I liked all the new beasts I created from ordinary insects. I brought two of the new creatures into the entrance and three into the core room. Then, curious about what happens when they die in battle, I asked, A.V.A this question hoping she would know, “A.V.A, what happens if our creatures die?”

A.V.A. replied with, “When they die, their invested Qi returns to us, and they leave behind items of interest or ‘loot’, as adventurers say. Most of the time, the loot they leave is a body part; on rare occasions, it is something you’ve assigned to the monster, like coins or a reward. When we get more skills, we should be able to make rewards such as weapons, armor, and even apothecary materials.”

I was about to ask another question; when I felt a chill go up in our core. It was nerve-rattling, but A.V.A reassured me it was customary to help know when something was wrong. Apparently, that was the System giving out a warning for all dungeons.

When the insects invaded us, all I felt was a never-ending itch that was just annoying me; I looked to the cave entrance and saw multiple feet? Paws? I had no clue. After pausing, the creatures in question walked into the dungeon.

Uhhh, what the heck? It was supposed to be a monkey of some mutation gone wrong. It had matted black fur, crazy red eyes that glowed, and thick black hazy smoke that followed them. I assumed the biggest of the eight was the leader, who looked straight ahead to my staircase entrance.

It looked like it could see me or us. What type of creature is that? I know I am not familiar with this land’s beasts, but even I thought that these were an uncommon beast in this part of this realm.

“That doesn't seem normal, right?” I questioned to A.V.A.

“This is terrible; horrible; they are from the underworld and are more in tune with their carnal desires and are unwilling to follow directions unless the orders benefit them.” A.V.A answered.

I looked at all the creatures we had and gave a command for them the kill our enemies. As soon as I gave the command, the big one let out a monstrous monkey growl, and then all hell went loose.

I was ready to activate my new traps as the group split up. Four monkeys were on the left and four were on the right. To go pass, they would have to run next to my stream. They would get injured or get splashed by the water to help defuse the fire down around them.

I had five Jaded Dragonflies, five Jeweled Katydids, and two Sawtooth Beetles in the entrance room; the rest were on guard in my core room to protect me.

My dragonflies started flying around and shooting wind blades when they had gotten in range; some even scraped the monkeys if they were grabbing at them. The smarter ones, like the leader, dodge the blades. Unfortunately, some of the followers ran into silk wires placed and strung through rocks while avoiding the wind blades.

The silk wires did not endure very long due to my two Celestial Moths not having enough time to fully silk trap the whole entrance cavern before the intruders decided to show up. Hopefully, I could delay them so that the moths defending the core room would have more time to trap more than the other two.

Although not suitable for offensive battle, my katydids tried their best to jump around as a distraction while playing their noisy, deafening tune. While this was happening, I unleashed all the stone-falling stalactites that I made trying to injure them. My creatures, I guess, knew to dodge in time, but some did not make it.

As the monkeys were avoiding the traps, some did not manage in time to fall before my sawtooth beetle went to work. It sliced them up or tried to do as much as a bug could do. It did help that the monkeys could hardly concentrate and focus on their flying and would try to go after my beetles instead of walking further into the dungeon.

I waited for the dust in the room to clear to see how many were left. Three of the eight were down. Unfortunately, one of the victims was under my boulder; I had some of my insects cut it to pieces. I lost all of my katydids from this first battle, so I was down to the five katydids guarding the core chamber.

My dragonflies did better due to their speed, but still, they were not a good fit against these enemies. They needed to be a more solid defender. Yes, their wings were sharp, but the monkeys were more robust, probably in terms of rank. I won’t indeed find out until we kill them, but I have my guess. Anyway, we lost two from the fight and one sawtooth.

I had my remaining insects rush at one of the monkeys with the most injuries before they got to the stairwell. I lost one of my new moths and sent my last one to try to get any enemies to sleep from the golden orbs that float around them or add a few silks in the doorway to the stair.

The leader of the group was the least injured. I wanted them to follow the monkeys to help defend my remaining insects in the chamber.

The monkeys started to go insane as the black haze seemed to take them over. Then they ripped my remaining dragonflies as they dashed for my watery staircase. I am sure that move or skill was a passive one where when a certain percentage of health is gone, the skill will activate, causing them to go berserk.

I didn’t want to turn on my stair trap until all the group was on them so that I could make it a surprise. As the last paw stepped onto my stairs, I mentally activated my trap. One monkey fell from the water, coated the stone, and landed in the pitfall trap. A stone needle went inside its head. The group had gotten more innovative and started to jump and swing from the stairs.

I hoped that some more would have fallen, but they caught their grip again when they were about to fall. It was a close call; maybe next time. When the remaining four monkeys stepped on the ground, they ran past their dead brethren that fell into the pitfall trap and into the hallway that connects to my core.

I waited to set off my second stone falling trap. Then, as the groups of monkeys ran forward, I set off my traps as they went under them. I managed to kill one of the four when they entered my core room.

The three remaining monkeys were dripping blood and had some stone pierced through them; the leader looked better than his minions. Finally, I was ready, nervously waiting.

My insects that had managed to survive the first battle had finally caught up with the group due to the monkeys taking a moment in the doorway of the last room.

The commander sent one monkey while the other stayed in the doorway. Finally, the leader and his sidekick clashed off my remaining bugs.

I was sad to see them die, but they put up a good fight and even I managed to wear them down. It prepared me to send my last guardians of this room to attack.

The one that arrived in the room was walking around carefully while looking around, probably trying to find me or examining for traps. But, instead, the monkey found my bugs.

He lasted about nearly halfway when he plunged into a pitfall trap. Thanks to my bugs distracting him. I constructed the pitfall traps in this room deeper than the others. I want my victims to remain where they were if they managed to survive the fall.

I looked back at the leader, and he sent his last companion out. The second one was trekking, whereas the first one walked. He kept track of the safe places to walk on, or the leader did by communication.

When he walked and made it past his dead companion, the monkey took its time carefully, tapping away at the floor’s foundation. However, he did end up uncovering two before he fell, too.

Now it is just the leader and me. The leader followed the safe path of his first companion and the second. I did activate some falling stone traps to see if he would step out of place or flinch. But, instead, he tore apart any of my defenders that way.

He kept getting back up every time he fell, and I was nervous. So, finally, I had to work with two pitfall traps and seven falling traps. I hope that is enough to kill him. Luckily, my three Celestial Moths made a tremendous amount of sharp silk wire around the crevice I tucked the core into before they passed away.

Finally, he twisted his head slowly in my direction and found me. He gave me a menacing smile and scrambled to my core, snarling. I descended my remaining falling traps on top of him, and the rubble was chaotically landing loudly on the floor. I could not find him. Then, suddenly, a mangy black claw connected to a bleeding torn-up limb grazed the core in the wall. I stared into his black, evil, possessed eyes as I was losing focus.

Warning flashes popped into my head as A.V.A. was screaming in the background for me to do something, anything. I called up all of our energy and pushed all the Qi out of our core to create a massive rock slide coming from the ceiling.

“Impossible.” A.V.A managed to whisper out through the pain and tiredness going through the core. I barely heard her as all I saw were rocks going everywhere and red flashing signs before I plunged into darkness.