The Core was not satisfied with the current method. Waiting for eighty-four seconds each time it wanted to [Appraise] another cluster of coloured Mana was not a system that worked when put into an environment where hundreds of spots needed to be checked out. It would take thousands of seconds for it all to be checked out. While, yes, the Core did indeed have the time for it, there was no desire to have such a massive down-time.

There were thoughts on how to fix this larger amount of downtime, ranging from simply using health as an alternative source of Mana to trying to figure out how to reduce the cost of the skill, yet neither of the solutions seemed that viable. However, the time needed to even think of these solutions proved to be a great time-waste, as the Core could gain enough Mana to [Appraise] a few more spots of Mana.

Granite

Common material found in the wild.

Coal

Uncommon material found in the wild

???

???????????

Three more spots had been checked out in the mean-time. The first had been the much lighter greys, bordering on a white colouring. The Core had noticed trouble in finding the material in larger amounts, since it wasn't present close to it much. There were hints of more being just out of reach, but it didn't spend time on figuring out how to make it work, other materials proving more interesting.

There was also coal, of course. Compared to how much of it there was, granite would seem so much more prolific in its presence. There was next to none of the material, the few black spots found being almost too small to notice. The Core hadn’t seen the colours before the [Mana-Sense] had been upgraded, in fact, so it only went to show how much there truly was to have.

Finally, there was the last [Appraisal] that the Core had bothered to wait for. It was the Green coloured Mana that had been [Appraised] at that moment, and there were no parts of the being that was happy about it. The skill had worked, yet it also… had not worked. It was a mix of the two. While the [Screen] had shown up in response to the activation of the skill, no information was gained from it. Which was annoying, since the skill also took out more than enough Mana. Another [Appraisal] had actually been spent on trying to gather more information yet again, but even that failed. While thinking that a third try might have been able to prove lucky, the Core had lost interest at that point, the annoyance of waiting growing too large.

And that’s how it ended up in the thinking-space yet again, dead set on trying to figure out just how it created a model that would allow for more [Appraisals] to occur within a more limited time-frame. Being quite honest, there was an extreme desire for allowing the skill to be used near-constant, just like [Mana-Manipulation] and [Mana-Sense] was used, yet such a thing was thought of as quite extreme. Since it was activation based with a cost attached, continuous use would require… more Mana than the Core could even imagine, the number growing bigger the more it was thought about. The cost was unending.

Then would it be possible to have it be a few times every second? Or even just once every second would be enough for the Core to be satisfied. The skill still allowed information to be gained, and that information needed to be sorted through, no matter what. Using a bit of time to figure out what was learned wouldn't be seen as a negative at all, so the slight delay between activations was something that the Core would allow.

Such thoughts about what it would allow and wouldn't allow were quite humorous when there was still no clue on how to make it happen to begin with. Grandiose ideas always came first, the Core supposed.

The limiter was its Mana. Each use of it depleted some of the Mana from its reserves, finally ending up with barely enough to sustain the Pattern set up inside of itself. Yet… the Core had to wonder where the Mana came from when it was regained.

That was actually a very interesting thought. It’s [Status Screen] told the Core that it gained zero point twelve Mana every second, but where exactly was the Mana imported from. Did the Core create the Mana itself or was the Mana gained from an… alternate source?

There was no real sign that Mana came from a weird point inside of itself, so the Core had only the thought of it coming from somewhere else. Somewhere beyond its own borders. Was that place just beside it or did it gain access through somewhere the Core hadn't looked before? Checking around carefully, with an [Mana-Sense] that hadn't yet been put to a full test, the Core… found something. Something that it had somehow missed throughout its entire time alive.

Particles of Mana, slowly and steadily, went through many points of its border, joining the Pattern that was within. Mana from outside itself became the Core’s Mana. The idea was revolutionary. Mana that wasn't originally owned by the Core could become it.

The process was automatic, yet the Core could halt the process with enough force. Not that it did so for long, not wanting to lose out on potential Mana. However… trying to push more inside didn't prove too fruitful. The smaller particles of Mana seemed undeterred in gaining speed when pushed. The small size was simply too small for the manipulation to truly take effect.

But would a larger size work? The Core wondered deeply, having already noticed the potential for further growth in its Mana-Regeneration. If it took the larger pieces of Mana floating around the outside, would it be able to… simply take it for itself? There was only one way to find out.

With focus put out into the outside, the Core looked towards a certain kind of coloured Mana it had found a while before. It was a lighter blue, not deep enough to match the colour that the Core had inside of itself, yet still close enough to resemble it when in smaller amounts. It was a colour that could be seen in smaller gatherings around the Core, not enough to be truly notable yet still in large enough amounts that there were over ten places where it could be seen. More notable was the fact that one of those places was just beside the Core, in full reach of the entity with no difficulty.

So without further ado, the Core did its best to take some of the Mana inside the other’s materials Border. It was a very hard thing to do for two reasons. The first was that the Core had never actually attempted to breach a border from the outside, normally having no reason to do it to begin with. It knew perfectly well how to do it from the inside yet the reverse goal was… more than a little hard to do. But, with enough work and dedication, the Core was sure it could reverse engineer the process within a few seconds.

The other tool needed to even begin that process, however, was a bit harder. For the Core to manipulate a Border that was not its own, it needed to be able to interact with it. How was this done? With the Mana that it was already putting out of itself, of course! Yet… that Mana was very hard to manipulate at that point. Spewing it all out and gathering the interactions down from the movement was easy enough, but actually manipulating it when it had already left the confines of the Core was a very different experience. It was almost like the Mana was unwilling at that point, having grown away from the constant pressure that the inside had for it. It was only with superior [Willpower] that manipulations could even begin.

Yet when they began, when the Core finally understood the mechanics of how to move Mana outside of itself? Things truly took a turn from the best. Moving inside the border of the material, the Mana under its control grew to be like a grapple of sorts, taking a hold around as much Mana as it could and then bringing it outside of the Materials border and into the Core’s own with a fluid movement. The actual process had to be repeated a few times, too much lost on the way back, yet time was the true requirement to master anything, and the Core finally saw success.

When the foreign Mana came into the Core’s inside, it moved around haphazardly just like anything else, until it found itself reaching the Pattern. There, it moved fluidly and with the grace shown off by all the other Mana in it. It became a part of the Pattern within moments, the Core utterly unable to see a difference. It was a sign of perfection.

But did it work? Looking at its status screen, there was little difference from before, the count only having grown by the amount that it normally would. However, that wasn't something that could be looked at as fact. The amount of Mana gained was quite small, so the change in the total count would be small as well! Truly, there was only one way to look at it. With how much time had passed, there was enough Mana to nearly bottom the count out entirely using only a single [Appraisal]. The Core saw no harm in doing just that.

Nitrogen

A common gas found in the wild

The Core had simply focused on the blue-coloured Mana it had taken from before. What was the difference between a Material and a Gas? The Core had no real clue, but still noted the question down for a later time. Instead of spending too long on it at the current moment, the Core pulled up the [Status-Screen]. It needed to be sure about the numbers, after all.

Character Screen

Name:

-

Gender:

-

Level:

1

Class:

Core

Race:

Core

Title:

The Ancient One

Health:

110/110

H-Regen:

0.1/sec

Mana:

3/130

M-Regen:

0.12/sec

Stamina:

-/-

S-Regen:

0/sec

Basic Stats

Strength:

-

Wisdom:

12

Vitality:

10

Intelligence:

12

Dex:

-

Willpower:

12

Available points:

5

Mana was currently at three out of a hundred and thirty. It needed to keep that number in mind as it progressed further on in its goals. Being as quick as it could, the Core went through bringing in more Mana again. The Borders were gone through with swift speed. Mana formed into shapes capable of grappling before pulling it all back again. The process was done again and again, repeating what counted to be over a hundred times. There was no hesitation in it all, the skill having been refined down to the smallest bit, each movement being the shortest distance possible. It was the optimal route for what it knew.

And the effects were impressive. The small amount of Mana in the Pattern grew quickly. It was quicker than what the natural regeneration even had a chance at matching, making the Core jubilant as it knew that the actions taken were having an actual effect. The actual process of changing the colours to the right shade of blue was taking a bit time, however. Perhaps it was because of the right colour having been in much smaller amounts? The Core wasn't sure and entire did it care much at the current time, everything working perfectly.

With each grab, more and more was taken. It never stopped taking it, never stopped no matter how many grapples it had made. Everything was used, everything was easy, and it all allowed the [Mana-Regeneration] to be bolstered through manual [Willpower]. The Core was growing happier with each second.

But at some point, the Core noticed it was being quite full. It was… a bit worrying, actually. It wasn't to the point where it felt like popping or anything. The Core just felt… like it had maybe taken in a bit too much. Like it wasn't in danger yet, no actual sensations of pain being felt, yet the feeling of taking in more just wasn't a good idea when run by its own instincts. Maybe it had refilled itself already?

Opening up the [Status-Screen], it quite surprised the Core to discover that it had been filled up to the max. And beyond.

Character Screen

Name:

-

Gender:

-

Level:

1

Class:

Core

Race:

Core

Title:

The Ancient One

Health:

110/110

H-Regen:

0.1/sec

Mana:

145/130

M-Regen:

0.12/sec

Stamina:

-/-

S-Regen:

0/sec

Basic Stats

Strength:

-

Wisdom:

12

Vitality:

10

Intelligence:

12

Dex:

-

Willpower:

12

Available points:

5

A hundred and forty-five out of a hundred and thirty. It was over the supposed maximum limit. Any thoughts about trying to fill more in or trying to exploit this flaw in the system was ignored because of the bloated feeling that just wouldn't go away. The Core had trouble focusing in general, fully understanding why the limit was there in the first place.

So… doing the first thing it could think of, it slammed the Appraisal fourteen times in a row, barely thinking of what it was even looking at that point.

Oxygen

Common gas found in the wild

Argon

Common gas found in the wild

Iron

Uncommon material found in the wild

Two more gasses and another material was found in those fourteen uses, the rest being utterly useless since the Core had already seen all of them before. Yet… it didn't truly matter, the removed Mana doing it a world of good in being allowed to think straight. All the thoughts focused on allowing itself to regain a serene feeling disappeared, a calm mentality replacing it.

The replaced mental state allowed it to think of just what had happened. Too much Mana inside itself called forth a feeling of dread and being filled up by too much. It was to be avoided at any level, since extreme actions were taken because of it. The Core had clearly not needed to devote all the Mana at its disposal, since only two uses would have put it below the maximum again, yet such thoughts had not been possible moments ago. It was a shame, since it now meant that it needed to regain most of it again.

But that didn't mean that it couldn't remember how much had been gained. The numbers were still clear in its head and the time it had taken was just as easy as well. Ninety-seven seconds had passed from the start to the finish. In that time, the Core had gone from only having three Mana to having a hundred and forty-five Mana, equaling a difference of a hundred and forty-two. Since Ninety seven seconds and a Natural regeneration rate of zero point twelve equaled a natural gain of about twelve Mana, the gain from manually taking it in instead was...about a hundred and thirty Mana. That alone was enough to fill it to the maximum again.

Manual Regeneration was better than the natural variant to an extreme degree. The Core was happy to have found it. With it, so much more information was possible to be gained. It could… it could thoroughly check through each observation of every colour it had already checked! With all the data, there was no chance of it being wrong again!

And so, the Core was not stopped by the maximum being overridden, the potential of fact-checking its earlier observations more powerful than anything. It was a long process, yet it was also kept so much shorter through the new technique.