What was the most important thing to consider when picking out what one wanted to improve? Well… there were many things to think about, the least of all being which one would prove to be worth the most with what could be improved. Take, as an example [Willpower] and [Wisdom]. Both showed themselves as being at fourteen each yet they were actually both still at twelve. How's that so? It was because of the very title that had allowed the Core to gain the three points it had to spend.

A twenty percent bonus to all mental stats. It was quite the thing, being a straight-up multiplier instead of a fastened numerical addition. Perhaps it was not the most powerful gain in the world, only starting off at giving six additional stat-points, but it would likewise grow with time. And… the Core had just been given the opportunity to turn the three attribute points into four, only at the cost of putting it all into one of two.

For the multiplier didn't appreciate the decimals, always counting them down to the closest whole number. There was nothing to do about it, sadly, but that did not matter much to the COre. What it did care about was that [Willpower] and [Wisdom] were both at twelve and putting three in either would raise it to fifteen, letting one more point be given out. It would be magnificent for either to be increased.

The possibilities of such a thing were massive. What could be gained with an enlarged Mana-Container? Many things, the biggest of all being the security surrounding the possible deaths of its minions. If one of the stronger ones died, well… there was nothing that would allow the Core to bring them back, the instant cost to high to pay out of its container alone. And since the process stopped the regeneration of Mana, it couldn't just put more in overtime, lest it would have already slaughtered and replaced all the creatures with level four ants. So, that was one pull towards [Wisdom] being the preferred choice.

How about [Willpower]? What had that brought the Core and how would that be improved with more points towards it? Well… that was easy enough to answer. While Wisdom brought a direct improvement in the form of a larger Mana-Container, Willpower brought sustainable gains in the way of improving the general skill of… everything. It was more closely related to the Will of the Entity, yet due to the Core being confined into only having skills that worked Mentally, the Willpower did have a direct correlation to how well it was performing them. When that was matched against its ability to spawn more creatures at once, it all became a bit better in the long run. Perhaps the Core would even be able to create longer tethers outside of its domain, allowing for longer journeys for the creatures.

So… it was a hard choice to make. Did the Core want the security of being able to return the dead creatures or did it want to hope that further increasing its skills would allow for something else to be done? The [Queen of Hollows] had certainly shown off the potential of further splitting the pieces of the Core inside the creatures, allowing for so many more of them at once. Though it was hard to say if that was a viable option, the Entity knew that it could have been a by-product of using the Black Mana, in which case it would be impossible for the Core to learn.

It was hard to make a choice about anything when it came to the increases of its abilities. There even was a point where the Core thought about just splitting the three points into two, giving two to one stat and one to the other stat. But, that just made it even harder yet again, since the Entity would then have to decide which of the two was the most important and therefore deserving of two points instead of one, entirely invalidating the reason behind the splitting to begin with.

By the end of the thoughts, the Core just decided that choosing one randomly would work the best when another thought came along. That thought surrounded the idea of simply… making an internal promise about where to put the next points. If the Entity put it in [Wisdom], the next levels would be dedicated to getting points into the [Willpower] stat instead. It was a good enough choice to have, at the very least. And perhaps that was the reason it was done to start with.

Three points were put to the [Wisdom] stat, raising the total score to a whopping eighteen. With that, the total Mana Capacity was likewise increased to one hundred and ninety, making it the largest container that the Core had at its disposal. It was quite something, the increased count being more than enough to cause quite the stir. Inside the Entity lay the Mana-Pattern it had created such a long time ago. The actual size had been the same throughout all that time, yet… the same second it was increased, it warped outwards for the briefest of seconds before becoming even smaller than before, the energy inside increasing to an extreme amount of density. One hundred and ninety Mana was made into the size of a small thread. The Core couldn't help but be happy about it.

However, there was still a long time before the same kind of increase came to [Willpower]. Thinking it over, it would take six more levels before the same could be gotten for the other mental stat. The Core considered how long that would take and wasn't exactly pleased by the number given. Too much time would have passed by that point. And since the Ant Queen, a being with much more power than the Core hadn't reached beyond level ten, one fact was becoming more and more obvious.

Levelling would get harder with time. Much harder. The first nine levels had perhaps been quite easy for most, but everything after that was a hill steeper than the physical laws should have allowed for. How long until the next level could be gained. A month? A year? The Core had no idea, not knowing the exact numbers themselves. It knew it would take much longer than the previous ones put together. The [Queen of Hollows] had clearly been in the game for much longer than the Core had yet had likewise not taken that large step. If the intelligent creature couldn't do it with a literal undead army to command, what was the Core thinking about it doing the same?

It was a dream saved for the future. But… thinking about it, even more, that meant the ant had spent quite a while being the leader of the ants. She had remained the [Queen of Hollows] for a long time. If the ant could gain the same benefits as what the Core had achieved itself, did that not mean that it was the superior method to gain attribute points?

Living up to the Title that was equipped wasn't something the Entity had tried more than once but the benefits from it were extreme, being worth a whole six levels. While that might not have mattered much in the start, it was more than just a gift after it had already reached level nine. And if it was reproducible… great things were to come.

But what were the requirements of doing just that? What buttons needed to be pushed before the [System] would look at the Core’s actions and decide them worthy of being rewarded? There was so much that sat around in secret with those mechanics, yet there were still some guesses towards how it truly worked. Guesses that would likely go unanswered until an alternative source for information, however.

Ignoring the possibility of being extremely wrong, the Core prepared the first guess of which there were many. The attribute points had been achieved from the Screen where the System had commended the Entity living up to the goals of being [The Ancient One]. That could have meant many different things until one took into consideration what clues had been given from the title and what surrounded it.

All those brief smashes of memories flying around, causing extreme pain whenever they were thought about too much, and also causing that damned crackling noise inside the Core’s head? They were very likely to be related to the title it had received from the start. The very title that had granted ti the ability to attain points.

And what had it done differently at the time where these points were given out? What the Core had been doing what the complete opposite of what it had done all other times. Instead of rejecting the notion of those memories, forcing them away each time that they came around naturally, the Entity had instead allowed them residence inside the forefront of its mind. And instead of getting a splitting ache in its head, the Core had instead gained a minor one while also getting a fully-fledged visual image of looking up on a ceiling, muttering to itself about some quote that had helped it in that exact scenario it had been in.

If such an event were to be replicated consistently, the Entity would be able to attain more and more points. A headache was fine when the output from having it was the gift of more power. Power was always needed, after all, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to have an easier time learning new disciplines in regards to Mana.

But to the action point ahead, the Core regarded the guess as a very good one, the Entity certainly not being able to figure out another that seemed as close to as realistic as the one before. The [System] worked in mysterious ways but it still had clear rules. If the Core tried to make up some and follow them as best as possible, further down the line creating small adjustments, it would have a perfect replica with enough time. And with how much of that resource there was on hand, it was certain some answer would be found.

Then came the question of how exactly it was meant to attain these points. There was a rather steep requirement for the event to start up, now that the Core thought about it. That crackling in its mind, a small part of an imaginary wall getting fractured into pieces. How was it to create that on the spot? Never had it truly been able to do such a thing, it only really happened naturally. Or… maybe that was more because it hadn't tried to do it? Maybe trying to think of certain things related to it would make it work?

There was only one way to find out, the Core certainly liked the idea of coming out with a positive effect.

What had been that girls name again? The one which the Entity had apparently trusted oh so very much? The Core was pretty sure it was Sarah yet it could remember very little about her. It understood that they had apparently known each enough that they talked, that there might have been some tragedy which occurred… the Core had half-expected to feel some punch from inside at that point, some part of its insides feeling sorrow over the expected loss. Nothing really came around, however.

Nothing close to sorrow was felt. It was closer to being the same kind of pity that the Core gave the ants killed during testing. It was a death that couldn't have been avoided since it helped the Entity win the day. No real emotions not known of before were being shown off.

… Yeah, it wasn't working at all. The Core tried again with a few variations, playing up a few previous scenarios where the crackling had started up by itself, yet nothing ever came of it. Nothing was felt, nothing was heard, no weird shifts of sight were had. Not a single thing out of the ordinary happened. The Entity was without hope.

No other ideas on how to recreate it came to mind at that point, making the Core just forget the idea entirely. While it would certainly try to not reject and instead invite in new happenings of it, there was no real way to accelerate the rate of it coming about. It was certainly an annoying part of life but there was no way to change it.

Instead of wallowing in that piece of pity, the Entity instead tried thinking back on other activities that it needed to get done. The fighting itself had shown off many different things, the least of which was the method to combat the Black Mana. [Light-Mastery]. It was certainly a name to remember, though the Core wasn't sure it had seen much of it before. Deciding on looking into it further, it opened up the [Skill-Screen], putting its gaze directly down to the bottom.

Skill-Name

Rarity

Description

Cost

Mana-Sense

Rare

Allows for the user to sense [Mana Currents]

Passive

Mana-Manipulation

Rare

Allows for the user to manipulate [Mana Currents]

Passive

Appraisal

Rare

Allows the user to gather information regarding items or entities

10MP

Healing

Uncommon

Allows the user to heal an specific target

20MP

Arcane-Manipulation

Rare

Allows the user to manpulate the Arcane branch of magic with more skill. Can be focused onto a sub-branch later on in its development

Passive

Pain-Tolerance

Uncommon

Allows the user to bear through pain more effietively

Passive

Stamina-Recovery

Rare

Allows the user to increase another creatures Stamina-Recovery by several magnitudes for a longer duration of time

10MP

Light-Mastery

Very Rare

Allows the user to manpulate the White sub-branch of magic with more skill.

Passive

Having to move its sight down so far seemed quite annoying, to the point where the Core focused on that more than anything. It had eight entire skills now, each having a variety of information about it. While it was all well and good to be refreshed about every now and then, was there really a need to scroll through the entire list before finding the single thing that the Entity really wanted to look at?

Of course, there wasn't. Many other things could have been done instead, such as making sure that each skill only had to show their description and information when focused on. Or maybe the Core could even just make the [System] only show the one skill that it wanted to see instead? That could work, it supposed with some thought. The Entity would need to change around its orders and have a clearer mental idea about what it wanted to see, but the [Tutorial] at the very start had shown that change was possible. Bringing back that very screen, the Entity looked again just to make sure.

Tutorial:

The [Status Screen] is divided into several categories, all of which can be manipulated to the desire of each mortal should they desire such.

Oh, it had remembered slightly wrong. The [Tutorial] had only mentioned it pertaining to the [Status Screen]. But… the [Skill Screen] did fit under that one in an abstract way, so the Core was sure that it would still show with the minor alterations. It wasn't like it was trying to manipulate the entire method or anything. So with a heavy mind filled with doubt, it sent out the order to only see a single skill.