Much of the day had gone by with Aby having to deal with the constant assault on its coral and its crystals by nearly every invading group. The core had been thoroughly frustrated by this behavior, mainly because it had been unable to do much beyond removing the plucked coral to prevent clutter. The core had been unable to spawn more whilst the divers crowded within.

Fights were breaking out, and people attacked and even killed one another, taking the objects they owned and leaving the corpses, something which added to Aby’s own knowledge. However, as time wore on, and as people were forced deeper within the halls in their search for these crystals, they began finding less quarrel with one another. Beyond the fourth floor, the steady number of invaders became a trickle, and the fifth floor showed off its improved might. While the brittle star alone was strong and clever, it was outclassed by groups, often stronger and always in greater number. Having three more bodies to use helped even these odds, and few were able to make it through the floor when all four worked in unison, though when two or more groups invaded it became much more difficult for them.

Still, being forced to endure as its halls get ransacked, unable to correct the wrongs being inflicted upon it by the avarice of these invaders managed to upset the budding consciousness within the aquamarine. Aby was undoubtedly a bit irritated by the behavior of these invaders, but could not deny that there was less difficulty when everyone focused on ripping up its decorations, even if it did strike a nerve.

With most every group aiming only to gather, and some actively killing one another, it needed to do less to catch people off guard as they focused on digging through the sidelines, and was able to spare more power for those it deemed true threats, like the first invading group to make it to the twelfth floor, and even escape in the end.

It was a rather large group compared to most sapient invasions, six lamias in total, each appearing suspiciously similar to one another. They worked immensely well with one-another, and were able to nearly take the lives of two of the stars before the chimeric star intervened. Taking them by surprise, it managed to land a glancing attack on what Aby knew to be the healer of the group, before it dragged the sunflower and brittle to the sidelines to be healed. While they continued to try and harass the group, it was difficult, even for all four working together. Approaching as a writhing ball of tentacles and tendrils as they had done when selecting their leader, they were stunningly effective for a tactic with such a cumbersome appearance, and dozens of limbs were doing their best to find purchase in their clash, coming away with nothing to show.

They appeared intricately familiar with the layout of both the fifth, and the sixth and seventh floors, following a detailed map throughout the floor and leaving Aby to make a mental note to correct the mazes. In the meantime, the core was forced to watch as they powered through those floors, not missing a single turn, and having more than enough mental fortitude to resist Carmine’s song.

They did seem taken aback by the eighth, finding that its wyvern relocated seemed to cause them some unease, and they proceeded with even more caution through the ninth and into the tenth. The dragonkin put up a solid fight along with the eel, and the fact that he was even stronger than Aby remembered added with the fact that they seemed heavily affected by the biting cold of the floor meant he performed valiantly indeed, but the massive disparity in numbers meant he had too much trouble focusing on any one target, or even do more than put up a valiant defense. The group did have their first loss on the floor, though, when one of their own pursued the fleeing dragonkin ahead of the rest. She hadn’t realized, as she tore through the coral, that a moderately sized shoal of fish lie ahead, resting. Not until she sliced one in two purely by chance, and was lost in the sudden flurry of blindingly white scales, flayed alive and then frozen solid by the startled snowflake snappers. All that was left was a chunk of ice with a suspiciously lamia shaped pocket of nothing in the center, one which crumbled shortly thereafter.

The remaining five had various reactions, though to Aby they appeared mostly sad or angry, the intricacies of their expressions not yet fully understood. Whatever they felt, it seemed to push them forward with a renewed vigor, and they barreled through the eleventh floor, happening upon a path which avoided the kobold tribe. They took the time to eradicate every creature they came across, down to uprooting any coral they came upon and removing the crystals which grew beside them.

Aby had thought the group above this behavior, pleased it seemingly didn’t need to add yet another floor to the list which needed repairs, but was disappointed to find out they were no better than the rest. As such, when the group made it to the twelfth floor, they were given an enthusiastic welcome on behalf of an angry drake, one which launched an attack the moment the group surfaced from the entrance. This attack was a great success, too, and the group found themselves unable to react as yet another of their own met her ending courtesy of the jaws of a perpetually angry reptile. Fear and anger were the last thing the core saw of their expressions before they vanished in a burst of light and powder, and Aby was left to contemplate what it had learned from them.

As always, it wasn’t able to understand everything, but found it interesting that this was the second group apparently employed by The Fae, as they were called in their thoughts. Aby was simply unsure of why this group wanted them to cause damages to its creatures, both through this group and the first they sent.

There was little it could do now, though, as they had managed to escape before the drake could capitalize on his attack. The day’s invasions had been drawing to a close, and it was finally beginning to find the time to correct the damages done to its halls, repopulating fish and recreating coral on the floors which had little in the way of invaders. It was stuck questioning what could be done differently to the overzealous invaders, a question leading back to the interesting reactions to that frost affinitied crystal showed to both the spirit of ice, and then the dragonkin right after.

In both instances, the creatures managed to start bonding with the crystal, with the spirit almost possessing it and while Aby wasn’t positive, the dragonkin seemed stronger than he was before, even if it wasn’t by much. It provided another way for its creatures to progress beyond simply randomly chancing into an evolution, or having its limited spirits of the elements determine the direction of evolution, even if it had been entirely beneficial so far.

It turned its attention back to the dungeon at large, watching over everything as the number of invaders within steadily decreased. The core took the growing calm as an attempt to test some ideas. It started by trying to get the dragonkin to imbed another shard of crystal within itself, a task made harder when they realized he wasn’t strong enough to crush a crystal which wasn’t depleted and actively draining into the surroundings. Aby also had no way to recreate the original effect, it couldn’t coax any of its spirits into recreating these circumstances, nor could they enter even if Aby tried to order them to.

Finding that it wouldn't have much success with any of the creatures on the tenth floor, it focused on one of the most physically strong creatures it currently posessed in the dungeon, the creature still gloating over the proclaimed lesser beings on its floor of his recent kill; the drake. The large creature heeded the core’s instructions, picking up one of the larger crystals nearby. With an affinity to sand, a secondary transformation of earth, the yellow crystal looked lumpy, and its coarse texture made it blend in decently well with the sand surrounding it.

He positioned it within his jaws, rolling it around until his massive teeth found purchase, and then bit down with all of his strength. A sharp crack signaled it had succeeded, but the following bang which sounded out had signaled something unexpected. The drake had fallen to his side, roaring in agony as the shards of crystal dug into his gums, jaws, and flesh from within. The left side of his head appeared to be mince, with flaps of skin and muscle left hanging after the shards had exploded outwards. Jagged splinters of gem were sticking out of every surface in his mouth, and blood poured from the wounds, staining the sands and clouding the waters.

Aby wasted little time in healing the creature, but found that the gems weren’t removed, unlike what typically happens with foreign materials in the wounds of its creatures. Instead, fragments of the crystal were sticking out of his mouth, his left side appeared to have spines sticking out from his scales, and when he opened his mouth, it was covered in razor sharp splinters of sandy yellow stone. Even his tongue was left impaled in multiple places by this mishap, something which appeared decidedly uncomfortable. Furthermore, the creature was left with a rather wicked scar along the left half of his head, the scales were misshapen and oddly colored, with his eye barely spared from the effects of the blast.

While fully healed, the drake was anything but pleased. The crystals imbedded in him were uncomfortable at best, and agonizing at worst. He tried to dig out the shards he could reach with his knife-like claws, but found it fruitless. They had fused with his flesh, even bone, and he could feel every attempt he made to snap them off or dig them out as if these gems had been there his entire life. He continued to try, though, and eventually dug a single bit of gemstone out from his cheek, only to be assaulted by a pain so severe that even Aby felt uncomfortable through the link. Thankfully for both parties, the drake fell unconscious almost immediately after, but the damage had been done, and Aby would be much more cautious with the crystals in the future.