Hunter knew frustration.

They had thought that after building the twisted loop pattern out of mana one time, it would become easy to do the same more times. This did not happen. They had tried and tried and tried and rested and tried and tried and rested and tried. Every single try failed. Some were close, but some tries were not even that. In a few tries the pattern broke while they were still building it of thoughts, and that should have been the easy part.

It was fine. They still had the time and safety to try more. They were not hungry yet because they had eaten so very much after the greatest hunt of all hunts of all of time, and had snacked on a monitor after that. Hunter was frustrated, yes, but frustrated was not hurt, not really. It took a little time for a frustrated mind to heal and work right again, but it was different than a hurt body part.

As Hunter rested, a thing happened. Two very strong monsters came to the water. The monsters were of the wolf dragon kind, but were larger than the cubs had been, and stronger in a deep way that triggered Hunter's Advanced Survival Instinct. These were very, very dangerous. It was not possible to fight them. One was bigger than the other, and went right over and sensed Hunter with the wet part for smelling on its snout. The smaller wolf dragon, which was still quite big, followed. The two monsters stalked in a circle around Hunter and growled. Hunter felt small and afraid, and wanted badly to run and hide. But it was safe near water. The monsters could not hurt them. If they could, and wanted to, Hunter would already be dead. So why did they act to scare? There was only one answer. If Hunter was frightened and ran away from water they would no longer be safe and the monsters could kill. But why would such strong monsters want to hunt a hatchling Claw Centipede like Hunter? The only reason that made sense was that those knew Hunter had a core, and wanted to absorb it. It was a clever trick. It could work to make a monster with a core but without a mind good at thinking leave the safety of land near water. Hunter could think though, and stayed very still. Eventually, the wolf dragon monsters left.

Hunter knew fear, and could not focus on practice for a small time.

When their mind began to work right again, they decided to try other patterns. The twisted loop pattern was the first one they tried because it seemed easier to build of thoughts than the others. This turned out to be true. Every other pattern Hunter tried was harder. Still, after they failed on the last pattern they had not tried yet, a good thing happened.

[Mana Shaping has reached level 5]

It must be that failing in new ways helped the skill improve. This did not make sense to Hunter, but it was good to know. It was a strange skill. Other skills seemed to get better when done well, not badly or well. Perhaps this skill was different and one could learn from tries that failed. Perhaps that was the only way it could be learned at all, because it was too hard to succeed until one failed many, many times.

Hunter decided to practice the twisted loop that released a bolt made of mana when built correctly. It was the only pattern that seemed possible to learn well enough to do a useful thing. Hunter was not sure exactly how useful that thing was, but felt pretty sure that a monster hit by such a bolt would be hurt. This did not matter if each try took a long time and most failed, but if they could practice enough maybe the tries would take less time and they could succeed more and fail less.

It helped that they had reached level 5 in Mana Shaping. Most tries still failed, but it was not all tries any longer. On some they built the whole pattern out of mana and could launch a bolt into distant water. It also helped that whenever they ran out of mana in their core there was water with mana in it to drink and fill their core back up. The only thing that stopped them from practicing all of the time was when their mind got too tired, but that was fine. They just needed to rest then. There were more good things. It took longer for their mind to tire than it used to, and felt less wrong when it did. Each try took less time than at first as well. It was still hard, but somehow it was now only a little boring instead of very, very boring. Hunter almost enjoyed it. This was a strange and new kind of strength that came from Mana Shaping practice, but it still felt like Hunter was growing stronger.

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[Mana Shaping has reached level 6]

This skill increase took a very long time, but it was fine. By the time it happened they could build the pattern out of mana and launch the bolt one time for every two times they failed. It was almost enough to maybe be useful. It would be good to be able to hurt prey or dangerous monsters from a long way away. Hunter was very good at stealth, so if prey stayed still there might be time to make a mana bolt and launch it into prey's body.

Hunter was hungry now. They had practiced a very long time, and would have gone to find something to eat before this if they were not afraid that the two wolf dragons may still be nearby. The easy way would be to go back to their good place to hide on the path to water, but this time they had another idea. They went to that path and carefully tasted the ground until the scent of monitor was on their antennae. Then they followed that taste a medium long distance. It went away from the path after a while and through the giant mushrooms. Hunter tried to be sneaky and quick at the same time, which was hard but good to practice. Finally the monitor came within sight. It was resting under a large mushroom cap, and its head, which held its eyes, was pointed away from Hunter.

It was time to try a thing.

Hunter hid very carefully, in a slow and quiet way. Then they built the twisted loop out of thoughts, and moved mana into the shape until it was made of mana and not thoughts. They were excited, and wanted to rush, but forced themself to go slow. It was one of the times they did not fail. They held the bolt within their core, aimed it at the resting prey, and let it fly. It moved very fast and slammed into the monitor.

[You have defeated level 3 Juvenile Emerald Monitor]

[You have gained XP]

The test went very well. The bolt made of mana knocked the monitor back into the meat of the mushroom stem, where it stuck and became biomass. It would be a little bit hard to get to all of the biomass now, but it was fine.

[You have gained 1 Biomass]

There was nothing to be done with a single biomass, so Hunter walked back to the water in a happy but careful way to practice more. It seemed like all of their work on mana manipulation and mana shaping, and the two valuable skill points they spent, and the sacrifice they made when they delayed evolution to condense a core, might actually result in a useful thing. Well, putting mana in their stinger was one useful thing already, and quite good, but it didn't seem like enough good for how hard they'd worked and how much they'd paid.

Mana bolt could be the thing that made all of this worthwhile though. It was slow to build the twisted loop out of mana, too slow for it to be good as a weapon to defend with. But if prey or an enemy was unwary and Hunter had time, and if with more practice it failed less often and could be built quicker, mana bolt could be powerful. Hunter had gotten good at fighting monitors, but there was still always a little risk when it was time to dodge the monitor's first bite before grabbing its throat with claws. There was no known risk to blasting it into biomass with mana from a long way away as it rested.

Hunter happily set to more practice. They practiced quite a long time. Each try got quicker, and more and more succeeded. Eventually, two worked for every one that failed. It might even be that with enough practice a try would take little time and never fail, in which case a new word that was not "try" would be needed. Even all of this progress in making bolts of mana into a useful thing did not increase the skill level of Mana Shaping to level 7. Perhaps there was a limit to how much that skill could increase from the practice of just one pattern, even if one became very good at making it.

Hunter, somewhat grudgingly, decided to try other patterns again. At first the twisted loop of mana bolt had been very, very hard, and the other patterns had been even more hard. Now the twisted loop was a medium amount hard while the others were still hard in an impossible way. It was very frustrating. Still, Hunter failed diligently at each of them. Then they did this again. And again. And again. When their mind was too tired they would rest, and then they would fail some more. On some tries they managed to make most of a pattern out of thought before it shattered into pieces, but they never did succeed in making one whole. It was fine. They just tried and failed again.

[Mana Shaping has reached level 7]

Finally! That had taken a terribly long time. Hunter needed a break from practice. Their mind did not want to shape mana any longer, not at all. They were a little bit hungry. Hunting was the best and most fun thing to do of all things, even if it was a little dangerous.

Hunter hunted.

They found the scent of Blood Tooth Rabbit on the ground and decided to follow it and see whether prey was few or if the rabbits were too many to be prey this time. Because it would be dangerous to fight many rabbits without kin there to help, it was important to go in a hiding, stealthy way as Hunter tracked this prey. They took time for their exoskeleton to change color and match the ground as they went. They made careful steps with their many legs, to not make large vibrations in the air and earth. They stopped often to sense, and hid in shadows. It was good practice, and even a little bit fun.

Then a very bad thing happened.