Most of the eggshell crumbled into thousands of tiny pieces. The flakes of white were lost among the tendrils circulating beneath. Only the base of the egg remained. It acted like a curved pedestal of sorts for the creature floating above it.

The creature was a giant white koi fish with a black dorsal fin on its back. It was around 8 or 9 feet long. Two long whisker-like appendages started on either side of its mouth and flowed behind it as it swam in the air above the tendrils. It had a line of black spots that ran alongside the entirety of its body.

Vetica eyed the creature, dusting stray remnants of dungeon material off of herself. “So, you tamed a flying fish?” she asked Charlie.

The koi laughed. “I can only swim within the confines of my egg.” As if to emphasize the creature’s point, a spectral eggshell rippled in the air around it for a moment before disappearing.

Charlie tilted his head at that. Even though the koi had hatched, it was still confined to the same space it had been before. That was odd.

He looked up. He’d almost forgot about Merlin. The wizardly conman was still somewhere above the dungeon’s roof. He needed to cushion the ground below so Merlin could land safely. Charlie had the dungeon slowly lower the chamber Merlin was sitting inside. Then he turned his attention toward padding the ground, so it was soft. He would just need to shut out any distractions and—

“Hello Charlie. I’m glad to see you are well. I apologize for the delay, but I was unable to perform my duties after encountering an anomaly within the dungeon. Effective immediately, you will have full access to the interface again.”

Charlie turned away from his work in excitement. “Parent! You’re back!” A pebble clacked against the floor. Charlie and the others turned to look at the ground. “Huh? What was that?” Charlie asked.

“Vetica! Charlie! Catch me, catch me, catch me!” Merlin yelled as he fell.

Vetica crossed her arms and shot the falling man a disapproving look.

Charlie hurried to throw out a hand and do something, but gravity outpaced him.

Merlin tumbled through the air and landed on the dungeon floor, hard on his back.

“Ow…” Merlin groaned.

Charlie winced. “Sorry. I got distracted.”

“You know, since I met you, I’ve been chased by cultists, arrested, and forced to do hard labor. I’m starting to think our adventures will be the death of me. Also, my everything is broken.” Merlin stared up at the dungeon’s ceiling.

Vetica rolled her eyes and walked over to him. She kicked him. “Get up. Look.” She pointed at the floating koi. Merlin leaned his neck forward and looked in the direction she was pointing in. His eyes went wide, and he suddenly scrambled back. “What is that? Wait…I was right about the evolution koi? Weren’t we under attack?”

Charlie smiled. “It’s okay! We’re friends now!”

Merlin groaned. “Why am I never around when you make new friends? An army of lizards, a giant floating fish. At this point, I’m afraid if I leave you alone, you’ll keep finding stray animals.”

The tendrils beneath the koi thrashed. “Insolent human! I am no stray animal!”

Merlin gulped.

“Charlie, now that you have formed a bond and chosen a core guardian, you will need to offer it a name. Once you agree on one, I suspect a new power will emerge,” Parent said.

The large koi fish flipped in the air. “An excellent suggestion! Ensure it is a good one, noble little child!”

Merlin rubbed the back of his head and finally stood back up. “Please don’t. If you name him, we won’t ever be able to get rid of him.”

Charlie scrunched his brows. “What kind of name should I pick?” he asked everyone.

“One that is easy to remember. It would be impractical if you forgot it.”

Koi’s tail thrashed in the air. “One that inspires fear in the hearts of our enemies!”

Vetica perked up. “That’s a good idea!”

“Again, I don’t think we should name the levitating fish at all. If anyone cares,” Merlin said.

Charlie thought about it for a moment. A levitating fish? Levitating...Levi!

“I’ve got it! How about Koi Levi?” Charlie asked.

Vetica smiled. “I like that.”

The koi turned to stare at Charlie. Its body moved from side to side as if it was swimming, but it was stationary. “Koi Levi! I’m not sure it inspires fear, but I do enjoy the sound of it. I accept this name, noble little one!”

A rush of magic energy flooded the room. Everyone looked around.

“Squeak!” Mousifer said, pointing a paw out. Charlie looked and saw Orb was floating. His color was slowly returning as well. The blue dungeon core slowly floated by and up to Koi Levi. The koi rotated to study the approaching dungeon core. Orb kept hovering closer until he touched against the space in between Koi Levi’s eyes.

Charlie felt an odd sensation, like the magic energy around him was buzzing in excitement.

Notice

The bond with Core Guardian Koi Levi has resulted in the development of new power.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

New Abilities Unlocked

Monster Evolution - allows the user to control the evolutionary development of bonded creatures. (Conditional ability)

Tendrils - allows the user to command the tendrils under the influence of Core Guardian Koi Levi

Charlie blinked. Two new powers? It looked like he could use the tendrils as an ability now. The tendrils were powerful. He’d seen them absorb dead or weakened beasts to replace dungeon mass and also do things like churn the earth so he could open a portal to the dungeon. This would be very useful. The other power was a bit confusing. It was conditional, so he couldn’t activate it whenever he wanted, unlike Tendrils. What exactly did it mean by control the evolutionary developments of a bonded creature?

“Parent, can you explain the Monster Evolution ability?” Charlie asked.

“It appears that this ability developed as a result of Koi Levi’s presence within your dungeon. It was previously locked until one of several conditions was met. One potential condition was forming a bond with the creature.”

Charlie wondered what the alternative conditions might have been. “That explains how I got it, but what does it do?” he asked.

“It will allow you to increase the power or alter the form of a creature you have bonded with once conditions are met. The conditions are currently unknown to me. However, I can see that one of your bonds is currently eligible. I recommend taking this opportunity to test the power out. I’ll allow the notice to go through now.”

Notice

The bonded creature named Bleedy is currently eligible for Monster Evolution.

Would you like to proceed with evolution?

Charlie’s eyes widened. “Bleedy?” He turned to look at the curled-up creature on the ground. “I don’t want to do it without asking him first. And I don’t want to do it at all if it will change who he is. I like Bleedy!”

“Allow me to wake him,” Koi Levi said. A pair of tendrils snaked forward and coaxed Bleedy gently.

Bleedy yawned and then opened his eyes. He smacked his mouth together a few times while waking up. Bleedy looked around the room, taking it all in. But his eyes lit up when he saw Charlie.

“Baby!” Bleedy said in excitement. The raccooneever hurried over and proceeded to lick Charlie’s face fervently.

Charlie giggled, wrapping his hands around the creature. “Bleedy! I missed you!” he said. Bleedy licked him again and then turned to look at the others. Acknowledging them one by one. When that was finished, Charlie explained the situation.

Bleedy didn’t hesitate for a second. “Bleedy!” he said.

“You’re sure? You promise you’ll still be you?” Charlie asked.

Bleedy nodded. “Bleedy!”

Charlie smiled. “Okay. Let’s try this out!”

“Monster Evolution!”

The tendrils shot forward and wrapped around Bleedy, completely encasing him in a swath of green. When they retreated a moment later, nothing had changed.

Notice

The bonded creature Bleedy, a Racooneever, has become a Racooneever Jaw Mimic.

This unique creature can take on the traits of eligible beasts by using their teeth as replacements for its own. The duration and number of traits passed along depend on the condition of the teeth, as well as the experience of the Jaw Mimic.

Merlin and Vetica exchanged a look. Charlie had almost forgotten Parent could allow them to listen in on their conversations while inside the dungeon. The interface must have thought it made sense to include them in the explanation to avoid having to repeat itself.

“Wait, so Bleedy can get powers by using…dentures?” Merlin asked.

“Bleedy!” The raccooneever looked down at itself as the tendrils disappeared. He looked the exact same as he had when the tendrils had surrounded him. Charlie had expected some kind of change. He had an idea. “We should try it out! Do you still have the satchel with you?” he asked.

Bleedy frowned and looked toward the tendrils.

“I confiscated it after catching them. I was curious about what was inside,” Koi Levi explained. A tendril hurried forward with a brown satchel hanging from it. It was the same one Mary had attached to Bleedy’s side when they first left Troa. They’d used it for carrying supplies prior to meeting Merlin. Another tendril reached inside the bag and pulled out a set of wolf teeth. Bleedy had taken them from Lusafeen’s cabin and used them to bite Dremmon. It had been the diversion Charlie needed to pull her inside his dungeon. Since then, Bleedy kept the teeth tucked inside the satchel. Bleedy enjoyed wearing them, but they stretched his mouth a little too much for comfort. So, he was limited to how long he could wear them.

The tendril sat the jaw in front of Bleedy. “Bleedy!” he said, before pulling them into his mouth like he had practiced over and over. As soon as they locked into place, Bleedy smiled really wide, showing off the sharpened teeth. His beady black eyes opened further, the brown hair on his sides started to change slowly, and a series of odd, scattered black and gray hairs grew within his fur. Bleedy grew about twice as large as usual, and his mouth expanded and settled to comfortably fit the jaw.

When the transformation was done, Bleedy looked like a mixture of himself and some kind of wolf. It was incredible.

Charlie leaned in. “That is so cool!” he said.

Vetica tilted her head. “This new power of his could be really useful. We’ll need to collect more teeth for him in the future.”

“I am not carrying a bunch of nasty monster dentures inside my wagon! Absolutely not!” Merlin protested.

Bleedy turned to look at Charlie and lowered his head. Charlie crawled up to him and grabbed on. Bleedy lifted his head and threw Charlie onto his back. Charlie waved his hands around in the air. “Wow! This is really different! You’re taller now.”

Bleedy lifted his head toward the ceiling. “Bleoooh!” The strange noise sounded like his friend was trying to say Bleedy and howling at the same time.

Charlie giggled at the ridiculous sounding noise. Bleedy was still himself. But he had a cool new power now. If this was what the Monster Evolution ability was capable of, then Charlie was lucky to have it. He already wondered how it might affect the scalers. Maybe he could eventually even use it on Mousifer! That would be exciting.

A tendril slithered past Bleedy’s snout. Bleedy howl sneezed, and the teeth went flying out of his mouth.

Just as soon as they left his mouth, Bleedy shrunk back to his usual size. Charlie scrambled to hold on tight. “Wow! That was fun!” He looked up to see the salvia drenched dentures had landed on Merlin’s boots.

“I hate it here.” Merlin sighed.

Charlie smiled. He looked up toward Orb, who was still silently floating close to Koi Levi. Charlie frowned at that. He hoped his friend was okay. He had hoped Orb would snap out of the strange trance by now.

“Noble little one, now that you have experienced the powers of your evolution ability, we should discuss my own. We need to discuss what kind of form I should take. What kind of form would suit our needs best. But most importantly, we need to discuss rebuilding this dungeon,” Koi Levy said.

Charlie nodded. Maybe if he fixed the dungeon, or even just a part of it, Orb would go back to normal. Either way, they had work to do, and he already had an idea about how he could improve the dungeon to help him more in the future.

He needed to learn what Mousifer and Bleedy had discovered while scouting and find a way to increase his dungeon integrity. But one thing was for certain, with Koi Levy joining him and these news powers at his command, Charlie was stronger than ever.