The skill called [Purify] was, at some level, an enigma. It described an act that the Core already thought itself the master of, yet its lack of this skill told the world otherwise. It thought itself good at healing, at making sure that their physical health was at its prime. Yet time was showing such to not be the case. The Core supposed that such a thing should have been obvious from the start. After all, the restrictions were instant upon deeper sight into the skill called [Healing].

One would think it the optimal skill to have yet it was lacklustre in its actual uses. What good would the ability to mend flesh be when the mind had already parted from its physical shell? It would only leave the body empty of choice and reason, and that was if it could even get restored at that point by the skill. Dead flesh and tissues were impossible to build out of for the skill, making it a requirement for some part of the subject to still be quite alive. And even then, there was perhaps not much that could be done, the sheer side-lining of the skill likely causing costs to increase to an astronomical amount.

It was only when one took a step back and found another skill for the task at hand that anybody had a chance at figuring it out. The Core was still relatively sure that it could perform the tasks of others skills with [Healing] if given enough knowledge about it. The Queen mentioned the insides of the ants being infected? Well, that simply meant tearing it all out and healing them before the lack of organs killed them. At least that’s a method that the Core thought possible, thinking that the existence of the head would allow them some minor time spent alive after that fact.

Yet the head still being there would allow for a place that the infection could stay in and therefore reinfect the rest of the body… which made the Core’s earlier observation utterly pointless since it didn’t matter at all in the long term. [Healing] fixed the major wounds but it could likely not do it perfectly. [Purify] was the opposite, able to do it to an extreme precision but never in larger amounts. The Queen had insisted upon that fact, giving the example of it never being able to fix a wound completely but instead only sealing it up.

Because that was something it couldn’t do. It couldn’t mend flesh, it couldn’t weave tissues seamlessly. It could, however, dig into the tissue and find that one mistake that was slowly killing the body. That was the perfect tool and the one that the Core needed to attain. And it needed it quickly. Time was already running out, five whole minutes spent just thinking about it. The Queen and her children had left to enter the inside of the Domain, the Intelligent Ant not wanting any chance of anything backfiring and hurting the creatures.

And maybe that was for the best. The one by the name of Mother Carapace had a softer spot for those creatures. But… the Core didn’t and it knew that it would have to do something that the Queen might have disliked. To accelerate the process of learning the [Skill], it would use a test subject.

With a flick of the mind, a [Giant-Ant] was spawned in. It was level two, relatively unsure of its movements, and generally showing the perfect example of what a newborn would look like. And, to make it slightly worse, it was very healthy, with no signs of sickness on its body. Which was a bad thing, seeing as the Core had to learn how to cure such things.

It was just its luck that it had a source of this infection. On the side of the Domain, just a bit closer to the entrance than the Core would have desired sat a larger heap of furry bodies. Some had started to rot by a larger amount, going to the point where bugs and insects were having a feast inside the bodies. The Entity cared not much for the state, not able to feel much disgust. While the Queen may have looked upon the sight with venom, the Core was without care. Its only worry was that the smell could attract some creatures.

But such a worry was not good to have at the current moment, the Core needs to focus. Using the Physical Arcane, it grabbed ahold of a piece of the furred body. It was one of the sharper instruments in the mouth, commonly known as a tooth of a kind. It was smeared with pus and would likely infect anything it came into contact with.

Which was the Core proceeded to stab the unlucky ant with it several times in a row. It wasn’t truly deep enough to draw blood or anything yet the wounds were still clear. Delving into them immediately, the Entity could see there being some level of effect, the body reacting to the wound and starting to heal it. And the apparent [Infection] was starting up as well, small bits entering the bloodstream. It was not that obvious, however, and the Core debated that it would likely take more than a few minutes until it became serious.

Not wanting to wait such a long time for the wounds to fester, the Core proceeded to redo the setup seven more times in a row, making sure each new Ant had several wounds where the infection would spread evenly. It was not quick on any of them, yet the ENtity hoped that it would have caused some manner of damage by the time it got to them.

That took ten full minutes. Fifty remained. Perhaps Fourty-five if one took in the initial five minutes of thinking. The Core didn’t try to think about it much, instead of focusing on the task ahead. If it wanted to differentiate the skill of [Healing] and [Purifying] an entity, how would it do so?

Well… the act of healing was, as stated before, a major thing. Through the use of intent and cruder swings, wounds could be cut out of the system swiftly. It was imprecise, going through it all to make sure everything was as good as the skill could make it. Purifying, on the other hand, required a more slow approach, it needed to systematically go through every piece of the body and push all the infection out perfectly. Merely focusing on a single part of the body was not the wisest choice, since it allowed the sickness to survive in another, making the entire ordeal worthless in the future. It was precise and it demanded perfection.

So that was what the Core would attempt. Several minutes had passed since the first [Giant-Ant] had been stung. With the time, the [Infection] had started up, slowly taking one or two health points away. It was not nearly serious enough for it to kill but it would weaken the creature with time. And that was more enough to test on, the Core wanting the easy version to begin with anyway.

Starting it up swiftly, it began packet of Mana. How much was truly needed to be effective? The Core asked itself just that as it started to gather it all together, making sure that the bundle was equally dense everywhere on it. On the other ones, it had realized its mistake of making one point slightly denser than all the others, creating a point where the creatures could hit their maximum input and die without the Core ever realizing why that was. But that was luckily fixed now, though it did again raise the question of how much needed to be put into the ball.

On one side of the debate, the Core understood the need for a lot of Energy at once. It was the entire body that needed to be [Purified], after all, and a lacklustre amount would only make the process incomplete. Yet doing it too much would create a lack of effect… and Core had no way to theoretically figure out the perfect balance. It had to figure it out through experimentation.

Starting it off slowly, the Core tried half the limit that it knew a part of the Mana-Veins had. They could only contain ten Mana each second before exploding into a gory mess. There was a chance that it the actual limit for [Purification] was higher due to it not being directly linked to [Stamina] but instead [Health], yet the Core was finding it hard to try such a thing instantly. Five Mana was a go.

Bundling it up perfectly, it was sent into the first Ant. Here, the Core tried to focus itself on the act of purifying the insides, cleansing it of all that needed to be removed. It went… well at first, yet only an instant after it had begun it stopped. It was not going forward, it was doing anything. At the first sign of [Infection], the entire mass of Energy sent in had been consumed. One spot of infection had, smaller than most humans could see with their bare eyes, was able to consume five points of Mana.

That wasn’t good. Yet the [Giant-Ant] still stood, clearly not even feeling the change inside itself, even if the Core had to say that the Mana-Veins at the start had never looked better. Perhaps the Purification had taken away some Energy there too? It would make sense for such Veins to gather issues in the long run, making it so that the first dose or two would fix that instead of the actual problem. Though… the Core did guess towards it being needed to fix it all at the first dose, meaning that the supply of Mana had to be increased by quite the amount.

What did that mean? It meant that the Core would swallow its fears about killing an ant brutally through the act of bursting its every vein. Instead of going up to ten or twenty Mana-Points, the Entity went straight to twenty-five, hoping that better results would be seen from such a decision. Here, it likewise made sure to keep the Mana even and without flaw while also filling it up with the proper kind of intent. Previously, it had tried to make the intent overly specific, creating more than a few explosions. It had learned its mistakes from those times, however, making it exactly as vague as it had done with the [Healing]. ‘Purify the Inner Organswas everything said, with the Core’s inner information supplying everything else. There were worries about it causing the Mana-Expenditure to rise more than it needed to, but the Core would figure out that at a later stage. For now, it just needed it to work right.

The new bundle of Mana was sent in, and the instant response was… a lack of exploding into a million bits which the Core would have to clean. While the [Giant-Ant] did briefly look like it would stagger and fall on the ground, there were no more visual reactions. Inside it, most of the [Infection] had been purged. It was quite incredible to see, the Core noting all the organs being free of it all. Yet… it could still see some parts of it on the outer limbs. The Infection might not have settled there but it certainly looked ready to travel right back into the main body. The amount would have to be increased.

Since the first [Giant-Ant] hadn’t been fully infected anymore, it couldn’t be used for basic testing. Giving it another dose of twenty-five Mana, the rest of the Infection was cured and it was sent into the Main Domain to meet the Queen. It was a survivor, after all, and the Core would feel bad about itself if it continued testing on it. The Ant had gone through hell and that was all that mattered.

Looking back at the second [Giant-Ant], however, there was still more to figure out. The second idea of giving twenty-five Mana hadn’t been enough, the outer edges not being hit in the manner required. Yet it was quite close. Would thirty be enough, then?

Nope. The outer edges still weren’t being hit. The [Purification] simply didn’t reach that far, instead just cycling around the main parts of the body until all the energy had run out. It was quite the annoyance, though that made it send away the second [Giant-Ant] as well. Looking at how much time had passed, the Core noted that it had thirty minutes left. Progress was looking good but not that good. It needed to quicken up.

Thirty Mana didn't work. Was it due to a minimum barrier for reaching those parts of the body or was there some issue about the Intent? The first part would be easy enough to test, the Core just needing to put in… sixty Mana instead. If such a large amount wasn’t effective, then it would be Intent. Doing just that, it forced a large bundle of sixty Mana together and sent it right into the third ant.

It exploded. It was quite gory. The [Giant-Ants] to the side was covered with its guts. They tried to move away but the Core had to force them to stay in place. Cleaning it up took three entire minutes and forced the Entity to think about what it had just done. It was not fun.

Sixty Mana was too much energy, yet it still needed to try out a passable amount. If low amounts of Mana was the issue, it needed to know before moving over to Intent which would require much more time to figure out the issue. So, with a steady hand, it moved the new amount over to fifty Mana. It would still be quite high yet also had a chance of working right. While the fourth [Giant-Ant] looked slightly scared, the Core tried to be soothing as it inserted the energy.

And lo and behold… it didn’t die instantly, the energy getting through the body with ease. Yet, it also didn't reach the legs, even when the Mana had enough power to cycle around for ten whole seconds after cleaning up the entire main mass. While it wasn’t an issue with the Mana-Cost, it was an issue with the Intent behind it.

What did the Core use again? It wanted to ‘Purify the inner organs,’ just as it had focused on since the start. Yet that Intent wasn’t working. Looking back at what the Queen had said, it tried to find the error with its ways. She wanted the insides cleansed and made pure, just like the Entity had stated in its…

Oh, that was a dumb mistake. The Core had been close to starting an entire rant yet that minor mistake was easily noticed early on. Looking at the time, it saw twenty minutes remaining. It was going to succeed this time around.

The fourth ant was now useless but was allowed to get over to the Queen once the remaining infection had been cleaned away. With the new intent, it looked upon the fifth [Giant-Ant] instead, needing to make sure that it worked. Using the fifty Mana from before, it sent it in with precisely the same technique.

And it died just as painfully as the third ant had. That was not good, the Core was unsure of why that had been. Two [Giant-Ants] remained. Not wanting to create any more, the Entity decided on fixing the issue before it became too much. Looking more in-depth into its memories about the recent death, it did note that the head and legs had been included at that time. Yet it had still died… why was that so? The Core could only look at it as being due to too much Mana entering yet that shouldn’t have been the case since it worked before.

Could it be that different kinds of intent had different limits? The Entity did seem to make sense of such a thing. When boosting [Stamina], the limit had been ten each second while here it had previously been fifty. There was a massive difference when the goal was different so vividly, yet could the limit also change on a smaller scale. Could it go from, say, fifty to forty? The Core was slowly starting to think of it as that being the reason.

With two ants left, the Entity knew it would have to be sure the amounts, however. There was hardly time to create new ones to test it out on by that point, so failure twice would mean the deaths of the underlings and like the ire of the Queen. Not the greatest position to be in, even if the Core could survive it to some degree.

It started with sending in… forty Mana. Forty was far away from fifty that it didn’t sound like it would kill. Yet, it very much did. Without pause and warning, it killed with glee, meaning that one ant remained. And the Core was still overshooting its goal.

Thirty. If fifty and forty were too much, it would try thirty Mana instead. It wanted to originally go down to thirty-five, yet it feared that would only create another explosion. So… testing it out, the Mana was sent in. And, truth be told, the Core didn’t expect the next message.

New [Skill] has been acquired!

You have learned: [Purify]