Riley and Zephon stood in front of the dungeon core. It was a hand sized golden honeycomb shaped crystal. It floated in a mostly clear blue energy field that was connected to very large stone hexagons on the ceiling and the floor. There was also a pedestal connected to the front with a palm sized hexagonal gem embedded into it.
"So this is the dungeon core? It's a bit smaller than I was expecting." Riley said scratching at his chin.
"It is my lord," Zephon responded. "It is much smaller than it used to be. There used to be many of those crystals connected together, as well as some sub crystals. If I had to make a guess. I believe the core most likely lost most of its power when the majority of the dungeon collapsed on itself, and Queen Ba'alahs passing made it lose the rest."
Riley could see the sadness in Zephons eyes from saying that. He also noticed that Zephons eyes weren't pitch black like he first thought. They were a very dark blue and actually had pupils. Riley thought some more before speaking. "That seems likely. Which means we are starting from almost nothing. Now the question is how do I connect to it? Do I just put my hand on this pedestal?"
As Riley placed His hand on the palm sized gem he heard a voice in his head. "State the name for the lord, to embed your soul into the core."
He was caught off guard by the voice. 'Say my name? Reminds me of most games. Kind of wish I could type my name in rather than say it.' As he thought it, a little blue box appeared above the pedestal. It had the same words printed above a text box and below that was a keyboard.
"That's interesting." Zephon said, humming slightly in thought. "I had heard dungeon lords had different ways to interact with their cores, but I thought that was a difference between cores rather than the lords themselves. Also the wording implies you could use any name, not just your own. Might be good to use a pseudonym. No offense but Riley is not exactly a common name in this world and has definitely never been used by insects."
Riley scratched his head in thought, still somewhat surprised by the box popping up. "You have a good point. It would stand out a lot if a human took over a dungeon of insects. Might make us a target. But what name?" He thought for a bit before another thought popped up in his mind. "Wait, how can you read it, isn't it written in English?"
Zephon tilted his head slightly in response. "It looks like standard Bethel script to me. It's possible the core is showing me the words translated since I am connected to it as a resident of the dungeon." He said then hummed before saying more. "Now that I think of it you'll probably start wondering why we speak the same language. Short answer: we are not. The long answer is that every language on Eden gets translated to the person they are speaking to. While it sounds to you like I'm speaking your language, I'm actually speaking Bethelen. How this works I am not sure, all I know is it has something to do with magic and I'm certainly no mage."
"Hmm, interesting." Riley was starting to wonder about that. Hopefully he can meet someone that knows more. Its an interesting topic. Also he noticed while Zephon talked that the mantis had some black markings above the mantis mouth that looked like a little mustache. It made Riley very happy, but he had to focus on deciding on a name. There were a lot of options, using a name he's used in a game, the name of an insect species, or maybe a name from mythology. Then suddenly one popped into his mind. "What about Ba'al? It pays homage to queen Ba'alah and something about it feels right."
"That does feel like a suitable name." Zephon responded, nodding in approval.
Riley nodded back in response, before entering the name Ba'al into the little blue text box. As he placed his hand onto the gem in the pedestal to confirm, the honeycomb gem within the core began to shine. The light grew brighter and brighter until it filled the room completely.
Just as suddenly as the light appeared it vanished. Nothing seemed to be different immediately besides the pedestal in front of the core having vanished. As Riley turned around the changes became much more apparent. The once battered and broken room was whole again. The lights that were on the walls had disappeared and instead there were now small yellowish hexagonal pyramid crystals inset into the ceiling lighting the room. The once busted throne was also repaired, and much smaller and much more suited to someone human sized.
"Huh, that's different," Riley thought aloud. He approached the throne to get a better look at what had changed. It was a very simple seat with little to no details. Its most notable features were the large hexagonal headrest, hexagonal ends on the arm rests, and very crude cushions in the seat and back. Within the hand rests were small color shifting hexagonal gems. It looked like it was filled with liquid rainbow that constantly shifted around.
Zephon looked around the room taking in the changes. "Its a lot more simple looking. Also a lot more hexagons around" he said.
"That's because hexagons are the bestagons" Riley responded with a slight smirk.
Zephon stared at Riley judgmentally, before shaking his head and smiling slightly. "That joke didn't fully translate but I fear I'll be subjected to many puns going forward. I hope you'll show some mercy lord Ba'al" he said with a slight chuckle.
"It will take a lot of getting used to being called that," the newly named Ba'al responded. "And I make no promises on the puns. You can't suppress peak comedy."Zephon merely shook his head in response
Ba'al hesitantly sat down onto the throne. It wasn't uncomfortable but it definitely wasn't soft. "Ok. Now, how do we start? Would be nice to have a starting selection or something." As he finished his sentence the little blue box from earlier came up again. This time it had two buttons on it with text to the side of them. The top button said, summon dungeon advisor 20 mana. While the bottom button said, summon initial workers 30 mana. Off to the side was a display showing "30/30".
"Thirty mana? That seems a bit low for essentially creating life." He mused to himself. "Its probably just condensed down. Hmm, an advisor would help since i have no idea what im doing and im guessing what you know is more combat oriented." He looked over at Zephon who nodded in confirmation. "Right, but without workers we cant expand and im guessing getting more mana will be difficult too."
Zephon nodded again before speaking. "That is correct my lord. From what ive seen and heard as Lord Baʿalahs guard, the dungeon core regenerates mana over time, but very slowly. Usually mana is gained by gathering Ether pools and crystals. The best way of gathering mana is to defeat other monsters and adventurers inside the dungeon. Not even killing just beating in battle. I do not know how this work but at this moment its not an option. We can get some mana from materials like stone or ores but it gives very little from my understanding."
Ba'al frowned and scratched his head processing all the information Zephon told him. He stared at the little panel in front of him for a second in thought before speaking. "At least sacrificing the stone and other things will keep the place tidy. The mana is honestly just a bonus at that point." He groaned before continuing. "We will just have to rely on that and the slow regen until we find Ether. Definitely workers over an advisor for now. Otherwise we will have to dig ourselves, and honestly that sounds miserable." He looked over at Zephon who nodded in both agreement and approval. Ba'al stared at the window again, hesitating to press the button. The thought that as soon as he pressed that button there was no turning back. It rattled in his mind that his life would irreversibly change forever. He breathed in deeply steeling himself against the dread and fear filling his heart and mind, and pressed the button to summon the workers.
Roughly a meter away from the throne a large complex diagram started to form from glowing lines. The outside of the diagram was a large hexagon. While the interior of it filled with angular shapes and runes. As the last line was inscribed a bright sphere of light engulfed the diagram, obscuring it completely. As fast as the light appeared it vanished.
The diagram appeared to now be permanently burned into the floor. Within it stood what looked like 7 anthropomorphic ants and 13 large cat sized bees. The ants' bodies were mostly humanoid standing on 2 legs at around 5ft, but were covered in chitin. Also instead of 2 arms they had 4. With a pair on their shoulders similar to humans, and a much smaller pair in the middle of their torso. These arms seemed much weaker but still as dexterous. The hands were mostly the same but lacked a pinky and the fingertips ended in points. They didn't have an abdomen like ants normally do but there was a small small tail like lump where one would be. Their heads were quite rounded, similar to actual ants but they lacked mandibles and were similar to a human's but more shaped for the rounded head. At first glance their large eyes looked like most creatures but with a protective dome, but at a closer look they had compound eyes. Ba'al wasn't certain how compound eyes could appear like ones with an iris and pupil, and could seemingly move like one. They lacked a nose and ears, but had antennae like most insects. The seven together had a variation of shades of black or red chitin. Their eyes almost all having blue irises except one with green. They also wore rough looking shorts and held what appeared to be the crappiest pickaxes to ever be made.
The bees looked similar to large bumble bees, but somehow rounder and softer looking. Their eyes had the same odd property as the ants. Though their eye colors were all yellow. The mandibles were a bit more rounded and stockier, and noticeably they were missing a stinger. Ba'al was thinking that their mandibles were probably meant for cruising fruits based on the shape, and probably more than enough of a defense. What was odd is that the cat sized bees were more lively then the ants. The bees were looking around taking in the room. One even batted at a rock playfully. The ants on the other hand stood straight and still with their eyes seeming to not have any intelligence really behind them.
Ba'al was feeling quite concerned at this worrying things already went wrong and looked to Zephon. He acknowledged the look with a nod and approached the ants to inspect them himself. After a brief once over he began speaking. "They are significantly different from the ants we had. These ones are more humanoid, probably because of your influence." He snapped his fingers in their faces a few times, but none of them responded. He hummed a bit in thought before seemingly remembering something. "I have not seen it myself, but i had heard that any intelligent creature summoned by an early dungeon wont even have a soul spark when summoned. Essentially leaving them without a will of their own and as mindless drones. Usually intelligent monsters will be summoned with a soul spark. Which for clarification, is a fledgling soul that over time and with interaction with others will develop into full souls. These seven will grow ones as well but it will take much longer and they will require more direction. What's interesting is that they are all male."
"They are? How can you tell? Also what about the bees, they seem lively." Ba'al asked him.
"Simple, they don't have breasts." Ba'al snorted out a surprised noise at the causal statement from Zephon. He chuckled slightly at the noise and continued speaking. "No, I am mostly joking. Though given their humanoid nature it would not surprise me if females did have them. But I can tell because they have male pheromones. That has not seemed to have changed with these new ants. As for the bees." Zephon picked up one of the bees that had flown up onto his abdomen and looked at it curiously. The cat sized bee seemed to enjoy being held and seemed to purr in response. "These are new, but I know why. They are simple beasts. They are summoned with low intelligence and can follow simple commands. And if i remember correctly from what some mages told me. Beast souls are extremely simple while intelligent creatures have extremely complex ones. Its like comparing a small rock to a masterfully made piece of equipment. That is how I understood it at least."
Ba'al nodded taking in the information. "That makes some sense. It must be simple enough to where a dungeon core making one is easy. Though even animals can have some complex emotions so there's probably a lot more to it than that." Ba'al said, musing more to himself than anything. One of the bees came over to him and laid in his lap purring comfortably, causing him to smile. "Though we will need to ask someone who actually knows. But I'm definitely a fan of these little guys already. Though I do wonder how they will help out, and why they were considered workers?"
Zephon merely nodded in response. Ba'al thought to himself a bit before asking a question. "Do we just give them verbal commands for now? I'd imagine we'd need to babysit them since they don't have any agency of their own."
Zephon mulled the question over a bit before answering. "Most likely, but I do remember Queen Baʿalah was able to mark things that needed done, especially how tunnels needed to be dug. Though she interacted with it in a much different way from how you are so far. I had heard each dungeon lord interacted with their dungeon in different ways but had never seen it. Usually if I saw another lord it was to battle against them."
"You have fought other dungeon lords? Were you able to kill any?" Ba'al asked Zephon, who merely nodded and raised three fingers in response. Ba'al was a bit surprised. This meant either dungeon lords were not necessarily more powerful than their troops, or that Zephon was extremely capable. He was leaning towards being capable though. "Damn, that's impressive. Let me mess with this then and see if I can create markers or something similar."
He dabbled with the odd screen seeing what it could do. He imagined it was similar to video game menus which he was familiar with. Responding to the thought a few menu buttons appeared. Ba'al tapped one saying workers. It changed to a screen that was mostly blank besides having two lines that said [Worker Ants: 7] [Worker Bees: 13]. It was probably the worst menu he'd ever seen being very uninformative. He tapped a little back button then tapped a button saying map. It brought up a map of the room with a clear marker for the dungeon, throne, and the summoning diagram. It looked like a very simple strategy game map. He had expected it to mark everyone with a marker too. As he thought that markers for the ants and bees appeared as little blue dots. Ba'al with a little bit surprised but fit into the hypothesis he had been starting to make. It seemed the menu was affected by his thoughts and desires. At first he was thinking he could only make minor changes but it was starting to think it could be completely remade to how he wanted.
He would need to save that for later though. For now he'd use it as is and remodel it as work was being redone. Ba'al continued thinking of it as a strategy game map and tapped the wall where the entrance to the room used to be and dragged across highlighting a tunnel on the map. After a second the spot he highlighted on the map started glowing in the actual location that was on the map. What looked like a translucent box appeared around the entrance he made. Almost immediately the ants turned and made their way to the marked location and started digging. They made pretty quick progress despite having wretched pickaxes. As they dug out chunks of rock the bees got to work picking them up and flying them over to the dungeon core. The rubble was tossed into it where it immediately disappeared. Ba'al checked his mana count but as expected it didn't change. More than likely it would take literal tons of rubble to get even one mana.
"Well that answers several questions and solves them. I can mark this map for tasks and I can see the whole dungeon. Which may only be this room and what little they've dug already, but it's progress." He said towards Zephon. "It seems this menu is based on games I've played in the past. Probably because it's what I imagine of when thinking of running a dungeon. Its the worst fucking menu I've ever seen but I only started and I've played with so many types of menus. I'll need to go over it and design it in a way that makes sense to me. Which will make keeping track of everything easier and me more efficient at planning. It will take quite some time though. Can you keep an eye on them for now? Make sure they don't run into any trouble?"
Zephon nodded and spoke. "I don't know what you mean by games, but if it helps you run things well that's all that matters my Lord. I'll accompany them until we can get some warriors. There could be cavern pockets anywhere and who knows what survived the collapse. And before you ask, no no one survived besides myself for our side. Lady Baʿalah had already confirmed that before collapsing the dungeon."
Ba'al looked at the mantis with sadness. He had already felt bad for Zephon but this really hit home how much he had lost. Ba'al promised to himself that he would try to make sure the mantis didn't have to suffer like that again.
He nodded toward Zephon, unable to find any words to say. Both of them started on their tasks. With Zephon guarding the workers and giving them ocaisinal direction. They didn't need it with the marker being enough direction but it was more to give them interaction to boost the soul growing process. At the same time Ba'al got to work customizing the dungeon interface menu.