What I needed was a tank. And if one was thinking about tanks in the insect world, they of course had to think about beetles. So why couldn’t I make one? Because I hadn’t completed the acquisition research thing. Insect Mastery provided me with 3 free insects to research: Spiders, Bees and Wasps. An ant had died inside my walls, so I was able to make them. I had beetles as part of the bug level thing, but apparently they didn’t count for some reason, because of course not.
 
[...]
 
“Pixie, come back, I have work for you,” I shouted.
 
The floating lightbulb stopped, then came to me with a happy whistle.
 
“I need you to find me a beetle. Do you understand me?”
 
[Order sent: Small Lesser Pixie assigned to task [SEARCH]]
 
It bobbed once, saluting with a tingle and an enthusiastic “BLEEK!”, and sped off into the grass.
 
Considering how many bugs there seemed to be amongst the grasses, I didn’t expect it to take too long.
 
I was right; it came back a moment later, a big dead beetle in its tiny arms.
 
[...]
 
I was disappointed when my pixie dropped the beetle on the floor of my dungeon… and nothing happened. It didn’t get absorbed, its corpse just sat there, unmoving. Why wasn’t I getting the research option? I popped open my info-box and saw my mana wasn’t even moving.
 
[...]
 
Once that was done, yeah, I’d be able to worry about floor 2, but I was still vulnerable right now. I was still set on using a beetle as a tank, so I needed to find a beetle that wouldn’t mysteriously not wo—
 
Oh.
 
I was an idiot.
 
Of course the beetles from the surface weren’t going to work; they were created by my dungeon. They were just like the centipedes, and the flies, and the other bugs I created as “useless deco creatures”, because that’s what they were. I needed a real beetle, from somewhere out there.

—IWUAaDNW: Exploration 2.2



The surface effect is already active; bugs constantly pop out from the ground in the grass patch.

—Source: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/i-woke-up-as-a-dungeon-now-what-dungeon-worm.620521/page-104#post-46563709
—Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20220626235521/https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/i-woke-up-as-a-dungeon-now-what-dungeon-worm.620521/page-104#post-46563709



Surface areas do not receive any floor bonus, as they aren't part of the dungeon. However, they are affected by ambiant mana over long periods of time, so if the second entrance stays around for long enough, the forest around the Fort will start to grow random pixie infestations and giant bugs.

—Source: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/i-woke-up-as-a-dungeon-now-what-dungeon-worm.620521/page-424#post-64608878
—Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20220626041137/https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/i-woke-up-as-a-dungeon-now-what-dungeon-worm.620521/page-424#post-64608878