Mana creature in its own zone.

I have given up hope that I would be able to understand the carvings in the stone. Neither manipulating mana in or around it nor any of my creatures interactions cause a reaction in it.

While trying new things with the carvings, I had also noticed that I scared a squirrel away with one of my constructs. It had come up to the border of the area I can sense, but I had a construct right at the edge of my domain to scare one of the insects back, so I also scared the squirrel away.

I have noticed that the slight increase in mana that I have attained due to having a positive stream of insects enter my domain, has caused a slight increase in my cognitive abilities. I guess the same is true for me as it is for anything else, more mana makes me better.

This presents a chance to me that I would love to be able to grab. More cognitive ability means that I can better multitask. If I had been able to focus more on my border constructs, I had been able to let the squirrel in, while still doing the tests on the carvings.

I also spend my day checking on the pregnant rabbit to ensure that everything is still progressing without issues there.

Now I will spend the rest of my day consciously guiding my constructs to only interfere at the last second when something tries to leave my area rather than having them around consistently.

I have to assume that something is going on with my neighbors because within a few hours of the last squirrel which I chased away, a new one has now entered. I think this is a clear case where my neighbor's loss is my gain.

Anyway, as the squirrel enters my area, all I have to do to keep him here is keep doing what I have been doing with the constructs, and it is just a matter of time before it runs into the tree where my spider assassin is hunting. I would also like to keep the squirrel alive, but I guess my zone right now isn’t big enough for both of them.

I can already see that this squirrel is stronger than the last family’s individuals that came by. I hope that with the addition of its mana to my own pool, I will finally be back at the level I was when I just arrived here. Before having to use mana to fill this area up again as well as loss to the neighboring zone.

It just takes me fourteen scares to keep the squirrel present before he meets my little assassin spider and provides its sweet energy to me.

Funnily enough, in that timeframe, it had come across my spider stalker multiple times, but the spider stalker lives on the ground and just isn’t fast enough to catch anything built for speed like the squirrel or a rabbit.

I also check in on the differences between my spider stalker and my spider assassin. As my spider assassin has killed two squirrels now, it has absorbed for more mana than its counterpart has. This means that even in the parts which are receiving less focus, it is catching up to the assassin.

This is a result of specialization I had not foreseen happening. Yes, it needs more mana to enhance the specialized parts, but being able to catch more or larger prey compensates for that to a point. My spider assassin now has two thirds more mana overall, meaning that soon its fangs will be equal to those of the specialist, despite only getting half the percentage points of mana gained.

When I had thought of the four paths that my spiders now take, I had focused solely on output trying to make it so that intake being equal, more benefits would be gained. However, I had neglected the input part of the equation, and obviously, that was a mistake.

My stalker would do much better in an environment where targets are slow-moving but with higher defenses. My assassins fangs might not be able to pierce their hides, and it would take a long time for something slow to get within its range, but my stalkers would then have a clear upper hand.

I take this time to also evaluate my other spiders.

My spider webber is my most prolific small prey hunter. It has the most extensive web which catches most insects. As it then also spends the most significant percentage of its gain into webmaking, it then finds even more prey and gets into a good cycle. I just can’t have too many of these spiders or I would not have any insects left. On the other hand, it would save me from having to spend mental capacity scaring insects back into my zone.

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My spider defender, similarly to my spider stalker seems to be built for something that is not present here. I would imagine that should we be getting more insects from stronger areas the defenders increased physical abilities would be needed to get the kill.

Perhaps then the webber’s fangs would not be able to penetrate a stronger exoskeleton, and then a living insect would just be stuck in its web where a defender would be able to get the kill.

I think that I can safely conclude that in my area the spider assassin is the champion of quality and the webber dominates in quantity. The stalker and defender are around for when I gain more ground and by extension, a broader diversity in fauna.

What I should also do is think of paths in stages. This would take more of my faculties, so it requires me to grown myself too, but I can tell that my spiders need to grow in stages.

The assassin spider is an excellent example of this. Right now its prey is relatively week, and with the low diversity, there is no threat here. However, should I grow extensively and attract a wider variety of creatures my assassin would need to first get to a point where it can survive being hunted itself.

I would think that a natural progression path would be newborn spider, into a hunter based on wanting to physically hunt rather than trap them. Here it would still be a bit of an allrounder with enough defense and speed to survive but enough killing power to kill weak prey.

If the spider then survives long enough, if its surroundings produce fast but weak prey, it should go the assassin route. It would then have enough defenses to survive, as it has proven by surviving, and would consequently become more of a killer of increasingly formidable prey entering its hunting grounds.

If the spider, however, is in an area with slower but more sturdy prey, or perhaps it has more enemies around, it should focus more on physical attributes. It would then maybe not be able to kill the large prey entering its region, but it would be able to catch food and survive its enemies.

What this takes is for me to keep an eye out on all living beings; hopefully I can do this subconsciously to an extent, and guide their path. When I see that a newborn spider is increasingly sending mana to growth, that means that I will set it on the spider hunter path. If I would see more mana go to the spinnerets that would indicate it is going the webmaker way.

For webmakers, running is close to impossible so for defenses from beasts hunting it, it would need more mana in its exoskeleton. As long as it survives and has a web, it should be able to grow. It would slowly increase the size of its web, increasing catches.

What I now also need to do is decide at what point I would switch a spider from the second step to the third step.

I am also not clear on how the first to second step works. I have yet to see anything significant be born in my zone of influence. I don’t count things like maggots as they are born in a mana abundant animal which has died, and it is hard to see how this would not lead to different circumstances from anything else.

I have however noticed that a spider, for instance, starts off with what I call one point of mana when it has not enhanced anything, and I don’t think it is prudent to offer any guidance before it has expanded by about ten percent and chosen its path.

As I don’t think I am going to get new spiders anytime soon, and I don’t think any of my spiders are getting to a point where it needs to specialize more, I think it is time to expand on the paths that my other animals can take.

As my insects live such short lives with my spider's effectiveness and the added benefit of a new batch of rabbits about to be born with a clean slate, I think that my choice on which animal to design first is clear.

For any animal, survivability is divided between getting resources to live and not becoming such a resource to anything else.

For my rabbits, the grass is the only source of nutrition they are currently taking. They don’t even touch my flowers, let alone anything that can move.

As for hunters, the only thing around now that can threaten them would be my spider hunter if it were ever able to catch one or my spider assassin if it were to come down from its tree.

This means that I must design my rabbits for a hypothetical future with food sources I have not seen yet and threats that I can only imagine.

Looking at my current rabbits, I would imagine that for defense, the five main parts would be the following.

First would be fur for impact defense. Sending more mana here would either make it thicker or denser, both leading to more protection but might impact speed negatively.

Second would be eyes, ears, and snout which would allow it to notice predators sooner, and maybe even enhance its ability to find food.

Third would be its bones. Right now, the bones are relatively light and build for speed, but I would imagine that should one break the rabbit would immediately become a meal for its predator. Similar to what happened to the first squirrel that my spider assassin ate.

Fourth would be its legs. Right now this is my rabbits' most common defense. They are too fast for my spider stalker to catch and I would assume that this would hold true for many other predators.

Last and perhaps more situational would be its immune system. I can tell that inside my sick rabbit it is its blood that is fighting the disease, though unsuccessfully so perhaps if I were to send mana there my rabbit would be able to fight off the sickness and become healthy again.

As for food, I can also think of multiple improvements to make.

I can enhance its teeth so that it could potentially eat hardier plants should it encounter them. I can also improve their stomachs to widen the variety of foods that it would be able to absorb nutrients off. Perhaps improve its paws so that it can find roots of plants to eat too, and that would also strengthen its den making skills.

So many paths to take and so little information for me to go on for now. But first, it seems like my rabbit is ready to give birth.