In an opulent room guarded by multiple seals, including silencing ones, a meeting was being held.
"Elder Zhao still hasn't returned" An older man sitting on a silver throne with gold accents, carved with statues of foxes proclaimed.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that he won't return, we need to send a group of elders to fight off the potential threat and retrieve his body if it is found" An older woman with wrinkles and greying hair replied.
"And potentially make an enemy of a old monster?" Another older woman with a burn scar across half of her face, replied.
Both elders locked their eyes at each other and glared.
"How about we treat it as a expedition instead of a mission? The mushrooms Elder Wang brought me have already been used up and they were quite the curious find" Another Elder chimed in.
"Care to elaborate on that?" The man sitting on the throne asked.
The previously speaking Elder brightened up at that and started rambling: " Not only is it my first time seeing the species, not surprising considering we found a new type of energy, obviously the species within the cave that is saturated with it would have adapted to suit it, although this energy is-"
"Get to the point" The Throne sitting man cut him off.
"This Elder apologies, the mushrooms are filled to the brim with this energy and it is circulating by itself, contrary to Qi which rests inside the body unless one is a cultivator, they are also-"
"The mushrooms are cultivating?!" A previously silent Elder couldn't help but exclaim.
"...Not exactly, this new energy doesn't strengthen the body nor grows a new one to help with further cultivation but this One is sure that with enough research this One could find out more" The Rambling Elder's left eye twitched with annoyance during his speech.
A silence descended as everybody looked towards the throne, not daring to meet eyes with the man sitting on it.
"Very well, we will be sending another expedition to retrieve the mushrooms and other flora you might find useful, if Elder Zhao is found retrieve the corpse to bury but do not act hostile to the cave owner, whether that be the Beast Master or someone else" The Man sitting on The Throne decided.
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The Core couldn't help but feel elated as it looked at its experiments.
It had spent all its free time testing out the new version of the problematic organ and what it found excited it.
The More Advanced Organ as it took to calling the second version of the Problematic Organ was, as the name suggests, more advanced.
It could withstand pure Mana for a prolonged amount of time due to the energy veins situated inside of it; they made openings for the Mana to leave and enter as it pleased, making the decay less violent and quick.
The same should, in theory, happen to the body it was situated in, but the opposite happened instead and The Core's only conclusion was that something was wrong with the body.
After all, if it switched the problematic organs between the two human's, the second one would die slightly less violently while the first one decayed at a significantly delayed speed.
The Core still couldn't figure out what exactly was wrong with the rest of the body for the reaction to be so different but it had a suspicion that it had something to do with the lesser than ideal amount of lifespan it had when it was alive.
That was also surprising, usually when it got a blueprint the injuries didn't register and instead the prime of life of the individual was copied and immortalized in the design.
But it also had two blueprints of the same species so why should they follow the same rules as the others?
Although The Core couldn't lie and say it wouldn't appreciate it if they did subjugate themselves to the rules that it knew and didn't need to find out on the go.
Such as why did the more advanced version reject everything non-human so much more than its less complex form.
The Core looked at the first human writhing on the ground, it was dead yet the body still moved.
It really wanted to know how to keep one alive but that task seemed impossible in these circumstances where it didn't even know what exactly was wrong.
It knew that it had something to do with the different properties of mana compared to qi but nothing more.
The Mana inside the corpse was slowly exiting it, not content to be trapped inside it, but not rapidly enough to disintegrate it immediately, leading to rapid movement that will cease in 20 seconds.
What was the difference between circulating in humans and in other monsters? Is it because the vessels here are uniquely adapted to keeping Qi rather than Mana? The Core didn't understand but it wanted to know.
Sadly there was a deficit of new materials to work with, it couldn't tell the passage of time outside of the dungeon but it was certain that enough had passed for new sapients to come and die inside its halls.
Except they weren't coming and dying so it had to pass the time by doing the same experiments over and over again with little variation.
Although it did find out that the Advanced Problematic Organ reacts more vehemently to anything non-humanoid. Maybe it can do a severity scale?

