Ancient City Book I: Initial Corruption Survey

ANCIENT CITY RESEARCH FACILITY INITIAL SURVEY The substance spreading through these ruins has been designated: CORRUPTION Earlier records referred to it as “sculk.”

The growth appears both organic and mineral. It spreads through stone, feeds on nearby life, and reacts to sound with an accuracy unlike anything previously documented. It does not simply grow. It listens.

The Ancient City was discovered beneath one of the planet’s deepest cavern systems. Despite its age, large sections remain intact. Corruption covers nearly every exposed surface.

We first believed the growth consumed the city after its abandonment. Further excavation suggests the opposite may be true. The city may have been constructed to contain it.

The architecture surrounds a central structure unlike anything previously found on Drakonus B. Corruption grows toward it, but never completely covers its surface. The reason remains unknown.

Samples will be transferred to the upper containment wing. No specimen may leave this facility without written authorization. The growth has already spread beyond the original sample boundary.