The moment the Core saw the Warden leave the area by the river, it was able to feel itself untighten its Mana. Everything had been so stressful to get through, the Entity understanding full and well that any larger mistake could have ended with its death. It was pure luck that the [Druid] had started talking about the possibility of the people coming so soon. If it hadn't… it would have ended slightly differently.
Speaking of differently, though. The Queen was dead, just as planned. Seeing Mother Carapace’s head be sliced off so brutally was most certainly not a kind action to see unfold. Much less with that ruddy talking of hers. It had been her idea to talk in such short sentences yet the Core was still unable to see a reason for it. She had died without doing as much as the slightest damage.
Not that such a fact was something to be sad about. Even the Core had shown extreme stress when it came to following the Warden’s movements during the last seconds. The speed and finesse of the man had been above anything else the Core had ever seen. If not for his obvious strain after performing the act, the Entity might have tried something dumb.
But such things were in the past. For now, the after-effects had to be dealt with. Every single creature inside the Dungeon, except for the [Blood-Moss] which was done perfectly as always, was dead. If any monster from the outside decided to try and attack at that very moment, the Core would be without safety at any meaningful level. So… it was time to rebuild the forces.
The regular ants and variants among them were easy enough. With their lower levels, no real trouble was had with them. Positioning the recruits inside the Dungeon after giving them the basic rundown of rules was easy as well. The [Lacus-Otter] was slightly harder to get right, the Core still not used to creating them and much less making sure they were behaving right. It did manage in the end though, having performed the feat before.
However… there was one resurrection that had never been accomplished. Mostly due to a lack of need for it, of course, but certainly something that the Core felt needed to be taken care of with utmost haste. Indeed, it was the revival of Mother Carapace herself. She couldn’t keep being dead, of course. Other tasks needed her presence.
Absorbing her body first, the instant thought to remake it crossed the Core’s mind. Yet at the very same moment, a new screen showed up, the contents of which were quite peculiar.
Warning!
Your [Dungeon-Boss] has died and you are currently attempting to revive it. [Automatic-Revival Procedures] have been activated.
Automatic revival? The Core had to admit it had no recollection of such an [Procedure]. Much less did it know of any procedure. Was it something only allowed with [Dungeon-Bosses]? It had to be for the higher ranking monsters at the very least since the Core had seen no sign of such a screen while reviving the other creatures. With a pull of the mind, another new screen of the day was shown.
[Automatic-Revival Procedures]
Mother Carapace
Allocated Mana:
0.05/sec
Estimated time:
4 Hours, 59 Minutes, 59 Seconds
So many hours? The Core supposed such was fair enough, so little energy was spent towards it. It was nearly half of its natural Mana-Regeneration yet also so minuscule compared to what the Core brought in every second with the use of Manual regeneration. The Entity supposed it could change it… but how?
Focusing on it did the trick fine enough, a slider of sorts being shown above the initial screen. The Core tried to put it up towards several total Mana each second yet the [System] refused such notions, only allowing it to reach zero point ten Mana instead. It was annoying but it was better than the alternative.
[Automatic-Revival Procedures]
Mother Carapace
Allocated Mana:
0.1/sec
Estimated time:
2 Hours, 29 Minutes, 35 Seconds
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That was better, the Core supposed. The wait was still long and arduous but it was better than the previous amount. If only the [System] would allow for more unconditional means of Energy-Intake, the Entity could have done so much more. Instead, it was forced to wait and wallow as nothing truly productive could be done. Healing up the [Entangling Oak Tree] was already being done at the maximum speed, though it was still taking quite a while. The creature had certainly taken a beating and was lashing out the moment it became able to. A quick order to sit still stopped that from continuing, luckily.
Spending time doing nothing didn’t feel right, of course, leading the Core to wonder what else there was to do. Normally, it would spend time questioning the Queen about the world. Maybe ask about Runes a bit more, try to figure out a few steps themselves. It had even gotten a hobby of trying to activate copies of the Runes it had found by the river. It hadn’t worked yet though that was likely due to it being done improperly. Or maybe it was due to it not being in the correct environment. The Core was still not too sure yet, hence why it had spent so much time trying to figure out its mechanics.
There had been a few new variations pop up in its mind as of late. If it tried to mirror the runes on both sides of a simulated river, perhaps it could-
A sound from within the main room came to rest upon the Core’s senses, its reflexive urge to kill whoever was there immediately shut down. Not for a lack of desire, of course. The issue was that there was no one in the room. Not a single living soul other than the Core and the moss was present.
But then… What had it heard? Another couple of seconds were allowed to pass before the sound came again, this time making it obvious where the source was from. Right in the middle of the room, on the floor, the rocks shook. They had been hit from somewhere. And the Core knew exactly where from.
Removing those aforementioned rocks and the few meters of stone below it, the Entity was not too surprised to see a heaving Half-Elf/Half-Human stumble out of the old tunnel, clearly not doing too well physically. It seemed that the air down there hadn’t been the highest quality, stone-dust filling the man’s lungs to a degree that the Core didn’t agree with. A few seconds of clearing it out stopped the Druid from spitting out more of the lunch that the Entity had prepared for it a few hours ago.
“You could have responded to those pleas of air I made a while ago,” the Druid named Buck exclaimed in between more deep breaths that weren’t needed. The man’s heartbeat had already fallen and the bloodstream was in perfect health yet again. It had to be a mental choice to sound so exhausted. Or… maybe the Core needed another look at those nerves. Some of the older ones could have slipped back in without its notice, making older instincts act up without a need for them. “It was getting very to breathe down there. You should invest in some form of ventilation.”
The Core ignored the man, for now, overlooking the nerves with keen sight. No real troubles seemed to be in the wrong order. There were some loose ends around the heartbeat but the Entity supposed there would be little need for ultra-low rates underwater, the Core not expecting the man to be the sort of person who dived for longer distances without air. Still, it was quite an interesting sight. And with the recent ideas gained during the Warden’s fight, there were a few improvements that could be done to the muscle structure in the shoulders. Now, it would only take a few minutes to do it right.
“... Hello?”
The back muscles had been changed drastically to take on the new ability to run. The previous version, the one which the man had been forced to wield, had been extremely unbalanced. The inside and the main part of it was the muscle fibres usually used for long-distance running. Which was great until it came to show that the connections all around it were for explosive movement, meaning that it caused extreme damage and fatigue to use the body part for what it was meant to be used for. The Core had, of course, fixed that the moment it had seen the error, yet it turned out that it didn’t have the best synergy with the chosen muscle distribution in the shoulders.
There was too much on the sides when compared with the top, making the blood flow slightly uneven. It wouldn’t do much in the short term but could create issues in the long term when mixed with an unbalanced diet. Fixing that could be done in ten minutes or so since the arms would need new connections as well. Too much was connected, honestly. Why could bodies not be simpler?
“Is anyone there?”
Because if they were simpler, the effects wouldn’t be as great. The Core knew it could simplify so many parts of the body, to the point where it could half the amount of total different muscles, yet knew that doing such a thing would limit the amount of actual potential the body had. Without so many parts that could be moved independently, it became hard to have different reactions to different events. Being complex had difficulties attached, yes, but those could be fixed with proper preparations. They allowed for too much to ignore fully.
“... Don’t tell me they left me behind.”
But that was enough thinking about the theory for one day. The Core knew it could continue the thread for hours upon end, never growing bored with the topic, yet it also understood that doing so would hamper the original point. It needed to fix up the body’s structure so it wouldn’t have to see such faults in the future.
“They did, didn’t they?”
First came those nerves down by the heart. Rearranging them was easy enough, no replacements being needed and the task being focused more on redistributions of signals. Doing that while it was also beating in rhythm at an increased rate was slightly annoying but the Core did suppose that the costs of stopping it for a few hours would be worse. For now, it worked when mixed in with being patient.
Now, it was time for the shoulders and back. The first step was to separate the needed parts so that the nerves around wouldn’t get damaged when they were removed.
“Those- ah, shit, that hurts!”
What the Core did not account for when separating pieces of muscle was that the muscle would begin to clench and unclench rapidly along with all other muscles close to it, creating much more damage than any operation should’ve. It was a nightmare to stop the internal bleeding from becoming serious.
Even more serious was that it wouldn’t be possible to stop it if the movement didn’t cease. But the movement itself was caused by an external entity that couldn’t be communicated with easily. The lack of a certain Intelligent Ant made sure of that.
“Stop biting me, whatever you are” a certain Druid shouted into the air, misreading the entire situation as it clutched and pulled at its skin around the spot where the Core had started the separation. The extreme damage from that wasn’t easy to put into words, so the Entity focused on how utterly stupid it thought the [Englightened] to be.
Something had to be done. But what? Knock the man senseless with a rock? No, the Queen would be more than annoyed at having to help fix the brain damage. Hope he gives up then? No, that wouldn’t work either. Those humanoids would be too stupid to stop making it worse. But… What then? The Core had to spell it out for itself before it finally had an idea.
Using an invisible force as a knife, it began to quite loudly fracture the wall closest to the Druid. The sound made the man turn around just as the Core finished its masterwork.
“...Stop movement?” the man named Buck read out in a confused tone. The Core was happy to hear it, knowing it had remembered the spelling of the words right.
Because it knew how to spell now. The Queen had taught the Entity a bit more than one would have guessed. It had seemed stupid at the time yet Mother Carapace had suspected a situation like the current to happen.
Now was the time to see if the Core could remember it all right.