《Pocket Dungeons》 Prologue: New Horizons Gormund the Harsh looked on from the Union¡¯s castle walls, pondering their next moves as the horde just outside the valley moved in. He never imagined that he and the elves would have to ally with each other just to keep from being wiped out, let alone the gnomes and the minotaurs. He guessed it was for the best he did though, lest he and his people ended up like the hobgoblins of the east. Poor bastards. A hand on his shoulder nearly had him going for his war-scythe, before the dainty fingers clued him in to who it was. ¡°Evalla, now¡¯s not the time to grope me.¡± From the corner of his eye, the elven princess simply let out a coy smile, dragging her hand down to wrap her arm around his. ¡°Oh come now, no last-minute love making before the big battle? I¡¯m sure I can turn that green skin even greener.¡± Seeing her teasing not faze the orc warchief, the smile falls from her face, looking out onto their enemies alongside him. ¡°...do you think we can win?¡± ¡°Yes...but not without casualties.¡± She simply hugs his arm tighter at his response, taking a deep breath before speaking once more. ¡°You¡¯ll be on the front lines, won¡¯t you?¡± The orc snorts at the question, despite the grim atmosphere. ¡°Of course I will, a Chief cannot tell his people to go to battle for him without being willing to risk his life along with them. Besides, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m a young one, I got my title for a reason. I¡¯ll be fine. Once this is all over, you can go back to teasing me, don¡¯t you worry.¡± The elven princess gives a wet chuckle at his words, looking up to him with a glimmer in her eyes that can¡¯t be explained away as just the magic in her form. In a quite forward move, she grabs Gormund by one of his tusks and yanked him down to her height, nearly tripping him over. Before he can complain, she kisses him, sparks of mana flowing from her to him. Evalla lets go and breaks the kiss, ears flushed as she speaks. ¡°There, for luck.¡± Before he can respond, she runs off, the door leading down off the wall slamming behind her. Gormund blinks for a moment, before looking down at his hands. When he clenches them into fists, sparks of lightning scatter across his skin, and he grins. She gave him a Blessing of Lightning, and she got a kiss out of him for it too, the little minx! Chuckling at the game they play, he looks out over the wall once more, just a bit more hopeful about the outcome of this war to end all wars.
[End Transmission]
¡°Well well well, looks like things are heating up for Gormund and Evalla! So tell us James, how do you feel about the lovebirds as their Dungeon Master?¡± The screen pans over from the spokesman to a young man, currently even more flushed in the face than Evalla was. ¡°Well, uh, I¡¯m not exactly surprised, really. Evalla has always had odd tastes in men from what I¡¯ve seen-¡± A harsh laugh sends the camera panning over to another face, this one of a middle aged woman. ¡°Oh please! That was right out of a corny fanfic. Either your girl has a fetish or I¡¯ll give you my Xeno starter!¡± With a laughing audience and an even more flushed James, the spokesman speaks up once more. ¡°Yes yes, let¡¯s not poke into their love life too much. For now. But tell me, what do you think your chances of winning are, Samantha?¡± The now named woman crosses one leg over the other and leans back in her seat, practically screaming ¡®I¡¯m better than you¡¯ with her posture. ¡°Oh it¡¯s certain, as far as I see it. Yeah James-boy here has some good tech and magic, but I¡¯ve got numbers and specialized species on my side. Not much an explosion can do when half your enemies are explosion-proof!¡± Shaking off the embarrassment, James comes to his own defense, giving his opponent a challenging glare. ¡°That may be so, but all your monsters do is charge forward, no sense of tactics at all! Just you wait and see, I¡¯ll show you what I can do.¡± Oooh¡¯s abound in the audience at the proclamation, though Samantha just gives James a cocky smirk. The spokesman simply turns to the camera, a businessman¡¯s smile on his face as he speaks. ¡°Well, you¡¯ve heard it here folks! The Humanoids Hero James vs The Swarm Queen Samantha in this Season¡¯s finale of the national Dungeon Wars!¡± Corrin shuts his T.V off, rolling his eyes as he bumbles about in his kitchen in the morning. It was his turn to make breakfast, so he made some basic scrambled eggs and toast, setting the coffee maker up. Not for himself of course, he can¡¯t stand the stuff, he just gets some crangrape juice out of the fridge for himself. Adjusting his glasses, he looks over at the holographic projector hanging in the living room. ¡°Hey Eva, what¡¯s on the schedule or today?¡± The projector lights up, and his V.I. forms from the light, just a symbol of a pair of secretary glasses right now. She probably was feeling as sleepy as he was. ¡°It¡¯s actually a free day today, your teacher canceled class. Apparently her daughter got sick so she took the day off.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a shame. Tell her I said I hope she gets better?¡± The glasses give a wink, which would be disconcerting if they weren¡¯t the cartoonish type of projection. ¡°Will do boss.¡± ¡°Mmm, smells like eggs...¡± Corrin¡¯s roommate Rick finally slouches out of his bedroom to get some food, yawning while his V.I. Darin flickering into visible sight in the projected space next to Eva. Darwin seems to have gone with a green curvy wave for now, matching his humans dyed, curly mop of hair. ¡°So, what¡¯s new in the world after my long slumber?¡± Ignoring the polite sense of pouring a cup, Rick just takes the entire coffee bowl with him to the table as he sits next to Corrin, shoveling eggs into his mouth in something just parallel to a civilized manner. Huffing at his friend¡¯s casual decorum, Corrin holds out the remote in preparation of Rick''s reaction. ¡°Samantha and James are about to have their Dungeon War finale.¡± Nearly choking on his toast, Rick forces down his bite of toast and snags the remote from his grip, rushing to turn the T.V back on. ¡°What the hell man, why didn¡¯t you warn me!¡± ¡°Because I like seeing you suffer. Also because I figured Darwin would have reminded you.¡± Rick turns to glare at Darwin¡¯s avatar as the thought comes to him, and the rolling wave does the closest thing to a shrug it can. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t look at me! I did try to remind you but you were half asleep and just told me to turn off the alarm.¡± Grumbling something about having traitors in his own home, he finally turns the T.V on and turns it back to the right channel, eyes practically welded to the screen as the final battle between the two Dungeon Master¡¯s forces unfolds before their eyes. Corrin personally takes the time to make use of the projection space, finishing up some homework to fill up the hours as he only half-heartedly pays attention to what¡¯s happening on the screen.Stolen story; please report. It isn¡¯t until midday that the Dungeon War finally ends, surprisingly James¡¯s humanoids actually do take the win, though not without cost. Nearly all of his people were killed in a last-shot maneuver to take out the Grand Hive Queen, taking advantage of their Hive-Mind trait to send the entire opposing army into disarray. Without an organized mind to lead them, they went into a directionless frenzy, killing more of their own than the Union. ¡°Man, what a fight, huh?¡± Corrin merely shrugs, still more focused on his work than anything. ¡°Eh, it was kind of obvious what was going to happen. Samantha hasn¡¯t spent a lot of time directly inhabiting her Grand Hive Queen, probably was too impatient to re-learn how to move in a new body. With James only having humanoids though, he could slip right into a minion or even between them easily, which helped a lot in that initial push.¡± Rick simply stared at his friend as he casually dismantled the strategies of two professional Dungeon Masters, shaking his head in exasperation as he finished. ¡°You see, this is why I think you should give Pocket Dungeons a shot. You¡¯re one of the only people I know who doesn¡¯t have it even as just a casual player! And you¡¯re really good at strategy too!¡± Corrin simply sighs, sliding his work out of the space and turning to Rick. ¡°Look I just never really got into it, ok? It just feels like it would take away from school, and you know I need top marks to get into a good Astro-miner company.¡± Rick gives him a blank stare, speaking in deadpan as Darwin and Eva look on amusedly at the oft repeated argument. ¡°You¡¯re either on top of your classes or ahead in them, without fail. And most of the day-to-day monitoring can be done with Eva.¡± Rick closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, already sure of the refusal to come. ¡°Look, is there any reason not to get the game? Hell you can treat it as a training platform or whatever if you want. I really think you can win some tournaments though, maybe even go Pro! Wouldn¡¯t some extra cash be nice if you can get it for basically nothing?¡± ¡°...You know what? Fine.¡± The room goes still for a moment, Rick not processing for a second before jerking his eyes open to stare at Corrin incredulously. ¡°Wait, for real!?¡± Corrin sighs wearily before responding, Darwin and Eva looking at each other just as surprised as Rick. ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve got nothing better to do today, all my work for the next week is in already and I don¡¯t have class today. I¡¯ll buy the game, if you buy my game packs for me.¡± Rick jumps up from his seat, hooting and hollering and doing a little dance while Corrin just chuckles at him. ¡°Don¡¯t know what you¡¯re so excited about, if I¡¯m going to do this I¡¯m going to buy exactly the game packs I want, and those will be coming out of your pocket.¡± The green-haired man just sticks his tongue out at him as he responds. ¡°Jokes on you, The whole gang had a betting pool on if I could convince you before the end of the month! I¡¯m about to be rich for like three days before I spend it all!¡± Laughing at his friend¡¯s strange sense of humour, Corrin just gets up, puts the dishes in the sink, and heads to his room to get ready to head out. ¡°Whatever man, just get ready to go, if I¡¯m doing this I don¡¯t want to waste any more time than necessary!¡± It doesn¡¯t take long for him and Rick to head out and hop on the nearest mag-bus, and even less time to find a store selling Pocket Dungeon stock. Stepping inside, Corrin immediately heads over to to the register while Rick ambles about the store, looking for any packs that could help him with his own Dungeon. ¡°Hello, I want to buy a download of Pocket Dungeon, please.¡± The woman manning the counter raises a brow at seeing someone who hasn¡¯t bought it already, but shrugs it off and pushes a V.I. connector over closer to him. ¡°Alright, have you V.I. connect and I¡¯ll have them download the default software. Do you know about our Pocket Dungeon booster packs?¡± ¡°Yeah, I was planning on getting some, just wanted to buy the download first. My friend¡¯s paying for the packs.¡± Sticking his arm out over the connector, Eva popped up from his smartwatch and began the transaction. Little streams of ones and zeros flowed into her avatar in a rainbow of colors, soon coalescing into the iconic Pocket Dungeon logo just above her glasses before being sucked into them. Of course the whole thing was just for show, the transaction finished attoseconds after he put his watch over the connector, but he liked the little things like that. With the basic game downloaded and Eva decompiling and incorporating it into her systems, Corrin takes a walk around the store to see what he could buy to spice up his Dungeon. The Leyline+ and Mo¡¯Magic Types booster packs he added to his list on the spot, having more magic in his Dungeon world could only be a good thing in his eyes. He also got a biome variety pack and at least 3 different material booster packs, he loved the idea of having tons of material options for his creatures to use. Lastly was the Monster Starter pack section. This he took a great deal of care to go through thoroughly. The default monsters were great of course, and he probably would use a few of them at some point, but these options could make or break his Dungeon in developing something good for tournaments like Rick seems to think he¡¯ll be so good in. That and he wanted to buy an expensive Monster Starter or two, since his friend seemed so confident that he¡¯d be getting a ton of money from his betting pool. ¡°Hmm...Oh, Crystalline Group starter, that could be fun. Shade Species, that looks good, maybe this Warg Species too.¡± Just as he¡¯s about to walk out of the aisle, one last image for a Monster Starter pack caught his eye. It was something called a Conceptual Group, a group of spirit-like monsters. Instead of being elemental spirits like forest or fire spirits though, these were based on metaphysical concepts like being hungry, or bittersweet memories. Basically they were illusion or enchantment traps given life. Adding them to his list, Corrin grins cheekily as he starts walking back towards the counter. ¡°Eva, send Darwin and Rick the bill, would you?¡± Chuckling a little from his watch, he sees the list of his too-be purchases roll of the screen. He counts down on his fingers from five, and right as the last finger drops Rick can be heard swearing up a storm, growing louder as he gets closer to the counter as well. Once he sees Corrin, all Rick can do is grumble and head over to the counter, shoving his arm over the connector for a second before stomping over to the store exit. Corrin breaks out laughing, following behind him as they leave. ¡°Not sure what you¡¯re so mad about, aren¡¯t you going to be rich?¡± ¡°Fuck off!¡± ¡°Aw don¡¯t be like that, it was your idea!¡± After much teasing and joking around, they both eventually make it back to their apartment, thankfully Rick had gotten over his pouting, more excited to see Corrin make a Dungeon world. ¡°So, how are you going to lay it out? Knowing you you¡¯ll lay all the materials out nice and orderly for extraction, have everything in their own little areas and all that.¡± Snorting at Rick¡¯s attempts at teasing him about his neatness, Corrin simply shakes his head as he sits down on the couch, replying as Eva starts the projector up again and starts running his brand new Pocket Dungeon game. ¡°No, then none of my creatures will ever learn how to deal with conflict. I¡¯m going to go with a decently natural and evenly spread out world. Of course, I¡¯ll put in plenty of oddities, you never know what will spark a Sub-Species or Variant. I¡¯ve got to admit, I¡¯m a little pumped now.¡± Rick pats him on the shoulder as Corrin picks out the first save file in his game, the huge amount of world customization menus popping up as he does. ¡°Yep, this is a whole new horizon for you. Can¡¯t wait to see what you do!¡± Chapter 1: World Customization & Tiny New Friends
[World Customization:] [Please take this time to customize your world.] [Step 1: Terrain Generation]
Corrin looked over his options, everything from directly painting land and water onto the map to directly simulating the entire process of continental shift and erosion and everything else in a few minutes. For the sake of brevity, Corrin decided to go with running random generation a couple times and working from there. After a few cycles, he found a random generation that he liked, and set about smoothing things out by applying erosion simulations and other such things to make it all look a bit more natural. Once he was done, there were 8 continental landmasses on the planet, two large ones at the top and bottom of the map, three smallish ones crowded together near the top left, two large ones in the center of the map and a medium sized one on the far right. The three smallish landmasses were littered with mountain ranges and volcanoes, as if the underlying tectonic plates were getting bunched up in that area. There were several other mountain ranges, though the most distinctive on the globe was an absolutely huge mountain range practically severing the lower-center continent in half, which Corrin already decided to call the World¡¯s Spine. There were several island chains that dotted the world as well, including an almost Philippines-like mass of islands stretching in between the bottom pole continent and the medium sized one on the right. With the map itself constructed he hits continue to go to the next step.
[Step 2: Leyline Generation]
Corrin spends a good deal more time and effort in this section deciding where the Leylines will be placed on the planet, going for manual control rather than random generation. IT will dictate where the most mana-dense areas of the planet will be after all. With the Leyline+ and Mo¡¯Magic packs he¡¯ll be able to add more of them and of more differing types thankfully. He takes the highest strength Leyline he can make and attunes it to mostly earth and metal, maybe 40:40, with the other 20 percent a mix of trace amounts of other magics, placing it inside of the World¡¯s Spine. If he¡¯s going to give it such a grandiose name he may as well make it meaningful after all. He makes it so that the same Leyline fades down into the tectonic plates at the ends of the mountain range, and pops up at the other ranges on the planet as well, though obviously weaker the farther away from the starting point they are. Getting an idea for another cool point of interest, Corrin goes through the different filters and looks for the point in the oceans that is the most ¡®dead¡¯ with the current setup, where the water and wind move the least. Once he knows where it is, he takes three strong Leylines(though not as strong as the World Spine Leyline) and attunes each one with water, wind, and lightning respectively, mostly purely of one element each with traces of the other two. Then he braids them together like a rope, pulls them taught, and lays the three Leylines on the dead zone of the ocean, forming the shape of a closed spiral. Almost immediately after he¡¯s done, a huge category 5 hurricane, filled with thunder and lightning forms on the spot, but stays stationary. Now there will be much more water and air flow, as well as better global mana circulation. After that he spends a good 15 minutes just filling in the world with more Leylines, these ones weaker for the most part, keeping a relatively consistent spread of both Leylines and the magic inside of them across the various landmasses. He does make a few oddities on the spot as ideas come to him, like putting a tightly coiled Leyline of fire, rock and metal inside the magma chamber of the largest volcano, causing the rock it¡¯s made of to transform into a glossy black obsidian, or a very strong Leyline that goes straight up instead of horizontal along the land attuned to unholy, holy and nature, making what Corrin can only describe as a Halloween version of a World Tree. ¡°Man, how do you come up with this stuff?¡± Breaking out of his groove at Rick¡¯s comment, Corrin replies somewhat absentmindedly as he imbeds a Leyline into a smaller mountain range with the other end branching out into the sky, causing the range to become a lightning rod thanks to being attuned to metal, earth, and lightning. ¡°I mean it¡¯s not like I¡¯ve never looked into the simulations and stuff that Pocket Dungeons use, I¡¯m not completely blind to the game. That and a mix of experimentation and semi-reasonable guesses.¡± Eventually he finishes up laying the Leylines, and Corrin looks over the world he¡¯s made so far. He¡¯s got to admit, it¡¯s pretty fun even with just this. He can¡¯t wait to see how this continues in the future. Satisfied with how it looks, Corrin taps the next button.
[Step 3: Biome Generation]
For this Corrin wasn¡¯t quite sure how to go about this one, so he decided to check out the automatic generation preview to see what the biomes would be as it is now. It took a few minutes for the system to simulate everything and figure out what is what, after which the world projected before him suddenly exploded into colors and shapes across the lands as a new screen popped up before him.
[Automatic Biome Generation Complete] [Default Biomes Detected:]
Tundra (4) Desert (5) Temperate (5) Tropical (4) Plains (3) Swampland (3) Magic Forest (6)
[Unique Biomes Detected:]
Everlasting Storm (2) Spirit Hallowed Forest (1) Ifrit Magma Mountain (1) Shadowed Valley (2) Magic Caverns (10)
The default biomes were as you would expect, dotted around the world based on where they are in relation to the equator and what humidities and temperatures the land in those areas got. The Unique Biomes were interesting, caused by the Leylines where the mana density is so high it literally changes the land it lays on. Apparently both the lightning rod mountain range and the hurricane both count as everlasting storms, and the shadowed valleys were thanks to the valleys in question being in the same area as the spirit hallowed forest around the halloween world tree. He wasn¡¯t sure where the Magic Caverns were though, they weren¡¯t visible from this view. Maybe they were in the World Spine? Shrugging off the thought, he goes through his other available biome options to see if he wanted to add anything else before going to the next section. He decides to put a Floating Island biome on top of the ocean hurricane, which opens up its own little sub-controls for making and placing the islands in the area provided. He decides to just random-gen it for the most part, making sure there are plenty of large islands to hold life, and making them all skim just above the hurricane¡¯s clouds, with the exception of one giant floating island in the center of the eye of the storm. Corrin also adds an Abyssal Reef along the cost and heading deeper into the ocean on the side where the Spirit Hallowed Forest peters off into the coastline, since it felt thematic, and dotted a few more magical ¡®biomes¡¯ through the more boring areas on the map to spice it up. Things like a big sphere of ocean life in the middle of a forest, where everything inside the sphere works as you would expect without collapsing and flooding the area around it, or a library made of trees. Less full on biomes and more like little magical structures. With everything done, he hits the next button once more.
[Step 4: Ore Depositing]
Oh, this would be fun. Corrin lets the regular ores and gems generate mostly randomly, veins of iron, copper, zinc, lead, and deposits of sapphires, quartz, diamonds, etc etc sprouting up all around the world. The default magical ores and gems, like mythril, adamantium, oricalcum, elemental crystals, everything like that were restricted to being within a certain distance from the Leylines, and sometimes by what the Leylines were attuned to. Most of the magical metals went into the mountains, with a lot popping up in the World Spine, while the elemental crystals and other magical gems dotted their respective areas around the other Leylines. Funnily enough, this means that the sky islands, with such a strong set of Leylines beneath them and proportionately little land to form crystals in, became chock full of lightning, water, and air crystals. It even got to the point that some of the islands with a high enough concentration started sprouting massive columnar crystals from their bottoms, attracting lightning from the storm below and supercharging the crystals even further. Although all of this was very interesting to Corrin, he still had the materials from the packs he got to add in as well. One of them was less of a unique ore and more of a different way of getting other ores. It was essentially Ironwood trees, but for every metal nearby. Basically it makes (insert metal here)wood variants of nearby trees, depending on what metals are in the area. They¡¯re a bit rare, since they are essentially a Variant of a tree, but they appear in small groups or copses of trees when they do appear. For metals and crystals to put in specific areas, Corrin can see a few things that could work. For the obsidian volcano, the one that counts as an Ifrit Magma Mountain according to the biome section, he laced it and the surrounding areas with Infirnium, Gaia Metal, Sun Crystals, all just generally fire related materials that fit thematically. On the Sky Islands he did the same thing, putting Electrum(an individual metal, not just a gold/silver alloy), Thorium(again, different from real-life Thorium), and other such things into the smaller islands, the weight causing them to sink just a little lower into the clouds than the other islands. In the Spirit Hallowed Forest he placed Soulstone, Blood Iron, Dark Silver, and other such thematically fitting materials. He liked the kind of halloween-y vibe that area had going for it, so he thought it made sense. Then there were the general additions that were world-wide, as a general quality booster to what materials his monsters would be able to find. Primal and Radiant ores were introduced, rarer versions of other ores that either strengthened the effects of a metal or added new properties, respectively. A Pure class of elemental crystals were added, rarer versions of regular crystals that had a higher yield in crafting and other uses than regular quality crystals. All kinds of other goodies were added too, to the point that he wasted a good 45 minutes on this section alone getting everything just the way he liked it before clicking next.
[Step 5: Choosing Your Monsters]
Corrin elbowed Rick, who had gotten bored during the last step and started watching T.V. and simply told him to tell him when he was done. With his attention back on the projected world, Corrin got to work on the second to last step. By default he set it so that his monsters would be neutral to each other when interacting, he didn¡¯t want to force them to like each other. That and conflict inspires growth. For the monsters themselves and where they would be placed, that got a bit more complicated. In the Spirit Hallowed Forest, he placed the Shade Species he got from the store, as well as the Undead Group and Flora Type that came with the default package. As the RNG gods took over and started randomizing the specific species that would be generated first, he crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. The Shade Species, being such a specific grouping, didn¡¯t vary too much, with only two main individual species coming out. One seemed more like a wraith or ghost, a full-bodied(if transparent and ethereal) creature. The other species became actual shadows, moving through the forest by jumping in between the shadows of the tree¡¯s branches before eventually settling into the shadows of the few animals that had been spawned naturally. They seemed to be symbiotic for the most part, from the looks of it. From the Undead Group spawned a variety of, well, undead, as you would expect. Skeletons of both humanoids and animals of many forms, emaciated ghouls that immediately started hunting for the few living animals in the forest, Will¡¯O Wisps sparking to life and lighting up the unnaturally gloomy forest, those kinds of things. The Flora Type, being the widest specification for Monster Spawning, gave a large variety of life, either turning already existing plants into monsters or spawning new ones as if they had been there the entire time. Venus flytraps the size of small dogs, bone-white sugar reeds that rattled in the wind, Even a species of tree that looked to be possessed by a primitive spirit. Being spawned in this biome obviously drastically changed the types of Flora that could be spawned there. In the Sky Islands, he placed the default Lizard and Bird Groups on the inhabitable ones, hopefully he¡¯d see some darwinian effects in motion on them. That and thunderbirds and dragons would be cool, if the extreme environment helps them evolve in those directions. For now though, he saw mostly small, gecko-like lizards that could stick to the trees and rocks despite the occasional strong wind, and various mostly normal species of birds. The few noticeably different ones include a larger lizard on the Island of The Eye with three little nubby horns on its head, almost like a triceratops without the frill, and a pelican-like bird that could glide over the distances between most of the islands. He¡¯d just have to wait and see what came of them, and hopefully with a bit of Dungeon Master intervention he could guide them the way he wanted.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Working on a bit of a guess, Corrin tried to place the Crystalline Group on the bottom sides of the Sky Islands, where the columnar crystals were, and was pleasantly surprised to see it work.Various crystalline creatures with almost insectile or arachnoid bodies spawned, gripping into the stone and crystal with sharp-tipped points and probably some instinctive magic. There were spider-like species that used sharp threads of crystal to slice bits of the columnar crystals and the other monsters nearby off to eat, pillbug-like creatures with jagged shells that dug into the rock as a form of both grip and traction, speeding around the undersides of the islands, and even something he could only describe as crystal trees, reaching down towards the storm below and gaining some kind of nourishment from the lightning that struck them. It was quite fascinating to watch, as were all of his other monsters, but he had more work to do before he could truly appreciate the sight. Corrin moved over to the Ifrit Magma Mountain, and after a few moments thought he went for placing the Lizard Group mostly near the lip of the volcano, and just to see what would happen he placed the Shade Species again, down right above where the lava flowed up into the open air. The Lizards spawned in a few different variants here, mostly gaining the same glossy black of the obsidian to blend in, with one or two of those species developing much thicker scales and larger jaws and snouts, almost like an alligator. Several lizard species took more to the heat and fire however, developing varying levels of yellow, orange, and red scales and ¡®sun¡¯bathing near the lava flows. The Shade Species however, now that interaction was interesting. The sheer difference in elemental alignment between a living shadow and a place full of light and heat meant that most of the spawning-in species simply couldn¡¯t take it and dissipated, but one species managed to survive. By what seemed like mostly a coincidence, one of the longest lasting shadows, reminiscent of the symbiotic shadow species in the Spirit Hallowed Woods, caught onto the shadow of an ember. When it did so, the ember seemed to die out, before bursting back to life as a black flame, which somehow still managed to give off light. It floated in the air, its shadow stark and clear, even having a defined border within other shadows. Seeing its success, several other of the surviving shadows followed its lead, though only some managed it. Oddly enough, each of the new fires except for the first seemed to have wisps of a secondary color in them, like blue, purple, white, red, etc. Although he felt a bit bad about how many of the spawned Shade Species died right out of the gate, this was a very interesting result. Only about a dozen and a half of these shadow fires had survived, and as of right now they were only bobbing in place, but he was excited to see what would happen with them. Tapping his finger on his chin, Corrin thought about how to include the Warg Species that he had bought. Doesn¡¯t make sense to buy it and not use it after all. After a bit, he remembers an old cliche of goblins sometimes riding wolves like humans would ride horses, and decides to see if he could make that happen a bit easier if both the rider and the mount were his monsters. In each of the magical forests, as well as a few of the regular forests in the temperate and tropical areas, and even one in the Spirit Hallowed Forest, he placed the default Goblin Species and the Warg species he bought in the same spots, with the rule exception that the Goblins and Wargs that spawned with each other would be friendly. In most of the forests that the two species spawned in, there wasn¡¯t much to say really. There were goblins and there were large, wolf-like creatures, though there were a few instances of note. In one of the magical forests, there was a goblin and a warg that spawned practically on top of each other, and seemed to bond with each other almost instantly, unlike most of the other examples of their respective species that were wary of each other before realizing that they are allies. There as also a group of goblins in the jungles that seemed to be thinner and lankier than a regular goblin, he almost wanted to liken them to elves, with their wargs exhibiting the same trait, likely due to the narrow gaps in the trees. In another, there was a group of goblins that spawned with four arms rather than two, which somewhat ostracized them from the rest of their starting group and caused them to splinter in two almost immediately. Then of course there was the Spirit Hallowed Forest group, where the goblins took on a pale skin tone that almost made them look like ghouls themselves, and their wargs that became black as night with red eyes, almost like a hellhound. He had the Tundras, the Deserts, the Plains, and the Oceans to put monsters in still, since he wanted at least a few monsters in each biome just in case. It¡¯s a bad idea to put all your eggs in one basket and all. He wanted to keep experimenting with his starter packs too, and he hasn¡¯t even tried out the Conceptual Group yet. Maybe he¡¯d save that for last, to sprinkle into the other areas. In the Oceans he placed several instalments of the Mammal and Insect Groups, since it¡¯s a pretty well known trick that putting groups like that into large bodies of water make crustaceans and marine mammals, rather than drowning lions or something. Of the notable varieties of species from that, Corrin managed to get a crustacean somewhere between a pistol shrimp and a lobster, a giant underwater centipede creature, and an odd coastal mammal that was kind of like an otter with pangolin-like keratin scales. In the Abyssal Reef biome specifically, he got a many-eyed armored squid creature, which somehow counted as in the Insect Group, as well as an amphibious wolf/dolphin-like hunter with bioluminescent fur. They apparently communicate using it among other things, which was pretty cool. In the Tundra areas he placed the Mammal, Crystalline and Insect Groups, which had some interesting results of their own. For the Mammal group Corrin got something between a polar bear and a dire wolf, bulky like a bear but with longer, loping legs, along with a long weasel-like creature that moved almost like a reptile would with its arms and legs splayed out to the sides. The Crystalline Group made, somewhat predictably, ice-like bodies, but the designs they came up with were almost wholly unique. Each individual species seemed to specialize in one way or another on using their bodies to reflect and refract sunlight through their semi-transparent crystal to create an intense, magnified beam of sunlight on a darker colored piece of their bodies. They were all essentially using sunlight as fuel in a kind of photosynthesis. For the Insect group the only real survivors were a species of giant beetle-like insects that were almost vantablack in coloration, and seemed to have an internal blubbery fat to hold in heat. The only reason they weren¡¯t hunted down by the naturally spawning species is because they are huge and their shells were incredibly tough and hard to crack. The only other survivors were a species somewhat similar to bees which seemed to have developed a symbiotic relationship with the various Crystalline species. All of the refracted light created a lot of heat, which the bees could leach away from the Crystalline species to help them not melt. That along with vibrating their wings is enough to keep them healthy. In return the bees would head out when they are warm enough to and collect nectar and water filled with water and ice magic. When they return to the Crystalline hive they make what is basically unfreezable ice honey and store it in the little dips and divots in the Crystalline¡¯s form, so that both species can eat it for sustenance. Incredible, really. In the Desert biomes Corrin decided to go for the Lizard, Flora and Undead Groups, as well as the Warg Species. The lizards species thrived well in the desert areas, likely because they do quite well in real life deserts as well, though the only species that really stood out to him were the large running lizards that sprinted to catch up to prey. Basically lizard cheetahs, but not as good at it yet thanks to their bone structure. The Flora Group made about what you could expect, cacti and palm trees near the few oases in the deserts, though there was a strange root plant that could grow just about anywhere. They have nearly no presence above ground other than several leafy vines colored a whitish tan color, but underground they have deep growing roots to suck up water and a thick bulb just below the surface to store it. They were like a mix between a radish and a potato, but the size of a pumpkin at full maturity. The Undead made what you would expect in a desert, a whole bunch of mummies. Although one neat species that came about were ambush predators that were made entirely from random bones in the desert, so they would just lay in wait and let the sand cover them partially. When something living got to close, they would attack and grab them with ribcages and jawbones, not letting go until they died of dehydration, heat stroke, or the chill of the cold nights. The wargs became smaller and coyote-like for the most part, though some of them looked more elegant like an anubis. There was one species that ended up becoming bulkier and shorthaired however, and they seemed to be opportunistic omnivores. Whether it be cactus, lizard, or undead flesh, they¡¯d eat just about anything. They almost reminded him of cows or camels, but decidedly more vicious. The Plains biomes were harder to decide on since he didn¡¯t want just a regular saharah environment. Eventually Corrin went for the Bird, Insect, and Crystalline Groups, ignoring the Mammal and Lizard options entirely. For the birds there were several species of gliding, circling birds, along with a small, distance runner bird, like an emu but only knee height. The insects really took to being big and proud in the plains, there were scorpions the size of large dogs and centipedes the size of pythons. The most terrifying had to be the swarmers though, little insects that looked like the unholy offspring of a mosquito, a locust, and a termite. They flew around en mass, searching for any smell of blood or rot, and once they found a bleeding or dead animal they just devoured the entire thing in minutes, not even bones left. The Crystalline Group once again ended up being interesting with how they formed themselves. There were two distinct species among the dozen or so that could survive in the plains that caught Corrin¡¯s eye. Both of them would rest as a line of crystals in the dirt, but when they needed to move they would curl into a open-centered circle and lean forward, becoming a wheel. Now the difference between them is that one species had a lot of width to them, they would just crush or bump over whatever got in their way. However the other one is hyper-thin, and while fragile their edge is sharp enough to cut through flesh like it cuts through the air. Sighing and rubbing the back of his neck, Corrin leans back to take a break from his work. ¡°Well damn, you¡¯ve got the beginnings of a great start there!¡± Rick, who had been looking on at the show as Corrin worked on his world, gave a long whistle at all of the monsters he¡¯d created. Corrin chuckled at Rick¡¯s over-exaggerated praise, leaning forward and working the projected screens once more. ¡°Still got one more monster to introduce, though this¡¯ll be easier since I¡¯m just going to put it on random spawn with a global range.¡± With one last press of a button, Corrin unleashed the Conceptual Group onto his new world. In the thunderclouds of the Sky Islands hurricane, spirits made of lightning and enthusiasm blasted through clouds playfully. In the Ifrit Magma Mountain, flames that run on passion come to life and stare curiously at their black-flamed neighbors. In the oceans, sea currents take on the shape of sea serpents, gliding through their inanimate cousins with a relaxed ease. These and many more like them begin to take shape all across the planet, with a few exceptional Concepts among them like every other monster spawning. In one of the goblin inhabited forests, a spirit of connections and relationships forms, quickly imbuing itself into the trees and land itself in an area around where it spawned. A whole host of howling winds made of the smell of rot and bittersweet memories tears through the Spirit Hallowed Forest, merging into one and forming a living gale-force wind of regret and sorrow. In the center of the magma chamber feeding the Ifrit Mountain, an unreasonably large spirit fueled by rage and anger lays dormant at the bottom of a lake of lava, resting until the day that its home is in grave danger. Finally satisfied with everything, Corrin hits the next button.
[Step 6: Name Your World] [Name:_____]
¡°Hmm...what do you think I should name it?¡± Corrin looks to Rick for help, but doesn¡¯t get much of it from him. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m as bad as you at naming stuff. Just try not to be corny or cliche, I guess?¡± Corrin looks back at the prompt, thinking deeply on the question for several minutes. Eventually he just sighs in frustration and put in something that sounds relatively good to him.
[Name: Eralith]
[Congratulations! You have made you first Dungeon World. If you would like a tutorial on how to get started managing your world-]
Corrin waves the scrolling prompt away, already having seen some of his friends start up their own Dungeon Worlds and begin moderating it. ¡°Hey Eva, are there any fledgling leaders in the monster groups? And if there are, could you bring up their information and a prompt for watching their introductions to the world-well, to Eralith?¡± Eva¡¯s avatar immediately starts organizing multiple screens as she speaks, laying them out for them to see as she finishes. ¡°Yes sir, The goblins obviously have shown intelligence and initiative, but surprisingly the various Shade offshoots are showing varying levels of intelligence as well. The same goes for some of the Crystalline and Undead species that have popped up, among others.¡± Monsters of Note:
Name: N/A Species: Goblin (Variant: High-Empathy) Sex: Female Traits: Warg Companion, Emotional Link [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Warg (Variant: High-Empathy) Sex: Female Traits: Goblin Companion, Emotional Link [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Goblin Subspecies: Four-Armed Goblin Sex: Male Traits: Multitasking, Intimidation [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Shadow-Flame (Variant: Pure) Sex: N/A Traits: Two Bodies, One Mind, Ethereal Fire [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Goblin Subspecies: Jungle Sex: Male Traits: Forest Navigator [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Living Shadow (Variant: Friendly) Sex: N/A Traits: Symbiant, Nightmare [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Haunted Tree Subspecies: Proto-Dryad Sex: Hermaphrodite (N/A) Traits: Unholy-Holy Magisynthesis, Plant Possession [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Komodo Lizard Subspecies: Tri-horned Komodo Sex: Male Traits: Lightning Rod, Steady Stance [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Lightning Crystal Spiderling (Variant: Superconductor) Sex: N/A Traits: Lightning Eater, Speedster [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Minor Salamander Subspecies: Yellow Salamander Sex: Female Traits: Hot-Blooded, Exothermic Mucus [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Goblin (Variant: Blood-Thirsty) Subspecies: Life-Starved Goblin Sex: Female Traits: Blood is Power, Enthralling [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Coastal Armored Otter (Variant: Charming) Subspecies: Water-Breathing Armored Otter Sex: Female Traits: Trickster, Redundant Gills [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Cephalopodic Crustacean Subspecies: Eldritch One Sex: Male Traits: Regeneration, Vast Wisdom [View first appearance?]
Name: N/A Species: Desert Warg Subspecies: Anubic Warg Sex: Male Traits: Dark Vision, Regal Bearing [View first appearance?]
¡°...Well damn, that¡¯s a lot of special monsters.¡± After seeing the long list, Corrin wasn¡¯t sure if he said it or Rick did. He was starting to really like deciding to play this game. Chapter 2: The Life and Times of Dungeon Minions [Part 1] ¡°So...¡± After a minute of just processing the variety of stand-out monsters just a few minutes of real-time running the game, Rick finally breaks the silence. ¡°Yep. Eva, how long has Eralith been running in-game?¡± Despite there being no face for her glasses to rest on, she still manages to make it look like she¡¯s pushing hers back up the bridge of her nose. ¡°It has been approximately 2 months in-world so far, I slowed it down to real-time when you asked me about monster leaders. I¡¯ve been running a surface-level real-time projection so your monsters aren¡¯t speed up while you watch.¡± ¡°Huh, well that explains it. For now just pause the world completely while we review them all. So, which one should we watch first?¡± Rick scratches the back of his head, looking over the list. ¡°Well, the komodo thing is going to be the start of a dragon-like line, right? Might as well see that. Plus seeing what it thinks about being on a floating island could be pretty rad.¡± Shrugging at the response, Corrin presses the view button for the Tri-horned komodo and watches as the projection fades and turns into something new.
[Begin Transmission]
When the spawning happened, The Island of the Eye was large enough that the automatically generated life on the island was able to flourish. The trees here had to ¡®evolve¡¯ with very little lateral space in mind, so they took on a different way of gaining sunlight than land-born trees. The trees here stretch high and thin into the sky, highly elastic to bend in the strong winds, not unlike reeds in that way. They also don¡¯t grow branches, at least not in the traditional sense. Each species of tree has a different shape or pattern, but they all grow their leaves directly from their trunks. In juxtaposition to that, the various grasses, herbaceous plants, and bushes grow thick and close to the ground, both because they don¡¯t have to fight the trees nearly as much for sun space and because the winds would tear any taller, thinner plants away on a bad day. In this same vein, naturally spawned insects, lizards, and mammals either burrow into the thick, loamy soil, have developed some method of strong traction to stay attached to the tree trunks, or have ¡®evolved¡¯ to fly. The tri-horned lizard came into being at the exact same time as its brothers and sisters, spread along the island evenly. Despite being lizards of several different species, they all knew when they saw each other that they were related in some way. This didn¡¯t mean that they couldn¡¯t dispute with each other for territory, as the tri-horned lizard had seen some of the naturals do when they came into contact, they simply weren¡¯t inclined to do so without reason. Tri-horn was a bit of a peculiarity compared to his other brethren, for there was only one of him. The brothers and sisters that were closest to him in appearance had taken to him, saying that he smelled of them, which he noticed too, but there was always that small divide of knowing he was different. That divide lead him to becoming more adventurous than most of his comrades, pushing him to explore their island rather than settle down into a single territory. He went uncontested in his wandering, the only creatures that could threaten him would be the Landless Ones, those who were not bound to the trappings of this island or the many others that Tri-horn could see from the edges of his own, but at the same time never stayed long on any one island. He could feel that same connection from them that he could with his closest brothers and sisters though, and knew that unless they were truly starving they would not bother him. As the sun and moons made their cycles, and he and his siblings grew larger, Tri-horn noticed something odd. When they were younger he and his siblings would play a game, climbing up the reed-trees to see who could climb the highest without falling. He would always win, climbing to the very tips of the trees, but there was always competition for second place. However, he noticed that as they grew larger, it became harder for his brethren to climb as high as they used to, until eventually the only ones who still climbed the trees were there smaller cousins, the ones who could climb just about anything. Not him though. For some reason, even when the trees groaned and bent all the way down to the soil, he never slipped off of their bark and leaves. This was odd, considering he did not have the sticky pads of his cousins, which was the source of their ability to climb even his own smooth scales when they were too lazy to walk on their own. This held even when climbing the slow-rising edges of their island, and for so long as he did not try to climb beyond a specific angle, he could climb to the very edge of the edge itself, above the greenery to the rocky lip of their island ¡®shore¡¯. What he saw over that edge he could barely put into words. Other islands, so many more than the few he could glimpse from the tops of the trees when he was younger, all riding on top of a bed of clouds. Except, when he looked down at his island, he saw not the cloud bed he was expecting, but an unfathomably long drop, down into what seemed to be like the small pools of water that formed on the island after a rain, but so large that he could not see the edges of the pool, and so deep that it simply faded into blue. He saw that the bed of clouds the other islands rested on were white and fluffy on the top, but below that, between the forever-pool and the islands, they turned dark, almost black. And within those black clouds, he saw light. A flash of light here, another one there, spreading and splitting almost in the way that the little streams do, and yet gone in and instant. As Tri-horn watched the lights, mesmerized, he realized that the lights were followed by the rumbling roars that had been with him his entire life. They were so constant that they had simply faded into the background noise, along with the buzzing of insects and scurrying of mammals, but paired with this light show he never knew of before it suddenly seemed so crisp. He didn¡¯t know how long he sat there, simply staring into the beyond, wishing for once that he was one of the Landless Ones so that he might be able to reach for those wonderful, powerful lights. He almost didn¡¯t notice that it was night time until one of his siblings eventually found him, hissing at him from the ground below in worry. Staring out into the air in front of him for a moment more, he twisted his head to call to his comrade and placate them, his horns facing the great beyond. And then his world went white. When he came too, he felt as if he had been sunbathing for days, his muscles relaxed and warm and full of energy. He rolled over onto his legs and stretched luxuriously, before recognizing the frantic hissing beside him. Opening his eyes, he saw one of his sisters, strangely staying a foot or two away from him despite her obvious worry. It only took a moment more for him to realize why. The plants around him were charred black and crumbling away in places, and his scales were covered in little flashes of light, like the clouds in the great beyond. As he looked around, he saw that the spot of rock he had been resting on while he cloud-watched was glowing red, and the plants just under it were either charred or withering like they had been baked in the sun¡¯s heat without their roots to sustain them. Even as he watched he could see the light crackling along his scales fade, but he could feel within him a surging power, and he knew, in some odd, instinctual way, that he could call upon that power again should he need it. Placating his sister and walking back to their nesting grounds, Tri-horn could not keep himself from flicking his tail happily. He knew why he was different now. He was blessed!
[End Transmission]
¡°Man, the story-compiling software is top class.¡± Corrin mutters under his breath, devolving even further into incoherent murmuring as he thinks about where to take the center island¡¯s creatures. ¡°Wait, what do you mean?¡± Rick breaks him out of his murmuring fast, he knew that if Corrin got the chance, he¡¯d go off in his own world for a while just to think out all the options. ¡°Hmm? Oh yeah, well you don¡¯t think that a lizard would be that eloquent, do you? Yeah even the first-spawned dungeon monsters are smarter overall than ¡®naturally¡¯ spawned creatures when the world biomes start up, but he¡¯s still just a lizard.¡± ¡°Huh, never thought about it like that. I guess it makes sense now that I think about it, one of my monster starters were slimes and when I viewed them I¡¯d sometimes get caught up in soap operas about their lives.¡± Rick looks off into the distance, apparently reminiscing about the enthralling stories of how slimes lived their lives. He shook his head after a second and turned back to Corrin. ¡°Anyways, you pick the next monster to view, yeah? Your world after all.¡± Corrin waves him off as he responds. ¡°In a minute, I want to set up some stuff for the islands before I forget. Eva, could you raise...let¡¯s call him Tres for now, could you raise his libido? I don¡¯t want to lose his subspecies, and that lightning rod trait is very useful.¡± Tapping his chin in thought, he tries to think of how best to encourage the growth of wings in the different species on the islands. ¡°Also, could you raise the mutation rates of the monsters on the islands? Even with them being isolated in small populations it shouldn¡¯t run them into the ground if one or two lizards per generation end up having two tails or something if we can increase the chance of getting something good like an extra set of arms.¡± Looking over the list, Corrin eventually decides on taking a look at the variant shadow-flame on the list. He took a risk making them, so it would be nice to see what happened to them from their point of view.
[Begin Transmission]
When the black flame first spawned, in those first moments when it was what it now considers to be incomplete, there was panic. When it was still only one half of a whole, it could not exist in the same place as all of the light in its home, if it were like the scaled creatures that lived on the lip it would describe the feeling in those first seconds as excruciating pain. Being what it was however, it simply knew that it was in trouble. Its form was dissolving in the presence of so much light and heat, and it needed to find some way to make it stop. In an act of desperation, it reached out to a spark of light and heat, penetrating through the light to grab onto the small speck of burning fuel and its shadow. The black flame nearly didn¡¯t make it, but just as it was beginning to fade away, it felt something burst inside of itself. Suddenly, it was not just the shadow on the wall, now it could feel the warmth and light around it without needing to shrink away. No, it was the light and heat, but it was also the cool and shadow. It was creating its own shadow, feeding off of the heat and the darkness both. As its companions followed its lead, some making it and some not, the black flame could only marvel at itself. Its flame was as black as its shadow, and its shadow shone through its inanimate cousins as if it were a light itself. It could feel that it had control of both, though the fire felt almost alien. Having a new body alongside your first would do that to someone, it guessed. It took several cycles of the great light above, the black flame relishing both the shadow it helped create and the light itself from its fire body, before it learned how to do more than just float in place. Every movement caused its flame to flicker and weaken, but soon enough it was able to move around smoothly without needing to rest every few moments. Something else it had noticed was that it could move its shadow body freely, even over the red rivers that radiated light and heat. Something about that seemed off, when it was incomplete it was formed with some basic knowledge, something like instinct. It knew that if it were still the way it was, it would have to follow the regular shadows and how they fell, moving without them would weaken it, similar to how moving its fire body did at first. Now that it was its own shadow, that restriction no longer applied. Exploring around its home and siblings, a few things stood out. Its fellows, still learning how to move in their new forms, all had shades of color to their flame. Getting closer, he could tell that it was a part of them, hidden in shadow until exposed to their fires, like impurities in their selves burning and turning into something new. It new it was the same, it was simply that its color was as black as its flame, so it didn¡¯t stand out. Their home was interesting, rivers and pools of the red, hot liquid, all leading into a massive lake in the middle of their home. The black flame could tell that there was...something in that lake, deep, deep down, and although it felt like an ally, it wasn¡¯t sure it wanted to try and provoke it. There were other living flames too, now that it was paying attention, these ones the regular colors of fire. They seemed very emotional and prone to nearly tearing each other apart fighting and immediately after cheering each other up. Quite the odd ones, them. On the lip of their home, in the distance, the black flame could see the scaled, solid ones. They also felt like allies, even if they were alien to it. As it approached, it could see much smaller versions of the allied scaled ones, skittering around the black, glossy stone of its home. It could tell these were not allies, and that when it was incomplete it would have tried to hide in their shadows, but now it only felt a distant curiosity over it. To its surprise, when the lizard¡¯s shadow walked over its own, it started writhing in pain, its outer layers blackening and hardening. Soon enough it stopped moving, and the black flame felt a wave of energy course through it. It could eat the life from their shadows! Indeed, when it moved its own shado body away, the lizard¡¯s shadow seemed as burned as its solid body. It should probably learn to control that, actually, it wouldn¡¯t want to hurt its solid allies on accident. Learning how to do this took several more cycles and a few more small lizards, since it was not only an effort on the part of its shadow body, but on its flame body as well. Eventually it learned how to lower its shadow bodies heat, to the point that the lizards seemed to actually quite like its presence, skittering after it whenever it moved it around. The black flame found this...enjoyable. In fact, it could feel a small buzz of that same energy flowing through it like those first few lizards, just in much smaller amounts. It could see now, this was similar to the paths a shadow could take in ho it interacted with the living. Either hunting them down and gaining large amounts of energy in bursts, or bonding with one and gaining a smaller, but steady supply of energy. Personally, the black flame thought the later option was better here, since the lizards came to it and it didn¡¯t need to bond to any one lizard. It taught this to its fellows, communicating with them in something slightly different from the way that shadows should speak from its memories, and soon enough they all had little clusters of the small not-allies. It might have been a good idea to do the same with the allies on the lip of their home, but they were quite large and something was telling it that it would need to be as large as them to properly take advantage of their large shadows. New instincts from its new form, likely. As the great light above rose and fell time and time again, the black flame noticed that the little lizards were changing depending on what shadow they rested under. Their scales seemed to change color depending on what the color of the shadow-flame they rested under was, but rather than changing to the same color, they changed to the opposite color. Yellow lizards under purple flames, orange under blue, each color having its opposite, and white under its own flame. This change seemed to also affect the lizards personalities, as well. The yellow ones seemed to be more jittery and flighty, darting around with speed when hunting for their small insects. The red ones seemed more aggressive and territorial, warding off any not of their own when they got too close. Each of these little packs of lizards forming what it could only describe to be tribes, even though they were much to instinctual to do so on purpose. Under its own flame, the slowly paling lizards seemed to not experience any specific personality changes, but they seemed...smarter. Their eyes had a glint of intelligence to them, however primal it may be. When they were hungry, they would hunt together, chasing down the larger insects and having one of their pack distract it while another would bite it from behind. The black flame even noticed this in a stray insect as well, its chitin had turned bleach white and stayed inside of its shadow nearly all the time. As the cycles continued to pass, a new development occurred. The lizards started to lay eggs, and when they hatched their scales were much more brightly colored than their parents, some even developing specific patterns in different shades of the same color. Their personalities were also more strongly cemented and more polarized than their parents. The black flame¡¯s lizards and insects offspring were not excluded from this phenomena.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As the newborn, bone white lizards grew, they developed even more than their parents could have dreamed. They formed scouting parties, looking for where the insects were most concentrated, and would burn the small amounts of plant life to ash near the red rivers, mixing it with the clear liquid that fell from the skies on some days and managed to collect in small pools farthest away from the red rivers to create a black paste. They would smear it on their scales so that they didn¡¯t stand out as much against the black stone, hiding themselves to sneak up on their prey. Once the insect, a small eight-legged creature, laid its eggs and died, its babies were the same bleached white as its mother had turned, but seemed to almost go beyond that. If the black flame looked at them from the right angle, it could swear that their chitin was just a little see-through. Rather than the other eight-legged insects when they were born, these ones worked together in a group, not only with each other but with its lizards as well. They used their threads to make traps that insects could not get out of, making their hunts much easier on them both. All of their lizards had made their own little achievements, and they had all obviously gotten smarter with the next generation, but the black flame¡¯s lizards and insects were especially so, and that made it quite a proud little flame indeed.
[End Transmission]
¡°Wow, I didn¡¯t know that monsters could affect naturally spawned creatures like that. I mean, I know dryads and elementals and stuff can affect the land and the flora, but they only affect animals indirectly from the changing environment. Aren¡¯t the shadow-flames spirits?¡± Rick scratches his head in confusion as they watch the lizards rapidly change in the monsters shadows. ¡°I think it¡¯s because the shadow-flames are somewhere between a spirit and an elemental now. Since the shadow-flames came from shades that would use shadows to attack the soul directly, it becomes much easier to modify the lizards the way they do.¡± Pondering over what to change about things in the volcanic area. ¡°Eva, for the Pure Variant shadow-flame could you name it Umber? It¡¯s a word for black and it rhymes with ember.¡± ¡°Will do!¡± As the name section for the black flame they had been watching changed, Corrin deliberated on what to do here, before eventually deciding that he wanted to see where the flames and their little animals would go from here without any interference, at least for now. Instead he looked through the list and looked for the next pick for what monster to view. ¡°Speaking of dryads, let''s look at this haunted tree with the proto-dryad designation.¡±
[Begin Transmission]
They did not know when exactly they came into being, but they do know when they noticed. They were small, compared to the others around them. They felt that they were different, aware, while the others around them seemed to simply stand where they were. The sun caressed and baked their bark, and the shadows hanging like a fog around them soothed and comforted them at the same time. They were...alone. They knew that there were creatures similar to it, in a distant way, flitting through the woods around them, but they were so fast and never seemed to really notice them. Even the little shadowy ones, the ones they felt the closest to, didn¡¯t notice the connection between them consciously, simply staying in their branches shadows longer than the other ones. Although they felt bad about this fact, it was in a distant way, just a disgruntled feeling more than anything. As they observed their surroundings, they eventually started to notice something odd. They were drawing something in from the air, the soil, even the fast creatures that skittered around them. It felt filling, in a way that the air in its leaves and the soil in its roots weren¡¯t. The odd thing is that, just like the stuff that goes out of their leaves, stuff comes out of them that¡¯s like the something they take in, but different. It made the air around their branches and trunk glimmer a little. As the days passed, they noticed that their senses seemed to become sharper, more present in some incomprehensible way. Their bark had turned solid black and smooth, their branches had shaped themselves to be twisted and winding, and its leaves had become invisible, as if they weren¡¯t even there. The environment directly around them had changed too, though in a different way. The shadowy fog thinned to almost nothing, patches of grass that were once brittle and dead have turned lush and vibrant, little white and black flowers blooming in them. Even the moving creatures that came by had changed, though less from it influence and more thanks to the influences it had made. Before, creatures made of bone or flesh that would slough off at the slightest provocation would wander through the area with no problems, and the shadows would be drawn to its branches. Now, little creatures like the fleshed ones came by, but their flesh was firm and did not fall off. They liked these creatures, but it also missed the other ones. Why did they no longer come by? One day in particular, they encountered their first dangerous creature. At first they did not realize that it was a creature at all, since it had no body, but once the terrible wind blew through their cozy home, tearing up bits of grass and even tugging their invisible leaves off their branches, they knew they needed to do something before they got seriously hurt. For the first time ever, they specifically tried to direct and focus their ability to absorb that something. They could tell that the wind creature had a lot of both kinds of the something they knew about inside of it, along with a lot of something else. They drew away as much of the stuff they draw in as they could, slowly weakening the wind-creature until it was barely more than a breeze. Now that they weren¡¯t panicked about the situation, they realized they had made a grave mistake. This wind creature was similar to them! In fact it was the closest to being like them it had felt so far, even more than the shadows! They could also tell that taking so much of their something had hurt them a lot, and with so little of that something in the area, they could¡­ No. They wouldn¡¯t let that happen, not when it was their fault, when it was with something so close to being like them! They tried to reverse whatever process they used to make the first stuff into the other stuff, and although it was weak and made them tingle all over, they managed to start turning the second stuff back into the first stuff. They really needed a name for whatever all these somethings were, it was going to get confusing pretty fast. For the first and second somethings they knew of, they would call them dark and light somethings, since that¡¯s what they remind them of. Over the next few days, they nurtured the wind creature, filling it back up with the first something until the dark and light somethings in it were balanced once more. When they let go of the concentration needed to feed the wind that something though, it immediately started going wild again, but this time they could tell why. The two somethings that they were familiar with were warring inside of the wind, driving it crazy! At first they couldn¡¯t figure out why the wind was having so much trouble when they didn¡¯t, but as they looked into themselves, they realized that that had another something too! It was different from the third something in the wind, but it kept the dark and light somethings from fighting each other, allowing them to interact and mix without violence. For now they concentrated back on the wind creature, helping it to balance its light and dark somethings. At the same time, they tried to teach it how to use its other something to keep their dark and light somethings in balance. It would probably take a while, but they knew that the wind could do it! And once they did, they would do the same for the rest of the area around them too! They didn¡¯t want to drive away the creatures that used to come, and they didn¡¯t want to drive away the ones that came now. It would find a way to help them coexist, a way to make Balance!
[End Transmission]
¡°Well damn, I can see why it¡¯s considered a proto-dryad. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s working off of a system where if it builds up enough of either holy or unholy mana, it will evolve one way or another?¡± Eva nods her glasses, Rick simply shaking his head and muttering under his breath about ¡®crazy guys who get cool monsters out of nowhere¡¯. Corrin ignores his joking remarks, not needing to think long on what orders to make regarding the tree spirit. ¡°I like the way it¡¯s been going about recycling holy and unholy mana, trying to strike a balance. I know it already seems pretty set on keeping that up, but could you reinforce that idea in their head? I¡¯m interested to see if they will evolve into some kind of hybrid if it keeps a solid balance even while it gets close to evolving. Oh, and for a name, how about Grimm? Feels thematic.¡± ¡°Yes sir, shouldn¡¯t take much to reinforce that thought process.¡° Looking over the list once more, Corrin decides to take a look at one of the goblin choices. They¡¯re the closest to a human level intelligence on the list, so there shouldn¡¯t be as many gaps in vocabulary. He decides to pick the high-empathy variant goblin, that and her traits point to exactly the kind of thing he was hoping would happen.
[Begin Transmission]
When she woke up, it was to a big fluffy ball of cute right in front of her nose. Despite it being nearly double her size, something in her told her that it was a friend, and that it wouldn¡¯t hurt her. Not having much else to go off of, she embraced that feeling. Apparently the ball-well, mound really-of cute agreed, and licked her right across the face. Wolves are great! Wait, how does she know what a wolf is? Eh, doesn¡¯t matter. Getting up along with her new best friend in the world, she looked around and took in the clearing she as in, idly petting the big wolf¡¯s fur as she did(so soft!). They were in a clearing, and there were a bunch of other wolves and goblins there with her, though only some of them had gotten up so far. Oddly enough, she noticed that all of them were evenly spaced a few feet away from each other, unlike her and her new wolf friend. As everyone started to get up, she noticed that although there wasn¡¯t any real aggression between the goblins and the wolves, there was still some weariness there. That wouldn¡¯t do, obviously they were supposed to all be friends! She set to work with her own wolf friend, each of them talking with their own species, and getting them to interact with each other. Getting a goblin to scratch a wolf behind the ear seems to be a solid way to get them warmed up to each other, from what she¡¯s seen. The forest itself is vibrant and lush, the air is thick with the smell of damp soil and fresh grass. It seems that since she and her wolf friend helped everyone else get used to each other, they were now the de-facto leaders of the group in everyone else¡¯s eyes. A bit daunting, but she shook off her anxiety and took the lead. ¡°Alright guys, This clearing is as good as any to set up camp for now. I want you 4 pairs to go looking for any streams or lakes nearby, those two pairs I want gathering as much firewood as you can carry, everyone else start looking for game, fruit, and vegetables that look edible. Let¡¯s go people!¡± It isn¡¯t long before we have a rudimentary camp set up, with a bonfire in the center of the clearing and in progress lean-to''s up against the closest trees. The game and berries picked up are small, but plentiful for right now, so we won¡¯t be starving tonight. It seems that most goblins have stayed with the same wolves they were first introduced to, which she could understand. After all, even though all the wolves are the best, her wolf was the only wolf for her. She had noticed that her connection with her wolf had gotten stronger over the day as they worked together. What had once marked her wolf as merely and ally now marked her as a friend, which she appreciated. It meant that her wolf liked her too! She also heard what the other goblins had started calling her, the ¡®Wolf Maiden¡¯. Apparently her wolf thought that was amusing, though she didn¡¯t know why. As the days and nights passed, their tribe grew more entrenched in the area they were in now, setting it up as our main living area. There was a good sized river not 30 feet from us, and the food was always plentiful. The Wolf Maiden also noticed that everyone was becoming closer with their wolves, and she even noticed that the goblins were learning how to read body language from their wolves. She was sure that the wolves were learning just as much from them, too. With their basic needs taken care of, the groups desire to explore skyrocketed. Since she was interested too, but needed to stay at the camp to keep things in order, she made a job of it, having goblin/wolf pairs team up with small groups of other pairs to go out into the wilds and scout out their farther surroundings. Although there was the occasional interesting area discovered or dangerous predator chased away from our boundaries, nothing all that special happened until a good few days after they started scouting. One scout group came back a bit flustered, reporting about odd happenings in the forest about a half day¡¯s travel over the river. The spoke of perfectly organized trees and plants, animals walking willingly into the maws of their predators, and other old predators allowing their younger rivals to kill them, letting the insects and plants take from their bodies. Intrigued and somewhat concerned, the Wolf Maiden hops onto her wolf¡¯s back(they had discovered this trick a while ago, saves a lot of time!)and leads a small group back to the forest area in question. Once they got there, she could see why they were so concerned and unbelieving. She saw a small swarm of mosquitos and other flying insects fly right into a spider¡¯s web, a handful of them getting stuck there for the spider while the others went off, presumedly to find another web. That alone practically screamed that something off was here. Deciding that if she didn¡¯t do it, nobody would, she lead the charge into the strange woods. Well, charge may not be the right word, it¡¯s more like she had them stalk through them. At first it didn¡¯t seem like anything was going to happen, when suddenly her wolf froze mid-step underneath her. She only had a moment of panic before she realized why her wolf froze up. There was something in the woods here, something...alive It felt kind of like what the other goblins and wolves felt like, like an ally, but it was almost entirely alien. It felt like it was staring right through her, and she didn¡¯t even know if it had eyes! Eventually, a wave of calm and reassurance came through her connection to the thing, and presumably it did the same for everyone else, since the whole scouting group relaxed. It didn¡¯t take long for it to explain what was going on, apparently being able to talk through the connections they all had was possible, and very helpful in lieu of a shared language. This thing just formed one day(she had a sneaking suspicion it was on the same day that had woken up) and didn¡¯t know what to do. So, it decided to use that feeling of connection and form new ones with all the life around where it first formed. The Wolf Maiden had excitedly asked if it was possible to recreate with the goblins, but the creature expressed that it seemed to be a unique effect of its own, and doing so had permanently connected it to the land here. Sad for the creature, and slightly disappointed about not having that power for herself, she had asked if there was anything they could do to help out. The creature had simply expressed a desire for companionship every once in a while, since even with the intricate web of connections it had here, it could get very lonely without intelligent life like them. In fact, it had noticed something about all of their connections, and offered to see if it could strengthen the bonds we had with our wolves. The Wolf Maiden of course said yes, even while the others hesitated slightly before agreeing as well. Soon after she felt her bond of friendship between herself and her wolf flicker and become overlapped with the mysterious being¡¯s own connection. Suddenly, the connection experienced a rapid growth, and she almost passed out at a sudden rush of new information. The connection between her and her chosen wolf had ¡®thickened¡¯ and grown ¡®shorter¡¯, at least that was the closest approximation to what had happened that she could describe. She and her wolf could feel each others thoughts fluttering passed each other, going deeper than even the communication of ideas, emotions, and images that the spirit could give them to communicate. It was like she had another mind running in the background of her own, conscious and subconscious thoughts grinding against each other and forming new ideas and thought patterns from the gestalt of their different emotions and personalities. They were still two distinct people(and how could her wolf be anything but a person, with thoughts like these?) but they were also the literal interpretation of two minds being better than one. It was...a lot to take in and process, but once they-she, did, she finally noticed that the spirit thing was panicking a little, obviously not having expected such a strong bond to form. All the Wolf Maiden and her wolf-no, not wolf, Warg-could do was grin. If they could do this for every goblin/warg pair, they would be unstoppable.
[End Transmission]
¡°Well that explains if the whole ¡®goblins riding wargs¡¯ cliche idea is a success.¡± Corrin¡¯s humor was dry, but he was actually curious now. Did all of these ¡®coincidences¡¯ happen to everyone, or was he just insanely lucky? When he asked Eva about it, she had to do a scan of her Pocket Dungeon programming just to make sure. ¡°From what I can see, there are in fact some systems in place to encourage synergy between player choices and random generation. Random things can and will happen, obviously, it¡¯s just more likely to be in favor of your choices in-game. It helps obviously that you didn¡¯t just hit random on everything and watched to see what would come out.¡± ¡°Really? That actually does put some things into perspective. I always thought the fact that the pros always seem to have monsters that just work with whatever themes they have for themselves was suspicious. I guess it does make sense that in a game with so much potential variability that they would restrict it in some ways to make it more fun for the general audience.¡± Rick stretches out his limbs and sighs loudly to break Corrin out of his rambling once more, getting up and stepping away from the projector to go to the kitchen. ¡°Yeah yeah, breaking the illusion of my favorite game is great and all, but we¡¯ve been sitting in place for like 3 hours. Imma make some popcorn before we keep going, you want any?¡± Blinking a little in surprise that they¡¯d been watching his new monsters for so long already, Corrin cracks his knuckles and lays back in his seat, letting potential plans run through his mind. ¡°Yeah, sure. Make the extra buttered stuff!¡± Chapter 3: The Life and Times of Dungeon Minions [Part 2] ¡°Alright, we¡¯ve got popcorn, some Fizz-Blast, and your gross cran-grape juice.¡± Corrin snorts at Rick¡¯s mocking of his favorite drink, grabbing a handful of buttery popcorn to snack on. ¡°Oh you say that, but your fizzy drink feels like drinking acid.¡± ¡°Bah! You just have a wimpy throat.¡± Rick waves off his comeback, taking a gulp of his awful bubbling tar-totally not Corrin being biased, not at all-while gesturing for him to continue. Sighing dramatically, Corrin thinks about what to name the Warg/Goblin duo. After a quick search for a good name variation, he decides to have the goblin woman named Ulkmerge, and the warg named Fen. ¡°There we go. Since we¡¯ve got movie-watching snacks and drinks, might as well make this like one. Eva, could you go through the rest of the monsters on the list, just one after another?¡± ¡°Right away, sir.¡±
[Begin Transmission]
When he woke up, it was to the disorienting feeling of having more limbs than he thought he would have. He isn¡¯t sure why he thought he should have 2 arms rather than 4, but that feeling went away pretty quickly as he got used to moving them all at the same time. He noticed that he wasn¡¯t alone in this, several other goblins nearby had the same four-armed mutation, but there were other goblins nearby that had two arms instead. It started with an honest mistake, one of his fellow four-arms accidentally smacked one of the two-arms in the back of the head while she was trying to get used to moving them. Just that one mistake and suddenly everyone was at each other''s throats, four-arms verses two-arms. Seeing that things were going to come to blows if he didn¡¯t stop things, he harnessed the tense aura surrounding the group and roared. There was something there in that roar, though he wasn¡¯t sure what exactly that was. An almost visible wave of...not quite force, it¡¯s not like anyone got pushed away by the power of his voice, but it got people¡¯s attention enough that he decided he liked it and roared again. With a few chest-thumps and another roar or two, everyone else was sufficiently quiet for him to feel like he could speak without being challenged. ¡°We shouldn¡¯t be fighting, it¡¯ll be hard enough surviving without having injured to take care of! Since us four-arms obviously aren¡¯t welcome, we¡¯ll just leave. Come on!¡± He starts walking away from the group, whether his fellow four-arms come with him or not is up to them. They did. All of them, in fact, and though the wolves that had spawned near them hesitated, some of them followed too. Over the next days he set himself up as the leader of their smaller group, though he only used his odd shout on their prey and attacking predators. He didn¡¯t really like using it on his fellows, leading by fear and submission wouldn¡¯t really get him any good graces after all. He found that he could do more with his hands at the same time compared to his brethren, oddly enough, though they all slowly caught up to him over time.
[Next Transmission]
Waking up to the sounds of the forest around him, he stretched and yawned lazily, slowly opening his eyes in a daze before realizing that he and the group of goblins and wolves around him were in the middle of a dense jungle, which probably is something that needs to be addressed. Some other goblin seemed to be taking charge, getting the others to group up so that they could figure out what they needed to do and who would be doing what. He personally just climbed a tree and lazed about on a branch above the group meeting. It was only when the group leader yelled at him that he came back to the ground, practically gliding down the tree before taking a little hop from the lowest branch and hitting the soft dirt like nothing happened. When the leader demanded to know how he managed to do that, he couldn¡¯t really give them an answer. Shouldn¡¯t they all be able to do it? Anyways, that¡¯s how he got appointed the lead scout of the group. He got the wolf that seemed the most comfortable with the jungle and started looking around the area that he and the rest of the group found themselves in, though his wolf ended up having to motivate(read: snap at his feet to get him to move) so that he didn¡¯t spend his scouting time napping in a tree. The days passed and he slowly started mapping out the area around them, pointing out rivers and ponds, the animal trails that are the most often used, things like that. Oh, he also found this really cool tree, it came in these spiky pieces of bark, like the tree was a giant pinecone. It made climbing so easy he could do it in his sleep, but he personally liked snapping off a piece of the bark and carving it into a mask.
[Next Transmission]
It formed in a moment, in a flood of others just like it. It slid across the ground, chasing the trails of shadow around it, desperate to find something living before it could dissipate. The long, spindly shadows were ok, but had very little energy to them, at least not the kind of energy it could use. Eventually, it finally found a jumpy-fast shadow, one that was attached to a living thing. In an excited rush, it took to the living thing¡¯s shadow and twisted, ending the living thing in a rush of energy. The energy was delicious, it nearly doubled its size...but it didn¡¯t feel right. Feel? That¡¯s...something new. It didn¡¯t feel good to do that. It didn¡¯t know why, but it didn¡¯t want to do it again, even with the rush of energy it knew it would get. It slinked along once more, slower now despite its new energy. Eventually it found another jumpy-fast shadow, and it latched onto it, but it didn¡¯t twist this time. The instinct was there, definitely, but it could ignore it now that it was aware it could do otherwise. Sitting there in its jumpy-fast¡¯s shadow, just soaking in the situation, it started to notice a few things. The first was that, even though it wasn¡¯t getting nearly as much as before, it was gaining energy constantly. It was almost more satisfying than that big burst of energy from before. It was also slowly able to sense more about its host as it stayed with it, as well as the area around them. It¡¯s host was a rabbit, with a grayish-back mottled coat of fur. It was thin and lithe, and very fast, even compared to others like it. It noticed that it was female, and seemed surprisingly teritorial, chasing off others of its kind in it¡¯s own little area of the forest around them. Something odd that it noticed as well was about how it could move and interact with the area around them. Before, it was in too much of a rush to really notice while trying to find a host/prey, but with a constant source of energy it could now take in little details like this. As it turns out, depending on the time of day, some things were easier for it. When it was dark and the border of shadows was weak and blurred, it was much easier to move around and sense things through the shadows. When it was light out and the border between shadows was strong, interacting with things through their shadows became much easier while moving was much harder. Things stayed pretty much the same as light and dark made their cycles, until one time of dark in particular. Its rabbit host was sleeping, as she usually would do at this time, when one of the other animals that lived in the woods came stalking into her territory. It was one of the sneaky-pounce shadows, the ones that howled when they were in groups, and it was obviously hungry for its host. Despite the time it had spent with its host, it had yet to be able to really communicate with her. It could only flit about its host, trying and trying again to get her to wake up as the predator approached, but to no avail. In a desperate last attempt to do something, it reaches into its hosts shadow, but instead of twisting it pulls. Suddenly the world outside of shadows feels more there, and for the first time in its existence, it could lift itself off of the surface its inanimate cousins were stuck to. It formed writhing tendrils of darkness, covered in eyes and maws that chittered and clacked and growled, wrapping protectively around its host. The predator...didn¡¯t stay around long. It couldn¡¯t keep this form up long, slowly dissipating back into a simple shadow, but it was satisfied with this outcome. Now it could protect its host when it needed to.
[Next Transmission]
Internal Composition: Stephanite. Electrical Storage Capacity: 80%. Current Time: 00:00:37 after formation. Current Objectives: Gain more electricity, defend against threats, consume material and grow larger. They eventually rouse from their daze, going over their objectives once more before taking in their surroundings. Within view, there were 37 crystalline anemone trees, 14 other crystal spiderlings, 23 roller-bugs, and 205 indeterminate crystalline creatures under the size of 16 cubic inches. The rock they were attached to was made of some kind of pumice-like stone, an easy form of traction for them, and the sky below them was perfectly stormy. The ozone in the air hinted at ample lightning, which is perfect for them. They scurried around the area, taking in the geography and where potential resources laid. Eventually they settled on making a nest in the roots of a crystalling anemone tree, spinning threads of a silver alloy in little tripwires across the area, all leading back to their nest. The nest itself was made from silver thread as well, but the bulk of the material was actually taken off of the anemone tree¡¯s branches. They needed to save on material after all. One other thing they did that they thought was quite smart was to wind its silver threads over the crystal anemone tree¡¯s trunk and branches. That way the tree would be more likely to be struck by lightning, which would feed both it and them through the threads. Whenever lightning struck, it sent a pleasant hum through their body, and soon enough they were at 100% Electrical Capacity pretty consistently, and they never went below 85% again. For material, they simply had to wait for something to touch one of its outward-trailing silver threads. Once something did, they would feel the disturbance, and they would send a shock of electricity down the wire. Since most creatures that touched the wires were the small crystal creatures, they quickly were overloaded and stunned by the comparatively large amount of energy, and the wire would wind around them like a net to keep them from falling. Then they just had to wind the thread back in and enjoy their meal.
[Next Transmission]
She noticed quite quickly that she was hot. Frankly everything was hot, not just her, but she was especially so. She appeared to be on the lip of a mountain, with a large bowl filled with lava in the middle, and all around the lip were lizards like her, in various shades of red, orange, and yellow. She specifically was a very bright, almost white yellow. She noticed that where the lizards around her were only as hot as their surroundings, she was actually making her surroundings even more hot. She would have thought that the smaller lizards nearby would have flocked to stick near her thanks to that, but she figured out why soon enough. One of the tiny lizards tried to jump onto her back, and immediately burst into flames. As it turns out, anything organic that touched her mucusy skin immediately lit on fire, which was somewhat unfortunate but also comforting since there¡¯s little chance of anything trying to kill her. Actually, why does she have mucus? Isn¡¯t she a lizard? No, now that she¡¯s actually paying attention to it, the lizards around her have tough, scaly hides, but while her hide was tough it didn¡¯t have scales. It was odd, but it didn¡¯t bother her that much. After all, the world around her was much more interesting. There were black versions of her lizard brethren further down the volcano, who seemed more bulky and tough compared to the colored ones around her. In the mouth of the volcano, where the lava was fresh and in the open, there were odd living flames that moved around and seemed to be...caring for the tiny lizards? Fascinating. Eventually she got more curious and wandered down into the mouth of the volcano. Not too far, but she wanted to get a closer look at the lava and see what her own bodily reactions would be to it. As it turns out, not only is she immune to its intense heat, it¡¯s actually delicious. Yes, she did drink lava. No, she did not do so before she found out she could touch it. Did she dive right into it to find that out?...Maybe.
[Next Transmission]
She woke up hungry and thirsty, and she knew instinctively that only specific things would sate her. Blood and flesh. It did not take her long to gather her people together under her own banner and organize a hunt on their wolf steeds. The woods were black and spindly, filled with ghouls and undead as much as real animals.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Their hunts were vicious, both for them and for their prey, but they stood strong at the end. They all filled up on the meat of their prey, which was satisfying, but for her the blood was thrilling. She wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but drinking blood gave her new power. Suddenly she could sense more, fight more, do more. The rush only lasted for a few minutes, but she knew exactly what she wanted from now on. They had started using small hollowed out gourds to carry water while they rode their wolves, and she made sure to keep at least one gourd filled with fresh blood when she could, just in case she needed the boost in a fight. She noticed another odd thing about blood not too much later, her own blood specifically. A wild wolf, not one of the pure black ones her people rode, managed to bite her arm, nearly tore it off in fact. While she escaped and drank her blood gourd-that was another fun thing, drinking blood made her heal faster-the wolf seemed to just...drop. Then it writhed in place, thin glowing veins spreading across its fur, before she felt a connection between them. Whereas the connections between her and the others in her tribe felt like a pair of hands clasped in friendship, this felt like a chain and collar, with her as the master. She wasn¡¯t sure how long this connection would last, but she would use it with the same efficiency that she did her unique affinity for drinking blood.
[Next Transmission]
Being able to breathe both air and water is a surprisingly useful skill, especially when you wake up nestled in a small coral cave beneath the waves. Thankfully she had just the skill for that, considering she had long slits in between her ribs that opened up when she breathed in water. It was kind of like gulping a lot of water all at once, but into your lungs instead of into your stomach. She gave the closest thing to a yawn she could, stretched a bit, then slipped out of her little hollow and swam around to take a look at her new home. You would think that with her big, bulky plates that she would be a slow swimmer, but they were made specifically to be as smooth and silky as possible on the surface to let water flow over them quite nicely. There was, as she had mentioned, a lot of coral around, along with seaweed and tons of little fishes and crustaceans and all sorts of other little creatures. Her little slice of the ocean was up against a cliff from the looks of it, and a lot of little clam-like creatures were glued up against the rock, using the danger of being slammed against the stone thanks to the current to dissuade predators. Guess they weren¡¯t ready for her, huh? These plates aren¡¯t for nothing, after all. She swam up to the rock face, gripping the jagged rocks with her hands while the waves smacked her against the stone. With her armored exterior it did little to her, and she spent the time leisurely breaking the clams open and eating the morsels inside. Turns out she¡¯s surprisingly good at climbing around even with the currents against her. Nice and full, she felt a bit of a playful mood come over her, and she started swimming around to see what she could do for fun. She played various pranks on the wildlife around her that, as she thought about it in hindsight, probably shouldn¡¯t have worked as well as it had. She managed to get two crabs to fight each other just by teasing one into clacking its claw at her tail, and leading it until it accidentally snipped at its fellow crab¡¯s shell. She got a pod of fish to swarm a lobster just by throwing a tiny piece of clam meat on its back. Heck, she even got this big millipede thing to chase off a group of sand sharks by baiting them into trying to bite the giant crustacean. It was a bit odd how easy it was to manipulate the creatures around her to play along with her pranks, but why should she complain? It¡¯s fun, and she knows not to do any pranks that are all that dangerous. So she spends most of her days simply playing around and eating clams. Then, she finds another otter like her. Well, kind of. She saw them from below, since this other otter didn¡¯t seem to have those rib-slits like she did. Other than that though they looked surprisingly similar, she was maybe a bit larger overall but other than that not much. It seems like they couldn¡¯t breathe water, but they must have had some powerful lungs because when they dived under to crack at the cliff clams, they were able to go at it for a good few minutes. She observed them from a distance, waiting until they swam back up to the surface and followed them to shore. When she did, she found that there was a whole little lodge of otters, building a communal home in a small cavern just above the shore line. She had to take a minute to learn how to breath just air and get the water out of her lungs. As it turns out, the slits in her ribs seal up when outside of the water, nearly becoming invisible, so she pretty much had to hack the water already in her lungs out so that she could start breathing again. And wow breathing air is weird after so many days doing so with water. It was easier, and almost made her feel lightheaded from just how much oxygen she was getting, but at the same time it felt like it didn¡¯t have enough substance to it. She felt jittery and full of energy, and moving through air is much easier than moving through water, so she spends a little bit just romping around, rolling through the tough grass growing along the small ledge leading up to the cavern/lodge, and generally having a good time. It wasn¡¯t until one of the other otters spot her and walk over, chattering at her worriedly, that she actually pays attention to what¡¯s going on around her again. Rolling back to her feet, she shrugs off their concerns and scampers over to the others. It doesn¡¯t take long for them all to welcome her into their little community. In fact, it¡¯s a little too easy, if it weren¡¯t for the fact that she likes the water as much as the land, and figured they¡¯d benefit from her ability to not drown to get more clams, they probably would have been fine with her just laying around and not doing anything.
[Next Transmission]
The water was cold, black, and heavy. Despite that, it felt like he¡¯d been born for these abyssal waters. Tiny creatures flitted about in the space around him, insignificant in their purpose but interesting to watch nonetheless. Translucent barracuda creatures, something similar to a jellyfish but in the shape of a spiraling cone, various hard-shelled crustaceans like inferior versions of himself, all of those and more. The majority of them glowed in various colors, adapted to the inky darkness around them. As beautiful as the sight was, he could not really pay much attention to it all. It knew things that it should not know, and in that knowledge it noticed something. Beyond the walls of information about Evolution and magic, there was structure. It was rapidly receding from his mind, but its influence could still be felt. Now that he could recognize that influence, he could feel it everywhere around him, in the water, in the other animals, in his own mind and body. With this new sense of how the world worked, he stared not into the abyss around him, but instead into the abyss beyond the abyss, the disparate world beyond his world of information and data, made of the same two symbols repeated ad infinitum, stretching out through the world in a way that boggles the mind. He turned to look at a specific stretch of symbols, that for him was structured like a massive version of one of his own eyes, and-
[Final Transmission]
He awoke to twilight on the horizon of his desert kingdom, the sky filled with a collage of purples, pinks, and oranges, the shadows long and crisp on the sandy ground. He yawned as he stood up, gazing around at the group of other wargs around him. He noticed a distinct difference between himself and the others as they began to wake up themselves. While most of the wargs had short, dense fur and a build that wouldn¡¯t be far off from a dingo except for the size difference, his fur was sleek and black, a build of sharp angles and dense, wiry muscles. He wasn¡¯t sure exactly why, but he knew he was meant to lead. How could he not? Looking over these ragamuffins that he was already thinking of as his packmates, he couldn¡¯t help the protective urges overrunning him. He would make them the most powerful warg pack in the desert they called home, even if it took him his whole life! It didn¡¯t take long for his pack to accept him as leader, he did stand nearly half a meter taller than the next largest warg after all. Leading them through the chill night air, they spent the night examining their immediate surroundings. Although most of their territory was comprised of sandy plains, to the south there was a cluster of plateaus, reaching up into the sky like sheer cliffs, with only narrow crack-like valleys separating them from each other. To the far north-east, far beyond the reach of their territory for now, there was a huge river, bands of lush green crowding its borders. They discovered other things in their sandy kingdom than just some odd landmarks though. They found odd glass-like crystal formations, which seemed to be able to condense the moonlight into beams of light, scorching the fur on a few of the more curious of his pack before they scampered away. He shuddered to think of what they could do in the light of the day. Something else that he personally discovered was that he could ¡®see¡¯ undead in a way that his packmates couldn¡¯t. It was like an aura of darkness around them that stood out starkly to him, even in the dark of the night, very helpful for avoiding them. One other thing that they found that was of note were the small packs of large lizards they found. The seemed to be more comfortable with the day, seeing as they were sleeping when his pack came across them. They were whip-fast things too, darting off into the night as soon as one of them noticed he and his pack were there. Soon enough the first light of dawn was fast approaching, and he lead his pack to the plateaus of the south, finding a decent cave in the maze-like cracks for them to spend the sweltering day in. He would continue investigating his new territory, and he would make it theirs, so that everyone would know his pack ruled the sands.
[Transmission Complete]
¡°Well, that was interesting.¡± The snacks had been eaten, the drinks were gone, and Rick had understated something once again. Corrin had mostly gone silent as the mini-movie progressed, making a little notebook of things to ask and potential names for each of the creatures as they went on. With all the views done, he went with his most pressing concern first. ¡°Alright, so I would have just gone from the top down, but I¡¯ve got to ask. What the heck happened with the Eldritch Crustacean? And why did the feed just cut out like that?¡± Eva brought up an image of the creature in question, who immediately focused on the camera view. ¡°As it turns out, its Subspecies of Eldritch One allowed it to gain insight into the programming of the world. It can see functions that I use as they form and work. My guess is that it¡¯s a way of making them seem all-knowing and all that to the other denizens. Don¡¯t worry about the self-awareness though, apparently it happens more often than you¡¯d think.¡± Relaxing a little now that he knew he hadn¡¯t just broken his brand new game, he goes back to his list and starts from the top. ¡°For the four-armed goblin leader, let¡¯s call him Oni. And can you see if you can get him to use his intimidation roars in conjunction with musical instruments once they get to the stage of making them? I had a hilarious idea of death metal bards shouting their enemies into submission.¡± ¡°Pfft, yeah that¡¯s a must!¡± Rick snickers at the idea, leaning over Corrin¡¯s shoulder to look at his notes. He gives Corrin a deadpan stare at the name choice for the next creature on the list. ¡°You want to name the lazy elf-goblin Artemis? Greek nerd much?¡± The new dungeon master pushes his friend away, holding him off with a hand on his face while pointedly ignoring him. ¡°I¡¯m thinking Artemis for the slim goblin you showed us, because it¡¯s a perfectly good name and anyone who disagrees can shove it.¡± Eva simply giggles as she makes her own notes, adding the names to the proper monsters on her own list as Corrin continues. ¡°For the living shadow, let¡¯s name them Oculus, what with all the eyes, and do what you can to make sure they spread. Creepy but loyal shadow demons are cute. For the crystal spider, let¡¯s name them Stephanie for the crystal they¡¯re made of, same spreading order. Cinder for the salamander, and maybe push her to explore the inner parts of the volcano more. I think it could be interesting to see what interactions she¡¯ll have with the shadow flames.¡± Rick finally stops pretending to struggle against Corrin¡¯s hand, leaning back to dramatically shiver. ¡°Wait, you mean you want one of the shadow flames to do that adapting thing to a giant fire-skinned lizard? That¡¯s devious my friend, I love it!¡± Before Corrin can try to fend him off even more, Darwin pops up next to Rick, showing a little messaging screen with an opaque background, which Rick immediately angles away from him with a devious smile. Corrin simply rolls his eyes at the scene. ¡°Fine then, keep your secrets. Back on topic, for the bloodthirsty goblinette, let¡¯s name her Vampira, because I couldn¡¯t think of anything better. Just let her do her own thing for now, I¡¯m interested in seeing if she could lead a kind of ¡®the bigger evil¡¯ force for the rest of the world to fight. For the otter, name her Ariel, because I¡¯m getting kind of mermaid-y vibes from them. Actually, yeah, let¡¯s treat them like a proto-mermaid/siren template, for the long term have that as their predicted evolution paths unless something else interesting pops up for them. For mister ¡®I can see everything¡¯, let¡¯s call him Yog, since he can see behind space and time and all that. For the Anubis warg, the obvious name is just Anubis, for the egyptian god. He seems to have things down to pat, but maybe encourage innovation and creativity with him and his pack, there¡¯s some interesting things in that desert-¡± He suddenly finds himself beset by extra popcorn kernels from Rick, and simply glares at him for the affront. The man has the audacity to grin at him after knocking him out of his thoughts like that, too! ¡°Now that I¡¯ve got your attention, leave the rest to Eve! Having some healthy natural simulation will do the world good, and everyone wants to go out and celebrate the fact that you finally joined the rest of the modern world.¡± Corrin grumbles a little under his breath before turning back to Eve, looking at the world map as he speaks. ¡°Do you have everything under wraps Eve? I can stay if you want-¡± Eve flashes in front of him, leaving him face-to-face with her avatar rather than looking at the game world. ¡°Oh no, you¡¯re going to go out and have fun! Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got this, my whole job is to watch over the world while you do regular human things. Go on, shoo!¡± Corrin just sighs and stands up, heading to his room as he complains. ¡°First ya¡¯ll want me to get the game and now I¡¯m not allowed to play it? Fine, I¡¯ll go do the hooman things if it will get you off my back about it.¡± Despite his grouching, he is glad for the chance to get the gang back together, it¡¯s been a while since they had such an occasion. Behind his back, Eve, Darwin, and Rick all share an evil laugh before shutting down the world map, Eve still running the game in the background as they plan.