Aby had been mostly not paying attention to its morgen, allowing her effective free reign, so long as she knew vaguely where everything was. It had started to settle into its routine, when it felt a noticeable drain at its mana that it hadn’t started, and then was assaulted by information it hadn’t done anything to prompt.

Congratulations! Your creature “Morgen” has received a Name from your partner Sela, and will henceforth be known as Carmine.

Abys thoughts immediately snapped to the duo. It had never encountered a situation like this before, and had no ideas what to anticipate.

Congratulations! Your creature “Carmine” has fulfilled a hidden condition(s), allowing it to undergo a special evolution!

Conditions fulfilled:

Creator title: The Trench Dungeon

Receive a Name

Special Evolution Available:

Abyssal Siren

Sirens are known far and wide for their enchanting voices that have lured uncountable numbers to an untimely demise. An Abyssal Siren sings a song of madness and chaos, one that can ignite the Hunger in any who listen.

Aby hadn’t expected the morgen, for Carmine to reach an evolution so soon, if she ever could. While Aby didn’t think her to be weak, it just had no idea what it could do to give her the chance to move up. Apparently, this was the answer.

Aby would never turn down something which only presented benefits, and it began to watch what Carmine went through. As the light was drawn in, Aby saw very little actually change. The biggest difference was her hair, which changed from a vibrant crimson to a bloody red, and her tail turning into a sleek black color, one that only reflected the barest hint of light. Beyond that, her features seemed to become much more aesthetically pleasing to the gem.

Of course, aesthetically pleasing to Aby meant truly gorgeous, and Sela had a hard time turning away from her. Carmine opened her eyes, dazed for a short moment before she turned to Sela.

“Thank you, thank you Sela.” Cried the young siren happily with a voice that stunned the Nereid. She seemed just as bubbly as before, however, and after giving the dazed Fae a hug to the best of her ability, the large size difference making that more difficult than one would expect, she darted off and left Sela wondering just what had happened.

Aby too, wondered what happened. Carmine had been Named through nothing other than Sela deciding to do so. Aby decided to try something similar with the Dragonkin. It put its full attention on the creature, then tried to Name him, only to be unable to do so. In fact, it couldn’t even say what it had intended for it to be Named. It appeared that there was more to it than simply deciding to do so on a whim, and Aby hadn’t a clue what that would be. It continued testing, trying different names, different creatures, and had asked Sela what she had done, but nothing seemed to enable it to give names, and Sela couldn’t repeat the process.

It eventually came to the conclusion that this was either a one-time happening, or it would only happen under certain situations. It wouldn’t complain, however, about having a creature vastly better than its original intentions being its floorless boss. It focused on Carmine intently, wondering just how she had changed.

From what it could tell after reviewing the information it got, her Song no longer charmed nor bewitched listeners, nor was it as potent either. Instead, it would slowly wear away at the mind of anyone who listens, and could drive even the strongest willed into a permanent, hunger-crazed stupor, given enough time.

In smaller exposures, any audience would find themselves confused and muddleheaded, a terrible way to be in the middle of any dungeon.

After Aby had concluded testing her newfound abilities, she returned to the fifth floor and began to play with the brittle-star once more. The star seemed to enjoy this greatly, based off of the information Aby could get from its mind, so he let the two enjoy themselves. There were no invaders to be dealt with at the moment, or at least any that had the chance to make it to either of them.

Oddly enough, Aby had been dealing with far more invaders recently, all manner of creatures had been making their ways into the caves and caverns, and although the core didn’t mind the increase in prey, it was still puzzled by the huge influx. While some, like the Morgen, were noteworthy, the vast majority were not, being simple repeats and recurrences of the creatures it had seen in its depths before.

Aby had a mind to learn more of this, in fact, so it turned its attention over to Sela. She had been thinking about the whole process of Naming Carmine, and was trying to sort out exactly what happened when she got the mental call from her partner. The core had apparently wanted to ask some questions, and she was happy to talk.

“More invaders recently, why?” Came Abys question. Sela had mostly understood what it wanted to know as Aby had been growing immensely in the few months they had known each other, both in size and mentality. She took a moment to think about what exactly might be causing such an increase, then remembered the time outside and gave a nod to the ever-present core as she answered.

“It’s breeding season outside, and a lot of the species will be looking for places rich in mana to spawn.” She remembered what she had felt from Aby the day she had found it, the waters outside weren’t particularly thick with mana, but they were incredibly pure. On the few occasions which she’d left the caves, she’d found that the purity had remained, but it was truly saturating the waters for a short distance around.

She was sure that to any creatures looking for a place to lay eggs, Abys dungeon would be perfect, discounting the reception they’d be met with, of course. Aby too seemed to understand this, as its attention left once more. Sela smiled wryly, she may not be the most social Fae, but even she found the lack of conversation partners to be a little much at times. Very little in the dungeon was able to actually talk, and what little that could made for poor socializing.

However, there was hope on the horizon now. Sela hoped that when she was able to track down Carmine, she would be able to use full sentences, or at least not steer the conversation to fighting, butchering, or whatever else the kobolds came up with, nor to talk as little as possible as Aby does. She didn’t dislike the gem for it, just wished it would mature a little faster sometimes, even if she knew that that couldn’t be rushed.

Aby knew not of the thoughts its partner was having at the moment, nor did it have the empathetic maturity to yet understand even if it could. Instead, it was putting the knowledge that its dungeon was being considered prime breeding grounds to work to attract as many of those prospective breeders as it could. It widened the entrance to the dungeon once more, doubling the diameter, and packed the bottom of the shaft with hard and soft mana corals.

It wanted to make its caves stick out like a beacon, it would attract many more visitors that way after all, and that meant more hunts. Aby didn’t know quite why it was so focused on the hunt, now that its thoughts veered in that direction. It only knew that there was some urge that dictated it. However, as it pondered, finalizing the entrance to be outputting enormous quantities of mana, it came to realize that this was an urge, not one of the instincts that dictated its life.

It felt incredibly satisfied by the hunt, yes, and also absolutely refused to have its core be reached, by anything. However, it realized there was nothing preventing its invaders leaving, should they have the ability to do so. It even confirmed that it could willingly allow this, once it realized, a simple snapper had swam in, and rather than simply goring it, a sea-boar mock charged it, scaring it into fleeing.

Aby was pleased to know more about what it could and could not do, any information it received about itself could prove useful in some way or another. It just couldn’t fathom what use it would get out of letting invaders escape with their lives, rather than claiming them.

It was pleased by the knowledge nonetheless, despite how useless it appeared, and fell back into managing its halls, even as the now eight meter wide hole had turned the surrounding hundred meters of Reef-Bed into a veritable paradise above. The changes didn’t stretch the twenty meters between the hole and the surface, but spread outwards, charging the waters around with the mana leaking out of the dungeon.