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Chapter 41: Alternatives
🕑 Added 2021-11-07 07:03:08 +0000 UTCCharacter Screen
Name: -
Gender: Male
Level: 4
Class: Digger
Race: Giant-Ant
Title: Dungeon-Born
Health: 150/150
H-Regen: 0.12/sec
Mana: -/-
M-Regen: 0/sec
Stamina: 160/160
S-Regen: 0.15/sec
Cost: 90 MP
Basic Stats
Strength: 20
Wisdom: 6
Vitality: 14
Intelligence: 5
Dex: 15
Willpower: 5
Or… the Core wasn't truly sure if it could it a new [Variant] or not. It was most definitely different from the other ants in the room, its mandibles bigger and stronger by quite a degree. But, it was not misshapen and nor did it have any new plants covering its body. When ignoring the slightly enlarged mouthpiece, there wasn't much different about it.
Though, the Entity supposed it more than deserved to have a new status among its domain, with how large those bites of its were. Chunks fell down onto the ground in a constant rain, the [Bites] from the larger mandible allowing for massive amounts to be removed within mere moments. The other ants were barely keeping up to match half the speed, some even starting to focus on moving more stone back into the area where it could be disintegrated by the Core.
There was no real blame for this behaviour change, the requirement for it being more natural than anything. They had started overflowing with the extra materials on the ground, the extra set of mandibles increasing the speed quite tremendously. The [Infested] were perhaps not on the stage where they could match the level four ant which had gained the class of [Digger], but they were most certainly doing their best. It seemed that the nights and days spend standing still at the same place had done well for their insides, the muscles churning hard as rocks were ripped out of their places, allowing air to fill the new vacuum. The Core was certainly proud of them.
The new room was beginning to grow into something that could be worked on. That was the most definitive way to call it. With a whole… seventeen hours left to work with, the Entity was growing more and more certain that it would become something worthy of its attention. The progress was quick and getting quicker, the ants adapting to the work put on them. Combat had clearly been their focus from the start yet their instincts were similarly making it possible for so much more. Instead of simply [Biting] in the same way as the start, doing it the same way that they did when attacking another creature, the ants had progressed their arts into one that worked best on stone. It was a stationary target, after all, making any movement focused on keeping it still entirely worthless. With the lack of sentience, the ants were able to swirl and tear as much as they needed to, making their moves become filled with power and pure energy. The lack of needing to waste time regenerating [Stamina] was clearly doing them a world of good.
It also meant that the Core had to make sure that it never ran out of Mana. Which was slowly becoming harder and harder as time went on. The cubes on the main room were taking a whopping forty Mana every second, the fifty spears taking another ten, and then the ants were taking just as many by itself. If not for the increases in the air coming in and the [Willpower] granting it extreme abilities in the reign of multi-tasking, Mana-Shortages would have been had already. Instead of such a thing, however, the Core instead had a slightly stressed mind and a set of workers that never ceased to move, never ceased to be efficient, and never spent a moment waking for any energy to come their way. Normal ants might have rested at some points in their lives but the ones under the Core’s guiding hand would do no such thing. Their minds were kept healthy and their bodies were kept alive through constant healing. No matter how much tearing those legs suffered from grabbing rocks and whatever else there was in the ground, they would always heal in a second or two. The Entity was making sure of it, never letting them go out of sight for even a moment.
Thoughts like that kept the energy running inside the Entity’s head, focus never wavering and its gaze being as strong as ever. With only one ant ready to instantly defend, it had personally started on the task itself. And… that was certainly a task to be serious about. The constant ideas about monsters coming in with murder on their mind were invigorating. It kept the Core alive and well, the stress of knowing that impatience or lack of caution could be certain death. It was truly a great way to pay attention. Though… there was no real desire to try it again once the current ordeal was over. Fun would be had, yes, but there was no chance of it coming to the level previously seen. Too much work would come after the current time. The expansion would never stop for as long as the Core lived. New rooms upon new rooms. If time allowed for it, one room would be centred around the main one, each side having more space where the enemy needed to dig through before coming face to face with the ENtity. A warning would certainly be liked, the idea of not knowing the enemy was coming before it was twenty meters away was not the greatest way to play the game of life, after all. Tactics like the one being used, while perhaps very efficient in keeping down costs and resources, was not manageable on a larger scale. If the queen decided to coordinate an attack, getting through the walls from all sides at once, there was a lack of an idea about it turning out well for the Core. The [Queen of Hollows] was not to be trifled with just yet, the Core knowing that her power was greater than its own.
Or was it truly so? Was the queens power enough to fear? Was it truly so great that the Entity stood no chances when face to face with her? Well… the levels themselves had already become equal. The Queen was level nine, last time the Core had checked, being the same as what the crystalline being had attained not too many hours ago. It was a great achievement, yet that goal seemed a bit empty when comparing different signs.
The Core had always liked to think of balance as one of the most important things in the universe. Some creatures were born differently and would get perks and benefits because of it. Such was life, the act of birth being more of a gamble than one would like to think. A low-ranked [Blood-Moss] was not strong or anything when first created, yet a [Giant-Ant] would easily be able to stand while destroying the moss just beside it without a thought. There was an imbalance. From the earliest stages, the ant was superior.
Yet that changed by the higher stages. The ant would grow in mass and strength with every level, but the [Blood-Moss] would stay relatively the same place all throughout its life. It would not be able to kill or harm a creature for a long time, after all, its small thorns not able to do much more than prick a small wound into an otherwise mighty creature. Yet even that small wound would let the Moss grow. It would become larger and larger, filling up entire caverns, until the point came where it would not need to grow any longer, already able to kill everybody who dared step onto its area.
It might have been weak at the start yet it would grow strong by the end, outranking anything the ant could ever hope to become. The power dynamic would shift, one able to outmatch the other through pure skill. That was how the balance was meant to be, one creature being weak in one aspect yet strong in another. The Core had always thought the world to run on such dynamics, the creatures within able to feed off each other through this. The power of those on top didn't exist, for so many supposedly up in the rankings could easily kill each other. Nothing was stopping a ranged weapon to reach the might sword-wielder in the throat, yet there was also stopping one with a knife to slit the ranger’s throat in the middle of the night. While many seemed powerful, there was always a weakness in how they were created. Some part of their so-called build was with a flaw that could be exploited.
That was how the Core saw the world, yet it was also clearly not how the world saw itself. Instead of a hint towards balance, it had created a creature known as the Ant Queen. It was one with mighty mandibles, able to strike instantly if the need called for it. Yet she could also wield powerful Magic, able to command the Black Mana with seemingly no effort. She could cast terror while being far away yet could also stand comfortably amid battle. All her stats outranked those of warriors yet she had not needed to use them once. But if she did? Then it would likely be no trouble at all. And… that was the part that scared the Core the deepest.
The [Queen of Hollows] seemed to be without flaw. It was impossible to think from a normal point, one creature not being entirely supreme. Yet every waking thought about the ant was slowly making it more obvious that this was the case. It could not find a spot to strike, the queen able to defend from all angles. Even a group of attackers could not come back without damage done to them, one even being transformed into an exoskeleton bent to the queen’s will. It did not even need to fight its own fights, only needing the bodies of another to do it. The queen was without an equal in the world.
Yet the Core still needed to kill her. It needed to put her down into the ground where she would not rise again. It was impossible, seemingly without logic. The creature was superior to the Entity in every way, smarter, stronger, and faster. The queen could wield Mana like nothing had seen before, sensing it in ways never heard of. And while the latter point was due to everything being self-taught, it still showed how utterly unique the creature was when compared to what the Core had faced earlier on. There was nothing that seemed possible to close down on its life.
… But the point still stood. For the Core to live, the queen needed to perish. And it needed t to be quick, the creature likely gaining more and more power the longer time was wasted. The Core had often wondered why another attack hadn't come around in the last two weeks. It was the longest distance of time between an actual attack instead of some minor spouted chaos from the mouth of a stolen ally. Why would the Queen wait for such a long time? Did it want to be challenged by the power that the Core could wield with time?
Or did it have no pawns of its own that could make sure to defeat that aforementioned power? Many creatures had been killed, after all, nearly every single one of them being one that had a piece of essence containing the queen. While it was a sheer fraction of what the Core personally had inside its own creatures, it was still more than enough to show conviction, to show that there was a limited number of creatures under the queen's possession.
How large was that group of ants? How many could the Queen control without strain? Since it had been less than a tenth of what the Core had inside its own creatures, the Entity could only assume that it was more than ten times the amount of creatures that the Core had lying around itself. There were chances of it happening to some other level, some of the potentially stronger monsters needing more sway. The Core could certainly not help but worry how much of itself would be needed before a [Undead] creature could be controlled. Was there even a mind to control on such a creature? The Entity couldn't think of anything, at least, though it had never got to look on the pattern, it not lying on the ground upon the creature’s death. The Core still wasn't sure if such a thing was due to it being an [Undead] or if it was due to the creature being under another's control. It liked to think of it being due to the first idea, the second proving more than a little troubling.
Control over so many powerful creatures while also holding power of how their deaths impacted the Core’s progress? It understood that the queen was superior in a matter of stats and skills, yet did that mean so much? How much sway did it have over the basics of a system created by a literal god? The dynamic of power should have been skewed in the favour of the omnipotent yet that was becoming harder and harder to believe. The Entity was getting frustrated the more time passed by. It was hard to conceive properly.
There had to be a secret to the advances. The gain of Stats was just too high. It was understood that becoming a variant or having a class of sorts would increase the attribute points received, yet the sum just didn't add up with the skills. Some sort of method had to have been used, some skills helping the stats grow further. It was already clear that [Titles] could do such a thing, the Core granted a twenty percent increase to all its mental skills because of it. Yet would it be possible for skills to have the same effect?
Passive skills could do it? [Agile-Movement] increased the efficiency for Dexterity so why couldn't it do more than that? Why wouldn't a similar skill increase the power of what [Willlpower]could do? Having more creatures under one’s own belt without having to increase the stat itself seemed like quite the skill to have. Looking at the way that the queens so-called children were controlled, it was clear that the female ant wasn't relying that heavily on the method of just ordering the creatures around anymore. Was that due to the ant being unable to use the skill or was it because splitting the focus over to several creatures reduced the manipulation possible? It would also explain the lack of a title asserting it as the owner of the ants on them, the queen instead only having it on her own [Status-Screen]. In fact, the Core could still vividly remember that first part of the ant screen, able to make the [System] bring it forth.
Character Screen
Name: Mother Carapace
Gender: Female
Level: 9
Class: Leader of the Colony
Race: Giant-Ant
Title: Queen of Hollows
The race was the same as ever yet the [Class] still brought quite the number of questions. [Leader of the Colony]. In what ways did such a thing class help? What gains were granted upon its retrieval from the [System]? Did the creatures respect the Queen Ant more easily or was it something deeper? The stats could always have been increased because of it.
The Core had a class as well, now that it thought about it. The name was shared with its own [Race], though that was hardly a surprise with how much the word was repeated inside its screens. There was always something about cores that needed to be talked about. But the [Class] of [Core] was still quite interesting. Not for a single moment did the Entity believe that such a name would stay forever. The [System] wasn’t one for repeating itself so why would it set such a thing to permanently be the class? No… there had to be some way to change it around. Some ways to develop it.
But how? Could classes be changed? Could it be replaced? One of the ants within its ranks had certainly gained one through sheer work ethic. But that shouldn't have mattered that hard. Yet it had. What had been the pressure points on the attainment of the class? Was it a natural evolution of the environment yet again? The [Race] had already shown promise about being able to do such a thing so why wouldn't the [Class] have similar potential? Instead of the Mana influencing it, however, it would be closer to the standing and skills developed. The Core had certainly worked hard to make sure its domain was filled up from the start, making it more than applicable for the class by the same name. Yet… if it changed its behaviour, would it be able to get something else? Did [Class-Evolutions] truly exist? If it did, and that was strong if, there would surely be a way to look at them, a way to see which the Core could be closer to. It just had to force the [System] into letting it through.
Warning!
This section of the [System] is restricted until you have proven yourself worthy. Work hard and you shall be able to reap what you have sowed.
And the results? They were quite surprised to see. Not once had the [System] restricted a part of itself until further notice. The Core hadn't truly thought it would do something like it even. Yet… the idea of [Class-Evolutions] being an actual thing was increased by quite the size, the screens showing signs of having more than what was obvious. It was hiding it until the Entity had proven itself worthy? Well… it was not something that required a certain level at least, the Queen Ant likely having gained it before it reached level nine. The stat-increases from a class was likely higher than the normal ones gave, which also hinted at there being different tiers within the different evolutions. [Core] as a class seemed quite simple, though that was mostly due to the name. [Leader of the Colony]? Now that was something that could inspire fear in the hearts of many. More words in one Class definitely meant that there was some praise to be had from the [System]. And the Core would devote itself to getting itself some of that for itself.
Not at the current moment, however. There was still work to be had, things to do without pause, and many more which would require dedication. The Core would not create something tall without first building a solid set of wide foundations. For that was the most important thing of all, lest it would all crumble before the maximum was even close to being reached. And who would want such a thing? One step at a time would make it all much more coherent.
This also meant that the progress needed to be continued. And with the first section of the new room being made thoroughly, the Core could begin working on it feverishly, the other ants already starting on the second section without being told. That one might have required less of an area to get through but it had holes on the bottom and on the top that would take a while to get right. The Core would likely have to help with that part, now that it thought about it, only the smaller ants able to dig them otherwise. And that would just take up too much time to be worth it.
But yet again, there was much to do and the first Panel to be set up wouldn't do that by itself. Taking the multi-tasking up another step, the Core began to move Mana together to make the first of a hundred panels, determined to see it through without a single failure.
