The deer moved to the exact spot Lan wanted it to move to. Not immediately, but it did.

Excited, Lan started to experiment on how far he could control the animal.

First, he 'told' it to jump. The deer just looked around and didn't do anything, returning to his previous spot in the herd. Unperturbed, Lan told the deer leader to run up to a certain bush. While that deer didn't exactly break into a full sprint, it walked to that bush faster than usual with a brisk walk. Finding nothing of much interest to itself, and with nothing better to do, started munching on the bush's leaves.

That series of interactions gave Lan some much-needed clues to his newfound 'control' over the herd of deer.

'It seems to be not an absolute type of control, but rather it's like giving a suggestion. I can only give them a 'general direction' of what to do. Being overly specific probably either doesn't convey the meaning I want, they don't understand it, or I can't transfer that suggestion at all. For now at least.'

After the inner contemplation, Lan extended his awareness to the other herd of deer.

He also remembered that after the 'connection' was established, he felt the 'minds' or 'souls' of the herd, which were open to him. However, after he got caught up in his 'control' experiments, he lost the feeling of that vivid sensation. So, he tried to focus on the herd again. However, all that greeted him was the sight and feeling of... The insides of deer.

While he could now be called a proud deer biologist, now being aware of their every organ and what they're made of, that didn't really help him with 'mind sensing', but it did open up a new source of interest.

First of all, the biological constitution of deer was interesting, to say the least. The muscles and tissues were densely compressed, with no excessive fat present.

'Huh, I wouldn't even know under that fluffy exterior lies a bunch of muscle bros.'

The most interesting to him though, was the skeleton, which didn't only have calcium as a primary component, no, it also had large amounts of metals, primarily iron, integrated with them seamlessly. The antlers, interestingly enough also had noticeable amounts of copper, which would probably make them good lightning conductors if the lightning didn't move on to fry the poor animal shortly after the strike.

'If they're so tough, it only makes one wonder even more how sharp the teeth and claws of local predators are to pierce all of that.'

Having more-or-less understood the biological makeup of the herd, Lan remembered a crucial detail.

'With all this discovery I almost forgot about magic... This is a magical world though, so it is there somewhere, I did somehow heal those two with neutral mana. In conclusion, they can in some way accept mana internally.'

So, Lan focused on the feeling of neutral mana. Tasteless, lack of color, lack of inherent nature... Tracing that feeling on the surface, he found deer as a bunch of distinct bunches of neutral mana, which looked fascinating, to say the least.

'It's like looking at those biology books with only veins present... Interesting...'

What deer looked like in his 'mana sight', as he now called it, wasn't just a dozen indistinct clumps, but a bunch of glowing veins spread out into the shape of a deer. They were spread out all throughout the body, even antlers, and then all of them converged back on one spot.

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The heart.

That discovery once again gave way to more questions.

'So is mana spread out through the blood? Considering that it starts from the heart, it seems likely.'

Having made that guess, Lan tried to compare the layout of veins and the spread of mana. But another problem made itself apparent. Lan wasn't able to focus on two things at once. Looking at their blood veins was like 'looking through the eyes' while observing mana was like 'focusing on the feeling of the skin'. If you focus on one feeling, the other becomes indistinct and blurry.

Still, every problem had a solution, you only had to find the right one.

Trying a couple more times to focus on both, Lan gave up and tried a different approach. He memorized the vein layout of the leader of the deer, who was now back among the herd, and then tried to compare it with the mana layout.

That method yielded multiple discoveries.

'First of all, once I memorize anything consciously, then I can easily recall it. I don't know how far this ability goes, but it still beats my previous fleshy brain. Heh, magic crystal brains for life!'

'Second of all, while both vein systems converge in the heart, they are not the same. For example, 'mana veins' flow throughout the whole body, even inside the antlers and bones. While the blood veins flow through the muscles, under the skin, well, just like normal blood vessels.

'So I guess that mana additionally strengthens all of the vital functions and strength of the deer. However, the heart remains a crucial irreplaceable organ, so if you lose it, mana or no mana - you are dead.'

Having made up a series of discoveries with neutral mana, Lan finally returned to his original purpose, finding the deer's minds.

The lad focused on mental mana, his own mind, all that was connected to it, and just like earlier, the deer possessed clumps of mental mana, some more than others, deer leader still having the largest.

Lan focused on the deer leader, and that clump of mental mana was visible to him in the same way he saw the deer's inner parts. He understood every part of it. As if it was dissected on a table.

He now knew every thought and feeling of that deer... Of which, to be honest, there weren't many. They weren't that complicated either.

As expected the animal did not possess any coherent thoughts, but rather feelings, and instincts. It knew it wasn't hungry, it knew that it needed to protect its herd, and it knew that it needed to search for food when hungry.

After that, Lan tried to search the minds of the rest of the herd. And soon, he came to a conclusion. Those with lesser clumps of mental mana had even fewer thoughts, thinking only of the current situation and acting on instinct. Those with greater amounts of mental mana, however, had greater thoughts and had more complex reactions to various things.

'That's one of the mysteries answered. The amount of mental mana depends on intelligence and complex thoughts. This is a bit scary considering that some of the plants generate an amount of mana on par with some rodents. It may also be that intelligence depends on mental mana instead, but that remains to be seen.'

'That means I will probably be able to suggest more complicated ideas to intelligent creatures, but that's in the future for now. This discovery also makes me wonder whether I can use their desires to influence the creatures better.'

With that, Lan tried to convey an image of sweet and juicy-looking berries on the bush on the edge of the clearing to one particularly hungry doe. Her head immediately jerked in the direction of the bush, and she quickly went up to it plucking and eating the berries one by one. As for whether they were poisonous... That remained to be seen.

'Idea confirmed then. That opens up some options. If I can create a shelter for the animals of some sort, I can convey to them the feeling of safety, luring them in to stay in my domain. That way they will be constant mana genera-, ahem they will be safe and sound. But, again that all depends on the availability of that shelter. Which means I am back to digging. Hooray...'

With that, Lan got back to trying to manipulate earth mana, this time closer to the surface to create shelter for various critters and rodents. Manipulating mana away from the Core was considerably harder, but it's not like he needed to perform high-precision operations, so he got the hang of it after twenty or so unsuccessful tries. He first made a small tunnel under the roots of a tree and then made a small chamber after it. After that, all that remained was to wait for an inhabitant.

Not long after, a small mouse was skittering by with a piece of fruit in its mouth on the ground nearby, so Lan directed some neutral mana to it, claiming it, and sent a feeling of safety as well as an image of the entrance to the newly dug burrow. The rodent halted in its tracks, looked around, and then cautiously moved in the needed direction.

Soon, it discovered the entrance, peeked inside, and seeing no apparent danger, went in, put down its fruit, and settled down.

Plan success!