Watching almost half of this large invasion force simply flee after being exposed to the brittle star felt a bit unfulfilling to Aby; as soon as they realized the prowess of the four stars working in conjunction they simply abandoned any idea of continuing deeper, and all scattered or fled in a rather lackluster manner. The gemstone had witnessed this behavior in the past, but never so disorganized nor with so many people as this time. It found that they were a group of groups, rather than one coherent mass from one of the fallen, but the few times Aby had witnessed separate groups working together in the past there was at least some coordination between them.

The young core decided not to dwell too deeply into the machinations of its invaders' minds some time ago, it had never been able to puzzle together what made these invaders tic. It could understand some of their motivations, but they all acted so differently from one another that Aby felt as though they were entirely separate species, even within the same race. It tried not to ruminate over when a sapient did something it did not expect, but it just happened so often.

Aby once again pushed down the urge to understand more about them, figuring that this knowledge would come in time. Instead, it turned back to what it had been doing prior to this invasion, reading a message and making a decision.

Congratulations! Your creature “Greater Tiger Shark” has reached the threshold for evolution! Options Available:

Prime Tiger Shark

Tiger Sharks are used by many different races to represent many different things; from being an omen of destruction and consumption which devours anything it can fit in its terrible maw, to a protector, culling those which grow fat and complacent by over-burdening their natural resources. The Prime variant is just that; everything which embodies these creatures taken to their logical conclusion. To be Prime is to have reached the pinnacle of ones’ race, to forever be the shining example of what this species is.

Saber-Toothed Tiger Shark

Sharks are infamous for their predatory prowess, a creature equipped with horrific teeth and capable of putting them to good use. Tiger Sharks have a reputation for using these teeth on more than just flesh and bone, shearing through most anything; taking these teeth to the extreme grants a Saber-Toothed variant an almost unnecessarily fearsome bite, along with an over the top attitude.

The core was torn between the two choices, weighing the options. The first seemed like an all around improvement, but may not be as good a choice as the second when it came to the sheer destructive force of its bite. Thankfully, before it had settled on something, a new screen popped up.

Congratulations! Due to your titles “Randomizer, Invasive, Adaptive, Ambitious” a hidden evolution has been unlocked!

Dilali Ennedi Shark

A lesser known creature, most consider it either an evolution of the Saber-Toothed Tiger Shark, or something entirely separate to begin with. Bigger, stronger, far more dangerous than its predecessor in general, these creatures are the uncontested rulers of their habitats.

Aby selected the last option, seeing no downsides to doing so. The greater tiger sharks it had were already fearsome beasts, more than capable of ripping through most metals like the other sharks tore through flesh. Moreover, they had no qualms about eating this metal, and yet Aby had never once needed to heal them for internal injuries. It was almost mystifying watching how readily they ate scraps of material which Aby didn’t recycle.

It watched as the shark began its changes; five meters of muscle and cartilage wrapped in a rough scaled skin decorated with a speckled, striped patterns began to warp. It began increasing in length to six and a half meters and becoming immensely more bulky, its fins remained unchanged beyond proportions. Finer changes, such as those to the coloration took longer; its blood red scales had a smattering of white in the form of stripes, but that was all accessory to the biggest change: its jaws.

Its blunted head and tooth-lined mouth twisted and deformed, and its teeth weren’t exempt. They lost their sickle-like appearance, straightening and thickening until they looked more similar to a reef shark’s, if one could look past the large difference in size. Afterwards, the creature’s passive growth of teeth kicked up, especially in its upper jaw, and teeth were pushed into one another at a rapid pace. The core thought they would force themselves out of its jaws one by one, but they began to fuse together instead, with the foremost in the jaw having all subsequent teeth dig into them through the back and be assimilated. The result was a jaw lined with truly fearsome teeth, thick and protruding from its mouth. Two teeth in particular, jutted out then curled downwards.

They appeared razor sharp and almost comically impractical thanks to their size and shape, and even the creature itself came to the conclusion that while they appeared truly formidable, they could only ever hamper its ability to hunt. As it came back to its senses, its first action was to open and close its mouth, trying to find some way to remove these blades. Eventually, it wound up grinding these teeth down against the rough limestone floor, and as it was still burdened by its innate necessity to remain in motion it could only do so by pressing its body close to the floor as it swam. Aby felt a twinge of pity for the creature, its teeth would visibly regrow after being broken down, and it would need to spend quite some time simply smashing, grinding, and chipping its own teeth on the floor to be an effective predator.

The formerly sleek, streamlined predator had turned into a creature built for raw strength, a muscular frame which could well measure up to the sheer bulk of the wyrm, were they of equal length. It was a truly impressive evolution, and Aby was quite pleased that its titles had been put to good use yet again, enabling it to obtain a creature which was soundly ranked B+ from the mere C ranked greater tiger shark. Along with its evolution came a more ornery nature, too, as it showed no qualms actively hunting down one of the larger bull sharks which crossed its path even as it made to escape the creature.

It was quite pleased with this new addition, and even more-so when it noticed that there were no new invaders, even with the sun being still out in full. It hadn’t planned for something as such, but wouldn’t mind improvising until then. It was left with a kernel of hope that more events like this may happen, relishing the feeling of having full control of its faculties. At the same time, it wasn’t yet too upset with all the invaders, satisfied by their continued contributions. The core had been able to learn and grow a great deal more after its invaders had shifted from creatures to sapients, and even if it didn’t understand much about the so-called intelligent races behaviors, it got a great deal more knowledge from them than the mere instincts it could get from most any creature.

This left the core a touch conflicted, but still pleased to have the full might of its mana back under its control for the time being nonetheless. It decided to really use it, too, and sent a message to the fifth and sixth-seventh floors to be careful before a crack resounded through the entirety of the dungeon, as well as rushing outwards.

The floor throughout the fifth had been thinned, weakened unevenly until the weight of the waters was too much and some areas collapsed. Where before it was two vast, sprawling mazes stacked on top of one another, they now became truly awe inspiring caverns, connected by gaps where the floor simply fell out. No light trickled upwards, rather, the darkness was infectious, leaking down in gloomy columns where the corals had been culled.

Aby had approved of how the two mazes had become one, from its perspective it was almost sickly, if the word could describe an area. As one progressed upwards, they would see the light, the color, the very light begin to flee, until the fifth floor. It was oppressive, more coming up than going down, though it wasn’t pleasant either way. The stars tentatively explored their new domain, and the brittle star especially seemed reluctant to do so. Aby watched as it recoiled in disgust from the light illuminating its form, scurrying back up the wall and into the darkness, though it managed to be coaxed out and into the remodeled floor by Carmine. The star was more agreeable, but it still outright refused to descend to the former seventh floor, which had been made to be the brightest of them all.

Aby didn’t push it to do so, while it was incredibly effective in the fifth, and may come to have moments in the sixth, a being which stood out against the brightness so boldly would only be so effective. It ensured that the new merge was stable, pockets of air gathering on each of the floors kept fresh by the algae for any of its lung-bearing critters which wander through, though that number was admittedly few. Watching the collection of stars inch, climb, or scuttle their way back into the darkness, the core felt quite enlivened. It wasn’t its biggest change, nor its most impactful, but it was one of the most dramatic. Watching multiple tonnes of rock give way under the pressure of multiple tonnes of water, the creaking and crunching that sounded as protest to the cores changes was certainly cathartic in its own way, and it still was aware of the minor ripples in its halls some time later.

Aby began debating what to do next, idly running through its motions as it did so. Little optimizations, minor evolutions, corals being grown and trimmed whilst they had their skeletons repurposed; the core was constantly in motion. It continued like this for a short while, until it had one of its questions answered.

You can now spawn “High Kobold”

You can now spawn “Aquatic Kobold”

It snapped its mind to the eleventh floor, peaking inside the brittle shells the kobolds contained. Both clutches of eggs had developed further, but one in particular, that of the high kobold and coastal kobold warrior, had done so faster, and the tiny figures now mostly resembled their progenitors, barring a few slight differences in colors or textures. Most of the eleven eggs contained sandy yellow little creatures, now tossing and turning restlessly, and a few had grey or brown scales, with black feathers. There was a single critter, small and still barring a few hiccups, which was smooth and sleek, entirely different than the rest. Its green scales cut through the fluid in its egg, and it was entirely featherless.

The other eggs, as it had seen, were much slower to grow, still nearly the same to how they had been when it last checked. It was reasonably sure that this was due to having the blood of a drake-kin, rather than mere kobolds, but it could still tell that there were a few kobolds in the bunch, which weren’t exempt from this slow pace. It could tell that the pure-blooded kobolds were growing quickly, and this was an encouraging sign as to how they’d develop after hatching. It was hoping that the natural born drake-kin would be worth the wait and allowed them to continue growing in peace, pulling its attention away without any of the vigilant guards being any the wiser to their Creator's presence.