They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 6: The Fourteenth Expedition
“What ... what is all this?”
At the border of the Mycelial Garden, 120 Puffcaps stood in six orderly ranks.
40 artillery Puffcaps: [Mana Storage LV4] + [Spore Cannon LV6] + [Precision LV4]
40 ooze Puffcaps: [Mana Storage LV4] + [Spore Cannon LV6] + [Digestive Ooze LV3]
20 spore Puffcaps: [Hallucinogenic Spores LV4] + [Chitinous Shell LV4]
20 pack Puffcaps: [Storage Sac LV4] + [Bind LV3]
This was the composition of Evan’s fourteenth Expeditionary Force.
It was not that he had never considered giving every skill to a single Puffcap. The more skills a Puffcap possessed, however, the more mana and time it required to create. Those costs rose along a curve. Keeping each unit to four skills or fewer offered the best balance of utility and efficiency.
“I never knew there were so many kinds of Puffcap!”
Elara felt embarrassingly ignorant. How had she never heard of all these Puffcap subspecies?
Some had caps shaped like pitchers. Others were covered in chitin like the mining Puffcaps, except their shells were riddled with vents. A few even had tendrils.
Those looked wonderful. If she had tendrils of her own, she would not need to tie the Mana Crystal to her cap.
“Evan, you called them an Expeditionary Force. What are they going to do?”
“This is a dungeon. They’re going to hunt monsters, of course.”
“An E-Earthborer?”
Elara’s tone made it clear that if the answer was yes, she would not be joining them. She could not imagine killing an Earthborer simply by throwing enough Puffcaps at it.
“I told you, not yet. This time, our target is the Ember Gnats. Those parasites keep raiding the Mycelial Garden instead of producing anything for themselves. Today, we wipe out their nest!”
Evan had endured enough attacks from the air. He had discovered the Ember Gnat Nest long ago. The only reason he had not destroyed it was that it provided a renewable supply of Heat Resistance proficiency.
Heat Resistance had now reached LV6. Eradicating the swarm in a single strike might raise it to LV7, which would be more than sufficient.
Besides, his preferred escape plan had changed. He intended to use Elara to help kill an Earthborer rather than slip past the Magma Fiend. There was no longer any reason to tolerate the pests.
They could make themselves useful one last time by serving as a whetstone for his forces.
“Elara, stay in the center of the formation and follow my orders.”
“Understood.”
Elara relaxed once she heard they were hunting gnats.
She knew Ember Gnats. Their average level was LV20, and their attacks were simple and direct. What made them difficult was their combination of flight, the Dodge skill, and their tendency to move in swarms.
Even if her magic could not defeat the entire swarm, she was confident she could protect herself.
This counted as a war of sorts, even if it was a war between monsters. Her father had never allowed her near military affairs or adventuring. The thought of experiencing battle for the first time filled her with nervous excitement.
The Puffcaps marched in such perfect formation that few armies could have matched them. Was it because Evan controlled every one?
That was exactly the reason.
With Thrall Command, Mycelial Network, and Cognitive Coordination, Evan controlled the Puffcaps like units in a strategy game, although doing so demanded far more concentration.
That unified command was the only reason he had established a foothold in the dungeon using creatures whose Stats were all 1.
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