Once the last one of these fucks left a wave of hunger overcame me. Ten dead bodies shouldn't look so appetising. Tendrils of energy crept out of my core inching closer to the fresh dead.

No, I need the materials. I held back my hunger and looked closer to what some of them were carrying.

These broths, I saw them pour them on their wounds which healed in ungodly speeds. A part of me finds nothing wrong with them but they just don't make sense. How could any cognition have such properties? They shouldn't work yet they do, hopes and prayers are my best guess. I took some flavoured energy and copied their blueprints by infusing them with said energy, plant based huh.

I tinkered with the blueprints for a good while until I got the original ingredients. I don't recognise any of these but they're mostly grasses and herbs with a few pieces of bushes too. I can make the blueprints of almost any plant with these, fungi and mosses are still out of my reach.

That out of the way I brought my attention to the guys who had books on them. I can understand that they carried everything they had (personal charms, camping gear, rations etc.) with them since anyone could just take their stuff if they just left them sitting outside. But one of those freaks took his sweet time to read it mid fucking fight.

Arcane Grimoyre, a book thicker than it has any right to be clad in leather too fine for a book. Jasmine needed some time to actually open the dam thing since it's quite heavy for her.

Rune eclopedia, this thing was ironically thinner even though its a eclopedia. Unlike the Grimoyre which seems to be a work of art, the eclopedia is of "okay" quality its probably mass produced.

I guess I have some reading up to do.

...

So it is mana huh?

Hmm, I've been doing it wrong or this Grimoyre says so. By densening the mana I made it harder to controll or in other words hardly usable. "Thou must bend it to thy will and then force said will on it" hopes and prayers I tell you. I guess it's worth a shot though.

"I can already bend and move mana to my will but forcing my will on it? I need a more detailed explanation than just that! "

A spark.

As I was rambling to myself a spark flickered to life in the mana in my core. Curious.

Was that my will? A manifestation of my anger and frustration? Wait, I'm angry! I didn't notice before but ever since these wretched bastards invaded me I've been pissed. I wasn't angry at anything else after becoming a crystal, not even at losing everything I had even my memories. Something about the thought of filthy outsiders invading my domain just sets some primal rage loose. But why now? Why not back when Jasmine dashed for my core? Questions I have no one to ask.

Pondering things won't get me anywhere, it's not like someone will show up and answer all my questions.

I'm wasting time here.

I have to call fourth that spark again, all the frustration, all the anger, those those wretched bastards think they can barge into my home and disrespect me?

There it is again but it's a flame this time. With all the rage I can muster I push, force it upon reality itself. What I'm doing makes no sense but I'm a crystal with schizophrenia who is on a ultimatum to raise my worth because a filthy whore told me to, so fuck logic!

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Fire, no, a whole inferno roared to life! It soon died down and I was left actually exhausted. That's good and all but not really useful in the moment.

I moved over to the eclopedia, Jasmine had a easier time turning the pages.

Runes are kind of like coding, once they are either charged with mana and/or a different requirement is met they activate. The effects vary from an automated light when you enter a room to what might as well be an A.I. I'm both intrigued and disappointed, nothing that will help with the problem at hand.

Now that I'm done going through the stuff of the corpses I let my hunger devour them. One after the other the corpses dissappeared.

This is...? I don't know if I ever felt this good before, all my exhaustion dissappeared if anything I feel energetic. I want more, I need more!

But everything was already devoured, there was nothing left to satisfy my hunger. No there has to be more! Can't I just go after them?!

Yeah, why can't I? I never really took the time to actually look around...

I never felt as though something isn't right but now that I think about it. Why does my field of view just sharply end? I know there's more there but I can't see it. I know that should be like this but why do I know?

I'm rambling again, I'm on limited time.

First things firsts, this cavern is too small. It's a kilometer long at best and 30 men don't even fit in here side by side. You could easily reach the ceiling with a three man ladder which is just too short.

So I planted stone maulers everywhere. I took the blueprint of a bush and removed anything that wasn't a root. It didn't need to make sense it didn't need to survive on its own, it only needs to dig. By leaving lines of concentrated mana in the stone I can create a pre made path for the stone maulers. Once they're done they should turn the solid stone walls into rubble.

But before doing that I planted a subspecies of the stone mauler in the ceiling, I'll call this one stone molder. The only real difference is that I gave it a different pre made path where it holds the stone rubble like actual roots.

After watching roots grow for hours I was too good to count I finally had a underground clearing with the radios of four football fields. I could finally convert the stone maulers back to energy.

Now I introduce the rock eaters to the rubble. I made my base mammal blueprint to a mole blueprint and added some twists. First off it needs to be bigger, a lot bigger, 100 pound moles seem good for now. Second off it needs better claws, it needs claws that can dig through solid rock not just soft soil. I can't convert the claws to metal since they would then die from metal poisoning. But I sure can make them solid bone which I add a even higher density on top. I need it to be able to digest rocks, actually digesting them isn't the problem but keeping them from dieing is. I got it! Instead of digesting in the traditional way they can just carry around the rock paste which they can puke out somewhere else.

After sending even more hours watching overgrown moles eat rocks I raised the ceiling by letting the stone molder drop chunks of stone.

Satisfied with the new space I placed trees, bushes, shrubs and herbs. I made sure to add a lot of the stuff I found in the weird broth in case that's valuable.

In the middle of it all I made a springwell with the statue of a direwolf on it using the rock paste of the rock eaters but its missing all of its four major fangs. It took way too long since moles aren't exactly suited for sculpting.

To get one of the fangs one has to defeat the alpha of one of the four packs that live in this forest of mine.

To the eastern part of the forest will be a pack of wolfhounds lead by a bearhound. The wolfhounds met those wretched bastards in combat previously they're pretty good if they don't have to deal with a armed fucking battalion. The bearhound was the thing I spat out in desperation previously. The bearhound is the largest canine to ever be with the dire wolf in second place and wolfhound in third. Its basically just a big dog, with big I mean the bigger cousin of the grizzly.

To the west will be a pack of grey hounds, I made them quite a lot bigger because speed isn't everything. I decided to make a specifically female Kangal their alpha and made her too bigger. Female Kangals are just so much faster than male's.

To the north is a pack of alaskan wolfs, I let them choose their alpha. I gave the north the most hostile environment with small tunnels, sturdy bushes and twisted trees. Perfect hunting grounds for one of the smartest canine species.

To the south is a species of Germanshepherds. I gave the south a extremely high mana density, a kind of experiment of mine. For a alpha I just made one as big as a wolfhound.

My core is at the bottom of the well but I don't plan on keeping it there. I'm trying to figure out on how to make a decoy core without the manastreams betraying me.

A wave of hatred and disgust fills me again, if I wasn't low on fire I would have probably brought the well to a boil.

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