I took a moment to relax. A moment of relief for a problem avoided if only for a while. But I needed to make some changes. Clearly, my stumbling around hasn’t historically lead to the best outcomes. Vicit was only my most recent failure and simply put I was sick of it. I couldn’t ignore the issue any longer. Every time something new has come along I had been so interested in messing around with it I had also been blind to any risks.

This disaster had led me to a conclusion though. I can’t let one or two creatures grow far beyond the other creatures I controlled. If I had had a couple more creatures at the same level of experience as Vicit before I inadvisably named him. I could have used them to either fight him directly or to at least fight him off long before he could devour so many of my creatures. Eventually, I would need to experiment and see what had gone wrong. I wanted more creatures as strong as Vicit Gigantum but only if I was able to control them.

So, my first task to achieve this was producing more creatures with Vicit’s ability that I could experiment on. Currently, my only method for that was running tournaments. More aware of my own weaknesses in that regard I decided to set the competitions running using my Id so I didn’t become attached to any of the victors. Having set the process, I watched as almost every adapted Rotifer on my surface formed groups of a couple dozen individuals and started fighting. Obviously, my Id had taken my commands and run with it. With hundreds of competitions running in parallel I was going to get plenty of experimental subjects much sooner than I expected.

While I waited for my first batch of experimental subjects I turned to the Cyanobacteria that were beginning to spread back across my surface. The reduced mana consumption caused by such decimation of there number was returning to normal. However, they no longer appeared to be behaving as randomly as before. Firstly, I was surprised by the diversity I was seeing species that previously only clumped up with more of their own kind now worked with other species in their own defence. Secondly, their progress across my surface was uneven. Small groups of Cyanobacteria would move to the middle of any open spaces before reproducing at a prodigious pace. While other areas of would briefly stop reproducing and move more sluggishly. Looking more closely I watched as a small, fast-moving Cyanobacteria species with which I was unfamiliar was racing between the fast growing and the slowed areas. Almost glowing with the amount of stored mana one way and almost without in the other. I realised with a start it was transferring mana from one group to the other. This was clearly a worrying circumstance, totally opposite my intention of taking control of the changes happening in my environment. Something else without obvious explanation was happening.

Suddenly my focus was pulled back to the feelings of my body. I could feel a gentle pulling. Then nothing before moments later a couple of tugs again this pattern continued. To better understand what was happening I rushed back into my physical body hoping that my closeness would reveal what was causing such a strange sensation. Once back I realised It was my links to my creatures. The links I shared with the Cyanobacteria were pulled tight and then released. The massive number of links was producing a pseudo-physical sensation. Cyanobacteria still the most populous of my creatures made up most of my links. Puzzled I realised that other than feeling unusual the phenomenon didn’t appear to be damaging. The pattern continued two tugs, three tugs, five tugs and seven tugs all in quick succession, then a pause and a repeat. Something was starting to seem familiar with the pattern. Two more cycles occurred before I recognised why it was familiar. I used the pause at the end of the next cycle to respond focusing on my link I tugged the link from my end eleven times. A pause. The time for the cycle to repeat came and went before I felt it quickly thirteen tugs. I responded to the next step in the pattern and a notification appeared.

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Dungeon Notice: First dungeon sentient discovered, be careful in communication. Confusion often leads to conflict.

I had been right it was a mathematical series. One of the simpler concepts I had started to explore back in the void. Clearly, I was no longer alone but this needed to be handled very carefully if it wasn’t going to lead to further chaos. Something had significantly changed in my Cyanobacteria which was a problem. Ignoring their new intelligence, they were important to me getting rid of the mana I produce. So, I needed to make sure it all went without problems. While looking at the notice and considering the problem I had continued alternately adding to the growing pattern.

I needed to expand our communications, so it was more detailed than just sending a single number back and forth. Thinking about it I started by only responding to the current series in a smaller group of the links and I started pulling on another set to start the pattern again. There was a pause on the other end but quickly I was mimicked. I had immediately doubled the amount of information we could pass back and forth. I continued in this fashion doubling the number of paths for swapping numbers each time until I found the limit. It appeared that I could not get a response to any message I sent unless it went to more than a certain number of individuals near each other.

One problem solved I was now swapping hundreds of numbers each moment the pauses between each tight pulse of tugs getting smaller with practice. I now needed to slowly change the content of each of the communications. At first, I started with other simple mathematical progressions, when one was solved I changed another till each set of links was communicating its own different series of numbers. But I was stuck how could I take this any further. Numbers were one thing, but they weren’t sharing the sort of information I was interested in. Since my first system message so long ago I recognised that my internal monologue had changed to match the grammar and format of that message only being slightly changed by later messages from the system. I needed to send that information to the intelligence, so we had some shared frame of reference.

Thinking back to the message triggered its reappearance:

System Notice (Stored): Failed seed banished. Good work, keep hunting.

This was the first time I had realised that these communications were stored somewhere for my use. However, I was more interested in what use I had for it. The top level of meaning was pointless in the communication with the intelligence as it was specific to my situation at the time. But the layers of information behind were, especially as at the base layers, it also resorted to basing mathematical formulae and patterns. In the light of hindsight, it was as if the messages created by the system were specifically designed to provide this context to diverse intelligence.

I ran a quick calculation and was rather surprised. I had forgotten how much information was crammed into this short message. It was going to take days to communicate the base information to my companion.

Suddenly I received a burst of information and memories from my Id. The first series of tournaments had concluded while I had been investigating the new intelligence. Well, my Id could carry on these early stages of opening communications. And I can start my experiments. I was already looking forward to it.