Chapter Eleven: Awareness

Well things had certainly gone better than he had expected.

His life pool was nearing empty, and his mana had dipped a considerable deal as well, still he hadn't had much choice in the matter; even if he was happy with the results things hadn't quite as he had planned, them. Contingencies were required.

Capturing monsters had proved to be a far more difficult endeavour than he’d originally suspected. Of course the biggest problem by far, the reason it had taken them so long to actually get this done right well that was their speed, George’s speed to be precise although by comparison he wasn't much better. Everything they had come across up until this point had simply run away the moment Gimble had started firing off [Delirium Bolt]s or George waded out of the grass towards them. He had tried tackling cats, frogs, rats, mice, even a tortoise, and they had all been to fast for him, that or they had tried to attack and he was forced to blow through a huge chunk of mana blasting them with magic to get them to leave. One bolt or two really didn't have that much effect, monsters would stumble and fall, some would freeze for a couple of seconds but then; nothing, either they'd run away from them or they'd turn around and attack and when they did he was forced to charging up the bolts of magic. A charged bolt didn't do any more damage but it did knock the monsters out for considerably longer after which it was practically guaranteed that they would flee. They had gotten close to capturing monsters a couple of times, especially with the tortoise - but that particular monster had had some kind of magic nulification ability, that allowed it shrug off his attempts to capture it with realtive ease.

So he’d had to come up with a solution, a method of catching monsters that removed speed from the equation. An ambush attack seemed like the natural solution to his predicament; and luckily he already had a target in mind

He'd notcied a strange looking white spider, constantly spinning a tightly woven web in the roots of a large white oak tree or fighting off a massive, six-legged black rat that appeared every now and again. GImble hadn't attempted to take the spider on before, becuase it seemed like the creature would just hide in its' nest the momment he attacked, as a matter of fact the spider would only leave its' nest on one single ocassion; when the black rat appeared and started spitting balls of fire at its' web. That was the main reason he had chosen the spider as the target for his ambush; every day or so the rat would reappear raid the spiders web, get thoroughly beaten and run away, the battle between the two monsters had actually been happening with such frequency that he had started using it to measure time during his monster hunt. So far the spider and rat had fought each other a total of eight times so he assumed he'd been stumbling around in the cave for a little over a week. His initial plan had only been to capture the spider after the rat had worn it out, but he'd spotted an opportunity in the middle of the fight and decided to snag the rat as well. Things certainly had gone better than expected Gimble smiled looking down at the pair of creatures currently lying still at George’s... tentacle’s.

He had started his assault with a [Delirium Bolt] to the spiders face as George stumbled out of the grass to chase the spider down, of course it was when he was so close to victory that things had taken an unusual turn. The Dungeon core huffed casting a momentary glance to the wall of notification windows that had popped up during the battle

WARNING! - [Contract Rejected] The Monster You attempted to form a contract with, the [White Pugilist Spider Queen], has rejected your offer.

The moment Gimble had forced his mana into the monster the notification had appeared informing him that his contract had been rejected. He’d used up roughly thirty mana attempting to convert the monster to his side but with no luck, of course failure hadn't been unexpected, but the whole contract thing was new. Now that he thought about it when he first started experimenting with life force he had turned George into a monster, but these creatures were monsters from the get go so maybe the system worked differently? Frankly he didn't have a clue, although this could become a problem later on if he tried to bring other monsters under his control.

After his initial attempt to connect to the Spider had failed, the arachnid had proceeded to attempt an escape from George's iron grip, the creatures oversized mandibles striking at the lump of moss causing George's body to slowly freeze, his lovable moss horrors skin beginning to flake and crack as the moisture within began to freeze. George really wasn't suited to the new terrain. It was at that point Gimble's none existant hand had been forced, he'd firing off several [Delirium Bolt]s in quick succession. He'd found it a necessary skill to prepare spells before hand, calling them into existance and then keeping the mana floating nearby ever so carefully restrained to prevent, raging balls of insanity randomly ripping through the grass. With each repeated attack it seemed like the spider had begun to weaken, its' assault falling still, as its' arms and legs began to quake. Then without further ado he'd recieved a second message

CONGRATULATIONS! - [Contract Formed] The monster you attempted to form a contract with, a [White Pugilist Spider Queen] has accepted your. You can now access the [White Pugilist Spider Queen]s profile from your monster menu.

The spider had fallen still after that, curling up in the grass its’ remaining limbs curled in upon itself as the dark gloop that his magical attacks had plastered over its' smooth carapace began to melt giving off a hellish black steam. So, with his main quarry pinned down, Gimble had turned his attention to the rat, the beast inquestion having tried to limp away. It seemed that the rat had noticed his gaze one way or another and had come to a halt.

Of course not being one to look a six-legged-gift rat in the mouth, GImble took the opportunity to send a cloud of life force drifting forwards towards the creature, the green haze engulfing the monstrous rodent. Several moment later he had received another notification congratulating him on forming a new contract, this time with no extra hassle needed. After he had formed the contracts the monsters had grown as docile, calm as new born lambs, new born lambs that would grow up into mounstrous sheep of death, and destruction, just lying there in the grass, George slowly waving his tentacles slowly through the air ocasionally prodding the one or the other.

Gimble frowned, now he just needed to decide what he was going to do with these monsters. Currently he had two main objectives; dig a tunnel leading to the surface and raise his level high enough to found his dungeon. Luckily he'd managed to catch two monsters which meant he'd be able to divide the workload up between the two, now it was just the question of which monster he gave which job...

The spider was obviously the strongest of the two but it was also a good deal slower than the rat. What Gimble and George needed in their team dynamic was speed, they also needed some way to deal real damage, heal any injuries and find a method to prevent George from freezing solid or going up in flames in any of their confrontations, but for now Gimble was focusing on speed. The rat was by far faster than the spider, afterall whenever the two fought the rat had always managed to flee before it could be killed, but the rat seemed like it wasn't all that strong, it could do decent damage but it really couldn't take a hit.

Hmmm.

He made up his mind; for now he'd give the spider the task of tunneling to the surface while he added the rat to his own team and they set off on a whirlwind adventure to turn the fire cave into a smouldering crater, and raise Gimbles level in the process.

He gave himself a resolute nod, or the mental equivalent anyway, and pulled up the [White Pugilist Spider Queen]s tab in the monster menu before diving straight into the edit screen. This was his favourite part.

From what he could racall of nature documentaries only a few types of spiders could dig, forming underground dens, the largest group, in every possible sense of the word, being tarantulas. The good news was, that the spider queen wasn't too disimilar to that particular branch of the arachnid family tree, although the massive club like mandibles seemed a little out of place. He'd probably need to get rid of that particualr feature of the monsters anatomy, had been a couple of minutes since he had first flooded her with his life force but the energy was already beginning to ebb away. If he wanted to get to make any significant changes then he'd have to start right away. So, humming lightly to himself, Gimble began rewriting the laws of nature.

He spun the little diagram, that the edit button had opened, getting a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the metre-long arachnid. She really did look like some kind of tarantula on steroids; her legs were thick and stubby ending in a veritable forest of tiny pale blue spikes jutting from the white shell, her abdomen was tear shaped and accounted for the majority of her body mass, covered in the same little spines as her legs although they appeared slightly smaller and nowhere near as sharp. He had to hand it to the rat, it had done more damage than he had expected it to, the spiders normal set of eight round little eyes had been reduced to six, two of the little bright green orbs were now nothing more than a putrid melting mess and one of her legs having been removed just below the joint. But even with those injuries considered he still had a lot to work with; he just needed to figure out how he was going to get the spider to start digging its' way towards the surface. Several options rattled through his head in rapid succession, the spiders form suddenly warping to meet the shape his errant ideas as drills began to sprout from the monsters legs, alongside giant shovel like protrusions jutting from her mouth as a gigantic screaming face burned itself into her back, dark green eyes staring upwards in unending anguish the mouth opening and closing as if wheezing for breath. Gimble recoiled at the sight reverting the spider to its previous more... wholesome state. It seemed like he'd forgotten how hard this could be. He was essentially rewriting another creatures DNA, or whatever the magical fantasy equivalent of DNA was here. In any case he was going to need to focus on the task at hand.

He decided to pick a single solid attribute that would allow the spider to dig, no overcomplicating things.

Several rushed experiments had revealed that trying to give the spider drill hands would cost far too much life force although the aesthetic was quite pleasing. He shook his head, he needed to keep things simple and cost effective. He focused in on the spiders mandibles mouldering the white carapace down into a rough shape mimicing a pair of shovels, the little blue bumps gathered forwards towards the edge of the impromptu tools giving them a rough serrated edge of glowing nubs, any excess material being compressed and hardened into the spiders new-fangled facial equipment.

This little alteration it turned out had barely cost him any life force, he wasn’t entirely sure of the reasons why but he was going to put it down to the fact he hadn’t really added all that much to the spiders design, there were no new limbs, no magical death rays, no weird creepy faces, just shovel-hands. Next, he turned his attentions to the spiders legs, warping the front legs into long pick axe shapes, once again shifting the blue spikes towards their edge giving them a bright blue glow and condensing the left over material into hardened points. That had cost slightly more than his previous alteration as he was essentially adding an extra joint to the spiders limbs, leaving him wihth roughly twenty life force left to spend as he wished. Really he couldn’t think of much else to add - it seemed like the spider would be reasonably capable of carving a passage towards the surface. In the end he decided to replace the missing body parts that the spider had lost during the fight two eyes and a leg summarily popping into existance, he would have liked to say they were as good as new but that would have been... misleading. The spider’s eyes had changed in colour shifting from the previous mint green to an ominous shade of black; dark as night and flashing with the ocasional burst of white light. Her leg was likewise now a shade of deep unyielding black, but where the other legs were thick this one was narrow and pointed, white bumps covering itself surface, instead of the previous blue. Gimble sighed, taking a moment to glance up at his life force counter. He was down to three points... Gimble shrugged and threw the last few points into raising a couple more of the pale bleu bumps across the monsters body before happily slamming down the complete button and watching as the window blipped out of existence. Now he just had to wait for a window to appear telling him what effect his changes had had.

The seconds dragged by but no new notification emerged, instead Gimble’s attention was drawn down to the spider as the insect began to stir, libs quivering as it writhing across the floor, its’ carapace cracking and shifting; reforming into a strange new shape at a disturbing pace.

She had failed in her duty!

She had failed!

Failed!

Failed!

Failed.

...This was what she deserved.

The Queen turned, legs spasming out at wild angles striking the earth and ripping up chunks of dirt and stone, the movements weren't voluntary; she had lost control.

From the moment she had been born she had known her duty, she was a Queen and would build a kingdom to equal her might. She would rule her subjects with an iron fist and conquer the land of fire and frost. This was her duty, her goal; the reason she had been born, the one thing that gave her pitiful life meaning, and now it was ruined! She was ruined.

She turned, the ends of her mandibles ripping open strange new protrusions erupting from them as her flesh began to melt and twist into a brand new form the likes of which the world had never seen.

First it had been the rat, whenever she was nearing the completion of her nest it would rush in and light the place on fire, her work went up in a plume of flame and smoke and there was nothing she could do other than punish the beast for its’ insolence, but even there she had failed. She had tried to kill the monster time and time again, but every attempt ended in failure as it used its’ greater agility to flee in the face of her might but this time, this time she’d had the rodent in her grasp; prepared to deliver the finishing blow when, her world had descended into silence and darkness. It had lasted but the briefest moment, but the sensation was unsettling in the upmost degree. It left her with an unknowable fear pressed against her mind, gnawing at the edges of her awarness, It did not compare to the pain currently running through her, as her limbs were broken and rebuilt, but she could tell it would stay with her until the day she died. Then the vission ended and she had woken up to face a new threat, a strange creature that was of neither ice nor fire; it was unaligned to any force of nature which she knew or understood. In that moment she had prepared to do battle only to find her mind pushed back into the abyss with a strange blast of black magic. The next time she had woken a notification had arrived for her from the system on high, informing her that the strange new beast had attempted to place her under its’ command, as it pinned her to the earth.

She was a Queen she would not be ruled, she would not be broken by such trifling matters as rats and freakshows!

Then another strike of magic had come, the dark swallowed her up once more, but this time it seemed to last longer, and that little seed of fear blossomed in her heart, growing at an immeasurable rate. She had thrown herself back and forth in the shadpws railing at her invisible prison until at last the light of day and the living world had seared itself into her brain. Then the offer had come again, this time softer and weaker, coaxing her towards it. She had looked up at the monstrosity standing above her and She had agreed. It had been a moment of weakness that had consigned her to this fate, so suffering was what she deserved.

She could see it now, the horror looming before her, warped tentacles slithering through the air and dark core flashing with erratic light. She could feel her mind growing numb and distant. Yes... this was what she deserved.

Pop!

CONGRATULATIONS! - [Your Race Has Been Changed] Through abnormal circumstances and shifts in the patterns of fate your race has been changed from [White Pugilist Spider Queen] to [White Shovel Spider Queen] Your stats have changed accordingly and you have gained the additional trait [Founders proficiency]

The Queen shuddered, as the last of the changes to her body began settle, her limbs continuing to twitch and spasm but the pain began to abate. She lay still for a very long time before she felt something touch against her consciousness, a single lonely thought, transmited over a bridge of consciousness, a sad idea and a strange sound.

[Oops]