It’s the fifth day now and I can finally summon some of my monsters. My essence is a little low from the creatures I had to distribute yesterday, totalling 4 dozen boar in the main nest area; over a 100 rabbits and the same amount of shade bats; then followed by too many cockroaches and beetles to count however I’ve made a decent recovery since I went a little slower than when placing all the plants and took some time to observe how they where adapting to the environment: thankfully most of them are behaving as expected even though the boars seem to think they own the place. First I want to plan out my monsters since they all have an associated essence drain I want to place as many of them as possible while still benefiting from the 13/hr I’ve got for now. Ideally I’d love to stay with 10/hr but that would only let me have 3 Reavers! On a side note, the essence upkeep of Tyx is insanely cheap, for the price of a single reaver I could get 200 swarmlings! And the swarmlings aren’t even that weak in the grand scheme of things, not compared to say, a Dust Leaf which has the same upkeep and the Burrowers are only twice that cost while also being incredibly effective tanks even though they don’t seem combat focused. My current plan for the dungeon is: 200 swarmlings, 100 Burrowers, 5 reavers, 100 wolves, 50 vipers and then a Tyx Spawner once I get to level 5. That costs me 9/hr (200*0.005+100*0.01+5*1+100*0.015+50*0.01=9) for now and 10/hr when I add a Spawner. The first thing I intend to spawn is a swarmling, they’re by far the cheapest creature I have available to me so if anything goes wrong I’ll lose the least and there’s something I want to try when it comes to the adapted colouration that’s been going on at the moment due to them being adjusted for the environment.

By default all of the tyx creatures have a slightly bony, off-white shell that is unnaturally smooth and is almost mirror like. Their completely silent movement and spotless appearance create an unsettling impression that they’re something alien, not meant for this world. The Tyx swarmlings have a half meter long body that is reminiscent of woodlice, appearing completely flat and being about 20 cm wide, it’s covered in the same shell mentioned before and all of the plates slide into each other creating a mostly seamless surface that looks almost rubbery and has a line of compound eyes that are reminiscent of what a fly possesses, each line contains 7 eyes that are of identical size and are partially protected by the overhang of the top half of their chitin.

Their dozen limbs are far longer than their body, each 2m long. They create long upside down V shapes peaking at a height of 1m, twice as tall as where the main body is held above the ground, and comeback down at a sharp angle. These legs behave similarly to that of a spiders however have nearly twice as many joints, eleven, which allows a surprisingly diverse range of movement for each limb. These limbs are completely covered in some of the thickest chitin in the Tyx’s body because, while each joint can seal up to prevent blood loss through a damaged or destroyed limb, these legs are the most important part of a tyx swarmer. Each leg has a slightly bulbous segment that is only a few centimetres long but double the usual diameter of the rest of the leg; these segments each contain their own venom gland that contains the unique ‘Tyx venom’, a paralytic neurotoxin that causes severe necrosis almost instantly and spreads across the body in a matter of minutes, unfortunately due to the size of a swarmlings venom gland each injection will be able to paralyse at most a limb and kill the cells of the immediate area (e.g. forearm, hand, foot, calf etc). The venom is stored at extremely high pressures which can then be released through a tiny hole that is imperceptible to the naked eye on the tips of their extremely sharp legs. These tips are often blunted through day to day wear and tear however and while they can often still pierce with enough force most Tyx keep their two front limbs off the ground, however swarmlings don’t do this; at least not without a swarm leader, they simply don’t have the capacity to come up with the idea and it’s not a part of their instinct as it slows them down slightly, unfortunately they have no offensive options like biting as they are herbivorous and have mouths completely in capable to pierce of crush, instead tearing their meals apart with their limbs into bite sized portions and using one of the three furthest forward sets of limbs as skewers to raise the food to their mouths.

Their undersides are mostly unprotected, the chitin being far more flexible and also far thinner thus, weaker. This chitin is a dull grey similar in shade to the shells of the Reavers which was my focus for now, I intended to see if I could change this chitin to the same colouration as the rest of the shell as well as cover it in the same patterning that the shade bats (as well as the rabbits, which where changed in the same way) had when summoning them, I wasn’t exactly sure on how I would do that but I felt like I had a good shot if I just sort of ‘willed it’ to happen like I had done with my mana way back when. As I began summoning the swarming I held the image of what I wanted it to look like in my mind, as if it where a CAD model, and focused on my changes to the underside and let my instincts guide me as I subconsciously made slight changes and corrections to the essence as it flowed out of my and dispersed into the atmosphere, collecting into the shape of my Tyx Swarmling. As it began to form I felt a tether connecting me to the Swarmling which I assumed was how I would control it and was why my essence was consumed hourly as there was no such connection to my current creatures and I had no way to order them either. When the essence was finished shaping itself there was a quick flash of light and then my first monster was standing their, tapping its limbs on the webs where I had summoned it and taking a couple of steps every which way as if it needed to get used to moving, I supposed that was fair enough as it had just been born. After leaving it to its own devices for a while it began mindlessly meandering the nest so I figured it was time for my first orders focusing on our tether I tried to send some thoughts down the line: ‘Hello?’ it paused for a moment then… nothing. I suppose that means it can’t speak back, maybe try something more like… ‘Freeze!’ it stopped dead in its tracks, not even its chest twitching slightly for breath, though its breathing was already mostly unnoticeable before so while it was keeping steady there was no real method of detection.

While it was stationary I took a moment to see if my changes had worked and was greeted with an overwhelming success, I only hoped it would be easier a second time. If I had to put in my full focus for all 200 of them it would be impossible to get things done in time. I decided to try giving a more complex order of ‘Eat till your full but only half of each patch of vegetation, then patrol around the southern entrances’ however the swarmling didn’t respond again, knowing the limits of the orders I can give will be crucial so I suppose I should find exactly where the limit is, next up a 2 part order ‘go north’ the Swarmling began to advance towards the entrance of the crystal cavern. Right, let’s see if it can figure out something like ‘Reverse!’ it turned around and started advancing southwards. Okay let’s try something more ambitious, ‘Patrol the southern entrances’. It continued onwards without changing course but that might just be because it’s in the same area, so it’s fine to wait for now. After reaching the southern end of the nest it went towards the western entrance; peaked inside slightly before taking a few cautious steps inside; tapped around a bit before scraping a patch of lichen of the wall to eat and rustled around in the bushes before leaving confidentially and then went towards the eastern entrance and did the same again before going back westwards. With that I was sure the problem with my first order was the fact that it was more like two orders at once, it seems the swarmlings are able to do relatively complex tasks but can only follow one order at once; or maybe I can only send one order over the tether at once? Can’t be sure yet.

I returned to summoning the swarmlings, since the first proved they had no need to be order to eat I simply gave them all patrol orders around different parts of the nest: filling the place with life. The first 30 I summoned I had orbit around my little web hammock, I’d made the surrounding area a patch filled with ferns and grass so it was harder to spot and now I had the first 10 just spend all day grazing in this patch, hopefully that would discourage any invaders from picking this spot to explore, the other 20 I gave patrol paths that seem just like all the other swarmlings but I made sure each of path intersected in this clearing. I had all my swarmlings stay in groups between 3 and 5, enough variation to keep people guessing but still fairly consistent. I figured the number would be good for ambushes, surprise attacks on the enemy back line and be able to hold their own in a long enough to keep the enemy busy will reinforcements arrive: another reason for this consistency however, was a lot more sinister. I made the next group of 30 and had them patrol the area just before the crystals, far enough away to be out of sight until you where at least half way into the nest, these 30 would stay as a single group in order to force a head on attack if someone wanted to leave the nest through the crystal area and once the delvers spotted this group I would have some of the patrols behind form up into one just as large to pincer them in between, at which point I’d have both groups slowly move their patrol paths closer and closer till a head on confrontation where one would reinforce the other from behind. The next 40 made up my generic patrol groups just to fill out space and make traversing the area a constant risk.

The ferns I’d been placing in the central nest I went over again and try to make them grow larger, something that came quite easily at the cost of some essence, so I applied that treatment to them all as well as placing some more only stopping when I nearly began eating into the budget for the rest of my summons creation costs, after making all the ferns grow to a meter in height it was now impossible to spot my tyx patrols from a distance when they where under these ferns and the plants providing effective cover and camouflage during combat always giving them the first move and a home field advantage during engagements. My tyx where extremely weak, health wise, so I couldn’t expect them to take more than a single straight on hit each, but if I gave them opportunities to escape after each glancing blow then they’d be able to heal instantly due to their regeneration being incredible, with that in mind I tried to avoid creating zones that didn’t have any clear lines of retreat for the swarmlings. I doubted they would choose to retreat as they are now but the information on the Tyx Swarmling biology I received mentioned something called a ‘swarm leader’, I assume they take a commanders role and would make the swarmlings behave more intelligently so they could take advantage of my more tactical considerations.

Before I started placing my final 100 I had an idea that I wanted to test, I picked one of the tyx from a 5 member group and gave it an order ‘climb the walls’, I figured with all the webbing they could slide their limbs between that it should definitely be possible but I wasn’t completely sure and wanted to check before I fully committed. Awkwardly at first, but slowly with greater ease, my tyx swarmling made its way higher and higher up the wall and stopped once the wall started to slope slightly, I was certain that if it hooked its limbs round the individual fibres it could probably keep going, even hanging upside down but I wasn’t quite sure and didn’t want to test it till I’d tried something else ‘Drop’, I’m sure where I’m going with this is obvious but I needed to check my swarmlings wouldn’t die from a fall of these heights first and, surely enough, flexing its limbs mid fall, the Swarmling completely flipped itself and bent their many knees to completely nullify any impact the fall may have had. If I could I would be on the floor laughing, I was just far too ecstatic with this success, if I could manage to get these things on the roofs next then it would be perfect. I once again ordered it up the wall and decided I would be adding this swarmling to the 10 that protect me personally for its usefulness in this experiment. I might name it too, but I only have 9 of those so I can’t be quite so rash, once again the swarmling stopped when it got to the point it couldn’t just pull itself up the web like a ladder anymore and I sent it another order ‘Continue, hook your limbs round the web’ it tried to do what I had said but found very little success, this making me feel even more certain that these swarmlings where anything but stupid but far less certain that the earlier order had failed because it contained two instructions. The swarmling fell a great number of times and while it tried to work out how to climb the final stretch of webbing I began making preparations for the wolves, I was hoping to change their limbs slightly so they rest lower to the ground at the sacrifice of their running speed since they wouldn’t be making much use of that feature in the narrow tunnels but it was proving quite difficult to do it in a way that was even remotely effective and decided to leave it for a while and start on the snakes instead, that would be far easier since all I intended to do was change the scales to white with the purple patterns something I expect would happen automatically anyway but I wanted to make sure that it was exactly how I liked it.

After spending some time scattering snakes throughout the tunnels and trying to decide on my orders for them I felt a twinge in my brain and the specifics of exactly how to climb upside down on webbing using 12 multi-jointed limbs rushed through me, ‘the hive mind at work I suppose’ since this information basically guaranteed to me that Spencer, I’d decided I would name it, had succeeded I rushed my perception back to the nest where it was currently hanging upside down on the roof of the nest amongst the shade phlox and some very concerned looking shade bats. I took a deep breath and gave the most difficult order to give yet ‘Drop’ but Spencer, once more, proved to be exceptional immediately sticking the landing. I tried to send a feeling of gratitude over our tether and got little response back, ordering Spencer to join the royal guard I had set up around me in their ever so critical task of eating some grass I triggered the naming function to make its name official, simply calling a creature by a name didn’t seem to be enough for that, and I felt all of my mana drain my at once as a notification appeared.

Creature named: Tyx Swarmling “Spencer”

‘Phew, that really takes it out of you huh? Glad it only costs mana rather than essence though. Things could’ve been bad otherwise’

After the naming ceremony was completed Spencer lit up with the same burst of light that comes after creating a monster but after things dimmed down it didn’t seem to have changed at all only making it’s way towards the centre of the grazing swarmlings beside my hammock and poking it a couple times before joining the group. After that success it was time for my goal in all of that to be realised, I summoned 100 swarmlings, these ones with the patterns on their tops rather than undersides and the pattens extending over the limbs as well. And I ordered all of them into groups of 10 which I then had climb onto the ceiling and space themselves out evenly, creating a cover of 1 swarmling group every 20m or so for instant reinforcement.