Moving back away from the talks of the System and how it worked, the Core thought back to the original goals it had created before the fighting. It thought of the tasks set out to the creatures. The main goal set forth was the protection of the [Moss] while also guarding the area around it. That had been shown off as a massive success, the retaliation from the attack coming in full force. And while it was perhaps not of the level desired, it would grow next time.

However, there also was another task and goal. A goal was set in place not for the whole group but for a single one. The Core had sent an ant out to explore, after all, coming back ever ten meters out it went. There had not been the largest expectations for it, the Core not truly expecting it to come back alive even. It had been sent out in the direction of the enemy, after all, and previous excursions had proven more than fatal. Though… the consequences of that task was perhaps not the worst in the world. It had allowed the Entity to be forewarned of an attack that would have likely already happened. The leader of the [Wild] ants likely didn't come with her troops normally. No, it had been for something special.

Yet looking back at the attack, no, before the attack, there had also been another goal for the task of exploration. The Core had wanted the creature to bring back something if it could. It had not mattered much what it exactly was, as long as the item was interesting to have. And… the Core supposed that had been fulfilled. It had not truly looked over at the item this entire time. During the attack, the patterns had been identified as something akin to the [Moss] already in its possession, yet still a bit different from the rest. It had been assumed to be due to living in a bad environment, which was why the Core had ordered it to be thrown over to the other plants so that the creature could return and fight for its home.

Looking at those previous actions again, the Entity did grow a bit more considerate of its own thoughts. With a rear-sight better than the one in front, it could think back to the colours and structure of the supposed [Moss]. It had been like the others seen a hundred times before, yes, yet there was something more integral in its structure that made the Entity consider its previous actions. There was something different about the plant brought home.

What was different, though? The more it was thought about, the more the answers needed to be made available. Memory was not perfect, so the structure couldn't be studied through that alone. Instead, it needed more information, gathered with a current sight. It needed to have a direct look at what had been brought back.

That was not a hard path to take, seeing as the plant that had been taken away had already been neatly separated from all the other pieces of the larger plant. The ants had perhaps not thought it required to have it besides those like it? Strange. Though what was even stranger was the fact that the specimen had most certainly grown since the last time that the Core looked at it. In fact, it might just have neared a doubling of mass. And if that wasn't peculiar enough, it only got so much more strange as the Entity looked into the deeper machinations of its Mana.

… The [Moss] was alive in more ways than one. Instead of being fueled by instinct, the thing brought home seemed just a small bit more aware of itself. It wasn't to the point where it would communicate back to the Core and start discussing the fundamentals of Farming, but it most certainly understood its position in the world. It could sense and react in more ways than what the body had been made to do from birth.

It was an interesting thing, the Mana moving around in what seemed like intentional patterns. It was ever-changing like a non-sentient being would have, yet it changed in a way that made sense when thinking about the purposes. It was a plant meant to grow, meant to foster more of itself through time. And that was what the Mana did, being swirled around specific edges, allowing that pieces of the plant to grow at an extremely accelerated rate. Granted, that rate was still so low that a normal eye would be unable to see it at any level, but it was more than enough for the Core to detect. Its Mana was all around the room, and sensing that Mana was being pushed around was not the hardest thing in the world.

It was a brilliant discovery. One that told of more than could ever be realised at that point. An intelligent plant, smart enough to focus growth in one area for a long-term benefit! Average growth around the whole body was also able to cause more benefits, more and higher density around one area grew with exponential benefits rather than linear ones. The plant had realised that through either smarts alone or pure messing around. It mattered not which of those it was. There was still intelligence somewhere in that structure of plant cells.

Or was it all plant cells? Was there something more inside? Some parts of the structure seemed bumpier than others, leading to a suspicion of something else being hidden. The Core couldn't detect what exactly that was with only the use of the [Mana-Sense], however. No, it needed something a bit more in-depth. It needed to see the Pattern of the being. And there was only one real way to make that happen.

Sending over one of the slow-moving ants, the Core made it chop the plant up into smaller and small pieces. Surprisingly enough, this caused death rather quickly, only four separations being more than enough to make the remaining parts wither and die. There was a thought about it being extremely fragile before the Entity realised that each bite had been centred around one of the bumpy parts. The ant knew it was important for survival and had taken action to make sure that it's handling of the order matched that. The Core had ordered death and the creature had simply made sure that it was swift.

It mattered not how long it took, the result being the true gift. In the place of the withering plant now sat the Pattern that had been sought after so much. With a quick tendril towards its location, it was brought into the Core’s repertoire of knowledge. And… it was something else entirely.

No, it wasn't. Or, yes it was? It was hard to pin down. So much of the structure was consistent with the other [Moss] seen before, yet the one seen at the current moment was so much more. It was akin to a square being akin to a circle. Each was likely built of the same material and could even have the same mass. Yet the look and function were so different that it was hard to even recognize the two as alike. It was weird.

The original [Moss] had been made as a very independent plant. Its size could be down to only a millimetre or two, surviving in any environment rich enough with energy. The new Moss was nothing like that, needing almost ten full centimetres before it could come close to being efficient enough for keeping itself alive through nothing but the air. There were literal organs inside of the thing. Not organs in the sense of flesh and blood, but more like stalks and gatherings of energy that allowed conversion to take place. At the outside of the plants were extremely tiny spears, able to cut when organic mass was swept across. While perhaps minor, the spears were made to take the Mana out through the skin and supply the plant with it.

How peculiar a thing that was, basing survival around simply taking energy from other beings. Though… the Core could suppose how effective that strategy would be at higher mass levels. With ten meters of a cave filled with only that, each step could grow to take tens of Health. If those ten meters needed to be traversed, a creature could technically die before meeting the halfway point.

At least that’s how the Core thought it was. There was still inner debate on the actual numbers, the Pattern not revealing anything too in-depth. Though… there was another way to figure out more about actual statistics. And that was with physical implementation. With a hardened mind, the Entity brought the Pattern to life, though in a less-used part of the room. There was no need to let it congregate with the other [Moss] just yet.

Character Screen

Name:

-

Gender:

-

Level:

1

Class:

-

Race:

Blood-Moss

Title:

Dungeon-Born

Health:

60/60

H-Regen:

0.05/sec

Mana:

-

M-Regen:

0/sec

Stamina:

60/60

S-Regen:

0.05/sec

Cost:

30 MP

Basic Stats

Strength:

-

Wisdom:

5

Vitality:

5

Intelligence:

5

Dex:

5

Willpower:

6

It had turned into a sub-type of Moss. That was certainly interesting to see, the Core not expecting something like that. Not something that drastic, at the very least. It had been obvious from the start that some changes would have been able to be seen, yet at such a large level? How had it even changed so drastically from the other type of [Moss] right beside it?

… That question was left for another time, the Core looking further into the stats on the creature instead of anything else. Because it was a creature now, no matter what the appearance might have likened it to. There were a few stats for different parts of the body, though [Strength] was removed for some peculiar reason. Perhaps it was due to the lack of movement on the body? If so, shouldn't it also have removed the [Dexterity] stat?

The questions surrounding it made no sense, the two needing to be mutually inclusive to make sense in the Core’s current understanding of the world. Yet there seemed to be a requirement for each that wasn't yet fulfilled. What were those requirements? The Entity had no real manner of guessing. It just knew that a creature able to move its outer body around at will was enough for the [Dexterity] stat but somehow not enough for the [Strength] stat. There were some theories about it being due to the scalability of plant-like organs and what improvements would be needed to make the growth linear, yet such ideas were without basis in reality. They were only wild conjectures and would stay that way for a long time.

The fact of the matter was that the stats were still very low. Being level one, there was a disproportionate difference in the creature’s stats when compared to what the Core had been at during the same level. The idea about the stat-total being the same with all creatures was rapidly dwindling. It should have been obvious, now that the Core thought about it. The [Giant-Ants] might have had a total count close to the Entity’s, yet they had all increased the stat by one each time they levelled up. That was opposed to the Core’s half-point every level, only making it half as effective. The [System] was perhaps not as equal as previously thought.

Or maybe biology played a role in how survival worked. While the Core would have loved to see the stats be at the same level as the ants, it knew that it was still superior. Why was this? Well… the Core had killed ten ants in the space of a single second. While such creatures were at level one, other [Giant-ants] at the Core’s level still needed several seconds for each creature. They were perhaps more powerful in the basic stats, but such an outlook was… basic. It was without the ideas and function of those stats on a more individual scale.

What could the [Giant-Ants] use their strength for? They could bite, tear, and run towards the enemy. What could the [Core] do? It could prepare a flood of Arcane Spears, ready to pierce every inner organ of the enemy. When only looking at the stats, the Ant would win every single time. When looking at a more realistic perspective, the Core would win every time.

Yet, there were still restrictions to follow, no matter who was being talked about. The Ant needed to be close by but could attack near instantly when it was. The Core could attack at a range yet needed several seconds to prepare an attack. One was more deadly when not given more time to prepare yet a simple forewarning of two seconds would be enough to turn the tides. Preparation brought out the best of what looked like weak stats.

Preparation. How could that word relate to the [Blood Moss]? What part of the creature allowed it to outdo unfavourable odds when just given the time it needed? Well… [Moss] was known for one thing and one thing only. It could grow. It could grow a lot. And, thinking about it more, was there any creature that the Core had met as of late who would be able to survive travelling through a cavern of the [Blood-Moss]? It would take time, it would take more than just a little preparation on so many aspects, yet the Core was sure that it could become more dangerous than anything ever seen before.

The Core had shown its potential in the [Skills] it had been using for so long. [Mana-Manipulation] gave it the edge needed to kill, to survive, and to prosper through what seemed like so many impossible feats. It had started with nothing, yet that single skill had let it reach such a higher place. What did the moss have which could grant the same? Looking at its [Skill-Screen], the answer was quick to present itself.

Skill-Name

Rarity

Description

Cost

Siphon

Rare

Allows the user to siphon the energy of others

Passive

Growth

Rare

Allows the user to build mass consciously with energy

Passive

Mana-Sense

Rare

Allows for the user to sense [Mana Currents]

Passive

Three [Rare] skills with so much potential. The death of others would allow it to grow to unprecedented levels. [Growth] and [Siphon] had the synergy needed to overcome the stats seen before. While it would certainly be a hard battle at the start, to the point where it would have been near-impossible to survive naturally, the Core knew that it had promised when it was possible to cultivate it in an ideal environment.

While the restrictions of the first skill had not been mentioned in the description, the Core had guessed it quickly enough. There were not the most amount of things that could truly be done with the skill without it turning into a massive power-creep. The Core knew that it would most certainly have had a higher rarity if such requirements were not in place.

AS an example, there was the fact that the skill requirement direct interaction to work correctly. It required touch. For two parts of the physical bodies to be without air in-between, for it to be stood on or held. That much had been obvious while the [Blood-Moss] had been first carried and it was just as obvious when it was released from the creature’s grasp. Without the physical closeness, the skill was not able to activate.

And it wasn't an instant process anyway. There seemed to be some limit on how much could be taken at once, to the point where the Core worried if there was an amount high enough to even impact the creatures around it. Though… even if there wasn't at the lower levels, the Pattern proved that it would scale up in the larger masses. It would have only proven useful at those sizes anyway, so there were no real worries.

Yet it was already beginning to seem a little underwhelming, to the eyes of one who ignored potential when minor hindrances came along. There was no instant leeching off every drop of Mana and Health, and neither would it be done without the Creature directly touching the [Blood-Moss]. Both of these hindrances could be fixed quite easily, larger sizes fixing both problems through the help of both forced and prolonged contact with the plant. The dumber creatures would hardly even realise it was happening. The Entity’s own ants had shown off that much intelligence already, the one that had brought it likely just ignored the constant loss of health.

Though there was also another [Skill] which had shown off some minor limitations, that being the [Growth] skill. It had most definitely been used before the Core’s eyes, yet not to the level that it could theoretically have been. With an infinite amount of Mana, the creature should have been able to grow to an infinite mass within an instant. Yet… even with plenty of Mana to use, the creature had only slightly increased in size. Growth was limited to a certain output. Not the greatest part to have around when increasing in size was the determining factor of survival.

However. It was also the way that the creature was balanced out. It was weak at the start but had the potential to outrival most others at the same level. Yet those creatures could still easily slaughter it for the next many days and weeks, the only viable tactic for survival being to either hide in a hole or get picked up by something that could foster it for the required time. Whether through choice or not, the species had been chosen to be fostered. For the Core was certainly not letting it go.

The Entity wanted to know everything about the creature. It wanted to know pure numbers, how the rate of siphoned energy would translate to extra mass, how fast the process could work and if slowing it down would prove more efficient, and perhaps even if the commands could be used to target different creatures with different Mana-Capacities.

Because it had [Mana-Sense] as well, after all. And there was no way that the Core wouldn't attempt to exploit that in some way. What abilities could be used when mixed in with the skill to separate different creatures from another? Or… that’s what the Core at least assumed the Moss could do without issue. Mana-Sense had to work in about the same way as it did with the Entity, right?

… No, it likely didn't. The more it thought about it, the less that made sense. There were several issues with such a simplistic train of thought, the most obvious of them being the fact that there wasn't any Mana to send out to check for the nearby environments. There were no containers for such an energy-type within the [Blood-Moss]. It had [Health] and [Stamina], both being more of a general type of structure within the body instead of actual separated parts. Each couldn't be defined as clearly as [Mana], though that was perhaps why the creature had access to it, to begin with. It required next to nothing to add on without issue, letting the structure be as simplistic as before.

Yet, the very idea of Mana-based skills running on Stamina? Or was that even the right word for that type of thing? It wasn't based around Mana at all. It allowed for the creature to detect the energy, yes, but it most likely used Stamina as the cost. Both words simply implied a type of energy, and the conversion-organs within the creature was more than able to convert in between them, so the Core supposed that was more than just possible. Yet it still showed off the fact that the skill was so different from what the Core used it for.

There were different restrictions. Other ways to look at the world, even if the name of the skill was the same. The Entity looked at the world by translating the feedback of roaming energy, yet the [Blood-Moss] had no such things. Stamina stayed within. It was without need to get out into the world, even if the Core didn't doubt that it could if it wanted to. Perhaps Intent even worked with the energy if attempted? A test for another day.

For that very moment, the Core would try to restrain itself. It needed to know how [Mana-Sense] worked, before anything itself. It likely ran on Stamina, yet the radius, if there was any, was still unknown. So… an order would have to be set up.

On the [Blood-Moss] sat the small spears. They were closer to needles in actual size, yet the picture worked just fine no matter what semantic was used. These spears could be moved around independently, though the win controlled their exact location most of the time. The Core cared not about it too much, until it came into question on how the creature was meant to respond to commands. It couldn’t move around much as a physical indicator of sorts, after all, and it certainly wasn't intelligent enough to have Mana within its range of possible actions. However, it was a creature with the title of [Dungeon-Born], making it somewhat a requirement that it would fulfil orders.

Though… that also likely required the creature to be smart enough for that. While there was hope that the part of the Core sent out to assist the wisdom would help enhance, the base intelligence likely still had to be somewhat high. Was five enough for that? Only one way to find out. And that was with an order.

‘Twist your spears to the same side,’ the Core ordered, leaving a small part up for interpretation. It didn't really care what direction the spears were, after all, as long as they were all facing the same direction. Unity in the masses was required for successful deployment.

And that unity was found rather quickly. It took a moment for action to be taken, yet it was quick and decisive. The needles all swirled in motion before stopping at a very specific point. While the order had not ordered anything fancy, its turn-up had been appreciated. And it also showed off that the order worked flawlessly, which just made it that much better.

Now was the time to see something more complicated. There was a desire to test out something about the information being passed through first, yet there was still another function that needed testing. When could the [Blood-Moss] detect another creature? Since the creature wasn't able to outright answer this, it needed to be divided into smaller questions.

The first order was easy enough to make. If the creature could currently detect another being in the vicinity, it needed to move the spears over to the opposite direction of what it currently was.

… No change. The [Blood-Moss] wasn't able to find any of the ants only ten meters away. But maybe the radius was just a bit more limited. Moving an ant over to five meters away, the order was repeated. No change. Four meters? No change. Three, two, and one meter away didn't prove any different. And with how little there was left, the Core could only make one new modification.

The ant was ordered to tentatively step on the creature. With a flourish, it reacted with the positive. So it truly did require physical interaction? The Entity should have guessed from the start.

Moving on to another part of theories, there was one which the Entity had thought much about already. The part of the Core inside the creature had more information than what it had when initially created, hinting towards the fact that the direct connection allowed for constant updates on the data. While this did hint towards being the reason for the mental strain seen so quickly with so few creatures, it certainly allowed for the complex orders to come through, with some of those orders requiring information not typically known.

For example, if the Core ordered the [Blood-Moss] to only use the [Siphon] skill on enemies instead of other [Dungeon-Born], would it be possible for the creature to know the difference and be able to act upon it? Well… that was exactly what the Core was going to find out. Sending in the order the Entity allowed it to all play out.