To my surprise, I found out that using [Mana Absorption], the amount of Mana in the air was a little bit higher than that of the soil. But it was a negligible difference.

However, it still benefited me as I continued expanding more and more while reinforcing myself and growing more scout tendrils across the forest. My information network grew larger and more defined. I could finally see the start of sunrise as light rays pierced through tree branches.

At this point my body looked like a tree's root system, spreading everywhere across the forest floor. I still tried to keep a low profile, hiding in tall grass and beside trees. But while this was safer, my view was greatly reduced.

By then, I could see that the sun had almost completely risen, and as the light finally reached one of my tendrils, I suddenly felt a searing pain. I could feel the flesh melting and burning from the sunlight! Quickly, I retreated the tendril underground.

I did the same to almost all my tendrils, except those near trees which should have given me enough cover to stop the rays from melting me off.

Gah! What was that?!

A huge disadvantage appeared already…Apparently, my weakness was the sun?! What a pain. Now I would have to put tendrils near trees or foliage which would further reduce how much I could see. How unfair...

Well not really...since I somehow had to be restrained right? I couldn't just keep spreading without limit.

My limit...was the sun

So I had to try to mainly grow some tendrils under the various branches of the trees to provide a better field of vision while also staying out of the sun. It somewhat worked.

After doing so to a couple of trees, I finally rebuilt my intelligence network. Allowing me to observe wildlife easier and to see if they had any dangerous skills or qualities.

The only one so far that had anything special or unique was a particular rabbit that had a spiral horn growing out of its forehead reminiscent of a narwhal's horn.

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I studied it for a while and saw that whenever another animal attacked it, it defended itself by coating its horn in some type of ethereal substance that looked like it enhanced the horns' penetrative powers.

Could it have been Mana?

The rabbit then leaped into predators with a powerful kick to the ground from its small legs, stabbing its glowing horn into the creature's heart. Its accuracy was pretty astounding for such an animal. Perhaps the ethereal coating was an advanced usage of Mana that I couldn't yet achieve or something else entirely. It could have been a skill for all I knew.

The "Unicorn-Rabbit" attracted my interest, so I kept following its movements and eventually located its burrow. I grew my tendrils underground towards the rabbit hole. I then used a tendril as a scout by sticking it out from the bottom of the burrow, managing to spot that horned rabbit beginning to fall into a peaceful sleep. I observed it for a while before I expanded out my tendril network more and more into the burrow. It still acted obliviously and slept soundly. Nothing strange seemed to happen to its horn as I progressed into its home.

Meanwhile, while monitoring the rabbit's activities, I spread myself further through the forest, as well as underground. I did this, in the hope that I would get to discover more burrows or different creatures entirely.

If I learned more about this new world, I would eventually learn how to get stronger while knowing how to counter any dangers. It seemed like a good plan...

I wasn’t sure whether this planet worked on the same 24 - hour system as Earth, so I decided to track time by the number of cycles the sun did. With one cycle being one rotation of the sun.

I continued my activities for two more cycles until the horned rabbit I was observing got brutally mauled by a bear. I guess even magical horns couldn’t save you from a pure size difference.

A few seconds ago, with my "tentacles" on the surface, I could see the bear sniffing the air. The bear in this world had long silver claws, that somewhat resembled sharp daggers. The claws caused the wind to whistle every time it swung its bulky arms. Additionally, they had scarlet red eyes that seemed to stare deep into my very soul. Very creepy overall.

It paused momentarily, finally finding its target. The bear turned its head and began walking in the direction of my tentacles. I internally held my breath as it got extremely close to me. Luckily, it stopped a few meters short and instead swung its powerful arm into the ground, where the rabbit burrow was. The rabbit, being unaware, didn't even have time to fight back. It could only squirm for a while before it went limp in the true beast's fists.

The bear's eyes then shone with a sinister red glow, before it headed off once again.

I decided to learn from this experience. Unlike the rabbit's horn, I had tentacles that could have been used to defend and fight for myself. But the most critical part was the central part of my body, where everything originated from. From the way that part was acting, it seems to be like a human heart, so I would assume it was vital to my being like a human's heart was to a human. This part of my "body" was only a couple of meters from the surface, so I decided that moving my “heart” lower was a good move. I still wasn’t a hundred percent sure of whether this part of me was vital to my existence or not, but I'd rather not cause unnecessary mistakes.

So, I shifted "my heart" about three times lower than it was before. Then I grew out more of my black substance around it to cover it like a thick shell and to act as a buffer against any attacks. I then used [Reinforce] to strengthen my shield.

[Level UP!]

[Level 3]

[WARNING: GROWING IS UNAVAILABLE. EVOLVE TO INCREASE BODY SIZE]

Huhh!?