Awakening Chronicles

Chapter 28

I appeared over the battlefield that I saw in my connection to one of the Hiveminds and saw that the Ancient Ones were cleaning up the field. There were a few small skirmishes here and there as an Orc would refuse to die. But overall, it looked like the Ancient Ones were overwhelming victorious. I could see some facsimiles of Orcs prowling the area and killing off the wounded on the ground. The only way though I could tell they were not the real thing was the number of spores that were cascading down their flesh. Some looked almost like the same thing while others were rotting and falling apart as they walked.

I grimaced and watched as they started dragging away some of the broken and shredded corpses while the nearly whole ones would twitch before shuddering violently and stood up and joined the ranks of their zombified brethren. I stared at the carnage for a while and watched as the battlefield slowly started to return to its previous state baring large puddeless of green and red blood. Luckily nothing noticed me while I was floating above the battlefield. I was still in my human form since I didn't feel like shedding it just yet.

I brought up my menu and looked through my host options and made sure my Progenitor status was active on my host. It wouldn't do to be attacked by these things, mostly since I wasn't sure what would the result would be. I dismissed the screen and brought up the species template to give it a quick read to know what I was dealing with.

Racial Template: Ancient Ones

Racial Description; From the depths of darkness rises a hunger that can't be contained. Fear for the end has arrived.

Base Racial Stats: N/A *

Racial Substats: N/A*

*Due to the nature of the race, they do not have definite stats, their stats a variable based on whatever race an "Individual" that was consumed by a hive or spore would have.

Innate Racial Passives:

Extreme Adaptability: This species can adapt to almost any environment if given enough time and resources.

Scaling Intelligence: This species starts with a primal intelligence and can only gain knowledge through consuming other sapient life.

Commanding Presence: Unlike other species of the same kind, size does not denote a commanding unit. The higher the level of an individual, the more of their lower-tier brethren they can control.

Fragmented Hivemind: Even though this species is classified as a gestalt consciousness, most individuals retain their personality and individuality if the hive consumed them; the only limiting factor is that they are brainwashed into serving the hive leader unyieldingly. This also makes them a fragmented species as Hive leaders are not subordinated to each other, often leading to power struggles amongst themselves. If an individual is separated from the hive, then they will lose all sense of intelligence and attempt to make a hive but will revert back to a primitive state.

Mana starved: Due to the nature of the species, they will almost never have access to magic unless a being with magical affinity is consumed by the hive. Even then, there is a very high chance that the magical affinity could be lost.

One of Us: Due to a unique biological system, this species can infect any known species in the universe, making them much more of a threat than any of the related species.