With Squib's influence removed, the plants under his control fell to the ground, leaving only the Vampire vine remaining rooted into the worm's flesh. Then, with itself mostly freed, the worm leaped forward, ripping the vines from its flesh.
While the worm escaped, Corvis heard a voice in his head. "Sorry about dying, Creator. I would have tried to dodge, but I doubt it would have done much. As you already know, I'm not the most agile.".
"It's fine. We'll find a way to kill this thing and get you back out there."
"Very well," Squib said with a sigh.
The worm made quick work of the other defenseless snails before releasing another pulse. Again, it filled the whole room in its strange energy, but this time didn't reveal anything. The worm shook its head in annoyance but didn't dally any longer, choosing instead to move towards Corvis's core.
"We need a plan to kill this thing, and fast," Corvis said with urgency.
"I think I have an idea, but I need your help," Starlid said with a finger on its chin.
The worm crawled down the tunnel, drawing closer to the core. While it made its way deeper, it continued eating the moss and grass in its path, giving itself a wide path of cleared stone. As it ate away at the plants, its bite wound swelled and pulsed with soft blue light. At about halfway down the tunnel, the worm's eyes widened, and it shrieked as if it was being ripped apart. It started to thrash around and wrapped itself around its own body as pain wracked its wound, knotting its own body around itself. It bit into itself before ripping out a chunk of the swollen flesh and throwing it away. Its purple blood ran down its self-inflicted wound, revealing the venom from the snake bite had gone deeper into its body. The beast let out a deep breath and stopped moving. As it struggled for breath, it gathered star mana on its wound, and in response, its wound healed. In a matter of moments, the flesh grew back, and it quickly began to absorb mana once again, sucking mana in like a sponge with water. In but a few moments, it finished and continued to crawl deeper once more. The deeper it got, the more trouble it had breathing. As it finally made it to the room, it was hit with a massive wave of mana.
The mana forced itself into the worm, giving it no choice in the matter. Its flesh hurt, burned with too much mana. Before it could react, its body was filled past its limit with star mana, and the sting of the venom in its body strengthened. It shrieked as pain flooded its body, while its lungs felt unresponsive as it tried to take a breath.
While the venom wreaked havoc on the creature, the mana in its body became more than its body could handle. First, the blood in its body began to boil as its fat and muscles started to cook. Next, its organs started to liquify as the massive amount of mana started to break down its body. Pressure built up in its body as the lightning mana reacted to the star mana before finally, it exploded. Chunks of worm sprayed across the room, the violet blood staining most plant life and stone in the core room, some even splattering over Corvis's crystal. "That was a lot more volatile than I thought it would be!" Starlid said as it let out a laugh.
With a chuckle, Squib joined in, "You'll have to show me how to do that!"
"Why did it explode?" Corvis asked, ever the inquisitive one.
"If I had to guess, it was a mix of the venom and how it reacts to mana. It was probably in so much pain that it couldn't modulate the flow of mana. It may also have to do with how it absorbed mana, though. I don't actually know why it exploded, though. It should have just died from stress or pain, or even mana poisoning." Starlid said as it walked over to a steaming chunk of flesh. Starlid poked the flesh only for it to dissolve. "It's flesh even dissolved. I'll be honest, that really blindsided me." Starlid said with its equivalent of eyes sparkling. "Can't say I didn't enjoy it, though," it said with a shrug. Corvis looked around his dungeon. From all the chunks of snails to the goo that was all that was left of the worm
"I'm going to absorb everything now, see if I can get the snail template at least," Corvis said with a sigh.
"Let's hope I'll be able to get a body soon then," Squib said.
Corvis slowly picked through the dungeon, absorbing chunks of snail flesh and shell. Even though the snails weren't in excellent shape, he gradually understood more of their bodies. Then, when he absorbed one of the few small pieces of Squib, he felt a trickle of information different from the other snails he absorbed, much more complex. He kept at it, absorbing it until he finally got to the worm and its stomach contents. He slowly started to eat away at all the chunks of the worm but was disappointed to find he gained nothing.
Once he went over the stomach contents, he got the snail template and felt he had completed two templates.
| Korvax Snail |
|
A garden variety of snail that lives nearly everywhere with less than usual origins. The snails lay massive clutches of eggs and are hermaphroditic. These snails eat almost anything, from plant matter and flesh to minerals. These minerals are then incorporated into the shell, making it more resilient. However, their small size when young means that it's virtually meaningless for younger individuals. Due to being created, they can also adapt to different climates and predators more quickly than most animals, making them proliferate in almost any situation. The most unique ability of these snails is a particular trait that sets them aside from other naturally created snails, perpetual growth. These snails have been known to grow to massive sizes if they can survive long enough. While other snails can incorporate minerals in their shells, they are the only known snails to possess perpetual growth. While they aren't the most dangerous species until they are ancient, all these traits have let them spread far and wide. In addition, these snails have been known to grow faster in mana-rich environments. One of their greatest weaknesses is their taste, as they are considered delicious to most species, Created by Korvax The Mad |
| Trait |
| Mineral incorporation, Biomantic organism, Perpetual growth, Mana-induced growth, Delicious, Hermaphroditic |
| Psychic Sprout Snail (Korvax Lineage) |
|
This species carries all the benefits of the Korvax snail but scaled up. In addition to that, it has the power to control plants, which is only improved by its psychic power. Although it has psychic power, these are nearly useless concerning anything other than controlling plant life and communicating with it. With its ability to use psionic powers comes an appropriate increase in intelligence, making it far smarter than its peers. Created By Corvis |
| Traits |
| Druidic powers, Psionic powers, Increased intellect, Seedborn |
"Great, I can make you a new body," Corvis said.
"Really? That's great. I've found that I much prefer being a physical being instead of just a soul attached to you."
"It may take a while to remake your body. Before anything, we'll have to see how much mana it takes."
"Fair enough," the snail said.
After absorbing all the snails, Corvis went about the task of absorbing the worm, only to quickly realize he wasn't really gaining anything, but he absorbed it anyway. It took a while to get everything absorbed, but he felt a rush of information jam itself into his head once he did. It hit him all at once instead of the gradual gain that he was used to. It was so fast his head hurt, worse than anything he had ever experienced before. Even worse, he felt something crack. As it did, he felt his consciousness spiral as the information he absorbed from the worm felt like it attacked his mind. He couldn't understand the information, nor could his core, almost as if it was in a different language. Some more cracks appeared before he blacked out from the immense pain in his mind and the damage to his body.
