Will looked down at the slimy crawling creature on the floor that Theodore had dragged from one of the deeper depths of the mine.
Seemingly infinite legs and body segments with two long antenna and vicious-looking pincers. It crawled endlessly looking for smaller insects to devour and even though Theodore had brought it in with it clenched in his teeth. The shell was still relatively unharmed.
“So, what is the plan for this slimy creature? You told me to help you come up with the finalized designs but i don’t know what you would want with this infernal abomination.”
Will, however, looked at the terrifying insect with curiosity and pleasure. “I’m gonna put a bottle on its butt.”
“A bottle?” Theodore asked incredulously.
“Yep.” Will nodded in the affirmative.
“But why?” Theodore asked, trying to gain some semblance of sense from this.
“Why not? They’re long as heck, they don’t seem to need over 60% of those legs. Why not add something else on?” Will responded curtly.
“I… Just…. A bottle?” Theodore asked dumbfounded.
Will slowly went into that space they had begun knowing so well. The river of mana flowing down an endless bank. Grasping some of it in their mind, they began to create form.
A centipede, an exact copy of the original was made in the middle of the room, unmoving.
“Good Majesty, I’m unsure if this worked. It isn’t uhm… moving.”
Will perked up, “Yeah, it’s not alive, you thought I’d just poof and then a new creature comes into existence? If only it was that easy.”
Will leaned in close, eyeing the tail end of the never-living creature. Will concentrated exceptionally hard and a sharp pain ran through their conscious thought causing them to double over. “AGH!”
“What happened?” Theodore rushed over to hold their friends back.
“It,” gasp, “seems that I…” gasp, “still don’t have much control using magic that’s not being actively wished for.
“I’m sorry to hear that chum, I wish you had more control,” Theodore said, not thinking about his words.
A red cocoon sprang to life around Will as they let out a terrified scream, “What’s happening?!”
Theodore clawed at the cocoon; his once sharp talons now filed down. Just as the Opossum was ready to give up the last vestiges of hope; the cocoon dropped.
Will was there, same axolotl face and thin spindly arms. However, Theodore looked down at the centipede, where they only saw a similar red cocoon around the tail end prior, the parts it was surrounding were just gone. The creature was now… Not as complete.
“Huh,” Will said, waving their hand and the centipede was restored to its pristine unliving state.
“I… Did my wish actually work?” Theodore asked in astonishment.
“I suppose so, thanks for meaning it I guess.” Will nodded at their friend who silently blushed and looked away.
Returning to the problem of the centipede Will looked at the creature's internal structure. How it caught and processed food inside of its body, how nutrients were used in general. Overall the design of the tiny creature wasn’t very efficient, it’s body was over-large and many of its systems redundant.
“I mean, it’s certainly a great predator but… I don’t need these to live outside the dungeon. Not yet anyway…” Will pondered, redirecting veins and stomach contents. Changing the opacity of the beast's carapace.
Now, on the end of the frightening insect’s behind stood a plastic-like nipple connected to a facsimile of a baby-bottle.
“Alright, phase one complete,” Will announced triumphantly.
“Phase one? I mean, you are correct you did indeed combine a bottle with an insect… but why?” Theodore asked.
“Good… question.” Will thought, pondering the use of bottles and dug back into the insectoid’s guts.
This would take a complete rearrangement of its internal squishy bits and Will knew it. After realigning everything needed for basic life Will decided to have some fun with this newly functional system.
Running energy through their form they zapped the centipede for merely half a second, only to see how the muscles would respond. The mandibles clacked, the feelers spasmed. But the legs were unable to make the beast jerk forward.
Creating larger, thicker, and less numerous legs around the bottle-like protrusion at the end Will tried again, and the beast indeed lurched its whole body forward at least a third of an inch. Then came the next problem, what to do about a bottle that was empty.
After voicing these concerns Theodore asked a very interesting question, “Why not just make it produce milk?”
That… Was an interesting Idea. Going back to the pile of books brought by Jerome on his last visit, Will delved into the medical and veterinary sections. After absorbing the knowledge of basic mammary glands Will took to remodeling the flower-like structures.
Making them fold first sideways to look more like a large D than a circle, the genie then tried to figure out a way to implant them inside of a non-vertebrate. This challenge was nearly impossible as the two creatures had such differing genetic and bodily structures that the grafting simply did not hold.
Then, an astounding Idea came to Will. Why did it have to be human? Bovine and other animals were farmed for milk, sometimes to excess in this world's past…
After yet more work, and ultimately deciding that these creatures likely would not live long; Will simply increased their spawn rate, no longer would these long bugs of terror be predators. After that, it was a matter of dulling the mandibles and teeth along with other things.
Until, yet again the inability of combination between the two species made itself known.
***
Deep inside of Will’s consciousness, across the river of Dungeon mana a second branch bloomed and fruit began to grow. The flowers were a vibrant blue-green and the budding fruit appeared different than the first.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Parts of the fruit were spikey like a pineapple, others more round and protected by a thin peel of an apple. The inside would be segmented like citrus fruit.
***
Green mana flowed forth from the red genie.
“AAAH WHAT’S HAPPENING?!” Will cried in confusion as Theodore ran up to them again.
“I don’t… Whoa, look at that.” Theodore responded.
Will looked down at the bottle-insect on the table. The clear round cylinder was slowly filling up with milk… But how, the beast wasn’t even alive yet.
Leaning down Will felt a small pulse from the creature. Yet no animate will…
“Is it… Alive?” Theodore asked.
“Yes and no?” Will responded.
“Huh?” Theodore asked.
“Only its hind-brain or medulla oblongata seems to be functioning. It makes organs go in the fleshy folks without them thinking about it. How annoying would it be if they had to think about breathing every time they breathed?” Will mumbled as they watched the moving creature with rapt attention.
Slowly the bottle finished filling, slow drips came out of the end of the insect but nothing else, the bottle held.
“Alright… so what are you going to be using these nightmare-fuel buggers for?” Theodore asked and Will merely responded with a grin.
They reabsorbed the entire beast with their death magic; gaining a full understanding of the insect's entire body and being able to recreate it.
Moving on to the next beastie Will wanted a crack at they spawned a lobster on the staging table. Unmoving and never-alive the blueish crustacean was larger than most varients, differing greatly in size and color from the kinds in the reference books.
“What in the...?” Will mumbled, unsure how their power produced a non-standard version of the creature.
“Hm, this reminds me of my long lost cousin Vandfield. She was born with white fur and red eyes even though none of the others in the litter were.” Theodore thought aloud.
Mutation…
“Huh? What was that?” Will said but Theodore merely looked confused.
Evolution… Growth…
“Who’s there?” Will asked to the seemingly empty room. The toys which came with them were currently deeper in, designing their village. Theodore turned to where the sound was coming from, finally hearing it after Will had included them in their mana-senses.
Moving forward… Betterment… FAILURE!
Will saw the small thread blue-green mana as it shouted. The tiny spec of flowing power was slowly drifting down to the ground from their very own lamp. The thread seemed young, Will knew what this was like, Will had been in this exact same spot before.
“Is that your values? What you enjoy? Hm, I suppose failure is a positive concept, it teaches far better than success.” Theodore looked closely at the thread as it flitted to face him.
Innovation…
“I uhm, don’t think this one speaks much yet. But I’m pretty sure it said yes.” Will replied.
The small green thread flew over the Blue lobster, circling its claws and form.
“Did you do this?” Will asked, considering the babble of the tiny mana-being.
Betterment!
Will let out a sigh, “Why am I decently sure this is your fault?” Will asked the fancy Opossum.
Theodore shrugged, “Hey, I just said I wished you had better control, I don’t know how this tiny pile of energy came out.”
Will sighed and returned to the lobster, looking for areas to improve on. After multiple tests, Will discovered a major interesting find.
“Hey Theo, watch this!” Will said as the Opossum looked back from his running game of Q-Bert.
Will pushed liquid-water mana through the claw of the unliving lobster. The tips of the claws crackled and a spray of water shot out of the bend of the claw, splashing Theodore with its weak force.
“OH COME ON?!” The opossum yelled as he walked to the wardrobe at the back of the room.
“Don’t you see? These didn’t get improved, they’re the same claws!” Will said excitedly, “This was always an evolutionary option for these creatures! With just a bit of tampering…”
EVOLUTION!!!
The green thread hopped up and down in place as Will slowly funneled their red mana into the claws. Instead of shooting it out, the exoskeleton greedily ate up the creation mana. The claws grew thicker, larger, while the rest of the body didn’t change too much. A slow steady flow of green mana separating from Will’s red began to be absorbed by the left claw.
The right claw slowly grew to a larger size than the left. Will pushed the water-liquid mana through the claw once again, aiming it at the wall.
A stream of compressed water so powerful it carved a crevice in the wall shot out. Theodore let out a long whistle at the show. “Glad you didn’t hit me with that one.”
Will laughed. “Yeah, same here, let’s try the other one.
Will pushed the mana into the smaller claw, energy bounced between the claw tips over and over but nothing came out of the smaller appendage. Right before giving up Will had a strange feeling, like something in the back of their mind.
Without canceling the power to the small claw, Will pushed another string of water-liquid mana into the larger one.
The effect was immediate. Instead of a single pressurized stream, the massive claw slowly created a massive orb of water in front of it. The orb got bigger and bigger but nothing happened, looking over at Theodore again, Will had a pleading and confused look.
The opossum shrugged after putting on a facsimile of an early 1900s suit, “Try throwing it?”
Will did just that, pulling the claw back with their mana they flung it forward and the massive ball loosed itself, creating a massive flood in the room. Only Theodore’s quick thinking saved the antique electronics from a watery demise.
“WHAT WAS THAT?!” Theodore yelled with a wood-paneled console above his head.
“I… I think we might want to keep that upgrade back a while. Don’t you?” Will mumbled to themself while the green thread giddily bounced up and down on the ground.
***
Later that night the thread of green mana slowly flew out of the opening of the Barthel mines. It hummed to itself it’s new mantra after meeting its progenitor.
Think… try… fail...repeat… evolve...live...grow…
The thread of mana was slowly pulled to the greener areas of the floating mountain. Into the forest, it went, to think, try, fail, and repeat as many times as it would take to make its true goal; evolutionary improvement.
***
Half of the Emeria siblings sat in the waiting room of Saint John’s cancer wing.
It had only been two days since Ned and Ayana had been visited by the silver-haired woman. Ned leaned back, taking a deep breath with his newly cancer-free lungs. The struggle was gone and although Ned was sore all over, even in his own lungs, he wouldn’t trade that feeling for anything… except for his sister.
Ayana lay in a specially made mana-bed next to Ned. She would be transferred to the Johns Hopkins cancer recovery wing in the morning.
Ned had taken well to the treatment, his recovery was going much faster than normal. Meanwhile, the brain cancer his sister had been suffering from was in its last stage. Had the silver-haired woman not shown… it had only been a matter of days if not hours the doctors had given his sister.
“Don't you worry sis, I’ll be right there when they wheel you in.” ned said to his medically induced sleeping sister. “You’ll be able to see all our old friends too…”
He bit his lip and choked back tears as nurses walked past him checking on the other recovering patients. “The news, right before you got the treatment… They said a genie is real, that it grants wishes. I’m going to find that genie… I’m going to make you better myself with my own hands and hard work.”
Ned patted the glass covering of the mana bed, looking at his sisters sleeping peaceful expression, only the rise and fall of her chest clued the young man of her life. “I might be gone for a few days, I don’t know how long it’ll take to beat the challenges… Or if I can retry if I fail. I’ll be thinking of everyone as I do though. You and Dad and the rest. You know I don’t believe in a god like you two, so if I pray for a little help from you don’t be too surprised.”
Ned laughed weakly to himself, then looked at the pod with a cold determination as the nurses came to take his sister to recovery.
“For the first time in our lives… I’ll be the one who saves us.”