Buller
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Chapter 85: An [Otter]
🕑 Added 2021-11-25 08:27:14 +0000 UTCThe Core had found a reason why organic bodies shouldn't be allowed to rot. During its previous experiences with leaving dead bodies with themselves for longer periods, the Core had always been aware that they degraded more each second. It wasn’t quick at the start, barely noticeable at all, yet the speed picked up with each passing second. And at some point, it went off to the point where the creatures could be recognized.
The fur of the apparent [Otters] had near-fully sunken into the now mouldy inner organs, the bones and skull visible at several points. The Core wasn’t one to gag at such a sight, mostly because it had no reflection to make it do such a thing and also due to it seeing the situation as more a deterrent than something abhorrent. It was disgusting, after all. Smaller pieces of life, the Core not exactly sure what to call them, had started to invade the flesh little by little. Each hour showed chunks of the tissues had been consumed by these creatures, all the matter vanishing down their throats. If they even had such a thing, that is. The Core couldn’t see deep enough to witness their bodily composition. Even at the current level of skill, the Entity had a hard time even noticing they were there
‘Can you still use them?’ the Queen asked, standing beside the corpses with no real emotion coming out of her. ‘I know that you can copy bodies and use them for yourself but I am not sure if this even counts as such a thing anymore.’
She had a point and quite a strong one at that. The Core had normally taken the Pattern of creatures relatively quickly. Even during its first adventure in stealing the information from a creature, the Entity hadn’t waited nearly as long as it had at this moment. Would anything even be looked at by the [System] as formerly alive or was it closer to the dirt and stone beneath it?
It was the former, luckily enough. The world, for all it was worth, truly did understand the need to keep the status of entities as they originally were. This included marking an entity as an entity, even after a long time had transpired since its death. Did that mean that the Core could randomly find body parts in the dirt? Probably not. There had to be some kind of point where the body became too degraded, where the [System] thought all the mana to be too scattered. What that point was and how long it took to get there was a mystery. It could be years or even decades. Maybe it changed with the type of creature? The environment around the carcass likely also played some role in it. The point was dynamic, making it unreasonable to try and figure out. With an infinite amount of races, it would take such a long time to test all the possible variations. There was perhaps some equation to map it all out automatically but the Core had no desire towards that.
Instead, it looked towards the pile of the dead [Otters] again, wanting to start on them as soon as possible. On the top-most of the creatures, likely the most recently killed, sat a rather larger bit of Mana. It was, as always, different from the other in colouring, this one more aligned with the Core’s colour. It was what was needed to know the Pattern of the creature, what the Core needed to absorb if it wanted the knowledge of creation. And… so it did. With a Mana-Tendril of its own, the Core grabbed the piece of knowledge and brought it into its Mana-Pattern, the knowledge flooding its insides quickly enough. It was beautiful, it was grand, and the Core loved every second of it.
And then it was over, everything having been learned, understood, and otherwise processed. The Core had a better understanding of how a bone structure worked, what differences it had from an exo-skeleton which the ants used instead, and how it could be utilized to optimize further creatures down the line. And...the [Otters] had vocal cords. It was quite the achievement to see, the [Giant-Ants] not having such a thing themselves. While the Core had seen those creatures make sound multiple times, none of them had been done with the organs commonly used for such a thing. And while the Entity certainly did find that fact inquiring, noting down the need to study it later when it had the chance, the Core instead went ahead and reported its findings to the Queen.
‘It seems that rotting corpses are more than enough for me to learn the secrets of the creatures,’ the Core stated, though it did begin to clean up after that. ‘Which means you can let the corpses stay outside next time. While I do not have the sense of smell, I can very easily guess how it must feel like.’
‘Everything needed to be done to make sure that they were preserved enough for you to use them,’ the Queen responded, though she didn’t sound like she disagreed with the smell. Could [Giant-Ants] smell? The Entity hadn’t thought about it until that moment yet they sure had some form of it built inside. No vocal cords yet they could scream just fine. Finding smells disgusting shouldn’t have been too hard after that. ‘Even if that meant letting the flesh fester around the stone. I would have cleaned it down to their bones yet I wasn’t sure if my Mana would have stopped you from getting any use out of it.
‘That would have likely ruined them,’ the Core noted. ‘Back when you used the undead, there was no chance of me getting anything out of their corpses. Good on you for letting them lie around, I suppose. If not for that, we would have had to find some more of them.’
‘And that isn’t something I would have preferred you doing,’ the Queen confessed. ‘While I haven’t seen that creature outside since your first mental breakdown, I would rather not see it again just because of poor work on our side.’
Ah, yes. That creature. The Queen had tried to explain the beast’s appearance to the Entity to no avail, though that was more because of there never being any visual gain on it. The Intelligent had only ever felt its presence, something akin to it being cold. The Core wasn’t exactly sure how such a thing would work, never thinking Mana would affect the body in such a peculiar way. This was likely some form of higher levels of Energy that just hadn’t been felt yet, though. The Core did perhaps send something like it out itself yet just never noticed. For whatever reason, there was, the Queen had quite clearly stated that it was a powerful creature that needed to be avoided at all costs. And that meant no extremely powerful bursts of Mana sent out repeatedly over a longer period. Which was fiar to hear, since the Core had no plans about doing such a thing, to begin with. Its energy was much too precious for such a triviality. If it needed anything truly far away, it would just send out the Queen to retrieve it. Her legs did wonders for longer distances, after all.
‘I am sure we could have gathered more specimens if the need called for it,’ the Entity assured the ant. If anything, it should have been rather easy to catch a few more [Otters]. They lived in the river, right? That meant the Core just needed to put out a net of sorts which the water could flow through but the larger organic bodies couldn’t and then just take them out of the water when they were trapped due to the current pressing against the wall.
‘I am not too sure about that but I suppose a [Mana-Lure] could have worked if the need truly called for it,’ the Intelligent answered. ‘Now, I do believe you should create a new underling for us. I want to see how it looks up close without having to worry about it trying to bite my face off.’
For some reason, the Core did not doubt the Queen to fear such a result. From the wounds seen, the [Otters] were quite free-spirited in their use of teeth. They wouldn’t hold back from biting every part of the enemy if that made more sense. No matter where they could get a bite in, they would take it without any hesitation. Though, that might only have been due to being enamoured with the higher energies that brought them over towards the dungeon, to begin with. The Core would have to test that out when it had the chance. For now, it just wanted to spawn one to see how they looked. It could see the rotted versions but that did little to give a concrete idea of how they looked. Starting up the process, the differences were instant.
Bones took a surprising amount of Mana compared to the other parts of the body. It seemed like the back was made to hold up twice its weight, the neck specially made to hold against stronger forces. Why that was needed when the creature itself weighed very little did perplex the Core to some degree but it ignored it for now.
The hands were very different when compared to what the [Giant-Ants] worked with. They were flexible, could twist in different directions, and the Core was starting to believe that the creatures could even hold objects if given the chance. The Entity supposed it could be used to tear away flesh if given the chance but that would require a large amount of strength. With how the body was built, it did not think that was the main use. However, when mixed in with the higher flexibility, it could have been done to aid in swimming. Or diving. The fur on the sides did have some water resistance. It would be quite hard to get liquid through them, at least, and both their nostrils and ears seemed to be able to close manually to keep out everything. The idea about it being used to be immune to gas was considered and then thrown away when the Core realized it was likely being used to keep away water as well. Through the former did sound very possible if the situation arose. The Core certainly thought it could personally get some use out of that ability if it had the body that came with it.
But it didn’t due to the slight fact that it was a round piece of rock. Not like it mattered in the long run but still. The creation of the [Otter] was quite expensive. Even before the fur was finalized, the costs were above one hundred Mana. Not the worst yet, since even the level one [Giant-Ants] were ninety Mana, but anything more would have been quite disastrous. Luckily, the increases in the cost seemed to die down by the time that the eyes were created. And after finishing up the face entirely, the creature itself was created and dropped right down onto the cave floor.
‘Oh, it is quite adorable,’ the Queen stated as the newly created [Otter] began to look around. Its nose was high up in the air, seemingly searching for something. ‘Though I don’t like the larger amounts of skin. Would work much better with only the bones showing.’
‘Don’t make creation into a [Undead], please,’ the Core felt the need to say as it whipped up a [Appraisal] to get a better look at the creature. It wasn’t too fast when walking around just yet but the Core was thinking that it could be faster in the water.
Character Screen
Name: -
Gender: Male
Level: 3
Class: -
Race: Otter
Title: Dungeon-Born
Health: 140/140
H-Regen: 0.13/sec
Mana: -/-
M-Regen: 0/sec
Stamina: 220/220
S-Regen: 0.22/sec
Cost: 125 MP
Basic Stats
Strength:14
Wisdom: 6
Vitality: 13
Intelligence: 9
Dex: 21
Willpower: 5
Huh. What a large amount of Dexterity. Though the Core had already imagined it to be at such a level previously, for it to be over twenty… it supposed that the other statistics evened it out.
Looking over at the [Otter] again, it seemed to have found its target. Or perhaps it would be better to say that it had figured out where the entrance to the outside was, being quick on its feet with reaching it.
‘Should we stop it?’ the Core asked.
‘I think it would be better to see what it does normally,’ the Queen answered. ‘Getting these creatures a liveable habitat will do us wonders in making less work for ourselves down the line. If that means we have to follow an idiot with fur for a while then it is something that we have to accept no matter how stupid it feels.’
The Core considered it for a moment before deciding to just go along with it. Less work in the future at the cost of more work in the present was alright. Many things could be saved with a little exhaustion at the current moment. And, anyway, what was the worst thing a newly created [Otter] could do?
