‘Have any new tracks been found outside?’ the Core questioned as the Queen arrived back into the Dungeon. Several outings had been made in recent days, but there were rarely new finds.
‘None that deserves our attention,’ the Intelligent Ant answered, standing still for a moment to let the Mana in the airflow within her right. ‘Have you progressed with your studies?’
‘Not as much as I would have preferred.’
‘Then keep at it. While I don’t believe the method has been used previously if anybody is going to find a way, then it's you,’ was the prompt response before the Queen left for the inner room once again. She would likely spend her time mingling with the ants inside while the Entity was left to try its best.
If there was something the Core hated more than anything, it was the lack of ability to switch over to a world without the system. There were more than a few times where the piece of blue had shown its use. Without it, there was little to no chance that the Entity could have ever progressed past its fetal stage. Figuring out the secrets of Mana, learning how to harness it beyond a simple flicker at a time, and making actual matter out of it would have been impossible without the guiding hand of the [System].
But then there was the fact that it was also overly relied on. At some level, the Core did not want to so heavily use it, knowing that it never truly had any direct control over what the system did. Anything given could easily be taken away, any time and effort spent being without reason on the simple event that the Core angered it in the wrong way. The Core wanted the ability to take a step away from the System any time it wanted, to use the information already gained and use it to its fullest abilities.
Yet there was little sign of that truly happening. The [Skills] were the greatest example of such, the Core more than happy about them yet also quite annoyed at their implication. They granted the ability to efficiently use any ability that the Entity had previously performed to a more experienced degree. But, likewise, it took away the ability to do it without the System guiding the way forward. There was no real way to do the same thing without some invisible force making it easier. The Core could do it differently but not too similarly, if that made sense.
Such a thing was hardly a problem until one came onto the path of high-cost skills. More precisely, it became a very hard ordeal to get through when using [Force Evolution]. It was made in tiers, each step up requiring exponentially more energy to perform. The Core knew it wouldn’t be able to perform anything above a certain level using only the available Mana in its reserves.
At the current moment, it could hold one hundred and ninety Mana inside itself comfortably, not nearly enough for even the bare minimum. This was partly circumvented by bloating itself up with excess Mana yet such a method had very clear boundaries. At the level required to reach the minimum, the Entity fully understood how much pain it would be in if such energy was held inside itself for more than the few moments it took to shift its mind over to using the skill itself.
It was annoying, it was very uncomfortable to do, and it brought many consequences if it ever went wrong, but the Core had no real way to do it. That is… until it had a small idea. What if it just took Energy that was it's own but not inside itself? The entire Dungeon was filled with thousands upon thousands of Mana-Points. There would be no loss if a few were expended to evolve a creature into a higher level.
No luck was had with it, however. Each attempt left the Core with extreme pain as the [Skill] tried to suck out Energy that wasn’t there. The [System] might have been all-knowing but it clearly couldn’t take a hint. For the skill to be activated without issue, all required energy needed to be within the Core’s Mana-Pattern. It couldn’t be outside, it couldn’t be extremely close to the pattern to the point where there wasn’t any discernible distance, and the Core couldn’t simply emulate the movements of the pattern. Everything had to be inside the Mana-Pattern.
If the Core had been without the system, such an event wouldn’t have been possible. It would have been more than possible to simply take the energy from outside itself and use it as it wanted. With the ownership still being to the Entity, there weren't any obvious issues with it. Yet the guiding hand of the [System] was without will and it couldn’t understand when it wasn’t needed. Since there were no alternative methods available in evolving creatures, the Core couldn’t do anything but use what it had at the current time. Another method could perhaps be discovered in the future, but it would require it to level up more than a few times more.
Though… that wasn’t to say that the current method was entirely terrible. There was a clear wall in evolving anything up to a higher tier of being but there were still a few small steps before such a point would even be reached with the current creatures. The Core had spent a few days just trying to figure out what kind of evolution it wanted to try with the ants around. While not many attempts had been made due to the associated pain, the few made had proven quite fruitful.
Congratulations!
[Giant-Ant] has been evolved into: [Acidic Giant-Ant]
Congratulations!
[Giant-Ant] has been evolved into: [Flinging Giant-Ant]
Two evolutions, to be exact. The Core was more than proud of both, each showing capabilities and newer features not seen before. Even more, was what each could do, their function being exactly what the Entity had longed after for quite a while.
An issue during the lastest and first adventuring party had been found, that being the lack of real ranged capabilities within the Dungeon. While the Core had used its old technique of making rocks fall from the ceiling, such a method was not ideal for long. With time, more than just a single group would appear and making sure each group had the chance of a rock destroying their heads would be much too wasteful an expense. Instead, the Entity had gotten the idea of letting the creatures do something similar.
Similar in the way of attacking from afar, of course. There were no dreams of making them crawl up onto the ceiling and smash people’s heads in from there… yet. The Core had instead gone the route of simply making sure the evolutions could attack further away than where their mandibles could reach. Through the suggestions from the Queen and a bit of very deep focus, the Mana in the air had reacted perfectly and the two evolutions had been created.
Evolution-Screen
Base creature
Variant
Rarity
Moss
Blood-Moss
Uncommon
Ant
Giant-Ant
Uncommon
Giant-Ant
Infested Giant-Ant
Very Rare
Undead Giant-Ant
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Rare
Flinging Giant-Ant
Common
Acidic Giant-Ant
Uncommon
Oak Tree
Entangling Oak Tree
Uncommon
Flowering Oak Tree
Very Rare
Having a look at the [Evolution-Screen], it had been clear from the start that both were perhaps not the rarest evolutions to attain. It was perhaps due to the Mana-Colours used being that of Dirt with the [Flinging Giant-Ant] and a mix of dirt and water with the [Acidic Giant-Ant]. Brown Mana was already very common inside those creatures so having an evolution based on that was as close to natural as the skill could get.
Even their external appearances had changed minimally through evolution itself, though both had perhaps shrunk down a smaller bit proportionally. Where the normal ants could reach a humanoid midsection, these would just be able to reach the thighs. Not that they would ever need to get that close, of course, their internal developments making sure of that. The most prominent of the two evolutions’ changes were of the [Acidic Giant-Ant]’s. Inside of its mouth, a new pipe had been added. If one was to travel down it, one would encounter separate pouches, each holding a very distinct liquid. The Core was still unable to truly grasp what each was, any attempts at [Appraisal] only showing the creature’s status screen, yet the effects of these two liquids mixing were more than just notable.
They could scar the areas around the creature like nothing ever before. The Queen called it concentrated acid and the Core had no real desire to refuse that notion. It could melt through another ant’s body like nothing before. It didn’t do much to non-organic materials, luckily enough, yet the ease at which it could make flesh bubbles proved that it was more than just a way to make dead bodies disappear. If an intruder was to get such a thing on their skin, the Core doubted they would be able to do much else but writhe on the floor in pain. However, it needed to make sure that the creature kept away from the intruders and only attacked at a fair distance. Its health was much too low.
Character Screen
Name:
-
Gender:
Male
Level:
4
Class:
-
Race:
Acidic Giant-Ant
Title:
Dungeon-Born
Health:
100/100
H-Regen:
0.16/sec
Mana:
-/-
M-Regen:
0/sec
Stamina:
210/210
S-Regen:
0.21/sec
Basic Stats
Strength:
14
Wisdom:
8
Vitality:
9
Intelligence:
6
Dex:
20
Willpower:
5
Resistances
Fire:
0%
Earth:
10%
Water:
5%
Arcane:
0%
Lightning:
0%
Light:
0%
Wind:
0%
Darkness:
5%
At the level of four, it had less than the regular ant had at its weakest. Dexterity and the general Mental stats had been increased considerably, but the Core fully understood that the creature was as brittle as it could be. The theoretical damage was high, yes, but without proper care taken to make sure it survived for long enough to deal that damage, it would be nothing but a slow start to a quick slaughter.
On the other side of the coin was the [Flinging Giant-Ant]. The Giant prefix was perhaps too out of its name soon, the size being just a bit smaller than the other evolution recently gained. It was closer to the knees of a humanoid than the top of the thighs at least, though that was no reason to underestimate it. With a more complexly built mouth, its mandibles had become connected to each other by a bundle of strong strings. When matched along with an extendable claw from within the ant’s mouth, it was able to hurl projectiles at very long ranges. While this would in theory have allowed the creature to use any kind of material as a weapon, it seemed that stone and mere rocks were too dense for the creature to work with.
The smaller rocks simply got caught between the strings and the bigger ones were too heavy to use for any reasonable distance. It was only when the Core allowed the creature to bite off a piece of its exoskeleton and use the fragments from it as a material that the weapon truly shined in efficiency. While standing still, the creature was able to shoot the projectile thirty meters at a speed where it could puncture the side of another ant. While the Core feared that the armour worn by adventurers could ward the theoretical damage away to some level, it truly understood just how dangerous it was. When the distance was shortened to only twenty meters, it was possible to instantly kill another ant when the hit was perfect.
Though, while the Core looked upon this achievement as brilliant, it was obvious in what other areas the creature fell short. It barely had to look at the status sheet before much became more obvious.
Character Screen
Name:
-
Gender:
Male
Level:
5
Class:
-
Race:
Flinging Giant-Ant
Title:
Dungeon-Born
Health:
120/120
H-Regen:
0.12/sec
Mana:
-/-
M-Regen:
0/sec
Stamina:
150/150
S-Regen:
0.15/sec
Basic Stats
Strength:
18
Wisdom:
5
Vitality:
11
Intelligence:
9
Dex:
14
Willpower:
6
Resistances
Fire:
0%
Earth:
15%
Water:
0%
Arcane:
0%
Lightning:
0%
Light:
0%
Wind:
0%
Darkness:
5%
The health was low, giving it the same vulnerability as the other ant. When putting that together with how utterly unskillful it was in its general movements, the Core was able to understand just how one could dispatch such a creature. And the lowered dexterity didn’t stop having effects there.
When the creature moved, its ability to shoot accurately was severely dampened. It had to stand still for several seconds while looking directly at the target before it could even begin to hit the intended spots. And if the target was moving as well? Then it became another debacle in itself.
The Core was able to amend it to still be quite useful during extended combat since combatants wouldn’t move around too much. Aiming for the main body or head would allow for heightened chances of hitting the target, at the very least.
Though, there was still quite a room for improvement. With the passing days, the Core had tried to create different formations. With the ants able to learn and comprehend orders, it was more than possible to create standardized tactics. If only it could-
‘Little rock.’
The Core stopped its thought-stream for a moment. The Queen was still inside the inner room, so it likely hadn’t forgotten about her leaving.
‘Yes?’
‘I sense traces of Dark Mana from a certain project of ours.’
Oh? That was good. The Core had been wondering when he would come back.