Chapter 7 – Having A Look Around

The grim reaper, that stood within my domain, looked at the giants’ corpses before him. They both were the apex predators of the surroundings, feasting upon all others and ruling over the weak.

Now the two, the king of bears and the queen of spiders, lay before him. It was surreal, both were dead and he was the only one alive. While the warlord spider inspected the two monsters it pondered, should it go further?

It would risk offending any other king protecting the place, but the temptation was visible. The end of the cave system he was in was surely filled with treasure and unlimited power.
He wanted to have all of it for himself.

Though the spider got his thoughts under control. It went over its decision again, always having been the more intelligent one. It decided it would pass on the opportunity. The reward not being vast enough to risk coming upon another king, or even something more powerful.

The spider made its retreat, not wanting to stay there any longer and risking something else finding it. Though it took with it the core of the spider and bear, wanting to absorb the mana later on.

At least it wouldn’t go out of here with nothing to show for it. While the spider made its way through my dungeon, to head to the entrance, I waited for something bad to happen.
To my relief, the spider didn’t turn around even once and left me alone, to clean up the mess.

I was relieved that the situation had finally calmed down and started absorbing the corpses and resummoning the lost forces. Because I wanted to be as protected as possible, I didn’t wait for my defenders to replenish naturally. I summoned every single soldier and put them back into place.

The cores the warlord spider stole, held a significant amount of mana. And because I wanted to summon the solar bear, I had to fund its core myself. Absorbing the spiders’ mana let me cover all of the necessary expenses and even left me with quite a bit remaining.

I used this mana to start building the sixth zone. Under the lake, in the solar bear's zone, a door would open up into the depths below, bringing any daring intruder further into my depths.

They would be spilled down the corridor together with the water rushing below. On the slide, the water would slowly sink into the drainage inside the floor and the heat would steadily rise the further someone got in.

While continuing down the trap-filled tunnel the slight warmness would rise to an unbearing heat. Opening up into a fantastic view. Within a large cylindrical shape, the sixth zone would find its home. A rough circular slope winded its way up to the top, with deep outcroppings in the walls, home to unique and dangerous habitats.

The center of the zone was submerged in lava with it being filled up by lavafalls coming down from the cavern’s sides. Living in the lake were my little lava pups and their bigger cousins. The evolved lava pups, now called lava dogs were running up and down the shallow incline and jumped from ledge to ledge.

Flying around were different evolution balloons, using the heated air to stay afloat. They would defend themselves by gushing out the hot gas. They were present in three different tiers, the tier 0 hot air balloons, the tier 1 firesacks, and the tier 2 updrifters.

Serving as prey to the predating creatures were large DRACOflys, lava walkers, and blazing worms, or their carnivorous parents the molten tunnelers. They would excavate intricate and vast systems of partially flooded corridors, to breed and raise their young. I wish every intruder the best of luck, who thinks it a Good Idea to explore one of the tunneler’s homes.

The peek tier-3 guardian pair protecting and supervising the zone was a lava hound and the volcanic tunneler. Both of them were larger and more formidable versions of their brethren. While one would guard the lake the other tunneled through the cylinders outside, jumping any intruder wandering the staircase.

With the mana, I earned from the battle now depleted and finally feeling safe. I again pondered who the bipedals from the spiders’ memories were. I went through the experiences all of the spiders gave me, which were a lot. After going through the information I only made myself a clear picture of my surroundings and current situation and didn’t get any further information on the bipedals.

My core was positioned deep within the largest mountain, part of an L-shaped mountain range. The range held within its grasp a large forest and protected it from anything past the mountains, which have never been crossed or fully explored.

Dividing the forest in two, was a large stream originating from one of the higher peaks. It split the woodland into two uneven parts. The lighter, weaker, and sparsely forested area lay directly in the mountains' shadow and the large pinewood and dark oak jungle was beyond the river's border.

It housed the more formidable creatures which were originally culled by the spider swarm.
If one would follow the river downstream, they would traverse the forest and then pass close to the mountains, until they hit a huge plain. It went on and on, large grass and the rare timber dotted the smooth landscape, on the horizon, gigantic creatures could be seen wandering up and down the hills. The plain nearly enclosed the whole woodland, but a small part was cut through by a steppe. There nothing seemed to live, only small critters wandered the area.

If I were to split up the surroundings into different zones and areas of interest I would do it like this. My Dungeon was positioned on a small landing of the largest mountain. In the care of the Mountain ranges lay the light woods. A low evolution area with open woodland, home to few predators and a lot of small animals.

The Dark woods were a mid-evolution area, with animals ranging from tier one to once even tier 3. Within the forest, a clearing could be found. The sole inhabitant was a humongous tree, towering over the canopy and spreading its branches greedily.

But not only the forest was full of interesting places. In one of the mountains, a large cave was found going down into the depths. No one, sent in, to adventure the underground, has ever returned. Either dead or lured in further by its cursed riches.

Beyond the dark forest’s protecting shadows was “The Plain”. An expansive and extremely dangerous grassland. Filled with lumbering monsters above and below the tall weeds and rare timber. Though not anyone has yet confirmed the assumptions, it is rumored tier 2 to tier 4 creatures call the plains their home.

Splitting the plains into two was a dry and deserted steppe, with rarely any creature wandering its uninhabitable ground. After going through my surroundings and looking at all bits of information I could get from the spiders, I was stunned. That the world would continue on for so long, it seemed as if it would never end, the dangers it held, unimaginable.

Having had a look at the possible enemies that could intrude on my domain I continued sending out my scouts. The minicugas eagerly flew out, their new commander flying in the lead. I had created him and his elite squad with the energy I cultivated in the time I went through the years of memory.

He was my fourth creature at the third evolution point, the solar bear, the lava hound, and volcanic tunneler, and the newly added lesser nargacuga. His squad consisted of the tier-2 megacugas, a more powerful version of the minicugas.

The lesser nargacuga carried over all of the similarities of its younger and weaker siblings and was just bigger all around. Standing at over half the size of my solar bear, but still being able to fly made it a dangerous enemy to oppose.

Through the following weeks, they explored the light forest and brought the surrounding area back into equilibrium. Now that the apex predators, the spiders, had gone extinct.
Of course, some of the spiders’ stranglers still ran around but they were quickly culled and held under close control. My attackers took complete control of the surrounding area roughly a year later, looking after the intricate and complex ecosystem. Always searching for anyone trying to topple their iron hold and making slow expansions towards the plain.

On their path to control, they got into a lot of fights, some of the creatures, having been freed from the clutches of the spiders, wanted to gain control over the area. My attackers fought against large serpents, quick fish, jumping out of the water, lumbering golems, wandering the muddier areas, and stealthy bobcats hunting down their prey.

Though they were quite powerful and nearly undefeatable, they lost once. The towering tree in the center of the clearing grew too powerful to be ignored. Even though it was immovable, maybe one day it would decide to endanger my dungeon.

The attackers went out on the mission, two-thirds of the force being used in the attack. I was quite confident we would be able to defeat a mere tree but was taught another lesson. One observing minicuga reported to me the fight's outcome.

They had come down from the air, sweeping in on the tree's crown. The intent was to strip it of its leaves and make it more vulnerable to future attacks. After the first attacks, the ground began to slowly rumble and the tree started to move.

Branches hit the soldiers in their next fight nocking them down to the floor. Only to end up in the clutches of the roots, having come out of the earth to deal with the nuisance. Following the fight, from a commanding position, the lesser nargacuga took to the air, supporting its troops. It flew down, close to the ground, and let out a deafening screech, silencing the surroundings.

The tree’s roots slumped to the grounds and a large number of leaves were blown off the branches. Though the giant wasn’t yet dead it was only stunned. Using this opportunity, the minicugas resumed their assault, slowly nicking at the thick bark.

After the tree came back to itself, a large wave of force flew out of the main trunk hitting the surrounding vegetation. It succumbed to the tree's orders and gave its life, healing the wounds of the tree and regrowing its leaves. The surrounding undergrowth and timber wilted and their leaves turned orange like they forgot they were in spring instead of fall.

The lesser nargacuga repeated the same procedure again, the tree getting stunned then cut down only to regrow again, taking the surroundings life. I called a stop to this mission being scared of something else noticing the dark forest dying out and awakening them from slumber.

Calling back the forces, the tree calmed down again and the minicugas were sent to explore the cave. Not wanting to repeat the spiders’ mistake I let my troops build a long line.
Now once something would happen, the next one in the row would know, in the end flying to inform me.

They went down into the cave system, occasionally exploring the caverns it opened up into. They were filled with towering mushrooms, strange rock constellations, and glittering crystals dotting the ceiling. After a while, in the dark, the minicugas dark vision had kicked in, letting them see like the sun was shining down on them.

This also let them notice the darkness getting even darker, their shadows gloomily enlargening and the silence growing eerie. Some of the minicugas further in, saw shapes move at the edge of their vision, similar to those of the bipedal but also vastly different.
It was the first time I saw the minicugas getting scared and they were now continuing on shaky legs.

The first minicuga saw a shape approaching from its right, at first slowly but it began to accelerate. Floating over the ground was a translucent body, similar to the bipedals in shape, only its feet were missing.

A sheet of spun, weblike string was covering its body, fluttering in the windless tunnels.
Once it met the first attacker, chaos began to erupt. The minicugas screamed like their minds were turning inside out. My orders were now only secondary having been overwhelmed by the effect of the strange creature. They fled the cave and ran around in panic not hearing my demands.

At this second, the worst possible moment, my lesser scouts, some mice, and bats, saw what I was waiting for. A relatively large group of bipedals, I now knew to be called primitive Aggrands, were feverishly running through the forest.

They were somehow headed for my entrance, even though they shouldn’t even know its position. Behind them, large creatures, similar to them in shape, were following their steps, obviously on the hunt.

Though I couldn't understand the Aggrands’ speech they were clearly distraught and scared.
Now that I finally had the opportunity to meet with someone clearly intelligent, I wanted to know more about them.

The only problem was the giants running behind them, I had to protect them against their persuaders and take them into my domain!!!