Sorry about the slow update guys, also it's a bit of a short chapter. I've some stuff going on in rl that keeps me distracted. I'll try to update it regularly. If you've any questions, pm me or leave a comment.

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A day has passed since I implanted the cores, giving me approx 12 mana, it's actually slightly more, but I can't really count the benefits yet. I want to place more [nests] for my worms and also upgrade at least two of them into [breeding places].

I need 7 [nests], and I want to upgrade 3 of them into [breeding places]. The Heart chamber will hold one [breeding place] and two rooms in front of the Heart chamber will each hold another [breeding place].

7 [nests] will cost me 70 mana, if it's for the worms, and the [breeding places] will cost me 30 mana, bringing it to 100 total. That'll take over 8 days to regen that amount, sadly enough, so I'll leave that for later, once I get enough regen.

To increase my regen, I need to either level up, or attract stronger creatures. Both will be the best honestly speaking, but I'll have to focus on one of them for now. It's mana cost wise the most efficient to focus on leveling. I'll just need to implant a core in either a bat or a mouse to start gaining experience.

My cored worms are non predatory at this moment, so I'll have to core another animal. The amount of mana to core a bat is a wopping 500, while one mouse costs only 20 mana. The difference is of course because of how high they are in the predatory scale.

I'll wait another 8 hours before, so it'll be evening once I'll have enough mana to core a mouse and have some spare mana left. Then I'll just wait a whole week, while coring another 4 mice. 168 hours for a week will leave me with 84 mana from my passive regen and another 5 from my absorption, if you take into account the bit I already got from waiting a day.

In the week while waiting, my cored giant worm fully assimilated with its core. I'll refer to it as Worm from now on. Also, I'm currently at 30% towards level 1.

Another 3 weeks passed. Nothing happened.

Another week later.

You've reached level 1

Finally, it took ages, but I've reached the next level. I've 353 mana from waiting and not spending and 13 left from coring the mice, having a total of 366. Now that I've levelled up, my passive regen is 1.25 per hour with a max capacity of 1100.

Waiting is horrible, but there's nothing to be done about it. I can now get all the planned [nests] and [breeding places], I'll also get a [nest] and [breeding place] for the bats and mice. In total I'll have to spend 240 mana, but it'll be definitely worth it.

Of the spare mana, I'll use 100 to fiddle a little with my giant Worm. Let's start with making it predatory. For that, his digestive system and more important his mouth need to be adapted. I can use the information I have on wolves, bats and some other predators to give it teeth, changed intestines and a different sense of hunger.

It's not dangerous enough to eat anything but worms, but it'll get used to hunting this way. My plans are slowly progressing. Slow and steady wins the race. Now, it's even more waiting! What a lovely way to spend your time.