The chief of the shatterkin was a beastman named Davis. He had been raised since childhoodhood by dwarves, and had been given a name to match. Sadly, despite the good nature of his caretakers and the overall kindness of dwarves, he had turned out to be a rotten man. A bully, thief, and scoundrel, Davis was kicked out of his village soon after both adoptive parents died in a dungeon raid, no longer able to protect him from himself.

Davis entirely ignored his own actions prior to their deaths, however, and blamed the dungeon itself for their untimely demise. Davis had begged for weeks for them to enter, and get him a cool sword or set of armor. He had promised to be good, threatened to be bad, and everything in between, and had finally convinced them.

Now, nearly 40 years later, he was still the same rotten egg that broke into the baker's home and wrecked the ovens. Davis has a self appointed mission as well. To shatter every single dungeon core in the Black Woods, no matter if they are newborns or established.

“Hey chief, the map’s showin’ a newborn’s just popped up! Set course southward?”

“Aye, Yin, but give those damn horses a break. Fuckin’ bastards’ll need it.”

With a chuckle, the elf gave a joking salute and sauntered off. Davis turned back to the dull purple shards before him. A good set of twins, might have become deadly if he hadn’t taken care of them. A grin revealed sharp feline teeth, and he stowed away the shards in a pouch on his side. These, like all dungeon core shards, would sell very well as reusable mana crystals. His orange striped tail swished in thought. He may even get a few nights with some lionkin ladies in the next town, if he gets lucky at a brothel.

He didn’t notice the pure white butterfly settled on the trunk of a nearby tree.

———————

I wake slowly, feeling refreshed and in a generally good mood. Well, until I look at the signal coming from my butterfly golem. There was a group of twelve assorted beings, including a tiger catboy, a pair of elves, and various other fantasy species. I shouldn’t be surprised, especially considering the literal magic I’ve been executing, but I am.

My golem had eavesdropped some pretty terrifying news, though. These people called themselves shatterkin, and went around shattering every dungeon they found. And, according to a literal giant, who was about 10 feet tall, they knew my approximate location. Not concerning at all.

So of course, with me being entirely relaxed and safe, I begin to make a new golem with my newly refreshed mana. It’s going to be as humanoid as possible, but also elf-like. I get the feeling that humans either aren’t too welcome or don’t exist anymore. The elves of the shatterkin looked to be a bit tall, so I really hope that’s an average height as I make a mound of transmuted clay. It seems that the closer two materials are in composition, the easier it is to transmute them.

As I mold the form into something acceptable, I realize that it will probably need bones. Instead of transmuting, this time I simply take some stone to do the job for me. Making the skeletal system was relatively easy and quick, only taking around an hour to complete. The process had taken significantly less mana than I thought it would, too. That means I can put more effort into the surface appearance.

The body shape was easy enough to mold around the bones, but the details were much harder. It was difficult to create realistic texture and features without crossing into uncanny valley. Eventually I decided not to go the route of a realistic face, merely making a protrusion for a nose and a slash for a mouth. Somehow it was less creepy than when trying to pretend to look human.

I connect the mouth and nose with internal passages, and make an esophagus that lead to faux lungs and stomach. I’m not sure how I’ll use those in the future, but I feel like they might be important in some manner. I make a small cavity where the heart would be, in just the right size for my core. Speaking of my core, it somehow seems a bit different. It could be the way light reflects off it, or even a different tinge to the very faint glow surrounding it, but something changed.

I don’t think I like the shape of the diamond anymore, though. It neither looks good nor feels good, so… I concentrate on my mana, pulling it in and putting the image of an oval into my mind. Something that would go well in a necklace. My mana swirled, and I felt the way I take it in from the air change. Was that the difference I felt? What would a torpedo shape do?

I try, and it felt like the mana went from air I could breathe in to water sliding by. My mana and the ambient stuff interacted but never mingled, and I didn’t take any in. Interesting. With a thought, I change back to an oval shape. I pay more attention to the mana, seeing a slight waviness to the mana closer to my surface, almost as if it were some sort of event horizon.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

What would a sphere do? I change and immediately feel the difference. The mana was drawn to me, orbiting rapidly and moving like snakes in a den. I understand why some would use this. It was easy, and a comparatively massive amount of mana seemed to be able to be stored, but I don’t like it. It’s obvious, even I can tell that. My point is proven soon after, when a small fox enters my view. It was watching the ambient mana be drawn to my core, and looked to be almost salivating at the rings of warm mana orbiting.

It took several steps forward, and I changed to a cube. The rings ground to a halt, and reversed. They also zagged this way and that in geometric patterns. I turn to a… pentagonal dodecahedron, and the zigzagging becomes more prevalent. The fox shrieked. Early zoomed in out of nowhere, dive-bombing the poor creature until it tried to run. Unfortunately for the little thing, Rose, Blanche, and Dorothy were nearby.

They all violently attacked the thing until it collapsed, and all I could do was watch on in morbid fascination. Well, I could do a lot more, but I was kind of afraid of the hungry look on the fox’s face. Early and Dorothy stayed with the corpse while the other two flew off somewhere. Then, they began doing something strange. There’s been a lot of strange things going on recently, but this was extra strange.

The mother and daughter were absorbing energy from the fallen foe, and both sparrows grew noticeably larger. It wasn’t much, but it was there. What was that? Evolution? Experience gain? Ah, no, think more abstract…

Life force acquisition. The practice of taking the soul of a recently slain opponent in order to improve or modify the body, mind, soul, manaheart, skills… and a whole lot of other stuff I can barely understand. I look into the thoughts of Early and Dorothy, to try and see what they’re aiming for. Dorothy was easy, being fresh and still incredibly young despite her appearance. She wanted to be a Sparrow Heavy Knight.

A sparrow with exceptional strength and skill in the art of swordplay, a Sparrow Heavy Knight defends its family to its very last breath. Their feathers can harden to the point of steel, and their beak is incredibly sharp, to the point some of them wear rounded metal covers when preening themselves and others. Sturdy legs, abnormal wingspan to body ratio, and wicked talons as sharp as their beaks. That’s all metal as hell. I’m glad she’s interested in things like that.

Early was a bit trickier, and I decided to ask permission rather than try and force my way in. A polite knock, and there we have it! Early wanted to be… a sparrow beastman? Hm. A beastman with the features of a sparrow, including beak, feathers, bird legs, and wing-like arms. Beastmen need less mana to cast flow spells than the average species, and have a slightly higher than average number comprehension as well. Compared to other sapient species.

So, Early wants to be a beastman too-oo-oo? Walk like them, talk like them too-oo-oo… Sorry. I turn my attention back to the fox, and decide to absorb it before anything else comes near. Speaking of, how did four sparrows even kill a fox? This kind of bird isn’t particularly powerful, and even four of them would likely just chase off an animal before killing it. Unless… I take a closer look at the body, and it hits me. The fox was malnourished! Incredibly, disgustingly malnourished. Like someone took a fox, stuck it in a crate and fed it three pomegranate seeds a day for two years.

Well, now I feel sad. Poor thing was just looking for something to eat and I killed it… it may have died soon either way, but still. It’s the principle of the matter. I shake my non-existent head, and turn my core back into an oval. Let’s get back to work on the golem. Will it really be a golem if I’m controlling it directly? I don’t know.

Hm. Now that I have the… blueprint, I suppose, I can make hair. I don’t know why I had so much trouble with it at all in the beginning. It’s pretty simple isn’t it? Or at least, more simple than creating an entire being out of scratch… Was that the difference? Pure mana versus transmutation? I think so.

Let’s see… maybe I’ll give my golem some features of a fox beastman. Move the ears further up, give them a bit more flexibility and range of movement, easy peasy. Fox ears! Wait. Wait a fucking second. This is just a catgirl with a different animal. I quickly revert my changes and settle with an elf golem.

With a breath, I give my golem red-orange hair. It was styled in a… well, it wasn’t really styled at all. It was just puffed up in a poor imitation of that frog balloon from shrek. with a cringe, I slick it back a bit to give it at least some semblance of style. I move some mana around, watching the licks of unconverted blue interact with my own amber mana. Hm. It makes me think. What will I do when I enter the golem?

Will I run or fight? Will I find a shape that lets me completely hide from the world? I don’t know. I know the shatterkin want to kill me. I don’t know why, though. Is there something intrinsically wrong with dungeons? Is there something wrong with me, specifically? I don’t want to leave my rats, and I don’t want to leave my sparrows. I don’t want to leave my maze either.

I don’t want a lot of things. I don’t want to die again. I don’t want… whatever else comes after death. I can’t… I can’t think about this right now. I want to work on my golem.

[https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/708173084984868888/1053888353864519711/IMG_0790.jpg?width=1386&height=1040]

Spoiler is art by Nayylissah, rendered by yours truely