A swirling collection of mana with points of light like stars floated in the cage of shadows that Yana had made, and I had to admit it was a mesmerizing sight. The same rainbow light that I could see everywhere within my domain, and especially so within the pool of liquid mana below my Core. Although that orb was drinking it in at an alarming rate in my opinion, at least it wasn't tainted anymore. The "ghost" didn't have any of that oddly tinted mana either, and it was something that I was looking carefully at these days. Those other humans had it in spades, and Yana and I guessed it was tied to how high leveled they were.
"My running theory is that the System is a kind of parasite that siphons power from those it infects. It makes gaining power easy and straightforward so people keep using it." Yana, said from near the prison, his eyes still locked on the glowing form, "I know I am missing a lot and this ghost proves that." He made a gesture at the entity and it flowed against the translucent energy.
"Why do you say that my son?" I asked, fairly curious as to where he was going with this, though I had an inkling. He just smiled and looked towards a corner of the room since he could spot the "focus" of my attentions.
"This creature is turning INTO mana, but it wasn't mana before." A tone of excitement in his voice though I was very confused. I couldn't see anything like that at all.
"Explain." I demanded, I didn't like being ignorant of something this important. It's why I kept sending Duskwalker Ants to the fortress to spy on the humans, and weird things were happening there. Yana just nodded his head, and pointed near the center of the mass.
"Look right here, you will see a 'core' of sorts, and it doesn't have the flavor of mana. In fact it is perfectly colorless and right at the edges it is fraying off into various elemental mana." His words caused me to focus in on the point. At first it looked to be a warping in the air with no mana, but as I looked closer I could see the threads of mana spinning off from, and not out of, the warp. What I first considered some kind of mana gate was, as he said, something becoming mana that wasn't. I started to search my domain for similar anomolies but every part of my body was the normal flows of mana. Then I had a thought and looked towards the mana pool before sending my focus down it's waters. As I travelled down the mana types became simpler and far stronger until I was stopped at the edge of my domain. It was so far down, and yet I could tell it went deeper. I was still among the thick rivers of primal elements, and I noticed that much of it was flowing into the walls of the well. Yet, looking closer it was only the curved walls to the south of me. The rest was filtering upwards and breaking down, or combining, into various forms of elemental power. I wondered, briefly, why I had never taken the time to come down here in the past. Though that was quickly answered with one word "Instincts", something about those urges made me overlook this interesting place. Though now I wanted to expand just to find out what was down there making all this mana.
It was clear to me that mana was being made somewhere far below, and I knew that I could expand faster downward than any direction. Before, I got started on that particular project I flicked back to Yana, and his observations.
"So, I think I am going to call this 'Natural Energy'." He finished his speech, and I had to rapidly catch up with myself to understand. He had been talking about how the energy had been far more of the body at some point, and it was slowly degrading into mana. Which meant that this lifeform only had a limited amount of time before something happened, likely turning into sand or water or something elemental in nature. He also said something interesting about maybe it would become something similar to the race I was forced to use [Elementals] since they would be creatures of elements given form. He last bit was about how this energy must be part of the natural world and become mana through touching something between itself and the world.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"I plan on expanding deeper to try and find the source of the Mana Pool. I have a feeling it will lead to some kind of source for this Natural Energy." I said, making sure to sound excited, it was exciting, but I didn't want him to think I was ignoring him. He rolled his head around and focused on a spot on the wall.
"I think I need to find my sister, Mother, and I think I should take the orb with me." He said, calm and sure. I had a suspicion that he was hiding something from me, but he never even gave a hint that he wanted to leave here. A part of me felt very sad to send another one off into the world, especially if I lost contact like I had with his sister.
"I know you will worry, which is why I won't leave until I have a good way of maintaining contact of some kind, but I have a feeling there is knowledge about this in the wider world. Even if the people who live now don't know it any more. There has to be something big I am missing, and I had a need to understand what is going on here." He looked towards my focus again, his face set, "I also worry about the orb taking too much of your mana and causing problems."
"Wouldn't the orb cause more issues as it travels?" I both question and point out, making an arrow point up out of the rock to stab towards the sky. Yana laughs as the arrow melts back into the floor, but waves his hand in the air dismissively.
"Of course it will, but that would also be useful in itself. Since my sister would be able to see it from miles away, and it will likely cleanse the Realm of the System as I go. Though I don't know if it can take things afterwards. I have a suspicion that the damage caused would be very very slow to fix, and if enough of the System is broken..." He trailed off, though I could see gears turning in his head. I had thought the same thing for a while now. If the System was broken or damaged it would allow everything to grow much stronger. Though a part of me thought that there must be more to this System than just a limiter for growth. Even the humans wouldn't make something without having a reason or some kind of way to use it. Like that wall they built and I absorbed, they intended to use it to prevent others from getting to me. Which just felt like a cage to me, which made me fairly mad, and the reason I dissolved it when they all left. Yet, it was also to prevent my children and monsters from roaming around. So it seemed to benefit them a lot in a few ways, but the System...
"But the System must have more functions that we don't know about, and perhaps there is someone we can ask about that." Yana said, mirroring my own thoughts.
"That Shaman did say he wanted to kick out the humans from the Realm." I responded, and Yana nodded.
"Something about the 'Gates of Madness' I think, which, I don't remember, but might be a dungeon. So I would have three things at least to investigate." He nodded again, before clawing at the shadowy cage causing it to collapse. The ghost started to settle to the ground before the mana in the room twisted around it. The flavors and colors of light shifting so quickly into odd concepts that flickered by me rapidly as they shaped a humanoid form. The bones collapsing the energy inside of them as they formed from dust. Then, threads of light spread from the skull to hover in the air as tissues began to rapidly form from various mana types and raw rock being changed. With the skin settling above it all as hair grew out from it's head, and surprisingly some cloth formed around it's body into rough clothes similar to those it died in. Then, the body dropped to the ground to lay unmoving, but breathing while Yana observed it. It was a male with light brown hair, and a otherwise average look to him except the lines of rock now cracking his skin in places.
"Well it looks like I was right on one theory." Yana mused, sounding impressed, "This little fellow is becoming something like an Elemental though I think it's going to be a very painful experience if he survives it."