Enlightened? Already? But the Core wasn’t prepared for such things yet. It had barely gotten to the part where it would fill up the tunnel. No thoughts had even been put into making it attractive to miners or anything. No Ore had been put into the walls, creatures hadn’t been spawned in yet, and there were no signs of the Core even existing from the outside yet. It needed all of that and here the Queen told it that it already needed to expect company.

‘How long until they reach here?’ the Core asked, slightly panicking at that point. If it tried hard, it could probably increase the Manual Regeneration two-fold and create a basis of distributed Mana inside the new tunnel. It wouldn’t be dense enough to truly work with but it would be enough to create a safety net where creatures could be spawned in. And with that requirement over with as well, it would mean that it could survive for a bit if anybody tried to attack. Or it could also create a mass of Arcane Spear, and just continue throwing them at the enemy if needed. It would waste energy but it could likely be the reason it survived in the long run. Yet there was also-

‘I don’t think I can give you an estimate on that,’ the Queen answered casually as she stepped inside. A few ants that had followed along came behind her, each seeming perfect as the moment they got if one ignored the slightly deprived state they were in. Dungeon-Born were not made to be outside for so long after all, and the Core had to spend a few moments refreshing each up to before it could live with itself. Having creatures in pain under it was not something it desired at any level.

‘Why not?’ the Core questioned, growing suspicious. With a sweep of its mind, a hundred Mana was instantly consumed, the Entity suspecting that the enemy might even have arrived before it could realise it. That could be a reason since that would leave no estimate possible. ‘Are they already outside?’

‘Well, they are outside the cave, yes, but it might be more than fifty kilometres away as well,’ the Queen stated, eyeing the Arcane Spears that had formed to her sides. With a twist of one of her Dark Mana-Tendrils, she pushed away those closest to her, seemingly not comfortable with them. ‘Perhaps stop worrying yourself about it and continue working. The tracks found are not that recent. While a few Englightened might come around at some point, I don’t believe that it will be in the next few days. This area could perhaps be a fishing spot for one or two of the local inhabitants. We can’t know yet.’

Oh? Fish… the Queen had mentioned those before. A type of creature that lived underwater, unable to breathe above it. This severely restricted movement but also allowed one to be near-fully defended from any other creatures that lived on the land. While it could not breathe above water, those who lived above could not breathe under it, allowing both sides to retreat to areas where the other side could not reach. The Core certainly understood the possible gains from such a thing, though it had no real desire to have such an advantage. Being underwater constantly was not a pleasant dream. Somewhere in its instinct, the Entity was in favour of air being around it instead of liquid. The reason was not fully understood but it would respect it nonetheless.

‘So there are no enemies in the immediate area?’ the Core asked, just to be sure. It was close to lowering its guard again and resuming its filling duties, but it just had to make sure that there was no need to raise it again. ‘Nothing I need to be worried about at this moment?’

‘There are no enemies that are intelligent enough to attack us, no,’ the Queen explained, reliving the Core of much stress. It was not mentally prepared for such a scenario yet. Too little work had been done yet, and the possibility of having attackers so soon grated on its nerves more than it had expected. ‘Anything out there is no danger to us yet.’

‘Your wording implies that you have found more than just those tracks,’ the Core commented, silently starting up the process again. While it did not dedicate itself to the work entirely, much of its mind was distracted yet again, allowing the Arcane Spears to fall apart as well. The Queen did seem happy about that or at least pleased. ‘What else did you find?’

‘Well, you know the basic information already,’ the Queen stated, already getting into the mood monologuing. ‘We seem to be in a heavily forested area, though it is separated by quite the number of rivers. While my eyesight might not be the greatest, [Mana-Sonar] allowed me to see just how frequent they were. And, to be fully transparent, I have trouble believing they are naturally made. Erosion should have destroyed the small islands between the rivers in mere decades yet they stand tall. Observation at the riverbeds seems to hint at the stone beneath having [Enchantments] on them to increase durability but I can’t be too sure yet so you’ll have to look at those personally before anything else.’

[Enchantments]. That was a new word. From the way that the [System] encased it, the Core had to guess that it was important. Since it could increase durability, it was likely magical nature. And since it was a kind of material that the Core already knew about, there was the assumption that it was a general-purpose function. A form of magic that could increase the various physical abilities of materials. While the Entity was not one to assume, it slowly began to desperately want such a thing. It could put the so-called enchantment on every piece of the domain, making it that much harder to destroy. If decades of water pushing against it in higher amounts did nothing, the Core was sure that it was quite the modifier. It just had to get access to it first.

‘I will get right on that as soon as I finish this,’ the Core said, pushing slightly harder to make the process speed up. ‘Anything else?’

‘I have had sightings of a few larger tracks as well,’ the Queen stated. ‘The depth leads me to believe that it is a more heavy creature. Whether or not its power is unknown. The tracks themselves are older than the Enlightened ones and it has gone over the point where I might be able to detect faint trails of Mana.’

A shame. The Core wouldn’t have minded owning a bit more information about such a large creature. Yet the rarity of its visits made it less of a threat than anything else, allowing the Entity to focus on other things. After making sure there wasn’t much else to share, the Core went back to filling up the new room while the Queen went further inside to mingle with her children. She was having a catch-up with them all after having been Undead, such a state has stopped her from interacting with them at any meaningful level.

The Entity didn’t pay too much attention to it, to be quite honest. In the following day or two, it was entirely focused on just filling the new room up with Mana, the process taking quite a while. Regular breaks needed to be taken to eve the energy out over it all, lest the Mana-Walls had a chance of breaking down. Yet the process was still finished after that point and the Entity was allowed to marvel at its work. While it perhaps wasn’t finished with the room entirely, still needing to put in decorations and other such things, it was close enough that it could move on to other activities temporarily. It had been saving itself before it could see the sight that awaited it outside the entrance.

‘Are you ready to see the sights?’ the Queen asked. The Core sent a pulse of affirmation before preparing a longer duration of sent out Mana. It equated to about a thousand Whole Mana-Points in total, sent out over ten seconds. With such an amount, the Entity was relatively sure that it could see all that it needed to initially.

And it wasn’t too wrong. While much of the Mana was sent into empty air, the Core was still able to see the river ahead. It flowed steadily, though the forces beneath were quite powerful. One wouldn’t be able to put a stick down and keep it in one’s hands, at the very least. Not that it would keep most from trying.

‘Are you okay, little rock? Your Mana is flaring up.’

Sarah used to throw sticks into the river and they would chase them for hours on end until they lost sight or it went down to the bottom, never to be seen again. Then the Core looked up and realized that it couldn’t see its domain anymore.

“I think you dived a little too far into the mind at that time,” a certain said from behind. He turned his head to look but could only gaze upon a void of form and thoughts. It couldn’t understand it. It could only feel the pain in its head, as the sounds of the river continued to get louder and louder until they overshadowed everything else. “Don’t you think so?”