Mosh left the feral's where it was. He knew he should take it for food, that he would need the energy, but he could not face the prospect of eating the humanoid creature. It looked too close to human, regardless of its colour and size and it felt too much like cannibalism.

He looked at the offered evolutions, at the bodies of the ferals, at their green leathery skin and their overly large eyes, the spikes on their palms and feet. It was easy to see how each related to the evolutions offered, but neither appealed to him enough to take what was offered. He had armour superior to their skin, and his energy sight might well advance and mutate to include low-light vision, without the physical manifestation they showed. He knew he was probably wrong and he should consider them as positive steps towards surviving. But he was not yet desperate, he still shuddered at the physical alterations even though he professed to not follow the beliefs of the Purists.

He rested a while. Meditating, concentrating on the flows of energy in his body, both his chi and psi. He could feel them regenerating, the energy flowing in, and him slowly growing more tired.

‘Kid, eat something. You are refilling internal energy resources; energy needs to come from somewhere, and you cannot create it if there is no fuel. It’s not mana where you are taking it from outside, but something internal to you!’

Once again Mosh felt himself blushing, kicking himself for forgetting basic lessons. They had been taught Chi and Psi were internal, tied to Body and Mind, the representations of your own innate physical and mental capabilities. He had made an even greater study of Mind and how to replenish Psi because of his desire for a Mind-based profession, and here he was forgetting the basics. He reached out for his pack and felt the warm, furry body of Silky Two. Guilt assailed him, again! Throughout the fight, he had not thought of his pet! What did that make him, aside from neglectful? He petted Silky, his guilt drove him to give in to its demands as it rubbed against him and purred, pulling him back with its soft paws whenever he stopped. Eventually, even his guilt would not drive him to continue petting the demanding pet, and he reached beyond it to grab some of the dried meats. He brought it to his mouth, only for the loud meows of Silky to cause him to break some off and give it to him.

It was moving towards late afternoon, and he thought it best to make his way back to the barrow. He did not have new food to cook, but otherwise, he had achieved his goals for the day. He needed the rest. The pain had subsided and only its memory lingered, its traumatising memory. He was fatigued from the fight and the healing. He replaced his bag, though Silky decided to travel on his shoulder instead of within the bag. He felt nervous about that, but it was easier than trying to fight with Silky to get him back into the pouch. He smiled ruefully to himself; he must remember to check if Silky was male or female.

Nothing happened on the way back, the passage passed peacefully. He experimented with his Mana Camouflage skill, turning it on and off, and using it in limited ways. He found he could return it to the base usage of just sending the mana to his feet, and, consequently, the mana consumption dropped greatly, He could also use the camouflage component only, but the mana consumption for that by itself was almost as great as when both sides were used, the difference so minute as to be negligible. He needed to extend his mana veins so the skill could be used more efficiently.

The barrow remained snug, the entrance well concealed after he spent a few minutes imbuing mana to regrow the broken undergrowth and restore the mulch. He moved into the central chamber and spent an hour or so carving out more of the walls, extending the main room so he could begin to move in it, and also to be able to stretch out properly. He shaped a rough bed, laid out some blankets from within his pack and prepared to sleep. He sent thoughts to Silky to wake him if anything came, but he was not sure if his instructions were understood. He still had no handle on the level of Silky’s understanding or intelligence was, he just hoped he had been understood. He laughed at himself, was he expecting a tamed monster to stand guard?

The morning sun shone down as he moved out, performing his ritual of repairing and hiding the barrow as he left. He moved carefully through the undergrowth, silencing his movement but not using the camouflage. He wanted to, but he knew that it would tire him out too fast. He had decided to head back towards the cliff on which he had arrived. His idea was to follow it and hopefully find a way down so he could then follow the river. He did not know in which direction the inner rings lay, but following the river was at least a path. He would try to use his senses and energy sight to track where the energy concentrations were higher as that should lead him inwards, but he did not know if it could be used like that, he would try and hope his theory was correct.

It did not take long to reach the clearing by the cliff, and as on the day he arrived nothing was to be seen, and the song of the lizards came through the trees. He heard a familiar whirring of wings and felt movement as Silky struck rapidly, snapping at the insect. He turned around and saw Silky with a satisfied look, the large insect within its mouth, bisected with part of its body lying on either side. Silky gave a satisfied purr and gave him a warning look as it indulged in the insect it had caught/ Silky’s prey, Silky’s meal, there was no sharing! Mosh chuckled, his little hunter, the scourge of insects everywhere!

He hiked parallel to the cliff, staying away from the edge which looked like it would crumble at any moment, the ground loose and precarious in many places. He could hear a swiftly flowing river below and kept an eye out for a path down. He moved through the forest; the cliff being lost as underbrush grew wild and the forest canopy brought dimness to the day. Occasionally he would move in the direction of the sound of water, find the cliff’s edge, and peer down through the foliage while lying flat. He could barely see the river below, but it ran fast, white water splashing up from the half-submerged rocks. Thick vines dropped along the side of the cliff though he was too nervous to trust them to use to lower himself and doubly nervous to trust them as a means of climbing backup.

As he walked, he noticed he was curving inland, the curve of the cliff changing direction. The sound of running water diminished and on one of his inspection trips, he took notice of how much closer to the ground level of the river-cut canyon he had come. He continued following the cliff, as it continued to slope downwards. Eventually, it arrived at the shores of a vast lake. The side of it lapped at the ground before him and he could see the wide river mouth fed by the river he had followed, and a few others flowing into the lake. He moved back in the treeline, not descending to the lake shore, waiting to see what appeared.

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His patience was rewarded as he spotted a group of hornless antelope, females he assumed as he saw they were escorted by a larger one, its head bearing a set of impressive antlers. He activated his mana camouflage skill, doing his best to remain hidden. He still did not have a proper ranged skill, and he wondered if Mana Imbue could be used on a missile. He searched under the mulch, using the butt of the spear to move it around worried about what might be hidden within, his caution being rewarded when he saw a small family of scorpions scuttling off.

The mulch was not that deep, but he needed to move away a healthy layer of topsoil before hitting a layer with stones and small rocks. He eventually found one that seemed a good fit for what he wanted to try, about the size of his palm and easy to grip. He concentrated on the rock whilst invoking the mana imbue spell and watched as flames spurted out.

‘Kid, that’s not going to work.‘ Midkar’s voice had a tone of impatience. ‘The moment it leaves your hands, the mana connection will be broken, and the flames will be gone. It needs a rune to be carved onto the stone so it will hold the pattern for long enough to reach the target, or an embedded empowerment crystal to provide mana once it leaves your hands. Too bad I don’t have runic knowledge to help you there, and you have no empowerment crystals’

Mosh was tempted to give Midkar a sarcastic reply but held back. Midkar might be an irritating terrorist, but he was knowledgeable and had just prevented him from wasting time and mana. He crept forward as far as he could all the while watching the antelope as they drank and ate by the lake shore. He now wished he had paid more attention to the non-predators in recognition classes, but they were boring, not exciting like the predators.

As he watched, a predator decided to make itself known. As one of the female antelope leaned towards the water to drink, a sudden splash erupted as wyrmcroc burst from the lake and grabbed it by the neck, dragging it down, rolling it over it was underneath, the weight of the wyrmcroc forcing the antelope deeper into the water, its head and snout completely submerged.

The rest scattered, bolting in fear as the wyrmcroc emerged. In their panic, they did not remain in a group, and one darted towards Mosh, not even looking where it was going, the whites of its large eyes showed as her eyes widened in shock and fear and she glanced back over her shoulder, even as she moved away from where the lake lapped against the shore.

Mosh rejoiced, quickly preparing his spear, waiting for it to come into striking range. He didn’t know what had spooked it, but it almost baulked as it raced towards him but elected to jump instead, going over his head, trying to clear him and reach the safety of the trees. The move may have worked against natural prey, but Mosh wielded a spear, and as it jumped over him, he activated Imbue Mana and thrust the now burning spear at it, and let as the spearhead penetrated its side, the mana flames burning it. It stood no chance, and as it landed Mosh stabbed again, aiming for its neck and striking true.

Spear skill learned. Tier 0 Level 1. Provides a large increase in proficiency with Spear, a minor increase in proficiency with other polearms.

Ilat Mehirut was killed. Body enhancement points earned: 2. Body enhancement points needed to next Tier 12/1000.Mana enhancement points earned: 2. Mana enhancement points needed for next Tier 12/1500. Mind Enhancement points earned: 2. Mind enhancement points needed for next Tier: 8/1000 Evolutionary essence gained: 2, Evolutionary Essence to next Tier 14/100. Evolutionary Potential points gained 2, Evolutionary Potential Points to next tier 12/6600. Evolutions offered: Enhanced Speed, Enhanced Jumping.

Mosh examined the area to ensure that no wyrmcrocs or any other member of the herd of “Ilat Mehirut”, as the Mana records called them, were approaching. He looked at the evolutions offered and decided to take the enhanced speed. With his decision made, his legs began to itch. Glancing down he saw the muscles in his legs expanding, his pants gripping tighter around them. He shuddered as his body changed, though this one was unobtrusive, or was that just because of his evolution potential? He shrugged, he would contemplate that later, his next step was to absorb energy from the dead monster.

Not seeing any immediate danger, he placed his hands on the body to start absorption, but paused, wondering energy flow to try and prioritise.

‘Kid, you going to absorb from this? Not much in it, it is only tier 2 but try for Mind if you are going for it.’ Midkar answered his unasked question and left Mosh wondering.

‘Thanks, but why Mind? Shouldn’t I push evolution? Oh, and speaking of Evolution, what is the difference between Essence and potential?’

‘Clueless, you are just clueless! You need to get Mind above 10, it is the only one of the primary indexes below 10. Once it exceeds 10, your class will evolve one level. This is outside where it takes forever to advance a level by grinding away at the job represented by your primary index and hoping that the Mana records recognize your effort and will advance you. In here and in other places like the Challenge worlds, advancing your primary index will advance your class. You have it harder than most, you have three primary indexes where most have one, a few have a dual index profession, and a scant few like your self have three indexes.

As for Evolution essence vs evolution potential. Evolution essence is your personal evolutionary Tier. As that advances, your base race will shift, changing it, enhancing it on its own without external pressures. Evolution potential is how well your body handles evolutions from other species and incorporates them without side effects. Now get to it before the energy solidifies and you get nothing!’

Mosh laid his hands on the body, avoiding the cut-open stomach leaking blood and guts. He activated absorption, sending his will towards its head, to where the Mind Core would be. He found it easily and pulled on its energy.

Mind Core Tier 2 detected. Absorb 4 Mind points?

Mosh gave his affirmation, and he felt the energy flowing towards him, the connection like a tunnel between the two cores.

Mind Core partially solidified. 3 out of 4 Mind Points transferred. Current Mind 11/1000

All primary indexes have advanced, class level has advanced to Level 2. Level Reward: 1 Skill point, 1 Enhancement Point. Evolutionary Essence 14, one Evolution Point awarded.

Mosh rejoiced. Skill points and enhancement points were taught in school as part of level advancements. People advanced, but most took years, Midkar was right about the effort needed in the world outside The Crucible vs. inside it. He looked at the carcass and decided to cut off its legs to take it back with him to the barrow, it was a good source of food and he was sure this would become a regular hunting spot!

Satisfied with his achievements for the day, he made his way to the barrow, where he planned to spend his timed split between opening his opening Mana Channels, practising with his spear, and growing his mana paths.