Doyle waits for Moota to finalize the blessing before asking, ‘So, what is a bloodline?’
Ally speaks up at this point. “You actually have a monster with a bloodline already, the grassen goat. Remember how the description for it mentioned the herb being strong and the goat being just as strong? They both were at the level of creating a bloodline, though don’t think that means you now have two bloodlines.”
Moota nods, “A bloodline at the most basic level is the legacy of a being so powerful it wrote its existence into the very fabric of reality to the extent it can even go beyond the bounds of any one universe. Like, not even all true immortals have a bloodline, though not all bloodlines come from true immortals.
“By choosing the bloodline buff over the twin buff I went with quality over quantity. Even just a single bloodline coming about within the next million years would make it worth it. Though since the buff was far enough up the list to be on the first page, I doubt I will have to wait that long. Definitely not with the people in your town.”
Doyle tilts to the side, ‘So does a bloodline just make the bearer more powerful? I can understand that it flows from a source, but what does it do?’
Ally laughs, “It would be nice if a bloodline automatically made a being powerful. But you’ve seen the stats of your grassen goats. A bloodline does not inherently grant power. In fact, because of the random chance needed for a bloodline source to come about, the starting point could be absolute garbage.”
Doyle dims, ‘Then what is the point? I highly doubt that having a bloodline gives a direct shot at power equal to the source.’
Moota sighs, “That is very much the truth. The key behind bloodlines is that it opens up a being’s potential. Like, for me this is important because part of an unlocked potential is the bloodline holder has much laxer requirements to gain sapience. In fact, out in the wild for a bloodline holder to survive it is basically assured that they will gain sapience before adulthood.
“This, of course, isn’t quite the case for livestock and such as the people caring for them does just that. A cow with a bloodline is basically just a walking natural treasure for other animals and monsters. They won’t gain a bloodline for eating it, but they will gain a boost to their abilities for it.”
Ally sighs, “Wolf’s Rest is going to have a fun time once they do get a bloodline cow. Though they should be up for it.”
Doyle nods, ‘Interesting, but once again, what does a bloodline do? Unlocked potential sounds nice but it doesn’t really explain anything.’
Ally pulls up a picture of a butterfly and a myconid sprout. “For that, we have to delve into magical evolution. Though it isn’t strictly magical, just a lot easier with magic. Butterflies and other similar things being an example of creatures capable of it without an outside force. From caterpillar to pupa to butterfly, you have a natural example of metamorphoses.
“Because without magic, that is about the limit of it and to do so, the caterpillar has to sew itself into a bag and liquify most of its body. Otherwise, evolution takes the much slower process that your world was familiar with. Though magic can screw that up as well.
“Still, people like to just call it evolution and so to separate it from the slower version someone at some point slapped the word magic on the front. Nevermind the fact that it isn’t just magic that can do it. If anything, qi is more common, even if it does mostly result in the classic dire animal. But at this point I’m just ranting over technical terms.”
Moota smiles, “A popular debate for anyone that studies monsters. Anyway, she brought up a picture of a myconid because I assume you already have them and have had them evolve. From sprout to lesser and so on. While not the most popular example, they are a classic as you get the things anywhere you have mushrooms and a high concentration of mystical energy floating around.
“Going by how Ally is gesturing at me I will assume you only have sprouts and lesser myconids. That change, however, is enough to show the important details of magical evolution. That of the potential for radical change beyond what is possible through normal growth. Specifically, from sprout to lesser a myconid gains a pair of arms.
“Your world has frogiods so this might not seem so strange. But their life cycle is just a matter of growing up. While the system does recognize it by changing their names and such, it isn’t actually evolution. A myconid sprout, on the other hand, does not naturally become a lesser myconid with age.”
Confused, Doyle interrupts, ‘But all I did to get a lesser myconid was allow them to age?’
Moota shrugs, “You’re a dungeon. With a simple effort of will, you can create monsters that would take chance encounters to develop. Part of the nature of dungeons is that the monsters aren’t quite following the rules. While myconids don’t advance just through age, the condition to advance mostly revolves around power density.”
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Doyle nods, ‘Okay, that makes some sense. But what about my assassin vines? I did have to use some strange dungeon stone to speed up the time, but it became an elder assassin vine.’
Moota frowns for a second before smiling, “I’m not certain, but I think I might know the answer. Plants are generally more capable of evolving with just time, though that generally involves massive periods of time. I doubt you are capable of speeding up time that much. Instead, what happened was your method likely touched on some core mechanic of time and once exposed your plants were able to advance early.”
Ally tilts her head to the side, “Huh, that would make sense. I guess I didn’t really consider the time frame that plants normally need when I learned about his elder assassin vines. Living in the fae wilds can warp one’s sense of time. Though to say the strange dungeon stone touched on concepts of time is stretching it.”
Moota scoffs, “I didn’t say concepts of time. It just touches on the mechanics of time. Likely because this world had a fairly robust background in science and even if Doyle didn’t focus on studying it, he should have a bunch of random related trivia. Just a few simple facts can do wonders for a dungeon. Like, most limits on what a dungeon can do is related to power and a better understanding will reduce the cost.”
Doyle sighs, ‘That does seem to be the caveat for most things I can do. No limits but I need to understand it to a silly degree for it to be affordable.’
Moota rolls her eyes, “Because being able to create things better than a crafting god and still complaining about the few limits you do have. Though more seriously, you’re a bit of a cheat. You benefited from a science heavy civilizations education system and then became a newborn dungeon.
“Most beings who manage to get turned into a dungeon core have been around for quite a long while already. Under our system that translates into a high level and those high levels translate into a more rigid dungeon. Nevermind how their pre-existing paths likely aren’t going to fit with being a core.
“You, on the other hand, get to start fresh. Your skill slots were even empty, which is basically impossible. To get something like that would require changing a child young enough that not only would it be very morally objectionable, but also lose out on any benefit of turning a person into a dungeon core. That young and the new bodies instincts would take over.
“We can look at you for an example of this. You constantly shift your core around like it was your head. A natural dungeon core will stay absolutely still at a steady glow. Because of your human origins though, you can’t help but move it around to show your attention. Nevermind that besides Ally and me, anyone else you talk to will likely be entirely through telepathy of some sort.”
Ally frowns, “That would explain why I hadn’t heard of other dungeons doing it. I had thought it just wasn’t one of those things generally observed. But we’ve gotten a bit off track there.
“Myconid sprouts will never gain arms with just time and even once all the conditions for one to turn into a lesser myconid are met, that doesn’t automatically happen. Evolution in the wild is still somewhat of a mystery. I’m sure someone has it all figured out, but whoever that is, isn’t sharing. Even with farmed monsters where the specific conditions for certain evolutions have been nailed down there can be variance.”
Moota nods, “Right, back on my homeworld they tried very hard to make lightning strike twice and get another alchemy cow before I became a goddess. They just couldn’t manage it even after spending an insane amount of resources to scry my past. Once they couldn’t replicate what brought me about, the worship really kicked into overdrive.
“Anyway, a bloodline shortcuts all that mess. It doesn’t remove all the conditions to allow for an evolution. However, it does randomly cut the requirements based on the evolutionary path the source had taken. So say there was a monster that needed to eat a literal ton of iron ore to evolve into a metal variant. With a proper bloodline, they might have the amount needed to evolve halved.
“Not only that, but these reduced requirements don’t just count towards an evolution the bloodline’s source had gone through. Any evolution that monster might have available that needs to eat iron ore would have the required amount reduced as well. With that, a bloodline is basically the ultimate cheat when it comes to monster evolutions. Especially with how some requirements are near universal and so a lucky bloodline holder that hits one gets an easy path forward.”
Ally gestures toward the myconid sprout picture, “With that in mind let’s look at the myconids again. One of their requirements is that the power density in the air is high enough. That sort of requirement is near universal at the higher ends and so a myconid with a bloodline is almost certain to have that requirement reduced. Quite the powerful bonus already, but there is one more thing a bloodline can do.
“A being capable of spawning a bloodline will be a pinnacle of its species. Even if it started out as a normal animal, their very nature can warp their past to a certain degree. Not actually changing it of course, but warping the present’s perception of it. This can ripple outward to the various bloodline holders, creating paragons among the bloodline holders’ children.
“While a creature with a bloodline might not be any stronger than any other creature of the same species, paragons are a different story. Not that a paragon is actually system recognized. Paragons are basically as if a creature in an rpg rolled max for one of their stats. Their ability isn’t supernatural, but rather just peak performance for that species.”
Doyle nods, ‘that makes a lot more sense now. I’m going to guess that not only would bloodline cows be more likely to develop sapience, but any cattle that were paragons of the mind would as well. Going by how animals gaining sapience has been talked about, this is potentially the shortcut to end all shortcuts.
‘Every one of the three desired blessings had the goal of getting that first sapient cow. Don’t think I didn’t notice the priest blessing. After all, how can something be a priest if they aren’t sapient? Or in other words, by being allowed to assign a priest, you get to select a cow to gain sapience. Just how valuable is a sapient cow?’