Great. I needed to get this slyk’s core more than ever thanks to my functions corrupting themselves without my permission. I locked the spine of enmity before closing my interface and returned to destroying the slyk’s rock as quickly as I could. It wasn’t fast work, but I managed to reach the center of the rock before five minutes were up. The slyk’s crystallized body fell apart at my touch, and when I saw a black mass in the center of it that sparked with electricity, I knew I’d found the core.

//CREATION ACTIVATED: DESIGNATE THE RECIPIENT OF ‘BITUMINOUS CORE’. COPIED CORES ARE INSTANTLY CONSUMED.

That second line of text was new, but it was how I’d always used //NULL, and it wasn’t going to change how I used it now. I considered giving Jun the copy, but I needed as much potential as I could get my hands on, and there was no way this was the last slyk we were going to kill. I could afford to be selfish this time.

I designated myself as the recipient, then sighed as the minor adrenaline rush washed over me. It was so much less than Inopsy’s core had given me, and as I watched the nodes roll in, I was reminded of how lopsided my spoils had been from killing the eel.

//CREATION ACTIVATED. COPY SELF-DESIGNATED.

//INITIAL NODES GRANTED: 7.

//3 NODES FILLED: 1 BATTERY, 2 RECOVERY.

//NODES TO BE GRANTED OVER 120 SECONDS: 14.

//CORE MASTERY INCREASED BY 1.

“That’s one low roll.” I muttered, watching as my core was flooded with empty nodes. I’d have killed for this many nodes from a low-level kill in my last life, but I’d never once thought about spending nodes in my old life. “It could’ve been worse, I guess. Not like this thing ever fought back.”

I instantly consumed five of the seven nodes for potential and pressed it into the combined function that I’d accidentally created. The petal-scales didn’t disappear, and instead began flowing over the nodes that had once been the floodforest’s gift. My head began aching behind my right eye, and the nodes that the scales had covered became empty once more as the changed function was removed from my core and placed in waiting.

Another notice popped up, accompanied by a 20 second countdown.

//CREATION: THE CORRUPTION OF THESE TWO FUNCTIONS EXCEED THE NUMBER OF NODES THEY PREVIOUSLY CONTAINED.

//IF YOU WISH TO INSTANTLY SLOT IT, I WOULD RECOMMEND KEEPING ALL OF YOUR EMPTY NODES FOR THE TIME BEING.

Or maybe it was a message. I wasn’t planning on melting down the rest of my nodes, but having confirmation that the corrupted function would take up more space was nice. I watched the countdown count down with my finger hovering above the petal-scale coated function, feeling the wriggling of change within my core taking hold. It was a strange feeling; like a combination of a headache and vertigo with a dash of a bloodrush from standing up too fast. But as quickly as it had come, the feeling was gone and the petal-scales disappeared from around my new corrupted function.

//(//CORRUPTED, ACTIVE) //FLOODPETAL-SCALES: SEASONAL: STAURA MODEL.

//CURRENT SEASONS ARCHIVED: SPRING.

//NODE LENGTH: 19. SHAPE: HOLLOW SPIRAL.

//CORE MASTERY REQUIREMENT: 12.

//CONSUME (X) BATTERY TO TRANSFORM EQUIPPED ______BOUND ______ARMOR OR ______WEAPON INTO PETAL-SCALES. BATTERY COST SCALES WITH QUALITY OF EQUIPMENT TRANSFORMED. THE PETAL-SCALES INHERIT THE BEARER’S STATS. ARMOR OR WEAPON BENEFITS INCREASE WHILE UNDER THE EFFECTS OF THIS FUNCTION. PASSIVE BATTERY DRAIN IS INCREASED WHILE ARMOR IS TRANSFORMED.

//SPRING EFFECT: ABUNDANCE. NUMBER OF PETAL-SCALES CREATED IS INCREASED WITH NO ADDITIONAL BATTERY COST, AND ANY EXCESS CAN BE TRANSFERRED BETWEEN ______BOUND ________ARMOR OR ________WEAPONRY.

//CURRENT EQUIPMENT TYPES AVAILABLE TO BE TRANSFORMED: COPPERBOUND MOSS-ARMOR OR MOSS-WEAPONRY.

//GAINS A NEW EFFECT WHENEVER A NEW SEASON OF THE FLOODFOREST IS CLEARED. CORE MASTERY MUST BE [1/20/40/60/80/???] TO UNLOCK A NEW SEASON.

Another function that said surprisingly little. I read it over a few times to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, but it seemed like it was being vague on purpose. The scales apparently inherited my stats, which meant absolutely nothing if they were just taking the place of my armor, but I knew better than to write that off. There had to be a reason this function was nineteen nodes long and had an unwieldy shape that would fuck with the spine of enmity until I had more empty nodes.

I really hoped that I hadn’t just downgraded my floodforest’s gift by merging it. I unslotted most of my stat nodes and shifted around my empty nodes so my new function would have somewhere to go. I’d be able to put them back in a few minutes anyway, and I wasn’t exactly patient when it came to new toys.

Battery flooded into my new function, draining me for 25 before the sensation transformed and ran down my arm. I watched as my gauntlet transformed from thick metal coils into little overlapping petal-scales like the ones my core had changed into, slowly but inexorably shifting until they’d completely overtaken my gauntlet. I flexed my fingers and tried to feel if there was any difference, but I still felt exactly the same. My armor looked a little cooler, but if that was all this function did, then I’d just wasted more than my time.

The massive slyk slammed down next to me, followed shortly after by a much softer landing from Okeria. He glanced over at me, lingered on my gauntlet, then nodded. “Nice hand. Did ya get it from whatever ya did ta Persephonia’s core?”

“Yeah.” I said, not wanting to elaborate. “Time for the team meeting?”

“Mmhm. Grab that thing’s core and come join me when you’re done.”

Okeria walked off without touching the massive slyk he’d dumped next to me, waving to Jun through the window as he went. She waved back absentmindedly while talking to her grandma, sneaking glances out of the window every now and again to watch what I was doing. I shook my head and reached down to grab the slyk’s core, feeling my transformed gauntlet cut through the crystal like butter until I firmly grasped it and ripped it free. I stowed away all the crystallized slyk and made my way to the meeting.

Jun and her grandma had stopped talking some time before I walked in, and from the annoyance on Okeria’s face, I figured he was the cause. He gestured for me to take a seat between him and Jun, which left me staring at Keratiky’s Jun-like face across the table.

I set the bituminous core down in front of Jun, and her eyes nearly buldged out of her head. “Seb… I can’t accept the ONLY core you get from killing a slyk. It’s the ONLY one you get, and since it’s the ONLY one, you should take it.”

“Okeria probably knows, and we’ll need your grandma’s help. There’s no point in hiding this part of my core from them.” I said, but I was typing a message as I spoke.

{Keep the corruption part of my core a secret, just in case that gives away that I’m The End’s chosen. I’ll tell them that my core lets me clone cores.} I sent, then took my seat. {And that it gives me a chance to take functions from those cores.}

Jun blinked and stared at an empty point in space, her interface revealing itself to me once again as she read my message. It didn’t seem like that was going to go away any time soon, and it was a little strange actually seeing someone else’s interface again after so long. The last interface I’d seen that wasn’t my own was Jimmy’s, up until the point he tried to steal the entirety of my inventory. But I had stolen his share of the spoils before that, and he had given everything right back when I stole everything of his.

“Juniper, are you ready to begin?” Keratily asked patiently, a thin smile on her face as Jun blushed and closed her interface. “You need to learn to use your interface with a little more discretion, my little seed.”

“I know.” Jun mumbled, leaning forward to rest one elbow on the table. “I’m not as good at it as Seb is, but at least I’m not as bad as some of the other recruits were.”

“Oh, ya mean like how little Scalovera couldn’t use her interface without asking someone how it works every single time? I’d swear that woman didn’t know how ta read if I hadn’t read her files. Did ya know she graduated top of her class in language?” Okeria shook his head and laughed. “Nothing good comes from a Scalovera, I tell ya what.”

“They say the same thing about us.” Jun cut in, but there wasn’t any vitriol in her voice. “But… yeah, drown all the Scalovera. Hate-mongering abyss-dwellers need to get cut down before they infect everything.”

I looked between Jun and Okeria, then to Keratily. All I saw was disdain written on all three of their faces, which spoke of a hatred that went far deeper than I knew. Maybe that was why Jun had taken so much satisfaction when she first fought Scalovera.

“Let’s put that aside for now. Why did you call us here, Keratily?” I asked, garnering a surprised look from the woman. “What?”

“Nothing; I just didn’t expect that you’d take the initiative like that. Most newcomers are far more… submissive.” Keratily said slowly. “But maybe you humans are different. I’m not sure what your culture tends to breed. Take off your helmet, if you don’t mind.”

I shrugged and reached up, removing my helmet and storing it in my inventory in one swift motion. “So how are we going to level up enough to get out of here? We need new gear, not just cores to consume, and we need to get used to it.”

“I’m well aware of that. But a little conversation I had with Inopsy tells me that you might have a way to get around that particular hurdle.” Keratily said with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. “I brought a fair amount of raw materials with me, if you’d be willing to work whatever magic let you come out of that storage room with brand new equipment that certainly wasn’t there before.”

“So that’s why you took so long.” I muttered. “Well, it’s not that simple. I… get the resources to do that by consuming cores.” I lied, pointing to the core I’d set before Jun for emphasis. The core that she’d already consumed. “And, I, uh, don’t have any of it left, except for the little I got from killing that slyk. And it also needs stuff that’s already been made, not just raw materials.”

“Both of those are pretty easy to work through.” Okeria said, bending over to grab something from under the table. He hefted a massive box up and let it crash down onto the table, barely leaving me enough room to put my elbows. I couldn’t even see Keratily any more. “Like I said, I’m something of a tinkerer myself. I’ll get ta work making ya some stuff ya can use while Keratily helps ya get your core mastery up enough ta equip all of it. In a few months, we’ll be able ta clear this place and get a move on ta Rainbow Basin.”