I was suffocating, I needed space and I saw nothing but darkness. I felt trapped. In desperation, I reached and pushed all around me. Panic receded but something else was awoken, something terrible and all-consuming – Hunger. It made me regret my actions, given the choice I would prefer being trapped.

I have reached around me once again but this time I had pulled. For a while, nothing happened and then I gripped the little sliver of silver energy, the ecstasy eclipsed everything. The cycle continued and I could reach further and further, get more and more energy until one day I found a bundle of energy, not a measly sliver but a whole bundle!

I eagerly reached towards but something dared to stop me! I screamed and the earth shook, something has fallen on the bundle of energy and it changed, it was no longer alive. The important point was I could eat it then. I frantically started looking for other bundles, no more scraps I deserved more. With time I learned to use whatever those bundles were against each other and even started growing them. I no longer had to look for them, they belonged to me now. I started to change my surroundings to fit more bundles, made rooms, created floors, and attracted other bundles. I knew they had names but never really bothered to learn them. They were nothing but my next meal anyway.

Then they came, they broke into my tunnels, killed all my food, and rushed towards me. I tried to drain them and recoil almost broke me, I tried to stop them but for the first time my own dungeon resisted me. Their energy permeated everything and my dungeon stopped responding to my commands. I tried to close my room but the panic stopped me. I needed the connection to the outside and even my impending death couldn’t force me to overcome this instinct. The last thing I saw was black shadow and gargantuan jaws.

Congratulations!

You have absorbed higher ranked core (Rank G level 60/100)

You gained the understanding of Dungeon Cores

You know how to use your basic powers consciously

Your affinity towards Earth has grown

Your level has grown (+25)

That was a higher ranked core’s memories? Such primitive emotions and almost no rational thought? The most disconcerting was the disregard for life, I was pretty sure it was some subspecies of goblins that served the other core. They may be nothing but food for our kind but still, they deserved to at least be acknowledged. Double so as they served that bastard, that was the basic courtesy and it never ended wrongly to appreciate your subjects. If that was the price of understanding what it meant to be a dungeon then thank you very much, I was not interested.

I had few question about what I saw and I knew the perfect grootslang to ask. The fact she hadn’t volunteered the knowledge by now meant I got a handle on my mental spill over. I wonder if I could do that intentionally.

- *Can you hear me?*

- Sire, you managed to learn to speak telepathically! Congratulations!

- Why haven’t you responded in the same way?

- My lord, I am unable to reach or in any way affect your mind. Not many beings have enough power to do that. If you want to speak mind to mind with anyone you need to carry entire conversation by yourself. – Hearing no response from me she decided to continue – That means you need to not only speak to me telepathically but also read my mind. I, in fact, responded you just haven’t heard me that’s all.

- So I need to invade your mind in order for this to work? – Some of my outrage must have slipped as she made an apologetic face. Actually, I just noticed her face was not built in a way that could convey emotions so why did I felt she did that face? I think I may read her emotions and my mind translated the information into something I could understand.

- No, my lord. Almost anyone who talked telepathically with a psionic or mind mage quickly learn to designate a special “space” for the lack of better term to which they send their responses so the telepath can easily get them. Otherwise both parties would have to be gifted for such conversation to work.

- That makes sense. By the way, in the other core’s memories, I saw black shadow who killed it. Do you know what that was?

- Certainly sire. It was black grootslang, your servant as well, just from a different collective. – Anticipating my question she continued – We retain our personality, our sense of self, but we are constantly connected to our brethren. Solo missions away from collective are the single most terrifying thing for my kind. Because of that, we felt the term “hive” would not suit our kind so we decided on collective. There are 5 collectives as there were 5 queens created by you, they are azure, golden, silver, black and green grootslangs.

- So the others are listening in?

- No, sire. We can choose how closely we are connected. I would never betray your confidence by relaying our conversation.

That was a relief, the very idea of tens of grootslags, who clearly revered me as their creator, watching me as I commit one blunder after another made me queasy. I didn’t think I was doing sufficiently terrible to cause a rebellion aimed to overthrow this particular evil overlord but I was sure everyone would prefer to be admired instead of laughed at. At that moment I realized I didn’t have rather important piece of information.

- Would you, by any chance, know how many grootslangs belong to me?

- Yes, my lord. Every collective maintains 5000 battle ready combatants.

- You are saying there are 25 000 grootslangs here?!

-No, my lord. – Her response calmed me somewhat – There are much more, that are just the warriors and mages. – I rejoiced too quickly. This was way too much for me. My aide continued oblivious to my inner turmoil – Each collective also consists of voices, shapers, builders, healers, caretakers, farmers to name the few and of course the queen. While the number of combatants is mostly fixed the total tends to fluctuate, but it should be around 100 000 total.

- But the other core had only 50 puny goblins! How can I possibly have that many being lower rank?

- My Lord! How can you compare yourself to that trash – her outraged cry threatened to bring down the ceiling on our heads. At least I managed to prove my steadfast companion could be shocked. After few minutes she managed to collect herself and continue as if nothing had happened – My lord, you know I am B rank, yes? Good, you may not know this but that other core had an SSS creature that was almost ready to cross to epic rank. Before you ask the rank is not absolute, the quality of the species matter. Even if a rat or a snail ever reached legendary ranks it will never be more than a snack to H rank dragon. That core’s base wasn’t even a precious gem and you are a blue diamond which is not only hardest gem there is but also a rare variant. Most cores need to be epic rank to be called truly self-aware and intelligent. But you are not just that, you managed to create ancient and long extinct race before you even learned how to use your basic powers. If that was not impressive enough you sacrificed pieces of yourself to give us life. So how could we not obey when you commanded the first queens to build you a dungeon, defend it and kill possible threats to you? We hadn’t had enough numbers to ensure your safety so we got them! – By the end of the long speech, and only politeness was stopping me from calling it a full-blown rant, she ran out of air. Thanks gods for small miracles. Seeing her drawing breath to continue I quickly interrupted her.

- I thank you for upholding your duty beyond what could be expected. I am impressed.

And that I was. It wasn’t said just to placate her or a trick to manage and keep my minions happy. I was genuinely taken by their loyalty. It took real integrity to do this for how long they did it. If you considered they were guarding a useless floating gem who may have turned their lives into living hell upon awakening, just because it could, their devotion surely deserved a reward. With that, I started formulating a plan.

I would like to speak to the original queens, they deserve to hear my thanks personally.

My lord… - she stopped unsure how to proceed – They are dead. Nowadays the 5th generation of queens reign. According to our legends, we were brought back by you over 250 000 years ago. My kind rarely finds the strength to carry on living after 20th millennium, the first queens managed to wait over 100 000 years. At the end, they laid one special egg and passed to it all their knowledge, power and the very essence that you granted them. Each following queen is stronger thanks to that and we grow with them.

She was expecting me to condemn them for not seeing the task to completion. I vowed to myself then to make it clear to everyone how proud I was to have such dedicated subjects. That, however, had to wait until I got stronger.

- I understand. I need your help, how do I grow stronger and advance the rank?

- My lord, you need to claim a wider area as your own. – She was clearly grateful for the change of topic – You do that by spreading your influence and power over your surroundings, when mana density reaches certain point you assume direct control over the area. You could say it becomes part of the dungeon, part of you. You also need to remember that your mana will permeate the walls, which will make them close to indestructible, but there is a limit to that. After a few meters the amount of mana needed to gain few centimetres will become sky-high and that is why rooms and floors are the best way to spread your influence.

I decided to follow her advice and focused solely on expanding my influence. It was almost effortless as my mana needed only to follow ready paths and rooms created by my grootslangs. Soon I have claimed, or maybe reclaimed would fit better, all 70 rooms.

I tried feeling the plan of my new expanded dungeon. My room was connected to a single narrow room, clearly designed as a final defence in case of invasion. It had narrow passages and deep pits allowing even a small unit to hold off advancing enemies. Further along was an inner ring with 5 palaces, including hatcheries, where the queens with their elite guards resided, it was impossible to get to me without first getting through them. Each collective dwellings then followed the same plan; living quarters connected with a nursery on one side and a farm or rather a ranch providing food on the other; then 3 separate specialised barracks with training grounds leading to a single defence room – each collective assumed sole responsibility for those.

Next were narrow passages, which allowed only one grootslang at the time to pass, connecting collectives again. Out of this inner dungeon led only one exit guarded by two defence rooms – those were garrisoned by the collectives’ combined forces. Not that enemies would have an easy time getting even to this entrance, just before it was a combination of trap room, gigantic maze room and another trap room. Up to this point, all walls were made of the same material as in my crystal room – void obsidian, it was practically indestructible even without the reinforcement of my mana. It had an additional benefit of absorbing magical attacks.

Compared to that setup the rest of my dungeon was almost ordinary, there were 26 rooms, made of standard rock, with random dangers such as traps, monsters raised by grootslangs and forked paths – the longest such path was 4 rooms leading to huge pitfall. Worth noting was that it had no entrance or connection to the outside. My sidekick explained to me that when they planned an excursion to the surface they gathered a force in the room and sealed it tightly. Only then the expedition connected the room to the outside. Apparently, if the dungeon made a connection to the surface even once its instinct never allowed to close it. I was different enough that no one was sure if that restriction would apply to me as well but no one planned to risk it. I had a premonition I had to make that connection pretty soon anyway but there was still time.

Having finished my mental inventory of my dungeon I decided to deal with new notifications.

Congratulations!

You have expanded your dungeon to 70 rooms.

Warning! You won’t be able to create more rooms without additional floors

Warning! You won’t be able to add more floors without the proper entrance

Congratulations!

You have advanced to rank G lvl 50/100

You have recovered all HP and Mana

Your maximum HP and Mana was doubled

All your skills increased in efficiency

All your stats were enhanced

Perfect. Now I should be able to proceed with my plan.

- I have reclaimed my dungeon. The main mission of your kind has finished – she seemed confused at this point – Your kind will be crucial to my future plans but I believe in paying my dues. So far your kind went above and beyond the call of duty and should be rewarded. I name you Areth and proclaim you a champion of all grootslangs!