Kimma was not done. She still had information to impart unto my big dumb branches.

“There is a dimension of energy that exists outside the physical. The soul, the supernatural.” She continued lecturing. “You have a circulatory system. You have a blood system, lymphatic system and you have a mana system. The chakras are the anchor points for the mana system. In essence, your soul is anchored in the energy dimension. You as a life form are a synthesis of the physical and the supernatural. The stronger your bonds to the soul energy, the stronger your body becomes.”

“There are many different ways to interact with the soul energy. In the case of the water creatures, water is an excellent conductor of mana. It surrounds them, penetrates them. The magic they can use is ever present. You, on the other hand, exist outside the water. The vast majority of your body touches the air. You have the advantage over other land creatures because you have a large portion of your body underground. But for other creatures, they are limited by the mana currents in the air. This is naturally less than what can be found in denser mediums.”

“Now on to your stats. There are multiple systems to measure your strength. But because of the water mana system being installed first, that is simply not possible. And you messed around with the seed cultivation thing. You’ve actually been sharing your cultivation base with everyone who became Tree Sworn. While this isn’t the worst thing in the world, it does have its own drawbacks. Everyone that is Tree Sworn shares the same cultivation base. At first that doesn’t seem so bad. The early levels of mana infusion goes fairly fast and easy.” Kimma looked around. “I need something to write on. This will be easier to show you.”

I cleared an area of the gallery and put in a large, flat plinth of root. “How’s this?” I asked.

“Not bad.” Kimma replied.

Levels

1

4

2

8

3

16

4

32

5

64

6

128

7

256

8

512

9

1,024

10

2,048

11

4,096

12

8,192

13

16,384

14

32,768

15

65,536

16

131,072

17

262,144

18

524,288

19

1,048,576

20

2,097,152

21

4,194,304

22

8,388,608

23

16,777,216

24

33,554,432

25

67,108,864

26

134,217,728

27

268,435,456

28

536,870,912

29

1,073,741,824

30

2,147,483,648

31

4,294,967,296

32

8,589,934,592

33

17,179,869,184

34

34,359,738,368

35

68,719,476,736

36

137,438,953,472

37

274,877,906,944

38

549,755,813,888

39

1,099,511,627,776

40

2,199,023,255,552

41

4,398,046,511,104

42

8,796,093,022,208

43

17,592,186,044,416

44

35,184,372,088,832

45

70,368,744,177,664

“Your levels are represented by your mana capacity. Mana infuses your entire being. The inter-system method of increasing your levels is an exponential growth curve. The first levels are pretty easy, but the higher you go, the more difficult it becomes. But you have a shared cultivation base. Everyone needs to be at the same level. I would need to review how you set everything up to determine what the transfer between entities will be. Do you see the problem you will run into eventually?” Kimma asked. “You need to gain the same amount of energy capacity for each additional entity in your network. How many do you have?”

“I don’t know.” I answered. “A couple of thousand.”

“You dumb fucking donkey.” Kimma said while shaking her head. “Do you have any idea how much mana you have to cultivate to reach the high levels?” She asked while pointing at the table.

“Did I mess up?” I asked.

“A little bit.” Kimma answered. “The requirements for you ‘minions’ doesn’t go up for them, but it goes up for you. If you don’t match your minions mana capacity, your power starts to decline. Can you imagine the requirements when you get really big and you have tens of thousands if not millions of minions. The difficulty of your tribulation for each new stage increases the higher your mana capacity. Yours are going to be epic. If you survive, people will be talking about you for cycles.”

“Is there a way to view my stats and skills?” I asked.

“Yes. But I will have to show you how to make the stuff you need.” Kimma said. “It’s basically one skill every two levels.”

The issue Kimma was describing was beginning to sink in. I would gain levels slower than others. I had made everything much more difficult for myself.

“Don’t feel too bad.” Kimma consoled me. “Increasing your mana capacity requirements will make your mana denser. This will make your skills stronger.”

“I guess that’s good.” I replied.

“You’re gonna have another problem soon though.” Kimma said.

I sighed.

“The magical density in this area is going to allow others to make portals to this world easier.” Kimma explained. “Think of mana as a force of gravity on the spiritual plane. It will deform the mana membrane and create a signature that is easier to detect. It’ll be like an enormous mountain calling out to people to come here.”

“Is that a good or bad thing?” I asked. This day was getting worse and worse.

“Depends on what you get.” Kimma said. “The abominations you are making will attract a diverse crowd. Some will want to purge you, others will want to study you. Others will want to use you. Shits about to get real around here. Also you still have those water creatures gunning for you. You, my friend, are about to live in some very interesting times.”

Well, shit.