“How do you feel?” Mother Carapace started with, just as she and the Core had planned. The Entity was silent throughout it, not needing much involvement. The previous work of putting pressure to make the man feel weaker than he had been was over, so just sitting around was the new trend. There was a desire to start up on another project while the slow conversation was ongoing yet the Core sat steadfastly. It wouldn’t be distracted.
Instead, time was spent monitoring the creature's vitality. Or, the [Enlightened]’s vitals. The Core didn’t like to think of the [Druid] as such, though. The name brought too many connotations. Perhaps [Servant]? It could work, the Core supposed. It would have to try it out to be sure first, though.
“I feel… something,” the servant replied slowly. They moved their fingers gently, eyes widening at the new sensations. The Core guessed it was due to so much input coming from their fingertips. They had previously not gotten the sensory data from the right spots, so it must have been quite the experience to go through. If only it could try something like it. “What did you do to me? And what was that about my insides?”
“Nothing you need to worry about for the current moment,” the Queen replied jovially. She was certainly acting to some level, but the Core knew that she enjoyed more than she was letting on. Had her years as a warrior made her so sadistic? It was likely. “Though, hearing you have no pains brings me great joy. If we had to open you up again to find the errors, I do not believe it would be the greatest experience for anybody included.”
“Who’s ‘we?’”
“Yet another thing you do not need to know about right now,” was the response they had already planned. It would be utterly impossible to make the Druid believe the Queen was alone but it seemed that the connection of the Core being sentient hadn’t been made yet. Which was quite good, with no anomaly needing to be detected. “If anything, I believe we have other matters to attend to if you don’t have any pains.”
The Druid named Buck looked down for a while. His eyes were still for a moment before they started darting around looking at… something. Something the Core couldn’t see. Something that the Queen likely couldn’t either.
“What happened to my [Levels]?” the servant had the gall to ask, not realizing their removal had been necessary. “Did you take those as payment as well?
“No, they were not,” the Queen answered. “Their removal was required if you were to be healed completely. Without letting you weaken, it would have been impossible to rid you of the faults that were forced upon you at birth. Now, I do need to listen as I-”
“What exactly do you mean with ‘forced upon you at birth?’ You were meant to cure me of the sickness you gave me and nothing else,” was shouted so loud that the cave entrance was allowed to emit the echoes. The Core stopped them from entering the forest at least, though they couldn’t have gone much further anyway.
The Queen spent a few minutes looking down at the man. Not for too long, though, the Druid rising from his lying position and standing up as tall as he was. With the new bone adjustments, he might even have grown a few pebbles higher, though the Core wasn’t too sure. It was the first time the Entity had seen the man at full health and he had been slouching the shoulders previously. Nevertheless, the higher stature made it hard for the Queen to seem imposing with merely her height.
Which was why she pulled out a certain twisting mass of flesh-like tendrils from her back. Even when angered, the Druid was unable to hide the flinch and step back as they reached out from under the Queen’s skin. The look of disgust and horror on the man’s face had been portrayed at that moment.
“Cut me off again and I will be removing the outermost layer of your skin,” the Queen warned, the Core knowing for a fact she could make it happen. Now that they were sure the Core could heal the man without too much danger, letting a bit of superficial damage reach him was fine enough. As long as it didn’t mentally scar him too much, most things should be allowed. “Do you understand?”
No words came out of the Druid’s throat, only a silent, repeated nod being the response. It was quite the sight to see, the Core happy that their method of training worked flawlessly. The early introduction to pain from the Queen was more than wonderful, the man knowing perfectly well how much it could hurt if he disobeyed. Not that could do that too much, the man soon getting enough information that he likely never would do it willingly.
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“Good. I knew you could listen from the moment I first sensed you,” the Queen stated, looking up at where the Core looked from for a moment before staring back at the man. “And I believe that you can sense me too. Even while your senses might be overloaded from the higher amounts of energy, I believe you can feel my every movement on a scale not requiring mere sight. Am I correct in this?”
The answer came naturally as Buck dodged a tendril that had been diving towards the back of his head. It had sneaked through the stone below to hit him without making it obvious, yet it had been detected without ever making a sound. If that wasn’t proof of something, the Core wasn’t sure what it was.
“I believe that speaks for itself,” the quite dangerous ant continued, allowing the elongated tendril to return into her back. The large mass of them had slowly started to decrease in size as well, though still being large enough to envelop the ant’s body without too much of a struggle. “This sense you have should be enough for you to detect the connection slowly starting to form between. It’s the proof we both know of me owning you through and through. Soon, I will be able to make commands that might go against everything you have ever dreamt of, everything you have ever feared. I could force you to kill yourself using only your nails. I could make you kill a village and bathe in their blood, drag their bodies together, and watch as they would be used for the largest abyssal abomination the world has seen for decades.”
The air had been going darker as the Queen started to relive her glory days. The Core had personally not been told much of those times, more for a lack of it asking about, but a few hints here and there was slowly making it believe that it had been quite the brutal time for the world. While the ant might not have been a major piece, she had been the pawn of one. Where the former master was now, the Core could only dream. Without a doubt, however, it hoped for them to be dead and buried in the sea, far enough that nobody could find their body.
“But, if things turn out the right way, I hope that we will never have to go to such lengths,” the Queen assured the Druid who had started to step back yet again. It was quite the bad tactic seeing as he was soon to hit a wall. And… he had already stepped on the [Blood-Moss] which was quite annoying, though the Core couldn’t truly see an opportunity to stop the pre-planned speech. “If you follow my words, heed my call, and never break the rules put forth, I see no reason to force you into the life of mindless obedience. I will make a few securities to make sure you can never run, but I hope to make sure that we can both enjoy this partnership.”
Calling the relationship between a master and a slave a partnership was perhaps a bit too stretched but it sounded better than pointing out how little say the man had about anything. If not for the lessened ability to converse and act freely that came from the transformation to mindlessness, they would have certainly gone that route. Yet, they needed the man to be able to act in normal society and for that, he needed to be willing.
Congratulations! A [Superior] Bond is being formed!
“So I won’t be forced to do anything as long as I follow your every word?” the Druid questioned his tone not entirely positive. It was almost as if he saw the deal as negative.
“I am glad you can see our point. With enough time, you might even be able to make suggestions about what duties you shall have. When we expand, there might even be a chance at lower-level management.”
“How utterly fun.”
The sarcastic and saddened expression was something the Queen had seen coming, pointing it out as the most likely reaction to the man’s situation. He wasn’t going to die but he wasn’t going to live freely anymore. Even the change in [God] he prayed to had changed. While the Core saw no real loss at that, the Queen had mentioned it to be a very important step in changing one’s personality and view of the world. Choosing to pray to the [God of Monsters] meant the man wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea of becoming himself in due time. And with the actions done previously, the Entity didn’t need too much convincing to believe that the man might be good for the job. Slicing a friend’s throat open to survive was something to be proud of, after all, and never once had the man shown remorse for what he had done.
“So… what am I meant to do for now?” Buck asked after a few more seconds of waiting. The Queen had spent them looking upon the connection which was formed. Letting the man know of its existence had allowed it to grow by another magnitude, his side pushing against the previous walls to allow for a connection to sprout. It would be weak for the next couple of days but enough time would allow it to grow strong.
“For now, you will sit down and rest. While your body has been improved, I do not believe we should tempt fate and force you to fight out into the wilderness,” the Queen said before giving it a moment. “And perhaps it would be a good idea to get some new clothes on you. Those ragged pieces of leather you bear will fall apart within the next day or two.”
While the half-human half-elf looked more than a little appalled at such criticism about its gear, the Core perfectly understood the messages. With a small twist of the mind, it began to run through the different lengths and widths of the Druid, making sure the Entity had the right measurements to create new armour. The leather would be the same as the stronger intruder from earlier had worn. Not that there weren’t many other things to pick it from. There was little chance that tree bark could work for much longer than the man’s current get-up.
A peculiar sound came from the Druid, loud enough to be heard through Dungeon. Thinking something had gone wrong, the Core looked within, ready to fix up any possible damage. Instead, all that the Entity found was one sad fact.
“Uh… would it be possible to get some food down here?”
The new connection didn’t stop the Druid from getting hungry.