What is mana Regeneration and why can't we increase it with stat points like we can everything else in the system? Our top alchemists have studied the human body thoroughly to the point where we are able to safely say that people (both human and otherwise) regenerate their personal pool based on the density of mana in their bodies. By checking the concentration of mana in the blood and flesh of several (don't fear it's "ethical" - we used orphans) differently levelled humans and beastkin they were able to confirm this theory and we are happy to say as long as you are a high enough level to withstand it going to stand in a mana pool can permanently improve your regeneration! Results may vary. Reader discretion is advised. ManaLabs is not responsible for injury caused by actions taken following our advice.

Excerpt obtained from the published research paper "A study of mana on the human body"

Okay. First things first I’m going to figure out how to get Kinetic mana to enhance a crystal golem of sorts. That should be much better than using “legs”.

First, he started trying to imagine how to get the “Constant force in one direction” variation of Kinetic mana to actually be useful.

Making a rod of crystalized Silicon it grew quickly into place, his constant attention making sure it was perfectly smooth – a task that would have been nearly impossible before his specialization but was now almost second nature to him. Next making several thin bricks of metal, focusing on making sure to evenly apply Kinetic mana along their lengths, he threaded them all along his crystal holder. Next, he spun these plates, so half were facing forwards and half backwards hoping he could reach an equilibrium. The force pushing it forwards and backwards cancelled out however – due to the alternating distribution the top was pulled forwards slightly more and the bottom was pulled backwards slightly more giving it a rolling spin – not the perfect neutralization he had been hoping for.

Deciding the best way to deal with this being to affix it in place, he made 3 more rods and stacked movement plates on each of them before connecting all 4 into a single cube. This time they were distributed more evenly, and he could imagine if a monster was able to tilt them all in different directions it would give it a slightly more controlled movement.

The problem with this open plate setup of course is if anything hits the plates it will fling the monster out of control quickly. Working to protect each rod he slowly built tubes around each making sure they didn’t hinder the movement of the plates. This leaves the rest of the monster. It has to have a core of course, and I think I want to try and make it fly. Oh, it also needs a way to attack if it's going to be a good defender.

Building 4 more shorter rods at the bottom of the cube facing downwards and – partly just to make it symmetrical – he built 4 more on the top.

Encasing all 8 of the new rods in tubes the result was a hollow diamond shape with 12 rods that was hard to hold in place without fiddling with the force plates making it up.

He wanted to throw everything he had learned at this monster so – in the spirit of "I used Water mana for the crystal snakes let's give fire a shot" he first made 4 spikes. Then filling them with Fire mana he joined them together pointing out of the 4 horizontal sides of the center cube. Next building a core – first waiting a bit till he had enough mana and then creating the core just above what the system deemed a rank 1 “PureCore” (there had to be some reason it liked that size right?) he balanced it in the center of the construct.

Unique monsters! I have an idea. Finding the living crystal, he broke off a single shard and added it to the center of the cube beside the core in the hopes it would provide…something to the design. There was still space so might as well add stuff you know? Slowly losing direction, he grew over the entire monster filling in the entire empty center with solid crystal.

Satisfied with mark 1 of this monster he added a spark and pulled back.

As he did he noticed this and what he had done previously was enough to push him over to level 10. Finally! I mean uh... Already!

Jolting back and forth a bit the crystal slowly floated into the air hovering in the center of the room.

Leaning forwards, it quickly flew across the room before pulling back panicked, the crystal putting on the brakes and bouncing off the wall with slightly more force and a flash of fire from the spike that stabbed the wall.

There really wasn’t enough room for it to fly around. This new experimental room was one of Innearth’s biggest, but all his flying crystal needed to do was tilt ever so slightly and it had crossed the full length. The tunnels also looked like they would give his crystal a lot of trouble so sighing slightly at not wanting to keep it stuck in one room, he resumed the task he had put on hold for a while – starting his expansion by growing all his current hallways instead of heading into the unknown.

Each tunnel was grown to nearly a meter in height while several rooms ended up having to be combined into one due to how close they were.

As each tunnel grew so to did the amount of strength he was able to exert closer to the edge of his influence.

I think…I think this is for the best- it’s making it easier to expand so I really should be using bigger passages.

Currently, his whole dungeon was linear in that all the rooms were strung along a single path spiralling upwards. Making several small tubes connecting the lower rooms to the upper rooms vertically these vents increased his control and influence manipulation speed even more than before.

Finally satisfied with growing his current halls he went back to observing the crystal.

Disappointingly he couldn’t notice any effect from adding a living crystal to its makeup.

I had high hopes for that :/

Maybe because the monster has a core?

Trying something else he made a crystal snake but instead of a cored head, he left it as crystallized metal.

Placing several living crystals along the snake’s length he gave birth to it and observed. Sadly, without a core to pull the spark into it, he saw exactly what the problem was. As the spark hit this new snake it broke apart to infuse the entire monster. However, each streak of the spark swerved around the living crystals infusing the liquid metal around them and settling in the rings and scales.

Okay fine I get it I get it. Living crystals are not a magical material tch. I guess it's because they are already living and count as a plant so they can’t suddenly become part of a monster.

Making a new panel called "Plants" he moved living crystals out of his material pane and shoved them in there as the only entry.

Maybe adventurers think this is a material but it's useless for me.

Saddend by this revelation, he gave up on his plan of adding living crystal parts to every monster and making an endless supply of unique monsters.

Does it do anything to the monster? It doesn’t seem to be harming it. There’s nothing wrong with it if it helps but I really can’t see a reason to add it yet either so I think I'll shelve it firmly as a "failed idea".

Watching his snake slither around aimlessly similar to how the worms did, he decided cores were definitely important. I need to be able to order my monsters around- there doesn’t seem to be a single downside to adding a core (other than costing more mana) that I can see but there’s plenty of benefits.

Wanting to talk to a Core – any Core – not to brag about his new monster, no; just to talk about it. Talk and see how it compared to what others had.

He hesitated before going to Bose however.

No one will listen if I try the public chat. But also I feel like Bose will just tell me it's worse than his stupid air wisps. "Oh, you made something that can fly? I've been doing that since day 1...hue hue hue"

And I have no clue how to talk to the doctor.

Opening the chat and letting his attention slowly drift down the page of names he finally found someone he might be able to talk to.

Innearth: Hey how's rank 2 treating you?

Amy: Indecisive earth? How did you get here so quickly?

Innearth: ...not sure how you want me to answer that? I'm great obviously

Amy: Sure you are dear.

Innearth: Anyways I want your honest opinion. So here's what my newest monster can do.

Explaining the effort he put into creating the flying crystal Amy listened patiently the whole time. Making the appropriate responses at just the right times she made him feel like he was doing well as a Dungeon Core. Finally, when he described how he finished his day by describing how he expanded the area she offered some feedback.

Amy: So how does this "flying crystal" fit into your dungeon?

Innearth: What?

Amy: Sorry, how does your newest monster make your dungeon better? What's the role you have assigned for them. Does it get along with other monsters? You mentioned you expanded your halls for it but do you have any goals you want this monster to fulfill?

Innearth: Not really? I kind of got sick of moving limbs and wanted to make a solid monster that just uses Kinetic mana to move around you know? I also thought it looked cool. Also what does "get along with" mean? Isn't it better if monsters fight each other?

Amy: And that's fine! I'm not criticizing your choices. If you like it you should definitely keep it. It's just. Like okay. In my Dungeon I have each floor its own biome. I've put all the monsters that get along well together in different rooms and I've designed each room to suit the monsters that make it their home. One room has a deep deep pool in the center of it that my ambush predators sleep in- and I've connected that room to all the other pools between floors as a second underwater floor.

Amy: I have a boss room at the end of each of my 4 floors that's covered in a small layer of water to slow down adventurers and help the boss get around quicker and I'm planning on making a special monster for each one.

Amy: I've also filled my rooms with a lot of plants- It was kind of hard getting them going- I had to buy the first few before I could start populating- but once I did it I was really happy with the arrangement. Some of my monsters can hide in them and I even have a magical vine that lets some monsters heal themselves by rubbing against it. Giving your monsters a place they can be safe and giving them friends is good. They can always still fight each other but if you make species that can cooperate they will be much more effective.

Amy: Does that help? You don't have to change your whole dungeon to match a single monster but if you like these crystals enough to want to keep them maybe you should design rooms that help them fly around. You could pair them with a monster that's stuck on the ground so they can harass adventures from the air while something bites them from below. It's better to have a plan though in my experience.

Innearth: I...Thank you for that. I guess I was thinking I could decorate more when I reached the surface and had adventurers delve me. I wasn't really thinking about matching rooms to monsters though that's helpful.

Amy: I'm glad! I can't really tell you how strong your monster is in comparison to mine. Unless...Okay so here's something we can do. I can't really show you my dungeon and I probably can't recreate your monster but if you make a trade with me you could mail me it and then I can have it interact with the monsters in my dungeon. Then I could tell you how it does and send it back if you want?

Amy: I don't know. If you put a lot of work into it I wouldn't want it to die in my dungeon and not give you the experience but it's something we could try if you're up for it?

It took Innearth a while to respond as he figured out if that's something he wanted. He trusted Amy – she had helped him a lot as a newborn and seemed nice, but he also hadn't known her long. If it was Abe he'd have sent it already but she felt like a bit of a stranger still.

Finally making up his mind – I'm just losing time and mana... if it fails not anything I can't remake – he tried to initiate a trade for the first time (instead of simply responding to an open trade as he had done in the marketplace).

Trade Offer Innearth Amy Request "Counter Offer" before transfer Y/N?

Confirm as is Y/N?

Finding an option beside her name at the top of the chat he opened up the trade offer panel, instead of going through the marketplace and using the already created ones.

Focusing on his monster and then mentally adding it to the screen with the same amount of effort as attaching monster cores or a living crystal he next had to give the impression he wanted "nothing" and hit "Confirm". He watched as the flying crystal simply vanished with a slight pop of displacement as air rushed to fill its spot. That was slightly more dramatic than anything I've sent so far? Did I do that right?

Amy: Wow okay yeah I got it. Next time instead of "nothing" send the trade for applicable air- That way it will be less traumatic for the monster when it arrives.

Amy: Okay it's kinda cute. Smaller than I thought based on how you were talking about it and wow it really is made out of crystals.

Amy: I can't really direct it because it's not my monster but I'll see if I can force an encounter between it and one of my babies.

Innearth: Sure that works. Tell me how it does okay?

Amy: No problem!

Waiting to see exactly where his monster stood, he felt a bit anxious. She's the same Tier as me now but...she is still older.

Trying to use the advice Amy had given he looked around his hallways and tried to imagine how he could fit them to his monsters.

Currently, his Dungeon had the following rooms linked together

Floor 1: Core room, Crystal Experiment room and shell pit, Enlarged x3 Room

Floor 2: Enlarged x2 Room 2, Enlarged x3 Room 3 (previous home of the lent flying Crystal)

Floor 3: Life block and weird plant room and then 3 more rooms near the end where he was expanding.

Spread throughout all of these floors were several mana mutations that he had shifted around and left in piles when he was forming new floors.

Moving in and amongst them all were: Gol1, Gol2, Silver, Crystal Snake (unnamed), Crystal snake (no core and living crystal attachment), Liquid Metal Worms x30 (In varying stages of advancement as he experimented), Jumpers x6. Water Slime x1.

Wait, what? How long has that been there? Thinking back he remembered spawning it as prey for a jumper…2 days ago? Wow how is it still alive?

Looking around the room it was in (Floor 2 Enlarged room x2 closest to the lowest floor) he saw it was sitting behind a pile of shards of streaky metallic rock from when he had ripped them out of the walls when forming his third floor.

Okay, that’s something I can do.

Growing several crystal pillars through the room – spikes that came out of the ground and embedded in the ceiling – he slowly planned out how the room would look. Using a different material for each pillar, some grew clear – warping the view behind them slightly – while others had shades of misty opacity blocking anything from seeing past them.

Partway through decorating this room Amy finally got back to him.

Amy: Hey Innearth? I'm really really sorry but I have some bad news :/

Indecisive Earth Level 10 13/220 exp to next level. System Access Level 2 0/2 requirements met to advance. -1+ Unique Monster -Level 20+ Stats Mana Regeneration 7 unit/min Mana Storage 220.0/220.0 units Physical Storage 54% Percent Capacity Titles. Earth Mana Specialization, Crystal Mana Specialization