To begin with, I reattempted both Shape Stone and Knead Bone. Unfortunately, although it felt to me like I barely managed to influence its shape, the Spell always falls short. Imagine stretching out your whole body to pick up an object and you can only barely scratch it with the tip of your longest finger no matter how hard you push. Rather, each brush of the finger and any effort you put into reaching out farther only strives to push the thing further away from your grasp one grunt at a time.
I take a few deep breaths to calm myself down. So, not bone or rock… Model Wood, Bend Metal, Mold Earth! Alas, only the last two gave me a similar feeling. Definitely not wood due to the lack of any response. So what does the four Spell giving me such a feeling mean?
That the bone is a mix of all four materials? Utilizing pure Mana Manipulation, I touch and infuse a palm size area of the bone with mana. Then attempt to twist and pull the infused mass to separate it from the larger whole. Nothing happens… My infused mana may be scattered within the area, but they reside between the material and do not bond in a similar way to the various shaping Spells. I Will them to bond, forcefully attaching themselves to the material! This time, the small section of infused bone crumbles onto sand. Whatever balance the bone had was broken by the forced attempt.
"Oh! How did you manage that?" Agus asks. We may be doing our own things, but the stony area I'm keeping infused is only about 5 meters long after all.
"Forced my mana to bond with it." Still had to elaborate before he understood, which gave me time to come up with another idea. Though before that, I say to Agus. "Let's first try to heal the damage."
Lesser Heal; my casting hand is currently touching an area right beside the newly made injury. As my Spell took effect, visible to the naked Senses, the hole I left on it began closing up until about half of the hollow was filled up. Two more cast and it is as good as new! "3 casts, 53 mana to heal a fist sized injury, not bad I think."
"Compared to what?" Agus asks seriously, "we don't have a reference for comparison."
"Yeah, well… Nerd~," I say in jest. "Anyways, I have an idea that might work. How large a piece do you need?"
"Any size really. Better yet, get several different sizes please." He answers, explaining about the various tests he can put them through and the answers he may find.
While he explains his plans in elaborate details. I once again started infusing the bone with my mana, though this time; I only cover an outer perimeter approximately the size of a volleyball, albeit in a sideways U-shape. A mere thin outer layer of mana while leaving the middle part uninfused. Then I repeat the previous process; force both mana and bone to bond, twist and pull. With a resounding crack, a rough jagged piece of bone is caught within my open palm… I offered our first harvest to Agus and watch him observe the item in awe with a grin.
The walls fluctuates and out comes—Quagxytes! "Agus, Mark!"
"What?" He said eyes glued to the bone. I'm already blinking towards the first enemy and conjuring my Guandao. Two VLoS-es manifest not a fraction of a second later.
"Trigger your mark, now!" And he's gone.
Due to limited space, only about 5 can come out of the walls at the same time. Though after the first 15 or so kills, I decided this is gonna take too long and bolted outta there. A simple Blink towards the open tunnels did the trick. Honestly, with how easy they lose me, I find their effort to defending their home very lacking.
Slain Quagxyte lv 1 x 16
16 syscred and 2 exp awarded
Skill level up, Mana sense 38 > 39
Awesome and about time for that Skill to level! Now if only I have an idea about how~ to Threshold-break Soul Sense past level 24.
Agus: Are you okay?
Agus: Respond when available!
Zen: I'm fine. Thanks for asking.
Zen: And no need to worry, they're weak!
Agus: They why send me away?
Zen: You're weaker!
Zen: Anyway, did you manage to carry the piece of bone with you?
Agus: Yes!
Agus: I'll start analyzing it
Agus: Grab a few more plz
Agus: And heal it!
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Zen: Roger boss
As the conversation happens and he asks me for more details regarding the attack, another part of my mind is in the process of Shape Stoning another tunnel back towards my previous section of tailbone. Where, upon arrival; I healed the injury I caused then repeated the cycle of breaking and healing to produce several more bone pieces of various sizes. Now I still plan to attempt hollowing a small section within a piece of bone to try placing a Mana Tower within, but I figured if it were to succeed and we end up gaining quick access, I would rather it be somewhere deeper. So; Blink, now back within the vein-like tunnels and about ten extra pieces of the bone. I continue to make my way deeper.
It hurts my gamer soul to just follow this one twirly main passage while ignoring all the side tunnels but exploring all of this could take years. No, be strong myself! I clench my fist and continue traveling forth, often times flying, other times walking—at the furthest range of my Mana Sense, the tunnel suddenly opens up into a circular chamber of sorts. Now this is very interesting, much better than traversing an unending extremely winding tunnel while escaping from pale rewardless defender monster thingy. Along the way, the only entertainment I had was the Torterrene's tailbone which would come into and out of the range of my Mana Sense every once in a while. Massive tail bones!
Carefully and with a great amount of curiosity, I approach the chamber while keeping track of its interior with Mana Sense… within the first few seconds, I was mind-blown. Scattered about the circular area, which I believe is much larger than the range of my Mana Sense—judging from the way Mana Sense reveals its walls to be curving away from the center—are pulsating fleshy buildings of sorts; all identical in design. Imagine an onion resting upon a blooming flower. And every quarter of a minute, from the center tip of said building; a pale crystalish object would be ejected. Said object would then fall along the pull of gravity before disappearing into the rock walls. All in all, pretty disgusting.
I armor up and activate my Trilattic Swarm's camouflage feature, how nostalgic! Slowly creeping closer towards the opening, I also tried to Inspect as many things as possible.
** DING **
Marrow Chamber lv 1
Quagxyte lv 1
Quagxyte lv 1
Marrow Chamber lv 1
Well, that answers the question of what they look like before mimicking anyone. Whereas the Marrow Chambers are those un-blooming onions they come out of—the name has a familiar ring.
Tentatively, betting on my armor's camo, I take my first step into the Marrow Chamber's chamber. Then two, five… and by the hundreth, I was sure they are incapable of detecting me. Up close, the chambers are maybe more than ten times my height of 1.8ish meters; which makes them 20 meters? There are hundreds all over this room alone, scattered about on the grounds, on the walls and even the ceiling. Every single tip points in the direction of the chamber's center. Note that these Marrow Chamber do not eject their products following a synchronized timing, so within the 15 minutes cycle there are always about 200 newly made Quagxytes still floating towards the ground or are in the process of sinking into the walls
Micro Flight—and all hell broke loose—instantly, the moment I cast my flight Spell, every single visible pale sphere trembled for a tenth of a second and started zooming around in search of me. Rather, they are zooming for the exact position where I last cast Micro Flight… More are coming back out of every surface!
I blitz forth and down, away from the entrance. This chamber itself is larger than I imagined previously and not a straight fall; it is at a slight diagonal position—maybe about a 50° angle. Even the main tunnel had been less of a fall and more of a winding pathway since where the Tailbones begin… The pale spheres changed direction and started to follow my exact flight path. Damnit!
It is not that slaying every single one of them is beyond my abilities, it is more that doing so is both a waste of time and energy due to their level one status. Thus, it is just a much wiser strategy to run. Within a few seconds, I managed to detect the opposite walls only to find that it is a dead end. Dam—oh! I looked around in half acceptance that the encounter is unavoidable only to find the exit slightly above rather than straight ahead of the entrance. Positioned slightly beyond the range of my Mana Sense—I am sure that the chamber is larger than 1000 meters, but is probably no larger than 1500 meters due to the approximate distance I had to travel before my Mana Sense lost track of the entrance and felt the opposite wall.
It was already a known fact that they cannot keep up with my flight speed, let alone Blink, so I'm soon back to walking along the boring tunnels. I wonder how far I've gon—huh, the faint glow of my Mark is unlit! Have I traveled 1000 kilometers? No wait, the last Mark only had enough mana for a range of about 500 kilometers long… Backtrack, Return and cast a stronger Mark or keep going into the unknown without the guarantee of an easy retreat? Well, I figured a little bit of risk is fine right! Not to mention Blink, Micro Flight, and my various means. So I proceed in search of another of its bones. By midday, judging by the time indicated on my VICOS. After what feels like another 500 kilometers of flight, I finally detected another bone within range of Mana Sense.
Shape Stone. I reuse the previous method and soon find myself before it; another Tailbone. How long is this creature's tail anyway? Once again I follow its contour, more out of curiosity than any purpose. Well, one thing is for sure; this one is larger than the first one. I spent maybe two hours or so in a random direction before I can sense an open tunnel up ahead. It leads into the bone? I Blink over.
This tunnel..? Hmm, I have a hunch—an educated guess based on my rough sense of direction and the fact that I can actually feel through Mana Sense how the bone curves; that while one direction leads towards the Tailbone, the other would take me back towards my previous position upon where this particular bone was first Sensed. So the path would have probably brought me here in the first place. I turn a 180 and continue walking towards the bone, backtrack is for later.
The walls transitioned from rock to bone in an irregular line following the general contour of said slightly ovaloid bone where the rock tunnel connects to a bone tunnel. About 5 meters in, the material visibly differs; further observation reveals that the bone is still one whole, just a mix of two different compositions. Where Inspecting the outer casing results in a Tailbone, the inner parts are called Bortuary Bone. Whose material is a lighter color and has a smoother more modern industrial feel to it, like the difference between raw marble and their polished counterpart. Natural versus man-made.
Eventually, the path opens up into a cavern. It is small in relation to the size of this creature; maybe a little less than 100 meters in diameter. Note that the space is not perfectly circular and these areas are far from being within reach of sunlight, which means I have mostly been relying on Mana Sense to see my surroundings. Well, besides the occasional glimpses my nightvision provides. Either way, Mana Sense is currently telling me that a massive—in relation to me this time—lump of mana may be found dead center within this chamber. And, it's starting to move!