The Queen Ant Charlissa could sense the filthy invaders coming deeper, the ground shaking as they blew her workers and soldiers aside. She spared no effort in popping out hundreds of eggs to meet them head on, her massive body shivering as the wet ovals popped out onto the floor, carried away for her army of workers to crack open.
As a mid-sized Queen Ant, her babies were grown almost full size, and immediately joined in on the defense seconds after emerging from their moist sacs.
Dustin, meanwhile, was growing tired. His metal staff was losing durability insanely fast with how many ants were crawling out of the holes, the smallest of them as large as a rat, and the bigger ones filling out the tunnels, at least the size of single bed.
Tons of elementals were flooding past him to plug up the holes, using their bodies to stop the onslaught as they fought through the main tunnel that lead towards the Queen. The larger elementals strode forward behind Dustin, throwing spells forward to clear out groups of ants. The twins were walking smugly beside their air elemental carer, ignoring the vicious insects that wanted to bite them.
Dustin had been throwing out Storm Bolts at the start, watching as they chained through the ants, frying tens of them at a time. Eventually he ran out of mana, and he had to resort to using the staff and shadow dagger to kill. He wasn't going to let the near endless source of experience and Dos get away from him.
Ten painstakingly slow minutes later they emerged into the Queen's cavern, of which her body took up half. He could barely see her head as it towered near the ceiling, looking down in them in disgust. A wave of acid shot out from her mouth, but was pushed aside as the Air elementals set up a barrier to defend them.
She tried again, to no effect, and screeched. Rumbling filled the cavern, worrying Dustin that she was trying to collapse the roof on top of them, but realized that it wasn't coming from above.
The personal Ant Guards had arrived to protect their queen, and fell out of holes in the surrounding walls like an open pipe. Dustin chugged down a mana potion in preparation. He needed to land hits on the higher priority targets.
Ant guards had special armoured plates covering the front of their bodies, designed to stay in the fight facing their enemies for as long as possible. They couldn't turn around and retreat or they would die, their backs fleshy and exposed.
The Lightning elementals met the ant guards charge head on, as they were the largest force. Air was preoccupied with maintaining a barrier against the queen's own attacks. This left Water to support Lightning in pushing back the tide.
Previously, Dustin would have fallen into his support role and joined the Water elementals. But now, he was in the thick of it, feeling his hairs stand on end as the static energy blew ants backwards, and thunder roared in defiance.
The ants tried their best to shatter the spirits between their teeth, or crush them with their body weight. Dustin tried to attach ice petals to the queen when he could, but an ant would crawl up her body to remove them each time before they could do anything.
Dustin wasn't sure who would win in the game of numbers, but it was obvious that the Queen had no problems spitting out hundreds of ants every minute. Her tail was facing to the side, at an angle that he could just see the eggs popping out from.
An idea popped into his head, spurred on from the nightmare he had last night. It was stupid, but stupid enough to work.
Dustin left the lightning Elementals to hold the line and chanced a step out of the air barrier. He could feel the heat given off by the acid that lined the bottom of the barrier through his clothes, and pulled his leg back. He wasn't going to survive outside for long enough to accomplish his goal.
Dustin looked back at the air elementals, they seemed completely preoccupied with holding up the barrier. The same could be said about the Water and Lightning elementals, and their respective roles.
At the current rate, the battle would be decided upon who ran out of foot soldiers sooner. The Queen was completely unharmed so far, and the rate at which she spawned ants wasn't getting any lower.
Dustin bit his lip and sent a command to the Air elementals. It was met with immediate rejection, but he was resolute in his decision. He asked again, this time with more force. The lead air elemental looked over at Dustin, and was about to deny it again, but a pair of hands tugged at it.
The twins standing beside it nodded in unison, giving their brightest smiles.
Dustin didn't hear what was going on, but could feel the heat of the acid on his foot as the bottom of the barrier rose up. It continued receding, until the Queen saw an opportunity to attack, and a spray of acid rained down on the exposed Water spirits.
He heard a wet squelching sound as many of them collapsed, the remaining ones pushing through to continue healing the Lightning troops.
Before the queen could eject anymore foul liquid, the Air elementals sent a giant blade of wind towards her, cutting off one of the protruding mandibles. Dustin was already downing his last mana potion as the blade connected. He summoned a second shadow dagger, and attached an ice petal to each of them.
The queen raised her head and roared in anger. Her whole body shook, vibrating the cavern, and her tail unconsciously curled towards her body. Dustin waited until the grotesque opening was facing him and threw the shadow daggers. He didn't have time to cast a Storm Bolt of his own, but his faithful lightning spirit buddy did it for him.
The three projectiles disappeared inside the gaping hole as it clenched tight against her hulking mass. When the two daggers sunk into the flesh, they deposited the ice petals on the fleshy interior. They automatically began to spread, freezing the surroundings and dealing increasing amounts of frost damage.
There were no ants inside her, and the petals could not be removed. She could feel the freezing cold emanating in her behind and swept her tail back, commanding workers to climb inside and take the petals off.
Only, they couldn't get in. The lighting spirits bolt had contracted the muscles of the tail, closing the hole that the eggs came out of, and that they would need to enter through. Before she could relax it, they had frozen in place, creating an icey ring that chilled any ants who approached.
The dip in strength that Dustin's side faced after the acid attack was quickly covered, and the Lightning elementals pushed back the no longer endless horde of ants. Dustin zapped any of the worker ants that got too close and watched as the Air elementals put the shield back up, stopping any retaliation the Queen tried.
The Water elementals had taken a big hit, but thanks to Dustin stopping the creation of more ants, there were less injuries to the Lightning elementals, and they could handle the losses.
Soon, the queen herself was stuck in the edges of the storm, bolts of lightning scorching her fleshy underside, and tearing a couple of legs from her joints. Her screams of pain were like music to Dustin's ears and he stopped throwing Storm Bolts out, his mana reserves completely dried up.
He didn't care get close enough to hit her with his staff, and went to sit between the Water and Air elementals. He was content enough to throw a couple of throwing knives and count the seconds until her health reached zero.
Despite freeing her tail end of the ring of ice, the continued onslaught of ants did nothing to save her poor state. When her head rested on the ground, exhausted from the fight, the Air elementals finished it off with another air blade.
Of course, Dustin threw a knife towards her following the wind blade, trying to catch the kill contribution. Unfortunately her health was too low, and the blade depleted her remaining health, as well as removing the top half of her head.
The clean up went smoothly, the remaining ants receiving a bright finish to their lives. The quest completed without Dustin moving from his sitting position, a cup of meditation tea in his hands.
[Subdue the Ants completed!]
Charlissa, the Ant Queen, has been defeated. Her reign has ended and the Elemental spirits now control the dungeon.
Reward:
- An elemental spirit of your choice.
Dustin blinked at the reward. Generally pioneers needed spells to capture elemental spirits, and even then, the spirits were incredibly picky.
Without even sparing a glance at the other spirits watching him, he looked up at the lightning spirit that had followed him to the end. The bottom of it had melted away from the intensity of acid fumes, but was otherwise jingling at him excitedly.
[Lightning Spirit Lei-Lei]
Dustin accepted the choice, and felt a link form between the spirit and himself, taking over what control the leader of the lightning elementals would have had.
The twins he had almost forgotten about were beckoning him over, different coloured spirits floating next to them as well.
He had expected both of them to go with air, but surprisingly the right twin had chosen a water spirit.
"I didn't want Water to get lonely. Now we have one of each!"
The girl had answered Dustins question before he could ask it. The other twin pushed a book towards him, her face making it obvious that she was unhappy at having to do so.
[Perception: Spirits]
Enhances the communication between pioneer and spirit, able to understand each other.
"We already have it, and Taifeng says you should have it…"
He nodded and took the book slowly, only reading to the second page before it disappeared.
[Perception: Spirits acquired!]
Dustin looked up at his spirit, Lei-Lei, and waited. He wasn't sure what to expect, he hadn't communicated with spirits before, or at least ones that didn't want to kill him.
"Ah. Master, can you hear me?"
Dustin froze, hearing the rumbling voice that entered his head. He had expected it sound something like that, but the undeniable feminine tone put him off completely.
"You're… female?" Dustin asked, stepping closer to the spirit. Lei-Lei floated backwards, and gave the impression that she was holding her hands up.
"Spirits do not have a gender Master, please stop touching me."
Dustin released the purple ball and turned to look at the twins, both of which were now giving him dirty looks.
They turned to each other and nodded in perfect unison.
"Pervert."
------------------------
Dustin left the cavern as quick as he could to recover his pride, giving a death stare to his spirit as it stifled a laugh.
He hadn't gotten any information about the dungeon's secret yet, meaning something was still inside. The spirits roaming around all ignored Dustin as he explored the tunnels, pushing against the walls to see if anything gave way.
He had an idea of where to look, and finally found a caved in tunnel when he pushed the weak wall inwards. He made sure none of the lightning spirits were around as he ducked inside, pushing the stones back into place.
Sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed as he descended in a spiral pattern, down into the very center of the circular tunnel system.
The corpse of a long dead Queen Ant lay collapsed on the side of a cavern, dwarfing even the size that Charlissa had grown to. There were signs of battle surrounding it, as the remains of hundreds of ants had decomposed.
Dustin had found it too odd that the tunnel system was designed in a doughnut formation, with nothing in the center. There was no sure way to find out the truth of the matter, but Dustin suspected that Charlissa hadn't constructed the tunnels, she had stolen them. The size of this queen indicated it was much older than Charlissa, and the central position of its nest matched the tunnel design.
He explored around the bloated corpse, holding his nose as the terrible smell. When he reached the tail end, he found something unexpected.
It appeared not all life had died inside the cavern, as part of the queen's tail end had been eaten away by worms and maggots, revealing the untouched eggs inside. Dustin kicked aside the rotting parts and checked the eggs all over. There were no cracks on the shell, but he was unsure if whatever remained inside was still living.
Upon examining the eggs, he was prompted by the dungeons secret mechanic.
[You have discovered the unhatched eggs of the betrayed queen Prinada. The eggs still live, but require proper care to have any chance at hatching.]
[You may alert the spirits outside to the caverns presence, and the eggs will be disposed of, granting you an additional reward from the spirits.
You may keep the eggs, which will require constant care and attention to hatch the ants inside. They will imprint on whoever they see first, and follow their commands to the death.]
Dustin knelt down beside one of the eggs and knocked on the surface. There was no response from inside, and he couldn't target any of them. Identifying them did little more than confirm the secrets proposition. They were Prinada's eggs, and they were still able to hatched, but further information was locked, only Prinada would have been able to see it.
The eggs were big, and Dustin could only fit three in his inventory. There were six in total, and each of them was identical. Dustin sighed and chose the second option. The spirits were not alerted, and he was given no reward for the finding, besides the eggs of course.
He fit three inside his bag, taking every second one. He had the choice to leave it at that, taking three of the ant eggs, and leaving the remaining three to die.
The feeling of responsibility and guilt was strong as he tried to walk away. Even Lei-Lei was looking at him disappointingly, despite the lack of face. She wasn't concerned about the lives of the lightning spirits and the fact that Dustin had elected to not warn them, but she was concerned for the lives of the eggs.
They were classified as his belongings now, and could technically also be classified as companions, same as Lei-Lei.
He made it a couple of steps away before he turned right around, taking the eggs away from the maggots, and putting them in an opposite corner.
He made a pseudo-nest made from rocks, to keep the eggs upright and huddled together. He had next to no knowledge of hatching eggs, except maybe the common ones like heat. He couldn't imagine the traditional method of a chicken sitting on the eggs was going to work...
He checked the three eggs in his bag and found some refuge as the display indicated what he needed to do to keep them alive.
Moisture was one. The eggs needed to be kept wet, as to mimic what the interior of the queen ant would have been like. There was a kind of mucus that Dustin could apparently buy from the shop to imitate it.
Next was food. The newly born ants usually ate whatever the worker ants regurgitated, but monstrous ants like these were different.
The entire 'baby' phase an ant went through was essentially skipped. Ants came out of eggs as near-adults, and went hunting for their own food. The eggs, however, needed a constant source of mana supplied. For Dustin, he could block 5 of his mana, per egg, to keep them fed.
The last part was similar to what Dustin had thought, heat, or at least a hospitable environment. Dustin ended up browsing through what he dubbed the 'home improvements' section of the Dos shop, and bought a few things that he could work without being physically present.
The most expensive part of the setup was a receptacle. It essentially a P.O box that Dustin could send things to. His egg set up looked like a scene from dinosaur films as the eggs sat in their rock next. He had a large barrier set up to keep mucus from flowing out.
Like a fountain, the mucus was pulled from the bottom and dripped over the eggs to keep them wet. The whole process looked disgusting, but worked well. He had the receptacle in a spot that anything he sent through would drop down into the middle of the eggs.
For now, it had a heat stone sitting in the center, which needed to be replaced every so often. He could also resupply the mucus in case it dried up.
If the eggs ever hatched, which he had little faith in, he could send food through. The entire thing was a massive waste of money however, if his mana wasn't blocked when he left the dungeon.
He needed thirty mana blocked, not including what the healing orb took, for all six eggs to be covered. He paced back and forth in the cavern, chewing on his fingernails until he shook himself out of the endless looping worries.
The eggs were in a dungeon, there was no way of knowing what was going to happen to them even if they did hatch. They would probably turn into monsters for the dungeon to use against some other poor sods that entered.
He returned to the dungeons portal out with a heavy heart, a feeling he often felt, but never grew to be comfortable with.
In fact, he didn't know whether it was a good, or bad sign, that there was 30 mana being blocked as he emerged. The community center was just as dark and abandoned as it had been when he went in, meaning the twins hadn't told anyone of their adventures, and nobody came looking for the dead man.
Dustin realized he should have taken the old man's body back, to give some closure to the widowed wife he had left. It was left in the dungeon, essentially disappearing from existence entirely.
Perhaps she would come to realize his fate when dungeons became common knowledge, but Dustin had no say in the matter. He couldn't save everyone, a philosophy he was going to have to live by.
Dustin pulled his cloaks hood up and gently closed the old community centers doors behind him, putting his hands in his pockets as he walked home, wondering where the hell was going to put the three giant eggs.
The Queen Ant Charlissa could sense the filthy invaders coming deeper, the ground shaking as they blew her workers and soldiers aside. She spared no effort in popping out hundreds of eggs to meet them head on, her massive body shivering as the wet ovals popped out onto the floor, carried away for her army of workers to crack open.
As a mid-sized Queen Ant, her babies were grown almost full size, and immediately joined in on the defense seconds after emerging from their moist sacs.
Dustin, meanwhile, was growing tired. His metal staff was losing durability insanely fast with how many ants were crawling out of the holes, the smallest of them as large as a rat, and the bigger ones filling out the tunnels, at least the size of single bed.
Tons of elementals were flooding past him to plug up the holes, using their bodies to stop the onslaught as they fought through the main tunnel that lead towards the Queen. The larger elementals strode forward behind Dustin, throwing spells forward to clear out groups of ants. The twins were walking smugly beside their air elemental carer, ignoring the vicious insects that wanted to bite them.
Dustin had been throwing out Storm Bolts at the start, watching as they chained through the ants, frying tens of them at a time. Eventually he ran out of mana, and he had to resort to using the staff and shadow dagger to kill. He wasn't going to let the near endless source of experience and Dos get away from him.
Ten painstakingly slow minutes later they emerged into the Queen's cavern, of which her body took up half. He could barely see her head as it towered near the ceiling, looking down in them in disgust. A wave of acid shot out from her mouth, but was pushed aside as the Air elementals set up a barrier to defend them.
She tried again, to no effect, and screeched. Rumbling filled the cavern, worrying Dustin that she was trying to collapse the roof on top of them, but realized that it wasn't coming from above.
The personal Ant Guards had arrived to protect their queen, and fell out of holes in the surrounding walls like an open pipe. Dustin chugged down a mana potion in preparation. He needed to land hits on the higher priority targets.
Ant guards had special armoured plates covering the front of their bodies, designed to stay in the fight facing their enemies for as long as possible. They couldn't turn around and retreat or they would die, their backs fleshy and exposed.
The Lightning elementals met the ant guards charge head on, as they were the largest force. Air was preoccupied with maintaining a barrier against the queen's own attacks. This left Water to support Lightning in pushing back the tide.
Previously, Dustin would have fallen into his support role and joined the Water elementals. But now, he was in the thick of it, feeling his hairs stand on end as the static energy blew ants backwards, and thunder roared in defiance.
The ants tried their best to shatter the spirits between their teeth, or crush them with their body weight. Dustin tried to attach ice petals to the queen when he could, but an ant would crawl up her body to remove them each time before they could do anything.
Dustin wasn't sure who would win in the game of numbers, but it was obvious that the Queen had no problems spitting out hundreds of ants every minute. Her tail was facing to the side, at an angle that he could just see the eggs popping out from.
An idea popped into his head, spurred on from the nightmare he had last night. It was stupid, but stupid enough to work.
Dustin left the lightning Elementals to hold the line and chanced a step out of the air barrier. He could feel the heat given off by the acid that lined the bottom of the barrier through his clothes, and pulled his leg back. He wasn't going to survive outside for long enough to accomplish his goal.
Dustin looked back at the air elementals, they seemed completely preoccupied with holding up the barrier. The same could be said about the Water and Lightning elementals, and their respective roles.
At the current rate, the battle would be decided upon who ran out of foot soldiers sooner. The Queen was completely unharmed so far, and the rate at which she spawned ants wasn't getting any lower.
Dustin bit his lip and sent a command to the Air elementals. It was met with immediate rejection, but he was resolute in his decision. He asked again, this time with more force. The lead air elemental looked over at Dustin, and was about to deny it again, but a pair of hands tugged at it.
The twins standing beside it nodded in unison, giving their brightest smiles.
Dustin didn't hear what was going on, but could feel the heat of the acid on his foot as the bottom of the barrier rose up. It continued receding, until the Queen saw an opportunity to attack, and a spray of acid rained down on the exposed Water spirits.
He heard a wet squelching sound as many of them collapsed, the remaining ones pushing through to continue healing the Lightning troops.
Before the queen could eject anymore foul liquid, the Air elementals sent a giant blade of wind towards her, cutting off one of the protruding mandibles. Dustin was already downing his last mana potion as the blade connected. He summoned a second shadow dagger, and attached an ice petal to each of them.
The queen raised her head and roared in anger. Her whole body shook, vibrating the cavern, and her tail unconsciously curled towards her body. Dustin waited until the grotesque opening was facing him and threw the shadow daggers. He didn't have time to cast a Storm Bolt of his own, but his faithful lightning spirit buddy did it for him.
The three projectiles disappeared inside the gaping hole as it clenched tight against her hulking mass. When the two daggers sunk into the flesh, they deposited the ice petals on the fleshy interior. They automatically began to spread, freezing the surroundings and dealing increasing amounts of frost damage.
There were no ants inside her, and the petals could not be removed. She could feel the freezing cold emanating in her behind and swept her tail back, commanding workers to climb inside and take the petals off.
Only, they couldn't get in. The lighting spirits bolt had contracted the muscles of the tail, closing the hole that the eggs came out of, and that they would need to enter through. Before she could relax it, they had frozen in place, creating an icey ring that chilled any ants who approached.
The dip in strength that Dustin's side faced after the acid attack was quickly covered, and the Lightning elementals pushed back the no longer endless horde of ants. Dustin zapped any of the worker ants that got too close and watched as the Air elementals put the shield back up, stopping any retaliation the Queen tried.
The Water elementals had taken a big hit, but thanks to Dustin stopping the creation of more ants, there were less injuries to the Lightning elementals, and they could handle the losses.
Soon, the queen herself was stuck in the edges of the storm, bolts of lightning scorching her fleshy underside, and tearing a couple of legs from her joints. Her screams of pain were like music to Dustin's ears and he stopped throwing Storm Bolts out, his mana reserves completely dried up.
He didn't care get close enough to hit her with his staff, and went to sit between the Water and Air elementals. He was content enough to throw a couple of throwing knives and count the seconds until her health reached zero.
Despite freeing her tail end of the ring of ice, the continued onslaught of ants did nothing to save her poor state. When her head rested on the ground, exhausted from the fight, the Air elementals finished it off with another air blade.
Of course, Dustin threw a knife towards her following the wind blade, trying to catch the kill contribution. Unfortunately her health was too low, and the blade depleted her remaining health, as well as removing the top half of her head.
The clean up went smoothly, the remaining ants receiving a bright finish to their lives. The quest completed without Dustin moving from his sitting position, a cup of meditation tea in his hands.
[Subdue the Ants completed!]
Charlissa, the Ant Queen, has been defeated. Her reign has ended and the Elemental spirits now control the dungeon.
Reward:
- An elemental spirit of your choice.
Dustin blinked at the reward. Generally pioneers needed spells to capture elemental spirits, and even then, the spirits were incredibly picky.
Without even sparing a glance at the other spirits watching him, he looked up at the lightning spirit that had followed him to the end. The bottom of it had melted away from the intensity of acid fumes, but was otherwise jingling at him excitedly.
[Lightning Spirit Lei-Lei]
Dustin accepted the choice, and felt a link form between the spirit and himself, taking over what control the leader of the lightning elementals would have had.
The twins he had almost forgotten about were beckoning him over, different coloured spirits floating next to them as well.
He had expected both of them to go with air, but surprisingly the right twin had chosen a water spirit.
"I didn't want Water to get lonely. Now we have one of each!"
The girl had answered Dustins question before he could ask it. The other twin pushed a book towards him, her face making it obvious that she was unhappy at having to do so.
[Perception: Spirits]
Enhances the communication between pioneer and spirit, able to understand each other.
"We already have it, and Taifeng says you should have it…"
He nodded and took the book slowly, only reading to the second page before it disappeared.
[Perception: Spirits acquired!]
Dustin looked up at his spirit, Lei-Lei, and waited. He wasn't sure what to expect, he hadn't communicated with spirits before, or at least ones that didn't want to kill him.
"Ah. Master, can you hear me?"
Dustin froze, hearing the rumbling voice that entered his head. He had expected it sound something like that, but the undeniable feminine tone put him off completely.
"You're… female?" Dustin asked, stepping closer to the spirit. Lei-Lei floated backwards, and gave the impression that she was holding her hands up.
"Spirits do not have a gender Master, please stop touching me."
Dustin released the purple ball and turned to look at the twins, both of which were now giving him dirty looks.
They turned to each other and nodded in perfect unison.
"Pervert."
------------------------
Dustin left the cavern as quick as he could to recover his pride, giving a death stare to his spirit as it stifled a laugh.
He hadn't gotten any information about the dungeon's secret yet, meaning something was still inside. The spirits roaming around all ignored Dustin as he explored the tunnels, pushing against the walls to see if anything gave way.
He had an idea of where to look, and finally found a caved in tunnel when he pushed the weak wall inwards. He made sure none of the lightning spirits were around as he ducked inside, pushing the stones back into place.
Sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed as he descended in a spiral pattern, down into the very center of the circular tunnel system.
The corpse of a long dead Queen Ant lay collapsed on the side of a cavern, dwarfing even the size that Charlissa had grown to. There were signs of battle surrounding it, as the remains of hundreds of ants had decomposed.
Dustin had found it too odd that the tunnel system was designed in a doughnut formation, with nothing in the center. There was no sure way to find out the truth of the matter, but Dustin suspected that Charlissa hadn't constructed the tunnels, she had stolen them. The size of this queen indicated it was much older than Charlissa, and the central position of its nest matched the tunnel design.
He explored around the bloated corpse, holding his nose as the terrible smell. When he reached the tail end, he found something unexpected.
It appeared not all life had died inside the cavern, as part of the queen's tail end had been eaten away by worms and maggots, revealing the untouched eggs inside. Dustin kicked aside the rotting parts and checked the eggs all over. There were no cracks on the shell, but he was unsure if whatever remained inside was still living.
Upon examining the eggs, he was prompted by the dungeons secret mechanic.
[You have discovered the unhatched eggs of the betrayed queen Prinada. The eggs still live, but require proper care to have any chance at hatching.]
[You may alert the spirits outside to the caverns presence, and the eggs will be disposed of, granting you an additional reward from the spirits.
You may keep the eggs, which will require constant care and attention to hatch the ants inside. They will imprint on whoever they see first, and follow their commands to the death.]
Dustin knelt down beside one of the eggs and knocked on the surface. There was no response from inside, and he couldn't target any of them. Identifying them did little more than confirm the secrets proposition. They were Prinada's eggs, and they were still able to hatched, but further information was locked, only Prinada would have been able to see it.
The eggs were big, and Dustin could only fit three in his inventory. There were six in total, and each of them was identical. Dustin sighed and chose the second option. The spirits were not alerted, and he was given no reward for the finding, besides the eggs of course.
He fit three inside his bag, taking every second one. He had the choice to leave it at that, taking three of the ant eggs, and leaving the remaining three to die.
The feeling of responsibility and guilt was strong as he tried to walk away. Even Lei-Lei was looking at him disappointingly, despite the lack of face. She wasn't concerned about the lives of the lightning spirits and the fact that Dustin had elected to not warn them, but she was concerned for the lives of the eggs.
They were classified as his belongings now, and could technically also be classified as companions, same as Lei-Lei.
He made it a couple of steps away before he turned right around, taking the eggs away from the maggots, and putting them in an opposite corner.
He made a pseudo-nest made from rocks, to keep the eggs upright and huddled together. He had next to no knowledge of hatching eggs, except maybe the common ones like heat. He couldn't imagine the traditional method of a chicken sitting on the eggs was going to work...
He checked the three eggs in his bag and found some refuge as the display indicated what he needed to do to keep them alive.
Moisture was one. The eggs needed to be kept wet, as to mimic what the interior of the queen ant would have been like. There was a kind of mucus that Dustin could apparently buy from the shop to imitate it.
Next was food. The newly born ants usually ate whatever the worker ants regurgitated, but monstrous ants like these were different.
The entire 'baby' phase an ant went through was essentially skipped. Ants came out of eggs as near-adults, and went hunting for their own food. The eggs, however, needed a constant source of mana supplied. For Dustin, he could block 5 of his mana, per egg, to keep them fed.
The last part was similar to what Dustin had thought, heat, or at least a hospitable environment. Dustin ended up browsing through what he dubbed the 'home improvements' section of the Dos shop, and bought a few things that he could work without being physically present.
The most expensive part of the setup was a receptacle. It essentially a P.O box that Dustin could send things to. His egg set up looked like a scene from dinosaur films as the eggs sat in their rock next. He had a large barrier set up to keep mucus from flowing out.
Like a fountain, the mucus was pulled from the bottom and dripped over the eggs to keep them wet. The whole process looked disgusting, but worked well. He had the receptacle in a spot that anything he sent through would drop down into the middle of the eggs.
For now, it had a heat stone sitting in the center, which needed to be replaced every so often. He could also resupply the mucus in case it dried up.
If the eggs ever hatched, which he had little faith in, he could send food through. The entire thing was a massive waste of money however, if his mana wasn't blocked when he left the dungeon.
He needed thirty mana blocked, not including what the healing orb took, for all six eggs to be covered. He paced back and forth in the cavern, chewing on his fingernails until he shook himself out of the endless looping worries.
The eggs were in a dungeon, there was no way of knowing what was going to happen to them even if they did hatch. They would probably turn into monsters for the dungeon to use against some other poor sods that entered.
He returned to the dungeons portal out with a heavy heart, a feeling he often felt, but never grew to be comfortable with.
In fact, he didn't know whether it was a good, or bad sign, that there was 30 mana being blocked as he emerged. The community center was just as dark and abandoned as it had been when he went in, meaning the twins hadn't told anyone of their adventures, and nobody came looking for the dead man.
Dustin realized he should have taken the old man's body back, to give some closure to the widowed wife he had left. It was left in the dungeon, essentially disappearing from existence entirely.
Perhaps she would come to realize his fate when dungeons became common knowledge, but Dustin had no say in the matter. He couldn't save everyone, a philosophy he was going to have to live by.
Dustin pulled his cloaks hood up and gently closed the old community centers doors behind him, putting his hands in his pockets as he walked home, wondering where the hell was going to put the three giant eggs.
