The smooth stone lozenge wrinkles and ripples dance across the limestone-like surface. Dust dribbles off, floating gently down to the ground below. Each grain lost seemed to refine the shell.
Slowly the surface began to lose the appearance of sandstone. Striations of color and the innate rough nature gives way to a deep brown, almost black, and a smooth appearance that limestone couldn’t match.
Then nothing happens. Once the dust stops coming off the stone lozenge, it has a uniform appearance. Oh, and it remains floating in a way that Doyle finds odd. There isn’t any power being used and honestly, he wasn’t even sure “floating” was the right word for it.
This seems less like an object suspended in the air. Rather, it was like any other stone resting on the ground. The best comparison Doyle could think of off the top of his head, would be one of those survival games with building. Some things have gravity, sand will fall, and what not. Yet at the same time, you put down a block of stone in mid-air and nothing happens.
This was like that. Not only wasn’t the stone cocoon not falling. It wasn’t meant to fall. That was where it had settled as if a microgravity had formed there.
A thing Doyle could replicate easily enough. A stone placed in mid-air was a simple trick when you can control gravity. However, that also wasn’t the answer. There was no gravity manipulation going on. So yeah, overall strange and Doyle spent way too much time watching it.
Which also points out that this particular evolution was also taking way too much time. About a week at this point. Well, not about a week. It has been exactly a week, so Ally came by to check on things.
She flies out of her room and settles on Doyle’s core, ‘Still nothing?’
Doyle sighs, ‘I can’t quite figure out how the thing stays there. Power isn’t being expended, which is even weirder than a stone not falling when on a table. Because that stone has potential energy from sitting there. I. I don’t think the cocoon does?
‘It is kind of hard to sense. Matter is energy as well on a certain level. Especially when magic gets involved. So there’s a background of energy that makes detecting potential hard so I might be wrong. Though whatever the case, it is missing a lot of energy it should have to stay in mid-air.’
Ally, ‘Well, as long as you find it interesting. I’ll keep an eye on the dungeon for you.’
Doyle glows, ‘Thank you!’
And so another week passes before something finally happens. The stone cocoon shows signs of change, shrinking without losing mass.
Doyle, ‘Hey Ally! Something is finally happening!’
And so she flies out to join him as parts of the cocoon stop shrinking. It is a little confusing at first, but they both quickly realize that the bear underneath was simply poking through. Well, it wasn’t actually poking through. The bear was still very much covered in stone.
Ally frowns as changes stop happening, ‘Is this it for now? Are we in for another hour?’
As Doyle is about to respond, the stone covering the bear shatters. There are large pieces that remain whole and are suspiciously shaped like rough armor plates. However, the rest of the stone coating was reduced to pebbles at the largest and tumbled off to reveal what was beneath.
It is a bear. A brown bear, if you’ll believe it! Though Doyle could see that where the stone and bear met, the two sides were melded together as a single piece. More like a shell than scales.
Ally notices the same thing a moment later, but she has actual knowledge on what it means. ‘Okay, given the plates and how they attach and the coverage, I’m guessing this is a half-plate bear. A little more advanced than I expected?’
Doyle, ‘Well, don’t count your chickens. The bear’s still stuck, so the evolution might not be over?’
Ally frowns, ‘That’s odd.’
Doyle bobs down and up, ‘Well, we can only watch for now.’
So they do and this time there is a display of energy to watch. Except that the power was leaving the bear. Which, yes, was odd.
But the real oddity was when the stone plates on the bear began to crumble even more.
Ally yelped in shock, ‘That shouldn’t happen!’
Well, the bear didn’t care about what should or should not happen and the rock kept crumbling away. Their thickness ending up half what it had been, and instead of a single plate? They had completely split into multiple more rock-shaped plates. Though the coverage hadn’t reduced by all that much.
And with a thump, the bear landed on the ground after falling out of the air. It looks side to side; the stone plates covering its neck grind against each other slightly. Though this isn’t because of the previous shattering. The neck plates had always been separated so that it could turn its neck.
As clearly the stone wasn’t like you’d find in some fictional monsters where it moves like flesh. No, the plates were right proper stone.
Then the bear wandered off.
Ally frowns, ‘Okay, I have no clue what just happened.’
Doyle, ‘Well, maybe if I check the things stats we might see something?’
Ally shrugs, ‘Couldn’t hurt.’
So Doyle does just that.
{
Lesser Half-Plate Bear (Lv34)
S[200+2] A[5] C[120+2] I[3] W[3] P[5]
Skills: Claw lv5, Bite lv5, Armor Proficiency lv5, Grab lv2
Cost: World Energy[200]
}
Doyle nods his core, ‘Okay, I think I see what happened. Well, besides some more adjustment points.’
Ally frowns, ‘I’m not seeing it.’
Doyle, ‘Check the minimum level. I can only spawn this thing on this floor or the last. My guess is that it originally was evolving into a half-plate bear, but if a lesser one barely fits in the floor? A full half-plate bear likely has a much higher minimum level.’
Ally, ‘But then why did it try to evolve into that in the first place?’
Doyle laughs, ‘If I knew something like that? I wouldn’t be so confused about getting my monsters to evolve in the first place.’
Ally nods, ‘Okay, fair enough. So I guess you’re good to finish up the floor?’
Doyle, ‘I should be. Though I should probably set up some other basic beasts to work towards a rocky evolution. I wonder if the earthen cattle could develop into something rock-themed?’
Ally, ‘Maybe you should instead try for water or fire? After all, you do plan on making floors for those as far as I remember.’
Doyle, ‘Heh, yeah, that’s a thing. Maybe I should set up a whole lot of evolution chambers? And clearly I need to keep them on the deepest floor, if only to get the best results.
‘Who knows if the bear could have even evolved if the lesser version wasn’t available? Maybe the reason it took so long is because there aren’t many options for low-level stone bears.’
Ally frowns, ‘Well, you aren’t wrong about that. I’m actually surprised that there is a lesser half-plate bear. As far as I knew, the “half” part is the equivalent of “lesser”. Your new monster basically reads as a “lesser lesser plate bear” to me.
‘Theyre basically the young in a similar way the sprout and lesser myconids naturally grow into full myconids with the right conditions. Honestly, not only am I surprised as the lesser, but the fact that the lower form wasn’t named something like a quarter-plate bear. Because evolving from half to full plate involves those stone plates growing to cover even more of the bear.’
Doyle, ‘How does that work? We’ve already seen the stone isn’t flexible. Covering even more would get in the way.’
Ally shrugs, ‘Never seen them in action. I assume it develops similar to the neck joint. Also, just because the half-plate doesn’t have flexible stone, doesn’t mean the full plate don’t develop it.’
Doyle, ‘Well, given enough floors, I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We’ve already gotten on the path to them. Bears already seem hard enough to evolve so this might be the only variant we have for a good while.’
Ally, ‘Are you sure about that? Bears tend to be powerful. Though I guess of the options, managing to get a monster with armor proficiency was quite the catch.’
Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Why is that so important? I could likely grab it for the kobolds, no problem.’
Ally shakes her head, ‘I should have been more specific. Getting a beast-type monster with a tool-type proficiency is the catch. While there are beasts that use tools, most can’t really get a proficiency for it. They simply aren’t built right for it on body or mind.
‘Now, I wouldn’t swear that any individual monster is incapable of it. Given enough work, anything is possible with magic. Except at that point, it is probably easier for them to skip all that and evolve into a form capable of tool use.’
Doyle, ‘I’ll make a goat who has it naturally.’
Ally raises an eyebrow, ‘What?’
Doyle, ‘I said what I said.’
Ally rolls her eyes, ‘Fair enough. So, what’s the plan for monsters on this floor now that you have your bear?’
Doyle, ‘Well, earth is the theme so besides the bear I can choose from earthen cattle, maybe the permafrost lynx, and the stone wolf. I’m also tempted to throw a few kobolds in just for fun? They aren’t earth-aligned, but honestly? Void kobolds aren’t exactly air-aligned, no matter how much I pushed that connection.’
Ally, ‘To be fair, even the more elemental beasts tend to not literally be connected to some primal element. Sure, they use it, but so does everybody else. That newly evolved bear? It can use fire magic as well if you give it the skill for it.
‘In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does so with equal ability as it would with most earth spells. Now, get it an earth spell related to defense that involves making the body like stone or coating the body in stone? That will get a boost as it comes naturally.’
Doyle rolls back and groans, ‘I’m going to have to go through my monsters and figure out if there are special magics for them.’
Ally laughs, ‘And don’t forget Qi techniques, Psychic talents, Prana sutras, Blood lines because of course blood techniques are called lines, and maybe even some spirit techniques.’
Doyle, ‘Wait, Qi and the Spirit both call their moves “techniques”? You know, despite how everything else has some unique term.’
Ally laughs, ‘When you get down to it, they’re all techniques. Spells? Those are just techniques for using Mana in a self-contained and distinct manner. So, Mana techniques. And, like, I guess some Qi users will insist on calling their techniques something like “moves” or “forms”.
‘Really, that depends on the martial arts culture in the area. But yeah, technique is also a martial arts term and so gets applied more often than it. As for Spirit techniques? They too have some users who have their own terms, but those all tend to be long-winded and stuffy. Besides, most who cultivate their Spirit are wise enough not to bother.
“Oh, and there are people who just throw everything under the heading of techniques. I bet this works might end up going there with how many different power types seem common here.’
Doyle, ‘So having a bunch of power sources reduces it down to a word? I would figure that if anything, it would keep the diversity because each have their own strengths and weaknesses.’
Ally laughs, ‘Oh yeah, if that was the reason, what you described is the likely outcome. The reality of this, though, has more to do with techniques that can use multiple sources.
‘After all, when Qi, Mana, and Prana all have a technique to buff the user’s muscles? The differences tend to fall away. Spell or sutra, if it makes your body tough like a rock, people will notice.’