The only real shame in this situation is that the tag Thing managed to leave in Aurora Hephaestus rapidly dwindled to nothing a short while after he flew off. Not from the heat, but just a lack of proximity to the dungeon’s limited domain. But he figures it worked out well enough, as the bandwidth required to keep connected to that steamed duck would be too taxing for Thing to maintain… for now.

Growth for dungeon mobs is a strange thing, and stranger still for his scions. This is most especially true when annoyed at how difficult it was keeping a working perimeter with the flying heat passively frying her tiny scouts, Gnat put in a request. Since their Patron was supposedly honor bound to protect them while they were engaged in this ritual, she wanted to be evolved into some bigger.

As he learned, evolving a gnat, or at least Gnat, into a mosquito is something he can do. So, with a slight flexing of power, which is becoming clearer as time goes on, there was a shimmer of light and Mana and then Gnat expanded massively.

Now, he initially expected that she would then go on to create a colony of mosquitoes to act as her scouting force, as morose as she had been before about her gnats dying out so easily. Yet, it turns out, just being in a stronger form allowed her to channel more Mana and Mako through her swarm and amplify their tolerances significantly. She takes this exploration a step further by coordinating her swarm to pick up the randomly jumping fleas and then carrying them closer to the phoenix until the flea pops.

Somehow, she’s siphoning off some of their vitality into strengthening her gnats further, even her newly spawned ones. Her expanded size and Mana capacity greatly expanded the number of gnats she can command at once. More significant than that however, is the added control and greater sophistication she can employ with them. Yet, the impression that she sends, even while experimenting, is that her favorite aspect is being large enough to comfortably carry his heart once again.

Another advancement she asks for does revolve around the heat resistance training she did before his Patron flew off. She pushes the dungeon core to explore the heat resistance as a disease unto itself. After seeing how effective just pure heat can be at killing things, infusing her swarm with both heat resistance and a boiling plague would be quite the combo. He goes along with it, reasoning that their working relationship with Aurora Hephaestus would be better served by not making moves against him.

Guided Evolution is certainly able to assist, though without all the groundwork that Thing did, pioneering as much as their adaptive infection could by just enduring the phoenix’s natural state, it wouldn’t have been feasible. Even with that the Mana cost grows significantly with even slight changes in temperature elevation, it can be done if barely. But as previous work has shown, power being used in combat and life has the potential to improve at a rapid pace.

Of course, now that Gnat is a mosquito, and a larger, shinier, bluer one at that, he decides that creating a mosquito swarm would be a good idea, for cover if nothing else. But also, because if this trick works for mice, they might also be able to start working on the birds. Because so far, the birds have mostly ignored the heart and Thing while they’ve been travelling, but their eating of the gnats and trying to attack Gnat herself has been a regular issue.

Now that she can realistically fight back however, stabbing into an arrogant bird looking for a shiny meal and converting the vacuum of blood into a cloud of biting gnats was surprising therapeutic to witness firsthand.

This spring ends up becoming quite the comfortable base. His heart arranged as an accent piece to a very small waterfall, serving as a very minor obfuscation. While Gnat and Thing work on some aesthetics that seem rather important to them. Though, while the two of them are more distracted by their own projects of expanding and training the horde or the refining of attempts to acquire a new mob. He has been caught up in something else.

He can now comfortably determine Thing and Gnat from each other, and from the other mob types he has spawned within a sort of abstract soul space. He works on feeling each of his muscles in isolation and how flexing, relaxing and concentrating on a particular one translates into action. More significant than that though, is he’s learned how to shift which muscle his mobs resonate with in his mind. Taking the time to shift Gnat from what originally felt like a bicep, into the image of his right hand while mirroring Thing to his left from what felt like abdominals.

He can’t be sure, but reasons that if how he imagines them has an impact on their development, then it would be best to have his first scions, and his first {Named} each having the intricate manipulation of a hand. As opposed to the more visceral sensation of power from the abs or an arm and should lead away from brute force being a focus. Because after his reactions to being spoken down to a couple of times, he’s really rather concerned about what being a Dungeon of Disease could actually mean if he doesn’t discipline his emotions and responses.

There’s also been this nagging sensation in the back of his head. One that has only been increasing in frequency and intensity, though slowly but noticeably ever since they made this spring into their home. He really sinks into the feeling one day, trying to chase after it, and makes what feels like some real progress in at least being able to focus on it when he gets an excited exclamation from Thing and the background hum of a familiar chime.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Scion “Thing” used Assimilate Territory to acquire a New Creature! {Mouse} added to Template Library.

He snaps out of his meditation and opens himself back up to his scions’ perceptions again. Gnat has her vision thoroughly filling the area and her impressions of pride and happiness for her fellow scion are clear. Thing’s view has been very narrowly focused onto the mouse they have been sitting on and as his attention shifts towards it, he sees the moment of change.

With Thing’s sight fully saturating the mouse’s body and the convulsion of Mako and Mana begins within her, they both watch with wonder as a Mana Heart is formed and ignited within the small creature. As the heart begins pumping fresh power throughout her form, Thing’s sight begins quickly expanding beyond their body once more. They synch up with the idling swarm of gnats that have been made subordinate to them, while being simultaneously flushed out of the system of the new convert.

The link to the new creature is strong and powerful, and while he feels how heavy the weight of the action will be, he feels like this moment, this creature deserves more, “Thing, I do believe you’ve found the Cutest of them all to bring into the family.”

Sparkling Scion manually activated. {Mouse} chosen.

Name accepted by Scion “Cutest.” Soul imprinted onto |Disease Dungeon, Thermal Spring Mountain|.

Scion “Cutest” accumulated enough Mana to evolve! Choose a path.

“You know. It’s strange that Gnat hasn’t really gotten an evolution option, though maybe the shift from gnat to mosquito counts?” Gnat pushes a complicated sense of instincts and desires that makes sense to her but is utterly incomprehensible to the dungeon, “Well, so long as your happy, Gnat. Back to business though, could I get a list of paths, please?”

* Based on Mana accumulation, Soul statistics, Achievements, {Theme}, {Affinity}, and your active Patron. Five Scion evolutions are available.

* Spark-flint Mouse

* Pustule Rat

* Miasmouse

* Bleeding-fur Rat

* Brood Mouse

*Choose evolution path.

He notices that there is a more comprehensive understanding about the options for him this time. While he certainly has preferences both for and very much against, he feels it more appropriate not to make the decision himself, “Cutest. I want you to take your time going through the options and pick your favorite, okay? Don’t worry about what I think, this is going to be who you are, so pick what feels right.”

There is a rapid catalogue of emotions that filters through the bond between them from the more physiologically complex new creature before she settles down and directs her focus onto the list. He can tell that at first glance, Cutest would have originally picked one of the options right away, though not which one. Yet, because he told her to take her time, he can almost hear her thoughts as she goes through some of the deeper information about each of them.

She easily discards one of the options, passes on a second, hesitantly pushes away a third, until she’s left with two and seems stuck. “It’s okay. We’re in no rush here. Take your time imagining what being either of them would mean, and then try and push it further. The prompt called this a path, so I’d guess that both could get stronger in whatever aspect they embody. Plus, there are likely to be more options at the next stage to build off what came before.”

She thinks about it more and then has a brief conversation with her fellow scions. She takes a moment afterward and there’s a sense of disappointment mixed with some bittersweet resolve before she projects her choice to him, “Brood Mouse? Are you sure, you seem like you’re already missing the other option now. Which was it?”

She sends the core memories and instinct of a creature knowing what Lair they live in, and the expectations of what that could mean. She tells him with sensation and feeling how the Spark-flint Mouse was something that a creature from here ‘should’ choose, and she favored it initially. But after spending more time and learning more about the options and also conversing with her siblings, she feels like she could be more fulfilled and better synchronized with her new home as a Brood Mouse.

He gives her another few moments to change her mind while she digs out a not so little burrow near his heart. Once she’s done and he feels just resolve, acceptance and anticipation from her, he initializes the process and the flood of Mana and Mako starts to infuse her.

His Patron appears while the process is underway for another session with Thing, “{Finally succeed at taking a mouse, did you? I suppose that means you’ll be completing our agreement any moment now.}” The overcooked pelican chortles at his own joke while the dungeon notes that the backdrop of his voice has changed, grown deeper, rougher but also somehow less chaotic.

“You obviously don’t like my presence, so what is it you get out of being my Patron that makes it worth being around me?”

His beak sharply focuses on the dungeon’s position as the question is asked before he turns away and continues his bathing and basking routine.

With Thing’s full focus and concentration, they manage to finally grasp how large a project this will be and how much further they will need to advance to even have the chance to succeed. The dungeon has better adapted to the way Thing perceives the world; he is able to feel how the blood in Aurora Hephaestus’s body flows. How the heart beats with steady but intense pulses and the speed and power that races that fluid through its form.

Most worrisome for actually completing their objective though is how with Thing’s senses as a guide, their infection is able to spread through parts of the body, but not all. The heart, for instance, can only be seen in flashes, echoes, as its destruction force is greater than the infection can endure directly. There are also several other organs in the body that similarly annihilate their sight and are only known based off the voids represented in the phoenix’s model.

All those issues pale before the challenge of the feathers though. Because during the initial session’s achievement, where managing to get anything to endure the harsh environment, even while he was cloaked was huge. The feathers are so much worse than that. Even while fully submerged, anytime a cluster of sight flows down the capillaries to the feathers themselves, poof, gone. If not for the outer coating that gets periodically burned off, Thing wouldn’t even know that the bird’s body had any feathers, such is the chasm at the edge of his flesh.