I blinked and then got even more confused. How was I blinking?

Space/Time has been limited due to Imperia Mandate. Dungeon contains self-designation...Elyria. These words seemed to be burned into my sight as I shifted around my dungeon trying to find their source, but everything within my halls had turned to a strange washed out gray. All besides the pool of liquid mana beneath my core.

Exotic Circumstances found...

Titles gained: Imperia Origin, Mana Leech, and Born of Words. I could feel a series of odd things settle into place within my core, and could visually see strands of energy entering my core that I didn't recognize. Though I had an instant of understanding once the odd gears settled. That strange word that I found myself telling my daughter was some kind of key to unlocking her potential as a sentient race, and I couldn't use it but she could. Now there were consequences, and the powers that governed it all was coming to speak to me. At least in a sense.

Due to the presence of titles and achievements no penalties are imposed...

Due to the founding of an Imperia bloodline all further living creations will follow the existing blueprint...

Altering existing creations... Pain was not something I had felt strongly before, but now I understood what it must be like. I was frozen in place while a steady whirl of odd, colorless energies swirled into my core. I could feel the changes, the pattern being imposed to my creations. Each had become something called a "Spirit" or "Lesser Elemental" which seemed to make them more mana than flesh. New abilities grew from them, but also a greater limitation. My experiment room wasn't spared and I could feel the tight web of crystal mana shift, and knew that the slowly forming life was now forever changed.

Adding blacklist... For a blink I couldn't remember what was going on. Then, the pain returned to me with a vengeance, and yet I felt like I lost something vital. I felt the blinding rage rising within me.

Changes complete...

Incomplete unique Imperia found... I could feel it shifting it's full attention onto my experiment room, and I attacked the energy whirl below my core with every bit of anger I could muster. The desire to consume, to destroy my prison, for freedom flowed out of me like the primal scream I released. Yet the energy wasn't moved, and not a particle of it was pushed back or consumed.

Pattern Analyzed... Solution found... Zone Space/Time Locked... Then I couldn't see or think. All went gray.

System Overwrite of creation engaged...Time until birth: 12 Days 00 Hours 00 Minutes.

System disengaging... Releasing Lock Outs.

------

I awoke and felt like something was off, but couldn't put my mana tendrils on it. My creations still moved around the dungeon in a simile of life outside my domain. Their elemental alignment as Elementals clear by the markings on their shells, skin, bark, etc. I was even happy to note the different elements of the ant colonies since they would provide better care of the castle and maze. I was actually quite pleased with the castle itself since it was hard to make underground and then move it onto the surface the way I did. Since I could make things above ground fairly easily, but I wanted the spectacle for those attackers, so I had built the whole construct below ground before shifting the rock to easily fall away as it rose into the air. Then I had made a plate of solid granite below the structure before moving it up with the force of steam generated from water and fire mana interacting wilding. I had learned about it moving metal tubes around in my books, and thought it should work here as well.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

As my perceptions flooded back into the dungeon, I had to stop and wonder why I had been sleeping. And why my perceptions had been retracted as much as they were. I was only present my core room for some reason, and yet I couldn't remember why I had done either. I mentally shrugged and went to check on the experiment room, I was a bit worried that by not being in this room that my grand experiment would have failed. Yet, the room looked better than I remembered it looking. The dancing mana seemed to almost form shapes in the air as it curled into the collection of materials within the crystal matrix in the center. Since I could impose my Will and Intent on mana and caused it to do certain things. I used my knowledge of Pyra's birth to create a series of effects that would slowly perform the same actions. I wanted to be able to adjust or change things during the process to experiment on what was possible. Until they were born it would be a way to ensure they were in the best possible condition I could give them, and maybe I could figure out how to make my Instincts see them as just another dungeon entity as well as leave the domain without consequences.

While everything seemed to be going well. I didn't remember the mana flowing in those patterns before. They were similar to some found within humans and beastkin but distinct as well. Perhaps it was an error in how my Will and Intent were translating into the running magic. So I tried to poke at the matrix with a few mana tendrils, and found a solid wall of force preventing me. A brief feeling of confusion passed before I just started to examine the field. It seemed to be preventing alterations to the ongoing magic or the base materials of the matrix. My instincts told me this was to be expected and it was something I would have to plan or adjust for the next of my children. And that thought made me pause again, and that feeling that something was off came back. Were my instincts more...aware perhaps? Usually it was just a feeling of something in the back of my thoughts, but this time it felt like it was giving advice.

A shudder ran through my mind and physically through my core, and so I reached out for Pyra to look through her eyes again. This all started when something odd had happened in the town. But, I couldn't connect to her. Likely she is unconscious or asleep which would make it hard to see through her eyes, my instincts seemed to say. I nodded in agreement and then froze. They were clearly more solid than they had been before, and something about that made me very unsettled.

For exhibiting a high level of self-awareness you have gained the following:

Title: Thoughtful

Domain Size: +20%

The words seemed to float in my mind, and I could feel that there were a lot more I could see if I said a word.

"Status" I vibrated from my core, and my mana seemed to freeze.

Name: Elyria Race: Genesis Core Age: 8 Months Rank: E-5

Titles: Imperia Origin Mana Leech Born of Words Thoughtful Achievements: Ranker I Ecologist Linguist

This seemed to impose itself across my vison and senses all at once, and it took me a moment to banish it with a force of Will. I could vaguely understand each section like my instincts used to be, a humming in the back of my thoughts. Genesis Core was the name of what I am, though a very old name I could feel. While my rank was based on how large I had expanded my domain with S being the deepest part of the world I could reach. Each was marked by a certain layer of rock and density of mana. The titles were for things done outside of the normal for a Core like myself, like being introspective, loving books, being born above a Mana Well... and apparently for creating something called an Imperia Bloodline. Though no more whispers came to me about that one. While the Achievements were for the simple things I had done like reach E Rank from F, create a functioning series of ecosystems, or my story based second floor that I wrote parts of it on the correct path.

The real question to myself was where had all this come from. I didn't have this before, even if I didn't look, I felt like I would have known about it. Like the sudden change in my Instincts it was concerning. All I wanted was to be able to see the world, and this seemed like another thing that could or already had restricted me. So, I started to think back and experiment to see what new chains had been placed on me.