"The rate of increasing obesity is astounding! In just one generation, 34% of people are overweight, 12% are obese, and 0.9% too fat to even move! What could cause this phenomenon?"
~A news report in the Obpeki Kingdom after a newfound food ingredient 'sugar'
Hmhmhmhmhm! I hum as I carve away from the landscape, causing animals to become trapped in deep pits, wailing in sorrow at their own pain, or the deaths of others.
...Which I ignored as I was busy and did not care about animals other than my own.
What's my Mana?
T1 Mana:~878k/521k
Cool. If my theory is correct, I am almost there!
I continue removing dirt from the massive field of... Well, there is no more grass, so, soil!
And then half a day later, I got it!
T1 Mana:1m/1m
Tier Ascending in progress...
Yes! I compressed my Mana to help it along, and checked my status.
Dave Dungeon Core T2
Lvl:12 (4 IP available)
EXP:14/300 T2 Mana:1/1 T2 Mana Regen.:0.01/min
Oh... I had a realisation. The EXP I need is in the hundreds now...
AND. I added on. There seems to be 2 IP per level now. I wonder what the added option is though, since I remember there should be an added one each Tier.
Congratulations! You reached Level 12! At this Tier & Level, you may choose to use your IP on these Improvement options:
Apart from the usual 3, there was a peculiar new one.
Mass Absorb 1 (?) Increases Absorption limit from 1000% Max Mana to 10000% Max Mana. Reduces pain and detrimental effects from Mana Overflow by 90%. ???(Increased effects per level taken)
There was an absorption limit? I remembered the first time I absorbed stone and shuddered. That was close.
And then I noticed the second effect. Nice! I'll check something out first... I asked the system to give me information on the '(?)' next to the name. It basically told me that there were rarities. Common, Uncommon(UC), Rare(R), Epic(E), Legendary(L), and some more, which the system seemed to be unable to tell me as my Tier was not high enough. And the reason why the first 3 Improvements did not have a letter beside them was because they were Common and 'did not deserve a letter'.
Then, it told me the reason why there were rarities. They were to grade how good and numerous their effects were. But apparently, my Improvement was ungraded, or just too high graded for the system to tell me. I thought it was the latter as there were 3 effects, and the two I could see were extremely good. Even if the last one was a mystery.
But the infodump was not over! The system then told me that Improvements could be upgraded in Rarity by practicing them consistently and in unique ways, so if I got Common improvements from now on, it would not be the end of the world.
Phew! Now that that is ov-
The system dumped more info into me.
I shook my core while processing it. Okay, now that it is actually over, I'll just purchase the new Improvement for a single IP. Luckily all Improvements were available for purchase at the same price, though as the infodump told me, for Uncommon and above rarities, the amount that you can purchase scales downwards. For example, Uncommon - 1/4 Level, Rare - 1/8, Epic - 1/16, Legendary - 1/32.
So. Huh. I said blankly after purchasing it and the option of getting more of it graying out. According to this trend, I need to be at least Level 65 to get the second version.
I quickly bought 3 levels of Mana to Max Mana and stopped my thinking of how long it would take to improve it. In the meantime, I focused on absorbing things to make myself more powerful.
~~(3 and a half days later)~~
I sighed in boredom with a pinprick of a migraine in my core. All I was doing was absorbing things and waiting. The waiting part I had to do because of the slowness of transformation of Mana to Max Mana. If it was this slow NOW, then in the upper Tiers, it would be utterly excruciating. And anything that tried to attack me got obliterated by the army of meerkats I created early on in my digging session. But at least I'm more powerful. I said while commanding the screen to appear.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
T2 Mana:~298.5/65.3
Yeah... This will take a long time. Then a thought occurred to me. Actually, after the conversion of Mana to Max Mana is finished, I should be able to create an army large enough to destroy the bird easily. I realised. Or a single creature strong enough to do that. But that will be my plan B just in case.
~~(Some time later)~~
T2 Mana:~181.9/181.9
Yessss. I hissed in anticipation. Almost a hundred million meerkats on the way. But I quickly added. Far away from me of course though. No need to have a repeat of the cockroach incident. My core shuddered at what would happen with minions the size of the ones I planned on summoning.
So I quickly built a... No. I first expanded my territory as much as I could. Why? Well. After some pain and a headache, I could tell I reached the barrier in the sky. But the thing was, it wasn't just in the sky. It extended deep into the ground as well to make a perfect sphere. Now, from what I could tell, the entire area contained in the sphere was massive. Big enough even, to house that giant scaled and chained beast underground. It looked like a sky blue snake with legs. Many legs. Hundreds upon hundreds of cute little legs on a much too big for their size body. Though, if you were to stand next to one of those tiny legs, you would find they were far from tiny. As in a single toe could squish you under its weight. It had 2 toes on each foot by the way. It didn't really matter though with the sheer amount of limbs heavily outweighing the small amount of toes on each foot. It was slumbering in a deep cavern hundreds of kilometres in diameter, easily occupying half of it, even tightly curled up as it was. At least it did not awaken when my territory touched it, even if it did let out a slightly louder snore when it did.
So... Huh. I got more than I bargained for. I commented nervously as I felt the pressure its very presence in my territory gave me. I was just looking for iron deposits, and instead I got the probable reason why this barrier exists. How I knew this? Easy. The status screen that showed up in front of me.
Danger alert!
Tier >10 Threat discovered!
Goal:Eliminate Threat
Reward:100b EXP
Welp. That's a massive reward. I'm never gonna get it though. Higher that Tier 10? Just no.
Then I remembered why I expanded and instantly focused in on the rusted chain. The metal making up the chain holding the snake down were glowing! Not just the general blue glow that indicated normal Mana infused in it, but a brown glow. Hard to imagine, right? And so, I decided to take just a little nibble of it. I moved a tentacle of Mana forward, which I found helped absorption, and it disintegrated just as it touched its oxidised and corroded surface. Along with a large portion of territory around the cave, and all the territory in the cave as well which caused me a great deal of pain.
AHHH! I yelled incoherently as it disappeared. I continued shouting for half an hour as the pain gradually faded from that of a ripped off limb, to something more manageable, like a pulsing throb in my mind that constantly reminded me of its existence. I- I need to escape.
~~(???)~~
I awakened from my slumber after a foreign presence entered my prison cell. This cannot be... I thought with disbelief quickly replacing my anger while pretending to still be asleep.
A Tier 2.
I paused as I sensed further.
Yet one with such high Personal Mana and Mana Regen?!
At first I was confused as to why a guard at Tier 2 was checking in on me, but now I was utterly baffled. Then, he. I could tell by the shape of his soul, used Mana to touch the chain. So he is not a guard. But if he thinks he can touch it with Mana and still survive, he's an idiot.
I had tried myself when I had first been captured millions of years ago and had my Mana reserves halved instantly. If I had been a couple of Tiers lower, I would have died instantly from Mana deprivation. But instead of dying like I predicted, the man's presence merely disappeared and I could tell now, his presence was also outside of my cell. All around it in fact. Extending until the barrier.
A peculiar soul. I commented in curiosity. A man at Tier 2, even with Tier 6 Mana should not be able to do that. He might be one of those reincarnated people that I heard of with a special ability given to them.
~~(Dave)~~
Bird, who cares about a random bird?! There's a world destroying snake above Tier 10 underground!
I quickly gave up even the wisps of thought for revenge, for those of escape.
Material Learned! Metal - Binding Earth Mithril A legendarily rare variant of Earth Mithril that is designed to bind World-Destroyer Class threats. Warning! Tier 15 Core needed for creation!
T1 Mana:~10.2k/201
When the tendril of Mana touched the chain, it managed to absorb some of it somehow. In my opinion, it was because it was severely rusted and old enough that it was not at full effectiveness. It refilled all my Mana and then even more with just a nanometre thin pinprick of the metal. Now while it said "World-Destroyer Class threats", I was not certain if the snake really destroyed one of them. But, to warrant chains made of that metal, it was very very probable that the snake could do it if it was free.
I frantically searched around for escape methods when I remembered.
The cracks! I stared at the point in the blue barrier where the tower had broke apart the barrier enough for my core to slip through. Luckily I did not add more layers of crystal to my core, or else I might not be able to fit. But I will do that after I get to the other side.
Now, how to get in there? I contemplated. If I manage to kill the crow, then I won't have to worry about it eating me. And, I added on. Then I could create one to give me a ride if I have enough Mana. To me, it felt like the invisible bird was Tier 3, so I probably could not make one for a long time. But at least I would have one less obstacle to escaping.
Now, there was a problem, I wasn't sure if Tier 1 creatures could damage it. And if they can't, I didn't have Tier 2 minions.
Time for some experimentation.