"I think we have officially broken past the 150 meters point now!" One of the depth pioneering miners yelled. I got bored merely watching them and decided to help, the faster we get down there, the faster I get to see the magical earthly wonder described by the Dwarves after all! With the amount of mana and magic power I have, the whole team was delegated to follow behind me while I bulldo—Shape Stone our way down, making sure to follow the instructions of the only guy who ended up being busier due to our increased speed; the team's manager. Whose job was to make sure everything is done according to the plans, that involves measuring the whole thing as perfectly as possible. And I damn well know he is doing his job of maintaining a uniform shape very finely, courtesy of Mana Sense.

By noon, we had made it past the 200th meter. Unfortunately, the act of Shaping these stones are getting much harder with every meter we delve deeper. And so we are back to reusing their previous method of mining the stones and Shape Stone compressing them one piece at a time. Unlike Shaping, the act of mining these mana infused stones itself does not get significantly harder the deeper we go, the mana infused within carries a sturdy earthen will, making it harder the denser it is, which is the case as we go deeper. Fortunately, the infused mana does not improve the stone's durability all that much.

Slow and steady wins the race, not that we are in one, but the moral still stands. After a quick lunch break, we slogged on and managed to make it another 50 meters deeper… then 10 more.. 15… 30… 50! By 300 meters, I was greatly disappointed to find that no such thing as stones growing and pulsating with life may be found… "Let's keep going!" someone said, to the agreement of everyone. Me included, this exercise is sure to give my Mana Manipulation skill another level! Now as we work on this, it is inevitable that we connect and converse. So I end up guiding them further along the path of understanding Shape Stone, as well as my two most common Spells; Magico and Trilattic.

By night, we have made it through another 50 meters or so, and, oh boy! The walls are growing back!! Any stone outside of the influence of our Shape Stone Spell would slowly grow back and rejoin together. The Dwarves had refrained from mentioning how they solved this particular situation. Thus, important peoples are called down and experiments are done through the night. The other team's room making project up on the 100th meters section above is halted in favor of developing these lower levels; at the point exactly where the stones do not grow back. I find myself neck deep in everything that is going on down here, and am enjoying every second of it. Even when all stopped to rest and slumber, I kept going with zeal.

Before everyone was dismissed for the night, we had determined that the stones would not start healing—someone mentioned the way they grow looks like regenerating flesh when a healing Spell is applied, and the metaphor has stuck since—as long as the stone's outer layers are saturated with anything else other than the mana it is originally saturated with. A person's mana when Shape Stone is applied, for example, does exactly that with the casters mana. Preventing the growth. Yet anytime the spell is dismissed, they are slowly resaturated by the grow-causing mana.

So, someway to maintain a continuous infusion… I tried leaving a Mana Core embedded into the walls, but was soon forced to quickly retrieve the item before it got swallowed in. No attempt to Artificially Infuse the walls managed to cause any permanent changes, as the infusion was quickly corroded and consumed by the encroaching earthen mana.

What is Shape Stone?

Mana that a user infuses into stone with the intent of manipulating its form—its shape… Intent might be the key! Having spellcasters stand here all day infusing the walls with mana is a comically impossible solution. Maybe a summoned creature? An upgrade to Shape Stone by making it manifest as a creature? The only problem being that it is not quite a spell I have ownership of. Upgrade it once I can claim ignorance, upgrade it twice… Yeah, not without permission from an obviously powerful being in a galaxy far far away who has yet to reply to my text.

My owned Spell that in a way summons creatures are; Weal, Woe and VLoS. Oh, and Snatch'a. But utility Spell, so Weal it is! The Weal-Lifes are already capable of manipulating mana to mimic several simple Spells, so part teaching part programming it to be capable of assimilating itself into stone and manipulate its shape only took me the better part of an hour. They would touch upon a targeted surface and dissolve into mana, blending into the stone, and leaving behind only a small round head with one eye. Kinda like a single crab's eye. Pretty creepy now that I see it.

For 25 mana, ten creatures are conjured. Each capable of assimilating into 20 cubic centimeters of stone. Or, in this case where I influence the way they assimilate themselves; 10 centimeters thick and 40 x 20 centimeters in length and width. Thus, 125 mana would cover a 4 x 1 meters area, while maintaining an infusion depth of 10 centimeters. Our tunnel has a perimeter of 14 meters, being 3 meters tall and 4 wide. Rounding that up to 875 mana every two meters of tunnel. Pretty expensive! Though they are capable of maintaining that indefinitely, provided there is an ample amount of ambient mana available. And they are unslain. Still, I dismiss the spell to fix the creepy eyes part, now made to look like a lightbulb—albeit with eyes—or an inconspicuous thin camouflage wallpaper-like layer on the surface of the stone.

I am damn sure the Dwarves do not use this method of maintaining their walls, and I am also definitely damn curious of how they do. Maybe enchanting all surfaces of their tunnels or creating some kinda magical object that continuously infuses the walls with mana? Definitely would ask later this morning! Therefore, for the next two or so hours remaining till daylight, I decided to go out and hunt for the last 60 levels to feed my devour quota.

Skill level up, Mana Manipulation 52 > 53

Skill level up, Visualization 46 > 47

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Skill level up, Teach 13 > 14

Combat summary

Enemies slain:

Acorneer Sniper lv 15 x 1

Acorneer Bombarder lv 15 x 1

Acorneer Assaulter lv 15 x 2

Acorneer Cannon lv 45 x 1

105 syscred and 433 exp awarded

Strength + 23

Constitution + 21

Dexterity + 28

Intelligence + 19

Wisdom + 9

Will + 8

Charisma + 16

Unfortunate coincidence for the group of Acorneers, they were the first enemies to enter the range of my Mana Sense. Though I find the way how they are composed of one leader that is of a stronger variant, then two Assaulters who are maybe some kinda tank? Then a Bombarder and a Sniper for short and long ranged DPS, questionable. I wonder, coincidence or no? even their levels are uniform. Anyhow, I devoured the four lower leveled enemies and left the untouched body and soul of the Cannon variant in Pocket Suspense, then Repository all loot to dump on Henry. Quest complete! And as grinding for experience is best done in a Dungeon—I return to Quadpeak.

—

"Huh, where'd you come from this early?" Someone I do not recognize called out to me when I landed near my Tower entrance. A man and two women, one is clearly more aptly described as a young adult. The man who greeted me has a beer belly, yet sports one fit upper torso, I would assume him to be in his fifties. Very typically, he sports a scruffy beard on his chin and cheeks. "You're Zane right, our resident ingester?"

That stunned me really good. And before I come anywhere close to snapping out of that debuff, I hear the daughter whisper-yelling—due to her being decently far—"Dad! He's a Devourer!!" To correct her father's miss-spoken words.

"I am so sorry for that Mr Zane! My husband's a bit of a fool now that he's grown old." The older woman was suddenly beside her husband and apologizing to me. "Would you like some breakfast?"

"You better remember that or he'll devour you!" I hear the daughter whisper to his dad, she is now standing behind and to the other side of him.

"We have apple and Siphroot pie; it works like a stamina potion, just much slower and gradual throughout the day. Some Lepovines; steak, ground and stir fried with veggies, grilled hamburger patty? Some baked or mashed potatoes, or both if you prefer. Maybe some rice and Cap Chai; it's got a generous mix of various beneficial herbs and veggies…" the list goes on, though I'm sure she is mostly doing her best to cover up the conversation going on between the father and daughter behind her, rather than actually offering me food. It is nothing special really, but the sight of a family joking, nagging and covering for each other, really touched my heart.

"I'm good! Thank you. It's amazing how you three are up so early cooking for everyone." I reply, still looking and conversing with the mother. "They smell wonderful by the way! But I wonder, how have your lives been since the Integration? Is Quadpeak treating you kindly?"

For a second, the younger lady has a scrunched up look on her face that seems to say; what would it matter to you? And say we do have complaints, how could we even answer that to your face. I may be looking at her mother here, but my Mana Sense has since slightly focused on all three… the mother replies with a smile, "oh everything is wonderful. We're alive and safe. Doing what we like best to boot! This new status and attributes thing has done wonders for my aching back, and my husband's injured knee! Considering the situation, we honestly can't do any better."

Actually they can; level up, learn better Spell and Skills, and grow powerful! I thought, but instead said, "that's great!---"

Yet, I picked up the girl grumbling, "we could do better! If mom and dad would let me join the fighters… Even lighting up the fire every morning is a chore—it's dangerous—we don't have enough Creds to afford Spells!" I can Sense her making that downturned smile while grumbling gesture teenagers do when they are mocking words their parents said.

That made me grin. I open my Store interface, and target all three members of their family to give them Will-o'-Weal. "They should help you with Igniting your fires every morning, I made them to provide convenience after all… First try with 25 mana, as 10 creatures should be plenty for your first cast." I spent a few minutes guiding them on how to command the Weal-lifes before making my way back into the lowest mine.

"On second thought, if they don't help you. Please come find me since that would mean the Spell needs fixing… See ya!" I added as I was leaving.

""Thank you"" Both parents say. Followed by the daughter, clearly playing cool her embarrassment of being heard, "thanks!"

—

By about 6.30, I am finally once again standing among the smartest masterminds and the most powerful combatants of Rumah and our allies, down where the Earth grows back and the mana is abundant.

A bunch of guys are studying the walls assimilated with Weal-Life, some taking notes, others making use of tools to better observe. One even asked another in an amused tone, "what are these?"

I ignore their conversation and approach the deepest area of my 2 meters deep Weal-assimilated walls, where I can Sense Henry, Agus, Billy, the Tenolos, and several other people standing together in conversation. "This looks like something Zen would do. Where'd he go?"

"Pretty sure it is, don't you think it looks like one of those creatures he sometimes summon?"

"Tis' fused inta da stone, nev'er seen tha before."

"Here he comes!" Henry finally said, halting any further conversation, while all head turn back to look at me.

"How come I didn't see any of you up at breakfast?" I ask one important question that has been haunting me since while I was teaching the cook family about Weal.

"We had someone bring them down." Agus replies somehow, eyes still on the wall and Weals.