[Level UP!]

[Level 2]

+[Mana Manipulation]

Control and shape mana

Woooo! A level up!

And a new skill ...also related to mana?

It seemed that the system itself recognized my achievement, gifting me a new skill. So perhaps, some skills were locked behind personal understanding and effort.

But I also leveled up so maybe learning a new skill was a requirement to advance a level? Or was learning a new skill automatically leveling me up? Hmm...

By then I realized that most skills could use Mana to fuel them, meaning that Mana must have been a foundational aspect of most skills.

Then I just had to learn more about Mana!

[Mana Manipulation] granted me more control over Mana...So could I move Mana out of my body? If yes, then would I be able to suck out Mana from other beings in order to cancel out their ability to use skills that required Mana?

I decided to test out my theory. I focused hard, trying to move or nudge the mana within me. At first, nothing happened and it stood sturdy. But after countless more attempts, it started to budge. I could move a tiny amount of Mana out of the sphere by myself.

[Mana Manipulation LVL1 -> LVL2]

Ah yes! A level up.

At that moment, I felt slightly empty and even somewhat weak! That meant that my hypothesis was correct. If I could move Mana out of other beings' bodies, they would lose their fighting power!

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But the moment my Mana left my body, I lost my ability to control it and it instantly dispersed into the surrounding soil.

I grew slightly frustrated as I kept trying to retain control of the Mana each time I ejected it out of myself, but I could never get a grasp on it after it left my body. Perhaps I needed more practice.

Hmm, whatever...

So I went back to further experiment with manipulating Mana that was around me rather in me. After a while of fumbling around, I could pull out a sizable chunk of mana from the surroundings and shape it around, forming simple shapes like squares and triangles.

I could get the general shape, but getting defined edges was quite difficult to achieve. However, I was slowly getting better with practice.

Done with my experimenting with Mana, I decided to go back to the best course of action. I once again started the cycle of [Mana Absorption] and [Growth]. Then I would use [Reinforce] to strengthen my new body parts.

[Mana Absorption LVL1 -> LVL2]

[Growth LVL1 -> LVL2]

[Reinforce LVL1 -> LVL2]

Woa! 3 whole upgrades! Thank you kind system…

Feeling even more motivated, I expanded my tendrils in each direction. I didn't know what was up and what was down so I had to expand to all sides. Perhaps I would find the surface of this planet? Hopefully, I wasn't too far underground. Because since every skill used Mana, I was losing quite a bit in the process of growing. I had to use [Mana Absorption] a couple of times to recharge my Mana supply.

After what felt like forever, I finally found something other than dirt surrounding me. I could finally see the surface!

Still having my passive skill [All Sense], I was able to see a sprawling forest surrounding me, quite similar to the forests of Earth. I could hear the sound of many critters and creatures but no alien-sounding noises.

I gazed up at the stars and noticed that there were two moons instead of one, affirming my thoughts that this was a different planet.

Realizing that a black tendril coming out of the ground wasn’t something normal you would see, I cautiously retracted it until only the tip peeked out of the grass. This greatly reduced my vision, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Now I knew the right way up and so I grew more of my black body upwards. I planned to surround the nearby forest with as many tendrils, so I could fully observe the forest and study it. Perhaps I could even find other intelligent life forms?

[All Sense] was a really useful ability, allowing me to see and hear multiple things at once. I was quite surprised that all the information didn’t seem to overload my brain in any way and the fact that I could process all of it, was amazing! Maybe it was one of the benefits of my race? It would be quite useful for information gathering and scouting...

I could see multiple animals cross my vision, all sorts of animals that you would expect from a forest. Squirrels, rabbits and at one point I even saw a deer pass by one of my outermost tendrils. Nothing out of the ordinary so far. Honestly, I was kind of expecting more...