In the last few days, I continue to claim all the remaining bats as well as part of the mountain. I’m currently making a new cavern, closer to the forest. When I’m done it will have a big entrance in the high part of the cliff, I want to make it a place that could be a natural shelter for other flying creatures. The bats have crossed with big and tiny feathery creatures, some of those even try to eat the bats. Hopefully, when the feathery creatures will come in this new place and I will be able to claim them, expanding my collection of creatures.

I put an airway going from this cave to my core room and discover that if I want a sufficient amount of purified mana to flow to there I would need to make the passage big enough. That could be a hazard, as it is big enough for the big furry creatures I suspect to be adventurers to pass and reach my core room if they manage to climb up to the cavity. So I put a waterway in the middle of it, letting enough air flow upside, and install a big number of crabs in it, with some evolves ones. The crabs are ordered to block everything that comes in the water to go deeper in the passageway.

I discovered that this big airway allows for more raw mana to flow from the outside and to me, making my regeneration rate go up a bit. This fact, combined with my extended mana pool, allow me to evolve almost all of my current creatures once, but I don’t do it for all of them, it’s a bother to do it again and again. I, of course, make sure to always have a number of evolved creatures from all the kind I own. I prefer to let the other evolve from themselves and see if I get a nice surprise.

I have Three kinds of crabs. Simply bigger ones, asymmetric ones. And there is a new kind of crabs I created, normal sizes ones, but with a reinforced shell. They can take more hit that the other crabs, even from the big pincer ones.

For the fishes, I have the bigger ones. But I also have some longer ones, with more fins. They are able to swim faster and farther, making them really good to map the waterway of the mountain. For the moment I forbid them to go in the ocean, I fear they would be eaten and that I would lose the knowledge.

On the bats' side, I have the usual bigger version, and with that, I also have some I make out to feed more on insects and less on fruits than before. I tried to make some modifications on other to make them faster, but the wings structure is so complex they all lost the ability to fly, and are actually crawling on the roof. I don’t think they will survive long. I also make some with stronger fangs and claws, but of normal size.

I also make moss and algae grow in every passageway and spread bugs all over. I think I also need to diversify my plant's collection. But making them evolve seems impossible, I couldn’t make one do it even after putting all of my mana in one, it simply overgrew. I think I need a far greater quantity of mana or something else to do it.

Like for the creatures, I want more of them. I give my big bats a new order, bringing back some fruits and small creatures to populate the passageways. Actually, I have bats roaming in the air, fishes swimming in the water and crabs walking with the fishes, I have nothing bigger than the beetles walking on the earth - well the crabs can, but they suck at it - and I need to fill this position to ensure my future security. I also have some worms now, but they’re crawling in the earth, I find them disgusting, little crawling things but I’m certain they can serve as basic food source for bigger creatures, so I let them crawl and gather mana as they want.

I have finished making the cavity on the cliff, it’s overhanging on the forest, and I’m currently waiting for the bats to come back with the result of there hunt. I’m hoping for them to bring back to me some interesting stuff. While I’m waiting I concentrate on regenerating my mana, I want to be ready to claim whatever the bats bring back to me.

When the first big bat come back, it’s only back a dead creature. The thing is looking like a bat but without the wings. It is also dead, so except absorbing it and converting into mana it is useless. I need to upgrade the order to bring back creatures alive. Hopefully, the next one will be smarter.

The second bat brings back a small fruit. It is a red fruit that is quite round, half of the inside is a stone. That’s interesting, I order the bat to let the red fruit into the cliff cavity and start to pour mana in it. I sense it absorbing the mana as it concentrated mainly in the stone, slowly the fruit is absorbing more and more mana, but it’s ok, I have plenty of mana in reserve. And suddenly as I am pouring mana in the fruit it connects to me, at the same time as it sprouts.

I keep infusing mana in it and it’s growing fast, in seconds the sprout consumes the flesh of the fruit and keep growing. It continues to grow, and I feel the connection growing a bit stronger I can feel it’s lacking something for growing like it should. I inspect the memories of the bats at home to find more information on how the location of the growing plant should look like. Dirt, dirt all around the base of it, not compact sand like for algae or simple stone like for mosses, but dirt. So I give it dirt by changing a bit the surrounding rocks and fertilize it by ordering some bats to poop on it. After that the sprout resumes its fast growth, in a few minutes I have a small tree and the third big bat bring backs its load.

It’s the same fruit… This time I don’t make it sprout, I already have one, I try to kill it. But the only thing I have to do it is mana, so I need to think a bit. I make the fruit roll in a small hole and strengthen and close the hole. Then I make a little spike of stone grow from the side of the hole, to crush the fruit’s stone. It is working and it breaks with a satisfying cracking sound. But I don’t feel the mana it contained escaping, the fruit is still alive, so I continue to crush it. When it is reduced to simple dust I feel satisfied. I absorb what little mana it had in it and learn that it is called a ‘cherry’.

I resume growing the cherry tree while waiting for the next big bats, I have two of them that should come back in a few minutes. The small tree is growing more slowly now that it is bigger. It is also starting to sprout flowers. Those are nice things, they are white and delicate. I think I will make a lot of cherry three and a really big one.

The other bats come back at the same time, each of them is carrying a different fruit. The two fruits are of the same size as the cherry and have many pips in them. One is black and the other pink. I separate and crush some pips from each of the fruits and learn that they are ‘raspberry’ and ‘blackberry’. I then make the others sprout, they are really alike but not the same. They grow in bush and each has some thorns, but the raspberry ones aren’t as sharp as the blackberry ones. Anyway, I think I will make some of those things grow at all the big entrances I’ll have to my dungeon, I’ll need to make the thorns more strong and sharp, in time they will be good natural defenses against adventurers and could also serve as camouflage.

Now that all the big bats are here, I modify the order. They are to bring back fruits that they have not bring back to me, or living creatures. They can work together to bring back heavier or bigger things.

I have plans to make a second cavity on the other side of the mountains, above the sea. So that other kind of creatures can install themselves there. But for now I resume pouring mana in the cherry tree, I want it to make some fruits. But they refuse to do so, I know that fruits come from flowers, but the cherry flowers start to wither and drop on the ground. I need to find out what makes the flowers into fruits except for mana.

Maybe I can found more information about the subject in the bats’ memories. When I inspect them I found something else. Some bats have crossed path with more of the furry and bipedal creatures, I still don’t know if they are adventurers or not, I’m gonna call them ‘hikers’ because they’re hiking in the forest. Anyway, while observing the hikers, the bats found out that they are capable of creating the warm light they gather around by rubbing wood sticks, does that means anyone with hands can do it? Can I do it? I don’t have hands, but I have other things, like moving floor that can grab anything, and mana. The hikers also have tools allowing them to kill creatures from a distance and dismantle them for eating. But before that, they’re putting the meat on the warm light. I want to know more about those creatures, but I don’t think I’m ready yet to take kill them if they enter my dungeon.

I’ll need to find a way to ensure their death, then I will find a way to lure them in.