Joe was a core. His consciousness emerged from a see-through crystal. He gained loads of information at once, fortunately without causing a headache.

He had a full 360 degrees view of the room around him which he inspected. Three meters in every direction a stone wall circelled him. The room was the shape of a can of coke, two meters in height.

He found that he could also smell the air, measure the temperature, not in the form of sweat or shivering but as a number, taste all he could see but without the pleasure or disgust tied to the experience.

System Guide Quest

Goal: Read the system prompts and make the starting decisions.

Reward:

30 Truemass

[Accept]

Certain spots of his vision had the window imprinted into them. Joe brows scrunched, or the dungeon equivalent, he shone a little bit dimmer. His own sight had been taken from him without anybody asking him. My core rights! With his mind he tried to pull the window away in a similar fashion he’d moved his pupils, but it remained there.

What was truemass?

Truemass implied the existence of falsemass, but Joe wasn’t quite sure what that was, or if it existed. Maybe shadows? Either way, after completing the quest, he’d be getting thirty of whatever true mass was, which felt like a substantial amount.

He didn’t like being forced into doing something, and this quest was forcing him into accepting. In pure spite he took a bit longer than was necessary to click down on the accept button. He’d have accepted it either way, as he’d like a guide, but it was the principal that matter.

1. Your random innate perk is called Will of Domination (Legendary), and it gives your units the ability to take over other units after they have been bested. After domination, the core may control the unit as if it is the core’s unit. The unit will carry a regular value to the unit limitation.

Please remember this for the rest of your decisions.

Oh. That creature made it seem like my perk was gained randomly. That confirms it. This certainly isn’t allowed. Let’s hope that nothing bad comes out of it.

The window shifted.

2. Pick your will-o’-wisp! Will-o-wisps carry unique features which they can directly implement into the unit they possess. Mental communication will always be possible between a core and its will-o’-wisp unlike the other units.

Informative will-o’-wisp.

It comes carrying much information about other clans and general information of the mining dimension, also it has a high affinity for magic.

War will-o’-wisp

It comes carrying high talent for combat, both as a leader and as a fighter.

Mining will-o’-wisp

It comes with an expert understanding on mining, smelting, and refining ore.

Joe pondered the three options. They all had their own worth, but considering his perk was directly combat oriented, he thought it would be wisest to pick a will-o’-wisp which would use that to the fullest extent. Mentally he pressed down on the War will-o’-wisp.

He felt a part of him being ripped out, twisted and shaped. The part of him that had been disconnected started shining as the crystals slowly diminished, and finally there was only an orb of light.

“I HAVE BEEN BORN!” The will-o’-wisp shouted as it flew around the room. “I will gain all strength and kill the immortal, lift the unliftable, break the unbreakable. I will strike fear into the heart of the gods themselves!”

“Ahem,” Joe coughed but really it was all mental communication, and the will-o’-wisp stopped. He had the odd feeling that it was slowly turning around to inspect him.

“Oh great old one, I apologize for my careless behavior,” the will-o’-wisp said. “I shall do thirty full spins around the room as punishment for myself. It is truly the greatest honor to be in your sphere great old one.”

“No that-”

“That’s not enough!” The will-o’-wisp completed the sentence Joe wasn’t going to say. “Of course, I will do fifty spins around you my liege. How can I do anything else, forgive me for I will start right this moment. I am nothing but a disgusting, filthy soul to your greatness.”

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“Uhhh, sure, just don’t hurt yourself.”

“The greatest general shows care for me! I can finally die an honorable death.”

“You were just born…”

“Sixty spins!”

“Oh my god.”

The will-o’-wisp sped up into a blur as it circled around Joe.Not knowing what to do about it, he returned to the blue window which had changed into a new text.

3. Choose what faction you will join! This decision will impact what units, traps and spells you may create.

Whilst it is possible to ally with any individual core by directing the will-o’-wisps to converse, different factions have enemy factions, and killing a core of the enemy faction will lead to greater reward.

Also, no agreements reached by two cores of different factions can be system enforced.

Faction

Summary

Rivals

Haven

Quality over quantity. Units have very high costs to produce, but they are worth every bit of it.

Necro, Häell

Beast

Versatility and adaptation are the most important trait here. Every unit can do a little bit of everything. Plans are always flexible. Units are highly evolvable and mutable but they are also weak.

Insects, Häell

Scales

For those who like to take it slow but steady. These units come with strong defenses and venom.

Fury, Häell

Häell

Enemies of all and friends of none. Those in the Häell group are destructive and once spotted quickly targeted. They carry abnormally strong units, and are capable of quick expansion.

Haven, Beast, Insect, Fury, Scales, Necro, Häell

Fury

Nothing is greater than rage. This team exploits tactics and swarming techniques to best their enemies.

Scales, Häell

Insects

Specialization is the trick. Insects are masters at what they seek to achieve. This faction favors those who like meticulous planning. Most of their units are glass cannons.

Beast, Häell

Necro

Quantity over quality. Tricky to beat and trickier to kill. These units are the masters at out sustaining all other units.

Haven, Häell

The window took Joe some time to get through as he read it as a human would. When he realized that he could recall everything immediately, he simply gazed across the whole window.

There were sure as hell lots of options, and they were going to be crucial for the rest of his life. It was important that he picked the optimal choice here, the one that would mesh best with his perk.

“I have completed my punishment sire!” The will-o’-wisp, “and if I may great one, I would like for you to bestow me with a name.”

“Hmmm,” Joe thought outloud. “How about Ego?”

“Great old one! That is the best name in existence, except for your name of course, I can not be more-”

“Alright. Do you have any thoughts as to what faction we should pick?” Joe said. The stream of emotions coming from Ego hyped him up, and that exhausted him. He was happy that he got a will-o’-wisp that cared though.

“War is what I love for,” Ego said. “Give me häell and I will prove myself.”

“I was thinking about that,” Joe said. “It would certainly be risky, but considering the fact that our perk allows us to dominate other core’s units, having cheap strong units could be a strong asset.”

“Our perk does what”? Ego said, a hint of disbelief in his voice.

“It’s a legendary perk. We must have gotten really lucky. It’s called Will of Domination.”

Ego rapidly started spinning around the room again, this time purely out of excitement.

“Great old one, you are truly the best. With this perk I will conquer the heavens, even hell shall feel my wrath. Everybody will know and fear the name Ego.”

“Well, if we pick Häell we’ll have to fight everybody in wherever. I’ve always thought that a strong offense is a good defense, but I’ve also been a firm believer into not jumping into shark infested waters.”

“You say the greatest wisdom my liege,” Ego said.

“You didn’t understand a word, did you?” Joe said.

“Of course I did. The infestation of sharks is a terrible thing to jump into.”

“Right.” Ego beamed at being told he was right. It made him fly around in circles around Joe. “So Häells an option, but on the other hand, I also like insects. Some of the ones on Earth were extremely dangerous. They’re efficient miners, killers, and tanks.”

“Insects are clearly the best option my lord great old one,” Ego declared triumphantly.

“On the other hand insects possess rather low intelligence so they’d need to be told what to do and given highly specific instructions,” Joe said.

“Insects are clearly terrible!” Ego spat. “Häell is the way to go then sire?”

“Clearly there isn’t one right decision here. Hell it might even be so that all decision lead to victory, or all decisions lead to defeat. I think what’s going to become a crucial factor in this is my familiarity with the factions, and since I know much more about insects than I do demons, I’ll go with the insect faction.”