What came with taking and taking from a limited amount? The short-term outcome was, as always, more Mana for the Core. However, there were also long-term consequences of this. One that perhaps had not been thought about as much as it should have.

After countless [Appraisals] and countless times filling up the Mana to the maximum, again and again, the Core could notice a change in the gas that it had been taking Mana from.

It was wavering, vibrating, and moving more and more in tandem, going from side to side without pause. It seemed… more brittle as if a single push would make it fall apart. Something like it had never been seen before, so the Core had no reason not to be curious about it. There was something new after all. Something it had never seen before. And it was also something it would learn from.

What happened if it took more Mana at the current moment? A good question. Moving a tendril with ease around the border, the Core took out a good fill of Mana from the already weakened structure. It only made it waver more, almost defaulting by the smallest bit. But… nothing more happened after that. No more developments no matter how long the Core waited.

And so it took a bit more. And it became more brittle. So the Core took even more and the effects were the same. Which was boring so it took the largest fill it could take while losing none of it.

Which resulted in everything falling apart, the brittle state crashing down and all the Mana being released at once. It all flew in every direction. The Core spent a moment simply enamoured with the sudden development before growing into the more pragmatic mindset and taking as much of the Mana as it could. It was without genuine effort, after all, and free stuff was never to be left alone in the dark. Not much of it could truly be gathered, the speed of the spread being too much for the Core to focus on all at once. But… It also showed promise. The burst of Mana outwards was more than could be gained in ten seconds of taking the normal way. It was a possible time-saver.

Saving time would allow for more [Appraisals]. That was just about everything the Core needed to know before it wandered its gaze over to another pocket of materials close to it. This one was a larger pocket of the grey stone. It was a terrific distance away, with next to no real difficulty in being reached.

And it was perfect for the taking. Gathering up the tendrils of Mana much like before, the Core extracted the energy from the other Border quickly enough. Sure, time was spent making sure that the Mana-Limit was never reached, but that was a passing thought in it all. The Core just wanted to see what happened when the material burst like the gas had.

… Or, a slight pause in the machinations was perhaps in order, as the Core spent a few moments studying the Mana that had come into the Pattern. With the gas, the colouring had been very close to the vibrant blue that the Core was so happy about. But grey? It was quite a step away from what was deemed normal, and certainly stood out from the Mana already gathered before.

But… it changed colouring the more time it was allowed to rest in the Pattern. It was a more thorough process, sure, but it worked itself out eventually. The Core was certainly happy to see that it didn't need to worry about something like it hampering the quality of the Mana.

Was there even quality to it? It was to tell what colour was preferable. The Core had simply started with blue and had assumed that it was the one it kept. And since the patterns also thought, who was it to complain about the decision?

Going back to the stone being taken away from its natural state, there was quite the achievement seen when the brittleness took effect so quickly. Was it possible that the material itself was less full of Mana than Nitrogen was? The Mana inside it had certainly not moved around as much, so there were perhaps some ideas behind it worth thinking about. But, whatever reason there was to it, the Core was just happy to see that the progress was quick and with little trouble.

The brittleness was quick to intensify with each swipe of Mana, growing wavier and wavier, to the point where the borders could be seen quite clearly. The stone was having trouble continuing to exist. It was… quite the sight, the Core curious what the end-point of it was. When was the Mana too little to be enough? The being wasn't exactly sure how much Mana was good and bad, or how much Mana stone was even supposed to have, such ideas were still out of the realm of possibility. Since the actual amount varied with the size and shape of the stone as well, it was highly unlikely the Core would figure it out soon. Maybe when it finally gained the ability to do more.

With time, the stone grew too weak and fell under its weight. It was quite the sight, the Mana flying out all around yet again. But… this time the Core was ready to catch it, having enveloped the stone in as much of its own Mana as possible. It was mentally tiring to do, the biggest project outside of itself ever done. But it was an idea that had the potential to prove very fruitful if done right, and the Core had no issues about that.

But… it had issues with what happened after. Before the Mana could truly be sent out and taken in by the Core, another instance happened. The world-view… shifted. The stone, the dirt, just about everything it could see turned around a couple of times as each moved at once. There was chaos, and the Core hardly knew which direction was what. However… the moments spent looking at every falling hinted strongly at what was up and down.

When everything finally settled again, with the Core not moving anymore, it noticed a minor fact. All the points it had memorized were now utterly useless, almost everything around being a mix of the three gasses seen before. There were materials below and a few above, but everything to the sides was only the gasses. It was… annoying for that to happen. Yet it was also new to the Core didn't mind that much. Developments over time always had the potential for growth.

Even though adapting to the new setting was hard, the Core could hardly be unhappy about the newer levels of gas just sitting by. Instead of being in a small pocket of sorts, it was all encompassing the same space. The three gasses that had been looked at so much all lived together, having mixed the borders to the point of obscurity. There was no actual difference to be seen.

It was a very interesting thing if the Core had to be honest. But it also liked it since it allowed it to only take Mana out from the gas instead of the materials. The new environment was an acceptable but constant change to it was preferably avoided. Since the destruction of materials seemed to be the culprit for that, the Core grew to accept that it would only take from the gas instead.

Which was exactly what it did, spending its time taking apart the gas, harvesting it for Mana and then using it to [Appraise] the different materials in the vicinity. While there weren't many left, there were still some that had not been looked at yet. And since the redistribution had also caused more than minor confusion on which materials had already been looked at, there was no harm in doing it all again, right? The Core certainly didn't think so, getting to work.

Copper

Uncommon material found in the wild

Silver

Uncommon material found in the wild

The two new materials were the only things found that hadn’t already been looked at before. It had not been that obvious at the start, but the Core was beginning to not have too many more things to look through. Only so many materials and gasses were present around it, and while there had been many, hundreds of [Appraisals] had already been sent out to investigate every single one of them.

What else was there to do? The Core supposed it could go back and foster more growth inside itself. Maybe it could even attempt to do more with [Mana-Manipulation]? The promise of more benefits from having upgraded it was tempting, though it wasn't actually sure how it was meant to do so. The upgrade of [Mana-Sense] had come naturally through more developed skills. The Core thought it had done that with the manipulation skill as well, but perhaps it wasn't enough yet? If so, then there truly only was one way to fix it. And that was to try out new things. The obvious new thing to try was to do the reverse of what had been done before. By taking Mana from another non-sentient entity, the Core had bolstered itself. Wouldn't it, in theory, be possible to take Mana from itself and-

The first thought that came was Movement. Something within the Core’s sight, on the outskirts but still, was moving around. It had only been seen for a brief moment. The area of sight that the Core had been able to use had not been stretched out enough to truly see what it had been.

But… movement implied something. It implied a sentient, living entity. The movement had only been seen once before, and that had been because of conscious action. It had been the Core’s fault that something moved before. Since it had done nothing at the current moment, it was easy to realise that the only conclusion was that there was another entity moving around.

Even if it hadn't gotten a good look at the movement, however, the Core had still noticed one thing. The mana inside the movement. It hadn't been chaotic, moving around in tendrils. That meant that whatever had been moving had been both the cause of a sentient entity and actually was the entity. An entity that could move without trouble. The Core wanted to know its secrets.

But it needed to see it again. The Core wanted to see it again. So… it would have to wait for it to come around again. And the Core did accept that fact, mentally focused on spotting any movement before it was too late.

Normally, it would have spent the time doing something else. But, it refused to do anything like that this time. Distractions allowed for a longer reflex. It needed to be quick if it wanted a good look.

And so the Core waited patiently, never wavering in its focus, for it knew what would happen if it did. How long a time passed while it looked on? Well… at some point its Mana reached full capacity naturally, which was something it had not done for a long time. Other than that, the Core had no convenient way to know. It just looked on into the void that was the [Mana-Sense], hoping for something to pop up.

After many full Mana-Regenerations, something showed up. And it was like nothing the Core had seen before, the energy swirling around inside the… entity being so utterly different than anything seen before. It was closer to a miracle when compared with the boring non-sentient mana-clusters seen so many times. There was a rhythm, a pattern to every movement, the Currents changing every time a part of the… every time a part of its body moved.

Because a body was something it had. It was a body that wasn’t round or some jagged shape. It was with harder tendrils that remained in place, pushing against the floor in a repeating pattern. And it moved fast, taking tens of steps quicker than the Core could realise. How many legs were on it? There was a count of six, yet a larger amount of Mana on the front hinted at there being eight. Just what was that thing?

No, It wasn't a thing. It was a living being, an entity capable of thought. After all, only the living could will movement into action. The Core knew as much the moment that it had seen the world for what it was.

The patterns were quick to change and they were more vibrant than anything else around the place. Yet they only told the Core what the colour and general shape of the being was. That wasn't enough for what was needed. Time had been spent being patient. With the being moving closer and closer to being out of reach, the Core knew that it needed to do something. So… it used [Appraisal].

???

???????????

That didn't prove too helpful, the skill only letting the Core know that it wasn't good enough to know more than that. That was an annoying part of the whole process. The less annoying part, however, was the fact that the entity stopped after the Core used the skill.

That… had not been expected. Had it… had it sensed what the Core did? Did it have [Mana-Sense] too? As the entity slowly turned around before directly heading over to where the Core was, it couldn't help but grow a little uncomfortable. Those front legs seemed perfect for something other than simply walking, the movement hinting strongly that they could clash together.

How would the Core be able to test if the rapidly approaching creature had [Mana-Sense] or not? Well, the skill allowed Mana to be sensed, as the name so strongly implied. If the reaction sensing that was to approach it, wouldn't the Core simply need to… put Mana elsewhere as well?

The actual process of that was quite easy, the Core simply pushing out a larger bit of Mana, bundling it all together and then carefully positioning it a bit to the right of where the entity currently was. As luck would have it, this worked flawlessly, the creature instantly redirecting its course, following wherever the ball of Mana was.

Pulling on the Mana just enough that the unidentified entity could never reach it, the Core mentally adjusted to leading the entity in circles repeatedly to give itself time to figure out a new strategy. It didn't seem like the sentient being was that sentient after all, even if it had characteristics that would have previously seemed for that to make sense. Even more than before did the Core want to know just what the entity was.

Why didn't [Appraisal] work? Was it just doomed to be inefficient no matter what? Having read the description of the skill before, the Core knew it allowed for the [Appraisal] of entities.

So why didn't it? It allowed for it, yet there was no effect whenever the Core tried to do it. It didn't understand why the skill refused to work. The Core allowed the Mana to be pulled out so why didn't the intended effect happen?

… Maybe the Core was being stupid. Looking back at the difference between the non-sentient beings and the sentient ones, there was one larger difference between them. That was the intensity of Mana being stored and what method it was being kept in. Thinking over what other attempted [Appraisals] had brought back similar results, the Core couldn't help but think of the Green Lines of Mana that it had seen so prominently in the dirt. It had refused to show anything at all, just like the being before it. Could it be that it was the Patterns that made the restriction what it was? Patterns were very Mana-Intensive, after all.

Thinking about it again, the Core gained an idea that, while based on logic that might have worked by itself, seemed entirely plausible when put together. During the previous encounters with Mana-obstacles, the Core had attempted to change how much Mana was being used during the Skill activation of [Appraisial]. It had wanted to use something closer to one Mana-Point instead of the usual ten. However, this had always ended in failure. No matter how hard the Core pushed it wouldn't budge at all. This would have normally made the Core think that changing the cost was impossible until it considered one simple thing. It had never pushed up.

There was perhaps a minimum requirement for how much Mana was meant to be used, but was there a maximum? Could the Core suddenly decide to use, say, twenty Mana instead of ten? Or, if that pushed the limits more, could it use fifteen? The question was perhaps dumb to the more knowledgeable, but the Core sincerely didn't know for sure.

And when there was something one was unsure about, the only correct way to know for sure was to test the theory out. The Core had over time gotten a better feeling of how it felt to use a skill. Which mental buttons were pressed during it was much more obvious now. And likewise, did it understand where and how Mana was taken away during the activation of those skills. The process itself was automatic, yet with just the slightest push, manual influence could change it.

With the activation of [Appraisal] yet again, the Core felt the strings being pulled, the opening up of the Mana-Cost, and how the energy was being funnelled into it. It was always open for a designated amount of time, taking in just the right amount of energy. The Core made it take in more.

Eleven, twelve, and then the last burst of Mana allowed fifteen full Mana-Points to be spent at once. With this, it came to the normal result of the skill, an [Screen] opening up to show off the findings.

[1] Giant-Ant

A common insect in the wild

It was an [Giant-Ant]! Sure, it was a variant of the core type of species but it was an ant nonetheless. And while the Core was perhaps not happy about the lack of more information, it was more than happy that the new use of the skill allowed for more information to be gained, information that had been blocked previously. It was an advancement, a way to use a skill that hadn't been done before.

Just as expected, another screen came along not that long after, the message within entirely unsurprising.

A [Skill] has been improved!

You have understood [Appraisal] more deeply

That was two out of three skills that had been improved to the next level. The progress was obvious. The Core couldn't have been happier with how things were developing in such a fashion. It would only get better from that point. The being just knew it.

It also knew that the Ant close by had been enamoured with the larger use of Mana, ignoring the bundle of energy that had likewise dissipated the moment that focus had been put into the more advanced version of appraisal. It was perhaps not the proudest moment that the Core had had in its life.

But it should likewise not have been that hard to fix. With the mental activation of another bundle, the Core sent it out in another worthy direction, ready to think some more on how to handle the ant now that it knew more. Yet… the ant was not as willing as before to just follow the bundle of Mana swinging around its head.

No… it was actually still going straight towards the Core without even slightly hinting towards knowing about the Mana beside it. It was as if the single-minded focus had tuned into the Core and was refusing to let go. While perhaps a prominent trait in a creature, the entity that was currently being focused on did very much not like it.

What to do, what to do? The Core had trouble really thinking about it, the ant already having been too close and going very close within a single seconds time. The entity seemed so much bigger close-up, the head hovering above the Core for a few brief moments.

And then it tilted its head down towards the Core, the weird legs on its head with the entity now in the middle, and pressed them together hard. It was as if the Core was being pressed together by two large rocks. The sensation of being damaged was extreme. It hurt. It hurt so damned much. Checking the [Status-Screen], it was apparent that the sensation wasn't lying about the damage done.

Character Screen

Name:

-

Gender:

-

Level:

1

Class:

Core

Race:

Core

Title:

The Ancient One

Health:

70/110

H-Regen:

0.1/sec

Mana:

106/130

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

In just a single crunch from the ant’s side, the Core had been forced down to half its normal health. A single crunch. And with the legs or whatever it was slowly opening up again to go in for another hit, the Core was thinking a second and third would soon come around.

It had to be quick. It had to do something. But what? What could it do to stop it? Could it regain its health? Could the Core regenerate its health as it had done with Mana? No, it couldn't. But… looking at the available points, the Core made a decision that it near-instantly regretted. All points had been put towards Vitality yet…

Character Screen

Name:

-

Gender:

-

Level:

1

Class:

Core

Race:

Core

Title:

The Ancient One

Health:

70/160

H-Regen:

0.15/sec

Mana:

107/130

M-Regen:

0.12/sec

Stamina:

-/-

S-Regen:

0/sec

Basic Stats

Strength:

-

Wisdom:

12

Vitality:

15

Intelligence:

12

Dex:

-

Willpower:

12

Available points:

0

The health hadn't been increased in the slightest, only the maximum seeing any difference at all. That wasn't good. That was actually… a very terrible result. It couldn't do anything with it.

Another crunch came hard, and the Core felt like screaming. The sudden removal of health was unimaginably painful, the sensation filling up its brain like nothing ever had before. There was no thought and no place for it either way. Instincts shouted, trashed, and did anything they could do to make it stop. Stop. It needed to stop being there. The Core had trouble thinking, and as the mandibles spread out again, it didn't think. It just acted on pure instinct.

Above them was a stone in smaller dents. They were all separated, with one hovering just above the Core and ant. It was that one which the Core looked towards. It buried its Mana-Tendrils inside of it and removed all the Mana there was from it. With no thought about taking the Mana for itself, the stone did not hold long. In under a second, it fell apart, the structure unable to hold itself up. And with it being on the roof…

The ant did not survive long enough to make the third attack, the body and head shattered under the weight of the harder materials that had fallen on it. Its insides sprayed out like a geyser, and the entire floor was covered with the Mana from within. The Core took it all for itself and then sat in silence, never daring to think, never daring to use anything. It didn't want to die.