A flowing river lazily washed through the ditch Dylan had dug through the middle of his forest cave. Dylan had decided to divide the forest cave into two separate halves using this river, calling them the first-half and the second-half. Dylan had been aggressively growing the populations of his insects, evolving all insects into their pre-determined monster evolutions to bolster his population of giant centipedes and bombardier beetle monsters. He had set a [Dungeon Law] within each of the small caves, which he would now call breeder caves. The law set on the breeder caves made monsters of a specific type move out of the breeder cave when the number of fully grown types of that monster was higher than 20. This way, Dylan would have 10 breeding pairs of monsters at all times, with any extra moving into the first half and second half of the forest cave whenever they were ready. In addition, monsters within the breeder caves were not allowed to harm a species numbering less than 20, unless in self-defense. In the forest cave, 10 goblin warriors surrounded Dylan’s core, being the highest-ranked monsters he had, though that would be changing today, hopefully.

Dylan had ordered all of the creatures which were ready to evolve but didn’t have an evolution to arrive near his core. These past few days, the sheer number of creatures which populated Dylan’s dungeon boosted his mana production to over his maximum capacity every hour. He hadn’t leveled up due to fear of the goblin assault, however. Dylan gazed at all of his species. Several spiders, several bats, a praying mantis, a butterfly, and one of his giant centipedes. Dylan browsed through the list before deciding to evolve anything. He needed more monster types anyway, and he wasn’t sure how effective his monsters would be against an army of goblins. The only truly suitable monsters would be the giant centipedes and swarm ants, but even the swarm ants had the glaring weakness of their size.

He turned to one of the creatures he didn’t have much plans for; the butterfly. Activating [Forceful Evolution], he made willed an image of a butterfly, with bright blues and turquoise colors on its wings. He kept the size the same, but he only wanted to modify one thing. Its wings. He made the wings beautiful, catching the light as it moved around, having a hypnotic effect on the mentally weak. He used a huge amount of mana, however, to add a small organ at the base of the butterfly’s wings. These organs contained a powder which was similar to a drug, attracting insects and weaker monster species to follow the butterfly, as if the butterfly was luring them over to the sweetest nectar, or the juiciest flesh. When Dylan finished, the butterfly flapped up to the sky and flew away into the forest, scattering some powder with each flap of its wings. Dylan needed to use [Dungeon Order] to keep some of the insects he called from following it, proving the butterfly’s effectiveness.

Ding!

Please name the new species of monster.

Since it lures other monsters, let’s call it the [Lure Butterfly].

Congratulations, you have created the [Lure Butterfly] species.

You can now [Summon]: Lure Butterfly (F-)

Next, Dylan called the spiders. Three spiders, each the size of a fingertip, skittered closer to Dylan’s core. He wanted to make two separate species with these spiders. For the first, he chose to increase the size of the spider to about a palm, then turbo-charged its venom capacity and power like mad, then changed the venom further, to induce confusion and anxiety on those bitten by the spider. He increased the sensitivity of the spider’s scopulae, allowing it to detect prey easily. These spiders would make excellent ambush predators with a potent venom, though their defenses were weak. After receiving the prompt from the Voice of the World, he decided to name this spider the [Viper Spider], due to its hyper reflexes and powerful venom. Turning to the next spider, he opted to make this spider similarly to a daddy longlegs spider. He grew the size of the spider’s body until it was about 2 feet long, then increased the size of the legs, their length, and their strength, making the spider stand at about 5 feet tall. He increased the muscular strength within the spider’s legs, and increased the thickness, shock-absorption, and flexibility of the spider’s legs, allowing it to leap surprisingly high. Lastly, he grew two long limbs similarly to legs from the spider’s front. These limbs resembled crab claws, with powerful pincers which could fracture bone, though the defenses of the spider weren’t high. Receiving a prompt once again, Dylan named this species the [Clawed Spider]. Both of the new spider species ended up being (F+) rank, interestingly. Dylan had honestly been expecting the clawed spider to be an (E-) rank monster, but apparently, they still weren’t strong enough to be counted as one. He used the last of his mana to evolve the last spider into another [Clawed Spider] before sending them to the north east cave, giving a [Dungeon Order] to other monsters not to attack them. After looking at his depleted mana, Dylan decided to rest until his mana filled up again.

Next up! Bats! Dylan immediately activated forceful evolution on one of the bats before they had time to react, causing them to fly in panic as the one Dylan was evolving fell to the ground, still for its evolution. For this evolution, Dylan simply made the skin of the bat tougher, increased the muscle strength in its jaws, and swelled its size to have a wingspan of 8-feet. He named them [Giant Bat]s, and evolved all three of the bats into the brand new (F+) Ranked monsters. He sent the bats to the East cave to grow in population.

Praying mantis next! This could be a trump card depending on the mana I spend on it! I should use a lot on this one! Dylan still had a pile of goblin corpses which he hadn’t consumed, adding to that, his increased mana production and [Auto Absorb Bodies], he could take his time upgrading this into a powerful beast.

Dylan focused on the size of the monster at first, increasing the size of the mantis until it was around 3-feet tall standing normally, and 6-feet long. He changed the claws of the mantis, removing the spikes on the mantis’s femur and tibia, and making them into a sharp blade, similarly to a scythe. He increased the strength of the mantis’s muscles, and increased the toughness of its shell. Lastly, he boosted the mantis’s leg strength and wing strength, allowing it to take off and accelerate quickly. He then also increased the sharpness and durability of the mantis’s claws. Finally, he boosted the visibility of the mantis, the sensitivity of the antennae, the flexibility of its arms, and increased its mental capacity, allowing it to solve problems more easily, as well as increasing reaction time. The mantis drained Dylan’s capacity of mana completely, including the mana he received over time from [Siphon Mana] and [Auto-Absorb Bodies], taking nearly half an hour to complete.

Ding!

Please name the new species of monster.

Ah. My greatest work by far. I’ll name you the [Sickle-Blade Mantis].

Congratulations, you have created the [Sickle-Blade Mantis] species.

You can now [Summon]: Sickle-Blade Mantis (E)

Dylan was astonished by the ranking of the mantis, yet he was greatly excited. He wanted more of these, but he wouldn’t be able to produce more through breeding if his enemies were coming soon. He might need to save the mantis as a trump card, or not even involve it in the fighting at all if he didn’t want it to die. The final creature Dylan would need to upgrade would be his giant centipede. But that would have to come after he regained his mana.

After absorbing mana passively for about an hour, and absorbing bodies, Dylan was ready to upgrade the giant centipede. Currently, it was the only monster there, with the exception of the sickle-blade mantis, which was ordered to be Dylan’s personal guard for the moment. Dylan focused on the image he had planned before hand in his mind, before activating [Forceful Evolution] and carefully constructing the beast…

Over half an hour later, Dylan was finally satisfied with the result. He ‘leaned’ his vision back into his core before whistling to himself.

I’m finally ready for war to an extent…I wonder how many goblins the ‘chief’ has with him. Dylan’s insect populations had grown due to his rampant evolving and he currently had a battle-ready population of 122 giant centipedes, 104 leaping bombardier beetles, 88 heavy bombardier beetles, over 500 swarm ants, 10 goblin warriors he had summoned after unlocking them, his sickle-bladed mantis, and the newly evolved giant centipede, the latter two being trump cards of the (E) rank. He was filled with anxiousness, but also excitement. If those goblins fall before me, they’ll become a stepping stone for me to get even stronger. Filled with that thought, Dylan calmly watched the entrance of his dungeon as his monsters lay in wait, scattered throughout the cave, ready for war.