Caesar stabbed his Umbral Drinker into a twitching wolf – a very common entity inside this dungeon. He looked over at his army tearing into their prey. With this many ants, they made short work of anything below a Level 25 Rare, and anything above that threshold would either face his Kelpie or find themselves entangled in a mire of ants.

As his Kelpie tore another mighty beast into two with its teeth, he smiled.

[Notice]: Congratulations! Your Kelpie has leveled up to Level 27! +2 Free Stat Points

He placed the two points into his steed’s Spirit, raising it to eleven. That gave it six extra points for learning more spells.

Kelpie: Rare (Fused Uncommon Essence of Elvenkind)

Skills: … Pyromancy – Grasp of the Inferno

Magic: 22 -> 24

His ability did not disappoint. Although this fusion option felt a little underwhelming, he’d eventually understand the intricacies between each different option after enough experimentation.

Grasp of the Inferno

[Effects]: A Pyromancy spell which causes a single fiery hand to manifest near the caster’s spellcasting implement for ten seconds, gripping the target and incinerating them.

[Rarity]: Rare

[Memorization Cost]: 6

[Mana Cost]: 20 Mana

Generally, humans learned spells through two different means: studying spellbooks from dungeons, or simple meditation and practice. When they understood how to cast the spell successfully, they’d gain the skill in their status. Yet mankind had also discovered a mysterious force they called affinity, which seemed to allow access to different spell schools for different people. Spirit influenced this affinity, increasing the speed of comprehending spells when a person had an excess. This force seemed to also influence what specific monsters learned, like his Kelpie.

The existence of elves in this region provided him with more knowledge than in Elamigrol, as they all learned spells based on an elemental affinity. This usually meant an elf would focus on their element primarily, and rarely learn other spells, since it became more difficult. Especially categories such as Pyromancy and Hydromancy: unless an elf had an affinity to both those elements, it would be near impossible to learn a spell from the other school.

Thus it intrigued him that an entity who lived in water could ignore affinity rules and still gain control over fire spells with his Minor Fusion. Furthermore, it was a spell which created a hand – although not completely alien to the Kelpie, it was still different enough that some difficulty would occur when learning. This power to ignore previous established rules might provide him with unexpected results.

His steed immediately used Grasp of the Inferno against a nearby enemy, spitting out a jet of fire from its mouth, which turned into a hand that grabbed at its prey. Flames turned the creature into a pyre, then clawed at another nearby beast. It lacked the suitable range to reach and could only swipe wildly until the Kelpie charged forwards.

Having gained the spell through a Minor Fusion instead of study, it cast with the skill of an above average spellcaster, similar to the Tomb Hippopotamus. This made it much harder to interrupt its concentration, and the Kelpie still tore after its fleeing enemies with razor fangs. A less skilled spellcaster might instead have to focus fully on maintaining the spell’s existence, slowing down their movement and reflexes as a result.

Caesar walked amongst the corpses, probing the losses incurred by his ants and collecting obvious sources of loot. While some still died, it remained low enough that he felt confident to continue. Fortunately, no rank two ants had perished during these few skirmishes, courtesy of the Halo of Life.

His army continued to their next prey location, avoiding the exit portal for now. After having prey escape from their clutches, the Order of the Fox had sent out more people to defend the exit portals that they detected. This decision forced them to cede control over some of the dungeon to the other orders but was within their expectations. For Caesar, this made exit much more difficult, but not impossible. He simply needed to attack the camp of his choosing and leave no one alive.

It was not yet time to depart though. His ant legion still required more testing before he sent them to fight the Fog Hydra, or the Order of the Fox. With all that he had invested, surely they could accomplish something.

The next target was a patch of trees which grew wildly in all directions. Thick, thrashing branches proved quite difficult for any lifeform to trespass, and only certain types of insects lived nearby. Twitching vines and roots drooped from the trees’ trunks, each housing giant wasps which hovered near the trees to feed on growing figs. The strongest had even gained a perk point, supporting its brethren with pale-green chains. Armor, or simple augmentation?

Serpent Mimic Strangler - Level 25

[Rarity]: Uncommon

What seemed like dozens of these trees grew around a much larger tree in the middle, like children around a parent. His vision passed through the grove and identified their leader.

Serpent Mimic Strangler King - Level 31

[Rarity]: Rare

A few ants drew close to one of the Uncommon stranglers, probing for a safe entrance. Vines and branches writhed and lashed at the unfortunate few who failed to back away, splattering them into the ground and disturbing its kin who grew nearby.

It was a swarm-type plant, which surprised him much. He thought for a moment whether or not he should mark it. This series of conflicts allowed him the chance to find many interesting summons, and he thought it time to finally begin experimenting on his Major Fusion ability: fusing together two essence cores of similar rank and rarity. Would the Stormheart Oak be useful in Placto, or the Hidden Grotto? He thought not. Thus, he gave the order to attack.

His ants began to engage the grove’s wriggling feelers, surrounding the trees at the outskirts. Mandibles ripped and tore, defending themselves against waving boughs while their allies struck. Unfortunately, they made no progress: wood was much too hardy for the ants to easily break through. Instead, they retreated to let the Kelpie’s fire burn it all away.

It pranced around just out of reach and sent flames pouring in once the tree’s limbs showed an opening. Fire climbed up the roots and clung to the vines, beginning to spread into the interior of the grove. In fear, the wasps flew out and attacked, only to meet flame and fury from Caesar’s main forces. The deaths of their largest fighters told their queen to flee.

A few of the trees began to glow, sharing Fire Resistance to their kin. Alas, they couldn’t protect everyone, and the inferno of over two hundred Mana burned all the vulnerable to ashes. With the weakest trees gone, it cleared up the area for his Stormheart Oak to strike twice with lightning, killing a few more of the remaining ones.

The ants rushed in. Lightning and frost wreaked havoc under the shelter of their weaker brethren. Although the enemy was heavily weakened, many still died on impact, and many more died in the long struggle afterwards with the Level 25 tree. This conflict had showed him the weakness of swarm-type entities, who could not muster up much force without a massive amount of catalysts. If he hadn’t given the nine rank two Uncommon catalysts away, his ant legion would’ve floundered more.

They simply lacked the stats or suitable abilities to outmatch those stronger than them. Humans could cleave open swathes in their enemies, but ants? Nothing similar. Each step forwards took a heavy toll.

Unlike summoners, the swarm produced from a swarm-type entity required a period of growth before they could serve a useful purpose, which included ranking up with rank two catalysts. This consumed an excessive amount of resources that he now felt did not outweigh the costs. The more powerful the swarm, the more resources consumed, which meant nothing for Caesar or his allies. Or other humans for that matter, who valued suitable catalysts for themselves much more than ants.

The ants had torn apart the remnants of the grove and retreated, letting Caesar summon his Tomb Hippo to wither away the Strangler King. This fight was a little too simple, and he checked the status screen to confirm his suspicions. Indeed, with no Rare catalysts available, the grove’s leader only had a D-tier ability, which posed no threat to him at all.

And the Strangler King’s army capabilities weren’t much better than his current ants either. It took much longer for its Stranglers to fully grow, and they furthermore lacked the intelligence to communicate effectively with him. It was more difficult for even Alta to interpret their signals, as there were too many differences between them.

With no minion slots remaining for anything better that might appear, he wondered again if he should fuse the two trees together, even though they displayed no overt signs of compatibility like the Ever-Shifting Faces and the Flesh Elemental before. Failure seemed obvious, but…

It was worth a try. He had only assumed Major Fusions wouldn’t work without a minimum compatibility, but perhaps he still had a small chance. Both were trees, and that had to count for something. Even if he failed, it would be a small loss. He sat down and began to join the two cores together in his mind, sending the Strangler into the Stormheart Oak.

Although the process looked normal, it still failed towards the very end, the core darkening and splintering soon after. Cracks appeared all over the orb, but it hadn’t shattered yet, allowing him to keep the oak’s essence core alive. Yet the backlash sent Caesar’s eyes twitching in pain as a grimace crossed his face.

Why did that fail? he asked himself. Although the fusion process felt slow and murky, like driving his foot through mud, he still felt like it succeeded in the end. Yet when he stopped, the core broke. It seems like I can’t detect success or failure beforehand.

Compatibility. Caesar knew he had to discover its secrets for more power, and thus began to make deductions based on what he knew. The first instance he had seen involved his two minions acting affectionately with each other: Flesh Elemental and Ever-Shifting Faces. The second instance was normal and showed no direct signs: the default behavior. Perhaps another stage had the two minions show signs of hostility to each other, and a fourth stage amplified the affection between them. He also theorized there were methods to increase compatibility but had yet to discover how.

Alta might know more, he thought. Since he still had a remaining minion slot, he decided to continue forwards. The ants extracted important pieces of each tree, adding the loot to their current collection as he walked towards the strongest miniboss of the dungeon. At least they’re still useful for this.

Earthlord Python - Level 35

[Rarity]: Rare

Taller than a man and longer than a dozen, it nonetheless appeared smaller than even a single one of the hydra’s heads. By now Caesar had realized the folly of using mere ants against an Epic boss, who likely had spells to crush a majority of his army immediately. Thus, he changed his goal. Since Epics were required to match the hydra’s strength, he needed to hunt a weaker one first, and use it as his main fighter.

The gargantuan snake opened its golden eyes and glared with a familiar light of Divination, turning its head to glance at each rank two unit in his army. Specks of yellow glittered from the earth and splashed onto its golden-brown scales, providing it with power.

Caesar hesitated some more, a little unwilling to sacrifice the ants which he had put in much effort to raise. Fighting this miniboss probably meant massive damage to his army, which could permanently affect his plans in the Forest From Before. But could a single ant army really accomplish much in the dungeon after these skirmishes?

This area, which the current dungeon explorers ignored, would provide him with much loot. But that would begin to change soon, as adventurers grew tired of the same scenery with the Order of the Fox. He expected them to come here with entire teams, eventually crowding his ants out with their superior might.

No more powerful minibosses and their loot might exist after he left the ants again. And the queen was indeed still very useful in other dungeons, especially Hidden Grotto. Caesar thus became willing to harden his heart, giving the order to attack with all their might.