals and insects to consume. And while I send the last remaining sterile female Wasp to retrieve Twitchy's body, I create another 5 Natatory Wasps. Three females and two drones.

My mana goes down to 5, and my thoughts and mentality relax even more, but I force myself to focus. There is too much to do now.

After I generate the Wasps, I send all of them to pull the snake's body down the vines. The new arrivals are pretty sluggish and confused, and I have to order all of them to not fight between each other and follow the first one.

From how they move and behave, there is a massive difference between the new monsters I just created and the two left. I never realized how much my creature grew in all this time, and it makes me feel the loss even more.

After ten minutes, using the hooks at the end of their forelimbs, the Wasps hide the snake's body near the tunnel opening between the blue vines. I stop them when I am sure a curious predator will not easily find it. I don't want them to push it too much and let the body fall the whole way down.

For Twitchy's body, I order the Wasps to carry it inside my core room. I will decide later what to do with it.

After my creatures clean the battlefield and come back inside the channel near my first room, I finally relax, curiously watching the mana around my brownish core slow down a fraction. As I do, I receive a message, but not the one I was waiting for.

Congratulations! Your creations slew your first Uncommon Enemy!

Please choose a Trait.

Reuse it or lose it: Inside your dungeon, the process of recycling is twice as easy. The resulting product is of higher quality regardless of the original material. If the means of reprocessing is a creature, it suffers from less strain and perils even when handling materials with higher intrinsic magic.

All eat light: Plant creatures inside your dungeon develop 25% faster and gain Traits and Titles 5% more often. After staying inside your ambient mana for enough time, they can slowly understand more complex instructions.

Throughout abundance: The fecundity of all creatures within your dungeon is increased by 50%. The chances of successful gestations are greatly improved, and all offsprings have reduced chances of being defective. Every gestation has a 5% chance to be twinned regardless of the species.

This time I do not receive any influx of additional knowledge, but the information in the Traits descriptions is enough.

My creatures can indeed gain Traits and Titles.

This is crucial for their development and mine. A creature connected with the Akashic Records can grow in multiple ways, but the four main ones are Age, Evolution, Traits, and Titles. They would be crippled without two of those.

I use my full consciousness to analyze every Wasp and patch of Luminous Moss, but they do not show any sign of special characteristics or unusual mana. Except for their age, none of them is different from the other. The two Wasps left are older and wiser than the new ones, but those are the only differences.

I can understand the Luminous Moss; even the Akashic Records barely recognize the species as relevant. And it is completely normal for the Wasps to not gain a Trait or Title in ten days; they didn't fight and risk their lives multiple times, nor did they do anything really special. However, I have the suspicion something else is going on.

The creatures naturally conceived and born while inside my dungeon are different from the ones I created with mana. They are stronger and smarter, better in almost every way. I can see that from the mundane insects and spiders I let loose. Right now, in the tunnel, I see only dungeon-born creatures I did not create myself. The same is true for the Luminous Moss.

At this point, I am pretty sure only naturally dungeon-borns can advance with mana and the Akashic Records' help. Or have a much higher chance, I don't know. I need more time and space to test my theories.

For now, I still have a choice to make.

With only three options, it is much easier to pick one. I discard Reuse it or lose it. I can't think of any situation where it would be as useful as the others. And while All eat light is incredible, and plants are absolutely reliable, I don't have any creature that would benefit from the Trait right now. The Luminous Moss is simply not worth it for something so specialized.

I did not forget I have a limited amount of time before the next Azure Scorching will come, and I will have to be prepared as much as I can. I cannot take a passive approach and let things happen. Not anymore. I have to explore and grow as fast as I can, and I know better than anything else focusing on only plants would be the opposite of that.

Also, I didn't regret picking up the versatile Natatory Wasps. Until I know what is around me and the threats I will face, adaptability is necessary.

Therefore, this time the choice is much simpler than picking my first pattern.

You have chosen Throughout abundance, are you sure?

Yes.

Congratulations! You have earned a Trait: Throughout abundance.

Congratulations! Your mana capacity and mana regeneration have improved!

I feel my senses blur for a moment before everything comes back together. The flows of mana are shifting and turning faster around my core, some of them moving around my whole dungeon. I quickly notice my brown gem is slightly bigger than before as well.

After checking that everything is in order, I call my status up.

The Ballsy Dungeon - Unnamed

Species: Viridescent Dungeon Core (Unique)

Titles: The Ballsy.

Traits: A leaf amongst thousands, Throughout abundance.

Current Mana: 6.3/40

Mana Regeneration: +3/hour

Excellent. I did not expect the achievement to boost my mana as well. This will make expanding inside the pool much faster. And I will need the space soon.

Unfortunately, my awareness wasn't boosted as well. I miss having the ability to perceive everything inside my domain. Maybe Twitchy would have survived if I saw the snake before it killed one of them.

While I wait to reach 10 mana again, I finally decide on something I should probably have done some time ago. I send an order to the Wasp Queen, giving her the freedom to make a nest where she likes it. I have finally found what looks like enough space and food to sustain a small colony.

Of course, my core room is off-limits since I want to keep my Title active, nor do I wish for the small channel I carved myself to be closed. Access to my heart is necessary to store materials I want to protect, and a stray enemy cannot find it as long as I have at least one creature. Also, my perception and ability to grow are diminished when something is blocking the way.

Stimulated by having something to do, the Queen flies everywhere inside my dungeon, escorted by the other Wasps. She even goes up the pond but comes back quickly after. I guess even Natatory Wasps do not make their nest inside water.

I am not surprised when she eventually decides to build it on the dead-end tunnel I made into my dungeon before finding out it was blocked. It's protected, near my core, and still has easy access to the pond. At least that wasted space has a use now.

I follow the Wasps as they buzz around everywhere, searching for something. I am curious about what they will use to build their nest, and the sterile females surprise me when they start to bite and chew off the blue vines. I don't think it's their favored substance, but I guess they don't have anything else right now. Since they are already damaging the vines, I order them to chew near the base of a small one until it dies.

After filling their mouths, the workers keep chewing while resting between the vines. They keep processing the plant inside their mouth until they fly away, splutter out the chewed-up material near the Queen and begin building their nest from the closed end. It's fascinating how they work together, the new additions following the oldest one.

Now that I think about it, Reuse it or lose it would have really helped with building their nest.

As I reach 10 mana, I finally can focus again on the present, and I remember I still have something to understand.

I concentrate on the creature the six Wasps killed. It is a deep blue aquatic snake with dark patterns on its scales and completely scarlet eyes. Its color matches the vines almost exactly, and its dimensions are similar as well. It is 2 meters long but rather thin, with strange fur running through its spine resembling small leaves.

Since I can't get anything else from it, I allow the Wasps to feast on the dead body and start to think again.

Why did I not acquire that creature's pattern? My Wasps killed it while it was inside my domain, I am sure of that.

I reflect for a few minutes when I finally remember something. The first day after my Evolution, I played with attuned mana and received various messages from the Akashic Records. I was still confused those first days, and my thoughts were all over the place, but I remember what they said.

I could gain the patterns of Life, Wood, Water, Earth, and Fire attuned creatures slain inside my dungeon.

This logically means I cannot gain the others. I have to understand how to weave mana into a specific element before I can. It makes sense, I guess. I have to use Water-attuned mana to create the Natatory Wasps, while the Luminous Moss requires only neutral mana.

And I am rather sure that snake-like creature is Dark-Attuned instead. Something I didn't unlock yet.

It's not even my fault this time. I don't have any experience with that form of mana from my life as an Elder Tree. I did not know where to even start without my memories.

However, now I know where to find something that can give me that lacking experience with the Dark element. I just need patience and time, something I have in large quantities.

While my Wasps are busy building their nest, and my Luminous Moss slowly but surely overtakes the moss within the pond, I wait and plan.