2.12 Evolution
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Chapter 2.5 Low-tier Magic Stone -> Inferior-tier Magic Core. I recalculated the level system and have to expand cultivation-related terms accordingly. Alice still calls them stones, since they look like it, I will retro edit several instances sometime.

Alice suppressed fear with righteous wrath.

What do you fucking mean, it noticed me? Is it the Abyss thing? I looked into it, it looked back? The fuck you take back my quest now?

"System!"

Her thoughts and mouth were busy with one thing, her legs meanwhile rushed her to the corpses of giants and the girl drove her sword into a tiger's head to cut of some fur and meat. The bone was hard, excessively so. Having the size of roughly the crouching girl herself, of course it would be.

"Burn!"

Two drops of blood essence cracked the skull near an earhole. Using the blade as a lever and two additional blood bursts to break it further, Alice revealed the tiger's brain to the light, figuratively pinched her nose, hid behind her butchering skill and dug into it.

Ju-u-ust like boning a rabbit. Big rabbit.

[Low-tier Magic Core]

A gem, big as the girl's fist. Rounder and, obviously, red. What 'mana', what 'blue flames'? Life energy leaving corpses like the morning mist and fluctuations in the cave were red as much. Alice was inside a dungeon, what else would everything here be if not parts of the said dungeon?

The girl wanted to slam her head on the floor from her past foolishness but was on a line here. Even for giant level 10+ ants she didn't have time and only looked at them with pity once.

Alice heard an air rustle too late.

Something landed on her back. The girl felt her leather armor being punctured and liquified frozen metal was pumped under her skin.

"Ah!"

Pure agony spread out throughout her body. Alice tried to slash out behind; her rider jumped off quickly. Easy, deceptively so. The girl staggered and feel on the tiger's corpse, no amount of willpower capable to prevent her wails.

It ran through her veins now, poison. Alice felt the burning cold net tracing through her system, constricting and feeding on organs. Strength was rapidly leaving her while blood energy in the heart mobilized and fought back on its own, heat against cold, saving the girl from losing her consciousness. She even had the luxury to turn the head and look at the adversary of hers.

Dog-sized [Poisonous Widow Spiderling Lvl. 8] was standing on an ant's corpse, patiently waiting and staring back at her.

Three-worded name!

With horror, Alice saw space vibrating weakly. The puppeteer's obscure strings were trembling, sending aimless urges, must be to all monsters in the dungeon. Find the invader, kill the invader! The pitch-black giant spider with white patterns stirred its mandibles, fighting back the impulse. In its nature was to wait for the inevitable death of its prey. Or might be Alice's inflamed mind was just struggling for empty explanations and the bastard only wanted to see her suffer.

Why don't you come?

The girl almost howled in hateful frustration. It would have ended already!

Her hand sluggishly reached into her belt pocket, touched a green vial. To take off the cork, the girl had to burn a drop of blood essence, but she managed. Tip of her finder began to consume the antitoxin through another drop of bright blood plying back and forth.

Staring daggers at the spider while playing dying struggles, the girl tore through the excruciating haze in her mind. She grinned at the spider when it lifted up and stepped to her. The monster paused. How would it know about magic potions?

I am not your prey!

Seemed strange though, this monster. Frail. More Alice looked at it unblinkingly, the more absurdities she noticed. The right legs of the spider were shorter, line patterns unsymmetric. Huff, huff. Alice breathed heavily, swallowed hard. Slowly her vision penetrated through its shell and she saw fluctuations of red inside. Life was barely lingering in its body.

When her eyes started to hurt, Alice relaxed them and viewed the spider as before, in normal colours. One thing, she felt relief. It fears me back. She opened a second green vial and the girl's blood essence went on the final offensive, supported by antitoxin.

When the girl twitched not just in pain, the spider moved from side to side, agitated.

Then it ran away into the darkness.

What!? Smart little fucker.

Alice sat, exhausted and pale. With a flick of her fingers, five bright drops levitated back from the ground. A hurriedly organized trap hadn't worked out.

Maybe it could sense my blood. Should consider... why ants are not here yet anyway?

Nine minutes had long passed. If the dungeon wasn't sending clear, direct orders, then ants must be seeking a foe out in their vicinity first. This spider was damn bold to prey around the anthill and that tiger. On the other hand, it definitely had a maximized analog of Stealth skill.

Alice guessed plenty of things while swaying her way to the stone jungles. She hid in a low passage between two rocks interlocking right above her head, pressed the hurting back to cool stone surface, pulled out a healing potion. The vial touched her lips, trembling. As the naked sword in her other hand.

 

Trembling?

 

Strange, how strange. In spite of being able to perfectly control every muscle, Alice was shivering uncontrollably. If trembles in hands were stopped, a shudder would spasm her leg. If legs were fine, the shoulders would contract. Teeth would knock. Nails would scratch. Toes would shrink. Goosebumps would run.

Even the life potion seemed cold, tasteless, its effects uncertain. The air rustle...

"Ha!"

The blade shined dimly, slashed where an elusive sound had appeared.

Nothing, there was nothing. Without noticing herself, Alice was gasping heavily, messily. Not a grain of energy was entering her body, for she only sought oxygen.

I hear things. The girl didn't need to be a genius to understand a simple truth. Bit of trouble turns me into a coward. Again.

The little fact that she almost lost her dear life the girl's mind somehow shoved off.

Man up, Alice. Learn from it. Whatever you can do, some monsters must be adapted at it. Or better.

"I don't fear you!"

Contrary to self-instructions, Alice frightened herself with this not very loud exclamation, which in turn calmed her down when half-expected doom failed to follow up. The back didn't hurt much, too.

"Huff, huff."

The girl watched the dungeon attentively. The magic... mana? Life? She wasn't sure what to call it now. Anyway, the energy vortex was consuming corpses and the pair of giant ants had their magic stones in the open already. Alice was gathering her wits to make a greedy move when very living ants ran out from the stone jungle.

The girl froze. Ants weren't scary, something else was.

No noise, and so close. Why? Alice focused to perceive the invisible veil, the dungeon's own fluctuations. The robbed ants ran haywire on the battlefield, and more were incoming, yet she hid well. With great effort, the girl discerned the puppet strings. Maybe they were veins or nerves, she had no idea. One thing she felt for certain, barely noticeable life vibrations were forcing dark compulsions on monsters.

The longer Alice observed, the more she was sure the dungeon was suppressing sounds all along. Energy had some physical nature, and in the dungeon certainly not neutral.

Her eyes started to itch again, and the girl closed them in turns, too spooky to not watch her back. Meanwhile, ants were collectively drinking out of the energy source. A few very low-level ants came out from the anthill Alice never had had a shot at destroying, apparently, escorted by workers.

How was I different, Alice cynically thought. I consumed its energy just like any other monster does. I have plenty of life energy, as any monster. It should have some regular means to repel normal invaders, right? I am a virus, a parasite, undetectable by the dungeon's immune system until... 

Despite thinking of herself so unkindly, the girl meant the good aspects. Until... the continuation had some difficulties with being begeted though.

The little ants started to glow one after another. Alice frowned and, after some reluctance, strained her eyes for the third time.

"Hiss!" Containing the ache inside, the girl's lip distorted.

 

Energy was descending on monsters... Red, yet not bright. Dark. Muddy. It bathed the creatures, then infused.

Twisted and pulled. Tore and sewed.

Her pupils contracted-expanded in a spasm.

Rough and impatient, the dungeon was. Brutal. Uncaring.

Through blood tears, Alice forced herself to look to the very end, when the energy congregated into a mass in every ant's head, their magic cores. At that final act, she learned the answer just why she had been discovered. It was simple, really.

When the pain almost overcame her willpower, the girl, nearly sightless, stumbled away from the anthill and the bloody battlefield with all possible hurry.

For [Hound Ants] were born.

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