While he walked, Edge reviewed what little he knew of his situation.

In addition to cutting off all long-range communication and transportation, the unprecedented disaster had reshaped the planet. It carved out swaths of terrain from across the globe and wove them together like a patchwork quilt, including high-threat regions from beyond the frontier.

Within a matter of hours, the calamity had divided the factions, destroyed entire ecosystems, and upended the status quo. If rumor was to be believed, it also wound up freeing some of the most dangerous prisoners in human history, releasing them from maximum security biomes back into the general population.

But none of that was the real problem-- the monsters roaming the plains.

Thanks to the surface of Ord being reshuffled, powerful creatures from across the globe had become his new neighbors. Their numbers were growing by the day on the Ivory Plains, which had once been the safest biome on the planet. What had been a perfect place to train a newly arrived puppet only days before was now a lethal gauntlet.

That was the bad news. The good news was that there were plenty of lesser beasts out here that Edge could hunt, letting him cycle-up before facing down some of the plains’ stronger residents.

Once he had a few more attributes under his belt and finished digesting the shadowreaver’s skill, it would be time to start eating more, amplifying his power with every new [Extraction]. A prospect that he found to be absolutely… delicious.

Before, he had been easy prey for most of the predators roaming the plains. While he would have to be on guard against their deadly new residents, now Edge was a hunter too. When he made it back to town, he could recover from his ordeal and outfit himself with proper equipment.

But before he got to any of that, his first goal was relatively simple. He needed to find his next meal. By this point, he would be willing to eat almost anything that he came across.

The magic that Ord exuded in abundance was an integral part of its ecosystem. All the plants, animals, and beasts on the planet were infused with magicytes.

But what he really wanted to get his hands on was harder to acquire, although it could be found in nearly every biome on the planet. Edge was hoping to kill two birds with one stone, filling his belly and his core at the same time.

His goal was to find one of the plants that produced concentrated clusters of magicytes. They were called mana-seeds, berries, or fruit depending on their content, regardless of the form they assumed.

He wasn’t going to find anything better than a mana-seed out here on the plains, but that was more than enough. Eating just one seed would grant him the full use of his skills, at least for a short while.

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Competition for such resources was fierce. Mana-rich plants were almost always guarded by cored animals, commonly called beasts. Tending to the fruit enhanced beasts’ bodies over time, a form of symbiosis that still wasn’t fully understood. He needed to find the smallest mana-seed that he could, the kind that were claimed by the weakest beasts on the plains.

Stage-zero entities like Edge generally had to live off scraps until they were strong enough to fight for richer resources. Before, he wouldn’t have dared to take on a creature beyond his stage, but now he had an ace up his sleeve. His new skills offered him advantages that weren’t available to other comparably staged lifeforms, letting him punch above his weight class.

That didn’t mean it was going to be easy. Even lesser beasts could be deadly to someone who had yet to evolve their core. To make matters worse, since regeneration was still draining mana to finish healing up his wounds, Skill-Eater only had enough fuel to use elemental blade for a few seconds tops.

Slash took far less mana, but its power was limited when using his knife. He’d likely have a bit more in the tank by the time that he found what he was looking for, but it was still going to be a problem.

He would have simply gone hungry and waited for his core to refill naturally as he made his way back to town, if it wasn’t even riskier to do so. If he ran into a monster, prisoner, or beast with predatory proclivities, which was far more likely than not given the state of the planet, he was going to have a problem.

Edge would have no chance of winning or escaping if he couldn’t go all out with his skills. It made the danger of battling for a mana-seed less than going without.

Besides, he had to cycle-up his core if he wanted to evolve and grow stronger. Picking a fight that he thought he could win, rather than waiting to be attacked, was the right move any way that he looked at it.

Taking all that into account, Edge began walking east. He was heading toward a part of the plains interspersed with clusters of trees, a sub-biome known as the Violet Groves. It was one of the best places to find mana-seeds and he knew the details about most of the beasts in the region.

As he walked, his fingers continued to regenerate. The wounds had already completely healed. But now he could feel bone growing along the missing pieces, stretching out as the minutes ticked past until they began to resemble stumpy fingers once more. An hour later, they had regained their full length and, after rebuilding the final tendons and nerves, he could move his digits once more.

My hand is back. He reached for his knife and took a few experimental swings at the air, enjoying the extra power and precision granted by his attribute points. I just regrew my fucking hand. Not to mention all the internal damage to my torso. He laughed out loud at the wonder of it all, then returned his attention to the terrain ahead.

Edge walked for another few hours, making his way along the stretches of white grass while heading due east, using the Guide’s Fingers to keep him on a steady course. Before long, he could see a smudge of purple along the horizon. It’s the canopy from the Violet Groves.

Ten minutes later, he was nearing the tree line. The closest grove stretched on for at least a few square miles.

That was when a wonderous scent broke over his palate. The aroma of something that smelled so good, his stomach didn’t just growl in response, it roared. He had never felt anything like it. But in that moment, he knew with complete and utter certainty that it was the scent of a mana-seed riding the breeze.

Edge grinned and picked up his pace. It seemed that his hunt was going to be successful after all.