[Core Engineering (II) has reached Level 10. Skill upgrade available.]
[Core Engineering (II) Core Surgery (III): Cost 1 SP. This skill guides the user when making finer and more detailed changes to core energies. It also enables the manipulation of the cores of living creatures.]
Awwwww, snap!
Called it! I had a feeling this was coming after my conversation with Formo. After all, how could they create such insanely powerful monsters in one go? Surely they worked on them over a number of evolutions after setting the core up the way they liked it. Here is the proof I was right!
Gwehehehehehe.
This will enable me to work on the cores of Tiny and Crinis if I want, adjusting their evolution paths as they go. Not to mention the project I’ve been wanting to do this whole time. It’s going to be a lot of work but the future of the colony will never have looked brighter once I’m done!
That’s right. I’m going to work on the queen! If she agrees, I’ll use this skill to make adjustments to her core, not changing her at all, but focusing on her children. If I can make her offspring more intelligent, more like Vibrant, then I’ll be able to teach and guide them, turning them into something more than just workers.
Don’t get me wrong, my siblings are great ants, loyal and brave, hardworking, basically better than me in almost every aspect. After seeing them cut down in their dozens by the humans as they charged in blindly… I decided then I would have to make a change.
Ants are designed to fight that way, to sacrifice themselves, hurl themselves forward and overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers, their lives treated as disposable. I don’t want my siblings to live like that. Family is important! I want them to be intelligent and clever, surviving the fight and not dying off pointlessly.
With this skill I can make it happen. I’ll go into the core and modify the offspring of the queen until they’re like me. Super ants!
66. The Pain Inside
At this moment, with my head filled with the glorious victory of the new super-ant race, I notice something a little odd.
There is a dull ache coming right from my core.
What the heck is with that? What on Pangera makes your core hurt? Do I have core-itis? Flu of the core? Seasonal core-swelling?
I’m unusually disturbed by this inexplicable pain. Once formed, the core is attached to a monster’s life force. If anything were to happen to it, I’m not sure how long I’d last.
Focusing intently on this feeling, I try to analyse it. When I carefully sense the area around my core the issue becomes clearer. There’s more going on than meets the eye. Almost like a lung that is slowly leaking, as time passes my core is slowly draining energy out into the air. Almost as if when my body tries to draw in Mana, there isn’t anything there, and then I ‘exhale’ Mana out.
I’m losing Mana!
As time passed, the loss became more noticeable until I was struck with this pain. It’s literally my core gasping for air. I need Mana! Whilst the pain isn’t completely debilitating now, it’s only going to get worse the more energy I leak.
This must have been what was afflicting the queen! Weakened and in pain by the lack of Mana, she’d been bleeding her life out into the air until I finally noticed something was wrong.
I can’t help but get a little emotional.
Dammit, Mother! Just how self-sacrificing can you be? Just because I’d said the colony would be safe on the surface, you were willing to bleed Mana from your core until you died? Why is it that the best mother I’ve ever had is a giant ant?
Now I feel like garbage. Not only because my core is increasingly pained but also because of the guilt of unknowingly causing such suffering to a dear parent. I’ll make it up to you, Queen! You’ll be the mother of the most successful ant colony in the history of the entire… wherever we are!
I’m not really sure if this is the same universe as the one I was born in, come to think of it. Something to ask Gandalf if I ever see him again.
Well, now that I know of this problem, what am I going to do about it? The fact it took a few days for the problem to grow this severe means I’m not completely unable to operate on the surface, I’ll just have to take frequent trips underground. Actually, is this the reason Tiny has relocated himself underground? It’s possible his core has also advanced to the point where he can’t sustain himself on the surface level of Mana.
Sighing to myself, I grasp my bag of unworked on cores in my mandibles and make my way down to where Tiny is currently sitting munching on some low-Level plants that leapt out of the walls and into his waiting hands.
As soon as I descend past the surface Level and into the Dungeon proper, there’s a sense of relief. As the light emitted by the Mana veins washes over me and my feet begin drinking energy in a steady flow, the pain in my core begins to ease. I’m getting a little more energetic and alert as I stop leeching precious energy the air.
Feels good!
This incident does really hit home at something that Gandalf said. When he told me I might join him one day, he suggested I might not have a choice but to go farther down. Is this what he meant? Every time I condense my core and evolve, I’ll have a higher requirement for Mana, forcing me to live deeper and deeper in the Dungeon? I guess this explains why the most powerful monsters live closer to the centre…
I’m not sure how I feel about this. Obviously, evolving is the best thing in the universe and I should keep doing it, but then aren’t I basically imprisoning myself?
All right, it’s complicated, think about it later!
This is my policy and I’ll stick to it!
Tiny seems quite relaxed down here, his silvery hair taking on a distinct blue shade in the reflected light of the Dungeon. I pass him the bag and take some time to hollow out a chamber for us to use, shoving the loose soil farther down the tunnel. Once that’s done, I ask Tiny to keep watch for me and rest a little before resuming my core grinding. I don’t want to rush over and start working on the queen’s core straight away with Core Surgery at Level one. If I can push a few more Levels out of it, then I’ll be more confident at being able to achieve my goal.
Back to grinding!
It takes a few more naps and one hundred cores before I finally achieve Core Surgery Level 3. By this time, my brain feels like a puddle of sludge and my other brains aren’t much better. Despite my improved mental power, grinding through so many cores in such a short time has pushed me right up to the wall. This kind of speed would have been completely impossible before my evolution so there is that to celebrate. I have to say though, training this line of skills is a pain in the ass!
Who has one hundred cores lying around, Gandalf?
All in all, I’ve nearly gone through two hundred cores over the last few days, perfecting my skill at making nuanced changes to monsters and grinding that precious XP to get to this point. How long would it have taken me to amass all of these cores if I hadn’t been able to rob the Lirian vault?
Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I flick cores at Tiny until he’s full up. He’s at the same Level of evolution as I am, so it a while for him to top out, then I do the same for myself.
[Your core has reached max capacity for your Level of evolution.]
Hue, hue, hue, hue.
So soon after evolving and my core is already maxed out. It feels so good! All we need now is the special cores. There’s no way I’m going to put up with that pain for an extended time again. I can whip those up right when we’re ready to evolve.