Everyone came back today with the spoils of their dive. They managed to get to the mid-boss of the last floor before Mest had to step in, which was when they left. Most of their loot was gold and gems, though there were some other items there, all of which were already divided up between everyone.

I got a couple gems as gifts, five gems to be exact. I was able to fit one more gem in my crown but for the rest I substituted the ones that were already there, as the new ones are higher quality than most of the originals. Maybe I can make some jewelry to give to par to award some of his people with? I mean they were the ones that gathered the gems in the first place, might as well let them end up with them in the end.

As for what I did with solar energy today, not a lot. It took all day to make one plant, a mundane flower. I did manage to make it store Solar Energy, but just enough for it to last a couple days out of the sun. Other things I managed to do include making it bloom during winter, be very virile, and be very resistant to damage. All things I could have done much easier with mana.

Honestly, I’m pretty underwhelmed by Solar Energy. The only thing special it is really able to do is to allow me to manipulate it outside of my body, which is troublesome for two reasons, one I don’t really care, two it will become impossible anyways in a century or two. External energy manipulation just isn’t something I care about, I would rather have a boost to my ability to manipulate plants, my ability to heal, or even making it easier to shape flesh and mold bone. On top of that the mana density is only going to increase, in a couple hundred years it will be impossible to manipulate Solar Energy beyond making an explosion, so why should I care?

I thought that maybe it might have an innate ability to change living things but that isn’t right. I experimented with goblins a little by letting some Solar Energy flow into them and nothing happened. I even tried to swirl it around inside of them and again, nothing, or at least nothing other than it slowly and harmlessly turning into mana.

Now that I think about it the thing that triggered my evolution was not the fact that I was controlling Solar Energy, I had been doing that for a couple hours before I evolved. No, it was because I tried to change myself on a fundamental level, and succeeded. Had I done it with mana I would be much better off than I am now.

At the very least when I manage to get another evolution in several decades I now know how best to get the most out of it. but honestly, mana is just better in every way.

Anyway, Good Night Diary.