He watched as the ant's exoskeleton became pure white. The abomination that burst free of the cocoon was like a kick to God's teeth. It was definitely ant-like, but it was about the size of a teaspoon and it had the type of arse a Kardashian would admire. A hooked stinger stuck out of its bum like a crooked turd, its end dribbling a yellowish poison.
A sound distracted David’s attention.
Congratulations. You have created your first unique monster.
The Australian Devilweeper.
Congratulations. You have unlocked Berserk mutation.
Congratulations. You have unlocked Devilweeper Neruotoxin mutation.
“Mother of God!” David shouted, he turned his head back to his new monster and cringed.
The Devilweeper was completely out of control. It sent its arse flying in every direction like an epileptic fencer, managing to sting twenty bull ants in about two seconds.
David tapped rapidly on his mouse trying to gain some control over the evil bug. A warning sign flashed in the corner of the screen.
Creature is out of control. You cannot influence creature.
Well, that wasn't good. Seeing that this thing was a true terror, David had no choice but to destroy his creation. Using a short-cut key, he selected all of his armies and had them murder the Devilweeper.
The thing lasted a whole second before it was torn limb from limb. Even when its head was bitten off, the Devilweeper wanted just one more kill.
“Jesus,” David breathed.
It took several hours of blatant procrastination before the dungeon AI attempted to create his next monster. It was more out of boredom than anything else. He wasn't exactly going anywhere except slowly insane. The problem was that he wasn't really swimming in the type of creatures that he particularly liked.
Even a yapping Chihuahua with mange was a step above what David had to play with.
This time he selected something that was less likely to blow up in his face. He selected a common moth and tried the evolution tab.
From what you understand of the natural sciences you have unlocked forceful evolution. Evolution is a slow process, taking millions of years of breeding in and out traits. From simple microorganisms into the mighty dinosaurs. Unfortunately, your limited understanding of this very complex science narrows your possibilities.
First select a minion that is under your control.
The screen had changed so that it was now split in half.
David selected the common moth and was given a description of the tiny thing.
Name: Moth.
Race: Insect.
Rarity: Common.
Traits: Flying, metamorphosis, insectoid.
Habitat: Cave.
Food: Plant fibres.
Accomplishments: None.
David's eyes were immediately drawn to the accomplishments. The more accomplishments a creature had the larger the chance that a creature had to change. Of course, evolution was a bit more complicated than that. Evolution was about adaptation. So making a rat do the Macarena for a laugh and hitting the evolution button wasn't a guarantee that he would somehow create a Latino dancing, and singing rat.
As this was just an exercise, David hit the evolution button. A prompt appeared.
How much DP would you like to invest in the moth's evolution? The more DP you invest the higher the success of creating a deviation and the more variations you can pick.
“Alllrright,” David trailed off. It seems like he was going to have to pay if he wanted to create his mutant army. Yay for fucking micro-payments.
David invested five DP in his moth and prayed to Darwin that he hadn't betrayed the race of man.
The picture of the moth slowly dissolved and in its place was a loading screen showing a strand of DNA being broken up and reassembled. It was looking as if even stuck as a mythical creature you still had to deal with loading screens.
That's when something truly horrible burst onto David's screen. Something that caused the blood in his veins to go cold and his imaginary bowels to scrunch up into a knot.
“You're shitting me?” David said, seeing the advertisement for a tower defence game. “You have to be fucking with me. What the hell?” If it wasn't bad enough that YouTube sold out, now the bastards found a way to somehow send ads to his dungeon.
By reflex, he hit the exit button and was returned to his evolution screen. It was a second or two before the dungeon truly realised what had just happened, he had just passed up the chance to buy a game. A real game. Not this shitty dungeon thing but a computer game. And if he could get computer games...
“Netflix!” David tapped on the screens, trying to get back the screen. “Come on baby. Youtube. Hell, I'll take Foxtell. Please. Please.”
David tried to find it but couldn't. The icons and settings stayed where they were, nothing changed. “Ahhh!” he screamed and thumped the desk with his fists, “That's okay. When the next ad comes up, I'll get it. No problem.”
David looked at his evolution screen. It appeared as if the moth could evolve into two variations. One had its wings pure black and the other moth had a hint of blue on its abdomen like it was trying to sneak on a pair of jeans. Neither of them was worth the five dungeon points they cost to make.
Unable to get out of the swap, he regretfully chose the black winged moth only because it looked more interesting. It didn't even earn a congratulations. If he wanted to get anywhere he was going to have to spend the big bucks.
This time he went for the mutation tab.
Mutations are traits and abilities that you have discovered and can give your creatures. Each creature has a certain number of mutation points that can be utilized based on its size and nature.
You currently have these mutations.
Berserk.
Minion type: Any.
Rarity: Common.
Giving this to a creature will make it uncontrollable and act violently towards everything.
2 mutation points.
Devilweeper neurotoxin.
Minion type: Insect, Plant, Beasts.
Rarity: Uncommon.
People might think poisons and neurotoxins are the same but you know better. Neurotoxins attack the nervous system, causing paralysis and permanently damaging motor control. The sting of a Devilweeper will not only cause a 7 on the pain meter and partial paralysis, but it also causes the wound to constantly weep bloody pus that attracts other Devilweepers
5 mutation points.
There didn't look like much of a choice. Either he was going to make a creature that was so insane that he couldn't hope to control it, or make it insanely venomous.
A thought came to David, “Hello hello.” he leaned forward in his chair as if conspiring with the display. It looked as if he could play with some plants.
Over the course of their raids, the ants had managed to gather a few seeds. The dungeon hadn't really needed to plant them as he didn't have much room or a light source, but not having much else to do; the dungeon selected a thorn bush seed and selected neurotoxin mutation. The thorn bush had seven mutation points available.
David was surprised at how many mutation points he could give the seed. Then again, he didn't know if seven was a lot or if it was nothing.
A second later and several new prompts appeared.