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Spawn shards when bonded to a being will spawn the things that being wants, goblins want more goblins and food, dragons and dwarves want precious metals and alcohol. The more of the shards one controls the greater influence they can exert over the territory they control. The doom tortoises scatter out of their territory every five years for a year to seek out new shards before returning home with the spoils. This process always results in the deaths of both doom tortoises and local entities which in turn produces sometimes dramatic shifts in the local ecosystems all over the world.
“What a time to hatch.” This comment of mine draws Zka's attention and she asks if I am really only 50 days old and had I really killed everything that I had encountered before entering the village. I laugh and reply, “Your people are the first to not attack me on sight, the goblins alone attacked me nonstop for nearly nine days before I managed to kill them all trying to find my way to the surface.”
“Killed them all, there had to be at least thirty thousand goblins plus endless spawns in the maze.” Zka excitedly replies.
“I wasn't counting but some quick math tells me I killed at least 3 million of them and after killing the king and his entourage the place became as silent as a tomb.”
“The king and most likely some of the others were bonded to shards, when you killed them the shard spawned would stop appearing.” Zka explained.
The conversation continued as we toured the village, however as we neared the square I noticed a monolith and with a chime the voice intoned, “Site detected. Mission acquired. Choose a class.” when I turn to approach it Zka tells me it is the pride of the village because not many shard holders waste the potential spawns in favor of a life guide. She continues to explain the purpose and use of the monolith and asks if I would like to use it. I did want to use it so she told me to place my hands on its surface where its carvings depict an incredibly detailed tree.
As I make contact some of the branches start emitting soft light while one is glowing much more vividly. I notice that each branch represent a path of class mastery. There are an abundance of options, but I hear Zka say that the brightest branch represents the most ideal class for the person involved. When I look closer at the brightest path after scanning the others, I like the name and what it implies. I promptly chose it. “Class selected. Universal agent. Skill acquired. Aura. Force of authority. Followers gain subclass. Special agent.” As soon as the voice says the followers part Zka gasps before preforming a gesture called horns from the heart.
Horns from the heart is a gesture implying a wish that the person giving the gesture wants the person it is given to, to find themselves succeeding in all things. It is preformed by making a fist with which you pound your chest twice before extending the index and pinky fingers and pounding it a third time. Honestly seeing that brings a smile to my face, I have vague memories of being the only person I'd ever known who used the gesture.
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I don't return or acknowledge her action because I am not meant to have seen it, instead I ask if the village has any maps and/or books about the world, the peoples and creatures populating it, and magic. With a nod Zka declares, “We are almost at the center, those things can be found there.” I happily follow her to a small round building housing only one room and mostly taken up by a downward spiraling staircase big enough that ten people can walk side by side on it without rubbing shoulders. About twenty feet down we pass through the first guard post, we pass another every twenty feet after that until at about one hundred feet we find a barracks. This pattern continues until we descend a thousand feet beneath the surface.
It is at this point that I become amazed, the stairway opened out into the largest open cavern I have ever seen. The size however barely even registers, the city contained within it however is without doubt one of the most exquisitely beautiful cities ever built. Sky scraper sized stalactites and stalagmites that seem to have grown into the forms of various peoples, creatures, and plants all arranged into scenes of frolicking celebration served as the buildings of this massive mindflayer megalopolis.
“Do you wish to walk or fly to the library? It is in the center of the city.” Zka inquired. After a bit of thought I choose flight because it is faster and this city is more massive than the territory I had thus far mapped. As we unfurl our wings and lift off Zka continues with her informational tour guide conversation about how over the generations the mindflayers had grown this city and the cavern itself, shaping its structures into the forms of all the things they had encountered during its growth. There are dragons, elves, rakshasha, lycanthropes, and dozens of creatures who's names I don't know.
The city is so vast that the journey from the outskirts we entered through to the library in the center will take three days at the speed we are flying. When Zka grew tired I swept her up into a princess carry and continue flying, when she falls asleep I fly faster. By the time she wakes up we are only ten minutes away from the library.
“You carried me all night. But why? And you covered two days travel in one night while carrying me.” She says while practically jumping out of my arms. “How are you not exhausted?”
“I have ridiculous stamina, and I don't require sleep.” I tell her with a smile while traversing the final distance.
I must say my first impression of the library is one of awe, it is a truly massive structure shaped like two rows of nine mindflayer women dancing in two concentric circles. The outer ring of women hold up what looks like brains in their left hands while bending provocatively backwards to to link hand to forearm with the women of the inner ring whose postures mirror those in the outer. The inner rings women hold aloft a book, a map, a telescope, a microscope, a beaker, an abacus, a stethoscope, a harp and an anatomy model.
Zka informs me, “The inner ring contains the accumulated knowledge of the mindflayers divided by topic according to the items held aloft, the outer ring contains fiction and general information.” We go first to the map building and I begin browsing, I manage to memorize several regional maps and a globe that seemed quiet accurate. Then we go to the magic building represented by the book, I end up getting lost in my reading until my clones are consumed. Distracted from reading, I notice Zka is asleep on a nearby sofa, and so I create new clones to assist me in perusing the contents of the vast collection of information contained in this library. Seeing as each of the buildings are of a similar mass with a large mountain and they are quite full of books even with the help of my clones reading everything might take longer than the days remaining until Blasphemy's arrival.