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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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If I had a nickel for every time I accidentally caused a country to collapse into warring and discordant states, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. All I’d done was exist, and the Bahrain decided I’d make a good launching point for their invasion. In advance of their fleet, they assassinated the Phenocian royal family, causing the whole kingdom to explode into individual counties and duchies. The Bahrain invasion failed, and, due to their lack of manpower and force projection, their conquered states rebelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’d feel bad if they hadn’t literally tried to invade my island as a launching point for a bigger invasion. I remembered something about them lacking the resources to feed and sustain their population. Still, I felt like that wasn’t their only justification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Either way, it didn’t matter anymore. Civilisations collapse and rise anew in a different form. Whatever state forms from the Bahrain remnants was a later problem. I had more pressing issues to deal with, like that spy. The teen heroes discovered that the idiots who triggered hardmode and got slaughtered had apparently been attempting to test my defences. They hadn’t trusted the guidebook Layla wrote. They told the guildmistress, who asked them to pass the information on to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as I was told, I reviewed some seagull memories and discovered that a messenger hawk had left the window of their tavern room. It flew directly west, straight to the coast of Theona. They had already sent back information, though how much they could have gathered in the day they were on the island… It didn’t quite make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, the theory that the teens had cooked up. We had a spy for the church, beyond those guilders. Someone who’d probably been sent to the island months ago, keeping tabs on everything and everyone. They’d been collecting information to send back to their master when the time was right. They could be anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not to say we didn’t have any<\/em> hints as to their identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This person likely had access to privileged information and the ability to access it without arousing suspicion. There was only one place on the island where information on my dungeon and its defences is stored: the Guild Hall. Thus, the spy is a member of the guild’s administrative team, one of only ten people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to my rat and seagull spies, I didn’t even have to narrow the search any further. My monsters didn’t need<\/em> to eat or rest, and so those ten now had permanent stalkers. All of these monsters were capable of manasight, allowing them to look through walls. There would be no escape from my big brother-esque surveillance state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that, I could safely ignore the situation and wait for some results. The monsters would alert me if their targets sent any messenger hawks or went anywhere they weren’t allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I refocused on the dungeon; I had a lot of work still to do. The new animals were safely escorted to the dungeon and monsterised, where I guided them through the dungeon. Since I’d already destroyed all the hidden tunnels and access paths, they had to take the long way around. I had one of the only remaining kobolds on the surface, an Air Shaman, cast bubblehead spells on those monsters, to make sure they could make it through the submerged portions of the dungeon. I also temporarily widened doorways for the monsters to pass through, and remade them afterwards. Almost two whole uninterrupted days of travel later, they reached the Eleventh Floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From there, I gave them to a few livestock farmers, started their breeding cycles and shortened their gestation periods considerably. Soon, I’d have as many of the buggers as I wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In those few days, more Children had made the trip to the Twelfth floor, and Wyvern’s rest was empty enough that I could continue the evacuation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Eighth Floor was sparsely populated, by design. I didn’t want the guilders hunting any animals for food, after all. The three tribes of Snowbolds, the few Beastborn with them, and their bonded pets were evacuated quickly; they’d already known the floors above them were empty \u2014they’d seen all their fellow children pass through, after all. Their own evacuation had only been a matter of time, and they’d started preparations to leave weeks<\/em> ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only one I didn’t manage to evacuate was that crazy sheep beastborn who’d made a hermit hut near the peak of the second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I have a mountain <\/em>exactly like this on the twelfth! You could move down there and be far safer from the crusaders.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “I don’t really care about them, Creator,” the crazy woman said, sitting cross-legged on a flat rock that overlooked the First Peak. “Respectfully, if they come, they come. If they find me, they find me. If they kill me, then I die. I will not let the threat of them affect me.” Behind her, the Second Peak was only a dozen or so meters up. She had a little one-room igloo and lived an ascetic existence. She didn’t eat, barely slept, and spent most of her time meditating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On what, you ask? The nature of creation, her place in it, and other such monk-like philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you change your mind, let me know.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n “I will not, but I appreciate the gesture.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I left the crazy hermit alone and moved on. The Eighth was one of my weakest<\/em> floors; there were large parts of the mountains that were untrapped and unpatrolled by monsters. To fix this, I decided to introduce a few new species. First were the Snowhares, a smaller version of the Jackolope with white fur and ice mana. Omnivorous and perfectly happy consuming an unattended corpse, as they were the leaves and a few berry species that grew on the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their main evolution, apart from the age-related ones, was into Lapinethropes. This species was larger, lankier, and more powerful, capable of both bipedal and quadrupedal movement. Their claws were sharper, and their horns were tougher and more pointed. They were more solitary creatures, with larger ranging grounds and far choosier about their mates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final evolution in the chain was the Wendigo, which required my personal approval to evolve into. I didn’t want too many of these running around, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shedding their horns entirely, these thin, lanky monsters may look starving, but they were all muscle. Capable of shadow and ice magic, these monsters would stalk parties, stealing away unattended party members to feed. They liked to toy with their prey, leaving their intact heads in the path of groups, and hunted at night. Needless to say, Wendigos were only allowed to leave their underground dens when Hardmode was triggered. They weren’t a monster I’d want a normal party to face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I spread a colony of Snowhares across each mountain, and a dozen Lapinethropes across the whole floor. From the lapinethropes, I evolved one, singular Wendigo. I directed the chosen doe to her new den and set her to hibernate. There were two triggers to awaken her: a human had entered her den, which I had purposely left open, or hardmode had been triggered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that was just the start. I added two more monster species to the floor, each one capable of inflicting primeval terror on any guilder unfortunate enough to come across them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n -0-0-0-0-0-<\/p>\n\n\n\n The<\/em> Scurvy Scorpan,<\/em> The Eleventh Floor, The Dungeon<\/p>\n\n\n\n -0-0-0-0-0-<\/p>\n\n\n\n Climbs-Tall-Things hung from the upper shrouds of the mainmast, the wind blowing heavily this close to The Storm. To their starboard, the night was quiet and peaceful. Climbs spotted a pod of Leviathans breaching briefly before they disappeared. On their port, however, lay the enormous, permanent storm that battered the ‘dark’ elements. Deep within The Storm lay the islands of Shadow, Gravity, Lightning and Sound. Climbs stared into The Storm, challenging it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sailing through The Storm was not for the faint-hearted. In its deepest parts, swells dozens of yards high were common. Waterspouts occasionally twisted their way into being, ripping sailors from their ships. The safest way to navigate it was to remain close to the island, though not near enough that your ship could be blown onto cliffs or rocks. You could take advantage of the shallower waters near them, facing smaller swells and only braving the deeper parts when it was necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Climbs! Get down here before the wind blows you off!” A call came from the quarterdeck. Climbs looked down, sighed, then scrurried down the ropes. You’d think that a species like the Scorpan would have trouble climbing the shrouds like this, after all, Climbs didn’t have gripping claws at the end of her legs. But she did just fine, dexterously and almost artfully moving her legs in concert to move quickly and smoothly. She jumped the final distance, landing with a muted thud on the deck. She gave a chittering laugh and rubbed the back of her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Eheh, hey Sunset,” Climbs laughed, awkwardly. “What brings you up at this time of night?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I haven’t slept yet,” her sister admitted, moving to the railing to observe The Storm. “Just finished feeding and putting the scorplings to sleep.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “That’s good,” Climbs-Tall-Things said, joining her. “It’s awesome, huh? A permanent storm. We’re sailing around it, if you’re worried.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s incredible,” Sunset-Carapace said. “Have you sailed through it before?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A couple of times,” Climbs waved her sister off, trying to seem like it wasn’t a big deal. “Oh! But get this, there’s a port on the Darkness court’s island, Dragonskull Island. It’s actually<\/em> shaped like a dragon’s skull, and the port is in the skull’s mouth!<\/em> You literally have to sail between the rocky teeth to reach the dock. It’s so cool!<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sounds like you’ve been having fun,” Sunset said woodenly. Climbs cringed at her tone. She wrung her hands, and her shoulders sagged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I said I was sorry yesterday, right?” Climbs pleaded. “Mom already sent me letters telling me off. You know how hard it is for me to actually remember to do stuff.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I do, but it still hurts,” Sunset replied, turning to face her slightly smaller sister. “You guys ran off to have adventures and you just… forgot about me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Well, you’re going to the twelfth, right?” Climbs asked. “I’ve heard there’s an enormous desert on the eastern side.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Yes, that’s where we want to go,” Sunset said. “Raising scorplings is rewarding, but we wanted something more <\/em>than just living in the village. Since The Creator is going to evacuate us down eventually, we decided to get ahead of the wave.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sounds cool.” Climbs said, her legs shifting with a larger-than-average tilt of the deck. “Apparently, there’s a volcano erupting over there, too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I hadn’t heard that one,” Sunset replied, tone hushing as she went into what Climbs called rumour-mode. “I did <\/em>hear about the giant tree. It’s supposed to be inhabited by a Life Fairy. She can move the branches around as she wants and is responsible for all the trees, grass and life on the floor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Yeah, I heard about her,” Climbs replied. “Te Fiti something, I think.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n They stayed like that for an hour or so into the night. Two sisters, rekindling their friendship as, in the distance, a storm rumbled and flashed with lightning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n -0-0-0-0-0-<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea<\/p>\n\n\n\n -0-0-0-0-0-<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once I was done with the hares, I moved on to my next monster. The next niche to fill was a larger, more intimidating monster. As much as I wanted bears, I didn’t have one. What I did have was a couple of large dog species. While not in the same family, they shared a common ancestor. It wouldn’t be too hard to turn one into the other. In fact, the new dogs I’d purchased had already had a litter of puppies in the two days it took to make my Lapine monsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After another day to grow my new breeding pair of dogs to full maturity and lead them back up to the Eighth, I got started on converting them into bears. I started with something the size of a black bear, and called it the Snowbear. I gave them white fur, of course, and made them properly omnivorous. On the mountains, food was scarce, and you ate what you could find. This first species would just be bears, though improved from what a normal animal was capable of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These bears would have three evolutionary paths. The first was the Mountain Snowbear; modelled after the polar bear’s massive bulk, they were already fearsome predators, so I decided to give them ice and water mana to hunt their prey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second evolution was the Abominable Snowbear. Smaller and lankier than the mountain snowbear, this small-pack hunter would stalk the wooded sections of the mountains for food. Their main prey were snowhares, which would likely be the lowest rung in my ecosystem here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final evolution was the Frozen Dropbear. The smallest of the evolved bear species, these little guys traded out increased size for opposable thumbs and lived in the trees. Their preferred hunting method, of course, was dropping from trees directly onto their prey. It was super effective against unaware passersby and was made even more effective by their ice-mana-infused claws, which chilled and slowed their prey further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I spread each species across the mountains in lower numbers than the lapinethropes, with only a couple of Mountain Snowbears in total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With them done, I only had one species left to spread. Pyry had proven thunderbirds were potent with Hallmark, and I wanted more of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I spread her offspring throughout the floor, setting up their nests in unreachable cliff faces. After applying the same maturity evolutions I’d been using, I decided they needed a prevolution. Thus, the Roc was born. Smaller than the thunderbird, though still possessing air and water mana, these would be a more common sight across the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also decided that, since Pyry wasn’t a unique existence anymore, she needed her own evolution. The Stormbird would be the ultimate state for this evolutionary line, with an enormous manacore that would power enchantments baked into her very bones. With a body the size of an eighteen-wheeler, this bird had a tremendous wingspan. Her most powerful ability was the Plasma Lance enchantment carved into her potentium beak. Her potentium talons had a monomolecular edge, maintained by a metal mana enchantment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was as powerful a monster as I could make, and well worth the investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I pitied the crusaders as she took flight and a beam of burning energy swept across the floor’s roof, barely stopped by the enchantment designed to protect it. With all the new monsters spread across the floor, the eighth wouldn’t ever be a cakewalk. Once they had enough numbers built up, I’d bring some down to populate the mountains on the twelfth, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n -0-0-0-0-0-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" -0-0-0-0-0- The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea -0-0-0-0-0- If I had a nickel for every time I accidentally caused a country to collapse into warring and discordant states, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. 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Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n