Small beginnings

Day 1

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Staring at the holographic menu in front of me, I'm a little shocked... I mean, I know I'm small. About the size of a blueberry. But still!!!! These options are really weak.

My dungeon is actually only a tiny cave, ok, more like a small crevice that is attached to a cave. It's about half a meter wide, 2 meter deep, and 3 meters high. Yep. 3 cubic meters.

There is no easy dig or construction options, no traps, no loot, but maybe that'll be available later. For now all I can do is expand my area of influence into existing spaces if I want to grow.

Currently in my dungeon there are bats, ants and worms. How do I know? I can see them and feel them. 8 bats hanging from the 'ceiling' sleeping, a small ant colony in the deepest corner, and a few worms digging through the loose earth under me. Now before people start imagining giant worms with rings of razor sharp teeth, swarms of golden colored dog sized ants, or vampires shapeshifting into bats, let me clarify. These are ordinary worms, ants and bats. I think I killed an ant by rolling over it with my core. No wait it's up again, I'm too small to hurt it.

Dungeons always have monsters defending them, but my options of what to summon? Yep. Ants worms and bats.

Anything else I can do? Nope. All I can do is summon insignificant creatures. So I do it. 50 earthworms, and 100 ants. Bats are more expensive so I'll need to save up some points and wait to see if they are actually worth it.

I set the earthworms to digging, hopefully they can dig a small tunnel for me to hide in. If not, I'll just use them to feed other creatures.

I send my ants out to scavenge some stuff. Anything really. Off they go. Turns out I can give orders to the existing creatures too, so I send more ants out as well as 4 bats. Well the bats don't go, but they move the entrance of the cave to wait until they know it's night. At least that's what I think.

While I wait for my minions to do their work, I explore my current surroundings some more. There is s pitiful amount of dungeon points (DP) trickling in. Something must be generating it... it's either based on my size, the dungeon size, or creatures in my dungeon. Hard to tell at the moment. I make a mental note to figure this out later.

I can also feel some strange energy gathering in me from the air. It's not anything visible, but I instinctively know that it is good for me. Probably mana, qi, or whatever they call magic energy in this world. I focus on it for a while. It feels good, soothing, uplifting, empowering... I can feel everything in my dungeon in a weird way, but that sense stops abruptly where my crevice meets the neighboring cave.

Rolling over to the entrance, I realize everything outside my territory is a hazy blur. Guess I need to conquer it before I can explore! I wonder if there are any inhabitants though...

I'm distracted by a random thought. What should people call me if I meet anyone... my old name wasn't the easiest for English speakers, and now I'm basically just a blueberry... guess I'll just own it.

"I Lord Blueberry have claimed this cave!!" Something like that... yeah that'll work... maybe my brain got damaged during my previous death...

Before I can think of a better option, my loyal workers start returning. Ants are organized. They left in a neat line, and returned the same way. Nice. Looking at them I notice they are carrying stuff. The first group come with small bits of leaves, and other vegetable matter and drop it near my core.

just as I start considering if this trash can be useful, it dissolves into a puddle, which then soaked into the ground. It's gone...

The ants seem satisfied and head out again. Checking the menu I notice my DP has gone up like, almost nothing. Enough to get some more ants though! I quickly add them to the task force.

The second group of ants to return come with something better. Bits of leaves and small chunks of what looks like some kind of mushroom!

A few hours later, my ants have managed to transport the whole mushroom into my dungeon.

"Ding! New purchase available"

Sweet! Time to see what these can do! Let's look at the shop again:

- Earthworms: your basic worm. Slow, vulnerable, eats dirt.

- Ants: its an ant. Cheap reliable labour, can be stepped on easily.

- Bats: eats fruits or bugs. Basically a blind flying rat.

- Armillaria: known as honey fungus. Bioluminescent and mildly poisonous. Edible if well cooked. Parasitic.

Nice!!! Let's get some.

I buy a few mushrooms through the shop and select where they grow. Soon the small caps start growing out of one of the walls. An eerie green glow lights up my new shrooms but I don't like it. Looks cheap, looks tacky, and entirely useless unrelated to blueberries. I wish I could change it somehow.

Being the dungeon master, shouldn't things follow my will?! I glare at the cluster of glowing fungi, daring it to resist my will.

Bend the knee you insignificant light source!

After an intense standoff where neither of us back down, I see the small caps droop in defeat. Their colour shifts a little to a light turquoise.

Victory!!

"Ding, unlocked basic adjustment system"

An interesting development... I check out the new menu, and like what I see. The mushrooms I have purchased can be edited some more, but at the cost of DP. I change its glow to a calm starry blue, and remove the toxins. whats the point of being only slightly poisonous? Go all in or go home!

There we go. Edible glowshrooms. I change the name too while I'm at it. The new data is updated in the shop as a separate variety. It's cheaper than the original by a little, a fact I'm attributing to not needing to spend DP on the poison.

- Glowshroom: edible fungus that glows a nice blue colour.

I spend the rest of my DP editing my creatures. Ants and worms get a slight size upgrade. Now the ants are about a centimeter long. The worms get fatter; About a centimeter in diameter. Their price doubles, but with how cheap they still are, who cares?

Finally the bats decide to head out. I send my new and improved ants out again too. Not long after, a bat returns. It's got nothing, though it looks fatter. It must have eaten everything it caught. As if that's perfectly acceptable, it joins the others and goes to sleep.

The other three bats are more considerate, dropping some half eaten berries which get quickly absorbed. Sweet DP come to me!

This seems to work so I send out the other 4 bats while the first half rest.

Alright let's do this!

My ants tirelessly work, shifting bits of leaves, and other things which I can't identify due to it being just a tiny piece. Whenever there is enough DP, I spend it on ants. These little buggers are reliable!

The bats have mixed success, some just eat everything they find. Thankfully, others remember their master and drop off a few half eaten bugs and some more berries.

"Ding! New purchase unlocked!!"

"Yass!!!! Progress!!"