Aby truly hadn’t been expecting this outcome, and though it had designed its new entrance in hopes of increasing its quota of invaders, it wondered why there were so many. What was once a moderate flow of invaders has turned into a horde of fish, crustaceans, and reptiles of all types. Aby hadn’t even been able to spare attention to the dungeon at large, having instead to focus on keeping tabs on the constant invading.

Even though not much had made it very far, the core was starting to feel pestered with the influx of never-ending creatures. It may not be too upset, seeing as it enjoyed the meal, even if it was absolutely useless due to its mana output. It was also getting quite the list of new creatures to play around with, along with having its faults with regards to large group invasions brought to light.

You can now spawn “Greater Parrotfish”

This creature was amusing the first time Aby saw it invading the halls. At the time, the kobolds were dealing with another goliath grouper that had invaded, and it encountered a group of sea-boars. When they started accosting the fish with those unusual noises they make, the parrotfish mimicked them with an uncanny accuracy.

Aby was interested in this, so it sent the boars to go after some other fish that had entered. The parrotfish continued to wander deeper, and managed to slip by the second floor without problems. Even Aby found this incredible, it simply seemed as though any creatures it encountered were too busy with something else to spare time for it, and Aby didn’t give explicit orders for it yet.

It finally slipped onto the third floor without any fanfare, and tried to navigate the mazelike halls. It had wandered a few halls away from an unfortunate shoal of Greater Barracuda met their end at the claws of a group of six rifle shrimp. The amusing creature promptly decided to copy the noise, in much the same way as it had earlier with the boars, only to have its head’s structural integrity violently compromised.

Aby found out, after this, that unlike the common variety with little meaning in their name, these are capable of copying any noise they’ve heard as though they were the source of that noise, regardless of the distance from its source the fish was. Of course, when trying to copy the noise a rifle shrimp makes, with the same volume and intensity that comes from the very source, one needs more than just a thick skull and some mimicry magic.

You can now spawn “Greater Mahi-Mahi”

One of the fish that managed to make it decently far in the reef, this one was simply fast. Very fast, in fact, it managed to dart past anything that attempted to intercept it, and plain outspeed anything that attempted to chase. Even the silver-streaked barracudas weren’t capable of catching it in a race, and it had gotten past the third floor without meeting any shrimp. Its run ended on the fourth floor, however.

The wyrmling had gotten ever larger, now seven meters and thirty centimeters, she made Aby very pleased. This growth was, after all, exactly what was wished for by the core. She had gotten the message Aby sent about the creature making its way down, and had been mostly cleaning up the invaders that managed to get to the fourth floor. A few slipped past, but if they managed to get by her, so be it. The star didn’t take kindly to invaders, after all, and the few times she had slipped up and had a fish get past, she had heard the dull thumping that signaled that the star had not.

However, when she saw this flamboyant green invader, three meters long and trying to outspeed her, she got upset. That infernal wyvern always did the same in the few times they fought for dominance, and she was never able to keep up with him. She was displeased by this tactic, to put it lightly, and coiled tightly around the entrance to the fifth floor. As the fish rapidly drew nearer, it appeared to think itself capable of squeezing by the snake, and rushed past her head.

It found itself smeared against the wall behind the snake, having not expected the tail to be any threat to it. The motes of light that represented it dispersed shortly after that.

You can now spawn “Giant Mimic Octopus”

Yet another surprisingly capable critter, this one crawled its way in when it was dark out. It was incredibly well camouflaged, too, Aby had to switch to searching for it non-visually to actually verify that something had invaded, and even when it found it, it was only by realizing it had a piece of coral that it hadn’t grown.

The core knew everything within its halls, especially that which it created, and so this immediately raised an alarm. The creatures it sent after the invader, however, were not as omnipresent in their capabilities. Aby wasn’t able to directly inform the kobolds, nor anything else, what the creature was masquerading as fast enough for them to actually make use of the information before it changed.

It had even gotten past the wyrmling on the fourth floor without her knowing what had happened. The serpent had been camped out right in front of the shaft downwards, only to have its vision clouded by what it thought was some debris. Aby had told her too late what it really was, and by that time, a large portion of the floor was completely black, and only wore off when she knew that she hadn’t gotten it.

The invader, however, hadn’t been prepared for the fifth floor. The absolute darkness that surrounded it made it noticeably more cautious, and it crept through the floor in the shape of a flat fish, hugging the floor. Until, that is, it was hit by a mighty impact from a tentacle quite different from its own. It attempted to ink the waters, desperate to confuse it enough to make an escape, but the brittle star wasn’t fooled by these cheap visual tricks. Wrapping around the mantle of the creature, it easily shrugged off the attempts to remove its own arm by the creatures eight, and the cilia that covered its arms grabbed the octopus and held fast.

The invader wasn’t long for the world after that, being ripped right in half when the star found that crushing the creature wasn’t working.

You can now spawn “Razortoothed Dolphin”

These creatures were the most notable invaders, and the most troublesome. They were three and a half meters long, with razor sharp teeth. However, what made them really rough was the fifty strong group they invaded with, and their ability to use that strategically.

Aby hadn’t even bothered dispatching the kobolds to the first floor as it saw the stream of mammals all coming in, instead having them fortify their tribe on the second floor and pick off any who venture into the dark branch they resided in. They had been mostly avoided, luckily, only three branched off from their main force and were subsequently taken care of. The shallower waters of the tribe, and the shaman’s ability to leave them beached, meant that the warrior and chief-mother were able to make quick work of the creatures.

The others, having found that their pod members had stopped responding to their calls after seeming distressed, seemed to slow down some. Aby was unsure what, if anything, they were thinking, but they seemed to be more cautious, with two at the back deciding to go check on their kin. Of course, when they were also dispatched, unable to leave quickly enough when they discovered the kobolds lying in wait.

The third floor was their next hurdle, they could navigate the mazes with marginal efficiency due to echolocation, but they were still visually disoriented by its monotony, it seemed. Most made it through unscathed on this floor, too, but the rifle shrimp in the walls were able to make short work of any who ventured from the path.

The pod seemed upset at this, a member would start heading down one path, already with reduced mobility due to the rather shallow waters, then a horrific burst of noise would sound out, and the dolphin would be gone in a show of light. The first time this happened, a small group of three had been curious and went themselves, only for four successive bangs to resound throughout the floor, and even the members who had moved on felt a twang of pain as it assailed their sensitive hearing, much less those who stayed to watch and found themselves nearly deafened.

By this point, the fifty strong group was now thirty nine as they went down to the fourth layer. There, they saw a group of three gargantuan fish, and a serpent over twice their length and thickness. A group of ten decided that they would try and combat the beast, haven once managed to slay a Giant Reef Shark, they were reasonably confident.

The other twenty nine swam past once the big one was lured away from the hole, and continued down, even as the calls of their comrades were silenced, one by one.

By this point, Aby wondered what the motivation of this group was, it no longer felt like they were curious as they were when they entered, it seemed more like they were continuing deeper out of spite, and it made very little sense to the core.

What were they trying to prove, it thought, watching the wyrmling working on cutting down the few who stayed back. It made note of how she seemed to struggle at first, a few cuts being bitten into her before those fangs found their way into the side of one of the creatures, and the animal started seizing up within moments. The brief moment that the other nine relented to watch their partner succumb to the potent venom.

After that, their resistance was quickly taken apart, and the remaining nine were beaten, crushed, bitten and even eaten within moments. On the fifth floor, the brittle star had already began its assault on the creatures, having wrapped two arms around one of them at the very back and then forcing it underwater as it used the remaining three limbs to battle the few who managed to turn around and try to aid their brethren. The unlucky creature was struggling, having not taken a breath for long enough to start feeling the need, but it wasn’t able to break free from the deceptively strong starfish.

The other three who tried to help out were also being overwhelmed, the limbs had outright killed one who managed to be struck head on, and the remainder were facing their own injuries. They were not able to hold out against the boss, and it immediately set off deeper into its catacombs to pick off more dolphins, each banding together in small groups to make the search for any way out easier in the kilometers of caves.

By the time the location of the sixth floor was found, the star had cut down their numbers by a further seven, a rag-tag eighteen. They thought the comparatively brightly lit passageways would signal the end of their nightmares, and it was even welcoming them with the soft, flowing voice of an angel too. Then, one of their numbers turned on another, bloodshot eyes and crazed movements as it ripped and tore at the creature in front of it, without regard for even its own safety, its manic breathing starting to drown it, and when it had reduced the victim to a bloody wreck of its former sleek splendor, it set its sights on another.

By now, more had started to lose their minds, messily devouring the others. The six who managed to hold onto their wits raced to escape them, unsure of what caused them to become so crazed. They managed to reach the end of the halls, and race deeper, now realizing the errors of their choice in coming down here, but having no ways to rectify it. They could only hope to reach a respite in the madness, but even on the seventh floor it didn’t come.

The waters here were too shallow for them to swim comfortably, and the fire corals, anemones and jagged shells were tearing up their bodies, even if they weren’t receiving any real wounds, it was painful, it was annoying, and it was miserable. They pressed forward, though a young member succumbed to stress and exhaustion, along with a wound inflicted somewhere on the previous floors by one of their own.

Five left, they reached the eighth floor, and all seemed overjoyed at the open space and seeming lack of predators they were facing, two sailfish meandered in the distance that seemed uninterested in them. That’s when the leader of the group stopped her calls, and with a flash of green she was split apart in front of them, reduced to lights as the left and right of her body floated away from one another. They were thrown into chaos by this, the remaining four bolting away from one another to escape whatever was capable of bisecting a three meter long creature so easily.

Aby watched in satisfaction, meanwhile, as the wyvern mopped up the last few stragglers, reducing them to lights and information without hassle. The pod of dolphins had proved to be very useful, it not only got to see how many of its bosses and elites handled themselves, it even got information on Carmines “Charm of the Depths” as she now stated the ability was termed. It was quite useful, being able to cause such violent infighting after only minutes of exposure belayed its potency. While not as quick as a morgens Call or a sirens Charm, neither would be able to inflict any permanent changes on a victims psyche once they stopped, the most one would be treated to is a killer headache. Of course, this requires that influence to be stopped, usually by the offender dismissing that influence, or to die, but Carmine was able to directly reduce any invader to a savage, bloodthirsty beast with only time, and nothing would stop that from occurring.

There were plenty more invaders in the days that followed its “welcoming” beacon, and plenty new creatures, too. There big creatures, small, openly aggressive, sneaky, and any other that can be imagined. At one point Aby even had something called a seagull, a bird. It couldn’t think of anywhere that flight would be even remotely useful in its halls, but that wouldn’t mean it’d always be that way.

For the moment, Aby was stuck in the grind that it brought upon itself, and while it wished to be able to rest a moment, it wouldn’t stop its perpetual hunting.