Tessa and Jennifer's teams returned around lunch carrying their kills, getting them hung off the side of the ship to drain their blood before grabbing a quick lunch. "Where's Chris and his team?" Tessa asked, frowning as she looked around.

"I have no idea." Greg shook his head. "Dude is teleporting everywhere and I can't keep up. I know they pissed off these giant, flying frog seal things at some point, but that's about it."

"Great." Tessa sighed. "Hopefully they'll be back for dinner, or we'll have to go track them down."

"Eh, I'm sure they're fine." Greg waved dismissively. "At least Chris is, and if something had happened to the others, he'd have told someone."

Tessa grunted in agreement as they finished their meal before heading out again. A few hours later they returned again with another kill, getting it hung next to the others. "Okay, I think we're done for the day." Tessa groaned. Hunting in the marsh was punishing. She needed to take a shower and lie down. Or just lie down… ugh, no, she needed the shower.

"Yeah, I don't think I can handle any more today." Emily agreed, slumping down onto the steps with a groan of her own.

"I don't think I can handle any more this week." Brittany grumbled. Trying to make her way through the marsh with one eye was a bitch. She had mud in places she didn't think possible!

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" Sophia asked hesitantly. The marsh was a pain, sure, but it was nothing compared to what she'd been through during the Demon war. The struggle to destroy the cannons, weathering the invasion, the fighting in the streets after the walls fell… compared to that, a bit of mud didn't really register.

"I have mud in my ass." Brittany growled.

"Yeah, but it wasn't really dangerous, was it?" Sophia retorted. "Not like the war. Dirty and exhausting, yes, but… I mean, there's worse things than being dirty and exhausted."

"That doesn't mean being dirty and exhausted doesn't suck too!" Brittany countered.

"Guys, there's no need to fight." Tessa interjected with a sigh. "How about we all just take some time to get clean and rest?" They all nodded in agreement, too tired to keep arguing, shuffling down to their rooms.

An hour or so later, Jennifer's group returned as well, Jennifer practically stomping through the ship as Victor and Debbie giggled. "How was your-" Sophia began.

"I don't want to talk about it!" Jennifer growled as they continued up to the deck with their kill.

As Jennifer's team cleaned up, the rest of them began to get dinner ready. "Is Chris's team still not back?" Tessa asked with a yawn, glanced towards the horizon where the sun was beginning to set. She was beginning to get legitimately worried about them. "The man can open portals! How can he be late?!?"

As if she'd summoned him, a portal opened on the deck and Chris stepped out, followed by Georgia and the rest. "I still say we could have kept going." Chris muttered. The sun was finally going away! Why would they have to stop when the conditions were just starting to improve?

"We can't do anything if we can't see anything!" Georgia protested.

"You don't need the sun to see!" Chris countered. "Honestly, I don't understand why you people need everything to be as bright as possible." Chris shook his head in exasperation.

"You- because the brighter it is, the more you can see!" Georgia exclaimed. "Light makes things visible! That's just how it works!"

"But too much light is blinding." Chris pointed out.

"We're not even close to that point!" Georgia retorted.

"Try saying that after looking at the sun." Chris commented.

"That's different! Just because the sun itself is blinding doesn't mean it makes everything else blinding!" Georgia replied.

"Well, it's pretty close." Chris shrugged. "Especially if it's something white."

Georgia scowled. "Not even!"

"Actually, I read once that people who live in environments with lots of snow need to wear special eye protection to keep from going blind from the reflected light." Carlos commented. "So he kinda has a point, though that is an extreme environment."

"Well, you all seem chipper." Tessa interjected with a slightly bitter grumble. "I take it your hunt went well?"

"Decent." Chris nodded. "We got about a dozen creatures. We would have gotten more, but it turns out a lot of the creatures in this marsh can fly." He added with a frown.

"Maybe if you hadn't insisted on going after packs, we still would have been able to grab them." Georgia grumbled.

"It's more efficient to go after packs." Chris replied.

"Not if they all get away!" Georgia retorted.

"Even then." Chris shook his head. "Packs are easier to find, since there's more of them and they can't hide as easily, while solitary creatures can take hours to track down. Even if we only get one or two from each group on average, we're ahead. Plus, there's a chance to get the entire group, which is like half a dozen or more at once. Huge boost."

"Wait, hold on, you guys have been hunting packs?!?" Tessa asked incredulously. "Don't you know how dangerous that is!?!"

"Not very, as long as everyone listens to orders." Chris commented, giving Georgia a look that caused her to flush in embarrassment.

"It really wasn't that bad." Jake agreed with a sigh. "We were never far from one of his portals, so the moment things took a turn, we just left."

"We left a lot of pissed off creatures out there." Carlos chuckled. "But yeah, we're fine."

Tessa gave them a skeptical look, before sighing. "Well, you all look to be in better condition than the rest of us, so I can't exactly disagree. Come on, dinner should be close to done."

While they headed to the dining room, Chris turned his attention to his world, focusing on the creatures he'd captured. Now that they were done, he could actually connect them to his world without worrying about the headache that would come from crushing their wills. The first creature he chose to break was the frog seal. Not only was it the most dangerous creature they'd encountered, but it also had a shadow ability that Chris was very interested in. Chris focused on the creature hiding in a hidden crevice, cloaked in shadow, before bringing his will down upon it. As soon as he didn't, the creature let out a croak of fear, thrashing around in a panic as Chris tried to force it to connect with his world. Chris's expression twisted as he increased the pressure, a headache building as the creature resisted with all it had, until finally it broke, leaving the creature blinking and confused while Chris nursed a pounding headache.

"Are you okay?" Georgia asked in concern, noticing his discomfort.

"Fine." Chris muttered through gritted teeth, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to ignore the pounding pain that felt like it was trying to crush his eyeballs. That had been harder than he'd thought it'd be. Why the hell would some random frog seal have so much will?!? He almost took a perverse pleasure in dissolving the thing, but even then, it was his subordinate now, and he wouldn't cause it pain unnecessarily. Unfortunately, he didn't have the mental strength to subdue any more creatures today, so it looked like this was all he was going to do.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"You don't look fine." Georgia muttered with a frown. Though now that she thought about it, could he even be anything but fine? He was some kind of god…

Chris shook his head, which he immediately realized was a bad idea. No sudden movements while his head was pounding like this. "It's a side effect from forcefully connecting a creature to my world." Chris explained as he winced. "Just a headache. Nothing to worry about."

"A headache?" Georgia blinked. "Uh… I can- just-" She suddenly placed her hand on his forehead, flushing as it began to radiate a cooling sensation. "Is- is that better?"

Chris paused. "It does, actually." It didn't get rid of the pain, but it did take the edge off. "Thank you."

"Uh… Georgia? What are you doing?" Sophia asked, giving her a weird look. She knew they'd said she should be nicer to Chris, but this was a bit of an overcorrection, wasn't it?

Georgia froze, her flush deepening as she pulled her hand back. "He- he has a headache." She muttered.

Sophia blinked, before turning to Chris with a frown. "You have a headache?"

"Yes, but it isn't a big deal." Chris began to nod, before wincing as he head twinged.

"So we have two healers available and you just put ice on his head?" Sophia commented, raising an eyebrow at Georgia and causing her to flush even deeper.

"If healing would work, I could take care of it myself." Chris pointed out. "There isn't anything causing the pain, it's just my… mental energy? Or maybe willpower? Whatever it is I use to force the connection to my world is depleted, and it gives me a headache. And since healing can't do anything about it, the cold was actually helping." He paused. "Though I guess I can make my own ice." He shrugged as an ice pack popped into his hand and he rested it against his head. It wasn't quite as effective as Georgia's ability, but it still helped.

Sophia glanced between Chris and Georgia, narrowing her eyes slightly as she tried to puzzle out exactly what was going on here. "I see." She sighed, shaking her head, deciding it was none of her business. They were both adults, they could do what they wanted.

Chris turned his focus back to his world as he realized a problem. How was he supposed to get to the mana in the creatures if he couldn't kill them and take their meat? Like, he could take the mana out just fine, but then what would he do with it? He paused as he studied some of the meat he'd gotten from Greg. There hadn't been much point in eating it, so he'd just been saving it. The mana was just sitting there, like an ability core… could he just add mana to it like he did with ability cores? Did he need the mana to be attached to it for it to work, or did he just need it to be there? There was only one way to find out, now wasn't there? Chris took all the mana from the frog seal, after assigning it all to the appropriate reserve, and put it in a single piece of meat. No problems there. Then he briefly popped into his world and ate it.

The moment he did, he felt the mana begin to make changes to his body, making him stronger, attuning him to… something. "Interesting…" Chris muttered as he returned to the ship, only to pause as the changes suddenly stopped. "Why- oh, right." Chris sighed. He wasn't in his world, so he couldn't access the system that let the mana make changes to his body. This whole 'I am my own reality' thing was beginning to get annoying. He still hadn't figured out how to level his race in System World. He was supposed to kill something, but his world didn't let him kill anything, so how was he supposed to earn the experience? And here, was he just going to have to sit in his world if he wanted to grow? That just sounded boring… but he couldn't access- Chris paused, before rolling his eyes. Right. He could do that.

Chris attached a portal to himself and pulled his world into reality, letting it settle around him as the mana began to work again, continuing to make its changes to his body. Would this work in the System World too? As long as his world recognized that he'd made the kill, it'd give him the energy, right? Chris sighed, shaking his head. At least it worked here. He paused again, frowning slightly as he noticed the mana begin to escape his body. Which, he supposed, made sense, he'd essentially stuffed an entire creature's worth of mana inside himself, and now he was oversaturated to shit. His body flat out refused to take in any more mana, and he was barely using a fraction of what was there, which he supposed emphasized how weak he was at the moment. He'd pumped fourteen thousandish points worth of mana into that piece of meat, and his body was only using a couple hundred of it, and most of that was going towards adjusting his body, not increasing his mana pool.

Georgia poked him. "You're doing weird things again, aren't you?" She muttered, frowning at him. The changes were slight, but she could see his expression twitching as he thought.

Chris cocked his head. "I suppose. Turns out I can just shove all the mana I want into a piece of meat. Not that it does me much good." He sighed. "Can only use a few hundred of it anyway."

Georgia froze while Sophia suddenly choked on her drink, falling into a coughing fit as she stared at Chris incredulously. "You can do what!?!" She'd been keeping an eye on the two of them, still curious about what was going on between them, not expecting to hear he could straight up make high mana density meat!

"I can put mana in meat?" Chris raised an eyebrow at her, before pausing. "Oh, that's probably pretty helpful, isn't it?"

"That is incredibly fucking helpful, yes!" Sophia exclaimed.

"He can do what now?" Victor interjected, leaning towards their end of the table as he noticed the commotion, the others leaning in as well.

"He can make high mana density meat!" Sophia exclaimed.

"No shit, really?" Carlos's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"How?" Jake asked with a frown.

"I take mana connected to my world, and I stuff it into the meat." Chris explained.

"Could you do this before?" Brittany asked, frowning herself.

Chris paused, before shrugging. "Probably. I don't need to know how the energy works, I just need to move it."

"Motherfucker!" Debbie cursed. "You mean we could have been doing this the entire time!?!"

"We should probably get the others." Rachel frowned. "This… will probably change our dinner plans."

"Fuck yeah it will!" Debbie exclaimed, jumping to her feet and heading for the kitchen. "Guys! Stop cooking! Chris has been holding out on us!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow at her as she barged in.

"He can put mana in meat!" Debbie continued in a mix of anger and excitement.

"He can what?!?" Tessa exclaimed, almost dropping a pan.

"Mana! In! Meat!" Debbie yelled, grabbing her and beginning to shake her. This time she did drop the pan.

"Chris!" Tessa called for him, just as he walked in.

"I figure you have something for me to do?" Chris raised an eyebrow, before glancing down at the fallen pan. "Probably shouldn't use those."

"How much mana do you have?" Tessa asked, ignoring his comment. "Actually, scratch that, follow me." She waved him after her, taking him over to the foredeck storage. "Can you take the mana from these bones?" She asked as they arrived.

"Absolutely." Chris nodded, opening a portal. "Just throw them in."

They both began throwing bones into his world, quickly joined by a few Gregs as well, until all the bones in the storage were in Chris's world. They then returned to the kitchen, where Chris shoved a couple thousand points worth of mana into each meal, and dinner was served. Everyone eyed the meal in either anticipation, hesitation, or some mix of both, Debbie not even waiting for everyone to be served, digging into her meal the moment it was set in front of her, while Jake waited until everyone else had tried it before taking a tentative bite.

"Huh." Victor grunted as he finished his meal. "Not sure what I expected. It isn't like you can feel mana working."

"Well, you took in about eight hundred points worth." Chris commented. "That should be doing something."

"Oh, I bet it is." Victor chuckled.

Most of the table took in about eight hundred, a few took in about four hundred, though for some, like him, the mana was more focused on physical changes than mana, and Travis took in a surprising sixteen hundred. Victoria confirmed what Chris was saying, watching the mana work using her point vision. "This changes things." Tessa muttered, drumming her fingers against the table. "I don't know how yet, but… it changes things."

"Well, for starters, I think it's clear that everything we hunt should go to Chris now." Georgia commented.

"At least half." Brittany agreed. "We still need something to trade with and if our meat is too good, people will get suspicious."

"Wait, suspicious is good, remember?" Greg pointed out. "If people think we have secrets, they're more likely to come after us. A secret source of super high-quality meat sounds like exactly the kind of thing people would be interested in."

"Unless they think we're the ones who got it, in which case they'd avoid us thinking we're secret archmages or something." Victor commented.

"True…" Greg muttered.

"We should keep it a secret, but spread rumors about it." Casey suggested. "That way people will think we got lucky, since anyone capable of getting meat like that wouldn't need to hide it."

"Guys! This isn't about hunting down assholes!" Tessa exclaimed, hitting the table as she stood to her feet. "This is about power! We could be archmages in just two years! As long as we get our spells to the right level… Do you guys understand how ridiculous that is?!?"

"More or less ridiculous than being an avatar of a building block of creation?" Chris asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Tessa blinked, falling back in her chair. "Okay, fair."