With my spider tests leaving me with more questions than answers, I should refocus on what is essential right now. As my zone of control is stable, the next step is expansion. Just expanding two spiders into powerful beasts takes it out of me, so if I want to protect myself from whatever is controlling the mana close to me, I need more mana.

The most consistent way I have thought of, besides finding a method of passive mana attraction, is by luring animals from other zones and having them die in my area. For that, I look at what I have at hand and immediately discard the rabbits, trees, and flowers.

Rabbits aren’t hunters, nor do they have any natural weapons I can easily enhance. I completely lack the mana to strengthen them to the point that they may even be a slight threat to anything coming from nearby and anything they can defeat wouldn’t be strong enough to significantly make a difference mana wise for me.

Trees are large and have defensive measures, but nothing eats them, and they can’t attack on their own. I doubt I will have the ability any time soon to enhance them to the point where they can move and aggressively take something out. The best option I could think of right now would be to enhance the tree sap to the point where it could trap and maybe suffocate potential attackers. But who attacks a tree?

Flowers are eaten occasionally and definitively attract nearby beasts, but the insects attracted are already dying due to my spiders and enhancing the flower to the point that they would be any threat would be far less efficient compared to improving spiders.

So spiders, grass or insects it is.

Spiders have the option of being venomous, which is not something I have tried enhancing yet, but it certainly can kill something larger. I would have to improve one of the hunter spiders for this so it can ambush prey much more substantial than it and inject its mark with venom.

To me, this seems like a decent option considering enhancing the spider would also add a predator of the rabbits to my area culling their numbers so that in the long run they don’t become a drain on my mana pool again.

The downside here is that I would need quite a few spiders, and it might take me a lot of mana to enhance them to the point of being dangerous to larger game. And even if I could do that easily, I would also need to strengthen their physical abilities to the point that it can catch and bit the new prey. And then I have seen that the mana enhancements do not leave my spiders unharmed.

It would be cruel to have to enhance spiders specifically for each target and have them die of whatever caused my test subjects to die. Though breeding a new type of kamikaze spiders does have some appeal.

Insects can spread diseases, which may not be something they themselves make, but these diseases they carry certainly can be enhanced. I have seen a rabbit get sick from the infection brought, though even now it still lives. It would probably die the moment a predator comes by as it is now the slowest of all rabbits, but without predators, it is always safe and fed.

Even a sick rabbit can outrun grass.

I don’t think diseases would be able to kill fast enough to so that its prey dies before returning to its home, but as a method of attack, this certainly holds appeal. If I find out that the mana around me is controlled by something else, getting it sick by sending disease-ridden insects in its direction would undoubtedly be a method of attack for me.

The grass is another decent option. With the new higher numbers it is the main attraction for anything coming here, so I know that it would get eaten. Grasses already have multiple chemical reactions, from photosynthesis to emitting a smell when it is under attack. Enhancing one of these chemical reactions to the point of being dangerous should, due to the lack of complexity, not be that expensive.

I would, however, have to find the means of finding out what the current reaction does. I also need a way to not kill all my own rabbits, and eventually everything else by sending poison up the food chain. Or even worse, if poisonous grass were to die, it might compost and leave poison in the land itself leaving it barren. Killing something but destroying my future domain in the process does not seem wise, though.

Realistically, the options open to me here is between a kamikaze spider versus a scorched earth policy. Of course, both strategies have their appeal, and both could kill. The problem is that the scorched earth part might be the only one I could afford.

The choice here would have been so much easier if I had been able to quantify my mana and determine how much I would need for the desired effect. It would be so much better if I could calculate exactly what my budget is so I can plan. I need to know how many spiders or blades I can turn without any risk. I need to have a better understanding of the daily flow. And if I were to send something out to hunt, I need to know what kind of rewards I would need to offset the cost of risk of sending it out there.

Mana seems to have two variables I can consider. The volume, which dictates the size of the area I am looking to measure. And the density which is how much mana is cramped into that space. As I can’t talk to other people, I need to think of a measurement myself, and I seem to have three levels of density to choose from for units. Either I can take the lowest amount of mana I can still control, the most moderate amount of mana I can make become me or the max pressure I can put on myself when I make myself as small as possible.

It is a possibility that maximum density might become higher when I get stronger, and either way, I don’t want to have to use a lot of mana to get a measurement. The same goes for the lowest mana density where a slight miscalculation might make the mana go out of my control, or it might change when I get stronger. That leaves the lowest density that makes mana me.

As for size, I need something constant and available that if I had to move would be consistent too. All plants and animals vary in size and aren’t regular. The same goes for rocks. Anything smaller would be too small to use. I can’t reference myself as I am constantly changing in size, and nothing about me is constant.

Luckily while I was considering my options, it started raining. Usually, things like day and night, rain or sunshine, don’t affect me in the slightest. This time, however, I don’t have much else to do but watch the raindrops falling. As the drops displace mana, I am able to determine that there is a maximum drop size before it splits into two drops. So my mana calculation would be the maximum density mana that I can control without it becoming me in the maximum size of a raindrop before it splits.

Having a consistent unit of measurement is not going to be easy, and I first need to see if the water isn’t affected by mana itself, because then it could change based on mana density in the area. I also need to know if I can replicate this with the atmospheric water which is always around. It would do me no good if I could only measure mana when it rains as it has only rained a couple of times in the 37 days I have been here so it would be inconsistent at best.

So first up is trying to attach mana to the atmospheric water and see what happens. I add what I think will become one unit of mana to a drop while it falls and confirm that there are no changes. Then I add mana to an area of air the size of a drop to see what happens.

So this is a surprise. It seems I can use mana to slightly decrease the rate at which the atmospheric atoms move. First, the water becomes somewhat visible as a type of cloud but stable in the area which I am enhancing. Second, when I increase the mana density further, which focusing on improving the water, then a drop will slowly form and eventually fall.

After many tests, I think that I can conclude that if I were to make the area in which I slow down the atoms of the water too large, two drops fall. So now at least I have a dependable surefire way of practicing. At least until I can consistently determine the size and then I will have a unit. Mana directed this way is not used up in any shape or form; it is just utilization of what is there, so it doesn’t cost me anything.

For the coming days, I will focus on doing upgrades to my living creatures until I reach my self-imposed daily budget. After that, I will spend the rest of the day practicing determining mana units.