I care not for their attention, still casually walking forth for the largest Pangolin. The attention of more than 70 wild creatures would have made me pee my pants pre-integration, if not outright fainting. Now, it's merely something akin to a mosquito bite, helps that I am overwhelmingly more powerful. Though unlike me, the three brothers following behind me stop moving in a flight-no-fight response.
I suppose it would be a good idea that they stand back for now anyways, so I continue forth, leaving them standing where they are. At my approach the four larger Pangolins gather together to stand in my way, while the smallest of the five growl and whine at them from the side. Besides the 11 Pangolins that sit and work further away from the village center, the rest gather behind their leaders in a semicircle before me.
Ah, I believe that the smallest Metalsmith and the 11 partly shunned Pangolins are the group I had previously encountered, as with during our first encounter, they number exactly 12. Being ignored by its breathens, it finally stops struggling to communicate and leaves them to it, opting to stand further away, by its group.
I stop about fifteen meters from the lead group, my face armor opens to reveal a grin. Which prompted an almost harmonious roar from the four. And together, they charge! While I stood still. What is wrong with a grin? The only movement I do for now is; closing my face armor… with a regeneration rate of 412 hp per minute and more than double that mana, along with a health pool of 9796, assisted by my Trilattic Swarm armor and its mana barrier, Lesser Heal, and with how their hits are only damaging my Hp by at most 20 points of damage. I could stand there and watch them attack me for the whole week and they would still not be capable of taking my life.
But I haven't got all day, let alone a week. So, being careful this time, I took one positioning step, coming up closer to the level 17 Pangolin. Then, with a blur, gently placed my palm upon its armored torso. I push at a slight upwards angle, sending the car sized creature flying. Of course, three more followed suit.
The Pangolin may seem to be sentient, smart enough to build a simple house and gather together for safety, and to have pride in their craft. But, they are after all still wildlife, wild is within their nature and that, combined with pride, can't be any good. All 61 pangolins in the semicircle around me roared their displeasure—their Juveniles included—and charged at me!
That did not end well… for them! Having seen them spread out in a half-circle around me, I had of course prepared. With Latent Coating! And that, is how this village of Pangolins meet their newest nightmare.
I added to the layer of sticky Coating with two more casts, just to make sure they can't escape. While the four largest Pangolins I had manhandled are now warily grouped together behind their Coated breathens.
We are now in a bit of a standstill, so I wave at the level 11 Metalsmith, my face armor reopening to show what I hope will be understood as a friendly grin. While whatever it thinks of my grin remains a mystery, it nevertheless steps forth, cautious step after another, until it finds itself standing between the other Pangolins and myself.
"Hi, it's been a while." I say… Language barrier is still a thing, but between body language, the three Yu brothers and how the Pangolins seem to understand a bit of mandarin. We had managed to communicate. Their swords were gone, melted down and reforged into nails they plan to use for new houses. And If I am not mistaken, their gesture of swinging the sword then at something coming out of their bottom, what they meant to say was the swords were shit. That baffled all three Yu's but made me laugh out loud.
The rest of my day was not spent productively, that is if seen from my goal of uniting Pangea. But, at the same time, it is also very productive for me personally, but especially when seen from the views of these five Pangolin leaders and the three Brothers; who happen to be quite familiar with constructions, being part timers of their local construction company during pre-integration. Even if they were only delegated with minor jobs, like lifting things around, or fetching tools, and helping with other minor matters. They have at least seen a lot, which is much more than what the Pangolins know. So, after much communication, they have come to an agreement; the Pangolins shall craft for them the sword of their dreams—each, while they shall educate these wild-intelligent creatures on building a better home.
I left them to it, making use of the downtime to ponder on my list of spells and how to improve them, as well as what new spell to design or discover. Amazing what four minds can accomplish in a day.
First of all is Beam Torrent! After all; the best defense is a good offense, sometimes… The new upgrade is simple enough; it's already turret-like, mounted on a monopod with its slightly better than standard range of motion, the only difference being how it is only summonable on the caster and may only be fueled by said person. But now, with this upgraded mastery, it may be summoned on any surface, and fueled by any source of mana; someone infusing it with mana, a Monster Core, or a Mana Tower. Simply by touching any parts of it with the source and allowing it to harness mana. Of course as a turret, it additionally has a built-in handle and a attached modest container of sorts.
Next up, Conjure Trilattic Swarm. Diamond is hard, very hard, simply by being very dense. But bamboo is also strong by being flexible. Thus, I came up with a simple solution, the plates are now resizeable upon being conjured. Inspired, once again by Shrink Touch. And depending upon your will and Mana Manipulation, at the exact same cost, smaller—while still maintaining the property of steel and rubber—more compressed plates may be conjured to form the armor. This increases mana cost, but greatly boosts its defensive capability. Now, my armor are made of 3 mm plates. For about three times the previous cost; they are smoother in design, less of a hindrance when moving. Individually stronger and thus harder to break, most would merely scatter with enough impact and could just easily reform. Its spatial pocket may now take the form of any shape, no longer limited to a pyramidal form. Stored, mine is now merely a bracelet on my left arm.
The third spell… was not meant to be Animus Incision, but in a fit of inspiration I cast the spell, but formed it into its Wyvern form instead of its knife one. It has always been unwieldy, a spell that is limited by its user's throwing skill. This offsets that by allowing the spell to absorb ambient mana and sustain itself; indefinitely as a dagger, or—in my case—for a few minutes as a wyvern. And to fly towards its foe for an attack, it may now also freely shift between its two forms and between both True space and the Mindscape.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
I returned the Wyvern into its Knife form and held onto it while my other hand cast Snatch'a Soul-inator. Besides its two current options of an extendable arm segment and a three jointed flexible fingers segment. I add to it a small spherical torso segment; not a necessity, though Its main function would be to control the other segments, freeing the caster from needing to manually manipulate every other parts. Like VLoS or the Will creatures, it understands simple commands and is proven to even be capable of holding the Animus Incision knife. Upon being cast, a person may select which and how many of each segment they wish to produce.
By now, the day has passed. The beautiful night sky adorns my sight as I lay on a patch of lush grass pondering on a new spell I have been entertaining within my mind.
"We are finish today, but need to continue tomorrow." Feng approaches and says to me, "shall we build camp, find a good spot for it that is far from danger but not far from here?"
I look at him with blank eyes, "can't we borrow a house or something?" Gesturing to the wall-less houses strewn about.
It was his turn to look blankly at me, "one moment." Soon he returns to tell me that we may, in fact, borrow a house. Which is good! I have enough Mana Tower as it is, not to mention the ones I will have to purchase in the near future, for the other unexplored countries. Thus, for our stay, we are provided with the one house they had been using for wall making practice, it is decent enough.
They slept and I, of course do not, besides a ten minutes nap. I shrink-devour two more level 5 Earl Vespas while standing outside by the doorless doorframe only a little past midnight, I felt it was getting a little stuffy in there while I was designing a new spell. Ah~, fresh air… I observe the sleeping Pangolins, each house filled to the brim and more, then at the walled house behind me. Why do I get the feeling that they would prefer them to be as they are now? I chuckle inwardly.
Strength + 6
Constitution + 8
Dexterity + 10
Intelligence + 4
Wisdom + 2
Will + 2
Charisma + 2
Spell mastery rank up, Beam Torrent Intermediate > Advanced
Spell mastery rank up, Conjure Trilattic Swarm Intermediate > Advanced
Spell mastery rank up, Animus Incision Intermediate > Advanced
Spell mastery rank up, Snatch'a Soul-inator Early > Basic
Skill level up, Inspect 31 > 33
Skill level up, Intimidate 20 > 23
Skill level up, All-Armors Proficiency 14 > 15
Skill level up, Unarmed Combat Proficiency 19 > 20
Skill level up, Mana Manipulation 34 > 35
Skill level up, Visualization 34 > 37
Skill level up, Mana Sense 26 > 27
Skill level up, Pain Resistance 13 > 14
I take a deep breath of fresh air, it's been a rush of activity these few months; between trying to survive the Integration, then learning spellcasting. Then trying to help save what is left of humanity—and losing parts of mine—also finding Kirana's family in between. Standing here breathing the cool night air, the faint inhales of ambient mana, watching the stars whilst standing among sleeping Pangolins; it's a pretty nice feeling…
Skill level up, SYMPHONY 24 > 25
Level 25 threshold breached
Ah! That's why it hasn't leveled up since; a threshold! The new threshold seems to further boost my resources regeneration by 50% when I am one with the world. Which, after a few minutes of experimentation, seems to mean the act of meditating while still in SYMPHONY. I like it! Who wouldn't like having more regeneration.
I stand there for a while enjoying the feeling of being in a doubled state of serenity, feeling like I am part of the world around me… beyond me… there has to be something more than my Trait; Metamorphosible Mana, than merely being able to easily design new spells. Not that that in itself is no good.
Metamorphosible Mana. Mana has always been accommodating to change. Your mana, instead, is levels above and beyond that. They'll be the elements in the palm of your hands or the roof over your head and sometimes even the cold metalic death of your enemies. They are essentially the products of your design.
The ring on my finger comes to mind, it is an object that regenerates its own mana, that grows from the devouring of Cores… I recalled the nanite dagger I had made—what felt like—ages ago, how it is mundane, mere crystal like rock. where-when did I lose it..? Finally the process of a Mana Core being created by Will-o'-Woe resurfaces in my mind, along with a lightsaber and memories of the movie—the games, as too my eyes slowly wander to the simple Pangolin houses, and again the description of my Trait flash through another line of thoughts.
I have a pool of 12,444 mana, Devorantis; 1,655. I pull every single point but one from each of us into a point several centimeters above my open palm, very strongly compressing them together, but not allowing them to solidify and become mere nanites... Eventually, a 3 centimeter diameter clear bluish sphere manifests, dropping onto and being caught within my palm. 'Inspect!'
** DING **
Mana Core (140/140)
I stare at it for exactly 10 minutes, it's still mana but not quite ethereal and non-material as I know it should be. A membrane that is solid yet wholly mana forms around a concentrated pool of mana, creating its own cycle, that and a sliver of life? 10 minutes is the time it took for my mana to regenerate its whole pool, which—all but one—I once again directed, onto the other palm this time. Forming another crystalline blue gem. 'Inspect!'
** DING **
Mana Core (124/124)
10% is it?