Little changed over the following two days. The cubs continued to hibernate as they processed the dense energy of the water, while Mike, unable to gather much energy from it, was forced to drink it like he would any other water. He was able to accumulate enough that he though he could level one of his lower leveled skills whenever he wanted to, but he was unsure what the best option was in his current predicament.
By day, he slept, gathered energy from the water, and watched the cubs gain levels: they were now in the low 60s. His understanding of cosmic energy and how it was used by the cubs was growing slowly but steadily. By night, he continued digging out the first room of their shelter. It was now tall enough that he could sit comfortably in, and wide enough that all three of them could be in the room together, not that the foxes moved or deigned to speak with him. Spoiled brats.
It was at the end of his second day of digging that something changed:
[Congratulations! Branching skill unlocked, Rock Tunneling!
+3 Strength
Would you like to replace your current Burrowing skill? y/n]
Recognizing this branching skill for the unique opportunity that it was, he selected yes, then dove inside of himself to where the Burrowing skill was located, monitoring the pathways that made up the fractal. As he watched, the pathways seemed to grow outward. His focus was pulled away as he felt the System once again take from his energy reserves, rather than provide the energy itself to upgrade the skill. The stinginess proved a boon though, as he noted how the energy was being pulled, directed, and utilized. When he was confident that he could replicate what the System was doing, he extended his focus, looking to see the changes to the pathways at a large scale, rather than looking at the underlying mechanism. He was fairly surprised by what he saw. Rather than a complete overhaul of the pathways, there seemed to be only a minor addition, a small symbol added to the corner of each fractal on both of his hands.
Within a few seconds, though it felt longer with his focus turned inward, the process was complete, and in its customary greediness, the System sucked all of his excess energy away before sending another notification.
[Congratulations! New Skill learned, Rock Tunneling!
Some choose to truly excel in life, but you have chosen a different path.
You carve through rock as though it was only densely packed clay.]
Huh. He had forgotten how snarky the System could be, mostly because he had been interacting with it less and less as he focused on building his skills using cosmic energy. The lack of leveling was also a contributing factor. He was pleasantly surprised that he had retroactively received an extra point into Strength for both levels of Burrow that had been changed into Rock Tunneling. Although, the requirements for leveling the skill had gotten significantly harder. He now had to dig a 300 yard tunnel, rather than digging a long-term home. Luckily for him, he had plenty of rock and little else to do with his evenings. Or at least that had been true only minutes before.
With his crash course in growing pathways in his own body, there was a lot he wanted to do. Sadly, before he could do anything, he would need to build up his energy reserves again.
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Another two days had passed before Mike’s energy reserves were in a place where he felt sufficiently confident in growing some new pathways. With his newly upgraded ability, the tunneling process was much faster, and he had carved a large room that was two feet taller than his own height, allowing him to stand up and stretch fully, something he had truly missed since the birds started hunting for him in earnest six days prior. He had even carved some small shelves into the room, places where he and the cubs could easily lay, which he had padded with some tough wurmskin that was only slightly better than rock.
I really need to plant a garden so I can get some softer leaves to sleep on. He had thought after testing out the new beds, following which, he had gently moved the cubs to their places one at a time.
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He checked the energy within them, and realized with a mixture of embarrassment and frustration that the water they had consumed 6 days ago had still retained half of its mass in their stomachs. His understanding of the full value of what he was wasting as he drank the water grew each day. Hopefully that would begin to change moving forwards.
Laying down on his new bed, he allowed himself to see the energy of the world. Locating his own core quickly, he grabbed as much energy as he could and traced his pathways until he found those that resided just over his stomach, where his most recent cup of water was shining brightly. Following the same process as the System had used, he began growing the symbol that appeared every time the System took energy away from him, which he had fondly named Energy Sucker.
From the moment his pathways extended, it became clear that he hadn’t fully comprehended everything the System had done, because he hadn’t felt anything physically when the System was doing its process, but when he did, it was excruciating. Each time he enlarged the pathway, it felt like his very being was stretching apart, like muscles pulling and tearing past their capacity. Doggedly, he carried on. The sigil was intricate and vast. When drawing by hand, it took upwards of 10 minutes, and judging by his current pace, it would take 10 days to create with channels.
The pain became a dull roar in his head as he did his best to block it out. An entire day passed as he grit his teeth and continued onward. This was the only way he could continue getting stronger in this Zone, something he needed to do if he was going to survive. More importantly, if he learned to do this, if he could grow his own channels, create his own skills, and increase his own levels, he wouldn’t need the System.
While the pain had remained relatively constant through the first day, things changed as he got to the second day. The sigil had multiple pathways, and rather than creating them in one continuous line, something that was impossible, he was forced to create branching paths. It seemed that with each unfinished endpoint, his pain increased. He also learned on the second day that he was much less efficient with the energy than the System was, and he was forced to take a break to consume water and gather energy while in the most intense pain of his life.
It was only thanks to the drastic methods he had used to gain levels in Sonic Sounding, storing the energy and pushing through the pain, that he was able to stay conscious, he had unknowingly primed his soul for this moment.
On the third day, he learned an important lesson. Succumbing to the pain and the needs of his body, he fell into a short nap that lasted no longer than twenty minutes. Upon awaking, he found his body completely lacking energy. Like he had gone without food for months. His tongue clung swollenly to the roof of his mouth. Apparently, if he wasn’t actively feeding the channels energy, they would take it from his physical body. He was certain that he had almost died, and it was only after nearly 10 hours of focused energy gathering that he felt somewhat normal. But the lesson was learned: the path he was on was not one of half measures. If he fell short, chances are, he would die.
There was a reprieve on the fourth day. Several of the branches were finished and with their edges closed off, the pain was diminished. The sweet relief of only having two branches working was exquisite, and in his semi-delirious state, Mike likened it to going from all of his fingers being burned, to only his two thumbs being burned.
As the fifth day closed, he finished off the sigil. His speed had increased with practice over the past five days, halving the estimated time it would take. With the final touch completed, he went over the whole pattern, making sure that each piece matched exactly with his memory of it. When he was sure it matched exactly, he pulled away from the channels and watched as energy was actively sucked from the water…. Or at least he tried to watch it. Nothing happened. The water continued to shoot water into his intestines, and nothing was pulled into his body. Frustrated, he double checked the fractal, but everything looked correct. In frustration, he flared energy through his new channels, which ended up doing the trick.
“Sometimes you just gotta hit it with a hammer.” It was his father’s favorite saying, and it proved correct in this instance as well.
He gleefully watched as the energy from the water in his stomach was sucked into his channels, automatically flowing directly to his core. His replica of the System’s symbol was much smaller, and its sucking effect seemed to match it, pulling energy at a much slower rate. Still, as best he could tell, only a very small amount of the water’s energy was being lost to his bodily functions, and after taking another long pull of the cosmic energy, he closed his eyes and went to sleep. Eager to get work done while doing absolutely nothing.
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“Everyspawn, evacuate the chamber immediately!” Sector Assimilator announced, grabbing Junior Administrator’s shoulder so they knew the order didn’t include them.
Tensions were already somewhat high among the crew after System Administrator had been put in the brig, and the last thing they needed was the inconsequential, outer-ring dwellers pressuring them into making a decision. Clearly the anomaly was about to do something big, but whether or not it was cultivation, that was up to the two of them to decide together.
They watched as the subject grew new pathways, eventually forming one of the cultivation symbols that the multiverse battled over. That he should know such a symbol was dangerous at best.
“What do we do?” Junior Administrator asked as the anomaly fell asleep.
“We watch.” Sector Assimilator replied, “And we record any more symbols he shows us. Opportunities to learn the symbols usually aren’t available until we are much more senior. So for now, we watch. We wait. We keep everyone out of the viewing chamber. And we use his insights to further our own paths.”