The Great Core's Paradox

Light spread through the cavern in a coruscating wave, shifting and rippling with the motions of the mana-water that was its source. It was like slithering into a new world; from the darkness came light. Blocked in part by an alcove that hung down from above, creating a separation between the darkness of the cavern and radiant light that had been all but impossible to see in my initial fall. A river of mana-water that rained down from above, falling from a giant wall-crack in the stone, slipping across its surface in an unstoppable stream. One large enough that, even at my increased size, I would have been swept away in the current.

A thought-hiss kept my spore-puppets from staring; I didn’t know how long their eyes could suffer through the radiance. Already, I had been forced to remove the effects of [Ambusher’s Vision] on myself, flexing the tiny muscles around my eyes that controlled it. The light was bright, vibrant, and unforgiving.

The sound, too, was unmistakable. Falling water beat rapidly against the ground and the mana-water that fell before it, repeating again and again like the pulse of a drumming heart.

And yet, the river had further to go, still many slithers from where it would finally descend again, crashing into the mana-water lake of the leviathans. In my last life, I had moved quickly along it, eager to find its end. Smashed aside the bad-things in my way with [The Golem’s Echo], moving so quickly that I hadn’t even attempted to consume their corpses. Most were too big, and anything small enough to eat was lost down the stream, the rushing mana-water unwilling to stop; even if I could have gotten something useful, it would have been hard to seek enough of them out.

This time, I did things differently.

Thought-hiss after thought-hiss sent spore-puppets across and beside the water. The former bad-things’ legs stepped across the surface without sinking, making the current slightly easier to fight. Less prone to digging in and sweeping them away. Even still, a few of the more damaged puppets were lost, crippled limbs forcing them to slip into the rushing water. I let them go, leaving them with the command to infest any bad-things they saw - though between their difficulty with the light and the loss of my direct supervision, I wasn’t clear on their chances.

The leviathans of the lake weren’t the only dangerous bad-things in the area, only the strongest of the bunch. There were stretch-tongue bad-things, with bulbous eyes and slimy flesh, that sat on the banks of the lake and hopped about. There were the small-winged bad-things that they preyed on, flitting down to drink from the waters. There were the bad-things that rushed through the river, fins and tendrils propelling them through the mana-water and towards the lake at its end.

It was the last of those that I targeted. With thought-hiss after thought-hiss, I set my spore-puppets in motion. With the efforts of countless Darkweavers combined, it wasn’t long before an array of threads stretched from one side of the river to another. Small gaps in the threads’ weave allowed the mana-water to rush through, allowing the combined weight of many spore-puppets to hold the threads down from each side of the rushing river.

I waited by the shore, salivating at the thought of what was to come. It took a great many hours, but proved more than worth the wait.

The threads were full; they burst with life, one bad-thing after another caught in their embrace. They thrashed and writhed, trying to break free. The threads held fast, clinging to flesh despite the mana-water that drenched their lengths.

I was impressed; I had thought that the Darkweavers’ traps wouldn’t work as well in the water, their ability to capture prey lost. Instead, I had just been planning on swimming through the water myself, slithering along the edge of the weave to devour the bad-things that had been blocked from continuing further. It seemed like I wouldn’t need to. I would have gotten stuck if I tried.

I sent out another series of commands to the Darkweaver puppets and waited for my reward.

I waited above while the first pile of bad-things, the largest of them all, was pulled free from the mana-water. My spore-puppets, ever since removing the captured bad-things from their trap, had tirelessly separated them out into their own bundles of thread, carefully kept underwater and - more importantly - away from the others; I was sure that, while some of the captured bad-things could have been created by the same Core and be friendly to one another, not all of them would be. Already, many had died while stuck against my puppets’ threads, lashing out at the only enemies that they could - each other.

It wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, but I wanted to kill them myself. I had already lost experience bringing the Darkweavers into the light of the Great Core. I needed everything that I could get.

Choosing my first victim, I slithered forward. My chosen bad-thing flopped, gasping for air. It was a blobbed and ugly mass, scales and fins hidden behind undulating tendrils, large enough that I would have failed to swallow it at my former size. As I watched, its tendrils stretched out again and again, pointed ends clawing at the ground and creating a screeching echo that was just barely audible over the sound of the nearby river. Each movement came with a mighty heave. The bad-thing knew that its life depended on getting back into the water. The threads held fast to its flesh, wrapped around the bad-thing and its kin.

Then, with a snip, one of my puppets let it free. It was dead before it could even flee, crushed tight between my coils and dropped between my jaws. I flinched as a barbed tendril caught vulnerable mouth-flesh on the way down, the touch setting off a burning, painful spark that zapped across my mouth-flesh.

The thought-light flickered once again.

And again.

And again, until I finally received what I was looking for.

Experience Gained!

Level 4 Tanglesting Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Blooded Trait Acquisition Progress: 5/5.

Analyzing Blooded Trait…

Acquiring Blooded Trait: [Sting I]

The Trait changed me, just like all the others before it. [Sting] formed at the tips of my fangs; it could be felt in tingles and sparks that ran up and down their lengths, the motion forming a distracting humming within my mouth-flesh. Not enough for anyone else to hear, but enough for me to be aware of it.

A pleasant buzz.

I leaned toward the next of the gathered bad-things, avoiding its thrashing, and sank my fangs into unguarded flesh. [Sting] sparked from my fangs, jumping from their tips. The bad-thing twitched minutely.

When I pulled back, the flesh surrounding the bite was faintly burned. Red.

I quickly swallowed the remaining Tanglestings, finishing off the gathered pile of bad-things.

Experience Gained!

Level 4 Tanglesting Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 1/10.

…

Experience Gained!

Level 4 Tanglesting Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 10/10.

Blooded Trait: [Sting I] Increased.

[Sting II] Acquired.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 0/20.

…

Experience Gained!

Level 4 Tanglesting Consumed.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 4/20.

[Sting] sparked in my mouth, just a little more powerful than before. I found myself idly chomping at the air, enjoying the pleasant spark, while my puppets freed the next bad-thing. With no more Tanglestings to consume, I had been forced to move on to the next-largest grouping of bad-things. They were sleek and thin, with a design that I almost admired. While underwater, they flitted about at high speeds, ambushing their prey and fleeing from the larger bad-things that preyed on them. Their scales, eyes, and teeth all held the blue of mana-water. Perfect predators of the deep were it not for their small size, almost invisible in the mana-water’s currents.

Once pulled to the surface, however, finally freed from the bundle of threads that kept them trapped and away from the other bad-things, they flopped around helplessly. When my coils wrapped around the first, there was nothing it could do. The same was true for those that came after.

Experience Gained!

Level 4 Blueswift Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Blooded Trait Acquisition Progress: 1/5.

…

Experience Gained!

Level 2 Blueswift Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 5/5.

Analyzing Blooded Trait…

Acquiring Blooded Trait: [Streamlined Scales I]

…

Experience Gained!

Level 4 Blueswift Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 8/10.

[Streamlined Scales], I realized after a short amount of testing, caused my slithers to be more effective underwater. A useful Trait, but not a powerful one. Still, the Blueswifts were small enough that they might be worth trying to consume in a life without [Size]. Satisfied with that, I moved onto the final pile of bad-things large enough to provide me a Trait - and the only ones that had no trouble breathing outside of the water.

The newest of the bad-things were odd creatures, with needle-like spikes across their scale-flesh and the tendency to breathe heavily enough that their entire bodies inflated with air. Any time I came close, they would deflate rapidly, launching spikes in my direction.

I decided to let my spore-puppets stand in the way until they ran out of spikes.

Experience Gained!

Level 4 Pufferquill Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Blooded Trait Acquisition Progress: 1/5.

…

Experience Gained!

Level 6 Pufferquill Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 5/5.

Analyzing Blooded Trait…

Acquiring Blooded Trait: [Enhanced Lungs I]

My insides wrenched about and twisted. Breath burst from my lungs. It never came back in, leaving me futilely panting in a desperate need for air - until, finally, the transformation finished. I took in a breath, the motion deeper and easier than ever, and held it there.

I held it for longer than I would have thought possible.

Finally letting go, I breathed out again. My tongue flicked outwards, tasting the air. The thought-light appeared, answering a silent request.

Available Trait Points: 3

Use Trait Points To Upgrade A Trait?

3 Trait Points Required For Upgrade of [Enhanced Lungs I] to [[Enhanced Lungs III].

Upgrade Successful.

I was ready to keep moving towards the lake of the leviathans. More confident that, this time, I wouldn’t so easily drown.