Charlie was taken aback by the sudden whisper, and quickly dodged out of the way of the snarling creatures lunge. His mind was filled with understanding - memories clicked into place as if he had always known them. The entire ordeal didn't last long, but it almost completely took over Charlie's full attention, thankfully he had the presence of mind to still save his skin.

If he had underestimated the creature and continued to stay in his relaxed pose, Charlie wouldn't have had the time to get his body into position to dodge. It felt good to see himself learning in real time - it gave Charlie hope that there was still a chance of him eventually growing beyond his stupid mistakes.

The ugly creature took Charlie's retreat as victory, and slowly turned it's attention back to the corpse. It wanted to guard the free meal and opted to growl menacingly, warning Charlie that he should run away with his tail tucked between his legs.

Charlie saw the threat, and Charlie didn't care. The System had never whispered to him while he was awake, and that took precedence over some pitiful mutant with more bark than bite.

Charlie had felt the connection to the Mana around him click into place without having to enter a deep state of focus - it was almost like the world wanted to form the connection of its own will. That's when the System spoke, and from what Charlie gathered, it was monumental.

He would need to return to the realm within his soul to confirm, but if he was right, his measly Mana sense had somehow evolved.

To test it out, Charlie focused on sensing the surrounding Mana, and almost effortlessly, the connection was formed. It expanded much further in all directions, seemingly having tripled in size. It extended in all directions but down, the ground must have been too dense, or somehow blocked his sense - whatever it was, Charlie couldn't see through solid earth at least.

When Charlie returned his attention to the ugly beast, there had been a change in his perception. No longer was the Mana that leaked out of the living weak and vague, now it shined with a lively vigour - it felt almost tangible.

The world felt brighter, more colourful and it was like a layer of fog had been lifted from his mind. The suns light piercing through the canopy felt stronger, the flora smelled sweeter and the creatures caught inside his Mana senses range felt like they were within reach - all he had to do was reach out and grab them. Though lacking arms, that wasn't going to be possible.

Charlie couldn't wait any longer, there was so much to do and so much to explore, he needed to end this soon and return to the hovel.

The mutant dog had long forgotten about an unmoving serpent and had already started to chow down on the supple rabbits flesh. Somewhat upset by the fact that the rabbits corpse was tainted by it's saliva, and being ignored, Charlie launched himself at the creature. Crossing the distance in silence, Charlie let out a [Hollow Fang] into the spine of the ugly mutant creature, and immediately backed off.

The tri-legged mutant yelped from fright and quickly tried to chase Charlie down, bloodied spittle flying in the air during its maddened barking. Having chased Charlie away, it turned to return back to its prize, and collapsed.

Charlie slithered over and watched as the mutant dog took its final breath, it's eyes were filled with a faded hatred. While his own anger had been quenched, the fact of the matter remained - Charlie didn't want to pick up the slobbered rabbit corpse. There was no chance in hell he would willingly put the saliva-riddled, half-eaten and mangled corpse in his own mouth.

Well, he was still a little far from his hovel, but with the new addition of Mana sense, Charlie felt a bit more confident in holding his testing session around here. There weren't any safe perches that he could see or sense, nor was it a very open space - but there was plenty of life all around.

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Some were hidden in the trees, quietly observing the situation from safety, others were vibrating with excitement in the bushes, barely able to contain themselves at the sight of food.

Charlie had previously scouted the area pretty well already, so there was no real need to delay any longer. There was a particularly tall tree nearby that had a tight, but good, view of the corpses, so Charlie climbed it to the best of his abilities. It was slow and tedious, but it would have to do. Safety was paramount, even if all other comforts had to be thrown out.

His only worry was that by the time he had comfortably sat down, the corpses would have been robbed and tucked away for later by a lucky creature.

Thankfully the worry was unfounded, as what awaited him felt like a genuine reward. There were about seven creatures of varying sizes and ferocity, all fighting over the right to the tantalising meal.

The distance was a bit too great for Charlie to make out clear details with his eyes alone, but his Mana sense could reach it fine. It was strange to be able to perceive a creature in two separate ways. He could both feel them in his mind, and could also see them with his eyes. It would take some getting used to, but Charlie was already overjoyed by the improvements.

The time had come, Charlie was finally ready to cast [Worm of Envy] and find out more about the mysterious {Power}.

Charlie forgot to turn off his Mana sense as he started to cast [Worm of Envy], but found it much easier to get the Mana to do what he wanted with it still active. It was like not only could he see the Mana flow more clearly, but a great portion of his Mana listened to his will.

Charlie set his sights onto an angry little thing, covered in sharp spiky fur and full of energy.

Now the question remained, what did Charlie want to know? Was it the species name? It's abilities? It's Level? There was so much information that he could find out, but there were only so many ways to ask.

There was also the number of questions Charlie could ask - were they limited? Could he simply keep asking, or was he forced to ask once per use?

Now that he had a second to think about it again, there was still a lot Charlie didn't know.

Well, there's only one way to find out.

Charlie decided on asking one question for now, and when the opportunity arises next, he'll ask two. He'll slowly chip away at the mystery that was [Worm of Envy] and reveal all of its secrets in time.

The Mana stirred, tearing away from Charlie's core it coalesced into one beautiful and powerful strand. The strand of pure energy followed the will of it's master, speeding through his body and reaching the nexus of Charlies mind at astounding speeds.

'What Level are you?' Charlie asked.

Waves of information rushed through Charlie's mind, filling him with not only the numerical value of its total Level, but the Levels of all of its abilities.

Yet that wasn't the most shocking discovery - Charlie's pool of Mana wasn't emptied!

Charlie expected to have been brought to the brink of exhaustion, but instead, there was more than half of his Mana pool left?

Elated, Charlie couldn't hold back and asked another question while still focusing on the Level two creature.

'Are you dangerous?' Charlie asked, unable to contain the glee in his thoughts.

But, nothing happened.

Huh?

Charlie tried again, this time asking for the name of the species, and again, nothing happened.

What's going on? I should have more than enough Mana to cast it.

Charlie couldn't make heads or tails of what was causing the blockage. So he turned his attention to another, equally as energetic creature and cast [Worm of Envy].

'What is your name, and are you dangerous?' he asked, a hint of worry permeating his thoughts.

Charlie felt his Mana drain, and a wealth of information entered Charlies mind. Yet, again, Charlie was not emptied of all of his Mana, and this time the drain to his pool felt even smaller than before.

While an incredible boon, Charlie couldn't help but question why it was less Mana intensive. There was still enough left to cast it one more time before he would start to run empty, so Charlie didn't hesitate to ask another question.

'What are your levels?' Charlie asked.

And again, it failed. The Mana had collected in the nexus of his mind, and simply dissipated when the question was asked.

It dawned on Charlie that he might be able to ask only a singular time - though Charlie didn't let it dampen his mood. Even a single chance to find out the secrets of a creature was already a tremendous power.

Well, he still had one more use of it, he might as well use it.