The creature creation screen appeared in front of Ben's eyes.
"Creature type, insectoid.
Not like I have much choice," he said.
"Size, hmm… considering the space I've got, I'll go with large.
Physical features, four arms, four legs, compound eyes, ant jaw.
As for intelligence, animal level should be enough.
They just need to do simple work anyway."
[Processing… Making final adjustments and calculating final cost…]
[Complexity: 10 | Cost: 180 Mana, 210 Biomass]
"Register as Krell Worker," Ben muttered.
He slid the screen aside and opened a new template.
He designed two more types.
The first, Krell Cargo, was similar to the Worker but with a medium-sized body.
The second, Krell Soldier, had a large body like the Worker but was reinforced with an enhanced carapace, a body part he had taken from the Ant King.
[Processing… Making final adjustments and calculating final cost…]
[Krell Cargo | Complexity: 10 | Cost: 120 Mana, 140 Biomass]
[Krell Soldier | Complexity: 13 | Cost: 276 Mana, 320 Biomass]
Ben's brows furrowed as he read the mana cost.
He had completely overlooked that limitation.
Biomass was not a problem.
Mana was.
[Mana: 124/250]
"Even after upgrading the pickaxe, my mana capacity didn't increase at all.
Is this because the system is still hibernating?" Ben thought as he rubbed his chin.
Since the artifact was linked to him, he felt he should be growing stronger as it became more powerful.
Otherwise, how was he supposed to advance?
Just by collecting parts from consuming creatures?
Ben let out a heavy sigh.
He really hoped it did not work like that.
If it did, he would have a hard time getting stronger.
He shook off the thought and climbed up through the trapdoor in the ceiling.
Elvira was still busy harvesting crystals.
Her method was unique.
First, she blasted the crystals with scorching flames until they turned bright orange.
Then, with a sharp slash of wind magic, she cut them down and used telekinesis to gather everything in one spot.
It was slow, but efficient.
Each cycle, she harvested a huge amount.
A massive pile had already formed, enough to easily fill a few trucks.
"Elvira, you can put it all down now.
Your lab's ready," Ben called out.
Elvira's eyes lit up at his words.
With a flick of her hand, the massive pile of crystals floated into neat, long lines, then shot toward her lab, following the mechanism Ben had built.
Watching the process, Ben asked, "How fast can you make those things fly?"
"Depends on the size and weight," she replied.
Ben hummed in thought, then crafted a bullet, a small, sharp drill-head projectile about five centimeters long.
It had a tapered tip and a spiral body like a drill.
He placed it on his palm.
"Try shooting this as fast as you can."
Elvira immediately understood what he was thinking.
Using magic to launch projectiles was not new.
Some species even used bows as their main weapon.
But for a mage, shooting physical objects with magic was usually inefficient.
It was much cheaper to just fire arrows from a bow instead of burning mana for each attack.
Still, she did not complain.
She pointed her finger at the bullet.
It floated, then,
Swoosh!
BAM!!!
The bullet pierced through the air and slammed into the tunnel wall in an instant.
Ben narrowed his eyes and inspected the result.
The bullet had dug in slightly, then shattered into pieces.
"Try again, Elvira.
This time, make it spin before shooting it."
"Spin first?" Elvira frowned.
She still did not understand what Ben was trying to achieve.
The bullet floated up again.
This time, she made it spin as fast as possible.
A high-pitched whizzing sound filled the air before she launched it.
BAM!
The bullet shot forward and pierced through three stone blocks before finally stopping.
"That's good!" Ben's eyes lit up.
"Elvira, if we mix it with Eldergleam Crystal, one with an explosive effect, the result will be even better!"
His mind was already busy.
He thought about creating a gun that could fire these bullets.
But he had no real knowledge of gun-making.
If he tried now, it would take endless trial and error, and he did not have time for that.
Elvira did not look excited.
"A one-time-use object imbued with magic is called a Talisman," she said.
"But it doesn't work on any object.
The bullet is too small.
We need something larger to store the magic properly.
And adjusting the trigger so it does not react to high-speed movement will cost more mana and space."
"I see… Oh well, not like we can use it now anyway," Ben said.
There were too many other things he needed to make first.
The gun itself, for one.
As for size, he could work around that by using something bigger, like a cannon.
The shells would be larger, so they could hold more magic without a problem.
"Anything else?
If not, I want to start working," Elvira said.
She was clearly more excited about testing the Eldergleam Crystal's full potential than about Ben's new idea.
"One more thing.
Can you share some of your mana?
I need to create some Workers, Logistics, and Soldiers."
Elvira hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
She needed a lot of mana for her experiments, but keeping it all to herself would just slow their progress.
Ben's mana pool was too small.
If her mana was like a massive lake, then his was just a tiny pond.
A few hours later, the base had dozens of new inhabitants.
There were six Krell Workers, four Krell Logistics, and two Krell Soldiers.
Ben assigned the Workers to start gathering Grimslate.
He needed tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of blocks to finish the base.
Two Krell Logistics were placed under Elvira's command to assist with her experiments.
The other two were assigned to transport all the Grimslate collected by the Workers to a stockpile area.
For now, Ben created a 7x7 space next to Elvira's lab to act as a temporary stockpile.
He also placed a food stockpile there for the Krell to consume.
As for the Krell Soldiers, he left one behind to stand guard and took the other one with him to explore the area.
Right now, he had only one real concern, finding a good source of mana.
Something like the Red Gemstone.