Valaterra Unok’Davaas, The Playground of the Gods, looked upon his shattered realm with mixed feelings. The Delvers were gone with most having been slain by his creatures, creatures that even now were glowing with the light of evolution. He had had little time to process what had happened during the tiny war that had been conducted within his halls.

  Now that he was no longer in reaction mode all of the notifications began rolling in and he was quickly overwhelmed. He banished them all for the time being and simply breathed. He felt the Aether twist and roil as it moved through the gaping hole in his walls and he figured that would be a good place to start. Looking at the devastation he figured now would be a good time to make some improvements.

  But that would have to happen later. He used his Aether to plug the holes with stone and then removed the leftover debris. Then he gingerly opened his notifications back up but restricted it to his creatures. He knew how hard holding off Evolution was and he wanted to make sure they were taken care of. They certainly deserved it.

  Seven mice had not only survived the attack on their strongholds by the invaders but had actually killed some of them. A single kill was apparently all it took. And the fruits of it were clear to see. The invaders they had killed were something called Fae or perhaps kin to them. Regardless, Valterra chose that option and moved on. He would not let their devotion go to waste.

  There were quite a few beetles that had been in and around the fighting that had survived after getting a few nips in. As a creature without a rarity, it was ludicrously easy for them to reach their Evolution threshold. He chose a few from each option and moved on. He would see what they became down the road now that they had a little Aether in them.

  Valterra looked over the options excitedly. Quite a few of the mouse guards stationed in the large fortress he had made for them had accumulated enough Aether to evolve. Two of the options were the same but he was excited to see a magical option present. It was in place of another leader but Valterra didn’t mind.

  He had the Schema for the Mouse Captain already. If he felt his creatures needed more on-the-ground leadership then he would give it to them. The majority of the mice in the fortress he chose to make Mouse Soldiers. He needed true fighters and not just guards. To that end, he also chose five mice to become Berserkers. They wouldn’t be able to advance further but they would be powerful combatants for him to unleash on invaders. He was looking forward to it.

  As much as he loved the idea of magic mice he only chose to make three of the mice into Mouse Other-Mages. He wasn’t comfortable having new magic around and figured that he could add more once these mice had fully matured and he was sure of what he was dealing with. With the mice out of the way, he moved on.

  Valterra found the options fascinating. Only three had survived the combat with the fae and he was tempted to just make them all Cinder-Spark Mantis’s and move on but he forced himself to choose the least aggressive of the survivors to be a Recluse. He had learned the error of not having answers to threats. Each additional choice allowed him more options in the future. Once the Recluse had evolved he would have access to the Schema and he could sow them across his Dungeon like hidden vipers for invaders to stumble across.

  Finished he turned and looked at the remaining glowing lights and sighed. He still had much to do.