Aby was delighted, those two people satisfied a craving it never realized it had, sapients. The quality and quantity of the information they released upon their demise was incredible. Sela had said their visit was likely no more than a fluke and not to expect more for some time, and while this disappointed Aby, it still had plenty to do, especially now. Their visit had come some short weeks after the bobbit worm, and Aby had expanded marvelously. With two new floors, the first an expansive underwater cavern that is perfect for larger animals that Aby hoped to acquire one day, and the second being kilometers of twisting, turning, and branching paths, with the waters ranging from totally submerged to barely 50 centimeters deep. Add to this revisions of its first three floors, and the many, many new creatures they had obtained, and Aby still had plenty of toys.

You can now spawn “Common Reef Starfish”

You can now spawn “Common Reef Shrimp”

You can now spawn “Common Sea Krait”

You can now spawn “Common Red Grouper”

You can now spawn “Great Barracuda”

These were the notable acquisitions, many of the rest being simple reef fish at the bottom of the food chain. The kobolds had established their own hierarchy, one of the females, becoming a matriarchal chief, and the scaled seahorse growing to be almost a meter in length. Aby had little time to experiment with further evolutions, and only now does it have the option to begin anew.

Congratulations! Your creature “Kobold” has reached the threshold for evolution! Options Available:

Kobold Warrior

The standard evolution for any kobold who has managed to slay an enemy, this makes the kobold stronger, and little else.

Kobold Chief-Mother

For any kobold who manages to become the matriarch of her tribe, she can become the chief-mother, becoming better in generally every way.

Coastal Kobold Warrior

Not often seen, kobolds tend to avoid setting down in areas like swamps and seas, though it isn’t unheard of. Coastal kobolds become far more capable of living in and around the ocean, as well as massive improvements to hunting in water.

Coastal Kobold Chief-Mother

The kobold chief decides where the tribe settles, and while uncommon, some chiefs have settled onto the coast. These coastal matriarchs become better in nearly every way, as well as becoming far more capable to all of this in the water.

Aby made the selection with little hesitation, its matriarch undergoing evolution into a coastal matriarch. Watching closely, a similar process to the seahorse began to take place, the light increasing in intensity, before being drawn into the matriarch. Her body swiftly grew taller, from a measly one-and-a-half meters to an impressive two. Her scales began to change from their previously muddy yellow to a now sandy yellow, streaks of blue-green lining her facial features. Finishing off with two small horns peeking out from over either eyebrow, she now looked both more fearsome, and more regal.

Next Aby went over the evolutions available for the other two. One was only a choice between warrior, and coastal warrior, and that choice was made swiftly as well. This time it was the male, though the changes weren’t as drastic. Increasing from a meter forty to a meter eighty, with a similar hue to his scales as the chief-mother, though without the blue or the horns. The other female had gotten an interesting choice, thankfully

Coastal Kobold Shaman

The shaman is a cornerstone of any kobold tribe. Second only to the chief, the magic cast by her can be crucial to both the hunt, and the recovery. The coastal Shaman is attuned heavily to water, rather than nature as most shamans are, and her spells reflect this attunement.

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This time, the kobold didn’t change drastically in height, settling at one meter fifty, though instead of the sandy yellow scales, hers turned to a shade of sea-foam green, feathers growing from her previously bald scalp matching this color, just a hint darker. A single horn sprouted from over either eyebrow, and she finished her transformation.

Finished with the kobolds, and allowing them time to acclimate to their new bodies, and their new ease in the water, Aby turned its attention to the barracuda that had finished the other man.

Congratulations! Your creature “Great Barracuda” has reached the threshold for evolution! Options available:

Greater Barracuda

Simply a great barracuda that has most of its attributes increased, yet this turns them from competent reef hunters into something truly feared in reefs, and to be wary of outside.

Silver-Streaked Barracuda

A great barracuda which becomes both more streamlined and far faster, it’s size decreases and body gains very minor illusionary properties, that which it hunts rarely sees more than a flash of silver before it hits.

Silver-Toothed Barracuda

A great barracuda with a borderline unhealthy obsession with shiny objects can begin ingesting them to allow its entire body to take on metallic properties, turning this sleek and streamlined fish into a bruiser to be cautious of.

This was a much more difficult choice for Aby, the choice between an all-round generalist, a specialized ambush predator, or a slow but heavy hitter. All had their own merits and demerits, though the silver-toothed was crossed off. Speed was something necessary to contend with most of the predators of the reef. Were it simply surface races, this would be the prime choice, it isn’t hard to be faster in the water than those two humans. Eventually, the silver-streak won out, mostly due to Abys curiosity.

As the changes started, the biggest change was its size. Rapidly shrinking from its former one meter and fifty centimeters, it settled at almost exactly one meter, the silver with-streaks-and-blotches of its scales becoming uniformly silver, though shimmering slightly. Its body became far more streamlined, and the teeth in its mouth changing from jagged and daggerlike to uniformly sharp and serrated. All told, it was a change from looking blatantly dangerous, to a far more subtle menace, one that was hard to spot to begin with in the brilliant, prismatic scenery.

Seeing the glowing and shifting of the barracuda, Sela too was satisfied with the changes, then swam off to contemplate the events that just took place. Those two surface races, humans, she thinks, should not have made it here so quickly. Did they somehow know where the dungeon was, or was it a fluke? As she meandered her way towards Aby, she was at a loss. Her memories told her that they were liable to all manner of invasions, and what these creatures may be. While this was admittedly geared to surface dungeons, she had her own knowledge of the surrounding areas. She truly hadn’t expected to deal with more than the creatures of the reef for a good while, especially not surface races. Her expected worst case scenario this was not, a curious tribe of Mer, or maybe a Siren in search of a home hadn’t come to pass. She was both thankful and fearful of this.

Continuing on with this line of thought, she went through the third floor, settling into a nest of coral in the corner of the fourth. She liked this floor, being both the largest and brightest, it was the most similar to the reef above, and it was a source of comfort. This was in stark contrast with the fifth floor, that labyrinthine maze of dark, cramped tunnels that make her uncomfortably claustrophobic. Sighing and shaking away the skin crawling feeling she gets every time she goes down there, she brings her focus to her tail. The scales had finally regained their former lush purple color, though a jagged scar ran across.

This brought a complicated expression to Sela’s face. When she set off to find her home, something that every unnamed Nereid does, she was expecting to find a lovely shell, or maybe a coral patch of some description. Instead, she wound up binding herself to a living cave, one that can produce some of the most diverse and wondrous ecosystems she’d ever come across, and at the same time have a penchant for violence that bleeds into that very beauty.

She turned to look at the scaled seahorse that took up residence near her. Despite the gorgeous color its scales glinted, one would be sorely mistaken to treat him as a mere curiosity. Far larger than any common seahorse, his body has further streamlined, nearly resembling a pipefish more than a seahorse. Furthermore, the fin present on his back has shifted and elongated to more closely remember the dorsal fin of a shark, whilst two new pectoral fins waved by his sides. Losing the flexibility of his tail, it’s instead tipped by tiny, hair-like growths.

The seahorse looked down at her too, studying this strange creature that his instincts seem to defer to, a natural subservience that he can’t place as anything more substantial than partner. Of course, his budding intelligence isn’t enough just yet to place what that means, but his instincts have yet to steer him wrong in the past, so he gives her the respect his mind seems to think she’s due.

Sela watched the creature give her a short, curt nod, then swim away to the floors above, no doubt to hunt the occasional invader into the caves. This was a good moment to finally decorate her home, too. Despite the entirety of the dungeon technically being her home, the Nereid had no need in the slightest for that much living space. Sela set to work, humming a tune she’d heard her own mother use, as she rearranged the colors and species of coral, the Nereids delicate touch coaxing the polyps into geometric shapes, as well as creating intricate designs on the walls. This continued, a humble corner of a massive floor becoming something worthy of a Reef abode. As Sela worked, Aby planned, the kobolds trained and the fish hunted. Sela smiled. This wasn’t the life she had planned, not even slightly, but she’d make the best of it.