Please State Your Name:
-
OK
Defer
"Okay, this is bright, but I don't think it counts as a light if it's not actually lighting things up. Either way, I don't think there's much point in picking a name when so far I've worked out that I don't have legs and not much else." I thought to myself, not entirely appreciating the mental company the message brought.
"Defer", I pointedly thought at the message, which seemed to satisfy it for the moment, leaving me in the quiet darkness.
"So, what am I? I can definitely feel physical pressure from something, so I don't think I'm entirely thought-based, despite the mental monologuing."
Focusing on that sensation of pressure, I tried to get more information about what I was feeling - heat, texture, moisture, anything - and found whatever senses I had to be lacking. This is probably not a good thing. If I couldn't feel heat - or its absence - then if whatever body I have has a sensitivity to temperature extremes, or even just a specific comfort zone, I might not know I'm out of that safe zone until I start feeling pain. Assuming I can feel pain. I really hoped that I wasn't in a dangerous place right now. The feeling of pressure wasn't uncomfortable, but- hm.
Something had changed about it. A shift in the pressure in one place. I focused intently on the change, my first real clue as to what I might be aside from verbose. I could tell that I had caused this change, though I had no idea how. It felt cold, distant, and rather unpleasant to interact with, but as the only thing I could "feel", there was no way I could indulge that aversion.
After a while of feeling it shift over my pressure-sense without becoming weaker or noticeably moving away, I decided to try something.
"Stop."
I tried to think at it in the same way I had previously dismissed the question of a name, and it did work, somewhat. The shifting slowed a little, and I found that if I focused on the idea for longer, with some strain I could actually slow it quite substantially. It never did stop though, maybe I wasn't strong enough to will it so? Maybe motion is fundamental to whatever it is? I wasn't feeling too focused after doing that for a while, so I guessed I have the capacity for exhaustion, lucky me.
Stopping it was a lot of work for a result without a meaning, so next I tried willing it to move in specific directions. I had a pretty good idea of how it preferred to move from watching it shift earlier, and it was a lot easier to mentally nudge it one way or the other than stop it. Moving it deliberately at all seemed to give it a little more speed each time, even once it started shifting around on its own again, as if willing it to move actually imparted some energy rather than just a command. I tried to nudge it towards 'me', rather than the radial track it so far had stuck to.
And then my world exploded.
New Mana Quiddity Absorbed! Processing...
First Mana Quiddity Absorbed, FG-01 Black Mana: 0.1
When I came to, I was pleased to note the world was actually still here, if feeling a bit put out by my temporary absence from it. Still, I moved on from that feeling pretty quickly as I took in my surroundings.
Because I could take in my surroundings.
"I'm... luminescent?"
I was luminescent, but that wasn't what I was seeing. Something about taking in that mana had jump-started my senses, and now I could tell that I was underground, buried, but the area around me was awash with something similar to the black mana I had just taken in. Some other 'flavour' of mana, I presu-
Please State Your Name:
-
OK
Defer
"Defer!" I snapped back, my train of thought interrupted by the annoying question again.
Carefully, I tried to pull some of the mana into myself, hoping to get some answers without blacking out again. It took a while - it wasn't hard to manipulate in the same way slowing the black mana was, but rather it was so ephemeral that moving just a small amount without losing track of the part I was manipulating took a great deal of focus and many attempts. At first I tried to simply nudge the mana again, but it seemed to get washed away with the natural flow the moment it showed signs of resisting it. Attempting to slow the motion did work, at first, but the strain threatened to knock me out again, and I really didn't want to find out if I could lose this level of perception as sharply as I gained it. I spent what felt like hours - thankfully uninterrupted by questions - trying to understand the way the mana flowed naturally, and once I felt like I understood it well enough to act, I focused on a larger area of it, willing the mana on the edges of my focus to flow around the mana in the centre away from me, and the mana in the centre to move towards me. It was slow at first but eventually I just needed to give it that last little push, and I felt it flow into the sphere which I now understood to be my body.
New Mana Quiddity Absorbed! Processing...
FG-01 Null Mana: 1
I felt my understanding of the mana around me sharpen, as if absorbing a small mote of it had given me an instinctual comprehension of it. I could even feel the small amount I had taken in, a tiny weight in the lightness of my being. I couldn't actually feel the black mana from earlier, presumably it was in there too though, possibly in too small a quantity to be able to sense yet.
Please State Your Name:
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OK
Generate Name
"Defer!" I replied reflexively, realising too late that 'Defer' was no longer an option, and that apparently this was my last chance to pick a name on purpose.
Name 'Defer' accepted! Processing...
If I could make noise I would have made several very unpleasant ones, but instead I hoped that I could find a way to change that once I had a better name in mind, but for now it would have to do.
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Calculating status retroactively...
Mana Sense set to 2
Mana Conversion: Black set to 1
Will Exertion: Mana set to 1
Black Mana Manipulation set to 1
Null Mana Manipulation set to 3
Mana Conversion: Red set to 1
Processing...
That last one surprised me, and I immediately began casting my awareness around the area for another sliver of something different. It didn't take me long to find it very close to my surface, much like the black mana from before, and it wasn't hard to pull it into myself in the same way. It felt warm and heavy, and I felt a little more alert, though unlike before I didn't black out, or feel much change in my feeling of the room. I still had no idea how I had apparently converted mana to either kind, and the messages I was receiving were not forthcoming with details. Hopefully whoever or whatever was sending them would be a little more helpful once it had finished 'processing' me.
Mana Conversion: Red set to 1
Processing Complete! Status of Defer:
Core Status
Name: Defer
Rank: 1 Colour: Prismatic
Cut: N/A Condition: Perfect
Feats:
Seeded Existence Chromophiliac Cutless
Skills:
Mana Sense 2 Mana Conversion: Black 1 Mana Conversion: Red 1 Null Mana Manipulation 3 Black Mana Manipulation 1 Red Mana Manipulation 1 Will Exertion: Mana 1
Stored
Null Mana 51 Black Mana 0.1 Red Mana 0.1
Well, that was verbose. I almost expected more numbers. I was pleased to note that I was 'perfect', though I wasn't really seeing the 'Prismatic' in my appearance. Maybe it's something I'll grow into? Rank into? In any case, this status hadn't presented me with any goals, though I was curious what the 'Seeded Existence' feat meant. Hoping the name-taking entity was listening, I tried to get more information.
"Seeded Existence? Information, please?"
Seeded Existence
You were not born by a random convergence of mana like so many other dungeon cores. You were created deliberately, for better or for worse. Make the most of it.
Effect: Unknown
...Huh. 'Dungeon Core'? The name implied some things, but...
"What is a Dungeon Core?"
Dungeon Core A dungeon core is an entity born of the natural flow of mana and will. When mana flows of sufficient density and Quiddity converge underground, a dungeon core may be created. Dungeon cores instinctively create a dungeon by tunneling, deconstructing, or otherwise moving the rock and earth around them and pour mana into their surroundings. A dungeon core can be destroyed by physical assault or by the starvation of mana flows around it.
Feeling the information flow into me, I wondered why I didn't have those instincts. I was to all intents and purposes, making things up as I went along. At least I now knew some things I could do, even if I wasn't too sure on the 'how' yet. I could move the earth. If I made my way to the surface, maybe I could find the one who made me, or at least find someone who knew why.
I just had to work out how to interact with physical matter. No big deal. Right?