Startled, I focused my attention in the direction of the voice, silently berating myself for not paying attention to my surroundings. I found her at the very entrance to my room, slightly bowed, awaiting my reaction. How I knew she was a female I had no idea, but there was that utmost certainty disallowing any argument.

She was female grootslang and she was mine. If not for this conviction I would be panicking right now as she was not a type of creature you wanted to meet in a dark room, not that a place of meeting would matter anyway. You didn’t want to meet something like that, period. First words coming to my mind to describe her were menacing, frightening but also beautiful and graceful.

She had a long serpentine body, I estimated it to be at least 20 meters long and over a meter wide at the thickest part. And the head! Gods, her jaws when wide open could easily swallow men whole, her 20-centimetres long fangs seemed to be designed to cause dread in the hearts of her enemies. If her pray somehow survived being bitten they were ready to pump it full of venom. Then there were long sturdy tusks ready to skewer anything foolish enough to come too close and forked tongue constantly probing the air for scents.

She had yellow eyes with vertical pupils, betraying cold calculating mind, protected by thick brow, scaled eyelid and transparent membrane. Next to them there were pit organs which allowed her to see heat sources in the surroundings, perfect for underground with no or sparse light. The most impressive was the frill just behind her head, I was unsure if it was closer in shape to bat wings or elephant ears. That was only its shape as it was anything but delicate, the scales and bones reinforcing it made piercing it a daunting task.

I instinctively knew fighting it in narrow tunnels would be a suicide as she would block your advance and you would be facing either an impenetrable cowl or deadly teeth. That didn’t mean that the rest of her body was safe to approach either, the same azure scales covered her whole body and lashes from her whip-like tail could peel skin and meat from the bones.

At the moment, she coiled her body assuming a comfortable position and seemed relaxed, content to wait as long as it was necessary. It was only an illusion, it wouldn’t take here longer than a split second to spring to action. Sensing no danger from her, and realizing that if her intentions were hostile I could do nothing to stop her, I had scanned rest of the room to avoid any other surprises. I was pretty sure I was not a fan of surprises.

My room was circular with the radius of approximately 25 meters, it was hard to gauge it properly having no reference, with me exactly at the middle. Everything seemed to be built from strange dark light-absorbing stone even the ceiling. Why was this room so strange, who puts a ceiling 50 meters above the floor? And those silver patterns adorning the walls, they seemed to be trees and flowers, despite them feeling out of place, they had a calming influence on me, as if being familiar almost homey.

The only entrance to the room was currently blocked by the creature, not that I had any chance to flee anyway, I was a floating diamond and even that I was doing subconsciously. I was going to ask who she was but remembered I had skills now, so I have concentrated on her trying to use appraisal… hopefully, it would work, another light flash would be embarrassing.

Race

Grootslang (Ancient)

Subspecies

Azure Grootslang

Class

The Voice

Subclass

N/A

Rank

B

Level

37/100

HP

12000/12000

Mana

3000/3000

Titles

3

Skills

8

Titles

Ancient Monster

(Innate)

Through your veins flows the blood of ancient being which withstood the test of times. Passing millennia refined it, purified it and rid it of anything unnecessary. While it makes evolution an arduous task it also provides you with abundant life-force, quicker regeneration, enhanced lifespan. It additionally accelerates learning and development of compatible skills

Arnar’s Creation

(Innate)

The blessing of your maker fills you with a purpose, as long as you remain loyal all of your attributes will be strengthened. This bonus will be doubled when you are in the vicinity of your maker. Your creator chose psionic talent as a special trait for you, all relevant skills will be stronger and will progress at double rate. Warning! Betraying or renouncing your maker will result in negative consequences.

Dungeonbane

(Innate)

You and your ancestors devoted yourselves to the destruction of dungeon cores. You will be notified of any dungeon cores in your immediate area and will receive a bonus to fighting any dungeon spawned or born creature.

Skills

Advanced Psionics [AA] lvl 60/75

(Racial)

Ability to wield and mold psychic powers to your will.

Mind Scour [AA] lvl 20/75

Advanced form of mind reading capable of reaching beyond surface thoughts. Warning! The danger of damaging target’s mind rises sharply with an unwilling target.

Mind Sculpt (A) lvl 2/50

Remoulds target's mind according to your directions. Warning! Even the simplest changes may bring drastic side effects. Ideas in direct opposition to target’s core believes will either shatter or destroy target’s mind.

Strong Paralysing Venom [B] lvl 1/25

(Racial)

Venom capable of paralyzing the target. Effects vary depending on the subject, weak ones may die and strong ones may be unaffected. If you are capable of producing different venoms you may choose which one you wish to use.

Pandemonium Venom [A] lvl 6/50

(Racial)

Strange venom affecting only targets mind and will. It can cause hallucinations, lower target’s intelligence and increase susceptibility to suggestion and psionics. If you are capable of producing different venoms you may choose which one you wish to use.

Hardened Diamond Body [SSS] Lvl Max

(Innate)

You are granted a full immunity to poisons, venoms and disease bellow legendary rank. Legendary rank afflictions have halved effect and are twice as easy to cure.

Ageless [ω]

(Innate)

You mature 3 times quicker than normal and then stop aging. You are immune to any effects that would normally cause aging or age-related death. Loss of life-force will cause lack of energy, lethargy or coma instead and can be recovered from with time. Waring! You still can be killed or die due to life-force reaching zero.

Legacy bestowal [ω]

(Innate)

As a being with infinite lifespan, you may one day reach a point when you yearn for release. When this desire reaches sufficient levels, you may appoint your successor. They will be granted most of your skills (unless incompatible), your knowledge and various bonuses dependant on your age and power. Warning! You will die.

Holy shit! That was insane. When I read the description of dungeonbane I got terrified, who wouldn’t if they learned that the20-meter-long build-to-kill monster’s life mission was to obliterate your kind. Calming down took considerable effort but due to limited options I managed, what else had I left? Screaming endlessly may look attractive at the first glance but would only annoy her and that didn’t seem like a healthy idea. The fact she was patiently waiting for something helped somewhat, after all, It didn’t look like I was going to die right this moment.

The rest of her titles and skills didn’t elicit such a reaction from me, sure she was functionally immortal unless something killed her (good luck with that) and she could turn your brain to mush with a glance but it all paled in comparison with the previous revelation. I was tempted to wait until she left but I had an unpleasant suspicion she was not in a rush to do that. As if she waited for me to do something? Well, she was my creation (the title said that I had no recollection of creating her whatsoever) so I was very likely that Lord she mentioned. If I was meant to be grootslang snack better knowing sooner than later, right?

– Excuse me, were you referring to me earlier? – I asked

– Yes, sire. How can I serve you – was her reply.

– Um, I am unsure… You see I was wondering why any dungeonbane wished to serve a core like me.

– My Lord! You are my maker! The sole purpose of myself, of my whole race, is to serve you! – she seemed shocked I asked such a stupid question – It was you my liege who commanded my family to hunt other nearby cores.

– I did? Why would I do that? They are my kin!

My last response seemed to trigger something in her, in her eyes I saw growing understanding.

– I see so it is like this. – she said to herself, and louder to me: - Sire, please wait a second I will be back momentarily with something.

You would expect a creature without legs to be slow and clumsy but she was anything but that. Her serpentine, fluid movement propelled her forward and she disappeared into the corridor. I was wondering if the rugged terrain was the cause and if the smooth floor of my room would hinder her. Before I gave the matter a serious thought she was back carrying a roundish object, was she going to give me that? I honestly expected her to carry it in her jaws, I even was worried how will she talk then. Looks like no hands was limiting her same as no legs – not at all. The object was floating slightly over and to the left of her head. Why was telekinesis not included in her skill list?

– Sire, please absorb this core – she asked me after laying it on the floor maybe 5 meters from my core.

Dumbfounded I asked – How? I don’t have a skill for that! And why would I absorb my own species? I am not some cannibal.

– This may take a while – Nothing in her voice suggested it but I had strange feeling she was irritated with me – My lord had you looked at my skills?

– Ugh… Yes? I shouldn’t have? But what has it to do with absorbing this core – I was totally lost at this point. – I would rather deal with this core thing first if you don’t mind.

Tip of her tail shook in irritation. Looks like she was not the patient kind; how would that work with her being ageless? Shouldn’t this predispose her to be calm and ready to wait decades watching trees grow?

– My lord! Please focus. – Her shout cut short my musing – Until you learn how to shield your mind or at least not project your thoughts with such a force all around you I can hear all your thoughts, it actually feels as if you were screaming at me. I can barely hear my thoughts.

Shit. Think of nothing. Think of nothing. Or no… think how patient and glorious she is… I don’t want to be eaten.

– My lord! I would never eat you – Her shocked expression said it all, I guessed wondering if she wouldn’t eat me because I was too hard and would chip her teeth or if my taste was not to her liking was too much even for her. – My lord, please trust me. There is a point to my questions.

– Ok, I will. I will also try to stop my thoughts from wandering. – I saw her relief at this statement.

– Did you see any skill called Breathing, Walking, Talking or Eating in my description?

– No, I did not.

– Yet I can do it all. You don’t see such mundane things as skills. Please imagine if such abilities were skills then you would never be able to find anything important. You can still get a skill pertaining to those basic abilities if you exceed the norm. – Seeing my lack of understanding she added – For example, experts at talking would get the silver-tongued skill or if you could run really quickly for a long time you could get a running skill. Not because only you could do it but because you could do it better than most.

That made sense, skills like urinating would be embarrassing to have. Ups, she is glaring at me again.

– Can you tell me how to stop projecting my thoughts? That should make this conversation easier for both of us – I weakly suggested – It is embarrassing and I can’t really help some of my thoughts.

– Of course, sire. I am trying to get to that – Although her response was perfectly measured I was sure she disagreed. I could almost hear her saying that this was a result of an undisciplined mind – Good, sire it looks like you have some basic skills of your race after all.

– Uh?

– You are reading my mind – so she had, in fact, thought that! It wasn’t my imagination. Should I apologize? – No, my lord, no apology is needed. Dungeons are always able to read thoughts and relive their inhabitants’ memories. I couldn’t hold it against you more than you could begrudge me breathing.

Well, I am sure that some tyrants would. Or expected to be praised for allowing that. Invading privacy of someone’s mind didn’t look much different to me.

– Sire, try absorbing this core, you should be able to do it instinctively. Dungeons are able to absorb all matter in order to analyze it. That is how they learn. Even living lesser beings can be absorbed – she explained – Anything more complex than an ordinary snail would have some inherent resistance to this process. Then you would either have to kill or overpower their resistance, but unless you are at least B rank the simpler option is just to kill it.

– Should I know anything else before I attempt to absorb the core? – the idea seemed wrong, yet I knew it was necessary. Plus, she really seemed to have my best interest at heart.

– No, sire. – she seemed really pleased – After you do it everything will be clearer.

I looked at the core. It was brownish in colour and had a deep crack going through its entire length. That internal light you would expect from the core was missing and was replaced with the dullness of death. I imagined it becoming part of me, at first it resulted in a rather strange feeling and then the world exploded with the multitude of colours.