Azotreh didn't return to the prime avatar immediately. No matter how much Atu cared for them, they still shared a soul with the others. Even though it had only been three days since they had left them, and both Nicholas and Fuzem had made appearances within them during that time, they still took some time to remain with the three people taking residence in their soul.
The changes to their soul after the discovery of the core realm weren't too grand, but still required some exploration. Many of their abilities were innate and didn't change much as a consequence. But the rest had a brand new feature. The verdant grass around them had been cleared to reveal golden soil beneath. While most of that soil was empty, the abilities Eye of the Black Dragon, Eye of the Red Dragon, Inventory, and Astral Bolt had something else present.
Eye of the Black Dragon, the ability that allowed them to peer through even the darkest of places, had small eyes growing from the ground around it. They weren't connected to stalks like a snail, but instead grew straight from the ground as if the soil were the skull of some many-eyed lizard. The same had happened to the soil around Eye of the Red Dragon, though there were fewer eyes.
The pair of abilities hadn't gotten much of a workout since the early days in Nightshade. Without the need to hunt their own food or the desire to track down anything specific, they hadn't needed the ability to see through the dark or see the heat given off by something. Azotreh had used Eye of the Red Dragon a couple of times on Ruby, but that was blinding. Blinding enough that they didn't even want to use it to see Atu if Ruby was in the same room.
Errazorrus had been trying to see if the pair of abilities worked on the eye of their Dungeon Nexus, but without luck so far. He assumed it was possible, since the eye could open their inventory, but so far hadn't managed it.
Speaking of the Inventory, it had its own peculiarity. The ground around it had two small blue squares, like tiles in the ground. The statue of the Inventory, which appeared like a large cube with a stereotypical vault door on whichever side was being observed, had also begun to glow very faintly. Leaving that mystery for later, the most important statue was that of Astral Bolt.
The simple ability was their highest level ability as of that moment, having gained so much XP from killing monsters and that incident with the massive bolt. Around the statue that seemed like a perfectly spherical mirror into the purple astral energy beyond the glass above their heads, small runes had begun to appear on the soil. None of them could decipher any meaning from the purple symbols, so they left it be for a while.
While their abilities had changed in manifestation, by far the stranger thing was the new sculptures that used to be hazy beyond the edge of the soul.
The realm had expanded to encompass those hazy images as well. Each was another statue, much like their abilities, but with other changes.
The most numerous statues depicted various actions, a hazy humanoid digging with a hatchet, or another meditating in a lotus position. All of these had five glowing spheres within them. One gray, which was lit up for all, one a bright green, which was lit up for most, another a deep blue, which was only lit up for a couple, and one a gorgeous purple, which was only lit up for two. After the purple light, there was a faint hint of gold, but none of the statues had it lit.
Other sculptures, rather than depicting something directly, left an impression on their viewers. An impression of pain for one, heat for another. Cold, melting, and blunt force. The most horrific one was one that made it feel like something was squirming under the skin of any who gazed upon it.
Each of these had smaller statues surrounding them. The one that inflicted pain had six; all others had fewer.
But these concepts were only represented outside of the soul obelisk. On the pillar's surface, dozens of other tiny marks were inscribed in golden text. Once again, none of the symbols held a meaning to the four. No matter how intelligent a person was, without any information, nothing could be gained from simple marks on a wall.
Within the pillar were a couple of new changes as well. The flower pots had vanished, replaced with an empty flowerbed now resting on a shelf. Above the bed, there were a few more marks in golden script. These gave off a different feeling than those on the outside. It was more intense and seemingly more important.
In the air above the table at the center of the obelisk was a glimmering tin-colored sphere. It slowly spun through the empty air. The only reason they could tell it was spinning was because of the two marks left on its surface. Both were marks outlined in ruby-colored energy. One was filled with a deep purple light that seemed to devour the light around it. The other was instead filled with pitch darkness that still gave off the impression of giant reptilian scales.
Around the sphere, spinning vertically around it, were two small spheres and a third that wasn't even close to complete. The first appeared like a gorgeously cut piece of zircon crystal, while the second was seemingly made from faceted garnet. The third, which was clearly incomplete, appeared like a piece of cut fluorite surrounded in a pair of rings, one a gorgeous yellow, and the other a brilliant violet.
The final change they found was three objects spinning around the massive sphere. One bright blue, one almost white, and one shining with a slight amount of orange energy. Each was a prism with changing sides, constantly shifting and orbiting the sphere in the center. They orbited horizontally around the tin colored sphere of metal, counter to the three gemstones.
All in all, the new appearance of their soul was gorgeous, but beyond the additions, it was mostly unchanged. Green-gold grass covered the soil, and the wall still existed at the edge. The Astral Infection was growing more slowly, which wasn't great for their astrum reserves, but they still had no idea what to do with that stuff. Errazorrus just wanted something to do with the material that wouldn't clutter their already incredibly cluttered status sheet.
After the exploration was mostly done, Nicholas was the first to leave through the edge of their soul, or attempted to. But instead of a connection with the orc they had summoned, there was now a smooth wall. Before, there had been a small gap. He had a feeling he knew how to reach the orc, though.
He went back to the obelisk, entered through the corner with blue spots, and appeared in the core realm. This place was the same as the last time.
He left the obelisk here and stepped on the flesh just outside. He sat down against one of the giant bone spikes emerging from the mass and wished to enter the orc champion. He knew a lot about the soul, or thought he did, anyway. But one of the things he'd learned is that intention mattered a lot when communicating within it. He hoped the same was true for the core, and he pushed to communicate with the nexus.
He felt a tug on his awareness as he sank up to his hips into the mass of flesh. The consciousness within was utterly foreign and deeply new. It held nothing but an automatic response to his own desires, like a computer.
He spent nearly a minute trying to figure out how to make the computer mind respond until finally, something clicked. Audibly, he heard the sound of clicking teeth, and then his awareness vanished from the core.
The next second, he was looking at a rather close cave wall. Twelve little salamanders surrounded the orc, all perfectly still. They did not move an inch, but he did. The orc stood. He was no longer even required to speak to its soul; he could just acquire control. He had the feeling he could also do the same to normal dungeon monsters, though he assumed there'd be a penalty. It wasn't like he wanted to take over the salamanders anyway.
He picked up the iron hatchet and smashed it into the stone again. It cracked once more, and some chips fell on the floor. He commanded the salamanders to dispose of the material by feeding it to the core. It was small enough to fit in their little mouths.
Then he hit the wall again. The hard metal was much stronger than the material he was digging into, and the orc's strength was higher than he expected. Even with its rippling muscles, he never expected this much power to be coming from it. Though it seemed the orc couldn't stand up to attacks like this for long.
After only about a dozen strikes, he felt the orc's arms trembling. After two more, his finger slipped on the hatchet, and it fell to the ground. He looked down with a sigh. Too much power, not nearly enough endurance. This was quite the predicament.
But he saw no reason to force it. If progress was slow, then progress was slow. But there were goals to be met, and he wanted to reach them. So he sat down as the orc.
He closed his eyes. If he couldn't work his body, he'd spend some time leveling their other skills. So he sat and focused on the air around him.
The orc's senses were weak, to say the least. It had good eyesight and a great nose, but that was about it. It was clear that this body suffered from a couple of benefits from being an apex predator, rather than a prey animal. A rabbit, or a deer, wouldn't have this…
Then it struck him. He slapped himself in the face and stood. Why should he settle for mediocre senses, or even bottom-of-the-barrel senses? He didn't know how strong Azotreh's senses were, but assumed they were probably mediocre since they were originally a human too. Humans had rather awful senses, to his knowledge. They didn't need them to survive, so evolution had screwed them out of truly great senses. He wondered if this world knew what evolution was, but shook that thought off the moment he had it.
He stepped out into the cave, ordering the salamanders to wait for the respawning of their champion. They froze like statues immediately, and that was a bit creepy. But he didn't care if their monsters were creepy, so long as they were loyal.
He stepped out from behind the waterfall, the twilight sky hitting his face. The sun was setting, and he could already see one of the moons. Mere moments after he stepped out did he realized this was probably also a stupid idea. His whole thing about humanoids having worse senses than prey animals made hunting prey animals worthless. Especially in this huge orcish body. Maybe he'd kill something with an Astral Bolt, but the last time Azotreh had used that spell, it had been forcefully redirected by a powerful lich. Nicholas wasn't willing to do that again.
He stepped back into the cave and returned to the Core Realm. His avatar was covered in something sticky as he emerged from the flesh. It was gross, actually. He didn't think he was capable of feeling uncomfortable in his spiritual body, but clearly, he was wrong.
He went to the Obelisk to use the core's eyesight in summoning his actual target. The Nightshade Puma, another one of the corpses they'd picked up. It was a cat, which was already better than a big humanoid. No matter how good hands were, claws were always better for killing.
This time, as he began to piece together the mental image of the Nightshade Puma they'd fought, he heard a robotic voice. It was cold, and utterly androgynous. It sounded a little like Fuzem, though her voice had always sounded a lot wetter.
"Would you like to create a monster?"
He looked up at the ceiling, at the massive eye settled in the roof of the obelisk. It was recombining into an eye, from what seemed to be a massive mouth. Unlike the eye of the nexus, which seemed to have teeth around the ball, this eye just split into a mouth. It was creepy.
"Yes?"
"Error. Please select a Perk before creating your next monster." The voice spoke, with its voice suddenly growing deeper for a moment before it returned to silence. Disconcertingly, the mouth opened when it spoke, but didn't move. It just held itself open and projected the sound.
He thought about the dungeon interface and pulled up the perk list Azotreh had access to.
[Available Perks:
Champions and Generals I
Duplicate Summons I
Inferior Mutation Manipulation I
Dragon Specialization I
Salamander Specialization I
Lizard Specialization I
Acid Specialization I
DX Gain Boost I
DP Gain Boost I
Inferior Monster Creation Specialization I]
Well, this one wasn't a hard question at all. Without even needing to ask the others, he selected DX Gain Boost I.
Why DX and not DP? They needed DX to keep leveling their faction, or 'pushing it through thresholds' as the interface kept mentioning. Why did it even say that when the skill system just called it leveling?
Anyway, DP was something they could gain from monster assimilation, monster creation, and leveling, while DX gains so far had only come from the creation of their first monster and the two times they'd create a champion. He knew they got an extra hundred from somewhere, but couldn't remember where.
The skill system did have a log of interactions, but it only recorded a hundred, and didn't record any from the systems beyond itself, so Nicholas would have to go through their own memories through Records of Existence to find it. He was still looking for where the system notifications were stored in there, but the description of the ability mentioned it contained all records, so that had to include system windows.
Either way, they got DP from multiple sources, and so far, they'd only found two sources of DX, and one wasn't repeatable. So he selected DX Gain Boost I.
[New Perk gained: DX Gain Boost I. +10% DX Gain]
[You have unlocked Perk: DX Gain Boost II]
[You have gained Title: Progressing Perks]
New title, again. He knew about activating them, but Fuzem was trying to figure out how to do that with the new thing. Even then, the boosts were normally too small for him to notice. He ignored it for now, since he had another goal.
"Summon monster," he said, staring at the eye in the ceiling.
"Conjuring monster…" it began, then fell silent for a long moment. Finally, it spoke again, "select conjured monster: Lesser Black Salamander, Nightshade Puma, Nightshade Orc."
"Nightshade Puma."
"Select Category: Lesser Monster, Standard Monster."
"Standard."
"Conjuration Complete."
[You have created a monster! +1DP]
Just like that, as he turned to the core's view, he watched a sleek black puma emerge from the eye. It stood utterly still, just like the other monsters in the small room. Nicholas looked up at the core again.
"Can you create a champion monster?"
"Would you like to convert a monster to a champion monster?"
"Yes."
"Select monster to convert to champion: Nightshade Puma."
That stunned him for a moment. There were twelve salamanders in the room under the dungeon's power. Why couldn't they be turned into champions?
"Can I turn a salamander into a champion?"
Even though he didn't want to, he was still curious why it wasn't even an option.
"Select monster to convert to champion: Nightshade Puma."
And got nothing for his troubles. Dammit.
"Nightshade Puma."
"Converting Nightshade Puma to champion status. Costs 10DP, increases mana draw of active monster to 10 Dungeon Mana. Are you sure?"
"Yes," he said heavily. He had figured out that cost when he looked at the status sheet and saw that Azotreh was missing 32 points of mana. It should have been 14, but if two of those monsters cost ten times as much, then 32 checked out.
"Affirmation Received. Please hold…"
Outside, the puma was suddenly bathed in black light for a moment.
"Monster: Nightshade Puma has successfully been advanced to champion status."
He nodded before returning outside and sitting in the meat again with a wet sound. More questions than ever about the magic of this world, and he'd get no answers. Again. But figuring out life's mysteries was a philosopher's job. He was an author and incorporeal hitchhiker, so it wasn't his job.
He submerged his consciousness into the puma's, taking control of the champion. Then he used it to step out into the forest. As darkness shrouded the nightshade forest, a predator began its first hunt.