Dungeon Core: Bugged Ascension

As she takes flight, he sees a large group of her gnats fly over to the oozing pebble and grab ahold of it as well. As one, and this time with a noticeable stream of Mako funneled through her and into them, the pebble also lifts into the air, though more slowly. Though, as it does, the slimy nature of it seems to recede as the flight continues and it even seems to shrink considerably.

If he were thinking at full capacity, he might wonder why they were moving, or where they were going, but most of his attention is spent on examining and trying to understand what sort of thing that Gnat brought with them. There is part of him that certainly feels a connection with whatever it is, but he just can’t really understand it or its purpose. It was originally swollen and wept slime for some reason. Because of that, it was almost certainly the reason he got the gnat template, but how?

Use Guided Evolution perk on Lymph Node? Y/N

“Hmm,” he thinks aloud, “The system has been quite helpful. I’m pretty sure it’s responsible for most of what’s going on so far. A lymph node is an unconscious organ, and one related to disease. It makes sense that would be a swarmhost mob for me. Of course, I don’t remember creating it like I do Gnat, but even there I was mostly just wishing and praying really hard.”

When he selects Yes on the prompt there is an explosion of information that lights up inside him, completely blinding his focus to anything else. It takes a long time for the tsunami to pass and settle enough for him to finally navigate his way through the kaleidoscope of complexity offered and pull back out of the menu. Whatever consciousness remains doesn’t even remember sleep crashing over him.

…

“Oww… my aching head. What happened?”

Dungeon Core Breathing Arrested! By not drawing in Mana actively you can more easily hide your presence from the other races that can track the inflow to your location. However, the passive conversion of Mana into Mako by your Domain is exponentially weaker without the active intake. Thus, any development will be significantly slowed and it’s possible that you will not be able to maintain all your mobs if their maintenance is too high.

Domain Circumference Breech Alert! This is your first encounter with Sapients, as a {Wild} Dungeon Core you are not a valid target for scrying, but you also lack the Divine Protection Perk and will not automatically initiate a contract upon contact. As a reminder, your purpose as a Dungeon Core is to refine Mana and redistribute Mako to Life on this planet.

Scion “Gnat” and Lymph Node met challengers!

Lymph Node accumulated enough experience to evolve! Choose a path.

No response from Dungeon Core… Evolution beginning! Be sure to protect evolving mobs as these more advanced versions siphon a considerable amount of Mana and Mako during the evolution process that will be lost if interrupted. Also, any new pattern will not be made available until after a successful evolution is completed.

New Creature {Organ Spider} added to Template Library.

Organ Spider met challengers! Organ Spider has been granted a name by Sapients!

No response from Dungeon Core… Name accepted by Organ Spider “Thing”. Soul imprinted onto |Disease Dungeon, Thermal Spring Mountain|.

“Thing” has been defeated. Respawn available.

Domain Circumference Breech Alert finished. You successfully completed your first contact with Sapients and fulfilled your task to challenge them while retaining your independence. Well done!

Dungeon Core Breathing Ascending! Stealth mode disabled. Automatic respawns reenabled.

Perk Gained: Mental Resistance. You survived an overwhelming mental impact without it breaking your will or losing your sanity. You will have additional resistance against mental overloads, regardless of their source.

“Oh wow… That’s, like, a lot of stuff. Gnat, are we okay?” The response he gets this time is a much crisper affirmative from the soul bonded creature. Still trying to wake up once again, he basks in the faint echoes of determination he feels from his first scion.

As he recovers from yet another seeming sucker punch from this new life, he feels a strange sort of wispy sensation. It’s almost like he can feel his hair blowing in the wind combined with a misting of rain on his skin. But rather than feeling the outline of two arms, two legs and a head stuck on a torso, the skin tingling feels the dirt beneath him, the grass swaying, and the trees. He can even feel his gnats as they beat their wings in flight and imagines a sort of topographical map of his surroundings.

All this sort of synch up with his memories of the gnat’s vision, except for one new thing, the source. No longer the size of a pebble, now there is a fist sized bulbous sack of fleshy slime. It has eight spindly legs that carry it aloft and if not for the shine of the sunlight refracting off those light blue shafts, it would be a blackish blob floating a few centimeters off the ground.

With Gnat’s eyes now clear in his mind he sees Thing for the first time. There is a part of him that wants to recoil in horror at what he is seeing but the feeling of that deep connection and a second stream of loyalty and purpose just fills him with contentment. It is only moments later that Gnat flies his enlarged body that she was struggling to carry effectively and places him atop of Thing.

“Well, according to my logs, you two seem like you had fun,” the pair of them send a breeze of satisfaction as the praise, though Thing’s does dip into sorrow after a moment. “Don’t get too down about being defeated Thing. I don’t know what happened, but I’m sure you did your best. It’s my fault for not being conscious for our first real encounter, so don’t beat yourself up about it.”

The organ spider seems to perk up a bit as they keep travelling along, “Actually, now that I’m awake, I do have a question. Where are we going?”

His question is met with some resistance. Not for a lack of willingness to answer, but rather a difficulty in how to answer. He gives the two of them some time to give their best effort and the impression he’s able to put together from them is complicated.

Gnat starts off by trying to push the impression that where they first were was bad somehow. Then after he stopped breathing, somehow that made things less bad. A while after that is when there were people, and she knew they were a different kind of not good. So, she hid his heart before taking Thing before they were Thing to the people. After some time passed there was a rush of Mana like never before, so she retreated.

After a bit more time hiding, Thing before they were Thing, got much heavier and larger and then finally they grew legs. Once they did, they immediately rushed out of hiding and back towards the people. There was much more noise after that and then another huge rush of Mana followed by so much heat even from as far away as she was. So, she flew back to his heart and used her children to help her carry and hide him better and flew away.

Eventually, he started breathing again and his heartbeat faster than ever had before as it grew larger and heavier too. He grew legs like Thing, but then it was just Thing that pulled itself out of him, even though Thing is much larger. His heart settled down its pace after that and somehow Gnat knew that there was a good place to go, and Thing agreed, so they’ve been heading that way, and then he woke up.

“Thank you for that explanation, Gnat,” and he feels another wisp of sorrow from Thing and the impression of shame about their actions, “It sounds like you charged valiantly into battle, Thing. Based on my logs, if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have gotten a name. Though you also might not have needed to be revived either. I won’t tell you not to learn from this, but it seems like it worked out well enough for us this time.”

His words help the organ spider, but they don’t bounce back completely. He thinks it’s probably best to let them mull it over without interference. He has the thought that even as large as Thing has gotten, being able to move silently would make them an excellent ambusher. Having a downwind vision instead of a sense of smell could also prove to be extremely useful against more traditionally skilled opponents.

As he thinks this, he can feel some of these impressions sinking into the organ spider template. Unlike the gnat template, the one for the organ spider feels emptier of instincts, like there isn’t a plan for how it’s supposed to function. Skimming what he can from it, the sensory organ it uses is tied into its brood pouch and its locomotive center in an extremely primitive tangled mess.

It would explain why as soon as it could it raced off after the people Gnat encountered. Poor Thing only understood: if I can see it, I must mate. As a Scion, they can think more, and in doing so they seem to be shifting the base instincts of their species. He finds this utterly fascinating. He also notices that he’s been able to dive safely into the Guided Evolution for the organ spider with far greater ease.

With some more careful exploration around the edges, it would seem the lymph node is still a mind-shatteringly complex web of seemingly infinite possibilities. Yet, the evolution into the spider compacted that down and pruned the vast majority of it. Relying on a careful touch and the insurance provided by Mental Resistance, he delves into the differences between them, to get a better understanding.

As time passes and their journey towards something ‘good’ continues. Gnat’s scouts can spot most creatures before we get close, and with all of us holding our breath we can sneak by the larger animals with our small size. The faster, tinier creatures will sometimes stumble across us without us being able to hide from them, but Thing has learned how to create a pocket of slime and then squirt it out like a weapon.

The first mice we encounter seem more startled by it, but as we stumble across more of them, it becomes more effective against them. Soon it starts to kill them rapidly and from then on, we stop being investigated by them from downwind. The ones that Thing sees get their scent and rapidly choose to flee rather than investigate.

It’s after observing this behavior that I see a major shift in the organ spider template, and it stabilizes into a more complex but easier to parse form.

Organ Spider: A swarmhost-type monster with an unusual method of perception and combat. The organ spider’s senses are connected to the slime-like secretions on its main body. It can release this like pollen on the wind or accumulate it like saliva to spit or spray it out against something close by. This slime is a collection of many diseases and sicknesses and has a foul odor and taste in enough concentration. They are able to adjust their slime to better protect themselves from regional predators and to become more adept at hunting prey. Once they have accumulated enough Mana and biomass from their afflictions, they will molt. Ironically, this is when they are most dangerous as they overflow their diseases and split into multiple spiders, of which typically only one will start at a larger size. It is after this molt is finished that they are most vulnerable to predation, no longer having a large stockpile of slime to defend themselves. Due to the connection the organ spider has with their specific slime, they are an especially solitary species, with violent competition amongst their fellow spiders. Even former molt mates have trouble in each other’s presence, as the interference from multiple spider’s slime impairs their vision. The larger a spider is, the more dangerous it can be to local fauna, though the less lethal it tends to act. Finding an equilibrium with its territory and guarding it jealously against unknown encroachments. This makes them especially dangerous to stumble across for adventurers new to the area, as they may find themselves in an elder organ spider’s lair and unbeknownst to them be getting more and more saturated with an adapting sickness that does not like their intrusion.

*Thank you for your contribution to expanding the {Monsterpedia}. You have been granted a {Boon}.