The Coreless made noises at each other for a long time.

A very long time.

Even the helpful haze of the feel-good-water wasn’t enough to vanquish my boredom. I had already defeated the Staring One, and there was little left to do. Eventually, I slithered down from the back of the fake-pedestal, choosing to ignore the jabbering Coreless and explore the small room instead. Despite that, I could still feel the Staring One’s eyes on me every so often, though they didn’t feel quite as oppressive as before - and not quite as wary, either.

For a while, I tried to entertain myself by making - attempting to make, anyway - tiny mirror images of the Coreless sitting in a circle. After a bit of experimenting, I noticed that it was easier to manage the details when the illusions were smaller. Less light to deal with, I supposed. Eventually, it actually started to look like them. That seemed to draw the Staring One’s attention again, causing the Coreless to make even more noises at each other. They froze, watching me with wide eyes.

After a few moments, the Staring One raised a hand. I repeated the motion with [Illusion Spark], trying my best to follow his movements.

A little while later, the Staring One spoke. “...I think that it’s just bored. It’s not predicting the future right now, just making the images copy what we do. Might want to keep an eye on it though, just in case.” My Coreless all slumped against their fake-pedestals at once, baring their teeth before looking back towards one another and resuming with their constant jabbering. Every so often, I noticed them turning back towards me again, but I ignored it.

I kept doing that for a while, switching to other illusions when the Coreless failed to entertain me. Eventually, I grew bored of that as well. As proud as I was of my increasing skill with illusions, I could only do it for so long before even that became tiresome. A familiar glow caught my eye, causing me to turn back towards the gathered Coreless.

The light of the Great Core.

Or, rather, the light of my shed scale-flesh as the Unrepentant One removed it from the skin-mouth at his side. He placed it on the slab of darkwood, and the Staring One made the proper noises of awe. As he should have.

Faced with that wonderful light, I knew that it wouldn’t be long before he became a new follower of the Great Core. I hissed in delight, surprised by the Unrepentant One’s intelligence in revealing it to secure the Staring One’s worship. Though it wasn’t enough to pull him past the-female-who-was-not-Needle and become the second-least favorite disciple, he was showing improvement.

As they voiced their praises towards the Great Core, I continued to explore the small nest-room. A larger fake-pedestal spanned across a section of the wall, and I slipped into the darkness behind it. It felt like a wall-crack in a way, close and confining. Safe.

As I pushed further, though, I caught the scent-taste of the outside-air. Air slipped through the space ahead, and I followed where it led me.

In the end, it led me outside - through a tiny wall-crack resting behind the fake-pedestal, just barely large enough for me to squeeze through. I thought about turning around and going back, but knew that the Coreless would be admiring the Great Core’s light for a long while yet. I felt the same impulse, and I had done so many times.

I wouldn’t take that opportunity away from them.

The strange many-nest of the Coreless spread out before me again, and I lost myself to the urge of exploring further, letting it pull me away.

I saw many strange things, as I slipped between the gaps between the nests. Creations and carvings by the Coreless with meanings and functions that I couldn’t understand. A great orb of light high up at the center of the many-nest, lighting the cavern with its brilliant glow. Other things, pulling my attention every which way. Even more Coreless walked about than before, only a few wearing the protective ore-flesh that I had always associated with them. More of them than I had ever imagined. For the moment, I chose to avoid them; my own Coreless weren’t with me, and it was difficult to communicate in a way that Coreless could understand.

It would be better to avoid them for now, but that would change.

Each, I knew, could soon become a disciple of the Great Core. My Coreless had been right in bringing me here, where I could gather an army. With this many Coreless at my beck and call, the lesser Core would have been easily defeated.

It was a heady thought.

I pulled out of another gap, slithering along - until something caught my eye.

A flash of white.

A shimmering thread.

A horrible sight.

A Coreless, tossing an offering of flesh towards a bad-thing of many legs.

They were here.

The Aridae looked different than before. Their black hairs had changed, turned the same white as the threads that they wove. They had disguised themselves cleverly, but I wasn’t fooled.

What else could they be, with so many legs and so many threads? No, I knew it was them. It had to be. The many-legged bad-things, the Aridae, one of the first and most sinister of the Great Core’s enemies.

And I knew what they were here for.

They wanted to steal the Great Core’s future disciples away!

The thought was horrifying - but the more horrifying thought was that it seemed to be working. Even as I watched, more Aridae received offerings of flesh, consuming them greedily. The Coreless that they had enthralled even gathered their terrible threads for them, no doubt using it to create larger nests for their would-be masters.

Stupid as they were, the Coreless were falling for the deception, not realizing the danger. With their size, they should have been able to easily defeat the disguised Aridae, but they didn’t.

Deception walked with many legs, and the Coreless’ weak minds had been trampled underfoot.

I could not let that happen. These were meant to be the Great Core’s Coreless. The Great Core’s disciples. My Coreless.

Filled with rage, I moved closer with the stealthiest of slithers, preparing my attack - for attack was the only option. The Aridae couldn’t be left alive. They wouldn’t be.

I watched and waited, looking for my chance.

Soon enough, it arrived.

One of the many-legged bad-things moved away from the rest - and more importantly, from the Coreless that had been enthralled - and begun to spin shimmering white threads across a cluster of thin stone-spikes that broke from the floor. I coated myself with a weak illusion to camouflage my body. I slithered beside it. I struck.

My fangs bit deep, passing through white-furred flesh with ease. My venom dripped, flowing steadily. Pained, the Aridae flinched back, trying to escape - but it was far too late. Finally, in its dying moment, it changed tactics. It turned, trying to sink its own fangs through my scale-flesh as revenge. The fangs bounced off harmlessly - which was odd, but I had grown stronger recently.

The thought-light flickered, announcing my victory.

Experience Gained!

Before the other Aridae - or worse, the deceived Coreless - could notice and attack, I swallowed the corpse whole.

What the thought-light revealed next was more frightening than I expected.

Level 0 Webweaver Consumed.

Transferred to Core.

Blooded Trait Acquisition Progress: 1/5.

The deceivers had even managed to trick the thought-light itself, forcing it to believe that they were these ‘Webweavers’ rather than the Aridae that I knew they truly were. It was no wonder that they had managed to enthrall the Coreless, with such great skill in deception.

The thought urged me onwards.

I had to move quickly. There was no telling how deep they had sunk their fangs into the Coreless’ feeble minds. They couldn’t be allowed to live a moment longer.

With no time to lose, I abandoned all stealth. I breathed fire.

The hated threads began to burn.

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!

Experience Gained!