As the green-haired fairy touches the gemstone, her magic starts to spread inside my heart, and the transcendent power of Akashic Records flows through the core in response.
Requirements Met. Bond Acknowledged. Starting Process. Starting Disposition Sharing. Error! Unusual Development detected. Unknown Consequences. Seeking Alternative Methods. Alternative Found. Supporting Awareness. Reaching for Akashic Records.
Without giving me any time to understand what is happening, my consciousness is split into two parts, and I am someone else as well.
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Like a ghost floating over her shoulders, I see a fairy with emerald-green hair and lush leaves as wings wake up for the first time within the Azure Flames. I observe as she screams in agony and shock before being slowly pushed through the burning fires, falling down within a tunnel bathed in blue light.
I watch as other damaged fairies explain their prison and circumstances, as Tyra comes to grips with her new world. I experience her thoughts as she doesn't give up like the others, as she fills every waking moment with physical and magical training; in search of strength fueled by hate.
I explore the green-haired fairy's emotions as she meets Lily for the first time, as her heart starts to pound in her chest and slowly accept something else other than silent fury. I witness her new feelings fuel the storm inside her, bringing it to new heights.
Within the dream, days grow to months, and months become years as I live through her memories. I learn how Tyra balances and handles strong emotions, how she copes with failure, and how she thinks and plans.
As I see the last day within the prison, I understand why she came inside my dungeon, and I live through the last month from her perspective.
Before long, the vision ends.
Congratulations! You have bonded with your Dungeon Fairy!
Congratulations! Your mana capacity and mana regeneration have doubled!
Congratulations! You have earned a Trait: Fake it 'till you make it.
Fake it 'till you make it: Your fairy's magic now flows through your heart, granting you the ability to Trick the world within your reality domain. Consuming your mana, you can create a fake version of the matter present within your dungeon. In time, your creations will keep absorbing ambient mana, slowly becoming real. However, if taken outside your dungeon before this can happen, the false material will fade away.
Before I can reflect on what I just experienced or understand what the new Trait entails, the transcendent energy of the Records swells again inside my core.
Warning! Dungeon Fairy's body defective. Unable to survive Transformation. Supporting with Transcendent-Level Energy. Warning! Dungeon core existence incomplete. Unable to survive required flow of Transcendent-Level Energy. Seeking Alternative Methods. Alternative Found. Supporting Awareness. Reaching for Akashic Records.
What?
My awareness blinks, and I am no more.
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I awaken within the void, and a jolt runs through my being as I realize something. Within the black world, my body is a weathered but unyielding trunk, my canopy is made of vivid emerald leaves, and my roots are firm and thick, stretching down within the earth.
However, I know this form is fake, and it barely exists.
Knowledge reaches my mind, and I understand why I am here.
A Name can be claws, aiding you in hunting your enemies. A Name can be scales, protecting you from the most lethal attacks. A Name can be wings, letting you fly between the skies.
A Name is the path a being treads in life. It is your past, it is your present, and it is your future.
As a Legendary creature on the cusp of Myth, your own Name was a heavy thing, a burden your new self could not even begin to bear. When you Evolved, it was stripped away to ensure your continued survival.
However, the procedure left a wound inside yourself, a void you could not fill even if you tried to. That same scar is now an issue, a weakness that, if stressed, will shatter your existence.
Now, to endure the Transcendent-Level energy necessary to restore your dungeon fairy, you have a choice in front of you.
You can reject the energy, letting your dungeon fairy perish.
You can discard the last traces of your Name, choosing a new one. If you follow this path, your wound will heal, and the void will be prepared with new potential, with new fertile soil. As it was already happening, you will gain Titles and Traits more easily as that void craves to be filled.
However, your dungeon fairy's magic swirling inside your heart gives you an additional possibility. With her magic, you can Trick the world and yourself, filling the void with a fake version of your lost Name, slowly nourishing it to reality. Your Name will quickly grow to its former power. As it develops, you will gain Titles and Traits more often, but they will follow your first path in life, and the incompatible ones you have now will be rejected. - Your Title, 'The Ballsy', will be consumed to fuel the magic.
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This is one of the most important decisions you will make in your existence, decide carefully.
As the memories of my first life resurface within my mind, as I feel my branches and leaves, my trunk, my roots, I already know what I will do. I lost much after my Evolution, made choices I would have never done before, but I cannot accept losing even this if I can regain it.
It's a piece of my first life I want back.
The void churns, and I feel one of my Titles shatter. At the same time, the illusory body shudders, turning slightly more real.
I am not just a Viridescent Dungeon Core anymore. I am not one of many. I am Named now. I am Aaravum once again.
As the Name comes back to me, as everything that it entails fills me, the void shudders like a rabbit would quiver at the passage of a ravenous wolf. However, before long, it stabilizes, and knowledge runs through my roots, reaching my mind afterward.
Congratulations! You have reclaimed your Name.
Aaravum (Pseudo-Mythical): Domain-Type Name. (1.2% Recovered)
* You are seen more favorably by other creatures.
* Life-Attuned beings and plant species within your domain are enchanted, grow quicker, and Evolve into Life-Attuned variants more often.
Earn Renown to recover more.
Aaravum The Life Sworn
Species: Viridescent Dungeon Core (Unique)
Titles: The Life Sworn.
Traits: A leaf amongst thousands, Throughout abundance, Fake it 'till you make it.
Current Mana: 13.5/80
Mana Regeneration: +4/hour
The void and my form blur, and they are absorbed into myself.
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My perception spreads, and I see the outside world again. The boundless energy of the Records flows through my heart and into the fairy as both of our bodies start to float in the middle of the core's room. Fascinated, I watch as my neutral mana is attuned instantly into the Life element by the Akashic, and together with its Transcendent energy, it begins to heal Tyra.
The process lasts a few minutes, and before long, we settle down within the hollow sphere. The recovered fairy tried to rise, but even I can notice she is completely exhausted, and she soon falls asleep, snoring aloud.
Before I can begin to ponder about everything that has happened, I feel my Name swell inside my heart. It reaches every Trait and Title, flowing inside them and filling them with strange pressure. Like sparks of lightning, it runs through them before everything quiets down without any apparent changes.
I call my status again, but nothing seems different because of that. Even the Traits and Title descriptions are the same.
Odd.
However, as I unfold my consciousness, I immediately notice something has changed about it.
If, before the bond and recovering my Name, watching my dungeon was like extending a root within the earth, now everything became water. My awareness races within my domain much more easily, flowing around my creatures and requiring less power. I can almost perceive my entire dungeon again.
As I watch, I see the Luminous Moss and Resonating Lianas changing slightly, the Moss becoming greener and healthier, while the Lianas are turning thicker and their flowing mana more complicated. If I want to gain the most out of my Name, I will need more Life-Attuned and plant-based creatures.
Knowing the process will continue even without my attention, I let my consciousness rapidly flow upward through the blue Vines and inside the waters. Here, I expanded a lot in the last month, and I reached the edge of the space in all directions. The form is irregular like a vegetable, 15 meters in height at the highest tip, 10 meters in length, and 12 meters in width.
At the start, I thought it would have been much larger, but it is connected to numerous wide tunnels, and the various invaders come from there.
Unfortunately, even for the whole month, I didn't find a way to let my Stixrant Frogs reproduce safely. They have been fed on by the various Basilisks, both invaders and mine, and they never found a way to reliably lay their eggs. The same thing happened to the Dark Cloud Basilisks, and many of their eggs were stolen by the Wasps and Frogs.
On the contrary, the brutal open environment helped my Slugs a lot, and they are now pretty much everywhere inside the space. Their fluid nourished the mundane fishes and insects, and their populations only increased without enough Frogs to feed on them.
When I realized expanding wasn't working as I thought, I even began to carve some wood to create the space but gave up rather quickly when I understood the immense amount of time I would have to invest in the project. While it was much easier to create crevices for the small mundane insects, I would have to use days of mana regeneration to scrape enough space for the bigger creatures. However, due to the connection with Tyra, I now have a way to easily build a safer environment for the Frogs and Basilisks.
While the fairy sleeps, I follow the flows of her magic still inside my heart and activate my new Trait. Keeping a fraction of my consciousness on her stone knife, I copy the matter within the water. Walls of black stone grow inside my dungeon, and new tunnels and small pockets are built everywhere. Realizing the amount of mana necessary to create the false matter is even less than I thought, I make even more crevices and loose stones.
Spiraled stone grows upward between the Vines, and bridges between them give more available nests to my creatures. In the end, the dungeon within the dirty waters becomes a maze of emerald Moss, blue Vines, and black stone.
After consuming all the mana within my core, another difference becomes obvious; I can still think clearly without growing lethargic. The amount of mana within my heart doesn't influence my ability to think anymore, and my mind is much more stable. I didn't even realize how tiring the shifting mentality was on my spirit until it disappeared.
As I wait for my energy to regenerate, I observe the sleeping dungeon fairy.
I really don't know what to do with her. I know her goals, I've experienced her life, and I cannot find into myself to treat her like I would another creature. I don't know if it is because the bond is influencing my mind, or it's that I've somewhat lived her life. However, I know Tyra will never give up her search for strength and power. I've witnessed how she lost consciousness after training her body far too much, and, from what I've seen, she always treated her pain as a motivation rather than an obstacle.
But, for all her determination and strength, she has no experience in the outside world. She doesn't really know how dangerous it can be, and I don't want to lose her advice and magic. However, it wouldn't be fair to prevent her from chasing her goals just because I don't want to lose my helper. In the end, I will have to talk with her as soon as she wakes up, and find a solution together.
We have an enemy in common as well, and helping her grow stronger will help myself. I just have to find a way to keep her safer when she trains and fight, and avoid letting her risk her life so much.