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Lucid Core
Chapter 6 - Lucid

Chapter 6 - Lucid

Fishing as an inanimate object was rather boring. I’d spent hours just sitting on the bottom of this tiny pond, waiting for little guppies to brush past my core. I’d spent many of those hours just trying to count the tiny fish, but eventually I just had to give up. There were easily over a hundred here, and their movements were too random for me to keep track of the ones I’d already counted.

I controlled six of them now, and each of them were tasked with eating the dead fish at the point furthest away from me. Hopefully that would encourage other guppies to eat closer to me, and I could pick them off from there.

Besides the guppies, the pond had three full sized fish, though I didn’t know what kind they were. For now, I would call them trout, at least until I knew for sure. They didn’t bother with the feast, and seemed content just swimming about. There was also a pair of crabs somehow, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how they got here. The fish fell down from a waterfall above, I’d seen a guppy fall into the pond once from a hole in the wall. The crabs couldn’t possibly fit, so I had to assume they came from one of the exits to my room.

And yes, this was now my room. I claimed it, therefore it was mine.

I was quite happy with the size too, my house could probably fit within the confines of the room, minus the height. Volumetrically the same then. Lots of room to play.

My avatar floated above the small pond, staring down at the inhabitants. I really wanted to control the crabs, since they could probably carry me around the room, but in order to do that, I’d need to attract their attention. I could always just use the guppies to lure them over, but I doubt they’d waste the effort of chasing them. It would be better if I could lure them over instead. But that would involve me having abilities beyond mind control, or whatever the dungeon equivalent was.

I tried to think of ways to lure things, and since I was in a pond, obviously my mind went to fishing lures. I couldn’t change the shape of my core unfortunately, so no wiggly bits to attract them. What about glowing?

To my surprise, yes in fact. I could glow!

I blinked my light happily, pleased to have found something to do. The effort didn’t go to waste either, since the action attracted all three of the trout within the pond. The first one didn’t even hesitate to scoop me up.

I’d learned from the snake not to underestimate larger creatures. I couldn’t just whisper to them, I had to be a little louder. Out of caution, since I really didn’t want to die, but I also really didn’t want to lose this potential minion, I rose my thoughts from a whisper to a quiet mutter.

Obey.

The fish spasmed, spitting me out. It shook as if it had been paralyzed. Then, just a second later, it died. Was I too loud again? I’d find out quickly, since the second trout scooped me up a moment later.

Obey. I whispered as quietly as I did to the bats.

And it did. Which was weird to me, since the trout was nearly the size of the snake. It felt strange for such little effort needed to be put into such a large creature. While I puzzled it out, I had the fish spit me out in front of the other one. The predicted course of action happened, and I now had two fish along with the six guppies under my control.

I ordered the fish to spit me out on the corpse of the large barracuda. Once it did, I ordered all of my minions to herd the rest of the guppies towards the core. One by one, the guppies fell under my control, taking about the same amount of effort as the larger fish. Why? Why were they equal!?

My eyes returned to the two crabs. They sat still at their end of the pool, watching the commotion around the dead fish with apparent interest. I made my core glow slightly, and that seemed to cause a reaction in them. Both of them raised their claws in surprise. They calmed down after a while though. When the light went out, they didn’t react. When I blinked it on and off once, they flinched, but remained where they were.

Cute. I thought. Which was odd, considering I never thought of crustaceans that way, but who cared. I wanted them, and that was enough for me.

I played with them a little while longer, flashing my light at them just to see their reactions. Once I decided I had enough guppies, I let the fish feed on the corpses left in the water. I then commandeered one of the trout to carry me over to the crabs. I didn’t make it tag them though, I wanted it to drop me off in front of them.

Within the water, I was somewhat safe, especially with a fish army behind me. That meant I had breathing room to experiment. So now the question became, what did I want to experiment with? Figuring I should start with the familiar, what if I tried giving it a command instead of just asking it to obey? I’d done it before I knew what I was doing, asking the first bat that I’d encountered to drop me, but I’d been rather harsh on it, resulting in an unfortunate death.

There was no way to force the crabs to touch me without directly controlling them, and chasing them around with my fish minions didn’t sound fun. So instead, I resigned myself to watching them and blinking my little light. Their startled reactions were fun every time I saw them!

They did grow used to my antics eventually, which was unfortunate, but no amount of fun lasted forever. Thankfully, once they did get used to my core, one of them grew brave enough to approach me. For once, I wasn’t worried about being eaten, since crabs just didn’t have the biology to eat something as large as my core. Even better, these ones didn’t have too large of claws. Just dainty enough to grab and hold something, not to crush it. Aside from being a little sharp around the edges, these guys were harmless to me.

The brave one gingerly picked me up with both claws. It shuffled me around a bit until it had a good grip on me with one claw. Then, it held me up for inspection.

Let me down please. I quietly asked of it.

It refused.

Not ‘it didn’t hear me’, or ‘it didn’t understand’ or anything else. It refused. I was so baffled that for a second the next action it took hardly registered.

The things entire shell split in half, opening up like a trash can lid. Its eyes rose with the top half, still staring at the core it held in one claw. It moved my core above its now exposed interior, complete with writhing flesh, teeth, and three wispy tentacles that reach up for me.

What the fuck is that. I whispered to myself in fascination. I vaguely recognized it was about to eat me, and so I gave it a command.

Stop.

An offhand remark while I studied the creature with far more interest now. The crab-like thing halted all movement, still staring at me. Through the physical contact I had with the creature, I could feel its surprise. At what, I didn’t know and didn’t care. I was far more interested in the biology of such a fascinating creature. Was it all just one big stomach? Why did it have a normal mouth if it could just use this one? The top half of the shell just looked like the top of a mouth, with two bulging likes drawing from the eyes all the way back to the super small hinge at the back. Now with my attention on the rim of the creature, I followed it around, discovering an intricate ring of bone/horn things that could be used as clamps that would hold the top half shut once it was closed.

So cool!

It was one thing to see unrealistic creatures in your dreams, but another thing entirely to see it in person! It was so fascinating that I had almost entirely forgotten about the other crab until it bumped into the one holding me. I snapped out of my trance and shook my head. Time to refocus.

My experiment was a success, at least partially. I was in command of neither crab, though my current captor was entirely at my mercy. I knew through dream logic, or perhaps dungeon logic, that so long as it was in contact with me, it would listen to what I told it.

Give me to the other crab. I told it.

My captor closed its giant mouth and held me out to the other crab, clearly offering it. The other crab flinched back a touch. Its eyes retreated back into the shell a fraction too, which was interesting. Still, it gingerly took the offer with both claws.

Hold me. I told it in the same volume I’d told the other crab to stop.

It did so with care, taking me away from the initial crab. The first crab relaxed once I was out of its grip. Though it seemed obvious to me that the first crab would want nothing to do with me, it seemed content to hang around and just observe this other crab and I interact.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The new crab, for the most part, just turned me about in its hands, observing me from every angle. I had to admit, I looked pretty cool myself. My core was a golden yellow color with a darker amber core that swirled like living liquid. Still, that wasn’t what I was here to pay attention to. I wanted to experiment.

But I couldn’t help myself. Can you open up like that too?

The second crabs shell opened like a trash can. I giggled with glee. These were my first real monsters! And yes, I was going to make them mine eventually, but for now, I wanted to try some other things. I let my current crab close its mouth before ordering it to head out. I wanted it to kill one of the guppies that still wasn’t in my control.

It swam in the direction of the guppy swarm, holding me in one claw. It reached out with the other, targeting a random guppy. The small fish noticed its approach and swam away. My crab, undeterred, continued the chase, occasionally changing targets when it thought a nearby guppy wasn't paying attention. More than once, it targeted my guppies by mistake, so I had to tell it to switch targets myself. That was interesting, since it seemed like my other creatures knew who was under my control by default. Maybe it was because the crabs weren’t actually under my control? That made the most sense to me.

Then I noticed Courier. Her body sat at the bottom of the pond, still obviously in half. I felt like doing something nice for her, but I didn’t know what would be nice for a bat. I settled on burial. Or as good as burial got in a cave, considering nothing around here could dig up rocks. I’d use the pebbles and other loose debris in the main room to ‘bury’ her on dry land. That was about all I could do for her.

I asked my ride to go over to her body and take it out of the water.

The crab refused.

Why? I asked it, not expecting an answer. I knew I could force it to do what I wanted, but curiosity came as a first instinct for dream me.

Food. The crab conveyed.

It didn’t say the word, not even close. But its intent to communicate with me carried meaning. It didn’t want to waste Courier’s body. It didn’t want to let precious resources rot away, doing nothing. It needed to contribute.

Contribute how? I asked, and this time I didn’t get an answer. Still, I could see the crab’s point. It really would be a shame to just let it go to waste, especially since it was so convenient. Besides, if I got something of mine to eat it, Courier would become mana for me. That was about as poetic a burial I could get for her.

Obey. I asked of the crab. It fell under my control easily. Once again, I asked it to pick up Courier’s remains. Except this time, I asked it to eat them.

The crab obeyed. It set me down nearby and used both its claws to lift her body up. Once again, its unnatural mouth hinged open, and Couriers body was disposed of within. When the crabs hinge mouth shut, I watched all the little clamps around the perimeter of the shell click shut, effectively giving the crab a little horn crown. I smiled at it, grateful for the suggestion.

I looked back to the first crab, who had remained where it was during the whole ordeal. It looked at my core with the only expression a crab could have. With a chuckle, I asked of the crab under my control to bring me over to the first one.

I didn’t even have to offer my core to the crab for it to reach for me.

Obey.

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The crabs had found me a nice little alcove in the rock above the pond. Together, they climbed up the rock face and passed me between each other in the attempt to get me there. I appreciated the gesture, and the view from here would have been awesome, assuming my view was actually confined to the core. As it was, my ‘view’ was omniscient within my domain, but I still liked to have an avatar to observe things with.

Interestingly, I noticed that as I moved around within the pool, and when I left it, my domain remained static. Unlike when I was in the caves below, where my view was centered on my core, my current domain here was just ‘the room’. I could assume that it stayed this way no matter where I stayed within the room, but why assume when I could find out for myself!

I asked the crabs to carry me to the door.

It turned into a massive journey for the creatures. First they had to climb back up into my alcove, and then they fell into the water below. They carried me through the pond with little effort and emerged victorious out the other side. From there, the journey was a little more careful. The crab that carried me did so with both claws, and the other one took the lead. It stepped over loose rocks and random gouges in the floor. One time it stumbled over a pebble that rocked funny, and apparently got frustrated. It kicked the rock out of the way for my ride.

My hero! I swooned playfully, chuckling to myself.

The gouges worried me though. They looked like claw marks at times, and other times they were obviously where a rock had scraped against the floor. Other times though, they looked more defined. More precise than organic matter would affect stone. They looked like weapon marks, arrows, swords, knives, spears, it didn’t matter. The gouges reminded me that this was not a game.

The exits to my room remained inky black, even as we approached, confirming my theory that my vision no longer centered around me. I eyed the blatantly clear path going between the two doors. It unsettled me for some reason. I decided that I felt more comfortable back in the alcove, with the span of the room and a pond filled with minions between me and whatever was out there. I could explore the possibilities from safety later.

“Hu-Hu-Hu.” Came a deep laugh from one of the exits.

I flinched at the first sound I’d heard in hours. It sounded… almost human. Uncanny valley-esque enough that it raised the hairs on my avatar.

I commanded my crabs to retreat.

A fat, fleshy body thundered into the room at a full sprint. It looked humanoid only in the fact that it had the right number of hands and feet, but otherwise, I wouldn’t call it anything I knew. It stood about as tall as my waist would have been, had I still had a human body. It had sickly grey skin and more forehead than any other feature on its grotesque face. The fatty substance bounced up and down with its run, along with all its other fatty bits.

It outran the crabs, but not impressively so. In fact, it actually looked rather pathetic. So slow that I would only have to jog alongside its sprint to keep up. It drooled over itself, laughing that deep ‘hu-hu’ laugh as it approached my crabs.

Scare it. I told my escort.

The crab that didn’t hold my core stopped running and turned. Its hinge opened up, revealing the wet, toothy interior. As its tentacles wormed out of the mouth, my crab hissed at the incoming creature.

“Wuuu!!” It stumbled, digging its heels into the loose rocks it ran on. It wheeled its arms, stumbling to regain its balance and turn around.

Two more of the creatures emerged from the same exit. They observed their friend retreat, bobbing their heads up and down as they did so.

“Hu-hu! Hu-hu!”

I didn’t speak this creature's language, but I knew mocking when I saw it. They were laughing at their friend's cowardice. When the chaser rejoined the other two, they began touching the floor with their knuckles and jumping like chimps, laughing as they did so.

The fun finished soon after, and one of the other creatures got in front. It crouched in a very professional sprinters stance. I gulped, slightly intimidated by the eerily human stance. However, then it just stood up normally and ran with that same thundering sprint that only its fatty body could manage.

I relaxed a little, but considered what I should do. My crabs would probably make it to the water first, but the first little bit of the pond wasn’t very deep. The… troll, for lack of a better term, would still be able to catch them there. An alternative line of thought made me think that maybe I didn’t want to run away.

Maybe I want it to catch me.

A plan formed in my mind, though it didn’t involve much. My escort crab ‘accidentally’ dropped my core, much to the amusement of my audience. They then ‘abandoned’ my core and kept running for the safety of the water. The chasing troll smiled, laughing to itself. It drooled as it came to a stop, just above my core. From here, it would pick me up, try to eat me, and then I’d control it. Same as literally every other creature I'd encountered thus far.

The troll did not go to pick me up. Instead, it got to its knees and felt around on the ground. Its hands brushed up against a large rock. With a grin, it picked it up, poised to smash.

Oh shit. I muttered.

The troll brought down its arm in a vicious swing. A splash sounded out from the pond, briefly startling the troll. Its aim went awry. Not enough to fully avoid hitting me, but enough that I ricocheted away from the strike with great pain. I numbed the pain without a thought, timing myself as I flew through the air. My core struck the troll's unarmed hand.

Obey. I commanded in a quiet voice.

The troll immediately fell into my control, and before my core had even fully bounced off its flabby skin, I gave it its commands.

The troll arched its back, holding up one wrist with the other hand. It wailed, as if it had just hit its thumb instead of me.

The other two trolls did not react. In fact, their faces fell stone cold, staring in the direction of their friend. My troll picked up the rock it’d used to smash me and explained in their weird language that it had just smashed its thumb against the rock. Still, the other two did not seem amused.

In fact, they both proceeded to pick up rocks.

Wuh oh.

They approached my troll with grim silence. I found that to be a little interesting, but not enough to bring me out of the fact that we were getting into a fight. Two on one in fact. I wanted to even those odds a bit. I told my troll to pick up me up with his free hand before whispering my plan to him. The whispering didn’t really do anything I suppose, since the other trolls couldn’t hear me. Maybe. Probably. It just felt right.

Once the trolls got to the right distance, my troll gave off a war cry, startling the other two. It windmilled the arm holding me in a dramatic arch, going all the way around until it got to its waist, where it halted and flicked its wrist, gently tossing me to the nearest troll.

The troll panicked, not willing to drop its rocks to catch me, but clearly too flustered to just get out of the way. My core bounced off its chest lightly.

Obey.

My core fell to the ground. All three trolls watched it roll for a second.

Then my two trolls turned to the third.

“Waa!!” It threw its rocks at my trolls.

Don’t be rude. I thought, commanding my trolls to retaliate in kind.

A lucky shot hit the enemy troll in the temple. It silenced immediately and wobbled. It caught its foot on a loose rock and stumbled. Its head cracked onto a rock when it landed, killing it instantly.

And then mana flooded into me.

Oh. Oh! Oh, this is nice…

That’s a lot of mana.