To make their way into safety even faster, I send some of my mice to guide them. Flicking around their feet, they quickly got the Aggrands' attention, panicked they followed the little waywisers.
Now that the pursuers had reached the forest, they were significantly slowed down. This, together with the headstart the Aggrands had, was enough to get them safely to my entrance.
They now stood before the unassuming cave but were scared to go in. With no prospect of being able to go out the other side, they would be trapped once the giants' caught up. Though when the giants arrived at the entrance seconds later they didn't have a chance but to decide quickly.
After a shout from the leader, a nearly hairless aggrand, only having hair on his face, they all shuffled inside the cave. What they first assumed to be a small and bland cave, quickly developed to be anything but what they expected.
The main tunnel, they entered through, continued on for quite a while, even being high enough to house the chief. At the end of the corridor, a large cavern was found, something of which size should not be normal for a cave. It was even able to house the full-sized group and have some extra space left.
This is also where I wanted to introduce myself, but I didn't know how to. I wasn't able to speak their language and was unable to communicate with them. As if my wish was heard by the universe one weak tier-1 Aggrand, obviously quite hungry, decided to attack a Red mouse family member.
Though the young red mouse child fell quickly, surprised by the attack, the retribution of the rest of the guardians was quite primal. Jumping down on the humanoid's head, from a small tunnel in the ceiling, they quickly made minced aggrand out of him.
It was only then, that the rest of the group noticed one of their members being down. The culprit, the red mice, had already fled down one of the side tunnels leaving the cavern. The group was now in panic but the chief was quick to calm them down, and get them in a defensive position.
In the meanwhile, I reviewed the information I received and was now finally able to check off one of my problems. I had learned the Aggrands' language, even though it was quite primal in comparison to the complexity of my thoughts.
With one of the problems down, only the second one remained, I had two possible solutions to handle this. Either I could create a creature with the necessary organs and then imbue it with the knowledge of speech.
Though this brought its own challenges with it, from where am I gonna get the necessary creature. I could, of course, always summon the Aggrand I just killed, there was only one problem. While it was true that they were quite primitive, they would still take a large amount of my intelligence, which was just too much.
So I went back to the second thing I wanted to try. I had already noticed that I could order my creatures around and even, so to say, communicate with the more intelligent ones. Namely the lesser nargacuga and the solar bear. So why wouldn't I be able to talk to creatures not belonging to me?
I tried my assumption and could feel the connection slowly forming. It just took a significantly larger amount, like a crazy amount of mana. I talked this down for me trying to basically intrude on the mind of another creature. And additionally, trying it on the most powerful one, the chief. In the beginning, it resisted the attempt but slowly gave in having felt my relatively peaceful intent.
The connection snapped into place and communication was opened up, I could not await it.
I began the conversation with a welcoming.
Dungeon: "Hello"
Having been waiting for something to happen the chief was quick to answer.
Chief: "Who you"
Answering his question I replied.
Dungeon: "Lord of Cave"
It was really difficult to convey my thoughts with this primitive and simple language. Now realizing who had killed his tribe member, he got slightly more aggressive.
Chief "You kill family, you enemy"
While it was true that I took his follower's life, I tried to calm him down by talking around him, maybe I could use his simple mind to my advantage.
Dungeon: "You killed my family, we same"
Chief: "What you mean"
Dungeon: "You kill my family, I kill your family, is same"
This language was making me crazy, why didn't they have a word for being equal, it was extremely frustrating. But I finally conveyed what I wanted to say to the Aggrand. Now understanding the concept, and having calmed down, he asked.
Chief: "What you want"
Dungeon: "Talk"
Knowing who I was and what I wanted the Chief opened up a bit and we exchanged information, I was also slowly working out a deal.
Dungeon: "Where you from" "Why you run"
Chief: "Come from flatland" "Giants"
Dungeon: "Can Help, kill Giants"
This gave me the chief's full attention and I knew I had him in my trap, I only had to spring it. I proposed to him that I would kill the Giants, but he and his tribe would have to do something for me. The Chief thought for a bit, but then, after looking back at the tunnel they came from, complied.
Chief: "you kill Giant" "we do you want"
With the figurative trap shut around the tribe, I send my attacking force. The nargacugas had finally calmed down and were now ready and awaiting further orders. I commanded them to fly towards the three giants attacking my entrance, trying to get access to the tunnels.
They flew down on the giants, them being too stupid to notice the danger. They were quite durable but too simple-minded for their own good. The lesser nargacuga quickly developed a strategy for them, one of the minicugas would lure the giant towards a tree.
At the last moment, the quick flyer would bail out, letting the giant run up against the timber. The stunned giant was easy prey for the minicugas, and all three of them quickly fell to the same tactic.
Now that my deal with the aggrand chief was completed, I started discussing with him how he could repay me. It was a back and forth, but I was in total control and in a dominant position, having saved his tribe's lives.
The outcome of the discussion was this. The Aggrand tribe would receive one-week-long support from me so that they would have a stable foundation and I could have a stronger ally faster.
They would set up camp in the dark forest, in the center of the mine, the clearing, and the plains. Their camp would then slowly develop into a small village and live off the surrounding area.
To pay back, for me allowing their presence and saving their arses, they were obliged to follow my orders, of course in a specific frame. Inside this frame, they would protect the little ecosystem that lay within the mountains' clutches.
Furthermore, they were obliged to protect me in case of an emergency and had to scout the surrounding region, especially the cave and the vast plains. Something we both agreed upon, once we each explained what we were. They were allowed to dive my dungeon, supplying me with additional mana and intelligence.
Also, this would bulletproof my dungeon against other, more evil, intruders and let me improve my defenses. They would get the loot they earned within my caverns and get to cultivate in my higher mana environment. To pay back me saving them they agreed to give me some of their members for me to experiment upon.
With both of us feeling like we came out atop of the deal it was a resounding success.
The tribe departed my depths and left behind 5 members. They ranged from tier 1 to tier 2. Their tier 1 members were called primitive aggrand while their tier 2 were just normal aggrands. Their leader also told me that he was a tier-3 alpha Aggrand.
I wanted these members for experimentation out for a specific reason, my evolution to the fourth tier. I was very close to it and already had some ideas for what it would entail. During the inspection of my new things, the tribe made their way to the discussed location.
My minicugas were already clearing the area and would support the tribe for one week, then they would be used in some other things. Their previous work of scouting and defending the ecosystem was now delegated to my new neighbors.
During the coming week, the tribe settled in quite well. They cut down the trees surrounding the area and created a small clearing. Using the trees they build shabby huts with leaves as roofs, to protect from the rain and let the optimal temperature remain in the homes.
The Aggrands finished building their foundation and started erecting a rough wall, made out of tall trees, around the tiny village. After the one-week build-up had finished I started my evolution from a battlezone Dungeon into an Experigist Dungeon.
This evolution allowed me an enormous set of different tools for experimentation, mutation, customization, and evolution of creates as well as diplomatic features. Now I was also able to have a specific experimentation room and have tier-4 creatures.
After my evolution, I sent the now free minicugas to do some things instead of stand around aimlessly. I split them up into two groups, one I wanted to send into the mine, where they would need better mental resistance. And another part I would go scouting out the mountains.
Transferring the experimentation progress I got from inspecting the Aggrands I started working on a new form for the minicugas. This was so I could increase their mental resistance.
I mashed the form of the aggrands and the minicugas together. I wanted the heightened intelligence and independence of the aggrands' mind but also the mobility from the minicugas.
It took a long time, experimenting around and creating different iterations. At first, they were quite crude, Minicugas with heads too big to fly. Or small aggrands with bat-like wings, though they were only able to glide and not fly.
I slowly got closer to what I wanted the end product to look like. Their skin slowly formed into layered scales and their wings grew to better support their weight. A small stub could be seen forming from their spine, the first signs of the oh so important tail.
Their hair lost its brown color and turned a light grey, now being mainly positioned around their head. Sharp teeth adorned their mouth, now able to unhinge like that of a snake and swallow prey whole.
I wanted to continue my experimentations and fiddle around with the different creatures but remembered that there was a world around me. The aggrand tribe outside my dungeon had developed quite well. I was so engrossed in my craft that I didn't notice quite some time going by.
I reviewed the information I got from the minicugas, exploring the mountain range, and was not really surprised that they found nearly nothing. The only things worth mentioning were a path, making traveling through the mountains to the other side possible and a small ecosystem with lizard-like birds flying around, they were freakishly similar to my minicugas.
When I had seen them for the first time, I knew they had to be mine, they were the missing part in the puzzle of the new race I was developing and perfect to finish my nargacugas. I knew I would first need to prepare and so reviewed the information I got from the aggrands.
Their tribe was growing quite large, from their number of just 30 they grew to an imposing 500. The forest lay under their feet and they dominated the environment. What I too noticed just now, was that they started diving into my dungeon, but only came to the entrance of the fourth floor.
The thing though that brought me out of my state of extreme concentration was one of the aggrand's reports. Giants had again started to appear and were harassing their hunting parties.
The merciful ruler that I was, I wouldn't let this slide and prepared my gameplan.
I had to develop my new attacking unit, for this I needed the flying lizards from the mountain. I had to then scout out the surrounding area finding the giant's source and attack it in a coordinated strike.
With a plan fully developed I began the hard work!!!