Even though my creature had escaped into the rocks, I could still determine its rough location since I had already claimed it. I tried following it for a while, but it really didn’t seem to want to come out.

Since it has come to this, let’s focus on other things, starting with Mana Monitoring.

[Mana Total: 8,446

Intake: 0

Expected Upkeep: 16 per hour]

Hey! Didn’t this decrease a lot?! And I thought creatures were supposed to have an effect on the intake? Is one not enough, maybe? It feels unreasonable.

Another point of interest is the increased upkeep. Is it because I made a room or is it related to the creature?

Ugh…

I regret not checking it earlier.

But… even though I made negative progress… I still need to continue expanding, right? My mana won’t flow properly unless I connect to the “outside”, or so it goes. This sort of mystical nonsense is going to endanger my life first, though.

I’m kind of irritated, but I think I’ll hold off for a while. Besides, I have this truly massive room now. What was I thinking earlier? That seven crystal-lengths should be good?

Stupid!

Naive!

Creatures are not even close to that size!

Honestly….

Actually, there are probably many creatures lurking in that room, undiscovered and unclaimed.

I check up on my creature again: still buried.

Meaning that, in this massive space, if I want all the creatures I not only have to painstakingly look, I also have to randomly dig around?

That’s seriously annoying. I’m dying, I’ll do it, but it’s seriously annoying.

And the result after extensive looking is! ...4.

The efficiency is bad. I tried just looking, I tried random digging and looking, I tried focusing on digging in one spot, I even tried sending a massive amount of the rocks flying all at once, nothing really worked. I have 5 creatures now, but if you were to ask me if it was worth it, I’d tell you no.

On top of that-

[Mana total: 8,291

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Intake: 0

Expected Upkeep: 16]

The situation hasn’t changed even though I found more! I don’t understand, somehow, but I’ve got to find a better way. I say that but the creatures remain buried, even though I’ve increased the number. Couldn’t I just… throw my mana around and have them be mine instantly? Like with the dirt.

No wait, the idea isn’t bad. After all, these creatures can be claimed without being specifically surrounded by mana or anything. So, even if I go in blind, it should be fine as long as I’m thinking something like “Claim the creature~” right?

Let’s just flood the place.

It’s my only option.

Couldn’t possibly do anything else.

Nope.

Saving mana is for the weak.

Since that is the plan, let’s go forth! I choose a random part of my room and launch the mana, letting it fill all gaps between the rocks until it feels sufficiently deep. Then, claim all the life! The mana seems to sink in, but I am able to detect signs of life. Right as I think so, the mana starts to rapidly disperse. No, ah, wait-!!

The mana is gone.

But, I was successful? Actually, I can sense several creatures in that spot now. A large amount of mana dispersed like “poof”, but probably around 40 creatures arrive at the surface when I call for them.

I see!

[Mana Total: 7,985

Intake: 1

Expected Up: 16]

I see!!!

The efficiency is bad.

Haha.

But, at least I’ve confirmed that mana intake is a real thing that can exist. Still, how many creatures do I have now? 40? 50?

The efficiency is bad.

No, I keep saying that somehow, but it’s the truth. I look back over at the creatures, and they totally started goofing off since I’ve stopped paying attention to them. This might be a good thing though.

A lot of them seem to be wriggling around randomly. Some of them are hitting away rocks with their tails. Ah! One creature used its tails to attack another! The other one immediately turned and used its long tail to hit away the others before fleeing, so it was only a brief confrontation. I kept looking around and saw one suddenly stop hitting away rocks and wrap its tail around it instead. The tails carefully withdrew and the creature turned around and pounced. It landed on the rock and that rock directly entered its body.

Um? What is this? ...This is a method of eating?

The rock starting bubbling as it rapidly dissolved. Soon, there was only the bubbles, which then fused into one large bubble before being pushed out through a hole that mysteriously opened on the top of the creature.

It ended in an instant, and the creature returned to its normal appearance. This… this method of eating is similar to slimes. Slime? Wait, what? Before I could even process this errant thought, they appeared.

Bursting out from within the rocks were several spherical objects. They were quite small, you could probably fit six of them within the oval body of my creature. They rapidly started stacking on top of each other to surround the creature that had just finished eating.

Huh?! But! I! I had just soaked that entire area with mana!? Where-

Before anything more could happen, a second creature moved in and sent its tails to attack the formation. It captured one by wrapping its long tail around it and all the spheres immediately disappeared back into the ground, moving as rapidly as they were when they first appeared.

-! Wait, wait, wait! I need this new thing! I focus back onto the captured sphere. It’s even more transparent than the first creatures, with a solid-looking mini-sphere floating inside of it. And-

[Unknown Slime]

-the creature moved its tail towards its body, consuming the sphere.

Ah!

Ahhhhh!

I wasn’t readddddyyyyy!!!