Every point of mana I slowly regenerate goes straight into healing my hearts so my passive regeneration can kick in as soon as possible.

Beryl dragged me into some hole that might be her new makeshift nest as the handful of surviving antlions survivors. The highest level antlions lived. Go figure.

I'll do some light reading while waiting for my body to fix itself. Let's see what my newest title does.

[Colossus Slayer B

A single ant taking down an elephant is unheard of, but you managed to do it anyway.

The user deals more damage to creatures grander than themselves. To be considered a 'colossus, the target must quadruple the user's height or sexdecupled their weight (16x).

Additional Damage: +45%]

Decent buff. Too bad its triggering conditions will practically never work against any humans. If I fight a human who weighs over two thousand pounds, they'd probably die before I can approach them.

[Donkey Punch]'s cooldown decreases from thirty to twenty minutes. It's not a game-changing buff, but it exists.

Since [Path of the Broken Body] leveled up, I also looked at the changes to my skills.

[Path of the Broken Body C lv4 > Path of the Broken Body C lv5

Unarmed Damage: +50% ↑

Maximum Health: +50% ↑

-Broken Blood

Mana is the blood of life; it is in all things. The user may convert Health to Mana by breaking open their blood. It may cause fatigue and heart failure if used excessively.

Cooldown: 1-hour

Conversion: 1 - 3 ↑

–Martyr

You are a martyr of the people. May your sacrifice be remembered. The user can siphon any amount of damage taken by another target.

Range: 30 feet ↑

Damage Taken: 2x

–Second Heart

Break our hearts? Two will grow in its place. The user now has a second heart.

If one of the hearts fails, the user can still survive with the other heart.

Health Regeneration: +0.5% of max health/s. ↑

Vigor: + 25 ↑]

[Cross Counter] only had its cool down slightly lowered. [Broken Liver] and [Corrosive Metabolism] didn't have noticeable changes.

[Heal Anything] did not change with its level up. Pity.

I'm glad I'm wearing my gui since it passively increases my "natural regeneration" by 100%. After an hour or two, I have enough health to use [Broken Blood] to get enough mana to heal my hearts

I do my best to set my bones while my skill starts healing me, but there is so much I can do during the three minutes it takes for my health bar to max.

I stretch my entire body, and a symphony of cracks sounds out from my joints as I check to see if anything heals weird. My joints are a bit stiff.

Good enough.

I noticed scaring left behind from my injuries. I can get rid of them later if I want to.

I look around for Beryl, spotting her sitting in front of her subjects as they silently wait for her to do something. Upon closer inspection, she's sleeping.

The surrounding antlions ignore my existence as I nudge Beryl awake. She stirs and clicks happily at my recovery. I think. I still have no idea how to read her.

"Can you click once if you can understand me?"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

*Clack?*

"... Close enough."

I pick her up and limp out of the underground nest. My right knee is stiff, but I'll manage.

The antlions become our entourage as they follow Beryl out as well. I take her to the site of the battle. Evidence of the fight still lingers, but many scavenging creatures have arrived, trying to get through the monster's thick flesh and armor.

They're only low-level crabs, so they can't threaten me.

I plop her down next to the corpse as I look for any sign of an exit.

~

It's only been a few hours, but the sun has turned the body putrid. The smell is almost overwhelming. Circling the worm and getting on top of it proves fruitless.

I smack my lips and contemplate before heading towards the mouth and peering in. The smell is getting worst. If the exit of the fracture isn't around the worm, it would be in it, right?

I glance at Beryl, and she's feeding off the worm. She'll be fine.

I step inside the [Kantarrpoe]'s mouth and begin my trek. The digestive system should be linear and quite roomy. This creature eats sand and ore, not flesh, so the digestive system should be completely different from mine.

Thinking about it, that's not entirely correct.

Through the membrane of the worm, I can see a brown and yellow crystal triple the size of me embedded right above. Neat. I'll try and double back for this crystal if I can find a way to transport it.

I wish I had an enchanted bag or a skill that allows me to store things extra dimensionally. It would be convenient, and I could start picking out some valuable materials inside this worm. Maybe I can carve a door into this creature's flesh and try to activate my manor.

~

A thin crack that gives off the slightest light cuts through the darkness. I almost fall to my knees in relief.

I don't know if that fracture will stay here for long, so I can't lollygag and miss my opportunity. I'll cry if it disappears in front of me.

I sprint out of the worm, my boots giving me all the traction I need, and I try to find Beryl.

She ate over three times her size in worm meat and is still trying to eat more. I pick her out of her meal, and she clicks her mandibles indignantly. She calms down in my arms.

"I'm taking you with me. Even if you aren't technically my tamed beast, you're close enough."

~

Beryl is squirming in my hands, trying to leave my arms the closer I get to the fracture exit. When I'm a few feet away from the thin crack, she starts biting my arm in a bid to escape.

*SCREEE*

She starts screaming like a gutted pig. At this point, I stop trying to force her. Something is wrong. I put her on the ground and watched her scamper away from the exit.

She stays in my sight and looks warily at the line in space.

Maybe something else might work.

I take my sword and carefully carve out a door from the flesh of the [Kantarrpoe], making sure it can open and close before activating my mansion skill.

Hallelujah, it fucking works!

"How about this one, Beryl?" I pat next to the door

She hesitantly walks towards the doorway before deciding that's not good either.

"What's the matter?"

*ClickClickClick*

She starts stamping the ground and spinning in circles before unleashing a fury of clicks in the direction of the two passages that lead away from the fracture.

Maybe something is instinctually keeping her from leaving. I sit on a rock and open my lexicon to search my library for some tamer knowledge I'm obviously missing.

"..."

It doesn't take long.

Except for specific instances, creatures native to fractures won't leave unless the fracture destabilizes to the point where the inhabitants don't have a choice. And even then, it's not a decision, but rather the fracture ejecting them. I wonder what the alternative would be, doomed to live in a broken world?

Monsters bursting from a fracture and wrecking havoc in human lands haven't been a thing since the F.I.B. established itself. At least I haven't heard of any outbreaks in any major city.

Fractures destabilizing is a scary thing in the first place, or at least I'm told. They are on the scale of a natural disaster. That makes me wonder if it's safe for the creatures to leave or if the conditions of the fracture breaking down allow the possibility of travel.

Forcing my Beryl to go somewhere she doesn't want to be only worsened if she turns to meat paste on the other side. I wouldn't forgive myself.

I inspect the exit, and it looks like it isn't going anywhere.

I leave the gi tract of the giant worm and make Beryl bring two of her weaker antlion subordinates back with us.

I cripple one of the antlions before throwing the beast into the fracture's exit. My thought process was if it worked without an issue, I might as well not cause trouble for the monkeys in the forest and preferably my tamed beasts.

When the antlion touched the fracture's exit, there was a flash of light, and the antlion disappeared. I can't check if the antlion made it, now can I? At least the fracture is still up.

I look at the other antlion, and it looks back at me. I kick it into the impromptu doorway I created, and it's gone.

"I'll be right back. Just give me a second."

I step through the door, and the temperature difference stresses my body. I also feel dryer. Was I always this dry? My skin and eyes hurt from the lack of moisture, but I haven't noticed this in the fracture.

The antlion seems aggressive now since the queen is away and isn't telling it to submit to my whims.

It seems momentarily weakened from the sudden change of environment, but it still tries to attack me. I watched it slightly longer, and the antlion seemed to adapt to the changes slowly. I push it over.

It seems to be in pain as it climbs to its six legs. I stab my sword into it until it stops moving.

It looks like she'll survive but suffer until she can adapt to the new temperature. I can't stay in the mansion and use [Maryr] twenty-four seven either.

I can't bring her everywhere since she's not considered a tamed beast. If anyone finds out I'm toting around some random wild creature, I would get in a lot of shit.

I leave the manor, and the sudden shift back to heat is unpleasant. It doesn't help that I'm in a rotting carcass. Beryl looks up at me with her dark, compound eyes.

"..."

*...*

"Do you want to come back with me, or do you want to stay here? Where your own kind is and where you can live comfortably."

Beryl continues staring up at me before walking away from me. She heads towards the opening of the [Kantarrpoe], leaving my vision after a few seconds.

I stand there for a few minutes before deciding that she must have decided. I can wait a bit longer.

I collect some random ores and stones and start examining them, Most of the rocks are just highly compacted sand and worthless, but there is a few clumps of actual metal.

I move anything remotely valuable inside my manor and store them in the storehouse, taking a break every once in a while to wait a little bit longer.

The last thing I'll grab is the giant mana crystal.

I walk down to the crystal, and to my surprise, Beryl is dragging that fucker toward me.

I silently watch her drag the crystal past me and into my mansion, disappearing into the door of light.

I quickly follow suit.