I slumped back with a satisfied hiss, feeling a tingle in my scales; an electric jolt akin to a great many [Sting]s, only without any pain slithering alongside it. A surge of glee that set my mind afire, fighting the sluggish haze that came with overuse of mana-water. It wasn’t so bad now, with [Mana Restoration] helping me recover much of what I needed, but I still felt the strain. The stretch, like the coils of my mind were being tugged violently from each ending, forcing it to reach further than it should have been able. A pain that found its nest within my head-scales, pounding again and again.

Even so, I couldn’t help but be happy. It had taken some time, entire days wasted upon the shoreline of the mana-water lake, but I was getting stronger. Not just in my abilities, or my understanding, but in other ways as well.

Specifically, the core of mana contained within me, obtained from one of my first Titles so long ago. The recent days of strain and overuse hadn’t damaged it, even if I was in pain; instead, they had grown it. Made it better. Denser, able to hold more mana within.

Not by much, but by enough to take note, if only barely. Enough to start trying to improve it intentionally. Even if it took a long time, or was barely noticeable, any improvement was worth searching for - especially one as important as to my mana. The abilities that mana gave me were easily among my strongest, beaten only by the rare few that I gained from devouring Dungeon Cores.

And even beyond the tiny improvements to my mana capacity, the other forms of progress that I had made would have been more than enough to satisfy me. The minor changes within my mana core were just a source of extra excitement.

Lesser Core Skill: [Death - Venom IV] Increased.

[Death - Venom VII] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Death - Enervating Bite I] Increased.

[Death - Enervating Bite X] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Death - Wither V] Increased.

[Death - Wither X] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Death - Weakness I] Increased.

[Death - Weakness X] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Invigorating Bite XI] Increased.

[Life - Invigorating Bite XIV] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vitality XI] Increased.

[Life - Vitality XV] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life - Vigor III] Increased.

[Life - Vigor X] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Death Essence Manipulation III] Increased.

[Death Essence Manipulation VIII] Acquired.

Lesser Core Skill: [Life Essence Manipulation VI] Increased.

[Life Essence Manipulation IX] Acquired.

Despite my satisfaction, it was hard to ignore the pounding in my head-scales; the all-too consistent drum that even the soothing touch of life essence couldn’t deafen. Overuse of the lake to restore my mana had taken its toll, and I was suffering for it. I wouldn’t be able to rely on it anymore. Not for a while, anyway.

With a series of heavy slithers, I moved myself to the side, finding a nearby outcropping. My coils curled gently around its edges, scale-flesh clinging tight to the rocky surface, and I turned my attention towards the most important of my recent changes. [Death Essence Manipulation] and [Life Essence Manipulation].

It wasn’t a surprise that the two essences had become easier to handle as the manipulation abilities increased; what was surprising was the degree that it was true. Enough that I had some hope that I would be more likely than before to accomplish something, even if I still had no real idea how anything worked. The complicated weaves that created [Little Guardian’s Totem] and [Little Guardian’s Focus] were still far away from anything I could manage; I could barely even imagine the strands of mana and - in the case of [Little Guardian’s Focus] - life essence that formed them without my head-scales beginning to pound.

Still, that did at least give me an idea.

Death essence and life essence couldn’t mix. Not without one trying to overpower the other; they were like the bad-things of two different Lesser Cores, each doing their best to consume the other.

Mana, however, went ignored. The two essences could stream alongside it, could mix with it, even, and the mana would remain. Unharmed. Radiant. Able to keep the contrasting essences contained, even a thin skin of mana between the two essences enough to prevent one from overwhelming the other. Letting them both take part in the same weave of mana and essence.

Even if I had no idea what I could do with that, for now. Something would come to me, I was sure. Eventually.

Maybe.

I still hadn’t figured anything out by the time that I decided to move again. I felt like I was close, like some obvious realization was just barely hidden within the wall-cracks of my mind, but I wasn’t quite there. Hadn’t been able to slither into each and every opening, following the near-random guesses that I might have on how everything worked.

The click-clack of my spore-puppet's limbs, touching down somewhere below where I rested on its abdomen, marked our progress. My recent efforts, there on the shoreline of the lake, hadn’t meant that the Darkweavers’ thread-traps went unattended; my spore-puppets had been watching over their threads the entire time that I spent improving my control and power over death and life. With any luck, they’d be full to bursting.

Full enough that I could reach the next level before I was forced to take on my first leviathan.

We climbed upwards on a bundle of dangling threads, my spore-puppet’s many limbs finding easy purchase. It swayed with our weight, but never looked truly strained; I wasn’t ever worried. The threads could handle a lot, the black threads like tiny fibers of ore-flesh colored an all-consuming black.

With a gentle heave, my spore-puppet pulled itself over the cliffside, reaching the sharp plateau where the river crashed downwards into the lake. My other spore-puppets, still following the commands that I had left them earlier, were a hive of activity. Plucking at threads here and there, patching up the ones that frayed and pulling aside those that were already filled to the brim with bad-things, wrapping them up in even greater numbers of threads until there was no hope of the captured creatures escaping.

It was amazing to watch, especially when I considered that they were likely going off of feel more than sight; from my own experiences with [Ambusher’s Vision] near sources of light, I doubted that they could see very well at all.

More amazing, however, was being able to see how effective the thread-traps had been. It wasn’t surprising, since I had some of my spore-puppets do the same thing during my last false-life, but that didn’t make it any less satisfying.

I set to work, commanding a few of the spore-puppets to haul groups of bad-things out of the water one by one - and then in entire groups when my improved [Death - Wither] proved more than enough to handle it.

The thought-light flickered again and again, a delightful notice of each and every victory, easy as they might have been. It took a while, but eventually I saw what I was waiting for.

Experience Gained!

Level up!

1 Trait Point Gained.

Level 60 Reached

Analyzing Potential Reward Choices…

Only One May Be Selected.

The Great Core’s rewards appeared before me again, and I quickly found the one that I wanted. Something like [Guardian Link] might have been nice to let me save mana by having a [Little Guardian’s Focus] heal me instead of life essence, but it required me to be biting my tail to work; I couldn’t heal and move at the same time. It might have been manageable, but it wasn’t perfect. Meanwhile, [The Golem’s Echo] was powerful, and I might have picked it in any other situation, but I worried that the fragile Core at its center would immediately crumble when faced with the Death Core’s aura. And [Size] had already proven fairly useless against that same aura.

Most of all, my last two rewards both focused on mana in some way. It only felt right to pick one that continued with that.

The thought-light flickered, confirming my choice.

Mana Blood: Your blood, already a storage for toxins, has become a storage place for mana as well. Greatly increases capacity to store mana. (Provided by: [Venomous Retribution], [Minor Mana Core])

Reward Chosen: Mana Blood.

[Mana Blood] Acquired.

The pounding in my head-scales, formed by my recent use of mana-water to keep myself going, amplified. Raised itself into a deafening climax. I couldn’t hear the click-clacks of my spore-puppets’ many, many legs. I didn’t notice the rush of the river, or the crash as it fell into the lake below. The world fell away, bit by bit, all of my focus pulled towards my head-scales. Somewhere underneath the likeness of the Great Core that rested there was the place where my mana lay - the place where my mana formed and accumulated and renewed and restored, the place where death essence and life essence was formed.

My mana core.

All at once, its walls burst. The contents spilled out, life essence and death essence and mana carving their way through suddenly-there channels within my flesh. I pushed past the surprise and flexed my will, [Life Essence Manipulation], [Death Essence Manipulation], and [Mana Manipulation] all working together to keep the process going. Mana quickly wrapped itself around life and death in shell-like droplets, keeping the two essences from touching each other and touching flesh. Keeping them - and myself - safe as they fell down newly-created channels and mixed with the blood that had been mutated to contain them. The broken mana core remained; less shattered, and more changed. A place that I instinctively realized, as a drop of mana formed within its now-empty shell, still had a purpose. Still served as a place for my mana to renew and grow and be stored - but no longer as the sole place where it could be kept safe.

My blood hissed with newfound strength, and I pulled myself away from the feeling. Turned inwards, finding my way to my tail. Bit down.

And felt that strength grow even further.