Berries!!!! and not just any kind of berries, it's blueberries!!!
- Blueberry bush: delicious and nutritious. After coming in contact with the dungeon, these plants can use mana instead of sunlight to grow. Always in season.
That's right, with the ants being big enough to carry a small berry each, I can now grow small berry bushes. So of course I buy one and place it smack in the middle of the entrance to my dungeon.
No I'm not blocking it, but if it distracts bigger creatures it's a win. Nothing to to see here, just some berries. Help yourself.
The bush quickly grows to about 20cm, unlike the domesticated blueberries this kind will just spread horizontally. As I'm watching, it has already grown a few berries. They look like me!
While I'm examining my berries, the ants return with another load. There's a few missing this time. Seems we've had some casualties.
"Ding! New purchase available!"
I think I'll turn that setting off now. It's starting to feel like spam.
I check the shop to see what I got. The ants chop everything up into bite sized portions before carrying it home so I can never figure out what they are bringing until it appears in the shop.
- Cave Spider: A small spider with a mildly venomous bite. Makes webs in caves.
Well that's straightforward. Your average spider. Good stuff. I buy 5, they are a little pricy. Must be the venom.
The new inhabitants scuttle over to the entrance and put up webs near the glowshrooms and the berry bush. Smart, or maybe its instinct?
Making good progress here, but I can't help but compare myself to those dungeon masters who start with some overpowered helper or even just access to goblins. Those little green dudes are underrated.
I roll around my little territory and find the tunnel my worms are digging. It not that impressive. I'll get some ants to work on this too.
Speaking of ants, I've noticed they don't really eat much. I guess mana can sustain them, although I need that mana to claim more territory. I tell my ants to eat some mushrooms or berries. Those will regrow automatically after a set period of time, so no loss there.
Next I spend some time making sure that the bats understand that they need to bring something back when they return. Anything will do. Twigs, fruit, bugs, I'll take it all. They nod in understanding, or maybe I'm just imagining things, before flying off.
An hour later they are back. All of them brought something, except the fat one. Dropping the loot on the ground, I roll around watching it melt. The fat bat realizes it's mistake and contributes by dropping its poop onto my dungeon floor.
Nope! That's not how this works. That stuff did not dissolve. I'll get my ants to clean it up later.
The biggest contributor was bat number 4 who brought a pinecone. It was worth more DP than the other rubbish combined. Unfortunately no space for any trees yet.
The ants on the other hand are very reliable. I've got a nice steady stream of ants coming and going. I've lost track of how many I've bought. I just keep adding whenever my DP goes up.
I've had a steady stream of berries dropped off, and now I'm getting more leaves, pine needles, mushrooms too. things are looking good. There's not much for me to manage at the moment so I go back to perusing my menu.
The shop now has a lot more useless props available for purchase. Things like slightly brown pine needles, rotting vegetable matter, tree bark, and flower petals. Whatever, let's do this. I buy a bunch of it and scatter it over the ground near the ant colony. More construction materials for them.
My bats have stopped heading out, so I guess that means morning is coming. It's hard to tell when the only light is coming from mushrooms.
I invest some more DP into my berry bush so it grows more berries. That upgrade was unlocked after my ants dropped off berry number 500 or something. What a glorious berry bush. My bats are enjoying it too, especially that fat one. Just stuffing his face.
After shooing the bats away, I get my trusty ants to start harvesting berries. My collection grows slowly until it forms a small hill beside the colony. Why am I picking berries again? They don't start regrowing until they are picked or rot away. I'm sure I can find a use for it.
The bush is picked clean, so I send out my ants again. I get kind of bored so I play with my berries. I roll myself and try to knock the blueberries into some holes I had the ants make. It's like marbles but tasty.