The Swarm just stood there, or stood would be the wrong term as several parts of it were flying or lodged throughout the soil respectively. Rather it is more correct to say that the Swarm was...languid in its first moments. The nameless Sovereign Swarm was trying to adjust to suddenly having to think and adapt to the myriads of new instincts that permeated its mind. When the Sovereign Swarm was a Conquest Seed then things had been easy: soak in magic while flying through the ethereal space, wait for a call, and in the meantime avoid Dimensional Membranes. It could think at that time but why would it? Now, it had new instincts that seem to form with each passing moment and it had to adjust having its mind exist both in a fragmented state and as a complete whole.
It existed simultaneously in each and every being that made up its nascent swarm, and at the same time, it existed almost separately from them in a space where it could look at the whole of it all. Each separate "fragment mind" knew things that the whole only could recognize as instincts at best. How to breathe, how to spin webs or build a beehive, how to release toxic spores by exploding mushroom caps, and feed on sunlight through the process of photosynthesis. The Swarm could manually control an individual bee, but it felt that trying to fine control all of the thousands would be more difficult.
The Sovereign Swarm also had to contend with its core instincts screaming at it to feed, infect, and dominate everything. It wasn't opposed to any of that by any means, but it felt a need to take stock of the situation. After all, you are only born that one time so it behooved oneself to go at it with an informed perspective. It felt the burning of those...system messages? That practically shouted at it to be viewed, but the Swarm wanted to explore itself first.
First, the Swarm tried to make sense out of the thousands of sensory data sources it had available. It could see all that each individual unit in the swarm saw, hear all that they heard, and feel all that they felt. Which strangely enough was rather disorienting to it, so in the mental space where all of the fragment minds held hands forming the greater whole, it spoke for the first time as each of them screamed at it about what they sensed.
"I think...that we should avoid spreading undue information through our bond. Each individual component only shares information if it is pertinent. All of the parts that manage the bee units try to group up, same with the fungal network."
Trying to corral all of the minds was strangely like when she babysat for her cousin that one time and the 4 children kept running off to do something else the moment that she turned her back. The intrusion of that particular memory also caused great confusion as the individual minds were by themselves, largely too stupid to process its implications and the greater whole didn't particularly want to figure out whatever that meant.
However, after what to it seemed like an eternity but to an outside observer would only be a couple of minutes. The Sovereign Swarm had managed to neatly organize the information stream so that it was generally aware, but not overwhelmed by all that it sensed. It also had managed to explore the component minds in more detail. Each individual unit had enough mental capacity to feed itself, defend itself, and avoid obvious obstacles and potential sources of death. It...no, They felt that they could override those basic instincts in a unit if they wished to do so. Beyond those instincts, there was not much activity in the minds. They could place instructions there that the mind would try to fulfill, both immediate commands and long-term ones.
This could be done as easily as closing or opening a hand, as they found out they could order the swarm of bees to fly in a spiral pattern or make the spider turn its body around to point the opposite direction. With all of those discoveries made, then the Sovereign Swarm turned to the system notifications burning in its mind.
* Welcome, Conquest Seed to your new reality. Your purpose is to subjugate or neutralize the reality in which you find yourself. In being forged you have been given the unlimited potential of the soul and the end. Your summoning party will ensure you adopt a focus most fit for your purpose her-
* Error: You have breached your reality without being stabilized by your summoning party, therefore, your focus has been adopted automatically with the resources at hand. As a masterless seed, you will have to subjugate and bring order to this reality in a manner of your own choosing. Go forth and conquer!
* With your birth comes a solemn vow from reality itself: you will have nothing. You may now be "native" to this reality, but it's defenders will end your threat. Keep this in mind for when you go forth, you have no friends here.
* Sovereign Swarm, with your ascension you must be aware of the tools at your disposal. The last remnants of your existence as a Conquest Seed have the data needed to detail how your abilities work.
* Interface: A generalized tool meant to help the mind deal with the more abstract concepts of your powers based in something that resonates with your past existence. This interface will help you navigate your powers and present them in a form that your mind will intuitively understand.
* Attributes: Details the three main baseline tools you have for interacting with the world.
* Potency: which measures your power and your ability to directly shape the world around you. Potency determines the average strength and power of your units.
* Mastery: which measures your finesse and your ability to indirectly affect the world. Mastery determines the fine control you can exert over your swarm and the average control you have over your units.
* Resilience: which measures your resistance to hazards, your swarm's toughness, and even the morale of those in it. Resilience determines how much mental and physical damage your Swarm can withstand.
* Apocalyptic Rank: The concentrated meassure of your power. It determines how strong your abilities are, the potential of your attributes, and what you might become in the future. It is divided into ranks and tiers within the ranks. For each rank there are 5 tiers times the Rank.
* With each new tier you gain new abilities, and at each Rank your power increases.
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* Titles: Special positions given to you by the universe, you can only have as many titles as your Apocalyptic Rank + 1 active at any one time. Titles give you access to new abilities, and potentially entire new avenues of power beyond what you could normally access.
* Traits: Passive abilities that are always on with potential side benefits that can be activated. They usually cost no energy or similar resources to work.
* Powers: Activated abilities that can be channeled through the Swarm.
* Units: The types of creatures that can be created for or are apart of your swarm
The Sovereign Swarm let the information pass through them as they started considering the implications of it all. The consideration did not take a lot of time as the information was rather comprehensive, if a bit poorly laid out. Next they tried to summon up a summary of their present state.
* Name: N/A
* Titles: Sovereign Swarm
* Apocalyptic Rank: 1(Seed), Tier 0
Attributes
* Potency: 2
* Mastery: 2
* Resilience: 3
Traits
* Bio-Mechanical Swarm
* Adaptive
* Non-Centralized Lifeform
Powers
* Infection
* Reinforce Unit
* Toxic Cloud
Units
Current Unit Roster
* Armored Juggernaut Spider(1)
* Fungal Honey Bees (20000)
* Fungal-Flora Cognitive Network(N/A)
No Units can presently be created
Now, this was more like it. The Swarm felt pleasure reverberate through her network as they examined each aspect of it, with a bit of mental fiddeling they discovered that with a simple flick of their mind. They could specifically focus on a selected section of the "sheet" or just one specific aspect of it. This in turn would provide more information, with the exception being the Attributes. Sadly, the numbering system seemed to either be arbitrary or as an abstraction of a deeper truth because even focusing on a single attribute said nothing more than the initial information that came with the first system notifications.
As the Swarm had already been informed about what the Traits and Powers did, it was the examination of the units that turned out to be the most interesting for them. The section did after all provide them with more information than their own investigations into their component parts had done so far.
* Units
Current Unit Roster
* Armored Juggernaut Spider(1)(Unique): The Armored Juggernaut Spider combines the predatory hunger of a Thrall-Maker spider with the Bio-Mechanical properties derived from a Conquest Seed. The Armored Juggernaut Spider is a potent fighter with titanium plated armor and legs, as well as fungal padding on its upper half and floral padding on its lower half. It can see into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums, as well as perceive things too fast for most creatures to see. It has a venom derived from Choke-Spores in its teeth and the special ability to spit webs to trap enemies.
* Fungal Honey Bees (20000)(Unique): These worker bees are all capable of weaving webs and building honeycomb structures. Metallic reinforcements of their stingers along with a venom sack makes them far more able to defend themselves, both as a swarm and individual compared to their mundane counterparts. Lastly, these bees can transform biological matter into a pure biomass for either consumption or use.
* Fungal-Flora Cognitive Network(N/A)(Unique): This growing network of plantroots and mycelium is both a single whole and a large network of interconnected units. The nature of the swarm makes this network a single living thing where it might have been individual lifeforms connected to one another without it's influence. The Cognitive Network can infect other similar networks when they have made contact.
No Units can presently be created
Having more of a grasp of what could be done with all of their units would help the swarm immensely in the days to come. Which it decided they would rather pursue than avoid waiting for, as they hungered for conquest, ruin, and simply food. That, thankfully, there was plenty of in the surrounding forest. So as one the Swarm began to divide it's bees into smaller groups and send them flying out among the trees. While the Juggernaut Spider smashed it's way through them instead of weaving its way around them like the rest of the Swarm. The Feast of a lifetime was about to start for the Sovereign Swarm.