Sela was at a loss. Somehow, Aby had tamed something from a Trench. Tamed it. Something she grew up learning about, to avoid at all cost. “The incarnations of Gluttony.” Her mother told her. “An endless stomach.” She had it drilled into her. And yet, here she was, watching one of these “Ocean Eaters” behave like a tamed animal.

Even as Aby assured her that it was “Dungeon, not Trench now” she had her reservations. Even as the creature moved in slow, deliberate motions, all she could think of was its earlier behavior. Its maddening dance of limbs and teeth, how it reduced that grouper to mince in moments. How it was about to do the same to her. She shook her head to get rid of that thought, not going to give it any heed. She still moved deeper into her home nonetheless, watching as the creature explored the floor she lived on, getting acquainted with its new home. One of the new kobolds had been tasked with showing it around. She’d brought up her concerns with Aby while it was out, namely “Why does the fifth floor boss need to be familiar with the entire layout of the dungeon?”

She was told “Why should it not be?”

That brought her to her more pressing concern “Are you sure you want this to be your boss?”

And she was told yes.

So she begrudgingly went along with it. The thing still creeped her out, one day later. It took to being a floor boss like a fish takes to the trees, spending almost no time on its assigned floor because, Aby said, it was bored. How something with no brain was able to feel boredom was beyond her, though she stopped trying to understand altogether after she watched the thing give one of the new kobolds it had bumped into a salute, all five of its arms being raised above its body, then bent at a ninety degree angle before it flared them all outward. The kobold swam off with a vigor it hadn’t had before interacting with the star.

She watched it creep its way along the walls in an all too intelligent manner, startled when she saw the thing still for a moment, before beginning to move towards her. Her blood ran cold as it came before her. Just as she was resigning herself to her fate, something she had done thrice, now, Abys voice entered her mind.

“It wants to apologize” was all that was said, and she could only nod in response, something the star noticed, and it departed, moving back the same way without turning even slightly. Sela floated there for a good while, thinking about whether or not the star really did, in fact, want to apologize.

Aby watched the brittle star wander through its floors, reading its thoughts, what constituted its thoughts, and found it to be deceptively intelligent. This is in spite of the fact that the closest thing it has to a brain is nothing more than a bundle of nerves at its center that spread out into its surrounding arms.

Abys contemplation of the star was cut short, feeling the tug on its thoughts indicative of an intruder. Turning to its newly widened entrance, it caught sight of something it had yet to see. It had a round, domed back almost two meters in diameter, made of a dull metallic material. A relatively small head attached to a rather long neck, and what appeared to be four long fins, all of which was covered in a leathery grey skin.

It sent the order to its kobolds to dispatch the creature, curious to find out what this animal may be, the Chief-Mother and one of its new kobolds heeding the call. Briskly moving to the first floor, the strange creature seemed to be in no hurry, slowly flapping its fins forwards. The Chief-Mother was the first to strike, swinging her favored knife directly at its back, only for the noise of a blade snapping to sound. As she looked at her knife and realized that that noise came from it, she grew incensed. That was her knife after all. It had been with her back when she was a small kobold. This anger boiled over into rage, and she lashed out with her claws, being met with the same resistance.

She barked an order to the other kobold, and as it joined in Aby watched as the creature retracted its head and fins into its shell. The two kobolds clawed and scratched the creatures back for a minute more, before the chief jabbed her hand into the hole its head had retracted into, being met with blood. This invigorated her, even if it was only a little, and she began clawing that very hole, only to have that hand clamped onto by something. She even felt the bones in that hand getting crushed, pain bringing her out of her stupor, but only adding to her anger.

She was seething by this point, this thing had broken her knife, broken her knife hand, and dashed her pride. She was about to renew her assault when both she and her partner got a message from Aby, to back off. Just as they both had hopped back, they saw a flash of black, breaking the water’s surface and impacting the back of the tiny fortress with a sickening crunch. The two kobolds watched as the fins and head jerked back out, not under their own power but instead being squeezed out by the pressure put upon its insides. The shell itself had caved in entirely, and the beast merely lay there, shaking weakly, before it stilled and was dissolved.

You can now spawn “Greater Ironback Turtle”

That message pleased Aby, so too did the first Field performance of its new brittle star. Summoning the star back to the lower floors, it spawned a single turtle and allowed it to roam the first and second floor. Then it turned its attention to the Chief-Mother, who was searching the waters with an aggrieved face, looking for the blade of her knife. The gem decided to try something it had yet to do. Creating a Common Lionfish, and determining its drop beforehand, Aby sent the order for the Chief-Mother to dispatch it.

The kobold was initially displeased from being interrupted in her search, she splashed over to the fish in a huff, raking it down the length of its side with its claws. The fish dispersed into light almost immediately, and the kobold was about to turn around and resume her search when she saw something sink to the floor of the cave. After getting permission from Aby, she picked it up to examine it. Vaguely resembling a slightly longer version of the sponge knife, the handle and blade being part of one piece. Wrapped in a striped leather that resembled the patterns on the lionfish which dropped it, the blade itself was less a blade and more a long cylinder ending in a point, very similar to the barbs on that same fish. The weapon seemed explicitly designed for stabbing and piercing, something which pleased the chief greatly.

After giving her new dagger a few test swings and finding the balance much more to her liking, she too made her way to the second floor, eager to test it out against a sparring partner.

The sole remaining kobold of the floor went to one end, where a large patch of coral and seaweed was growing. Squatting down with his head sticking above the water, he brushed his hands through the seaweed a few times, then withdrew the hand. A moment later, the head of an eel poked out, and after confirming who was there, the entire body soon bolted out. Barely a meter in length, the snowflake moray was patterned with pastel white and black, causing its skin to resemble its namesake. Seemingly excited to see the kobold, it swam around him, hugging tight to his body or swimming between his legs.

Playing with the eel for a moment longer, he stood up and beckoned the eel to follow, something it was happy to comply with. They went to the second floor shaft, the kobold making a short hop into its waters, allowing himself to sink. The eel wrapped itself around his neck as he did, the five meter descent passing in but a moment. They made their way back to the tribal grounds, the cavern illuminated only by a small growth of fire coral so as not to be visible to any who might intrude. Settling back into his own hut, he sits down on the most slab of rock that constitutes their beds. Cold, hard, and wet, these beds were anything but comfortable.

They were necessary, however. Well adapted to moving and hunting in the waters they may be, they were still shackled by the lungs common to anything one would find on the surface. Therefore, as they slept, they needed a way to keep these lungs free of the water that was so abundant in these caves, and these beds were just that way. Lying down, he played with the eel for a while longer, gently bringing it above the water and letting it slither along his chest, or using his webbed hands to stir up the water into small vortices surrounding the eel.

As he finished up for the day, he found himself drifting off to sleep, before bolting upright in a start, a sudden sensation knocking him out of his half asleep state rather rudely.

Congratulations, your creature “Coastal Kobold” has fulfilled a hidden condition(s), allowing it the option to undergo a special evolution.

Condition(s) fulfilled:

Spending the entirety of life at least partially submerged in water, even whilst asleep.

Tame an oceanic creature without any external aid.

Special evolution available:

Aquatic-Tamer Kobold

Kobolds who can become tamers are rare. It is uncommon that one would spend the time and effort required to tame a creature rather than simply eating it. Aquatic kobolds are equally as rare, having gained a set of gills alongside lungs, and further capable of aquatic movement. An example of both has yet to be seen.

Aby selected this option without hesitation, watching as the light came and integrated, before giving its full attention to the changes taking place. The first to become obvious was the shift in scale color, from a sandy yellow to a seaweed green. They also became far sleeker, appearing to shine in the water. Next came its hands and feet, the fingers on the former simply elongating slightly and spreading apart slightly, allowing for the webbing to extend all the way to his fingertips. His feet underwent a larger change, the digitigrade feet that are standard to the kobold race changing radically, becoming plantigrade, the length of the foot between the heels to the toes, his metatarsus, became practically nonexistent as his toes themselves lengthened and thickened. His legs elongated, and the structure of his hips shifted, allowing a much larger range of motion in his legs. His tail, too, grew longer, the end flattening and then forming into something reminiscent of a groupers. Lastly, his skull began changing, shortening slightly, whilst his snout thickened, and teeth changing from their knife-like appearance to become needle-like, similar to a barracudas. On his neck appeared two slits, his newfound gills cementing the massive changes he had undergone.

Aby approved of this new look, finding it much more fitting for a creature under its employ. Just as he was about to put the kobold to a test and determine its capabilities, another notification appeared.

Congratulations! Your creature “Snowflake Moray” has fulfilled a hidden condition(s), allowing it the option to undergo a special evolution.

Conditions fulfilled:

Creator title: Randomizer

Creator title: Invasive

Tamer title: One-of-a-Kind Pairing

Special evolution available:

Greater Frosted Moray

The Frosted Moray is a peculiar critter, a moderate ice affinity allowing it to drastically reduce its internal temperature with little harm to itself, causing its body to become frosted over. The greater variant improves on this control, allowing it to freeze the water within a short distance of its body.

For the second time in the span of a minute, the light of evolution shone within a previously unremarkable kobolds home. The moray began its own changes, firstly elongating and thickening, from a meter long and thick as its tamers arm, to over thrice the length and twice as thick. The black and white speckled skin also underwent a change, becoming an icy blue that seemed perpetually dusted with a thin layer of frost. Becoming far smoother on top of this, the eel appeared almost like an ice sculpture, a delicate beauty that made it hard to turn away. This beauty was further enhanced by the previously yellow eyes becoming a deep green, matching the scales of its partner. Opening its jaw, it displayed the devilishly sharp teeth that lined its jaw in an orderly fashion, its second pair hidden away. As the light of its change dimmed and finally died, small crystals of ice could be seen forming on the skin of the eel, floating upwards, only to melt from the ambient heat the waters had.

Tamer and eel faced each other for a moment, adapting not only to their own massively altered physiques, but also to each other’s. The first to break the stillness was the kobold. Taking a deep breath of air that his former race’s instincts demanded, he laid his body flat, submerged entirely. Seeing beneath the water with a clarity completely new to him, he found himself unused to the strange feeling of having functional gills. He moved his limbs experimentally, equally surprised at just how improved his swimming capabilities had become.

Moving to head outside and to a larger testing ground, the moray made its own move. Coiling tightly around his waist, it pressed itself onto the kobolds body so as to not hamper his mobility. Like this, reptilian and eel made their way to the fourth floor, what had become the best place for testing any new changes, the large, open space and incremental increase in depth and decrease in air the further one went from the entrance shaft made it perfect for all manner of training.