Jacob sighed as the stress he gained started to melt. He had survived the second wave. He had also learned how he had both over and underestimated the enemies at this stage, though it made him worried for the next wave.

  He wasn’t going to forget his quest this time and instantly claimed the extra 20 soul points when he got the chance. He spent the rest of the time looking through the animals and separating the corpses from the salvageables. He needed to fill up his dungeon as fast as possible, and that meant that he needed to create some more minions.

  The growth beds for the Scarlet Teeth were taken from their cell and placed in a pile that served as a mass grave. Several stocks of the fungus had started to grow from it and were ready to eat. He gave the bear a few corpses for it to binge eat and recover energy.

  After that, he returned his attention back to his empty dungeon. While enthrallment was superior for battle, it was a detriment outside of it. There were spells that he could use to summon and command assimilated monsters, but they were expensive and far too simplistic to rely on.

  The solution to this problem was the same one that the Overworld forces will use: unit generals. If he created a single monster that was enthralled that commanded assimilated monsters, then he could get more than the best of both worlds. He wouldn’t have to micromanage as much, he could use more of the dungeon’s strength, and it assisted in creating themes for dungeon layers and floors.

  He had no plans on turning his bear or the plant magic deer into a floor or layer master yet, it would be too expensive of a project for him to handle. He needed to create something more than a weapon, he needed a keystone for the life on this first layer to develop around.

  This layer was going to have the appearance and theme of an abandoned mineshaft. This layer also needed to be easy to help lure in adventurers. He began narrowing down the sort of monster he needed.

  The most basic monster a dungeon could have was a rat. They were omnivores, reproduced easily, and naturally cooperative. They weren’t what he needed though; they ate too much and were rarely constructive.

  He didn’t think that a mammal was right for the job. Birds were out as this layer didn’t have the space for them. Reptiles weren’t tickling his fancy, and amphibians and fish needed water to work. That left him with insects or a species of walking fungus, and Jacob didn’t want to deal with the latter.

  Insects were actually a popular species group in the game as they were capable of doing anything. They could create dungeon structures, farm, attack, and hold other species in balance. They were also excellent for creating fodder.

  What sort of insect would be best for an abandoned mine? He could create some lore or backstory for this, but that was a waste of time at the moment. Instead, the best insects were one that could help him defend and create value.

  Spiders were out, they were best for creating traps. Flying insects were also out. That left ants.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Ants fit everything he needed. They created fodder, could build and farm, and their queen could be enthralled while the rest of them were assimilated. More than the other potential monsters, in his mind ants fit much better within an abandoned mine.

  There weren’t any insect type magic beasts that attacked the dungeon, meaning that they would need to be spawned. Unlike something like fungus, there was a much greater chance of failure too.

  Spawning didn’t just magically create new lifeforms, the sacrifice served as the metaphorical womb or vessel to develop and nourish it. For fungus this wasn’t a problem, spores were incredibly small and didn’t need much development to become active. For a more complex organism, that was different. There was a real chance that the host would collapse before the spawn was ready to be independent, like an egg breaking before the bird was ready to hatch.

  He didn’t want to kill many of the other animals he had captured. These animals were the foundation of his dungeon’s monsters, and while he didn’t need them now the other layers will need residents. These were his stock for the next few layers, as it would take a long time for the sixth wave to come.

  There were other things he needed to think about too. It had been about two to three days by his very rough estimate and his monsters needed a source of water. There was a lot of moisture in the raw meat still soaked with blood that his bear ate, but it should be starting to become dehydrated.

  He had gained well over a hundred soul points from this wave thanks to the animals being more powerful. With this, he had enough to finally start raising an army.

  He had slightly less than three days, which was more than he expected. Spawning was slow only to his perspective as a gamer, to organic life it was incomprehensibly fast. For most creatures, the development of young took weeks or a month at its fastest, for humans it was around nine months. Here, spawning took hours, and that was why hosts struggled to survive long enough.

  He marked for his dungeon fairy where he wanted to create ponds of fresh water and then he focused on creating his new ant species. Just like the bear, this ant queen was going to be enthralled, but this time it will be designed to reproduce asexually. He gave it the attributes of starting out the size of a child’s hand before slowly growing to the size of a small dog.

  He didn’t give it any other attributes than that as it would increase the chances of the spawning failing. Just these simple attributes made it cost over 40 soul points. Once he had at least one of these ant queens safely born, then he would mutate it and give it the rest of its powers.

  He spawned this new species in three different broken animals that weren’t quite near death’s door. He could only hope they didn’t all fail.