Mwahahaha! UNLIMITED POWER! I screamed as I watched Uge follow my commands. Now that I had mana I had discovered the best part of having monster minions!
I could order them to dig! The order was more metaphysical than anything, I had looked at a wall, and spent mana to want to dig through the wall, and she had nearly instantly jumped up from where she was napping and raced over.
She was just using her claws, but I guess the mana I had spent gave her a boost, because she was digging through the solid rock scooping out chunks with her claws would flash green whenever she struck.
This was the best! I was bigger! It felt amazing every bit more she dug made me feel stronger. It was addicting! Yes!
Then suddenly her claw hit the stone and nothing happened.
I felt it.
My arms pinned to my side.
INTRUDERS! I roared and Uge seemed to hear because she grabbed her spear and turned towards the entrance.
It was the stupid humans again!
Aaaaa! I screamed and Uge responded charging forward, spear ready, she shouted a cry and then was cut down in a moment, a flash of light and blood.
No.
No! No no no no no no!
I floated over to her dead body and stared at it. As the humans touched my core again. I didn't care.
Uge was dead. My first minion, my cute little feral Goblin.
What was I supposed to do now?
Eventually the humans left, leaving a small scattering of junk on the floor in their place. Not nearly the worth of Uge.
Then once they were gone and I felt myself returning a new popup appeared.
[Resurrect all Dungeon Monsters? 1 Mana]
I gasped, and pressed the button.
"Wazzit?" Uge gasped as she sat up. The fact a moment ago she had been cut in two simply didn't exist as she rose up and looked around seemingly to find intruders.
It's okay. They're gone. I couldn't speak aloud, but she seemed to understand. Lowering her spear and scratching at her side where she had been cut down. Then she grinned and started cheering.
Huh?
I felt. A sense of her emotions, what she was feeling.
She knew she had died, and had gotten back up…
She was basically cheering her new found immortality…
That was it. That was why Monsters came to a dungeon. For it was a path to immortality for them.
I wanted to hug her so hard, but all I could do was bounce around and cheer alongside her.
I still had Uge, everything was okay!
—--
Uge continued digging as my mana allowed. Slowly carving out a longer tunnel I delighted in the sensation of growth.
Then when I had what felt like a long enough tunnel. I had her start digging out a room!
My first expansion room! I just waited, mana growth was slow, and I had nothing else to do, I couldn't even continue the seed pyramid as I was spending the mana on expansion.
So I just watched Uge work, she seemed tireless as she continued digging with her claws. As long as I was supplying mana she worked.
Then it was done! A mostly square room… Squarish! I looked at it pleased and gave Uge another order.
She hurried back and started picking up my seeds and hauling them deeper into the dungeon.
Yeeees. Protect my secret horde!
She dumped them onto the floor carelessly which was a little rude, but I was distracted by an alert as she hurried around.
[Designate room as Farm: 10 mana cost]
That was a thing!? I cheered delighted and pushed yes. Only for nothing to happen.
I glanced at my mana.
[Mana 1/11]
I was manaless!
Slumping a bit, I decided to just wait.
Instead I watched Uge bring her little wooden spear stick into the new room and look around happy at the new room. Which was good, she should be happy! She was the one that made it after all!
Then slowly my mana ticked up and I hit yes once I had ten mana.
The room didn't rumble, or anything, instead the ground simply seemed to melt, turning from hard stone to a nice loam.
"Waaa!" Uge cried out in alarm as the ground below her three clawed feet shifted into a much softer ground but after she hopped around a bit seemingly trying to avoid falling into the ground she calmed down, and with a few quick prods with her spear she was satisfied and then flopped down on the softer ground with a happy smile and started sleeping.
Yeah! This was definitely a cool room!
Wait, no Uge! I need you to plant my seeds! Don't keep sleeping Uge! Noooo!
—---
The humans arrived not long after I had Uge plant my seeds… Once she woke up from her nap anyways. I was mostly saving up more mana for stuff when it happened, my arms locked away as I hurried to the entrance to glare at the humans.
This time it was the old man again. Alone.
He stepped in casually, an eye out for Uge probably, before he stilled seeing the tunnel leading off.
"Oh you did start expanding already." He muttered and stepped casually, but with his eyes never stopping his search. He touched his necklace which suddenly lit up, letting him see down the tunnel…
Huh I guess it was dark wasn't it? I never thought about it, and Uge didn't seem to mind, but there weren't any lights anywhere… Oh well.
I glared, but was pleased that the height of it was more for Uge than a full size Human. He had to bend over uncomfortably as he walked down the tunnel.
"Ugeeeee!" My goblin attacked the moment he made it to the farm he spear held in front of her like a lance as she charged.
Get him Uge!
Unfortunately he once again simply drew a blade at his hip and cut her down.
Her spear was sliced in half as well, and Uge died.
Sorry Uge. I'll resurrect you! I promise!
"Huh. A farm room?" He spoke to himself as he reached down and touched the ground, only after making sure there weren't more goblins, or exits. "Bit of an odd one aren't you?" He asked the air and then rose up and patted his hands clean of the loam.
And then he just turned away…
That's it!? Don't just come in if you are going to kill my minion and leave! Jerk! Ugly! I yelled insults at him as my eye chased after him all the way through the dungeon, to my irritation he didn't even leave anything, just walking back out.
Was this… Going to just be a thing? I growled as I regained control of myself.
With one mana I brought Uge back, but instead of happiness at being alive, I felt something from her that nearly made me stumble. I rushed back and found Uge clutching the two halves of her sharpened stick…
It hadn't been repaired alongside her?
"Uuuuuu!" She cried out and my heart broke as she cried ugly tears. It was rather hideous actually, but I felt a certain connection to my Goblin so instead her tears and bawling only made me angry.
I didn't… I didn't know how to fix this.
But I had to try. I had mana. I should be able to do something… Right?
I reached out and touched the stick.
Nothing. I couldn't just 'use' mana without a thing, as far as I could tell my mana might as well just be a resource number. I had no connection to it.
But… I could give orders. I tried to tell Uge to repair the stick.
Instantly I felt off. Like I had done something that wasn't right. But my intentions had done what I wanted, in my menu a new option appeared.
[Create [Goblin] Crafting Bench] Suddenly appeared as an option!
I instantly cheered and selected yes. And another menu appeared.
[Make [Goblin] Crafting Bench out of material.] And I saw a list of some of the materials I had…
Okay it was just the two, Iron, or Morrel Wood.
I selected Iron first, cause I wanted to see and winced as the mana cost appeared.
Thirty Mana.
Yikes.
I instantly canceled that, and switched to Morrel Wood.
5 mana.
Nodding I accepted and had a little ghost of where I wanted the Crafting Bench.
I moved back to the front room with my Core and placed it there. Instantly I saw, wood appeared and flopped onto the space… Then nothing… Oh! I needed someone to make it!
Uge! Stop crying! Time to make a crafting bench! C'mon! I shouted and after a bit she appeared nose still dripping with snot and both of her stick halves in her hands but when she saw the bench wood, she jerked and ran over. With a dexterity I didn't expect from her she started putting it together…
Okay it was basically just a plank stretched across two stumps, but hey! After about twenty minutes and only two splinters Uge finished and then she grabbed the pieces of stick and held them up to me.
Pleading.
I had a new menu now. [Goblin Crafting.]
[Sharp Stick] Was there, and for only one mana! Excellent! I activated it and Mana shifted, turning into wood. Uge turned at the noise and cheered at what she saw.
A few minutes later she now had an even better, more pointier stick!
"Uuuuu!" She cheered, hefting her new stick above her head as she shouted in delight. She quickly started dancing, waving the stick above her head as she circled my Core….
Uuuu! I cheered as I bounced back and forth opposite her, each of us dancing in delight.
—--
After our celebration I ordered Uge to dig more, this time I sent her out what I thought of as West. If the dungeon entrance was north. And the first tunnel was south. Then this was west.
She got to digging and I watched on, as my mana tinkled down as she swept aside rock with her claws…
Should I get her tools? I looked over at my [Goblin] Crafting Bench and accessed it. There were all sorts of things. But it seemed pretty crappy. Sharp sticks. Bone armors. I did notice it was only a level 1 crafting bench, which meant I could probably upgrade it somehow…
But I ignored that, because there was something else.
Goblin Pickaxe. I checked it out and frowned. I didn't have the materials I needed to fully make one. I was missing Bones.
Also I didn't have Stone… which was weird? I looked over at Uge at the stone she clawed through that was thrown behind her…
It disappeared after a while!
I hadn't even noticed!
I hurried over and tried to 'grab' one of the stones and instantly got an alert.
[Stone] was added to my material menu!
Nice!
That was one half the requirements. Now I needed bones…
Other than the squirrel, and humans and Uge herself nothing else had come in.
So no bones.
Uge, can you go out and find an animal or something to get bones from? I asked, and she stilled her digging and then walked to the entrance of the dungeon but at the same point I got stuck and couldn't leave, she hit a barrier too.
She swiped at it a few times but her spear passed through although her fist didn't. With that she went feral shrieking and clawing at the invisible force. After a minute, I figured it was winning and just ordered her back to digging. She shrugged and hurried back.
So… Dungeon Monsters couldn't leave the dungeon. That sucked… But could I lure things into the dungeon?
I had Carrot Seeds.
I floated back to the farm and checked it out. The seeds I had talked Uge into planting were sprouting already, and I somehow knew that it would only take about a day for them to finish growing, which was absurdly fast.
Maybe I should make a trap at the entrance for animals?
In the end I shrugged and just went back to Uge and gave her more mana to dig whenever I could.
—--
"Uuge ge ge ge!" She laughed in delight as she pulled some of the carrots right from the earth and started chowing down…
That wasn't what I had really wanted from her, but if she was hungry she was hungry.
The carrots had finished, as had the Omi, which were flowers, and so the entire room despite no light had sprouted a beautiful field of flowers and carrots flowers, and the stalks of another root vegetable. Quirrel turned out to be sort of like radish. They had lots of greenish blue leaves shooting up, and a big greenish bulb root.
Oge liked Carrots more, but she enjoyed them too.
I had vegetables! I nodded pleased. Yep. These veggies were pretty cool, super fast growing. I'd have to get Oge to pick them and figure out a way to store them for winter…
Wait.
Why was I farming? I looked down at myself as much as I could as an ephemeral floating eyeball thing…
I WAS A DUNGEON! WHY WAS I FARMING!?
I got distracted with the seeds as the only thing I could do so I had made a bunch and decided to farm them without thinking! I looked at the room. I had turned this room into a farm, but I needed like… Trap rooms! I had spent all that mana on this room!
Idiot!
I slumped until my eyeball hit the loam and just lay there for a bit…
But I glanced over and Uge was so happy. Cackling like mad as she seemingly ate herself sick…
Well that was fine then.
While on the floor I noticed something interesting. As Uge was pulling the carrots out of the ground…
They were already flowering, seeds fell and she smashed them into the ground accidentally with her foot. As she did…
The little thing that told me how long the carrots took to grow had started.
So… They were self replicating? That was nice! I liked having so many cute little carrots and Quirrel!
I gave Uge an order to fling the carrots around a bit after picking them so the seeds would spread and she did so happily.
This was nice.
—---
Once Uge filled herself to the point she was sick of eating. I had her bring some of the veggies near the entrance as a trap. And then I just settled in as she slumped against the core and groaned from her over full stomach.
This worked surprisingly well. Maybe an hour later, a horned rabbit hopped into the dungeon cute little nose twitching as it found a Quirrel and started chewing.
It really did have a little horn sticking out of its head!
Cute! Yay! I smiled happily from behind the core not daring to approach as I knew what happened if I did!
It would just run away.
But I got to refill my cute things battery, before Uge noticed and leapt up with her spear pointed and struck.
To my surprise her thrown spear actually hit the rabbit which squealed and…
Well Uge leapt on it not long after and started ripping and tearing.
I'm so sorry Mr. Bunny. I reached out and a piece of it she had torn off disappeared.
[Bones]
[Rabbit Meat]
Were added to my materials list. I got something out of it…
Uge! Stop eating you greedy guts! You already stuffed yourself! I yelled as she was basically stuffing the entire rabbit down her throat.
I guess Goblins didn't have any trouble breathing even with something stuck in their throat, because she was really just stuffing a whole ass rabbit down her throat without any issues.
Goblins were scary.
I ignored her and went back to the [Goblin] Crafting Bench and noticed I could complete a lot of the options now.
Shrugging I decided to create a Goblin PickAxe, in the hopes it would speed up digging.
Cause I liked being bigger.
Uge stiffened as I did and looked towards my eye making a pleading noise as she was still half way through eating the rabbit…
I sighed, my eye slumping a little. Just finish eating first Uge you can craft after.
She looked quite happy at my response and settled in to keep trying to finish her meal.
To my surprise she did actually manage to keep the Rabbit down despite the way her stomach was visibly distended, and the fact she looked green and nauseous as she sort of waddled slowly around.
But hey. She really ate the whole thing!
Soon she walked over and grabbed a large bone that had appeared at my paying the mana for the Pickaxe, and then a stone and bashed the bone onto the rock until it was stuck…
Well it worked.
She waved it around a bit and nodded seemingly pleased with her 'craftsmanship.'
She took a nap before doing anything else, and I settled in to watch my farm grow.