Valterra watched his mice lie down before turning to his notifications. He had dismissed them to check on his dungeon and he was glad he had. He caught the tail end of the fight with the monster and witnessed his guardians’ victory. He hadn’t quite known what he was doing when he reforged his mouse guardian’s sword and created his cloak but he thought the items had turned out great.

  Amazing in fact. Now he had another way to upgrade his creatures or protect his core. There was also the matter of the new Framework he had gotten but he dismissed the notification. He would get to it later. It was time to see what the system had in store for him.

  Valterra looked at the notifications, stunned. So he was like the High Council now? And they had adopted him? Valterra felt a flood of warmth overtake him at the idea. It touched a part of him that he didn’t know was empty and filled him with a desire to achieve more than he already had. From his memories, he had a hazy idea of what adoption was. It was a long drawn-out process by which a child became the responsibility of another who entered into the process willingly.

  That individual or pair of individuals chose to take care of, nurture, and see to the growth of the child. That the High Council had chosen to adopt him spoke to his soul and reassured him that everything would be alright and that they would watch over him. He felt…comforted. Even as that feeling spread inside him he felt the pinging of yet more notifications and he honed in on them eagerly.

  Ahh, so his new Mouse Guards were already at the point where they could reach the next stage. That was good news and something that pleased him greatly despite the loss of one of the mice. One of the mice in particular caught his eye as he went ahead and chose the Mouse Soldier option for the first three.

  Another Unique Framework meant that it was the first of its kind and only available to his dungeon in particular. He knew the mouse that unlocked the Framework. The little guy was the first of the mice to be born and had become attached to the older mouse. It was he who took care of the needle many times, cleaning it with moss. It seems his devotion had paid off and the Core looked forward to seeing the results.

  That line of thinking interested the Core because it could mean that there was some way to influence future Ascensions. He would have to think about it more later. Valterra selected the Ascension, turning to the next notification and his metaphorical eyes went wide.