As I activated my ability it gave me the feeling that I needed to pick a primary and secondary object. I chose the grass to be primary and crystal secondary. The chip of crystal began to crumble into a clear liquid and seep into the patch of grass. I felt a stream of mana going into the fusion. Slowly grass blades started to become more rigid and translucent. As the stream of mana stopped flowing and the ability stopped the grass also regained some of its flexibility and colour. In the end, the blades of grass looked like a grass stem encased in a semitranslucent green-tinted glass.
> Congratulations! The First Evolution in your Dungeon has happened!
> #Error# You cannot manage the Evolution Path. The Choice will be given to the creature.
>
> #Error# The Evolution has been initiated artificially. There is only one path.
> You have gained the Achievement {Evolutionary}
> Congratulations! The First Monster Core has been created in your Dungeon!
> #Error# The Dungeon does not have an Affinity. Using Creature Affinity as Main. Environmental Mana as Secondary.
> Your Dungeon creature (Unnamed) Tyegrass has evolved into Mana Grass(Plant)
> You have gained the Achievement {Monster Lair I}
> You have gained a level!
>
> Your class has gained a level!
As I was looking through the notifications I felt a slight pop. I looked at where I felt it to see a shimmering blue portal opening beside the entry rift. As Lily floated through it, a purple cube floated behind it. I noticed that the portal did not close behind them. "Should I put the package here?" I heard a gruff echoey voice call out. I identified the cube to see what it was.
> Koffer — Greater Sprite — ??
It slightly irritated me that I couldn't get any more information from identify still. Not hearing anything from Lily I turn towards her. She was frozen in place, even her wispy mist was not moving. "Ha! The dungeon must have been busy in your absence." Koffer said, chuckling.
That seems to have broken her out of the shock. "Yeah, some notifications were waiting for me to return. Sorry for spacing out on you. So what were you saying?" She asked with a slight embarrassment and what I thought might be irritation.
"No need to be embarrassed girl. It happened to a lot of us on our first few contracts. Now where should I put the package?"
"Oh! Just put it here." She said. The cube floats to the side of the rift and drags a big box out of his side. The box was at least three times as big as Koffer. After putting the box down the cube spun once and went through the blue portal. Behind him, the portal closed.
Excited to know about what was in the box I asked Lily about it. Lily sighed and said in a chiding tone "Just pick it up and take it to your core. First, we will talk about what you did while I wasn't around and look at what you got. Then, at last, we will see what is in the box." Seeing that her mood was not very good I picked up the box and transported it to the clearing where my core was. I took it above the treetops when flying it to the clearing as I didn't want to hit it on any trees and bushes.
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When I arrived with the box I saw that Lily was floating above the mana grass, observing it. "So this is the evolved creature. Really, it's a patch of grass with a Rare Class and a monster core... If someone had said that my first ever Dungeon would have grass as its first monster I would have laughed, but now that it's in front of me, it's... I don't know!" Then she went silent for a while. It seemed like she was having some issues, and I didn't know how to comfort someone, so I stayed silent and just watched. As she calmed down I asked her, "Want to look at what changed with the Evolution?"
She just bobbed up and down. I took that as an affirmative and opened its status.
> Name: (unnamed)
>
> Race: Mana Grass (plant)
>
> Subrace: Tyegrass
>
> Level: 6
>
> Health: 63%
>
> Mana: 100/170
>
> Mana Regen: 64/hr
>
> Traits: [open tab]
>
> Class: Symbiotic Hive (4)
>
> Skills: [open tab]
It had levelled up and its mana and mana Regen had grown considerably. I then opened the traits menu to see the changes. Immediately I saw that the photosynthesis had turned into a new Trait and had gained an additional trait.
> Traits—
>
> Dungeon Borne
>
> Arcanosynthesis
>
> Animated
>
> Hivemind
>
> Mana Collector
> Arcanosynthesis: Your body harnesses the power of ambient mana, drawing it from the environment to generate energy. This process not only sustains you but also regenerates some of your health. This can also use nutrients, air, water, light, etc, to become more efficient, but those are not strictly needed.
> Mana Collector: Absorb mana based on the difference in mana density between the environment and you. The greater the disparity between the ambient mana and your mana reserves, the faster and more efficiently you can draw in mana.
Not bad! The photosynthesis-type trait had lost its mana generation but for that, it gained a whole new trait. And what a trait it was! It even had a higher mana regen higher than me. "Can you pull up all of the descriptions?" Lily said. I obliged and pulled up the others. "Now pull the class-related things."
> 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.
> Abilities:
>
> Symbiotic Link: Establish a dynamic and mutually beneficial link with another entity. This link ensures that both entities support and enhance each other.
>
> Resource Exchange: Transfer nutrients and energy between linked beings to promote rapid recovery and growth.
>
> Shared Sense: Share sensory and perceptual information with linked allies.
"Did you forget the perks?" She said with a bit of confusion. I was a bit embarrassed that she was right. I had completely forgotten about the perks.
> Perks—
>
> Shared Fortitude: This allows members to distribute some of the damage taken to other members of the hive. This reduces the burden on any single member, enhancing the overall durability of the hive.
> Distributed Learning: Skills and knowledge acquired by any member of the hive are shared with all other members. This perk accelerates the learning process and ensures that the entire hive benefits from individual experiences and expertise. This may slow the process of skill growth. Physical touch is required.
So that's how the main patch was alive for long enough. It was distributing the damage to other plants. I looked around to how much it might have affected the other plants and saw that the overall health of the plants remained above 85%, which meant that the perk didn't transfer all of the damage, just a small part of it. I also noticed that the farther I looked, the lesser the damage, with the farthest damaged grass being about 1.5 meters from it.
I also told Lily about these observations and she hummed affirmative. I guessed that seeing those things had calmed her down finally. "So how did this happen?" She asked and I told her about my experiment with the growth crystal and the subsequent events that followed that.