Marianna spent the next five hours trying to keep herself from sinking into complete boredom. She waited patiently for the first twenty minutes or so, but the research root wasn’t growing fast enough. She peeked in on the mine, but it was still just a red ring of crystallized rock. It seemed like the ring was filling in a bit, becoming thicker, but that could have just been her imagination.

She also peeked in on the Ratmen. She watched as they moved materials they seemed to have brought in from the outside, and built some simple structure frameworks. Mari couldn’t tell what they were, yet, but she assumed they were just going to be the separating walls between each Ratman’s quarters. And that became boring after a while.

At one point, she’d asked one of the four burly soldiers to move what was under the rug. Terash was his name. She had used [Review] on him before, but had politely asked anyway. He seemed to find it strange that she did not know his name already, so Mari decided to do away with that practice.

He struggled to lift the large shell, but after calling another warrior, Kifalin, the two Ratmen managed to carry the shell between them to a side room that Marianna had just regenerated enough energy to create. It branched off the hallway connecting her core’s room with where the two new structures slowly formed.

The warriors rolled the shell in through the opening, and Mari quickly used some of the dirt she had stored to block the opening back up. She also put the rug back on top of the shell, for good measure. Out of sight, out of mind.

She thanked the Ratmen, but they’d just bowed to her, claiming it was to be expected of them. Mari couldn’t get used to it. Being a leader and ordering others around wasn’t a new experience for the store manager, but being almost worshipped certainly was. And she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. It wasn’t terrible.

Now that the shell was out of sight, Mari turned her attention to the bones. She considered doing the same as she’d done with the shell, but Mari wanted to put the bones to some good use, at least. So she asked Miradeen if she had any use for them. And it turned out, gruesome as it was, bones had a lot of uses. Miradeen hadn’t minded the interruption, and was actually excited to get her hands on them, and Mari was happy enough to turn them over. Though she kept the crown. She wasn’t sure why, but she really did like the regal headpiece.

Miradeen, for her part, had passed out some of the bones to her citizens, who Mari guessed were different kinds of workers. After an hour, one of the workers turned some of the bones into various kinds of fine tools, like needles and combs.

It was eerie to see Mari’s own kind turned into tools used by her new friends. But she guessed it was better than just letting the people’s remains crumble into dust. Although… seeing that bone crown and staff Miradeen now proudly displayed was not the most fulfilling experience for Mari. But Miradeen insisted they were excellent for enchanting, and promised to show Marianna later.

And finally, after sitting bored for another long while, Mari received a notification.

Alert

Structure Completed

Research Root completed construction. Assign a worker now?

She decided to save the worker assignment for after she could create new creatures, and instead pulled up the root’s menu.

Research Root

This research root enables you to perform research on new and various subjects. It can also be used by a specific type of creature, to increase its researching speed and capabilities. View research topics?

Created by: Dungeon Marianna

Of course, Mari had been waiting to view the research topics. So naturally, she responded with, Yes, duh!

Research Topics

Structures

Creatures

Classes

Designs

World

Oh, uh… I guess I’ll see about World? That seems the least self-explanatory. Marianna had understood the general idea of most of the list, but Classes and World ones had been a little strange to her. Though, she’d seen the word Classes before, when she had used [Review] on the Ratman figurine. So, she had chosen World by process of elimination.

World Research

The Research Root can perform research about the world around you, granting you knowledge of your surroundings, and also helping you to understand any foreign concepts you may encounter.

It will also expand your operational territory to the size it grows to.

Well that seemed useful. Mari didn’t really know if she needed any more territory right now, since the only time she’d reached the edge was when she tried to have an Overseer leave the dungeon. But being able to understand foreign concepts and obtain knowledge of her surroundings was impressive enough on its own. She next selected the Classes listing.

Classes

The Research Root can perform research about new classes, granting your denizens new paths to knowledge and power. Classes may also change the affected’s appearance if necessary, such as a warrior becoming larger to accomodate greater strength.

Mari didn’t know anything about what she would do with the Classes, so she decided to view the Creatures information, thinking that it would decide if she chose for the root to research World or Creatures.

Creatures

The Research Root can perform research about new species, experimenting with various new mutations and engineering. It can either legitimize a specified creature idea, or can be left alone to randomly produce new creatures on its own. These creatures may be spawned by a Dweller Creation Pod.

That settled it for Mari. She was definitely going to have the root on Creatures immediately. There was something she desperately wanted that root to make real. And it was a creature that she’d wanted to see ever since she was a little girl. This creature was going to be her dungeon’s representation. She watched as the root came into Stacey’s viewport, since Mari had flown her away from the room earlier so she could watch the Ratmen move the crystal shell.

The root was huge. A single long, twisted piece of snaking bark grew out of the ground and towards the air. It poked out of the dirt like a cobra ready to strike. But when Mari told it to begin research on Creatures, the head of the snaking plant dove into the dirt, and swam in and out of the ground towards the wall. It reached the wall, and grew outwards across it, inflating into a large, heaving, rectangular sack. Lights flickered inside, and it gave the impression of a pumping machine in a factory. Then Mari told it what she wanted. The creature that would become her dungeon’s signature monster.

Make me… a unicorn!