I dismissed the message with a resigned sigh. Then I left the app and clicked on the book icon next to it as instructed.

It would be annoying if this was some kind of tutorial that I skipped, but I checked through the options I already knew just in case. They were all just long lists of different items, creatures, creature parts, spells, room layouts, and traps that could be made using the other functions. They did go into detail about each item, like saying who made them or in some cases which world the blueprint came from. It seemed like it might be interesting to read through if I had any spare time later.

Satisfied with that, I went back to the Bestiary. Unlike the creature database, none of the things in the Bestiary could be made with the Interface. It seemed to be a list of enemies that had been categorized by the Interface. Unfortunately, there was a warning that some or all of the information might be irrelevant. Chaos, by nature, was difficult to categorize. Nothing recorded was entirely reliable, but it was a decent reference.

The entries were not listed in alphabetical order. Instead, the first entry was the most common enemy type. It called them Chaos Beasts. There were two types. The most common were ordinary animals that had been infused with a Chaos Seed, and given monstrous power. The weakest recorded was roughly five times stronger than its mortal variant. Worse, the seeds would only take root in something with an already strong Body, so something like a bear was the absolute minimum. If this was true, it would explain why that person on the forum suggested not using goblins. They wouldn't stand a chance against these things under normal circumstances.

Still being type one, but significantly worse to deal with, were actual people who'd been consumed by a Chaos Seed. It seemed they lost their sapience, but still kept some of their intelligence. Meaning they were capable of planning, using magic and weapons, and whatever else would make them a nightmare to fight. Fortunately, these ones were usually too strong to appear in early day invasions, but the Bestiary still suggested to keep an eye out for them. And to be very cautious. Most sapients weren't capable of surviving being turned into so called 'Chaos Thralls', so the ones that did were usually strong or special in some way. 

The second type were called Pseudo Beasts. Unlike the creatures that were corrupted by a Chaos Seed, these monsters were formed from scratch around one. They were generally stronger than a formerly mortal creature, but also more vulnerable in some ways. They couldn't exist in a place with a minimal concentration of elemental Chaos since they weren't built to function inside reality. Additionally, every Pseudo Beast had at least one crippling weakness, but a lot more things that they were invulnerable to. The general strategy for defeating them was to have squads of mages alternate the types and elements of their spells until a weakness was found and then bombard it.

The next entry was also technically the same as a Pseudo Beast, but they were given their own page for a specific reason. Unlike other Chaos creatures, they were almost entirely consistent, and they would always appear at the same point in an invasion. It was theorized that these 'Pseudo Knights' might be some kind of mastermind for the invasion, but most theories like that were dismissed due to the monster's lack of intelligence.

What they did have was power. A Pseudo Knight completely outclassed even the strongest of the Chaos Beasts. They appeared as large crystalline monsters with a weapon and shield, and were capable of using a random type of magic. Each one would only wield one type of weapon and magic, but it could reform its weapon at will and it never seemed to run out of mana. Like the Pseudo Beasts, each one had at least one crippling weakness that could be exploited, but there were cases where even exploiting that weakness wasn't enough to stop the Knight from destroying entire armies.

Fortunately, since their arrival was fairly predictable, the Interface would give a warning that allowed time to prepare. However, the actual arrival would depend on how badly the invasion was going. So if things went poorly, they might arrive extremely early, before there was time to gather the strength needed to defeat them. In some cases, worlds would be consumed at an exponential rate as the losses accumulated and allowed even stronger monsters to appear. 

Well, if something like that happened, there wouldn't be any saving us. Running on the assumption that we wouldn't lose within a week of the first incursion, there would be time to look at the stronger monsters later. As it was, I had enough information to start planning my dungeon.

Cipiteca396

It's short, but... Informative? A bit of a cliff hanger too, since I think I'll write a forum chapter next.