Wonders of the world: To the far east you have the frozen tundra and unnaturally beautiful ice spires of Mel. While not the most accessible its towers are deemed some of the most stunning attractions around.

To the north and south are vast swaths of forest thousands upon thousands of kilometers long. Both contain “elven” civilizations and any attempt to expand into them by settlers or woodcutters are met with extreme violence. However, for those who go with no intention to harm the forest, they may find themselves witness to some of the most beautiful natural wonders available.

If you manage to travel all the way to the western shore you can find the merfolk metropolis Aqualm.

High leveled people speak of other continents with vast civilizations some even more advanced than our own but refuse to share more to the rest of us.

Sometimes the unknown is more exciting than the known and thus I am sure there are more impressive sights on a different continent.

Except from the recruitment poster of the sole member of Maliquencia’s explorer guild. Made as he tried to convince adventurers they could find wonders outside of dungeons and needn’t risk their lives.

Innearth was scrolling through monster schematics. He had bought the most popular monster schematic available in the current market a “Beholder”.

The beholder was his first brush with using higher tiered cores inside a monster and it was pricy.

One large Tier 2 purecore was used as a central piece (with a note that it could easily be upgraded to a Tier 3 core if you had the mana/time to spare) that forced the affinity of the monster to be neutral/normal. Then several smaller Tier 2 affinity cores were placed around it in a fleshy mess of neutral stretchy magical silicon. There was 1 Mind core 1 Kinetic core, 1 Fire core, and 1 Earth core. Each arranged above the central core like a crown.

Each core was connected by rods of super highly concentrated “Mana Iron” that sped up the transfer of mana between each section.

There were several interlocking Lines of “Directionless Gravity mana iron” that seemed to break some of gravity’s hold on the monster, surrounding all the cores and doubling as bones.

The whole creation was filled in and wrapped out in the previously mentioned fleshy neutral squishy substance…and had several tendrils that draped down to the floor.

Finally there were several super thin high concentration wires randomly breaking off of the main circuit and stopping right before they exited the monsters skin. Small pores releasing faint streams of mana in a controlled manner.

This monster was a beast. It floated about by pushing itself around with the weak tendrils and cast several unique spells with its 4 cores. Fire that gathered in the air and shot out with speed. Spikes of “Earth” would be shot from the walls and dissipate when it was done. Scary “Mental” magic was cast to strike fear or trap weaker monsters, while the other spells finished it off. And it would push projectiles or potential dangers away from itself with bursts of force.

Buying it and making it, made a monster stronger than anything. Anything save maybe my boss? No…I have to be honest including my boss monster. He was certain if they went up against each other his boss would lose.

At least it was a manner of monster rock paper scissors. He thought the boss might do better against the demon while the demon might be able to kill the beholder. Might being the key word here.

It cost roughly 3500AMU mana to make, even if the materials were cheaper. More than his boss had by far. But the core selling it had just called it a “Higher Difficulty Monster” not even a boss. What??? What would that core even consider a boss monster?

Anyways it was versatile and strong…and Innearth Hated it.

He spent a whole day working on making the beholder and had learned a lot of techniques…but he hated it.

Oh, sure fine I could have made something that strong if I just threw as many cores at it as they did.

I feel like it's not that efficient though. Like regular monsters are supposed to be fodder that you don’t mind replacing indefinitely. If something killed my day of effort I’d be pissed.

Part of his hatred for the bought monster was purely just how it invalidated all the effort he had gone to in making his previous monsters. He hated how useful it was but understood its necessity right now.

I feel like I could make it stronger though? And in a few cheaper ways than just using a tier 3 core…

Following that train of thought, he made a second beholder that matched his dungeon a bit more. Replacing the Earth core with a Crystal core was the first step. Putting several kinetic crystal shards around the outside of the beholder he then ran the mana circuit over to them – for he had seen the connections made it faster and more efficient – made the second step.

Finally, he really didn’t understand the lack of armour. If I’m going to be spending this much slagging mana you had better bet, I don’t want it to die.

Giving the outside of the fleshy bulb several crystal plates – leaving holes for the mana pores just in case they did something. He felt a bit better by the creation of this version.

A tiny bit better just by the fact that he could improve the bought monster. It was still stupid and costly but at least he had done the minimum amount of effort to make it his own?

Can I really say this one monster is better than…I’ve started spending more on the larger ones so 8 greater crystal snakes? Or like 13 smaller snakes? Is it really that much better?

Nah I can’t believe this is the best the market has to offer.

Hyping himself up for the task he had promised himself he would do; he filtered the monster schematic portion of the market by “Snake or Worm”. Trying to find similar schematics to his monsters he sorted by the top 10 most popular and set it up so the description would show beside the name.

Buy Market results

[Filters Applied:

Search->Type->MonsterSchematic

Search->OrderName->containsAny(snake,worm),

Visibility->HideAll->thenShow(OrderName,Desc),

Display->OrderBy->Popularity->Limit->top(10)]

OrderName Desc Flaming Magma Snake Pure magma mana at its core anything this snake bites will be cooked from the inside out. OrderName Desc Drilling Earth Worm. By Manipulating the "Earth" around it, this worm can swim through stone as if it were water. Attacking from below nothing is safe from its clutches. OrderName Desc Piercing Snake of the Sword God This is a sword. A moving bending slithering sword. And it desires nothing more than to Peirce its enemies. OrderName Desc Charged Snakela Coil Lightning Mana Running through this snake's mana circuits, make every single attack as shocking as can be. This snake has been refined over several generations so you know it's good. OrderName Desc Spike Headed Greater Snake This snake schematic differs from others in that it has nothing on its head but a sharp spike. Kills by striking the unaware. This snake is a master of its domain. OrderName Desc Vemon Fanged Snake Poison is the name of the game with this snake. Deadly mana created poison. Adventurer review "Nuke on sight" OrderName Desc Worm King. A massive feat of monster engineering. Don't be fooled by its simple name. This worm is considered one of the best of SimCore's creations, the king of worms has insane regeneration capabilities. Any cut-off part will simply be regenerated. This monster kills by crushing and rolling over adventurers. OrderName Desc Manic Iron Snake A mental monster this snake excels in mental manipulations. Contains a mental venom that allows it to briefly control those it bites; this snake's favourite pastime is setting adventurers on each other. OrderName Desc Snake Strangler This snake kills by dropping on unsuspecting necks and squeezing the ever-living hell out of its enemies. Kinetic flavoured mana lets it both squeeze stronger and stick to roofs better. OrderName Desc Worm b8t Illusion monster. This worm has learned what adventurers have done to worms in the pursuit of "Fishing" and it is not thrilled. It wants to hook and dig into your eyes and mouth in revenge for its fallen brethren. Additionally, its size and light warping camouflage can hide it until it's too late.

Further 64 results hidden due to filters.

74 results...He felt sad knowing that there were THAT many variations of what he had done. At least no other core had used crystal mana for snakes? At least I’m still slightly unique?

Feeling more and more awful as he read the "Spike Headed Greater Snake" description Innearth bought it and reviewed the received schematic.

…Apparently by “Greater” snake they meant “hecking big”.

Innearth was currently calling his two brands of crystal snakes “normal” and “greater” …but looking at the snake he just bought, he felt like shifting them down to “lesser” and “regular” …

Ignoring the size however Innearth was slightly pleased to see it didn’t seem “vastly” better than his current snakes. Following the schematic and starting to make one he tried to review the differences as he viewed them.

Instead of making the core a pyramid shape, the store version was a Tier 2 sphered purecore. It also was located just behind the spike of its head – not inside of it. This spike differed from Innearth’s in that it was made out of sword mana and much sharper…unfortunately Innearth couldn’t make a sword mana material without a alloy so he was forced to buy a block of “brass” while vowing to figure out how to make it himself.

They obviously didn’t have the kinetic crystals lining its body however, in exchange, several rods were placed down its length.

Each rod was a hollow tube containing a small kinetic ball of iron that rolled back and forth accelerating the speed at which the monster was slithering at no mana cost.

The biggest difference between them however was the innards.

Innearth had left off on several compartmentalized tubes of liquid crystal while this foreign version had many many small compartments of liquid metal making up its insides. Tubes of high concentration liquid metal ran all the way down its length before returning and connecting to a sack by the core.

All in all, Innearth saw some immediate things he wanted to add to a true “greater” crystal snake. But didn’t feel like it was THAT big of a deal that he hadn’t bought anything yet…he would have gotten here…and just by adding a few of those changes to one of his crystal snakes he could already surpass it.

Making a greater crystal snake (this one bigger than his previous “greater” variants) he added the weights and shrunk the compartment sizes. Running a high concentration Liquid Crystal vein network through its entire body he finished it off with a Tier 2 crystal core.

Then slightly childishly he sic’d it on the store-bought snake.

The two faced off slithering in a circle around each other before simultaneously stabbing forward.

Store bought snake bit shallowly into new variant crystal snek. The sharper tip managing to crush into its scales at an angle before being slowed down and stopped by the liquid crystal muscles.

In comparison Innearth’s version struck much faster and harder, as it stuck with a boost from all the kinetic crystals in its body.

Dashing back because it was hurt, Innearth’s monster pulled the bit of crystal blood that had leaked out of its side and Formed a small spike in the air with it.

Manipulating its makeshift crystal dagger artfully the snake finished its distant brother off from afar while its gash slowly healed.

Cheered up by the improvement Innearth slowly bought more and more schematics and stole bits and pieces of concepts that other cores had used before. A small part of him cried out with each purchase but as he continued to build on what others had made that part grew quieter and quieter until it vanished. In its place, his pride was slowly rekindled.

Ignoring the wealth of information was stupid. And now that I’m looking here I can truly try to be unique. By looking at everything that had been done before (at least that which was currently being sold) he was able to prove any minor innovation he made was unique. The system helped somewhat by naming monsters that were created and out in the world.

An indeterminant time had passed while Innearth was absorbed in upgrading before finally, Amy messaged him.

Amy: Hey Innearth? We need to talk.

...

Innearth: Hey…what did you want to talk about?

Amy: I’ve had both Abe and Bose message me privately asking if you were okay. Both told me not to tell you but I really have to drive it home. Do you know how long you’ve been ignoring us?

Innearth: …some time?

Amy: It's been nearly a month Innearth. Something happened and as your friends, I believe we have a right to know.

Innearth: It's not really that big of a deal. I’ve gotten over it myself and I’m doing great!

Amy: So something did happen. Please. Spill it.

Innearth: I had some minor demon problems. Demon died and I’ve rebuilt everything better than before!

Amy: DID YOU SUMMON A DEMON? AFTER I WARNED YOU NOT TO!

Innearth: NO! I just came across one while expanding. I think it killed a different Dungeon Core. I’m planning on exploring soon!

Amy: Well that’s a bit better… not something in your control.

Amy: Now I have a question for you. Would you want any of your friends to tell you if they were attacked by a demon while expanding?

Innearth: I see what you’re trying to do. You can’t guilt me I’m pretty sure I’ve made my decision and I stand by it.

Amy: I don’t know if you care because you’ve been ignoring us for so long. But how would you feel if one of us died without even telling you something was happening. Just poof. Gone.

Innearth: …I hate you, you know that? I know what you’re trying to do and it's still affecting me.

Innearth: Fine. I get it. I should have told you sooner. That’s what you wanted to hear right?

Amy: You should have told us when it was happening! I don’t know how strong the demon was but if you’re still alive it probably wasn’t that bad?

Innearth: And what's that supposed to mean? It was awful and killed every single one of my monsters. Or at least most of them. Also, it died by…lots of really hot fire? I don’t really know why it burned that badly after it sucked the mana out of the air. Either way. Strong.

Amy: Okay, I don’t have any real way to gauge how bad it was. But! I can tell you that I could still have helped!

Amy: Even if I couldn’t have, I’d have liked to know.

Amy: …All of us would have liked to know.

Innearth: …Okay. I understand.

Amy: So that means you’ll tell Abe what you just told me? Maybe give him all the details of what you’ve been doing?

Innearth: I’m sure Abe is fine. He’s a bro he understands! We don’t need to talk about mushy stuff. I’ll just pop on over and ask him if he’s made a bigger explosion.

Innearth: What’s up bro?

Abe: Hey…Innearth. What’s up?

…Maybe Amy was right. Abe had never ever referred to him by name before. He really must be mad…

Innearth: Okay um. I’m sorry. I’ll…

Innearth: ack this is awkward I’ll just tell you what I’ve been up to.

Abe listened as Innearth explained himself and slowly started responding more and more.

As he finished it off the questions came in faster.

Abe: Broooo. Don’t do that again.

Abe: The nearly dying part yeah. But also the radio silence. Not. Chill. M8. I'll drop it this time but I will be pissed if you do that again.

Abe: I’ve been waiting for ages to show you this.

Abe: Check out my new monster!

A few seconds later he got the monster trade and he sent it to one of the offshoot rooms.

A disk with a slug peaking out of it…a massive sideways snail? Arrived and sat in the room.

Unlike the last monster bomb Abe had sent, this one did not explode a few seconds later.

Sending one of the smaller/non improved crystal snakes that were still alive over to it he watched and waited for the result.

It's going to explode. I know that much. Just need to know how? How will it explode and why is it that shape?

Slightly intrigued despite himself, Innearth watched the snake enter the room and the two monsters pause once they saw each other.

Hostile on sight, the snake slithered in a loop around it, as if trying to find the best angle to attack from. Abe’s monster started to spin, the fleshy slug-like part tracking the snake – before suddenly taking the initiative as if as impatient as its creator.

Whipping around for speed, two sharp guillotines like jaws snapped shut on the tongue. Catapulting the fleshy orange glob at his snake, the flung item stuck to the side. Clinging to the snake's back, it started to pulse and expand.

A second later and the inevitable explosion burst forth. Smashing the snake to the ground and blowing its tail off.

The snake writhed several times before retreating to call for backup.

It slinked into the hall – where its body was already starting to close up due to its proximity to a crystal beacon. It would take a while to regrow its tail… but it was no longer dragging a liquid crystal path behind it.

Watching the snake retreat, Abe’s exploding…snail thing? His snail thing was actively regrowing its tongue. The end of it scabbing over and pushing out, until it was right around the size it was before.

Okay…So it has a bunch of Life materials to heal itself?

Innearth: Hey why doesn’t the main body explode?

Abe: !!! Glad you picked up on that m8. Okay, so the point it's in while resting is its “natural state”. The explosion booger is constantly trying to expand more, but that expansion starts to break apart bits of it.

Abe: As it decays, the material gets closer to a point of explosive reaction. That tumor-like expansion is continuously healed away and is only allowed to come to fruition if it's detached.

Abe: I’ll accept any and all praise now. I know. Great isn’t it.

Abe: By the way, this is what I finished weeks ago and wanted to show you. I have something better now. Send it back if you can. I like those.

Innearth Responded to Abe’s second trade request. He attached the exploding snail and watched as the new monster formed – just as his snake arrived with backup.

Two “Greater Crystal Snakes” born through countless iterations slinked into the room behind the damaged older version. They came up against…a bipedal fat ball. Two chubby legs and 4 crossed arms ending in round balls for fists. The…Innearth didn’t even know what to call this. The monkey? Close enough.

The monkey had two red gems for eyes and a faint wisp of sparking explosion mana about it.

Sensing the new prey, this monkey jumped once – then exploded forwards with great speed as soon as its chubby legs landed on the ground. A solid right hook came for the snake on the left, which twitched sideways out of the way in an unnatural sideways movement. Several internal kinetic crystals controlling its sideways dash.

As the fist missed its target, the monkey continued around. Maintaining its momentum, the monkey smashed its fist straight down onto the older snake situated behind it. A crack sounding out as it did. The fist had burst on its bottom a crack letting out the explosion inside before resealing nearly instantly.

Innearth focused on one point in this whole exchange. Despite the explosion happening on its hand the monster’s arms didn’t seem to be flung away…that’s weird.

Innearth: I have to ask why the monkey didn’t get blown away by its attack?

Abe: My man! This is why I’ve been waiting to show you this. You ask all the right questions.

Abe: I call that the boom king by the way. It’s a giant bomb with little bombs on it. Not a monkey.

Abe: Anyways! Kinetic mana offshoot gives a material that redirects force. Run around the inside of its mini blast hammers and all the explosive force is redirected back into the explosion site. Doubles the force produced for half the effort.

Innearth: Useful…I can think of one or two ways to use that in my monsters. Don’t think I saw that in the material guide I bought.

Abe: Yeah I made a new friend while you were moping. He’s called “ZeMadDoctor”. You’d get along with him he’s a Kinetic core and knows all sorts of neat tricks.

Innearth: Oh. I’ve actually talked to him before. Haven’t really talked to him in awhile.

Abe: You haven’t talked to anyone in “a while”. :3

The two snakes were currently working in concert to take down the “Boom King” while Innearth chatted with Abe. Dodging around its wild swings, they each stabbed forward and dashed back repeatedly – more and more gashes and punctures appearing in the inner sphere’s exterior.

Bouncing around on the balls of its feet, the boom king grew impatient. It used its explosive charge several times in a row and finally managed to land a hit on one of the two snakes.

Blasting the snake back against the wall, a faint shattering sound accompanied the hit.

Unfortunately, his newer snakes were a wee bit more resilient than the versions made weeks before. The side of it was shattered – but not blown off – and immediately a turquoise glow surrounded the hit. Mana swirled as the snake forcefully controlled its damaged body part. Closing off the veins, it patched itself up roughly with a solid sheet of magical crystal, before attacking once again.

The other snake had landed a hit nearly at the same time as the boom king had landed his and the damaged snake's assistance wasn’t needed, however.

Damaged beyond some point. The whole ball had started to expand at this point in time and Innearth started to get a premonition of what was about to happen.

Get out of there! He transmitted to the snakes. Both already slipping back into the hall and leaving the ball to swell and explode in peace. A final attempt at damaging its attackers using everything it had left.

Innearth: Yeah it's dead. Lol. What were you saying about it being great? I just trashed it.

Abe: Damn. Those are annoying to replace as well. Ah well. So bro. Honest thoughts. How awesome was that absolute unit?

Abe: Slightly lessened by the fact that you beat it. I was sure it could have done a number on yeh.

Innearth: To be honest? Facing off the non-filthy cheating store-bought tips of me from a few weeks ago it probably would have won.

Abe: …to be fair I found a thing or two in the store to make it. I’m pretty sure everyone does. It's not “cheating” you're supposed to do that.

Innearth: It feels like cheating okay! I’m sorry.

Abe: It's good to have you back bro. Let me tell you some of the stuff I’ve done while you were ignoring me…