As the shadows of the night deepened into darkness, the glasswing butterflies gradually became less effective. One by one Claire sent them to shelter for the night – under an upturned leaf here, in the nook of a building there, and a few snuggling into little hidden spaces out in nature. The air-flute scouts, on the other hand, were completely in their element. Thanks to these two constructs, Claire now had the village completely mapped out and a better idea of the larger island’s layout and basic composition.
Defying her previous notions of islands, this one was very mountainous. The terrain did vary though, from dense forest and sugar plantations where Claire was located in the south-western area, to flatter and more forgiving terrain towards the opposite north-eastern coast. On that coast a large city sprawled around the curve of a natural bay. There, a busy port operated from the northern-most section of the bay, and a few smaller jetties dotted the bay area towards the south. The rest of the coast was mostly uniform, varying between level beach areas and some smaller inlets and coastal cliffs, such as the one where Claire dug out one of her initial shafts.
Reviewing her new mental map of her island surroundings, Claire studied it with interest. Knowing her dungeon core nature, what she needed most right now were adventurers. So, where would the adventurers be? Well, she already knew of at least three active adventurers from the village (two experienced and one not so much) and one outlaw band roaming the area. But, of course, there had to be more of them. So, Claire adjusted her focus towards the city.
There was so much she wanted to know, highlighting the limitations of her current constructs exploring the area. Although they were well suited to observation, she needed a deeper understanding of what went on in the inhabited areas. Specifically as it pertained to her, adventurers, and other possible dungeon activity. With this thought, she refocused on the plantation manor next to the village. What were the odds that she could find a lead in there?
Claire sighed at the distaste surfacing in her. She did not want to see or know more about Loathsome Layne. Her mouth quirked in response to the suitable moniker she came up with. Then she remembered how she did not possess a mouth anymore, which made her want to gnash her teeth in frustration. Teeth which she of course also didn’t currently own. She settled for rolling her mental eyes before directing one of the air-flute scouts towards the plantation manor.
<>
The scout, as Claire mentally shortened the names for her air-flute scouts, having successfully infiltrated the night-time manor, was actively scooting through the building. It was a good thing she reduced the air-flute scouts’ body mass during her initial design – it would have been way too easy to spot otherwise. As it was, the scout could zip mostly unobtrusively through the manor’s various rooms and corridors. Finally, she found her target.
He was surrounded by books and scrolls, slowly paging through an ancient grimoire. Claire felt the temptation to create some kind of joke regarding the slow speed at which he appeared to be reading but restrained herself. You did not make fun of learner struggles. It just was not done. Not even if it was someone as annoying as Loathsome Layne.
She inched the scout into a better observation position before reading the words herself through its eyes.
And in the Year of the Mists a great calamity roseth from the Maw of the Earth where the aberrant one lay and where the unworthy’s audacity be tested afore being as a Hero reborne. And instead being not contained by The Great Principal and not constrained within its celestially bounded borders as properly decreed, the aberrant one spewed a deluge of acid mist from the maw which rose to the heavens and by its falling devastated the Farmers Giving of crops. Then cameth a massed unholy outpouring of darkened creatures such as shook the ground from their march from the cursed hole five localities far. And this disaster came down on all be they hero or non and dissolved the city-state for a decade more such that none prospered, The unworthy fled, the heroes died and all was laid barren such that it was feared that nothing would grow forever more and no prospect for rising be given to the unworthy again.
Claire shivered at the ominous words on the yellowed pages of the tome. What was this? And no wonder Layne was going so slowly. You had to when reading older language. This had always been one of Claire’s nightmares on the occasions she was forced to teach Shakespeare. That she would misunderstand something blatantly obvious to the culture of the time, but obscured to her by the passing of the eras. Because even though humanity stayed the same, the past really was a different country. The thought of misleading her students, even through an honest mistake of her own, was terrifying.
She was so absorbed by these thoughts that she almost didn’t notice Layne stirring below the scout. The next thing she knew Layne’s face filled her vision in front of the scout.
“Oh,” Claire said. And then hurriedly zipped off as Layne swung his hand at her, swatting at the scout.
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The scout escaped, the night deepened, and soon all other lights in the Canewhold manor, except those in the library were extinguished. This was what Layne’s family was called, Claire had learned through her observations. Layne himself continued reading long into the night, and Claire kept reading over his shoulder whenever she could. It was a bit of an interrupted process as Layne, being aware of the bug now, occasionally swatted at it when Claire manoeuvred too close.
As for Claire, looking at these texts, she had managed to extrapolate a theme. They were all about anomalous cores. Actually, it was quite interesting for her too. Almost like she was learning about her own history. Well, it really was her history now, she supposed.
When Rick had originally explained anomalous cores to her, he said that many of them had done great things for the societies in which they were situated, while others created calamitous events. From what Claire was reading, the planet on which the Isle of Ithica was located had horrible luck with anomalous cores. Not one of the accounts was favourable, from the first “aberrant” core she read about, to what appeared to be the most recent account of a core which had an unhealthy obsession with fire, creating “balls of molten death” which it slung from its territory into the nearby city, burning it (and much of the countryside) down in the process. No wonder everyone was scared of what she might do.
As for her, she couldn’t help thinking of these anomalous cores, comparing them to herself. She had come through remembering her own core being, which was what made her unique. Were these other cores the same? How much did they remember, if anything at all? And what could lead them to these horrific actions?
The only comparison she had was children. In her experience, children tended to have good hearts, and misbehaviour generally stemmed from either misunderstanding or frustration. Of course there were exceptions; in Claire’s case there was Benny. She never had to deal with him directly, thank God. But she did hear the stories from the other teachers about Benny pushing Lydia down the stairs because she wouldn’t hand over the red toy car. Or Benny sitting in the corner of the classroom one by one squashing the ants on one of their little trails. Or Benny smacking Tony because he said the right answer before Benny did and then loudly threatening Tony to shut up with his answers. Every single incident was innocuous on its own, but they formed a disturbing pattern when evaluated as a whole.
Granted, acid mist and molten fireballs add a whole new dimension to outing frustration. She wondered how fractured the psyches of these cores would have to be to lead to such drastic actions. Frustration, anger, or just fear?
What she did not expect was the tiny little bit of grudging respect she was starting to gain for Layne. How many hours has he been in this library, researching and learning? It’s the kind of effort that points to determination and possibly character. Not that it means much in him, she quickly clarified to herself. Anyone looking to the prospect of the riches that an anomalous core can bring would probably find themselves equally motivated to learn.
Yes, this did not mean much at all.
<>
Much, much later, Claire watched as Layne got up, gave a tired stretch and plodded out of the library. She did not follow but hung around reading the last and most recently written text that still lay open on the library table.
Overall it has been agreed that anomalous cores precipitate disaster. It has been proved historically time and time again, from the first records of the aberrant core, to the most recent reported incidents in the empires of Suman and Elyssiatris respectively.
It is therefore recommended that young adventurers be trained in recognising the earliest anomalous actions as it has been shown that each core follows a certain progressive pattern into calamity. If such a pattern can be interrupted while the core is still young and easy to eliminate, disaster can be averted.
Claire shivered at the mention of core elimination. It was such a cold and clinical way of describing a core’s demise. Especially one like herself, to which she felt a particular affinity. Vaguely, she wondered whether it might be possible for her to write a text or two about anomalous cores to add to the literature. Then she shook herself and ordered herself to focus. There was a much more immediate situation to handle.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Being able to access all this information by spying, affirmed that she was correct to have created her butterfly and scout observation unit. And now she wanted more. A bigger network. Ideally she wanted to penetrate all the way into the capital, but for now she needed eyes on everything in her immediate surroundings, including the village and the various manors dotting the countryside.
Concentrating on her intent, she accessed her status, not expecting a river of messages to run across her vision.
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
New skill gained
2 SSV recieved
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
New skill gained
2 SSV recieved
Level up class 1 detected.
5 SSV received
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
New skill gained
2 SSV recieved
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
Skill level gained
1 SSV received
New skill gained
2 SSV recieved
What?
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Dumbfounded, Claire stared at all the skill share value notifications. Where had they all come from? When?? Feeling a freezing panic course through her core she hastily checked all her corridors, deserted entry, and beach area again. No adventurers there. No one had snuck up on her while she was distracted.
“Breathe Claire, breathe,” she told herself mainly out of habit. It wasn’t like she breathed anymore. The habitual thought pattern, however, did help her to calm down until a dormant frustration finally broke through in the wake of her scare.
“Why don’t I have a body anymore? Where’s my body?” she cried out to her empty core cavern. Then she did some more “breathing”, mentally stepping back to assess the situation.
Okay. She did not have a body. That was fine. What she did have was a ton of SSV, seemingly out of nowhere. Why didn’t I see it come in? she wondered, paging through her menus.
Instant SSV notifications are currently inactive, as no preference has been indicated.
Do you wish to activate them for in-time notificaiton?
[Yes] [No]
"Yes, sheesh, yes!" Claire declared.
Instant SSV notification has been activated.
So, that solved that little mystery. But how much had she gained?
Claire
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 100%
Processing speed: 100%
Functional capacity: 100%
Excess LF carried over to performance provision.
LF for applications will be drawn first from performance provision, before depleting functional capacity.
Territory Tycoon 2
+25 LF per territory km per day for up to 49 km’s
Progress to next level
-300/250 LF Performance provision
928/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
748/≥125 LF
180/≥125 ME
56/250 Skill Share Value
Core defence enabled
Cutting thorn barrier
5 LF to initiate
Continuous drain of 10 LF per day
Resources available
Biomass: 118
Mental energy: 9
Raw material: 334
Her skill share value now stood at 56, up from her previous total of 33. Stunned Claire stared at it. Where had it come from? What had happened yesterday? She had explored her new tunnels. Then she had made butterflies and scouts for her spy network. Wait a second… When her scouts had been released from the opening in the children’s clearing, Little Harry and Lily were there. But they weren’t doing anything.
Children’s clearing, Claire finally realised. Was that it? It had to be. “Oh my…” she whispered in wonder.
<>
Claire spent the rest of the early morning hours in frenzied activity. The ideas! She had so many! She had to be ready when the children came to play again! She needed new blueprints to work with!
Frantically, she created chameleons. And then instructed them to drag bits of biomass into absorption range. Vine, yes. Branches, yes. Weird bark, no! What am I supposed to do with that? Oh no, wait, that’s a bio-blueprint for a tree. Good job, little guy! Rocks? I have enough.
And just as the light of dawn started to filter over the mountains Claire sat back (metaphorically of course) and surveyed her hurried creation. It looked good. It didn’t have much yet, but there was a whole day ahead of her to plan and then another night to improve. Yes, she too had done a good job. Claire was pleased.
<>
The first sensation he felt when he woke up was the cold. It was still so cold. He had been so cold when he fell asleep. The coldness sat in him like an icicle penetrating his heart and radiated outwards through every cell of his being.
He tried breathing but had no breath. Where was he? His eyes wouldn’t open. Frozen shut. Yes, that must be it. Frantically, he pushed to have them open, to break the ice. Finally, his vision snapped on.
He didn’t understand what he saw. It was dark, but he could still see golden motes surrounding him. But that couldn’t be right. How could the motes look so warm when he was so cold? He must be mistaken. They are not gold, they are silver. Yes. Silver for the cold. And miraculously his vision shifted and it became as he thought. The whole cave was filled with slivers of silvery coldness. That is what it was.
There was a disturbance, pulsing in the back. The silver coldness fluttered away from the pulse and then there was a blue light popping through.
“Oh, hello, hi there,” it said. “You must be my new core! Look how blue you are, almost like me!” and it tinkled a laugh. “Well, let’s get you started!”
Her blue was wrong. It was too deep, like a deep ocean. Ice looks different, lighter, he thought. Her blue should be blue like ice.
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Character sheet summary at the end of Chapter 22
Claire
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 100%
Processing speed: 100%
Functional capacity: 100%
Excess LF carried over to performance provision.
LF for applications will be drawn first from performance provision, before depleting functional capacity.
Territory Tycoon 2
+25 LF per territory km per day for up to 49 km’s
Progress to next level
-300/250 LF Performance provision
928/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
748/≥125 LF
180/≥125 ME
56/250 Skill Share Value
Core defence enabled
Cutting thorn barrier
5 LF to initiate
Continuous drain of 10 LF per day
Resources available
Biomass: 93
Mental energy: 9
Raw material: 310
<>
Lily Hunter
Primary class: Rogue Level 1
Secondary class: Herbalist Level 1
Active quests
Help Little Harry!
Progress to Rogue Milestone 1
1/250 EXP
Progress to Herbalist Milestone 1
0/250 EXP
First-tier skills
Deception 2/20
*Herbalism, basic 9/20
*Identify 5/20
Lock picking 5/20
*Nursing, basic 2/20
*Observation 14/20
Petty theft 1/20
Pick-pocketing 4/20
*Poisons, basic 5/20
*Poison resistance 1/20
Quick thinking 2/20
Sneaking 8/20
Sleight of hand 2/20
Second-tier skills
Spying 0/50
*Skills contributing to secondary class.
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Lily’s tab (Yes, Agnetha is counting.)
x1 donkey
x1 glowstone
10% of Lily’s profit
Assisting Widow Hari
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