Day 62

I don't know how long my servants have been gone but I would say at least 2 days, I hope they are not dead because I would lose two souls and especially my only connection with the outside.

I am now focusing on my luminous vineyard project. Even though mediation only regains mana 10 or 20 times faster, my reserves are surely filling up, especially since I built my second floor. So I have enough mana to start the experiments.

I'm not sure where to start so I decide to figure out where the light that the firefly produces is coming from. It is actually a molecule that these insects produce in their abdomen and then degrade to emit this bioluminescence. I must therefore succeed in making the vines produce this molecule and amplify the signal. So I got down to the task and the first part was not too complicated, I removed an abdomen and fused them into a bud of a vine before injecting some mana and created a new one. species. But the vine produces very little light. So I gradually strengthened these roots and extended its branch network then removed these leaves and made it form a cluster with these stronger branches.

It gave a faint green light hanging down. It is still insufficient to imitate sunlight. I had the idea to modify the molecule produced so that the bioluminescence also reacts with the ambient mana. I also solidified the buds and made them grow bigger and then crystallize. The cluster now produces sufficient brightness if I buy a lot. Mana concentration seems to help on the 2nd floor.

The last problem is that the light is always green so I colored the crystals a light white yellow. And I have achieved something satisfactory so far. I have spread them everywhere and I hope she might show signs of change soon.

Day 64

This experience easily took me 1 day and I'm running low on mana. The bear at the entrance killed several creatures and some of the smaller ones were killed by the stronger insects. I will have to build a path of evolution for some. Several species have gone extinct and I have not reintroduced them, populations have balanced out in recent days and there are only a few races left.

My minions still haven't returned, and I'm meditating to regain my mana. Then I start to evolve the insects. I decided to merge all the spiders into a basic race that will evolve in different branches.

Bigger spiders, others with a more powerful poison, with paralyzing and ultra resistant threads and webs, with sharp front legs, with a more solid shell or finally living in community. I evolve a spider towards each of these branches and in the days to come natural evolutions should occur.

Then the centipedes, I take the same principle but with different choices, longer and faster, or bigger and more robust.

Next come the cockroaches, with 3 choices, poisoned, smaller but living in groups, and larger. There is also at the base of the chain a moss worm which evolves into a larger moss worm.

Finally, flies have 4 choices: bigger and stronger, smaller with a poisonous bite, with large wings for speed, or with longer limbs made up of sharp scythes.

Foam has also evolved in some areas to blood foam or luminous foam. I then add the two evolutions as a rare variant to each race. I plan to introduce the small animals when the situation stabilizes.

Day 66

After 2 days of working for the insects my servants are still not there and I am starting to wonder if they are still alive. I resume my meditation but my core is full after 6 hours. My regeneration has skyrocketed but these reserves have remained the same. It starts to become a problem if I have to work on bigger projects.

I then notice a movement at the entrance of the cave and my servants return. The cart does not return, but they return the horses.

They bow as they enter, and I remember that I did not prepare anything to accommodate them. I quickly created a very simply furnished room for two people and a stable for the horses. I ask them what they got from their collections. They apologize for their prolonged absence then start to unload their results and I doubt that everything is housed in the cart. There were even more bugs but not particularly interesting other than the new breeds of ants, none of which I knew before I had eaten them. Then they bring down new animals, including pets and village tools. There are also birds and wild animals with potential such as a weasel, a boar, a badger, several amphibians and snakes of all kinds.

I understand then why they took so long. Their harvest is abundant but I am concerned that they may have been spotted by the villagers. They then assure me that they have not been spotted and then take out 3 terrified peasants. I then feel a great joy since it means that I will be able to continue research on man and souls. I thought it was over but then they brought in 5 goblins. Goblins are common lower monsters that pose no real danger until they evolve. But for a dungeon that can evolve anything and everything, it's a treasure to get some so early. Being a base monster and being extremely adaptive, Goblins can evolve into most higher humanoid monsters.

I immediately build a prison for the humans and kill and absorb the goblins. I then congratulate my servants before telling them to go and rest.

While observing the first floor, I notice that several insects have already evolved and I order a bloodbath to stimulate them. Immediately my regeneration on the first floor weakens and the bugs start fierce fights for the death.

I have 18 different breeds of ants and I divide them into the boxes before letting them develop on their own. I also add weak insects in each lodge to give them an additional source of food. Finally I unlocked the evolution of insects in the large room on the second floor.

I then design the second evolutions for the insects on the first floor for 3 days.

Day 69

After that I rebuild an improved Soul Trapping Circle and create a Large Soul Stone. I have to do poses to meditate to create it all. Finally the ritual is near and I have the humans brought in before killing them and recovering their souls. I erase all of their personal memories and personalities but I can't seem to keep their competence. But these souls are always superior to the previous ones. I then create 706,707 and 708.

Day 70

I watch the first floor and the bloodbath continues, already powerful individuals have appeared. The great room on the second floor is also growing rapidly. Two colonies have already died on their own. But some seem to benefit from mana and have slightly increased their pre-existing advantage.

I order my five servants to go outside to train but to head for the mountain this time for new species and plants. I also provided some classic equipment for the new three but there is one who seems to prefer the bow and the other wields a big ax, strange for peasants.

When alone I focus on upgrading my kernel. Classic dungeons can crystallize mana to increase their size, but I don't seem to be able to. So I think I need to recreate the ingredients used for my transformation to improve myself. Of course the ritual this time will be much simpler. But I can't buy these ingredients, and they're horribly expensive in mana to create. I have no choice though, so I started and for a week I created materials and meditated.

Day 77

Finally after a week I was able to perform the ritual and increase the size of 3 times multiplying in the same way as my reserves.

With this new mana I stopped the first floor health bath and introduced all the little rodents and all the little snakes as well as more plants, some with a slight magical power. Selecting the dungeon would do the rest and eliminate those who cannot survive. There was another good news: the light vines were able to evolve and with my help they became more powerful.

3 other colonies of ants were dead on the second floor. And several had beneficial mutations at the colony scale, I always suppressed the level 2 evolutions of the insects in this room but I opened the passages connecting the boxes to the central room to start the selection. Slowly the first scouts enter the great hall to expand their colony.

I will let them explore, but the favorites remain the same breeds as the starting ones, especially the red ants which have demonstrated superior intelligence. Ants in the wild already practice farming with mushrooms and breeding aphids but they seem to have improved with the abundance of mana and developed collective intelligence. The red ants are also promising as they are the first to conquer the great hall, their natural weapons give them a significant advantage.

I go back to the first floor and the little animals seem to be having a hard time, most of them have disappeared, only the rats, bats and snakes remain. But they do not control the last rooms and are few in number. The insects got too powerful after more than a week of bloodshed. Spiders are sometimes the size of a salad bowl, the largest centipedes are 70 cm and some are extremely poisonous. I observe that there are two evolutions of rare variants. A luminous centipede that creates light on the back of its body to attract its prey before biting them and as a rare gage it is stronger than others. Likewise a fly to evolve into a blood fly, it can now suck the blood of its victims to heal itself and prevent coagulation. They are promising.

Some animals still enter the cave but the little ones are killed by the inhabitants or by the bear if they are strong enough to arrive in the last room. The bear does not show signs of evolution, it has not fought with strong enemies.

I want to prepare the paths of evolution for the animals. I start with rats, they are animals that live in community so I evolve into a more powerful warrior, I sharpen their teeth and claws, strengthen their bones and muscles and harden their hair. And another more agile by lightning their bones, condensing their muscles and lengthening their tails, I also sharpen their natural arms and give them a bony spur at the end of their tails.

For snakes I start on the same principle but I add a species living in a group of small very poisonous snakes. I want to make simple traps with them inside a pit.

Finally for the bats, I simply enlarge their wings and their body and strengthen their muscles. They are powerful enough already because they can fly.

Day 79

Then I remember the goblins my minions brought me and start planning a second floor of the dungeon. I have planned to lower my current top floor below.

Goblins also have a beginning of soul but she is a lot easy to remodel. I don't know why. So I start planning the 2 floors. I'm thinking of a similar cave system with some lone goblin then a boss room with ten.

However, when I want to lower my floor I can't do it, but no matter how hard I push all my mana, there seems to be a border that I am unable to cross. I think about it and I think my first stage is not yet powerful enough.

I wait, a dungeon spends most of its time waiting. But I'm not a classic dungeon, I was human so I decided to redo my alchemy lab. I have to rethink it from the beginning because I have no body and I cannot operate all the mechanisms. So I create most instruments in one piece with moving parts that I can modify. I choose the best glass I have and modify it to make it completely inert so that it doesn't react with the ingredients. I install modulable mana fires and all kinds of materials and utensils that I modify and improve for my alchemy practice. Finally after 5 days of work and meditation. My new lab is finished.