Vitmori POV

I don't have these thoughts very often, but they're always there in the back of my nonexistent head.

What… Am I?

It's just been over a few weeks, and I've done things no human could possibly manage. At least none that I've ever known. I've carved the very stone and earth around me with only a thought. I'm almost sure I have consumed the souls of beings, numbering in the double digits. I brought a world-ending virus from my world into this one, yet neutered it to be under my control. I've brought the dead back to life and created new life out of nothing but a name.

In less than a month…

So what am I? Am I a god? A demigod, even? If I am a god, what does that make the being that put me here? If I'm not a god, then what am I? What is a dungeon core, and why am I one now? What about that other dungeon core below my mountain? They've been around for hundreds of years at least, yet they've made no real attempt to contact me or anyone in that time. Were they another person of some kind? Someone like me, or was it something primal and simple-minded like the other historical dungeon cores that were on Reyvyre's mind during our first conversation?

I don't like not knowing things… Whenever I had questions, I would seek out answers. Hell, I would seek out answers to questions I didn't even have yet. But for all my curiosity, here I am, stuck at the top of a mountain of all things. Bound to my little self-made pedestal, surrounded by the doodles of a lunatic rock.

There are moments where I wonder if any of this is real, maybe… Maybe I'm dead and gone, and all this is the mad delusions of my still active mind in my ever-roaming corpse.

But regardless, these are just thoughts, nothing I can truly act on. What I can do right now is work on fixing one of my most loyal subordinates and his subordinate so that they can get back into the thick of things and get me more answers from the guy in my basement.

Anyways, looking Dread over again, I think he's somewhat stabilized compared to earlier. Mostly thanks to that lizard woman. I'm not exactly sure how she does it, but from what I can tell, she places her hand against the stomachs or chests of someone and injects some of her own mana before swirling it around. Somehow, in doing so, she stimulates some sort of healing factor with their own mana. It's certainly a much slower process than what I've done before, but it also looks significantly less painful than my way. Gluttony is also marginally better, but that's not saying much since it's going to take longer for her to get stable.

I wondered why the lizard woman hadn't done the same treatment for the rabbit, but now that I'm thinking about it, it probably has to do with the fact that he doesn't have a manaheart. His recovery is a little slower going; after all, a barbed arrow getting lodged in the small intestine is bound to cause issues. The removal of the arrowhead was clean enough, and the lizard woman was able to close the internal wound, at least using some kind of spider web mesh. She then covered the external damage with an herbal poultice before using some more of that web mesh. Now it's all a matter of bed rest to recover from the blood loss, as far as I can see.

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Back to Dread, I did consider simply rebuilding his arm, but based on my limited experience of treating Zasutir's wounds despite his reptilian healing factor, rebuilding his tail cost a lot more than repairing and improving what he already had. While I'm not exactly flush with humanoid limbs, I do have a lot of animal parts. The bone structure isn't too extremely different, maybe some extra joints that need fusing and some digits that need extending. What I'm worried about is that Dread's body might reject the limb if I simply slap it on; I need to make it a part of him somehow… Maybe… Maybe I could blend the snake wolf DNA into Dread's DNA? Combine the two until they're something entirely new and one.

I think that's what I should do, but a single snake wolf leg probably won't be enough to do something like that. So I'll use a whole wolf instead, definitely not the alpha, though, since I've got plans for them.

I go ahead and lay out the entirety of the wolf that had the separated limbs across Dread. The poor guy grunted in pain with the added weight. Sorry. Now, I'm not exactly sure where to go from here, but I think if I just… Swirl my mana between the two of them; something neat should come out of it.

It's slow; this new experimental process takes hours through the night. With that said, Dread doesn't seem to be in any noticeable pain or distress. The snake wolf has all but disintegrated into nothing but a pile of bones and fur scraps, the rest, as far as I can tell, has been converted into energy and material, which were mixed into Dread.

As for Dread, that's been interesting to see so far. He's developed more animalistic features; his ears have seemingly melted into his head before sprouting out the top of his head and appearing more canine than earlier, he's also more hairy than before, not full on fur coat, but he looks like he'll be slightly warmer during the winter months. His jawline appears slightly more developed, not jutting out, but sharper with more defined muscles, almost as if he's gained something significant in terms of bite strength. Focusing on his mouth, his canines are slightly more pronounced and sharpened, but the fascinating thing to see here is the fact that the fangs are now hollowed. It seems Dread now has the capability to either spit or inject venom with a bite.

Moving down along his body, I can see that his bones are more fortified, his skin is more resilient, and even his lungs and liver, of all things, have been fortified. While his new arm is undoubtedly strong, his legs are the real turnout. He didn't look like he skipped leg day before, but now he's got the legs of a sprinter. Strong and able to carry him for long strides, great for running away or quickly closing in on a target. There was one odd little detail that really has no benefit, but Dread now has a tail, a somewhat fluffy one at that. Looking at him now, it might be a little on the nose to call him a Dread Wolf, but he certainly has an intimidating air about him, even if he's currently sleeping peacefully.

I'm cleaning up the scraps of fur and parts that didn't blend into Dread when I hear a clattering of wooden boxes and cups at the entrance. Redirecting my attention towards the entrance of the cave, I spot the lizard woman as she seems to stare at Dread.

'Is there something wrong?' I ask her gently, wondering what could have possibly spooked her.

Even then she jumps as she looks around before clearing her throat as she speaks up. "S-sorry Vitmori… It's just… Just… Who's that, and what happened to Dread?" She asked, approaching the wolfkin before her as she looked him over.

'Ah, sorry, you might not recognize him, but that's Dread right there. I combined him with one of those snake wolves to help him with his missing limb. One thing led to another and I ended up using more of the wolf than I intended.' I explained, though I couldn't help but feel a little accomplished at this discovery of mine.

Despite her reptilian skin, I could see the color drain from her face as she swallowed before looking around. "Y-you mean… You just… Made… Made a beastkin? Like that?"

'Uh… Yeah. I guess I did.'