No one ever talks about us Kobolds. You read any of those human guidebooks and you find all sorts of mention of goblins and elves and dwarves.

Why not my fellow countrymen??? Why even with the system helping us are we still disparaged!

But you. You understand don’t you. You understand we are just as valid as the other races!

What’s that? You want to know what my system does? It does the same as you! No seriously I’m just like you, okay?

That doesn’t make sense you say? You want a better explanation? Okay…I can do that. *deep breath*

Basically my ancestor is a dragon. All the different races of Kobolds are dragons right. And that’s why we were given the Mimicry System. Our ancestors wanted us to be considered a proper sapient creature like the rest of you. Basically, our system matches the dominant species in our area. Isn’t that great? If I was born and lived in an elf forest I’d be given the elf system and could help them hug trees or whatever it is they do. If I was born in a Dwarf Kingdom, I’d learn how to make stuff I’m sure. That’s what their system does right? And because I live in this fine human kingdom I have the skill system! My class is Dragon-Eyed-Chef! Isn’t that great! I can [Flame Roast] food to delicious perfection!

We even have a system given race skill that lets us breed with the race our system is matching because there is less of us!

Off topic but want to go back to my place? No! Don’t walk away I need a conversation partner.

Anyways as I was saying kobolds can have children with any other sapient, with the help of the system. There are no consequences to this – for example, rarely humans and elves have had a child, but the children were hybrids and sterile. Not us! If you decide to come home with me, our demi-human children will be able to mate with either humans or other kobolds! Our grandkids will be whatever their partner is! Stop. No come back.

...failed again. When will I ever find a mate.

Excerpt obtained from a typical kobold's failed attempt to sell himself at a bar.

I think...I think even though I’ve been experimenting and improving schematics, as a source of exp it’s not enough.

Innearth had been expanding for days. Weeks. Months and months.

He was sick and tired of not getting results.

What else can I do? Unique/boss monster creation gives a lot of exp. Especially if its in a way that I haven’t done before. That’s probably the most effective option?

Innearth searched in the market for unique materials.

There were several different sections. One section had people selling unique materials with good results for anywhere between 50-200 Tier 1 cores….high end items but then again it made sense. A single unique monster with enough effort could easily become a bastion of defence.

There were also *unknown* unique materials of various qualities being sold for anywhere from 50 absolute mana’s (super suspicious, that was like a quarter of a purecore) to 100+ cores (Not worth it if you don’t know that it's going to be good)

Finally there were quite a few “Investigation commissions”. They were for figuring out the use of unknown materials and actually paid for the service. They just required you to send back as much of the unique material as possible. They ranged through all sorts of prices from the suspiciously low (50M...really? for potentially dangerous work?) to almost suspiciously high (100 purecores just to figure out what the material does? By a core with no positive trades and one negative? HMMMMMMM)

Innearth searched for jobs and tried to be smart about it.

I want to pick a job by a Core with positive trades. This is a job that requires multiple trades and I want to make sure I get paid – either pick something that's paid in advance or by a trustworthy Core.

I'm level 28 and have...Innearth swapped his mana values around to show AMU instead of mana. I have 2474 absolute mana. That means I can theoretically trade for 2474 mana, but if I get above that I have to start using cores...I should probably leave this in absolute mana. Even if “Personal mana” feels nicer and matches what I think I’m using I can figure that out by feel. Absolute mana I have to calculate so it's more useful for the system to show me this.

Innearth wished he could extract mana from cores. Either that or use traded cores in his new printing system...

There are more and more problems with the store. Trading with mana doesn't work because it won't bank it for me for long...and trading for cores won't let me be lazy.

Sighing Innearth looked to the pure mana trades. Some cores paid out 2,000AMU for a job and one had a nice "multiple payment" option, where the core would pay out 10,000AMU over the course of a week.

That's...quickly calculating...50 cores. Pretty good all things considered. Amazing actually. The request comes from a core with 24 positive trades...seems pretty trustworthy.

OrderName Identification Commision. High Reward! PosterName ZealotZoi. OrderType Buy Type Information Price 10,000M Spread over 1 week. Desc

I have 3KG of a silvery magical material. There are some strange effects when combined with metal and given mana but I don't know how to use them. All I know is its probably really strong in a monster. It might be dangerous but I don't know – it seems pretty safe. :]

Providing a sample of 100g to work with. Please tell me how it preforms in a monster, how useful it is and how strong of a monster I can make with it. I have plenty of the material and want to maximize its use!

I can't see any real problem with it. They even gave me a place to start!

Responding to the posting, Innearth accepted the open trade for a [unknown] material with [unknown] effects. Picking a place, he received 100g of silvery pulsing material in one of his highest rooms.

Well looks exactly what the Core said it would be. They seem trustworthy

The material looked metallic but also strangely organic. Like a cross between a beating heart or lung and a square metal bar.

Trying to concentrate on it didn't give Innearth much help – all he could tell was there was a lot of mana in this lump, but none was leaking out somehow. The mana was constantly in motion bouncing around the material and causing its physical container to slowly beat in a rhythmic show of fake life.

Huh. The core has 3kg of this? Why does the 100g version look so complete?

Innearth tried to break off a piece by "eating" or storing an incredibly thin line down the corner of the fleshy square. Similar to how he had cut away a slab to drop on a crazy ball when he was younger, he sliced a section off with slow precision.

The material broke off with a smooth flat line where the cut was. Over the course of a few seconds, this smooth cut was blended and mutated back into a bumpy fleshy-looking material – the corners rounded and the texture getting almost slimy looking before it finished.

The physical elements that entered his inventory were not a compound - they had been held together with mana and when stored was broken apart instantly.

This silvery material was made with roughly: 85% silver, 10% lithium 3% mercury and 2% carbon.

...Not that that helped Innearth figure out anything about the magical material.

Well, the core selling this mentioned a strange effect by adding metal and mana so maybe I'll test that to start with?

Innearth pulled out a few different types of metals from his inventory. Titanium, aluminum and iron were still his largest quantities, so he used them to start with.

Cutting off a third piece Innearth placed 3 equal sections with the 3 metals. He watched as the material seemed to reach out with small tendrils and grab the metal before continuing.

Okay. The second step is to give it mana? Not exactly self explanatory but I’ll see what I can do.

Innearth couldn't really shove mana into the unique material – it was already magical and trying to make a material with it just failed. The mana pushed into it slid off – so he simply raised the surrounding mana levels and gave the touching metals mana instead.

Immediately the 3 lumps sucked their corresponding metal into themselves and started to make wet squelching sounds.

After a second or two of "eating" the metal, all three experiments began to expand exponentially quickly.

Innearth was calm and rational about the following few moments.

"Calm and rational" in this case meant he started internally screaming and ripping the expanding monstrosity apart in frantic frenzied terror.

Bits of metallic material were eaten and the mana inside it fell and combined with the surroundings. Melting into the walls and ceiling the mana tinted the surroundings a shiny grey while the main material continued to expand.

There wasn't time to do anything but act. The "flesh" wasn't alive. And he wouldn't have enough time to build a wall.

Trying to damage the material with death mana didn't work. Trying fire burned black soot over it but didn't halt its growth.

Anything but ripping and eating into it did nothing and just slowed him down. Die. Die. Please die. Stop. Stop expanding. Nonononoonooonoooooo.

Nearly half an hour passed in this manner before Innearth noticed there wasn't any new growth.

He stared blankly at the completely plugged hall for a long moment. Shaking himself out of inaction Innearth turned to write a strongly worded message to a certain "Zoi".

Innearth: You tried to kill me! You have to have known what feeding it metal and mana would have done - you mentioned it in your request.

...

Innearth: Well? Are you going answer?

ZealotZoi: Whatever are you talking about?

Innearth: Don't play dumb. If I was weaker, that material would have consumed everything. You told me the exact steps to achieve that result, I'm not a 1 floored newborn.

ZealotZoi: Tch. Should have just died like the others.

Innearth felt his anger flip...others? but...but this core had zero negative trades? I was being safe? What's up with that? His righteous anger faded to confusion.

Innearth: How do you have a squeaky clean record?

ZealotZoi: I don't see why I have to explain myself to you.

Innearth: Are you going to pay me? Either way, I'm writing a negative review.

ZealotZoi: If it's negative either way why would I pay you? Everything I did was completely within the rules. I even mentioned it might be dangerous ;]. If you send a negative review are you not writing a fake review?

ZealotZoi: As far as I'm concerned you haven't yet told me if the material is useful or not. If others died before you that just means they failed to complete my information commission. Go on. Tell me what you figured out :]

Innearth: I figured out it grows massively if you feed it and only survived by ripping it apart. My inventory's nearly completely full because of you. Is that why you don't have negative reviews? You killed other Cores before they could mention anything?

ZealotZoi: Bing Bing Bingo. How useful is it though? What happens when you make a monster with it? [:

Innearth: It's dangerous. I haven't made a monster with it.

ZealotZoi: I can't pay you until you do - I'm serious I really will pay you if you complete your end of the bargain. I'm anything if not fair. Look at all 24 of those nice happy satisfied customers.

Innearth: Fine.

Innearth would have to be smart if he finished this Cores trap of a request.

First time... was not really his fault; but if he approached it the same way a second time, he really would be dumb.

I really wanted to write some sort of negative trade but...I guess material commissions are dangerous. If I don't complete this, I'm sure he's going kill someone else with the same commission.

Innearth: If I do this analysis are you going to remove the trapped trade?

ZealotZoi: Of course ;]. I'm an Honorable Core!

...Innearth really wished he could trust that, but he felt pretty confident in analyzing the material. Now that I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.

He wanted to be much much safer about it this time.

First off, the material stripped a bit of metal from the stone floor to continue its reaction. It ripped molecules apart violently to extend the amount of time it could grow.

Innearth made a quarantine room – the last of the "Null" stone went into a weaker panic door (weaker than his core room panic door) and every visible section of the room was protected. Silicon and Crystal mana covered the room, giving it a glassy purple look and would hopefully prevent it from leeching metal from the stone.

Finally, he placed a small lump of the dangerous material in the center of the room. Learning his lesson, he placed the smallest sliver of titanium right beside it – less than a single gram the metal flake landed on the top of it and was fully consumed.

Kick-starting the process with mana caused the lump to swell in size, nearly doubling before it stopped.

A much more controllable reaction.

I think that's roughly a 100x as much mass as the flake I added.

So, 1 unit of non-magical metal becomes 100 units of this material.

Innearth sighed and pushed it into the corner of the room.

How can I take advantage of that with a monster? I can make a growing monster obviously but unless I can make it shrink afterwards it's kind of useless.

Innearth made a slug of the pulsing material – he added a small fragile isolated container inside of it with a sliver of metal and then added a second heavily isolated and contained section with “Life mercury”.

That's definitely dangerous if it breaks out and starts consuming that but...I need to know if healing will keep it in check. Abe heals his exploding stuff to keep it from self combusting while contained. Seems like a valid idea.

Okay.

Tentatively giving life to the creature he watched carefully as a slug...rolled sideways slightly.

I guess I didn't really give it much to run off of huh. It's not bendable enough to move around and doesn't have any limbs...

Dropping a large stone on the creature he broke its eternal metal store.

Immediately the whole thing started to bulge and pulse before slowly growing multiple arms – legs? 6 bending limbs that punched through its source and let it stand up.

Its consumption of metal had improved it...and it had "grown" or evolved. But not nearly as drastically or dangerous as previous attempts...Innearth was also starting to get confused.

Why did it grow legs? Sorry no it obviously needed them.

How did it grow legs? Why not just grow bigger? Was it because it couldn't move very well that the metal consumption decided legs were a good idea?

Innearth waited a bit before lifting the stone up and attempting to break its (hopefully healed by now) metal vial.

This time one of the legs bent upwards at an awkward angle – the joints rotating 180 degrees to knock the stone to the side as it dodged.

What...

Innearth started at the thing.

You don't have a core. What are you made of? Why do you act like that?

Innearth remembered how dense with mana the unique material was.

Is...is its whole body equivalent to a core?

Can you understand me?

The legged slug seemed to stare at him reproachfully.

I'm just trying to evolve you – I gave you a method of growing and improving with a...special source.

Innearth calmly talked to the fleshy metallic cockroach while signalling the strongest monsters nearby to come over – a beholder from one direction and the "snake king" veteran who had started to explore the whole dungeon a few days prior.

The cockroach seemed to consider what he had said then suddenly twisted one of its appendages and started to beat its back. Harder and harder it hit and then inevitably a small crack was heard before the monster was still.

Moments later the slug pulsed, and a smiling face appeared on its back. Closed eyes and an incredibly wide grin that looked menacing. A single spiked tongue flicked out between the lips and then stabbed into the ground to its side – again and again as the creature attempted to break its crystal confinement. None of the strikes were hard enough to make a dent but worryingly the crystal started to lose colour as it did so, giving Innearth a flashback to the mana vore of the demon he had fought previously.

Yeah I think this is a demon. That's it kill squad. GOGOGO.

Innearth watched as his beholder floated to the entrance and started weaving a kinetic barrier together. The snake king darted into the room, seeming to glide through the air on a bridge of crystals. It slithered similar to how the pool snake did in its crystal home but with more purpose – instead of random events that seemed to happen in a lucky manner, the crystal bridges it made were designed for movement.

The beholder in the back sent a wave of fire into the room at nearly the same time as the cockroach seemed to realize it had an open door it could escape through. It was around this time the smiling face started to laugh – its eyes still closed.

Jumping forwards towards the entrance in a blind bid for freedom, the cockroach laughed hysterically. Mid-jump it was blindsided by the snake coming up its side and trapping it with two crystal spears. Sharp spikes that pierced both its sides at an upward angle in an attempt to contain it, but the cockroach continued to laugh.

Innearth watched as his two monsters finished the cockroach off and didn't let them leave until he was sure it was dead.

Innearth: Hey doc does this sound like a demon?

...

ZeMadDoctor: That is not how demons form. I've already told you that. For a demon to form. It would have been summoned and consumed the "slug" you made. No not a demon but also not a normal dungeon monster. If I had to guess. That is a creature of madness. Similar to demons but closer to...closer to a monster made with fire and water. Maybe.

ZeMadDoctor: Another option would be that material is a dead demon’s flesh? That makes sense to me. It is not a true demon but is still tainted by demonic mana. Similar to what happens to creatures who consume demon flesh. It’s the only reason I can think of for why it leached mana from your floor.

Innearth: Okay, so controllable?

ZeMadDoctor: Demons are controllable as well. By the way, if you have any of that material to spare I'd love to experiment with it.

Innearth: ...I think you are mad sometimes but sure. Here you go.

Innearth sent off a chunk of the dead monster then pulled back. I guess I have enough information to fulfil my job.

Innearth: Here you go. Here's your information packet and I hope it's thorough enough for you.

ZealotZoi: Pity. Well just message me every few hours when you want your payments. You deserved it.

...this was weird. This whole thing was weird. Zoi seemed like he was treating Innearth like an adventurer. Providing danger and then rewarding survival. It kind of made sense but also...I'm your own kind. How could you do that to your own species? That's like...That's like cannibalism or something.

Innearth checked his current status

Indecisive Earth Level 32 1052/1386 exp to next level. System Access Level 3 0/2 requirements met to advance. -Reach the surface -Level 33+ Stats Mana Regeneration 39.6 unit/min Mana Storage 3185.12/3232.20 AMU Physical Storage 96% Percent Capacity Titles. Earth Mana Specialization, Crystal Mana Specialization

The experimentation had been successful. His physical storage was incredibly full right now but was nearly level 33. All that was left was to push for the surface and hope he could solve his problems that way.

Innearth put all his focus into expanding.

No trying to consider mana. Just maximum speed. He dug upwards in a smaller and smaller tunnel – Every dozen or so hours messaging Zoi with a "Can I have 1k more?" request and getting back cheerful "Sure thing!" response as the Core complied.

It's just so weird.

Even though he was trying to save space, his physical storage ticked up and hit 99%. Then just before Innearth thought he would have to start filling in rooms he levelled. Innearth reached level 33 – dropping his percentage down to 94% letting him continue on.

A day later and Innearth finally...finally broke through. A stream of light cascading through a small hole that grew larger and larger as he broke through the side of a mountain.

His excitement didn't even have time to fully finalize with the realization he had done it – before a white panel appeared in his sight.