77 Growth, change, unexpected interactions

Warping into his spatial world, Zanir felt the familiar sense of power that came from being in his domain. Opening his eyes, he took in the ever-changing view, never knowing what he would see after some time away.

Everything had expanded and grown in scale. For the first time, there were changes he didn't recognize, even a small town that had been built! With the increased land, the population had blossomed.

'Wait, hadn't it only been a few days?'

Having noticed his presence, both Marcus and senior Lee came over. Donning hardhats for safety, he noticed them carrying blueprints and a clipboard. Setting aside the documents, they greeted him.

"Greetings Master, we're glad that you've returned."

"There ya are lad, we had to make plans for expansions due to the rapid growth."

Curious, he replied to them, asking for more information.

"What happened here? I've only been gone a few days, how did the population increase so much?"

Looking at each other nervously, they both answered at the same time.

"Well, you see..."

"It's like this..."

"We enhanced the druid blessing over the crops to increase the area..."

"Turns out, that it.. ah... how do we put it..."

"Fertility, my lord. It increased their fertility many times over."

After hearing what had happened, he needed to know the current status. Hopefully, they'd already fixed the issue and it would be a one-time baby boom.

"So, you guys fixed it, right?"

Hearing the icy tone, both staff members shuddered.

"Yes, we've already taken care of the problem."

"We're almost done with the housing needed."

Since it wasn't a big deal, there was no need to reprimand them. They had even discovered something that might be useful in the future when he would need to rapidly expand. While they were here he might as well ask for a status report.

"Alright, what about the rest of the space? How are things?"

Relieved that they weren't in trouble, the men wasted no time diving into the report on recent affairs.

"The expansion has been rapid my lord, with the vast amount of material collected from the Rangers, along with the displaced material from the anthill dugouts, we have more than enough physical room for growth."

"Several of the stores and facilities have opened up secondary branches, in the newly constructed town. This way, we can avoid overcrowding and long wait times. We've also begun to educate and train the citizens."

"Research is ongoing through several laboratories that have been built. We're looking into several prototype systems, to see what kind of machines will work best in this dimension. Before that, we've still got to study and observe it's principles."

"Production has been excellent, with crop and animals yields that not only provide enough for everyone, with plenty leftover for trade. The only thing we need is more variety, anything we can get our hands on will increase our repertoire of products."

Satisfied with the progress, he excused the two for now. As they returned to supervise different research projects, he checked out the area. It wasn't often that he got to enjoy his world, as it seemed like he was always busy running around lately.

Heading over to the anthill, he actually ran into Bruce, who he hadn't seen a while. Seeing him now, he knew that his little man had finally grown up. Holding hands with the female ogre they saved from the dungeon world, they approached together.

Scratching his head nervously, Bruce introduced his friend.

"Hey dad, this Tina, my girlfriend."

Slightly smaller in stature, she hid behind Bruce's frame, peering at Zanir. Finally, he could hear her faint voice.

"T-thanks for saving me, my name is Tina."

"You're welcome, you two take care of each other from now on, ok?"

Blushing after his teasing, the young and nervous couple took off, while he just chuckled at the scene. Now he knew why the ogre had been missing for a few days. Continuing on, he visited the secondary dungeon world.

Arriving at the anthill, he saw a curious sight. All of the ants were outside, sitting on the ground. As he approached, all of them started to stand up, and the ants at the middle parted. A neat row was formed, allowing him to approach the anthill directly.

Once he got to the anthill, the oldest and largest surviving ants had emerged. The surviving royal guard was the highest surviving members, they would be the equivalent of village elders, had they been humans instead.

Normally, when the ant queen died, one of the royal guards became a replacement and took her place. With this queen having been a dual mutation, things got a little more complicated. It seems that none of the guards had inherited both mutations.

In nature, such cases would have been settled by a royal guards meeting, but with them being subdued they could only wait for Zanir to arrive. Now that he was here, he could sense their thoughts, knowing that the ants wanted him to pick who would be the successor.

Before he could even consider the options, Cerberus jumped out of his shadow. Howling simultaneously, both of the tiny puppy heads were going frantic. Kneeling before the shade, the ants submitted to the new queen.

Looking over, he voiced his concerns to Cerberus.

"How can an undead be the queen of living ants?"

Understanding the issue, Cerberus paced around for a few minutes, before calling over one of the royal guards. What happened next, shocked him, as he was not prepared for the shade's solution, or what it would bring about.

Diving into the ant, it immediately began to change and alter its own body. Cracking and tearing could be heard, as bones shifted and flesh was rearranged. While this disturbing audio was going on, the creature mutated in grotesque ways.

Swelling up to five times its former size, the majority of the new mass was in the form of a massive abdomen and large, detailed wings. As the shape started to settle, the head split into two, slowly reforming into separate full-sized heads.

With the large queen completed, a tiny shadow split off, forming a three-headed Cerberus puppy. Drained from using its own vital essence to upgrade the new queen, she yawned lazily, before falling over and hitting the floor.

Smooshing into a small stream of black shadow, it rushed into Zanir's shadow. With Cerberus instructions, he knew what the queen was capable of. Although he would need to give Cerberus time to recover, it was more than worth it.

After a short ritual, the new queen was moved over to the anthill. With the rooms having been preserved, they were able to get back to the areas they were most familiar. According to what the shade had told him, each of the new ants would come out enhanced, and also have two heads!

With the ants taken care of, he headed into the dungeon itself. With the core being used outside, there were only a few rooms left here, that didn't require it to run. One of those rooms actually had a few slimes inside.

Rushing over to check them out, he found out that were very disappointing. A simple green blob of goo, they were slow and didn't appear to be sentient. It was more like an oversized cell, as opposed to an animal or monster.

Even the system confirmed it, once he absorbed one of them.

[Material analyzed:

Name: Green Slime

Type: Monster

Rating: Level 1

Description: Slimes are basic creatures formed from excess dungeon energy. Over time, they form the basis for a complex inter-species food chain throughout the dungeon. As they make life possible, they are allowed to live by the dungeon's monsters.]

As he was about to leave and inspect the rest of the spatial world, he noticed one of the slimes was larger than the others and seemed to be sentient. Looking at the tiny creature, as it bravely charged toward him, he picked it up.

Once in his hand, the slime jiggled around in pleasure, slowly morphing into a tiny humanoid figure. Waving at him, it actually reached out and grabbed his finger, when he brought his hand close. Absorbing the slime, he brought it right back, since he still wanted to inspect it.

[Material analyzed:

Name: Green Slime (Elite)

Type: Elite Monster

Rating: Unique (Growing)

Description: Sometimes there is an anomaly when a slime is created. Stronger, faster, and sentient, these lucky slimes have the potential to grow and develop into the most advance monsters in the dungeon. Not all slimes are created equal.]

After absorbing the elite slime, he could now sense its thoughts through the connection. This tiny little guy was hungry. The only question was, what do slimes eat? Coming from the dungeon, they must eat the dead monsters, he thought. As they were too slow and weak to catch anything else.

Traveling along that train of thought, he brought out one of the ant's bodies. Looking back and forth between him and the corpse, the slime slowly approached, before reaching out to cover the body. After a few moments, he saw the body start to fizz, as it melted into the slime.

Acid inside the slime melted the body into liquid, which filled up the entire slime to capacity. At this point, it couldn't even turn back into a humanoid shape. Laying on the ground, it had fallen asleep after eating so much.

Bringing the elite slime with him, he made a tour around the spatial world, visiting his friends and family. Meeting Dante at the brewery, they caught up for a few drinks, and he showed his progress on trying to brew sake and rice wine.

When they stood and noticed how drunk they were, both of them were glad for the spatial water, which allowed them to sober up quite a bit. Meeting his parents for dinner, everyone had a great time at the restaurant, as they competed to see who could cook the tastiest dish.

Enjoying his vacation to the fullest, he appreciated the time with his family and friends. Looking around he saw that his world had grown into its own city. Maybe one day he'd have an entire civilization in here.