Chapter 1: The Arrival

The entity was currently a rock. Still, memories buzzed through his mind:leaving home and… well blank. Then how was he a rock? Was he experiencing a weird hallucination or has he gone insane? Wait if it was a weird dream then he should be able to move.. The rock started to shift in colour as it turned to more bright onyx and it takes a new form. The body became more spherical and soon 4 pillars left the bright to form the leg, on top of each of the pillars was a bright blue crystal and even as it separated from the body, it formed a force field type link towards the body, meaning it could be a small distance away from the body. The centre of the sphere body split open and a small crystal like eye appeared in the centre. It was transparent, one could see through the blue crystal the inside of the spherical being: completely covering its insides was a big blue crystal which pulsated with life, a small and steady beat of a white light pulsating similar to the heart.

This rock-like creature started moving forward, falling and miserably on moving forwards as he was getting accustomed to his new body. He recalls being a human around the second millennium or at least that is what he believes. He does not recall his name. Does he have a family, a family, a job? This question plagued the lithoid which- he stopped moving forward. Lithoid, a silicon based lifeforms which is stony like in appearance. He recalled that term and wondered if this memory was on purpose left intact, because it seems a bit random the process in which his memories were removed.

Going forward the eye of the lithoid started to adapt to the dark cave. Massive stalagmites forming in the dark grey cavern, with the occasional ore-like materials appearing in the wall. The lithoid finally grasped how small he was and his eye started to show a blue hued light wherever he looked, acting to the sort of flashlight. His memories remind him of a genre of books about a situation like this, especially on how wacky the titles get… Keis… no it was something similar to Isekai or something like that… the crystal eye refocused on his new target. The light his single eye was showing was taken as a tool on the lithoid. Instinct took over as he approached the copper ore which he saw spotted. It did show him how small his new form was compared to that of a human, perhaps he is the size equivalent of a small dog. The lithoid's eye focus on the ore, as the light focus more into a steady beam of light, slowly the copper ore started to faded into nothingness as it was consumed by the lithoid. The minerals turned to energy inside the crystal and thus the lithoid ate his first mineral meal. He made the mental note already to what he consumes and how the silicon entity theory was just proven… if this was not all a very surreal dream.

Yet inside the rocky-crystal brain of the lithoid, the crystal-nerves let out a synaptic message: "it was ready for the next stage". This further confused the human-turned lithoid, for the message was written in English. Without another moment to ponder this odd revelation and wondering if something else is at work here. His eyes are no longer looking into a cavern but are in pure vast empty blackness. He is floating and he looks like his shape has taken the form of a human form, made out of similar blue light which he emitted. It seems he has entered some sort of mind-space or is inside his own brain. Suddenly wondering why he was here, something appeared in his hand: a smaller piece of copper was there. It easily fit in his hand and was similar in shape to how it was extracted. It seems the crystal turns only some of the materials it 'consumes' to energy, but the rest it stores inside it! It shocked him, how was it possible, was it magic? Then again he was a lithoid so it should not surprise him. The human energy form was still floating in the darkness until it appeared in front of him. A small map or more accurately a skill tree made out of bundles of energy appeared in the darkness. In the centre there was a more cartoon looking version of the lithoid, showing it small circle shape and its stubby pillar like legs and its single eye and underneath had the title: fabricator. Then 4 lines judged out in the north, east, west, south. Each had a title: warrior, scavenger, cleaner and miner with the respective side of the compass. A scavenger… like a mouse? With that though the copper went flying from the hand of the light humanoid and into the empty place of the scavenger, this turned to the symbol of a mouse.

As quickly as he was there in the 'mind space', he was back to his lithoid form. Again he lost control of his form as something new happened. Now he understood why was named 'fabricator'. The light focused again into a beam of light and slowly the crystal came to the copper, but it was in a small stream of materials, all connecting to one another. The first 5 minutes he did not place what it was until the tail and the ears were being built. A copper mouse was being built. It is a small sharp feat possessing claws and extremely big ears. Its eyes were similar like crystals, but instead of the blue it was green and without light for the moment. The copper stream stopped for a moment, a small beam of green light came from the eye of the lithoid and all went quiet for some time.

Water.

What? The lithoid heard another thought, what was that?

Water-water-water-water! The thought got louder and the mouse came to life and started running to one side of the cave and the lithoid followed. He still required water, that is for certain as his human counterpart did require. The mouse judged to the side, its two green eyes lighting the way and the blue hue in the back. The pillar-like legs of the lithoid trotted forward, the sound of stone on stone did not bother that much, though it felt like an… admittedly odd sensation. Soon he heard the sound of water, this was the third sound he had heard beyond his movement and the sound of the copper feat of the mouse running around. The mouse has sensed an underground water system, with the underground stream passing in the cave. The lithoid turned to look at the mouse, wishing to thank its own… creation… wondering how, with one of his legs raised high above, he crushed a small piece of rock open and then again and again, until it was small. He wondered if the mice would eat it… following the cue of his thoughts the mouse fell with hunger and unlike him, he had a mouth and he heard the crunching of rock into gravel. The green crystal which made the eyes did shine slightly more during that time.

With some effort on how to do this, the lithoid's body, as it was not connected to the legs in the conventional sense, lowered itself until it was on eye level with the mouse. He saw quickly why the hearing was so big,. It was for hearing the water or other materials. So the scavenger is for that. Getting up again he approached the stream of underground water and approached it. Again the beam of light came from the crystal eye and drew a stream of water into the crystal. Suddenly as it came he felt a great sudden sleepiness overcome him. He did not run that fast, did he? What time is it? Slowly the lithoid went next to the underground water and slowly nested himself against his legs. The mouse companion soon followed suit by nesting on top of his creator.

A surprise awaited the lithoid when he awoke. His body was the same yet in front of him were a few dozen pellets of copper, no bigger than a man's thumb. The sound of scurrying paws is heard as the copper ore mouse returns, depositing more into the growing pile. Before it could go anywhere, the lithoid wished for it to stop or something. Though he possessed no mouth to speak. The mental note seems to have worked and the mouse stopped. Turn around. And so the mouse turned the creator. Amused by his findings, the lithoid decided this was the time to mess around. Do a barrel roll. The mouse body moved quickly as it did, showing it was clearly made for speed and evasion. Finding this useful. He changed the order of the mouse. Find iron pellet. With that the mouse scurried away. Immediately the lithoid started the process of creation once more, the beam of light 'consuming' the ore and the whole mind-space process started once more. another mouse was added to his growing creation and the same order for it: Iron pellets.

If they found iron, then they must have found an a vein of it. Thus a mining creation would be necessary. A full blown humanoid would take too much resources so something smaller, but it cannot be the more 'conventional' since they would destroy the ore, thus an compromise would be necessary between size and utility and the right species for the pellet problem already appeared in his mind. Leaf cutter ants or in this case Ore Cutter ants. Thus he got up from his resting place and sent the mental command for the newer mice to show him the vein of iron ore. Still the drowsy for the creation of the newer scavenger, the lithoid made the newer note about the toll it took for creation. The copper ore Mouse sent out a signal, a mental image to the lithoid and as if on an automatic he went though he path, though it was near the stream. This moment the lithoid pondered on his thoughts and about his name. He did not wish for a new name, mostly in hopes of his original name, when he was human to return with his memories. Yet a part deep in him did cation against such hope, as if his subconscious something more. Still he wondered on the his creations: the ants will definitely not have names, for they will be a huge amount of them so keeping track would be a nightmare. While the mice did not show much signs of individuality, more akin to drones for him, thought they did sense when he wished to reward them.

When he arrived at the vein, the mouse was already digging and slowly removing small pellets of ore, cutting with his teeth and what happened next surprised him. One or two copper teeth fell as well as some of the claw as he was digging. he was damaged. Than he proceed to stop digging and the eyes started to glow, slowly green energy flown from the eyes and into the wounded parts and slowly re-knits, with the green energy solidifying and turned to 'copper'. More akin to a scab if one would make the analogous. This deeply fascinated the lithoid, though this made him wonder if he was some sort of scientist in his previous life.

The few Pellets which were in front of him were perfect condition and more spherical and with less residue stone on it, at least compared to the first mouse. Ah it seems this one has one which has placed a value on higher quality of work. To mark the difference the lithoid consumed one of the pellets as usual with the beam of light from his eye and than repurposed it to the mouse, a small stripe of iron ore went into the mouse's back. This has lead the the mouses's reaction being something that the lithoid could only describe as joy, though it was muted. So they do have some level of individuality.

Taking the rest 5 pellets of iron, he once more entered the mind-space once more and what is calling the 'creation tree'. As the scavenger symbol was north and now as a mouse, the miner symbol appeared east and so he brought his energy hand up and deposited the 5 pellets of iron into the symbol. If his memory serves him right their are four main sub-castes of the leaf cutter ants: Minims, the smallest ants of the colony, in charge of taking food to the brood and growing the fungus. Minors, the main bulk of the colony and who help much of the foraging. Mediae, bigger than their Minor brethren, often leading the scavenging column and bringing in the bigger leafs. Than there is the Majors, the biggest of the leaf cutters ants, they are the elite soldiers and often acts for building new nests or accompany the Mediae encase they find an object of interest for the colony, which the is too big for the the Mediae to carry.

The Mediae would be well, but alas they require more of the Minor class to be there. Thus he made his choice: The Ant Minor caste it would be. Returning back to the real world, no longer it bothered him that much going from the mind-space back to the physical world. the light from the crystal once more started to materialize, yet it was creating at an incredibly fast pace. The iron ore miner ants were perfect replicates of their leaf cutter counterparts. where would be the eyes there was a red crystal, again with no light. the ore miner ants were in a column formation, with the space between one another being 1 mm, one would easily be mistaken for thinking it was a miniatures. than as soon as the 50th ant was made, the light beam returned back to the first and shifted red, giving a spark of life to the ant and slowly all of there small red eyes started to glow, with pincers at the ready and their hardy exoskeletons ready to go inside. the mental orders of the lithoid went inside his creations: 25 mining this vein with the mouse and the other 25 with him. the ants in perfects unison split, each of the 25 strong columns marching onward. the first 25 already started to dig through to the iron veins, as their pincers and clacking went against stone and ore. The other 25 climbed into the pillar legs of the lithoid and so they went on his way, finding the location of the of the second mouse and the ore vein he found

This process of him taking the iron pellets grew for what felt surely days. During such time the lithoid started to ponder more about this location and what he was. Was he some sort of experiment gone wrong? if so than why on earth did he agree to that? This thoughts like this started to wonder in his mind. Though by now the clang of Ant paws became non-stop by this point, with a near constant column approaching. By this time the column were now 50 strong compared to before and were some... 20 of them active at any given times, though their was a total 30 groups. Piles of iron pellets and copper are across the cavern, with pellets of stone or granite being as well piled near the stream. the scavenging mice numbers are now 7 strong, being unofficial lead by Ira, the mouse with the iron stripe, since he(?) is the only one of the creations that the lithoid has bothered to name and one which always found the bigger veins. He is attempting to try to map the cavern system, though it was massive compared to what he originally though

In this area of the cavern near the streams, smaller burrows were being dug by the ants currently not on mining duty. Most of these small burrows were for the ants to properly rest during the'shift' change and the other burrows which were more ambitious is for a proper storage facility. By for all he knows their could be other... less kind versions of himself in this cave as well and he would loath to he the bounty he has acquired go to waste.

His mind already started to wounder on the creation of the other two rolls. The first is obvious by the cleaner shall be leaf cutter ant Minims: small and cheap to build. While the soldier will be an entire different species, but he wondered: can he combine different ores? If he could than he already had some ores he wished to use for the creation.

Yet all the moving of earth would eventually draw attention and the lithoid knew very well the possibilities which could come, by if he existed, what other magical and terrible beings could exist in this cavern system?