Day 2
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Things are going well, my ants are working hard, and my dungeon is now covered with a nice mixture of leaves, pine needles and other plant matter. It's starting to look like a real forest floor. The blueberry bush has grown and spread a little further after I dedicated some more mana to it.
How does this help me? Good question. One thing I've learned from reading webnovels is that a thriving dungeon ecosystem can save lots of mana and DP in the long run. What I'm doing is a bit like laying the foundation.
As if confirming my thoughts, I notice that the mushrooms are thriving and have spread throughout my tiny dungeon. Not just glow shrooms, as my ants have provided another 2 varieties:
Something that looks like Needle mushrooms, and another that reminds me of the classic Fly Amanita with its bright red cap. Which of course I purchased right away. Good news is that they seem to be able to spread on their own now that there is an abundance of organic matter.
The problem with only having cheap creatures in the shop is that I'm having a hard time saving up DP. It feels like playing an idle clicker game as I continuously purchase ants. My steady trickle of DP income slowly increasing in speed as more workers join the scavenging force. They have even expanded the anthill to double its original size! I've noticed a few ants working around their nest instead of scavenging, every now and then some berries or mushroom crumbs get transported back to their queen. I'm assuming there is a queen, but she hasn't come out to greet me.
The monotony of my day is suddenly interrupted by a pop up appearing in my vision.
"Warning: Intruder detected!"
Finally some action!!! My beginners grace period is still active so I'm not personally in any danger. Scanning through my dungeon viewer function I spot my uninvited guest.
A rodent, with strong hind legs is sniffing around at the entrance of my dungeon. It looks like a rat, with its tail and face, but somehow has the ears and hind legs of a rabbit.
What a weird creature. Not gonna complain, my DP income has been boosted slightly just by it being here. That's right you weird little thing, just stay right there, free DP for me!
Suddenly it stiffens, and lowers itself down, before dashing like mad deeper into my dungeon. Not good! What's it doing?
Oh no! no, no, no! I've figured out what's happening. The rat/rabbit is eying my treasures. The stash of food! The fuel for my future army! Not on my watch you don't!
Mobilize the troops!!! I command my creatures to charge.
The bats flap around screeching, without contributing to the fight at all... useless.
My worms poke their heads out, wiggle around a bit threateningly, then go back to their digging... useless.
My ants start swarming and march forward! Go my trusty soldiers! They are too slow...
The hideous beast has penetrated my defenses! It pounces towards me and lands right on my pile of blueberries. I watch in horror as it scoops them into its mouth. Double fisting it like it's been starved for weeks. Noticing the incoming ants, and the screeching bats, the beast quickly changes plans. It scoops another dozen berries into its cheek pouches before making a run for it... looks like it's part hamster too. What an optimized rodent!
Stop that thief!! My ants climb over each other building up height like a wave about to crash. Pow! The ants are knocked aside as the invader just smashes into them. Some ants desperately try to grab onto the creature as it plowing through their ranks. A few succeed but can't do much more than irritate it.
A few seconds later it's gone. Disappeared along with a good 30% of my berries and the 7 ants that hitched a ride.
Although grieving my loss, the experience has brought to attention the major deficiencies present in my defenses. To put it simply, my troops are too weak at the moment to do anything more than scavenging.
Scrolling through my shop I realize that if it's not going to provide what I need, it's time to get creative. I decide to save up some DP and send out my creatures to gather mushrooms.
That's right, the key to my success might be just be mushrooms.
I blow the rest of my DP purchasing the poisonous redcap mushrooms and arrange them neatly in a line across my territory. Like some kind of Great Wall. I also increase the toxicity by a level, A worthy investment.
******
Damn that hopping ratface!
My new sworn enemy returned twice more over the course of the day, effectively emptying my supply of berries. My toadstool wall? Either hopped on and over, or plowed through. Apparently it needs to be eaten for it to be poisonous.
Plan B wasn't much better. My spiders, whom I'd forgotten about previously, spun webs all across the entrance and waited to ambush the rat. The result? The rat ran through the web like it didn't exist, accidentally trampled one of my spiders to death, then proceeded to stuff its berry stained face with my berries.
Bad news is I'm no closer to catching that rat, and I'm out of berries. Good news is that the rat knows that and will probably leave me alone for a little longer. That rat is seriously OP, if can access to it from the shop some day I'll buy 100. Why? Because it has hands! well almost... and it can store stuff in its cheeks!
Anyway, time for plan C... food poisoning! I have a number of ideas such as have my spiders inject venom into the blue berries... ok maybe only that idea so far, but it's worth a shot.