So not much progress has happened on the learning front; those pesky ants still seem to be moving at supersonic speeds, I have no minions, and I have no idea what caused my weird expansion. Don’t get me wrong, after getting over the fear of being discovered my out of mind dungeon expansion experience turned out to be beneficial.
My mana absorption has increased significantly so I could afford to experiment with my mana. I felt more clearheaded than before so I was more productive. And without any imminent danger looming over me, I was free to learn. However much time I spent learning did have some results.
Most of my time was spent learning how to manipulate mana directly and there was some success in that regard. I can actually make mana move now. Compared to using mana pulses, my precision is much better when I manipulate mana directly. My precision is about 3 times better. Of course in the grand scheme of things my control is still atrocious. If I tried to move a bucket of mana a meter only a few tablespoons would actually make it. Also it is slower and more taxing to use than mana pulses. Furthermore almost lethal levels of mana loss occurs each time when I practice manipulating mana directly. I actually stopped practicing because as my control improved the amount of mana lost rose as well. But hey progress is progress.
And with my increased mana precision, I was able to make some other break throughs.
I learned how to make windows!!!!
…I know doesn’t seem like a huge accomplishment. And voice 1 figured it way before me. But hey
Blue screens for life!
Feel the blue
It took a little trial and error to figure out how to make those little buggers but knowing they were related to the crystal filaments gave me a starting place for research. On a side note, Voice 1 was right about making an effort. Once I took more time to understand myself, I did actually start to understand myself more. I will give him that much credit. Just that much credit.
Blood is the best color to paint the world
“This is why I don’t respect you.”
Voice 1: “Fear breeds respect.”
“And yet you still fail to inspire fear. Hentai, Twinkies, and Teddy Bears are scarier. What does that say about you? You have a great future as comic relief but supreme overlord of the world doesn’t look likely.”
Voice 1: “… I have planning to do.”
Holy shit... I think I won that round. Score one for me. Of course it would be better if I could find a way to mute the voices all together, but you make do with what you have. And I have the power of windows now. And now, I am starting to feel like I am advertising for Microsoft. Anyway making these magical blue screens actually isn’t that hard. I figured it out even though instructions were not included, thanks for that Universe. But I still prevailed, my reign can’t be stopped.
Apparently all I need to do is have a concrete thought while supplying mana to a specific filament. The filament then saves that thought onto the filament with mana like a photograph… but for thoughts. And when I send enough mana into the filament it echoes out whatever I saved there. How the mana can translate whatever I am thinking into a format that I can still understand later remains a mystery. It’s definitely weird and I don’t really understand it that much. There is a downside to creating windows in that they require mana. Speaking of which.
Note to self: Find a way to torture Voice 1 for wasting mana to create a table when I could have died from mana depravation.
This ability seems powerful though.
First of all, I seem to have more control over this ability than the voices. I can create as many of these windows as I want while Voice 1 has only made a handful of windows and Voice 2 hasn’t made any. Plus, I can overwrite any of the filaments that the voices have used so I don’t have to deal with spam about disemboweling people or praising myself. I did keep the table on how to rule the world though. What can I say, I am a nostalgic person. More importantly I am positive that I could do a lot more with this ability.
When I created a window, the “data” for the window was saved to whatever filament I was working with at the time. While experimenting several dozen windows were created. Naturally it became difficult to keep track of what each filament had saved to it. So I tried to create an archive of the locations of each filament and what was saved to it. And the archive exceeded my expectations. Instead of having a written description of each filament, it actually created a link to each of the filaments instead so I could directly access the information there. It was like a real archive from a website. I have a feeling that if I used more complex data I could actually create an advanced computer system. Personal Status Window, I am coming for you.
Without better mana control its difficult to get the filament to contain any detailed information so I can’t make any more progress on that front for now. The next area of research was dungeon customization; specifically finding a way to seal up the microscopic tunnels littered throughout my crystal shell. You know so that I can get rid of that threat to my wellbeing. Progress was very mixed in that regard.
I am not entirely sure why but when I control mana directly the dungeon crystal can be actively controlled as well. Before when using mana pulsing my control over the shape of my crystal self was passive, but with direct mana control it was clay in my hands. With just some willpower and a bit of mana, that ant sized entrance was sealed away. And chaos descended after that.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
When the entrance was sealed away, my mind started going fuzzy and the amount of mana lost to the surroundings rapidly increased. The mana drain overtook my mana regeneration and began eating at the precious reserves of mana I had saved up. Rapidly losing consciousness and facing imminent death again, I promptly reopened the tiny entrance to the surface. My mental faculties were restored and my mana loss returned to their normal levels.
End result, I can close the entrance. And that opportunity comes at a record bargain, death. I decided to not to fuck with closing the entrance from then on. So… yeah, that avenue of research didn’t really create any useful developments. After that endeavor I moved onto the last topic I could study, how to create minions.
And that brings us to the present. I am still unsure how to create minions. Without a dungeon store, I can’t magically spawn monsters. I don’t have any dead bodies to work with in the dungeon. So far only ants have periodically entered my dungeon, none of them have died inside and when I try moving filaments together in an attempt to squish one those supersonic bastards flicker away. I have tried inserting mana into the ants but again they move too fast and are gone before I can see any effects.
Right now I am at a roadblock with getting minions. Until whatever steroids those ants have been taking wears off I am going to need a lifeform that moves much, much slower to experiment on. The ideal candidate would some type of plant life, since baring any magical properties plants can’t move from their original spot. The problem is right now my little entrance is a little too small. And even if fertilized seeds or spores made it into the entrance, there wouldn’t be any room to grow.
So if I want to attract any plant life I will need to expand that little tunnel and make the entrance bigger. Essentially I would be exposing myself to more danger so that I can try to learn how to build defenses so that I can protect myself from danger. It’s a bit of contradiction I know. But I am out of options, and I am not making any more progress with minions. Creating minions is the last area I can still research with my current capabilities. Without any defenses I will probably be murdered if I expand too much.
Yes in all honesty, I could just be content with what I have and stay moderately safe. But I can’t do that. I can’t sit around playing it safe. I can’t be lazy. That’s just taking my fate out my own hands. I have done enough of that already. If I played it safe and do nothing, then I would just have to hope that no finds me otherwise I am dinner on a plate. More importantly, I won’t learn anything. I doubt I would find out anything more about what happened to me, where I am, and how I can reach my family. So I have to move forward. I have—
Voice 1: “Are you done with your pep talk, yet? Ripped entrails on a stick, how many times are you going to keep doing that background explanation? Did you give yourself a nice motivational speech listing out your reasons? Just hurry up and get on with it. Find a way to get some minions so that we can purge the unclean”
“Hey don’t be sore just because you lost that verbal exchange.”
Voice 1: “Come on, come on. We should kill people, not time.”
Voice 2: “While time spent, maintaining enlightenment is always important, the world has yet to truly experience such divine grace. Without knowledge of your power, how dreadful must their lives be.”
“Alright, alright already. Guys calm down. I will bring us closer to death.”
Voice 2: “Death is powerless against our cause.”
(sigh) I am getting really tired of sighing so much. (sigh) Alright, when I found out who or what ever is responsible for putting me in this situation, I will deliver the mental ass kicking of the century. I am at my limit with dealing with so many life threatening choices on what seems like a daily basis. And someone deserves a metaphysical beat down for this.
Under the influence of my mana, the tunnel and the entrance it leads to expanded greatly. Still cautious about deadly intruders I kept the entrance smaller than the rest of the tunnel. The soil around me was shifted outwards the crystal spur touching the surface transformed into a hollow cone shape. Bringing my mana reserves to near zero expanded the tunnel until it was 2 meters in diameter at the base of the tunnel and half a meter in diameter at the entrance.
I took a risk and with risk comes reward. By expanding like that I was in contact with more soil and could absorb more mana. However, that pales in comparison to the mana I was receiving from the air now that it could occupy more space. Strangely enough the amount being lost the surroundings has increased. So my regeneration hasn’t increased as much as it should have but it still increased. You win some and you lose some.
Plus, some dirt fell in while I was expanding. There doesn’t seem to be any usable plant life in the dirt but at least my plants will have something healthy to grow in. Not only that the dirt also covers up my core so at least it isn’t visible from the outside.
At this point I can probably start considering myself an actual dungeon instead of just a dungeon core. I have an opening, a very small room and a dungeon core at the back. Its going to be necessary to distinguish between what’s now my dungeon walls and what is my dungeon core. For now, let’s just say anything within half a meter of my fleshy interior is my dungeon core and everything else will considered my dungeon walls.
At this point it’s a waiting game. Waiting for some type of plant to grow in my dungeon.
(An unknown amount of time later…)
Yeah… waiting around sucks balls.
Voice 1: “You could fantasize about gorging on the blood of an enemy after ripping open an artery.”
I think I am good.
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Another late chapter… OTL but I haven’t seen my family in 7 months so what can I say. Hopefully I can get another chapter out today or tomorrow since I seem to be relatively free. Regardless I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, feel free to leave any comments questions or criticisms. See you guys soon.