I stare at Oberon, not that he can feel my gaze “You don't know?”
“Well... Most cores awaken once they reach the average size of the sapient races. Before that, they have a growth phase where they start from a small ‘seed’ and ambient mana in the surrounding slowly crystallises on their surface. I would have assumed you were no different”
Great. So I may or may not be a tiny dungeon. “Is there no way for me to increase my size?”
“I'm not entirely sure, maybe by increasing your rank? Your larger mana pool would draw mana towards you faster. They do say dungeons never stop growing so it would only ever be a matter of time.”
Time…does that mean I’ll be fighting things much larger than me? I just realised something. “Ive only ever made things to a size similar to my heart. Can I make things bigger?”
“Your core size is actually a limiter… you can not summon things larger than your core but don't worry! Rank is more important than size”
Great... So on top of monstrous insects, I might be dealing with gigantic animals too? I just really really hope that it was a creature from the rifts and not a true glowing mantis... A dungeon of all things fighting for its life against an insect used as pest control. Sigh. Let's be optimistic for now, The only real way I'm going to find out is by exploring more.
I look at the corpse of the glowing mantis-like creature. How am I going to do this? I need to be stronger. Do I want to focus on stronger defenders or better tools? I know that my mana is still pretty low from expanding my influence so I don't have much mana to play with for now. Creating tools would be good for a number of reasons: they can be swapped around freely, require fewer materials to make and unlock new ways of gathering material. On the other hand, the defenders that I have now are… to put it nicely weak. Even if they have strong weapons they are wasted if they die before they even get to use them. I feel like I should focus on the defenders first, any material left over can be used for tools. It's not like I have to choose one or the other.
first of all, there is one thing I want to try. Although it doesn't make the most of the materials, having a reinforced version of what we fought against would always be a great help. I call upon my skill stone and focus directly on the corpse of the mantis as a whole. The moment I call upon the skill a feeling of wrongness cuts me short of casting as it has done before. It seems it's not possible. Strange.
“Oberon why cant I raise the corpse directly as one of my summons?”
“Unfortunately without the corpse being processed your summons cannot enter it. I not entirely sure why but I do know raising creatures is the domain of a different affinity and not force or mind.”
That didn't explain much of the why but at least I know it's not possible.
I call over two defenders and get them to help dismantle the corpse into useable pieces. We start with removing the head as it's too damaged to be used. On the neck section, we pulled off the carapace plates that line the front. We then go on to use force to break the segments of the creature up at its joints. using one of the tools, we push the insides out like the cooked flesh of a land crab, hollowing out the legs, arms and finally the main body. I did think about using the glowing section on its behind but so far we have had no problems seeing in complete darkness. its discarded, as the carapace is too thin to be of use.
By the time we are done I have a total of 12 cylindrical segments of varying length from the arms and legs, two chitin blades, 4 insect feet, a set of 8 chitin plates and one large body segment. The rest was discarded in a pile. the mess was.. graphic, to say the least, I promptly got the 2 defenders to start cleaning up the gore splatters and several others to dig a pit outside of my heart rooms entrance.
Going back to the dismembered parts my first thought is to use the hollowed body segment as the base of a defender. The downside is it does still have some holes from the fighting and 2 large ones on the top and bottom that attached it to the rest of its body… maybe I'm thinking about this the wrong way? Rather than making the main body out of the chitin, I could make it out of stone as I have been but use the chitin to reinforce vulnerable areas. From my own experience, the core must be protected at all costs. On top of the pain being debilitating for me from just getting a scratch the defenders and tool that took more damage ended up as powder. I grab stone from the nearby pile that was leftover from our mining and place it to form one of my normal defenders but as big as my crystal size allows me. Next, I overlap 2 plates to armour the front of its body and 2 more to attach to the forearm to act as a sort of ‘bracer’ with which they can defend themselves. I thought about armouring the back but decided against it as it shouldn’t be needed. I then used my summon skill. My new defender comes to life and luckily everything seems to be in the right place. I send the defender over to the entranceway and get them to take one of the longer tools off of one of the other defenders for now. Then I begin to work on my next creation.
This time I'm going to create a tool. Ive used half the plates already on creating the first defender and so I want to create a cutting/scoring tool for me to better utilise the other sections of the carapace. I also want something better to fight and harvest things with. I feel the longer handle and medium-size blade is still the best form for now and so I use one of the mantis arms as the head and one of the spindly legs as the handle. I use my skill. And the core ends up slotting in the gap inside the sickle arm protecting the core from damage unlike with the first generation of tools. Considering how well this combo has gone I make a second one and give it to Oberon as he by far is my best fighter at this moment.
Checking on my mana, I find I'm all out and so I decide to spend some time using my new sickle spear to cut the larger segment into plates. I work around the holes from the fight and make them a similar size to the ones that we removed from the front. Once done I stack them along with the rest of the materials to the side.
“Oberon, I am going to meditate, get the defenders to increase the size of the pit as we could use more stone and we will no doubt need the extra dumping space.”
“Of course”
He quickly goes to his task and I switch to my soul realm.
I open my eyes to find something new. Around the dungeon heart, small glowing specks orbit it creating a ring around the midsection. I go over and touch it but nothing happens. The specks travel around my hand and catch up to their previous position. Oberon told me I gain ‘processed mana’ from other entities dying in my domain. Is this it? I will the dust to move into my heart to increase my rank. The mana slightly gives way under my will but then returns to its original position. Huh. Maybe I don't have enough? No need to worry about it now, ive only had one fight. I will check on it the next time something dies, maybe the requirements are low to increase your rank at this stage? I just hope it's not too slow. I clear my mind of the questions that are plaguing me and sit down in front of my heart. They can be answered later. For now, let's recover my mana. then I can create more defenders. Once that's done, I should finally be ready for another trip through the caves.
Interesting.