As the world came back into focus, I could see myself—a perfectly round orb around the size of a grape, crystalline with a blue tint, lying on the floor of some cave. The cave had little to discuss, but a few glowing crystals were indented on the walls. It seems like my vision is like being in the free-cam mode in a video game. And even if I didn't have an actual physical form, it feels like I have hands or something similar affixed to my pov.
But that's not important. What is essential is that there was an error involving my skill!? How? I have an aprase skill and can see what's up with the error, but how do I say it? Do I just try to talk like when I was alive?
"[Aprase]?"
『 Name: N/A
Age: <1 minute
Race: Dungeon Core
Class: Dungeon
Lv: 1
MP: 1
[Skills] 』
My "voice," if you could even call it that, was weird. It was as if my voice was coming from underwater. And if that wasn't enough, it was like light distorted through a prism with how distorted it was— fuzzy and fragmented.
Why don't I have a name? That's a question for another time. Using my "hands," I could click on the Skills button, which brought up a list of my skills.
『 [Monster Creation - Digimon]
[Mana Absorption]
[Loot Generation]
[Mold Earth]
[CorpesAbsorption]
[Divine messaging] 』
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There are five skills, and if I'm being honest, they seemed pretty self-explanatory, but I'll look into the others later. Let's see the error.
『 [Monster Creation - Digimon]
Atributes: Life | Creation | Digital(!)
The user can create monsters under the [Digimon] domain. Any monster not under this domain that makes a contract with the user is transformed into a similar monster. 』
Ok... so two buttons. Let's start with the exclamation mark.
『Digital - this skill attribute is unknown, and how it reacts to other attributes is still unknown.』
Ok, so that's about what I expected. What about the Digimon domain?
『 Domaine name: Digimon
Description: These life forms vary in almost every metric but share one trait: their mass is based on "1"s and "0" instead of protons, neutrons, and electrons.』
After hitting "List," there were just so many, and I even recognized some of them from the Appmon spinoff they made back in 2020. but a blurb at the bottom caught my attention.
『List will update when new Digimon are announced in the user's original universe』
Wow, I'll also get new ones as time passes; that's nice. Ok, it's time to make my first monster.
"[Monster Creation - Digimon]"
『Please select monster』
Time for an oldie but a goodie.
"Agumon"
『Error: not enough MP』
『Error: Skill [Monster Creation - Digimon] is not at a high enough rank to summon rank 3 Digimon 』
Oh, I guess that makes sense. Wait; can the skill level go up? What can I summon?
"Koromon?"
『Error: not enough MP』
『Error: Skill [Monster Creation - Digimon] is not at a high enough rank to summon rank 2 Digimon 』
"...Botamon?"
『Error: not enough MP』
『Error: Skill [Monster Creation - Digimon] is not at a high enough rank to summon rank 1 Digimon 』
WHAT!? I can't even summon the baby forms? What can I summon? The egg?
"Egg"
『Error: Creature not found』
Fuck! Do I have to be specific?
"Digitama."
『 Mana Cost (Random): 5
Mana Cost (Spisific): 30
Current Mana: 7 』
It looks like it's Gacha time. It sucks, but I need to level my skill. Apparently...
After choosing the random egg, the crystals along the wall gleamed, and I could see a wireframe of an egg start to form, then be filled with mana, become solid, and fall to the floor. Fortunately, it was less than a centimeter from the floor, so it didn't break. Unfortunately, it was a primary bagge color, so I can't tell what it'll hatch into. Using [Mold Earth], I made a small nest for the egg to lay in.
After ensuring the egg couldn't roll away, I finally decided to appraise the crystals. Why did they glow?
『 Mana Crystal Moss.
A crystal-like moss that feeds on ambient mana, moss is a favorite snack for monsters because it is rich in nutrients and mana. When exposed to a high concentration of mana, moss glows and pollinates, spreading around the mana-rich area.』
It's moss? I couldn't tell before, but the way they spread does look strange. But this is good! I can feed my guys this until they can hunt for themselves, so I don't have to worry about them starving.
But after my analysis., I could feel something entering the cave. By changing my viewpoint, I could see what it was.
It's a child.
A small child with pointed ears, pale skin, and bright blue eyes.