Dungeon POV
I came up to the surface right in front of my core. I realised that I had not looked at my core. My core was a glowing crystalline orb with an amber liquid in a single glob and puffs of purple fog rolling in a semi-transparent silver liquid. Around it was an iridescent sheen. As I looked with my mana sense, my core became a prismatic, dense point of mana; many streams of multicoloured mana entered it, and many flowed out. Immediately I got a headache and turned my mana sense off.
After meditating for a bit to subside my headache. Coming out of my trance I looked around for Lily but couldn't find her. She might have gone away to the place beyond the portal. Not having anything else to do right now, I opened up my notifications.
> You have gained the following patterns—
>
> Water, Ice, Steam.
> You have levelled up.
> Your Skill list has been updated—
>
> Insight 10 > 14
>
> Identify 11 > 15
>
> Self-Discipline 12
>
> Meditation 25 >27
>
> Visualization 20 > 21
>
> Interface Modification 4 > 6
>
> Mana Sense 20 > 27
>
> Mana Manipulation 17 > 22
>
> Domain Manipulation 15
>
> Observe 17 > 18
>
> Inspiration 1 > 5
>
> Sculpting 1 > 8
>
> Earth Manipulation 1 > 11
Wow! A lot of progress! Almost all of my Skills leveled up and I gained three new ones. I then opened up my status panel.
> Name: (unnamed)
>
> Race: Dungeon Core
>
> Subrace: Dimensional Rift
>
> Level: 6
>
> Integrity: 89%
>
> Mana: 56/850
>
> Mana Regen: 80/hr (reserved: 5)
>
> Title: Soul Devourer
>
> Achievement: Ritual Spawn
>
> Class: Synthetic Nature level 5
>
> Theme: Forest, {Verdant Forest}*
>
> Gift: [open tab]
>
> Skills: [open tab]
My integrity was regenerating, but to me, it seemed slow. I looked around again to see if Lily had come back but she hadn't. To stave off boredom I started to mess around. I tried summoning the Crystalized Spell with the plant Growth spell. As I summoned it, a small chip of bright green crystal with darker spots fell onto the grass. I looked at my status to see how much mana it took and found that it took a whopping 15 mana for a small chip. But curiously it didn't seem to affect my Mana Regen. I started to look closely at the grass to see if the grass was growing faster. The grass near it started to grow at a faster rate, but suddenly it stopped growing. No, it didn't stop growing, it slowed down.
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To find the reason I looked closer with mana sense. I found that the chip was drawing mana in from the environment and turning it into an aura. That aura then gets absorbed by the plants near it. I also found the reason for the growth lagging a little. The grass was using its root network to spread the spell to the whole colony. As I watched the grass stopped spreading to the whole colony as the mana was losing its power before it went far. They started to use the power to grow the grass around the crystal full, and then the crystal was carried underground and moved slowly to their neighbours. I watched in amazement as the plants showed an unnerving intelligence. I inspected again and saw that now the grass was level 3. Along with that, I got a System message.
> Congratulations! Your first monster has met the requirements to gain a Class.
> #Error# You do not have the needed Ability to choose the Class for your monster. The choice will be left to it.
Then the message winked out and the grass started to shimmer. After some time, the shimmering subsided, and the grass looked brighter than before and had an ethereal quality to it. I pulled up its status to look at what changed.
> Name: (unnamed)
>
> Race: Tyegrass
>
> Level: 3
>
> Health: 100%
>
> Mana: 30/50
>
> Mana Regen: 2.65/hr
>
> Traits: [open tab]
>
> Class: Symbiotic Hive (1)
>
> Abilities: [open tab]
>
> Skills: [open tab]
> Skills—
>
> Flexibility 7
>
> Nutrient absorption 6
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> Detection 5
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> Mana Sense 4
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> Mana Circulation 3
> Traits—
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> Dungeon Borne
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> Photosynthesis
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> Animated
>
> Hivemind
That's an interesting class! I opened up its description to see what it was about.
> Class: Symbiotic Hive
>
> Description: The Symbiotic Hive class focuses on the collective strength and cooperation of its interconnected entities. This class harnesses the power of the hive mind, allowing for seamless communication, shared resources, and coordinated actions among its members. The Symbiotic Hive excels in teamwork and collective growth, ensuring that all members of the hive benefit from their mutual support and abilities.
Wow! Sounds like a great support class! Now let's see what abilities it has.
> Symbiotic Link
>
> - Description: Establish a dynamic and mutually beneficial link with another entity. This link ensures that both entities support and enhance each other.
> Resource Exchange
>
> - Description: Transfer nutrients and energy between linked beings to promote rapid recovery and growth.
> Shared Sense
>
> - Description: Share sensory and perceptual information with linked allies.
The abilities were pretty good. I closed the window to see how it affected the grass but I got another System notification.
> The seal on your rift has weakened. Now some creatures can enter your Dungeon.
Wait... What!? I had a seal on my rift? How did it weaken? I was confused. I moved my vision to the rift to see a small insect crawl through and fly off.
I tried to notice if the presence of the bug was affecting me. But found nothing, so I went back to the centre of the floor where my core was to continue my experiments. When I returned I saw a bunch of trees, bushes and vines crawling towards my core. They were pushing each other, trampling things. I suddenly got angry and shouted, " Clear a space around here! And start acting like a normal forest!" Along With my words, a wave of mana burst out of my core.
Immediately the plants backed up and went away. The whole forest moved. Acting as if kids were found with their hands in the cookie jar. Whatever! I noticed that the grass was still slowly moving towards my core, but from the feeling I got from it, it wanted to give me something. I lowered my core to be closer to the grass and the grass touched my core. Immediately, I felt something trying to connect with me. I knew I could tell it no, but I didn't, as it was my creature that initiated this.
> A tyrgrass (Symbiotic Hive) has tried to form and Symbiotic link with you. Do you wish for the link to form? Y/N?
I chose the yes and immediately I found that I could feel all of the floor's grass. In the back of my mind, there was a feeling of something else. As I tried to feel it out it gave me a feeling of confusion and 'hunger?', it was weird. But some part of me translated that feeling to the want of mana. I was a bit surprised by that. To see what would happen, I gave it some mana.
Immediately I felt the thing in my mind wail in pain. I saw the root of grass touching my core warp and burn as more mana than it could handle was channelled through it. The grass around it started to siphon the mana to its neighbours, but its speed wasn't enough. It was starting to wilt.
I was also assaulted with the pleas of the hivemind to save the patch of grass. I was confused at that as the hivemind should be fine even if this patch of grass died. But it told me a thing I hadn't noticed, only this patch of grass had gained the Class. Oh shit!
From what I was seeing, to save the grass I had to make it more mana conductive. I had an idea! I summoned a piece of the spell crystal without putting a spell in it. As the transparent piece of crystal fell on the grass I activated my Fusion ability for the first time.