The world was bright, Mana of all kinds everywhere, plants showing up at every piece of the earth. There was nothing which laid barren, every piece of stone and wood and dirt covered with life. There was more than the Core had ever seen before. It was… beauty. There was nothing greater, nothing more complex than the sight that it had seen. It was truly life in its purest form. The Core could only help but emulate its greatness. Nature with its unstoppable power of randomness created a sight so much better than what could be done by hand.

The Entity had some desire to stare for a while, to see if anything would be able to be used for its gain. The so-called [Grass] seemed like quite the plant to have to lay around, the [Oak-Tree] also being quite the addition with how familiar the Core already was with it.

… Not that his lasted for long, however, the hundred Mana spent making sure that a moment could be spent looking upwards was empty by the time it even had an instant to think. There was some desire to try it out again, to see if it could take the matter seen and use the patterns within for its gain. Yet, there was little chance of that happening, the costs attached to remain up there being more than it could bear. A full five seconds would be more than a thousand Mana-Points spent, after all. And while the Core most certainly would reach the surface again at another point, it was saved for a later date. A date where the power was in plenty and where it wouldn't have to fear for its life.

Until then. For now, the Core could do nothing but keep on working, closing up one of the last places in its domain where it needed to worry. And… with that, the sides and top and bottom was clear of any Mana disappearing into the wild. Every generated would be kept inside. Or well… it would in a moment.

There was one place where the standard method for a panel would exhale work, that being the entrance. It was without Basalt to latch onto in the middle, requiring the panel to be quite a bit larger to accommodate for the space. Yet that also entailed creating a rather heavy weak point, the middle of the panel able to break with a smaller burst of energy. The Core was not too happy about that one, instead of forcing a sort of double-layering to stop any accidents before then further reinforcing it to make sure nothing truly bad would happen. The walls beside the entrance would give out before the empty patch of air would. That was certainly something that wasn't mentioned often.

Congratulations!

You have levelled up and reached level [7]

Huh. Looking over at the time, there was still another hour or so until the creatures would return. It seemed that they were spending their time outside well, keeping up the murder to some quite high levels. The Core was sure it would see them with a few new levels when they finally decided to return. What would it be doing in the meantime?

…

There wasn't actually much it could do. Checking through the progress with [Moss] growth, the regular variant seemed to spread along with the ceiling just fine, though some parts of the beginning were barely clinging on. The Core helped fix that, not wanting the entire thing to fall to an imbalance in weight. And since the ants were busy enough ending to the stuff down below, it was the least it could do to help.

The [Blood] variant of the Moss was doing just as fine as the normal one, filling out the ditches quite nicely. One side of the entrance was getting more growth than the other though, that likely began due to the [Infested] ant standing there. The Core thought about moving it over to the other side to equal it out yet quickly realized that was… pretty dumb. There was no reason to force the ant into moving between the two sides when there were plenty of other ants more than ready to take up that mantle.

The newly gained point of [Willpower] gave the Entity the ability to create a whole new creature without worrying about the consequences. And since it was new to the world, there was even a chance for it to gain the same abilities as the other creature standing around in the [Blood-Moss]. Making a tether filled with Intent to heal, the Core left it at that. The spawning of a creature was quite high at level two, so it simply used Manual-Regeneration to build it all up again.

Which was harder than it was meant to be. Way harder. The Core took the Mana out of the air, just as it had done countless times before. Yet it seemed to be more resisting the more the Entity took. It was almost as if-

Oh, yeah. That should have been realized early on. When the Core made it impossible for Mana to get out of its domain, the same consequence would be there for the Mana wanting to get in. Air was forced to remain outside to some degree, which was… not good. How exactly would that be solved?

Simply making the path one-directional wouldn't work right? It could work with light on some materials, the Core had realised that early one, yet would that work with Mana as well? The intent was sure to be tried out.

Focusing on the double-layered entrance yet again, the Core took a brief look into the panel made. It still stood strong, Mana being in the density it had been in since the start. Nothing wrong with that. This was why the modifications started instantly, the Core blasting it with a bit of Mana and the intent around allowing the Mana to come through from a specific side. And, wouldn't one know it, there was no resistance, the Mana flowing inside easily. Just to be sure that it wasn't something that affected all physical matter, the Core tested out making one of the ants go in and out. Luckily, there was no trouble had, allowing the Entity to rest easy once more.

Air was back in circulation after that trip-up of lacking thought, allowing the Core to regain all lost Mana without fear of removing the gas from the room. The lack of oxygen would have likely killed the creatures and plants which wasn't something that was desired at any real level. The possibility of losing such an amount of progress… it was unfathomable. Already, such a large amount of energy had been spent on the project of keeping energy in. Flaws weren't allowed to make it have problems. It would be perfect.

Thoughts of such an art were removed entirely when a new source of distractions came along. It was, of course, the feet which were noticed first, just before the head of a [Giant-Ant] came striding through the entrance, four others coming along behind in a single-file line. It was quite the sight to see, each of the creatures having endured some level of damage on their sides and backs. Yet, each stood firm in their steps, going above the spears without any issues. It was almost like they could handle everything still. Or maybe they’d just chosen their fights well enough to survive through them all. There really wasn't any telling just yet, the Core was unable to tell much without first [Appraising] the creatures.

Character Screen

Name:

-

Gender:

Male

Level:

3

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Class:

-

Race:

Giant-Ant

Title:

Dungeon-Born

Health:

134/150

H-Regen:

0.12/sec

Mana:

-/-

M-Regen:

0/sec

Stamina:

160/160

S-Regen:

0.15/sec

Basic Stats

Strength:

18

Wisdom:

5

Vitality:

14

Intelligence:

5

Dex:

15

Willpower:

5

All the other creatures had something similar, each having levelled up to level three. It was quite the sight to see, though the Core had been expecting as much. With the levels given out to it, there was no way that experience wouldn't have been given to the creatures themselves as well. Though… that strength must have been something against the smaller ants, five working against some two levels down. Just the difference in size could have created quite a few problems for the enemies. But, the Entity had nothing against it, the fact that they were unbalanced just meant that there was a lower chance of them falling into an early grave.

Though… with a swaying thought-process, the Core gave each of them a smaller Mana-Tendril to work with, all having earned getting their health back to full. While there certainly were some benefits around it, there were just as many that made the Core want them out of its domain again. Two levels had been gained in a single day, with the work of five ants working together. Just what would happen when it became ten ants working together instead, each having a level three or higher to their name? Or to make it even better, what would happen when the [Infested] set foot into the field? The ability to heal outside of the Core’s domain would allow for longer expeditions. Only in theory, of course, since the Entity would much prefer that they got back quickly, yet the idea was still there. Nothing would stop them from staying out for days at a time to gather materials normally only found far away. Maybe the Core could even start-up routes to the surface to get back some samples of the trees? There was still some rather large desire to have one of those standing around in its domain. And since the [Giant-Ants] were more than able to use their mandibles for digging, making a tunnel upwards would likely prove to be more than just a little easy. It would take some time, yes, but it would be worth it.

Ideas and fantasies spiralled out of control quickly after that, the Entity in a joy-happy mood about what the future would hold. When it did this and that or when it finally reached an answer to some dying question it had things that would be grand. It was all theory with even less being useable in practice. But the Core went on and on, knowing it had little else it could do for the next few minutes. Eight hours had already been spent setting up every little piece of the place that was meant to keep its Mana safe from leaking out. By now, there was no need to even have the Natural Mana-Regeneration on full, since the Mana already out in the air was more than enough for the Core to see everything within its domain.

… Wait. Didn't that mean it could expand with worrying about not being able to hold up the costs? It did, didn't it? The Core couldn't think of any reason why it wouldn't. Just how had the Entity not thought of that until at that very moment? Had it been blinded by other goals, not realizing what it had gained through its hard work? While it would certainly take some time to fill up, there was more than a good chance that the Core would be able to use a larger space without fearing anything about spatial constraints. That was the next project for sure! What a world it was stepping into. What would be done first? Create another layer beneath for Moss-Storage? Maybe make a tight tunnel up that would allow for a look at what secrets were in that direction? Or would it dig to one of the sides to find a few rare plants not seen before? The possibilities were quickly gaining ground, and so many of them had only been generated at the last second. What would an hour of planning do? Or maybe even a whole day?

The Core grew giddier and giddier, promises of more to do being incredible. Instead of having to wait for Moss to grow, it could expand the industry and create a haven of plants. It could make a forest like the one seen on top while also making it everything underground. That would allow safety, giving plenty of warning from all angles. Ah, but the top would of course have to be quite high, lest the trees would hit their maximum height too quickly. Which meant that it could be directly under the Core’s current position, moving it over to a more side-lined view… It would need a drawing board to make sure all sizes were up to code.

But that also had to be saved for later, the returned [Giant-Ants] finally reaching full health. Each stood with stainless edged, heads held high as they basked in the Mana of the domain. It was almost like the creatures hadn't taken in a full breath the entire time they had been away. Weird. The Core did mildly wonder if being away from the so-called dungeon brought health issues. Being created and staying inside a rather Mana-Intensive environment could bring some form of deprivation, the Entity supposed, with how much energy was regularly being taken in and out of the creatures’ Mana-Veins.

Circulation was good for the health, after all, so it made sense that the creatures did it near-constantly when surrounded by the air thick with pure Mana. However, when the body had then adapted to such a treatment, moving outside of that air for longer periods could prove quite eventful, the body grasping after energy that it could normally find aplenty, sending bites out while expecting more to replace it. It was an institution deprivation that created an adaptation to luxury. And the creature in the Core’s possession was a part of that problem. Or, was it really a problem? It wasn't like they were currently expected to go so long without Mana in the gaseous form. And when the time came where they did need something like that, the Core was sure it would come up with something. Perhaps a form of low-intensity environment would work? Just enough for the Core to work its magic but not enough for automatic circulation to startup? It would require a separate room where the standards were changed around, but the Entity did think it could make it work. There would be some requirements that would need to be remedied with the help of Intent, yet details like that were non-essential to the current production phase. Concepts were more important than faults.

However. Moving away from the ideas on how to remove the adaption of high-intensity Mana-Environment, what were the side-effects of being deprived. From the obvious parts of the creatures that had returned, it seemed like some manner of tiredness was there. Yet could there be more hidden underneath? Things like micro-tears in the body, as an example, could only be seen when the Core really paid attention, yet it was just as dangerous as everything seen with the normal sight. One could only wonder…

The first creature seemed fine enough in the health department. As had been guessed, some minor warping of the Mana-Nodes had occurred, a forced tightening taking place due to near-extreme deprivation. The thing might just have been running on fumes by the end, making the Core happy with making the maximum duration a day. Any more and it might have suffered permanent damage.

The second creature was much the same, though the last bits of Mana had been forced to remain in the back instead. The body had seemingly noticed the lacking amounts of energy being sent in and had closed off nearly every part of the body because of it. The legs had suffered from this, the feet especially getting some tissue that wasn't looking too healthy. Time had already done it a lot of good, but the connections would have to reopen slowly.

The third was about the same as the first two, the connections being damaged but surviving the harsh things done to them. The fourth was without any real difference, as well so it was just about skipped over entirely. It was only with the fifth that things got… weird.

Not weird in a bad way where they were still on the brink of death. If anything, the creature seemed much better than the other four, having gotten its Mana-Veins opened up fully again, running at full power without any issues. There was some tissue at the centre which hinted at larger amounts being pulled through but that was likely damage from one of the Core’s previous experiments. It couldn't remember what ant had tried what act anymore. All the faces blurred together with time, though that likely wasn't a good indicator of the individual anyway.

Moving back to the body, many things were questionable. While there had perhaps been some form of damage done due to Mana-Deprivation, it was all gone in the blink of an eye. Everything was okay to operate and move around, the tissue was without the slightest miscreations, and the outer digits had no hairs newly created. No damage to the dead skin had even happened. How exactly had the creature survived for so long, clearly never tightening the Veins to save energy while still not showing any signs of running out of energy? Was there little of it to use at points? Yes! But that improper balance should have created either death or damage yet there was none of either sort. It made no sense at all.

Could there have been some lucky mutation that made it more efficient at Mana-Usage? That explanation made little sense since something of that level would have at least required a different sub-race or a new variant of a sub-race. Instead, there was nothing. Not that it stopped the Core from starting a search through the ant’s body, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Something that explained the survival would have been preferred but anything at all would also have been fine. It started from the inner-most organs, slowly widening its window of sight. And, at the very edge of the back came the answer. Or perhaps not an answer. More a chance.

A circle of Black Mana. A pulsing circle of Black Mana. No matter how the Core looked at it, something like it couldn't spell anything good. Thinking it best to remove it before it grew bigger or did anything too serious, the Core sent over some Mana with the intent to destroy the mass. Yet it did nothing. Instead, something came out.

‘Hello, little rock.’