Ash had been holed up in his room, tinkering with the monster cores that had dropped the last time they fought on floor one, for hours. They hadn’t done much except for combat training in the dungeon in the last couple of weeks, and Ash was still getting by with his Lacerate spell.
The Lacerate spell perplexed his mentor; spells from Pure casters usually required an incantation or specific hand motion — often both, depending on the complexity — but his spell required neither. His professor had insisted that he was not a Varied caster: he should have had zero talent whatsoever for Primal abilities, yet he casted spells with minimal effort. Ash had surmised this was a result of his divine soul, but he hadn’t yet told anyone that specific story.
Brook had warned them that they’d likely get their system issued quest to clear the floor the next time they ventured into the jungle. He had also spoken to Ash in private, asking him to work on developing another spell over the weekend — apparently they had weekends, here, too. He seemed, admittedly, a bit concerned about Ash falling behind his groupmates.
Ash was, too.
He opened his skill menu, navigating to his stat sheet. It had been a while since he had last checked it, and it was difficult to keep track of stat changes while in active combat.
Class: Ruthless Combat Mage
Overall level: Apprentice
Statistics:
Strength: 22 (Intermediate)
Vitality: 24 (Intermediate)
Agility: 28 (Journeyman)
Intelligence: 34 (Adept)
Wisdom: 37 (Artisan)
He had ‘achieved’ the Ruthless class modifier in one particularly difficult encounter, where had been forced to shred a multitude of Prard to pieces at once. Prior to that event, he had been classified simply as a Combat Mage. The moniker amplified the pain that his attacks inflicted. He wasn’t unhappy to receive it, especially if it helped his group progress through the dungeon, but it seemed a bit… cruel. Although, so was disintegrating the skin off his enemies, he supposed.
He took a look at his Disciplines, next.
Disciplines:
Mana Cultivation: Apprentice VI
Mana Manipulation: Apprentice III
Cellular Manipulation: Novice IV
Mana Contracting: Beginner II
Mental Resistance: Beginner II
Material Manipulation: Beginner 0
Programmatic Enchanting: Beginner 0
Upon reaching Novice 0 in Cellular Manipulation, Manori had appeared to him. The god had given him his second Paragon item. It was a ring, composed of gemstone and laced with gold.
Divine Cultivator’s Amethyst Ring, Rare
Pulls and stores unused mana from the user for later use. Powers other enchanted items.
It had saved his life a few times already, and the ring had actually caused his Mana Cultivation skill to progress rapidly: it was constantly drawing mana from him, and it matched his intake perfectly. As a result, the ring put his body in a perpetual state of mana cultivation and manipulation; it was also the first place his robe would look to draw magical energy from, freeing up his mana for attacks during combat.
Ash had decided on a new spell. He was sure that he could use his abilities to make flesh golems.
A small pile of nebulous orbs lay in front of him, the monsters inside just asking to be taken over. His previous attempts to force mana into the cores had achieved absolutely nothing, so he pressed the button on the top of one of the sphere. The corpse of a giant mosquito, completely unharmed, appeared in its place. The creature was grotesque, but beautiful, in a morbid sort of way.
He approached the insect, taking a look at each of its appendages. Wet hairs ran down its barbed legs, soaked in the local anesthetic the creature used to latch onto its prey. Its proboscis was a thin, blade-like instrument. A tube-like structure was visible within the sharp mouth, clearly utilized to access the mana-rich cerebral fluid within its victim. Ash knew that Earth’s mosquitoes used a modified sort of leg to extract blood, but this seemed different somehow. He wondered if the dungeon had created it, or if a naturally evolved counterpart existed outside the dungeon.
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Analysis: Acquired skill.
Ash laughed. All it took was a bit of analysis, huh? He opened his skill menu again.
Analysis, skill
Employs each of the user’s Disciplines to build a profile of an object.
Warning: Due to the following Disciplines, some information may be transmitted subconsciously while examining related objects: Cellular Manipulation, Material Manipulation.
He invoked the spell. Analysis, he commanded, casting his mana over the carapace.
Information flowed into him like a tsunami. He saw the composition of each and every protein within the insect; long strands of amino acids and polymer chains appeared within his mind; he was privy to the very DNA of the mosquito: its most basic structures laid themselves out to him. He continued to maintain the spell, sifting through the never-ending waves of data being transmitted to him. Minutes had passed, but the information was still transferring, traveling along the strands of mana, directly into his consciousness.
He continued this process until he had found a strange length of DNA. Dull, grayish-white neutral mana surrounded the structure. He looked further into it.
Encryption detected spanning irregular, mana-infused base pairs #219347-219462.
Decrypt?
Yes, he thought. Could this be it? The answer to creating life with mana?
Decrypting… the system notified him. He sat there, mana flowing into the abomination, for hours. He would’ve been bored, if it hadn’t required so much focus. Finally, he was met with a message.
Decryption successful.
He collapsed.
—
“Ash! Ash, are you all right?” a voice called from outside his door. It was Finn.
“I’m… okay,” he said, delirious. “I used too much mana and passed out, I think.” He walked to the door, inviting Finn into his dorm.
“That sounds serious,” he said, stepping in. Finn looked at the insect corpse draped across his floor, squinting. “W-what are you…?”
“Oh, that,” Ash replied, unfazed. “I’ve been trying to animate the dungeon creatures.”
Finn flinched “Really? Like, bring them back to life?”
“Sort of, yeah.”
“I don’t think that’s possible.” Concern began to form on his face, though.
Ash opened the backpack he usually carried with him on dungeon expeditions, downing a mana potion.
“I’ve got a hunch. I think it is.”
Ash resumed his Analysis, thick cords of mana connecting him to the insect.
“That’s a pretty thorough Analysis spell,” Finn said, mesmerized. Ash didn’t really hear him, though. He was transfixed by the message he had decrypted; it was an incantation, hidden deeply in the DNA of a dungeon creature. It was the spark of life: the secret to turning inanimate to animate. The text felt the same as his conversations with Manori and Animosity, and it was written in a divine language — the Immortal Tongue. A language that, somehow, Ash could understand. It was a little long, however, for an incantation.
He stopped the Analysis spell.
“Here goes,” he said.
“Manori, I beseech you, bestow upon me the power of Creation. I call upon you, aspect of sentience: reveal to me the path of domination, the path of the dungeon core. Allow me, your liege, to Create as you do. Appear to me, Manori, and show me the key.”
Creation: Acquired discipline [Beginner].
“You are not a dungeon core,” Manori whispered into his mind, their visage flickering in his vision. “It’s been 94,000 years since that phrase was last uttered by a mortal. Do you know what happened to the last being who let that secret out?”
“It wasn’t the dungeon’s fault this time, Manori,” Ash responded, speaking fluently in an ancient language.
The realization dawned on the entity, and the color drained from their face. “Immortals forgive me… what have I done?”
Manori quickly faded from sight, as if they had been carried away by the wind. They had played their role.
“What were those horrifying sounds coming out of your mouth, Ash?” Finn asked.
“Oh, that? I-” he started, but was quickly interrupted.
Dungeon core Discipline identified.
Note: this Discipline will be severely limited, as you are incapable of achieving the mana capacity of a fully formed dungeon core.
Unique Discipline merge available: Cellular Manipulation [Novice Paragon], Material Manipulation [Beginner], Programmatic Enchanting [Beginner], Creation [Beginner].
Skill conversion available: Lacerate will become Agony.
Skill acquisition available: Awaken.
Form Discipline: Vivomancy [Novice Paragon]?
“Hmm…” he thought, for a moment. He was sure that Material Manipulation was a valuable Discipline, but… he decided to try casting Analysis on his skill tablet.
Vivomancy, Unique Discipline
Generating analysis…
Generating analysis…
Vivomancers wield the secrets of life itself to bend reality to their whim. All things that live fall within their domain.
Ash was beginning to wonder if the scientific advancement of this world would hurt his job security. Nonetheless, this Discipline sounded supremely interesting.
“Yes. I accept,” he responded silently.
A crescendo of golden mana formed around Ash, spiraling brilliantly in shades of amber, encircling him in a capsule.
“Ash, are you okay!?” he heard Finn yell from across the room.
“Probably!” Ash yelled back.
Streaks of a vibrant lime-green manifested within the golden mass surrounding him just before the mana shot back into him.
Disciplines combined: Cellular Manipulation [Paragon] [and 3 others].
Vivomancy [Paragon]: Acquired Discipline [Novice].
Agony: Acquired skill.
Awaken: Acquired skill.
Lacerate: Lost skill.
“I think…” Ash said, out of breath, “I think that was worth it.”
“Your mana changed… what was worth it?”
“I… exchanged my Paragon Discipline.”
“You did what?”
“Just watch,” he said, walking back to the mosquito corpse.
“Awaken,” he commanded, holding his hand out over the creature. Nothing happened.
He opened his skill menu, finding the ability.
Awaken, skill
Harness the power of fallen adversaries, chaining their minds and souls to the caster. (Requires touch.)
The complexity of the spell requires a shortened incantation: “Awaken, my fallen.”
“Awaken, my fallen” Ash said, touching the mosquito. It fluttered back to life immediately, flying around the room haplessly and knocking over his bedside lamp.
“Stop,” Ash said, and the mosquito hovered, waiting for further instruction. Golden mana was clearly visible running along its body in thin lines, with dollops of lime mixed in.
“What… what have you done? This is an affront against nature, Ash,” Finn pleaded, crestfallen.
“It’s not like I’m a necromancer or anything. It is alive. Watch. Mosquito, bob up and down if you’d like to go back to being dead.”
In truth, he really wasn’t sure if it still had free will. In any case, it did not bob up and down.
Finn opened his mouth, then closed it.
“This is worse.”