The Green Sporeful Bloom project was not going well. In fact, the only progress it made was in the department of what didn't work, which, although an improvement over not knowing anything, still made The Core frustrated. It just wanted to have a perfect floor; couldn't the genes listen to it and reshape themselves to facilitate that?

  Regardless of its pleas, The Core's luck didn't magically get better, resulting in a never-ending cycle. It tried something new; the gene it fixed did something to the bloom: the color didn't change to green, the plant was discarded, and a new one took its place—repeat. Not only could a successful attempt put a stop to this cycle, however, but an invader entering its halls could do so too, albeit temporarily.

  That is exactly what happened; it seemed the humans had finished writing the new contract about their alliance. The ones that entered now were exactly the same as the ones that entered before; even the positions were the same, with the Crazy One being the one in front while the others were standing, or more accurately, sitting in their own cultural way, behind her.

  The Core wondered if it was a show of status or if that was how negotiators were simply treated. Although that wouldn't make sense; if somebody is good at their job, why risk them by putting them at the front? The invaders can't create a new one to fulfill the exact same role like it can. Or maybe it wasn't good at the job? But if so, why not let it do other tasks instead of sticking to this one? It was a good fighter, from what The Core glimpsed.

  Regardless of its thoughts, The Core, which it didn't voice—partly because it didn't want to potentially upset somebody whose decision could impact its progress but mostly because it was given the new contract by the same human who gave it the previous one too.

  Was the human the most important one here, then? Is being in possession of the contract seen as a privilege or danger? The answer depended on how valued and known this alliance attempt was.

  The Core really wanted to know who the leader was; that way, it would have a reference point for later interactions if they did emerge. Unfortunately, it just didn't have enough information to make an educated guess, let alone come to a definite conclusion. Since this wasn't currently important, it decided to shift focus and read the scroll that was currently floating in the air, unfolded. Did the invaders sense the mana holding it up? They should. The Crazy One mentioned the "strange" energy in its dungeon, and if it could, then the others should as well.

  The only one who was having this much trouble was The Core, which was specially designed for one thing only, which currently frustrated it a bit, but it was planning to work around that limitation eventually. The Core then started reading the contract, a bit later than planned since it got distracted by questions that weren't pressing but interested it nonetheless.

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  The new contract detailing how the alliance would work pleased it much more than the previous one; the changes the humans made were what it explicitly asked for. They also erased the part about coming to its aid when it asked; instead, written in the part where it used to be was a very detailed and built sentence that it couldn't make head or tail of. A lot of the sentences were rewritten to contain more words, but the meaning got across, even if it had to reread them a few times to accomplish that. That one was the only thing it couldn't grasp the true meaning of, so it decided to ask.

  The Core used mana to highlight the complicated sentence; if the humans could sense it, they would understand what it wanted them to explain.

  The Crazy One looked up from its position, and its eyes locked onto the part The Core highlighted, but the other humans merely glanced at the Crazy One, who sprang into action and immediately reined themselves in, causing The Core's impromptu experiment to be for naught. The Crazy One stared at the words for a moment before locking eyes with the air above the contract—a futile endeavor to meet eyes with something that does not possess them, although maybe the eyes of its monsters could count as its own?

  "The sentence explains that, unfortunately, we are not in a powerful enough position to protect someone who will not protect us in turn, for which we are deeply regretful," the human said.

  The Core wondered briefly why they couldn't phrase it that way instead of going for whatever it was they did, but decided that it didn't need to know such intricacies of human culture. It finished reading and came to the conclusion that this contract was something it was willing to sign; however, doing so would be difficult as it did not have a name. Should it just come up with one on the spot? Or maybe use The Core instead? What about using its Dungeon name to sign this? But it didn't have that either.

  Then it noticed that the contract wasn't signed either, nor was the previous one. Yet the humans claimed that it was; maybe they had a different way of signing things that it could use?

  It asked.

  "Place your qi signature on the bottom of the parchment, esteemed one," The Only One answered.

  Qi signature? That sounded awfully similar to a mana signature; perhaps the energies were more alike than previously thought. Although qi differing on an individual-to-individual basis wasn't that surprising, considering that miasma could do that too. It just wasn't something that The Core considered important since it couldn't control or sense miasma as well; it only knew anything about it from the manual rather than having experienced its by-product effects itself. The answer also explained why it couldn't see the signatures of the Elders; they were made of qi.

  It inquired.

  "...Yes," the reply came a beat late, as if the Crazy One had to think of something first. Probably what mana was, considering it never named this strange energy that the human was investigating when it first entered its halls.

  The Core proceeded to do what it was told to do, finally putting an end to its interactions with humans, hopefully for many years to come, should things unfold in a direction that it wished they would.