Swarming Sovereignty

“So…remind me again why exactly you need all this stuff?” Robin asked, dumping two sets of boots on the ground. “Like, I get it’s for conversion, but why so much?”

“It’s a quirk of the system.” Lia explained. “If we give it too many options, it sort of…overloads and randomly selects bits and pieces to make something new. As far as I can tell it has the potential to make something a lot stronger than it otherwise would, but, well, it’s random so we could get a total dud. Exciting, right?”

Robin groaned. “We’re never letting you into a gambling parlor.” She said. “You’d spend all your money there.”

“Will we even have gambling parlors?” Olivia asked. “They’re going to be kind of pointless without money.”

“Who said we weren’t going to have money?” Lia asked, tilting her head to the side.

Olivia blinked. “I just assumed everyone was gonna…you know, share everything like we do now.”

“I figured we’d keep society as similar as possible to how things are now. Or, well, as similar as possible to how they were when Rose was in charge. Obviously, I’m going to force large strides in equality and basic rights and welfare and all that, but people are going to want leisure items and entertainment, and there might as well be some standardized currency for people to use for those.”

“I guess that works?” Olivia said. “Seems like there are going to be problems with it, but…there are problems with everything, so we can deal with it later, I guess?”

“Yeah, it’s not worth thinking about right now.” Lia confirmed. “That’s a problem for future us.”

“I’ve brought the cocoons.” Rose announced, walking up to Lia. There was a flower behind her that was trailing her movements while holding two large cocoons. “Two of each thing we’ve encountered. Uh, of each common thing we’ve encountered, anyway. And no rats, since I figured we can’t spare them at the moment.”

“Yeah, good call.” Lia replied. “There’s no guarantee they become rat-related anyway, so this is definitely a low-priority use.”

“Um, is there something special about rats that I don’t know about?” Robin asked. “Seems like kind of a random thing to want.”

“I have an ability that makes swarm creatures that are ratlike more powerful.” Lia explained. “It’s a holdover from when I was a rat for a while.”

“You…were a rat.” Robin said flatly. “Why? How?”

“The race was more powerful, and it was better than being a gross bug thing.” Lia replied. “You can change really dramatically once you evolve.”

“I was a rat too.” Rose volunteered. “And now I’m a plant, kinda. It seems that the sorta things you do before evolving have an effect on what you can evolve into.” She paused, frowning. “Or…a joke or pun, in my case?”

“Oh.” Robin said. “Um…is there a reason you didn’t add rats to us, make us more powerful?”

“That’s not the sort of thing I was comfortable with.” Lia said. “Not with my family. I wanted you guys to be as close to your normal selves as possible, at least at first. If you want to branch off into something else, then be my guest, but…well, it’s honestly not that big a deal. It gives you like…a free evolution’s worth of strength max, and you can pretty easily make up the difference.”

“Well, whatever.” Robin said. “I’m happy with how I am now, so I’m fine with not having that extra stuff if it means I get to stay…me.”

“Thought so.” Lia said. “Now, did you find any other objects you think would be useful for a scout?”

“Not really?” Robin said. “But how do you guys put it into a cocoon like that? I couldn’t figure it out.”

“It’s a little different every evolution.” Rose said. “When I was a rat, the modeling wax came out through my teeth. Now it comes out through my thorns. Perhaps it might come out through your claws or something?”

“Mine comes out through these little glands on my wrist.” Lia volunteered. “Just sorta like…will it to happen while grabbing something and it should. Almost like using a Skill except…not?”

Robin grabbed one of the sets of boots she had dropped. “So, if I – woah!” She jumped slightly as modeling wax began to flow out from her wrists to cover the boots. “Cooool. I can just…do this now?”

“Yup.” Lia said. “Just have to keep your stores of modeling wax up, which shouldn’t be a problem if you’re eating regularly.”

“Nice.” Robin said appreciatively. “That’s cool. So, with that and those bodies Rose just brought, is that the last of it?”

“I think so.” Lia said. “We just gotta mash the cocoons together and we’ll be off to the races.”

“Can I do the honors?” Robin asked. “For one of them, anyway.”

“It’s probably best if Lia does it.” Rose said, unloading one of the cocoons from her flower. “The available conversion options are influenced by what the person doing the conversion is capable of, and Lia just has more options available to her. She was, formerly, part of a race that specialized in conversion, so she’s rather uniquely suited for the job.”

“Can I do one, then?” Olivia asked. “My race mentions converting stuff in it.”

Rose thought about that for a moment. “Maybe when you’re stronger and have evolved a couple more times.” She said. “Just to be safe.”

“Eh, there’s no harm in seeing the differences between us and deciding based on that.” Lia said. “If it’s not a significant difference, I don’t see why they can’t do the converting. It doesn’t really make a difference who does the actual converting, you know?”

“I…suppose. I’m just worried about wasting materials, you know?” Rose said. “With us beginning expeditions to the Spine soon…”

“A small difference in power between monsters that are already likely much, much weaker than what they’ll be facing isn’t going to make a huge difference.” Lia said. “This is really just for fun, with the possibility of getting something nice out of it, so being optimal isn’t hugely important.”

“If you say so.” Rose said reluctantly.

“I’ve consolidated the cocoons!” Chrys said. “Let’s get started!”

“Alright, I’m going to look at this and read off everything I see.” Lia said. “Olivia, you open up the other one for conversion too, but don’t do anything yet, just see what’s different from mine. When you’re done, we’ll have Robin do the same.”

“Got it!” Olivia said cheerfully, placing a hand on one of the cocoons. “Alright, the menu’s up, ready when you are!”

Lia nodded, and began to look through the options available to her.

“I…um, don’t don’t have a lot of that.” Olivia said. “I only have six ability draws, nothing to do with magic, no blink, analysis, that psi-shielding thing, extra draws, or dimensional storage. I, um, do two extra things, knighthood and sword training. What about you, Robin?” She asked, stepping away from the cocoon.

Robin stepped up to the cocoon, touched it, then shook her head. “I’m missing most of the cool stuff and I only have three draws. I’m definitely not good for this.”

“I think I’ll just let Lia do both.” Olivia said. “Seems like we’ll get something nicer from that.”

“Are you sure?” Lia asked. “I really don’t mind letting either of you try.”

“I’m sure.” Robin said. “I just need to evolve and get stronger if I want to do this sort of thing, right?”

“Basically.” Lia said. “If you want to specialize more in converting things, I’ll have things we’re going to convert into weak stuff brought to you, so you can do it a bunch. That’ll…probably get the message through to the system, and you should be more than capable of producing drones or foot soldiers.”

Robin paused for a moment. “If I do that and don’t like my options, can I keep going with what I’m doing now? It won’t be a waste?”

“Right now, we’re mostly letting unenlightened members of the swarm do the converting for drones and workers, so no, it’s not a waste. Even if it was, it’s a waste I’m more than willing to make.”

“Actually, we should have your siblings start handling most of that sort of conversion, now that I’m thinking about it.” Rose said. “It provides risk-free EXP, it’ll be a nice way to start leveling them up before we send them out against the monsters in this dungeon.”

Lia frowned. “Are you sure sending them out to fight is a good idea? What if they get hurt?”

“We’ll make sure they’re under strict supervision.” Rose said soothingly. “I understand where you’re coming from, but with us planning to expand out into the Spine soon…I think this is the safer in the long run. There’s no telling what could happen out there, and we can easily control the conditions here in the dungeon. I did this sort of training all the time before, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work now.”

“You’re the expert, I guess.” Lia said. “I just worry.”

“I know. But remember that you fought some of these monsters while you were a lot weaker than your siblings are now, without backup. They’ll be fine as long as someone’s there to keep an eye on them.”

Lia nodded. “Alright. Olivia, you still sure you don’t want to convert one?”

“I’m sure.” Olivia said. “I was just curious about the process.”

“If you say so.” Lia said, shrugging. “Alright, I’m gonna do it now.” She began the conversion, and after a moment the results popped up.

“It’s…like mom.” Lia said. “Kinda. It’s a bee kobold that is, apparently, really good for dealing with magic. Magic resistance, psi-shielding, stealth and burrowing, and an emphasis on the bow.”

Rose’s eyes lit up. “Really? That’s about as good as we could have hoped for. We should consider enlightening her, she’ll make a great addition to our crew. Something with that much power doesn’t deserve to be a mindless creature.”

“I…I don’t know.” Lia said. “It also sounds like a good candidate for an expedition into the Spine, and I’m still not sure about sending a person there.”

That had to be Connie’s doing. “Um…actually, let me get back to you on that. I have some…research to do.” Lia said, giving Rose a meaningful look. “After we do the second thing here, that is.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “I see. Carry on, then.”

Lia turned to the other cocoon, placed a hand on it, briefly scrolled through the options to make sure they were the same, then began the conversion.

“Jackpot!” Lia said, pumping a fist. “This is perfect for us!”

“Get something good?” Robin asked curiously. “What is it?”

Lia read them the race description. “Honestly, we should do this random draw thing more often, we’ve only ever really lucked out with it. As long as we’re picky about what we put into the mix, I think it’ll come out net positive. Yeah, it’ll be more expensive than most conversions, and we might not have fine control over what we get, but if we’re just throwing stuff against the wall anyway, then I like this a lot.”

“This…does merit some further testing.” Rose admitted. “Perhaps I was overly harsh on this system.”

“Or we’re just getting lucky.” Robin said. “That happens.”

“Quite. That’s why we need to test it more.” Rose said. “Hard to say until we have a larger sample size.”

“Right, I’m going to go do that research I mentioned.” Lia said. “I’ll catch you all later. Um, Rose, will you go organize an expedition and go kill some stuff? I need like…five hundred ish more Blood Money if my hunch is right.”

“Got it.” Rose said.

“What should we do?” Robin asked. “Since Rose is gonna be gone and all.”

“Stay here and read or something, take a break. Just…don’t go anywhere without supervision. I know it doesn’t really seem like it, but this place is a dungeon, and it is dangerous, so you need to be careful.”

“Fine.” Robin grumbled. “C’mon Olivia, let’s go.”

“Okay!” Olivia chirped, bounding towards Robin.

May I ask what this research is? I assume it has something to do with the gods, since you’re being so vague about it, is that right? Rose asked telepathically.

Yeah. I just got a window saying that the Dimension of Discounts was having a sale for a “Soul of a Great Explorer”, for one thousand Blood Money. Lia explained. Even after the spending spree I did for this conversion, I’ve still got like fifteen hundred thanks to the work that’s being done on clearing the other dorms, so I want two thousand so I can buy two.

If I’m right, these souls, if there even is more than one, are people who actively want to be exploring the Spine, and I wouldn’t feel bad sending them in if that’s what they want.

I see. Rose replied. I’ll get to it, then.

Thanks, Rose. Lia said.

Don’t mention it. Rose said, flashing Lia a smile. I’m going to get going now, I’ll see you when I’m back.

Lia nodded. See you then. She replied, turning and opening up a portal to the Dimension of Discounts. She stepped through, feeling a blast of cool air as she crossed the threshold into the store.

“Hi there, here about the sale?” Connie asked, giving Lia a big smile.

“Yeah.” Lia said. “I’ve got a couple of questions. First, are there multiple souls up for offer?”

“Eight in total.” Connie said. “We got several requests for this one.”

“Ah, so would I be correct in assuming that these are people who wanted to explore the Spine and asked for this?”

“Bingo.” Connie replied. “It’s a mix of people who wanted another shot at it after failing, and people who would have loved to try to explore the Spine and never got the chance. This is about the only chance they’re going to get, so I figured I’d make a little sale.”

“Okay, so…how does this work? Do I just pay you and then the next time I enlighten someone it’ll be those souls or…?”

“Whatever works. If you just tell me how many you want, I’ll subtract the Blood Money at the time of enlightenment, since you only have enough for one on your right now.”

“Let’s do that, then. I want two for these cocoons I’m converting now, and if I want more then I’ll…I don’t know, mention that in my thoughts when enlightening someone?”

“Yeah. that works.” Connie replied. “Anything else you need?”

“No, that’s all.” Lia replied, turning around and heading back through the portal.

“Thanks for you patronage!” Connie called out.

Lia emerged back into the dungeon, somewhat at a loss for what to do. After a moment, she decided to go check in on her siblings, see what they were getting up to. Hopefully they had found something that could keep her entertained as well, but if not…she had picked up some steamy books for herself, and she was…curious to see how things worked between two girls. She had some ideas, but she had to know for sure.

Fighterman481

As with Lia's mom, the monsters in this chapter were randomly generated, though there were a couple of tweaks (such as rerolling an ability that already had a better version rolled, and rerolling the second monster entirely after it turned out near identical to the first), but by and large it was random chance.

I was as surprised as Rose with how well they turned out. I was fully expecting to get garbage but everything just worked together a lot better than I thought it would.

Anyway, only other thing I have to talk about is the sale. Could those have just been given to Lia? Sure, but also...why give for free what could be sold? That's what Connie would argue, anyway.

That's all for me, though, next time we'll probably get to see the end result of those conversions and their enlightenment, so...look forward to it, I guess?

And, as always, thanks for reading!