Chapter 2: So This is Another World.

The clicking ants has become clock work at this point. Their rocky paws at ever constant noise, yet by now they have gotten experience and the trails they march in perfect lock step and instead of a cacophony of rocky paws against the cavern, it is a steady but noticeable beat. most if not all of the cavern which surrounded the stream of underground water has holes on their walls, each leading to a small ant-proportioned chamber, be it nests for rest or storage for the pellets. the number of such chamber being well passed 100. Ira and his(?) kin has been hard at work, finding more ores veins to exploit and mapping out the cavern. Sadly for the lithoid they are still to find an exit of the cavern, which makes him fear to what might enter his ever growing domain. He feels at home at this cavern and the fact that he did not seem to miss that much his original home. This created an unease on him, wondering what could be dampening the need to return to his original home.

Yet for all the possible weeks that passed he was tinkering around. Cobalt was found in the cavern system and thus he was experiment with new creations. The newest iteration and one of the first test subjects was moving, instead of being based of an animal form, he decided to start from scratch, a much time and energy consuming work. The blocky creature, which he named Princeps, or first in Latin. Princeps' two retractile legs were moving. it had a bipedal form and was more akin to a small sculpted square with legs. unlike the many other creations which had the crystal being in the eyes and exposed, Princeps' crystal eye was deep inside the body, in the core and the way he saw was by a hole which was in front of square, making him having the weakness of less sight and only one weak point being that round hole in the front of the body. Unlike the other two types of the creation, Princeps was not created using an per-defined role and thus the crystal eye colour was neither green or red, but a pale white. Princeps was attempting to move forward, balance was something which he was struggling with, each step causing him to swing side to side. Yet slowly he made progress.

What purpose Princeps shall serve was more secondary to what he represented, he could start from scratch and create something... semi functional. It provide a much needed experience, yet he would not let Princeps and his design go to waist, but they would still require more updates to their design. Sensing that his creator was once more going to upgrade him, Princeps quickly moved forward awaiting the new upgrade. quickly returning to the mind-space, the lithoid pondered what would be the next upgrade.

Time passed and it seems Princeps purpose and his future kin has been reached: synapse creatures. Managing all of other creations has taken his toll and keeping tabs on all of them was getting harder. Even accessing their location in the mental maps that Ira and his(?) kin have provided has been getting harder and harder to keep access. As soon as the name synapse was said, another branch joined the four other purposes, this time named Synapse as the branch started, the symbol of the cube species which is Princeps appeared.

Returning to the physical realm the purpose was clean and the upgrade of Princeps began. The beam of light went into the small creature and slowly rebuilt the crystal like formation, the white hue which dominated the crystal became stronger, a form the top of it blocky body appeared another hole and from there another crystal, a white crystal which took a more antenna like position and started to glow with life. The light from the Lithoid reseeded and his creation was experiencing... Confusion? The two retractile cobalt legs moved around, moving side to side as he got used to his new weight and than it started to look back as his creator, expecting some sort of mental order for his new purpose or something akin to an explanation. It came when Princeps heard the booming thoughts of the Lithoid conscious and subconscious and already he was moving without his own will. Quickly he noticed his purpose to be a conduit.

More of Princeps kind would be made. The centre of the cavern being now more akin to a workshop, different piles of ores surrounding the Lithoid, slowly the white crystal hue became more more common in the lithoid hordes. Groups of mining ants were directed by the synaptic cubes, the priorities of the Lithoid being in the mind of the them now. their work progress does increased severely but the Lithoid was removing the 'synapse' when the creatures rested, or only applied when he had a point of interest. It was mostly on that his creation were alive and the idea of another being taking some level of control or influencing his own actions did not sit right... but then again that unknown voice from before about the 'phases' might as well be... The Lithoid decided to abandon the line of thought, by the philosophy to ponder was not the time when one still required to find adequate solution for food.

While the Lithoid was properly directing the excavation cohorts of ants and manually dragging water from the stream to give to his creations. the beam of light caught water an slowly transported to a quickly dug hole of the stone ground and deposed there. The current of the stream while not strong to him or Ira, to an ant it will sweep them, even if made out of iron pellets. Thus a water system would be necessary, While the Lithoid quickly carried the water, he watched his step as the Mimins ants walked around. The yellow crystal left a hue as the Mimins cleaned the dust form their mining counterparts and the Lithoid saw a few amusing sights, of the smaller ants chastising the bigger mining ants for bringing in the dust in here or about how dirty some of the pincer of the ants were. How he understood their clicks made him wonder, but it must be the crystal connection. It did show him that despite his will being in the mind of his creation, they were still have some level of individuality. something he must be kept in mind. The Lithoid did not know the types of diseases that his kind could get, but filth causing ones would not occur. Plus he liked how neatly thinks were organised

The ants which were not on mining duty and were in burrowing duty for greater storage and sleeping areas on the walls, slowly approached the piles inside the walls. Iron ore pellets and other ores which they could get. Quickly the consumption rates compared to what was being mined was calculated and he was very much still on top on the issue. Though he wondered on when the mining will run out. Placing Princeps on Ira's main scouting group, so he could have a constant feed on his mind on their location. It would slow them down but it was a worth it. with creation of more of the copper mice, he created specific burrows for them with much greater access for water and mineral 'food'. they are key for location new sources and mapping this cavern quickly as well as some of them leading ant columns to create short cuts between the caverns and to create tunnels for better locomotion for the ants. Though often the pellets have to be cut down in smaller size for this to be effective solution.

By now the ant columns which were in 'free time' were quickly ordered by the Lithoid to switch their priorities, It will be mostly for the aesthetics but since this might be his home for a long time, some neatness is required. The cave area which quickly became the core of the growing nest was now being chiseled out. Walls which were lumpy or curved were being made to be straight and more like a cube, the core chamber with the stream was being made to a real chamber. Before where the pellets were put in piles on the floor, now the ground itself was flat and even, let to the personal piles of the Lithoid(which were the biggest) to collapse as he used the uneven floor as barriers to hold the pellets together. Thus he did what he should have done some time ago. the Ants excavated slabs of rock and the Lithoid learned more of his abilities . Using the same light which he shaped his creations, he used to create small metre by metre squared boxes, with the height of 50-cm. The pellets would now be more organised this this as the ants columns quickly filled the first ones. Each one he carved the symbol of the of the atomic number of the materiel: 27 for cobalt and 26 for iron, this did make him wonder if he was a sort of chemical scientist during his 'previous' life. This contained were placed near the walls, by the Lithoid had more plans for the construction and reinvention of the tunnels. Yet he was without his own will taken to the mind space. He decide for to allow the ant

PHASE 2 HAS BEGAN

The thunderous voice once more appeared, it echo ringing in the Lithoid's mind. But also of all his creations, for a moment the harmony which was created stop and chaos was in the core chamber yet as soon as the voice stopped echoing the colony continued with their daily functions. The lithoid in the mind space staggered as his non-corporeal humanoid form got slowly up. He saw that the symbol of the Mining ant in the creation tree had an upgrade arrow on it. As if he has reached a different stage the ants shall be upgraded, without thinking twice he quickly the symbol...

He should have not done that.

With speed again he was in the physical world and from the crystal in his eye a booming light erupted from it, slowly prevented his vision as the tool it took on his body as it consumed his energy reserves. the light filled the chamber until finally the Lithoid entered a 'recharge' mode. He remained for this unconscious state for an unknown amount of time and though he could not interact with the world around him, Certain senses of him were still partially working, so he heard much of the moving of stone and he felt often the dust of broken rocks fall on him. He than again felt the Mimins cleaning their creator as they walked all over him. The fact that being filled with ant did not bother him,but he actually liked the feeling of being clean did paradoxically make him flinch.

Awakening from his slumber, the Lithoid looked to the changed chamber and looked on with shock. He saw first the upgrades in the Ore cutting ants. Now they had a small mining 'helmet' on their heads, more akin to a carapace of stone and on that 'helmet' was a small red crystal like their eyes, yet it was formed similar to the Lithoid's own. He saw the purpose when they started to build. Some of them ate rocks and than from their crystal small red light erupted and the rocks which they have ate materialized, a lesser version of his own light. He saw them build more rock containers, they build them lined against the wall, yet there was a new additions. From the burrows of the ants which were mining inside the mountain, now came small slides of stone and he saw the stream of pellets of Iron, copper and cobalt go down in a stream. When one of the boxes was filled with their designated material, they would push the container to the side near the Lithoid , ant Lithoid struggling to do so, but slowly doing their goal as a new contained was begin built. By now the boxes of pellets had many. The Lithoid noticed the erratic pattern of the slides, He did noticed the ants attempted to make it more organized, but they could bent the slides so much, thus due to earlier and uncontrolled expansion, it was more random than the Lithoid would have wanted. But alas it was worth it as he saw the steady stream of materials. The Lithoid moved upwards, attempting to get a bearings of the situation, Mimins scurried away from their creator as he moved donwards the small ramp. He saw what his creations has built. In the core of the chamber was now a small wall being built surrounding him. Ants carried rock and metal ores passed onward on the top of the circular wall surrounding him, it was most likely just 1 metres in height, but it easily protected the Lithoid. The walls had small underground passages leading to the tunnels inside the walls, ant sized and mice sized. Most likely for the new creations to join their fellows in the brood. There were building a small gate to stream so he could get water, he saw the ants build an archway for him to go. As the center of his little castle was the raised platform which he was in, on the tops which was being built he could have seen it all when it was done. Ants slowly built the ramp as they got the rock together and smoothed the stone together for the ramps going up the hill which the platform is located. the Lithoid also noticed that the hill had holes inside: cube sized holes and he quickly saw the 'Syn cubes', as he was calling his synapse creations, resting there. He wondered how much time he spent a-

6 days. the thought went inside his mind and he turned to see Princeps waiting on the ramp, his white crystal eye wondering if he had done a could job managing and interpreting his will. Through a mental node he shared the progress which was made, but also the huge surplus of resources which were being found and how the cavern system was mostly just caves with ore veins. They did not find a clearing of sorts or neither another underground water stream in Ira's searches and the Synaptic cube that Princeps assigned to Ira's kin did not report anything of much more note. More cobalt and even some coal like materials and another black ore which he cannot know what is it. When he sent the image to his creator, he expected him to know what it was this ore found in abundece in the caves yet he did not know. This surprised and Princeps, by the unknown could be a threat to his kin and already he is expecting orders from the Lithoid on how to proceed. Large areas of the cavern system has been explored, with the same old as before and no other streams of water found. Yet this was just the tip of the iceberg by they might have found they could go deeper underground with a few passages. Mining ants have been stretched thin, be it mining resources to keep up the pace, repairing and making the current tunnels inside the walls and new short borrows being dug for the copper mice. Yet before he could go on creating the new hosts of Mining ants and the Mimins to properly order the pellets, as they have the new role of storage managers and 'food' distribution, one of the Mice's new features came in. A priority synapse message came burning inside the image the mouse saw on the Lithoid's mind.

Pick axes breaching one of the walls as 3 Miners entered. Their iron mining helmet lit up by candles and they wearing heavy leather armor, Long beards and- short stature... DWARFS?!