All the choices I made were there in my stats and my mana reflected the change, it will be nice having more energy to work with, even if it’s not much more than I already had. Assuming they are listed in order of when I chose them that means Avatar form was the one in the center, but I don’t recall there being anything allowing myself to spend more aether on it for a second level. I would have to look into it later because right now I wanted to figure out how they actually worked. Mana was self explanatory, it had increased my mana pool by half, and more than that I could actually feel the streams of mana weaving inside the dungeon, I could even see the faint mist swirling and disappearing into the base of my core and then spiraling out the top, when I close my eyes and focus on my core I can sense how much mana I have left without needing to use discern, that's handy.
Metalworking-I, Alchemy-I, and gem crafting-I I assumed would be utilized inside my mindspace where I held my schematics and resource knowledge, however when I tried to enter it I felt a tug like something was anchoring me to the floor, perplexed I look down and… legs… when did I get legs? And arms, and hands, “what in the goddamn?” I yell, startling myself with the sound coming from my mouth. I reach up and put a hand on my face. I can feel my beard bushy and full and the deep jagged scar on my right cheek where I was hit with shrapnel. I'm wearing my fatigues, the crisp woodland marpat covered in a thin veil of orange wisps and curls and crossing my eyes I can see my nose. I try to take a step forward and I immediately topple forward into a heap on the floor smashing my face into the granite, nearly a month as an ethereal floating consciousness really did a number on my motor skills.
“And here I thought I would remember how to walk.” I growl as I push myself into a sitting position rubbing my forehead and adjusting the scabbard on my left hip so its not digging into my side, Even through the pain and possible concussion I grin like a madman, white teeth reflecting the soft orange glint in my sanctum as I scoot up to my core and lean against the pillar then groaning as I clutch my stomach, it certainly feels as though I haven't eaten in a month so I conjure up a thick meaty steak of hare meat on a feldspar tablet like a cutting board
“It certainly isn’t beef, but it'll do” I say next I pile a few sticks into a teepee and materialize a knotted bundle of the trip line wire I used on my first trap and seat it into the base of the teepee, now with my kindling ready I have to stop and think, I need to make a fire but don’t have the energy for a bow or hand drill, and checking my cargo pockets my flint and steel are gone. On a whim I create one tiny Mote of ignis, dropping it into my palm, draining my mana pool by thirty points but the gnawing hunger in the pit of my stomach is killing all thoughts of reason I have.
As the sliver lands in my palm it's hot, a little painful and it certainly doesn't feel good to hold so I gently drop it into the bed of tinder and I materialize a smooth granite rock in my other hand, focusing on the rock I carve a hole straight through the middle and inside I make a wooden dowel stretching it out into a handle, I hold the granite club and feel its weight in my hand, then I begin shaping the head into a squared off mallet, after inspecting it one last time I pull the bed of wood fiber that’s starting to smoke from contact with the mote out of the teepee and place it to the side in front of me and then with all the grace of a starving idiot I swing the hammer down on top of the tinder as hard as I can muster, and the mote explodes into a shower of red-silver sparks that fly everywhere illuminating the small space in a blinding scarlet light and burning holes in my uniform as the sound of the hammer striking the floor reverberates in the dungeon only slightly muffled by the fibers, dazed and singed with ringing ears I look down at my kindling now on fire and loosing mass quickly I cackle like a madman as I grab it, burning my hand some more in the process, and gingerly place it in the dry rotted wood teepee, watching it catch fire and begin burning, bathing the gloomy sanctum in flickering orange light.
As the fire builds I slowly add slightly bigger wood, until I amass a small but hot bed of coals I take another feldspar tablet and carve slots out of it making a crude grill and place it on the coals. After waiting as long as I can stand for the grill to heat up I take the slab of meat and slap it onto the stone grate where it sizzles and pops as the juices begin to leak out, while waiting for it to cook I take the time to form a simple wooden fork with two prongs to allow me to stab the meat and flip it, the smell coming off of it was so good I almost started eating right then but steeled myself and allowed it to cook evenly.
Impatient and bored, I pick up the hammer I used to start the fire and notice that there are a lot of hairline cracks stretching out across the surface, inside the cracks a pulsing red glow that gently fades in and out. Curious, I flip the hammer around to the face I used to strike the mote, its scorched black and there is a small silver-red crescent in the center flush with the surface where all the cracks are emanating from and it glows like a small ember that doesn’t seem to go out or catch brighter as time goes on and I use discern on the tool.
“Simple Infused Forge Hammer, Uncommon, Crude, This smithies hammer has been infused with a source of primordial fire, if supplied with mana while being used, it can heat metals to forging temperatures without needing a kiln. The temperature that can be attained and efficiency with mana are dictated by the quality of the item. Note, this item is crude, it may break during use.”
“That is.. unexpected.'' I finally say while examining it further, it's kind of useless right now to be honest but at least now I know how to infuse tools, or at least how to infuse hammers.
"Happy accidents are good accidents". I muse as I put the hammer down at my side and return to watching the meat with a gnawing hunger threatening to make me devour the still half raw steak, but I manage to keep myself civil, if only just barely.
After the longest and most painful wait of my life I was finally ready to eat, and with no regard for any manners I begin tearing chunks out of the still sizzling lean steak with my teeth, I had only had rabbit once before, and it was not nearly this tasty, but I guess anything would taste this godly if you haven't eaten in a month, finally feeling my thirst as well i materialize a bottle and fill it with water for a drink while my thoughts wander in circles over the meal as I am completely unaware of the light tap of six clawed feet making their way up to my sanctum until I feel a light pitter patter on my back, I had been facing away from the entrance and now sending my senses through the dungeon there were a lot of agitated male Dire Ants milling about my courtyard, and Cardinal was standing right behind me, tapping my back with her antenna. Petrified and wide eyed, I slowly swivel my torso around coming face to face with the giant ant, and her massive mandibles. They were closed which was at least reassuring but I've seen how fast they can be opened and closed so it wasn't quite as reassuring as I would have liked I could feel her prod the connection with fascination and curiosity as she taps her antenna against my face and hair and my mind was blank after coming face to face with her in person.
“So..” I began to speak out loud after swallowing my last mouthful of meat. “H-how is the wedding going?” I say meekly with a weak grin. I'm unsure if she can understand sarcasm but defusing awkward and stressful situations with humor was a specialty of mine back on earth, especially while I was being shot at.
To my great relief I can practically feel her rolling her eyes at me as she sets herself down next to me, placing her mandibles on my lap, picking at the buttons of my cargo pockets with her claw like graspers and accidentally fraying one of the seams.
“They are all idiots, literally and figuratively.” she says with a huff. And I let out a low chuckle before I rip off another mouthful of rabbit,
“Yeah, most of the men I knew back home were like that, some of the women too.” I say, thinking idly about the people in my unit, wondering if they were still alive or not.
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“None of them are named nor have a bond with a dungeon so they can only think in single words. Which is expected, but it's frustrating.” she says eyeing my grilled rabbit steak before getting up to head back outside I tell her to wait a moment before she can make it to the tunnel and I check to see if my knife was there, it was, and I draw it cutting a sizeable chunk of meat off of the side I hadn’t chewed on yet and held it out to her, she took it with her little grabby hands and began chewing on it as she sent me her thanks and walked down the tunnel. I finished my meal and then looked up to my core which was dim, and the globules of liquid mana were slow, shakily but carefully rising to my feet using the pillar to hold myself. I close my eyes and use discern on my core for what felt like the tenth time today.
Level 5 Unnamed Dungeon Core, Rare. — Aspects: Terra II, Ignis I, Vita II, Mors I, — Mana Volume: 18 of 75 Mana Density: 100 of 100 — Attribute Aether: 0 Attributes: Avatar Form I, Mana I, Metalworking I, Gem Crafting I, Alchemy I. — Bonded Creatures 1, Named Creatures 1
I open my eyes and ponder to myself, in my head. “I've been sitting here for a while, why isn't my mana recharging, is it because I'm in my body? I hold out my hands now that I'm confident in my balance and look down, they are greasy from the meal and there's soot on them from the fire, the orange whisps cascading over my skin and clothes as I look down. A light bulb blinks on in the back of my brain and I close my eyes imagining myself as a blanket of orange mist and suddenly my eyes are open, unable to blink because I have no eyelids, I'm back as my floating consciousness, drifting from side to side a bit I look inward at the information from discern since its still active Mana volume: 19 of 75. “So I was right, my mana doesn’t recharge while I'm in my body, that is severely inconvenient and a little disappointing, but fair I guess, there has to be a way to incentivize me to be like this.
Cardinal POV
I've been doing this dance with these buffoons for hours and I'm starting to get very, VERY tired of it when finally the last suitor is performing his show of courage. Where he exposes his neck to me with my mandibles fully open. I can feel his hesitation through my antenna as he sends me his lineage. The colony he came from, his parents, their parents bla bla bla they aren't even his words, mostly just ancestral knowledge with the occasional interjection of his own in one word statements.
I can't fault him for that though, he doesn't have the expanded cognitions received after being named and-or bound to a dungeon. He starts to back off before he has even finished his statement and, at this point I'm not in the best of moods, so I close my mandibles. I'm the faster one between the two of us, I sever his neck and his blue-green blood spills from the gaping wound drenching my jaws in a coat of the oily fluid, body and head tumble to the ground separately as I let go of the disembodied fool allowing one of the previously rejected suitors to add his corps to the pile, I rack my jaws and let them slam shut twice, shedding the blood from them and calling the acceptable suitors to stand in front of me. But there is a calling scent in the air and I needed a break, so I rescinded the order as I went back into the cavern.
I left the swarm for a bit mostly to investigate the tantalizing smell that followed the ominous crack and incoherent barking that was felt and heard from within the cavern, it was setting the suitors on edge so to stop their insistent worrying that something had tunneled into my nest, and partially because I could not bare to stand out there for much longer, so I went to check. The scent of charred mammal flesh had gotten stronger and stronger as I made my way deeper inside and as I slowly walked up the tunnel to Lord Lance’s sanctum I could see what looked like a soft shelled tribesman in the strange garb from his memories I had seen. Except this one was wearing green and browns instead of the white and grays.
As I approached I could see the mana vapor curling off of his figure and from that moment I knew it was my lord, he had manifested his previous form however I wasn't able to tell what he was doing until I approached and began feeling his thoughts through my antenna, as he turned I could see the surprise on his face, though his face bristles helped to hide it somewhat. After the tension broke with the lord Lance giving a dry pass at humor I decided to relax if only for a moment before returning to my duties outside, we had a short but pleasant chat and I could feel the vibrations from his voice all through my carapace as he spoke, the deep but soft sounds were soothing, like resting in the morning sun after a cold night. The warmth he was radiating was similar to that of the embers he had made to cook his meal, but it was odd, there was a rhythmic pulsing vibration that was out of tune with both his breathing and his speaking, and when he did neither it would continue on its own. I wanted to ask about it through our idle conversation and my complaining, but I knew I had to return to the surface before the males came inside to investigate. As I rose to my feet to leave my lord called to me and offered some of his meal to me, I didn't need to eat for another three days after the sizeable meal he had given me earlier today but I took his offering to not offend or upset him and said my thanks while heading out of his chambers, consuming the charred hopper meat. As I did I then understood why his kin cooked their food, the flavor was fuller and what little fat there was in the meat had partially melted, its flavors permeating throughout the entire parcel.
I could see the relief wash over the crowd of ants as I emerged from the den. The clatter of their mandibles making a great cacophony I had to silence with a crack from my own, the antenna shaking sound billowing over the onlookers as the five remaining suitors roused themselves from their rest. It was time for me to watch the finalists “fight for my honor”. It seems so frivolous but it's important to be sure my mate can defend me well enough, so it's easy to sit and watch their sparring match before we go and become a mated pair. The aroma of cooked meat is now barely a side note to the pheromones permeating the air as I watch the black and silver prince grab his opponent and slam him to the ground. Pinning him under his legs and holding his half open mandibles to the others throat. The orange eyed red prince concedes the match with a click of his inner jaw.
The second set of contenders step forward, slowly circling each other with open mandibles. The gray one lunged first but his opponent a mottled green prince with copper colored eyes was patiently waiting for this and slammed his mandibles shut around the still closing jaws of the gray one, skewing him to the right and sending him off balance there was a chittering and clacking of approval from the crowd at the top of the bowl watching the match. Gray retaliated by kicking up gravel into the face of the green ant, making him flinch and slightly stumble backwards giving gray enough time to slam his body into the green prince causing him to stumble further, gray now sensing he had the upper hand, opened his mandibles and went in for a finishing blow, but once again the green prince parried his lunge in the same manner, this time sending gray tumbling to his side where green rushed in to pin him, ending the round as gray concedes.
The one common brown that made it into the final batch of contenders bows his head while walking backwards, dragging his mandibles across the gravel, conceding before his round even started. Maybe not as honorable as fighting and losing, but he will still be leaps and bounds ahead in terms of standing among the swarm that he will likely be part of the first group that the next female can begin selecting from, he will likely make a fine king for his mate providing he doesn't die before he bonds with a suitor.
It is the final sparring match and the rest of the swarm is getting restless, black and green begin circling each other when black simply stops moving, pivoting on his hind legs to keep green in front of him, the now unnerved green who was still slowly walking in a half circle towards black, green not wanting to make the first move stopped at an antenna length away from black, in the extremely tense waiting match all were silent none dared move or click their mandibles, so quiet you could hear an antenna tap. Black made a fake lunge to the left and green fell for it, aiming to catch a mandible that wasn't there. In greens confusion black then went directly forward, wedging his mandibles between greens thorax and head, and using his momentum to rip green off his feet and onto his back. Green didn't have to click his jaw in concession before black removed himself, and assisted green in rolling over onto his feet. Green offered a bow to his better and slowly walked up the side of the bowl taking his place above the lip and then black flared his wings in victory and emanated a deep and long chittering, at this the entire swarm opened their wings and chittered back in both congratulation and farewell, shooting up into the air, green, the new leader of the swarm as the first loser followed by gray and the red one,. After the swarm was gone it was just me and the black and silver prince, I sprayed some pheromones to nullify the ready scent and then began walking inside, my new lifelong partner following close behind to consummate our bond.