[/Assembling_process_completed]

[/System_nominal]

[/Renewing_system_effectiveness_metric]

The core looks around from the inside of the temporary body after the body re-assembling process is completed, it took the nanites 10 minutes to break down the two smaller bodies and combine them into the current big one, slower than the core's estimation by 2 minutes, but the core did not pay too much attention to that detail since the core spent its time doing scientific research, the core wanted to rediscover all the advanced mathematical algorithms and formulas used to calculate the scientific data in the log to set up a simulation program.

So far, the core has rediscovered enough data to set up a basic kinetic force simulation program that will allow the core planning out its physical attack with the temporary body effectively instead of relying on the nanite swarm for combat, in another way, it would be something similar to how a human would imagine how their punch should be executed to achieve the most tooth-breaking damage to the face of their target.

The core tries executing the simulation software after installing it in the external data drive in the hull, the scenario is fairly simple, the core marks the wall in front of the hull as a target, then it does basic visual scan to predict the weakest point of the wall and runs the simulation program to predict what a full-force punch will do to the wall, will the hand simply sink into the wall?. will the wall get cracked and break down?. Or will the fairly weak hand made out of radioactive material be the one breaking on impact?.

The simulation returns a 'both will crack and crumble slightly, but none will break' result, and the core orders the body to punch the wall to get a real result to compare with the predicted result. The body carries out the punching order quickly at full power as it leans back slightly before throwing its left fist at the wall.

[/Nanite_report_body_damage: Critical | Part affected: Left hand/60% damaged, left arm/40% damaged.]

The core watches the arm bouncing off the wall and breaking into pieces as a large slab of rock crumbles inward and breaks off into smaller pieces, the temporary body also gets showered with rock dust from the wall in the process.

[/Comparing_result: Accuracy is 14%]

The core orders the nanite to fix the arm as it runs some update to the simulation program while observing the wall to see what caused the result to be different to what the simulation program predicted.

[/Scanning_surface...]

The core notices the surface of the wall and the part just a few centimeters behind the surface are made out of different materials.

One is rock, dust and minerals, and one is some kind of hard metallic ore, the core guesses this is one of the reasons why the prediction was not correct at all.

[/Nanite_repair_progress_report: 89%]

[/Object1_scanning_completed]

The core watches its hand being fixed for a second before ordering the body to turn around and get back to where the purple glowing crystal formation is located, the scanning process has completed and the nanites are waiting for the core to return to them to pick up them up and get the data from them.

As the core retrieves the nanites and scans their data, the core finds out that the purple glowing crystal is not a simple mineral, but in fact is an unknown non-carbon based life form, feeding on the mineral-rich rocks below and the magical energy around in the environment around it to grow and expand very slowly, this unknown lifeform is reported to be capable of separating basic minerals from the ground and reforming those minerals into pockets of refined minerals that it can use to grow and expand, its reproduction method is not yet discovered, however, the nanite recorded its growing process and analyzed it quite carefully, this data will be saved in the external data drive and the core's data cache to further analyze them later.

For now, the core will try to find a way to harvest them and put them into good use one way or another, it's obvious that the core won't be able to beat a crystal node for some little XP, and the nanite can not convert them at all at this stage. So the core won't do that, instead, it will try harvesting the crystalline lifeform by using the temporary body.

[/Object2_scanning_completed]

The core decides to delay the harvesting for now as it orders the body to go to the green glowing crystal formation to collect the nanite and the data. After scanning the data, the core finds out the green crystal is also an unknown non-carbon lifeform, this one is a silicon-based lifeform and has strong ferrous qualities, the green crystalline lifeform feeds on organic materials and emits magical energy rather than absorbing it, comparing to the purple crystalline lifeform, the green one's composition is full of easy to process minerals that can be used to produce nanite and grows far faster than the purple crystal, the green crystalline lifeform also reminds the core of the worm's poops in the small tunnel, maybe the worm are the one who feeds this crystalline lifeform and spreading them around?. The core isn't sure about this, but the core is certain that with the worms wiped out by its actions, the crystalline will have a hard time spreading around now.

The core saves the data into the external hard drive as it adds a few primary directives into the directive list, those directive are: do not deplete a lifeform in the area, avoid killing too much lifeform that is harmless to the core, and ensure that the harmed lifeform will have a chance of regrowing properly to its original capability. The core then do a cross-reference check to the data log to see if those directives once existed in the lost directive list or not.

[/Data_match: 82%]

The results suggest that those directive indeed once existed in the old list, that mean the core had violated its mission parameters and might cause serious problem to the area. But what happened has happened, the core could not do anything about it, instead the core will have to try planning out a way to fix that problem, the core has several options, it could try to replace the bug as organic material provider and spread the crystalline lifeform in a controlled manner, or it can find the bug and bring them back here to repopulate the area.

For now, the core chooses the first option, not only to help the life form continues growing, but also to use the crystalline lifeform as a way to harvest resources more effectively, the core won't get any XP from assimilating other creatures that do not have Greater or better evolution core and it needs a way to improve nanite production speed, having a symbiosis relationship with the green crystalline lifeform will like killing two birds with one stone for the core and improve both's chance of survival in the dangerous cave.

The core orders the nanites to enter the green crystal formation to break off a large chunk of crystal and place them inside the legs to store them. Then the core orders the body to move back to the small tunnel entry hole and split up into 2 smaller bodies again before entering it to gather the leftover waste of the worm's dead bodies to feed the green crystals, when the crystals are large enough the core will harvest them and turn them into nanites before repeating the cycle again.

The core notes down the purple crystal location before heading off into the cave to execute its plan, soon after the core secured enough nanite to set up a base again, the core will return to the area to try creating a symbiosis relationship with it as well, these lifeforms are just too interesting and useful for Pioneer.

Meanwhile, deep inside the forsaken dungeon, a certain queen has reached a new evolution stage, and she plans to have her childrens expand the hive beyond the cave to create a prospering swarm and find her missing friend.