<Nea’s POV>

I feel a bit like falling down for a moment and I snap my eyes open, reaching out with my arms.

I manage to grab what I believe is bark and I relax slowly, looking around the dimly lit forest and noticing I am in the same place I have fallen asleep.

‘Natria?’ – I ask in my mind.

{Good morning!} – I hear happy, sweet voice in my head. – {If you want to ask about Mana Core, then it’s done. Now the only thing for you to learn is to use it properly, which we will do in a while.}

‘I see, good morning.’ – I smile. – ‘Did anything noteworthy happen? Actually, how much time has passed?’

{Um, counting from when you feel asleep it has been almost four and a half day, it’s morning now. As for interesting things that happened, Laura was here with Murky and rest of the team.}

‘Huh? What? Did something happen?’ – I immediately tense up.

{Supposedly they received information about mana disturbance in the forest and came here to investigate. And, uh, sorry for not informing you, but they saw you on that tree and Laura manipulated Murky so that he will come after us alone and not report we were here to the guild. If everything worked properly, that is, but I believe it did.}

I stay silent for a while, processing what she told me.

‘Alright, I see how that should work, that’s alright. And the Mana Core is more important than me knowing about it, so I don’t mind not being woken up.’ – I shrug. – ‘Anything else of importance?’

{Hm, I don’t think so, at least not anything you should know right now. Eat up though, you should be starving now.} – Natria says simply and stays silent afterwards.

Only now, feeling something sucking my stomach, I realize how hungry I am and I reach out to the backpack I left on my side for the two hearts and the thigh of a wolf. I unwrap them and greedily bite into, finishing half of the meat in one go, leaving only the huge heart of the Stone Beast.

After that I get up and stretch my body, looking for any changes, and I notice I am much stronger than I was before. Not only in pure power, but my body is also more flexible and sturdier in general, and additionally I feel my senses are sharper.

It is not a huge difference, but large enough to be noticeable outside a fight, and large enough to make me able to easily take down the enemies I needed to be cautious of before.

If I had to fight the Stone Aberration from before, I definitely wouldn’t defeat it effortlessly, but I am confident in defeating it without any significant injuries and much faster than before, and the same with the wolves, unless it was much larger pack.

‘Hm, Natria?’ – I ask in my mind. – ‘What about my ability?’

{It’s not much stronger, but you can now cover your skin in stone. You can try it out.}

‘Hm, later. Is there any significant change to my body I should be aware of?’

{Not really, only improvements. Though those from the beginning are close to completion. It appears that your regeneration speed is getting faster. It’s not something significant now, the time has shortened from… four to some more than three weeks, but in the future it should get to a level where you will be able to actively swap bloodlines, like from day to day.}

‘Oh! That’s great. Right now it takes a bit too much time.’ – I comment and get down from the tree by sliding down the trunk.

{Though I should probably mention that your ears are now higher and they are changing shape, as well as you have something resembling tail on your butt. It will be complete in three weeks, but there are already slight changes visible.}

I feel around my ears and notice that they have indeed changed slightly. It’s not a large difference, they are positioned slightly higher and seem to be slightly sharper, but one can notice if paying attention. I also reach out to my butt and notice a small, quite thick protrusion on the end of my spine, right now only a few centimeters long and not covered in any hair, which certainly doesn’t look particularly good.

But within one or two weeks I should get short and maybe not fluffy, but already proper tail.

‘Hm, I should have asked earlier, but, can you adjust how long, how fluffy my tail will be or how long the hair on it will be?’

{Yeah, though I can’t do much if I have only one bloodline to work with. Do you have something in mind?}

‘Uh.’ – I stammer, not sure if I want to say that, even more so considering I would be only giving Natria material for teasing. – ‘Well, I had a thought that it might be nice to have a long fluffy tail, like, a meter long and a foot in width?’ – I get a bit red by the end.

{Oh, I sure can do that!} – Natria says excitedly. – {Maybe not to that extent, but it’s definitely possible. Wanna do that?}

‘Uh, on second thought, not to that extent, but I would prefer if it was more bushy than these wolves had…?’ – I say somewhat uncertainly.

{Sure can do. So you like fluffy things, but not excessively, mhm~.} – She mutters at the end in a teasing tone.

I stop looking at my changes, trying to ignore her comment but still blushing slightly, and choose the eastern direction more or less along the forest border and start walking forward.

‘What about Mana Core then?’ – I ask. – ‘I mean how to channel and use mana?’

{Well, along with all the changes to you I also took liberty of adding mana sense to you, so it should be mostly instinctual to you. Try to concentrate on your body and you should be able to feel some energy coursing through it.}

I do as she says without stopping and almost immediately notice some colorless matter flowing through my whole body, some of it seeping in, though very little going out.

Practically overlapping with my body is my soul, with crimson, somewhat steadying spirit in spherical shape and the blood red eye of a soul with colorless writhing tentacles underneath, and somehow still filling every part of my body despite completely different shape. The same mana flows through my soul as well and stays there somewhat longer than it does in my body itself.

Then there is my Origin, or more Origin Core, where there seems to be a concentration of mana. If I were to say how dense it is, I would say it is a few tens of times denser than around my body. And most of mana that flows into my soul is directly absorbed and stored here.

{What you feel now is all the mana that flows through your body. Do you remember when I told you that your soul is very well developed?}

‘Um, more or less. What about it?’

{Notice that mana in your body and soul is flowing through your body and soul at slow pace. It’s the fact that your soul uses your mana more effectively and there is much less of it getting absorbed and expelled while maintaining same density inside your body. What it also means is that your soul will have more capacity for channeling since more mana can be attracted and rotated inside your soul and body without being used by it. That’s not very important though, it’s just something I am telling you to know.}

Natria stops for a while, as if thinking what to say, and resumes soon after.

{That concentration you can feel inside your soul in the Origin Core itself is what is inside Mana Core. You should be able to see it as a small green kind of orb inside your Origin Core, but sensing mana inside is more than enough. Do you know what channeling is for?}

‘Eh, for gathering mana?’ – I ask uncertainly.

{Yeah, and recovering your mana. What’s important is that all the mana you channel is in your grasp within your soul and you can do whatever you want with it at moment’s notice. Now, do you know what channeling is?} – Natria asks.

‘Uh, I know more or less, but if you ask me how it works, then I have no idea.’

{Mhm, then channeling consists of two parts. First, and the only we will focus on for now, is simply circulating mana inside your soul. You probably noticed that the mana is just flowing through your whole body just like that, like a river. Channeling means essentially making it flow in organized and more effective way. For now try to move the mana within your soul and make it flow around.}

I do as she says and mentally concentrate at the mana within my soul and make it flow. I somewhat do that, succeeding to move it according to my will, but it is a small amount and the pace it flows in is quite slow.

I don’t get discouraged by that and command the mana to make laps around my soul, which comes with a lot of effort on my side. A bit of the mana gets out of my control and seeps either out or into Mana Core, but most of it stays where I want and sluggishly starts rotating around my soul.

After a minute of effort I am able to make it flow steadily, but still very slowly.

{Quite good. There are four things I have to say. First is that you should make some effort into making the flow as smooth as possible, and that includes not only your control, but also the pathways. In your case it should be probably along the tentacles and back into the eye, though the exact most effective method is up to you to find.}

‘Okay. I will get to that soon then, but I am right now struggling with making it go in circles, so I’ll have to wait a bit.’ – I comment as she stops for a while.

{Yeah, take it slow, that’s alright too. The second thing I want to say is that ideally you should be able to circulate even more mana than you have capacity and also out of your body, but don’t bother with it for now and focus on controlling it well. The amount you channel now is already quite good. The third thing, try to channel part of this mana through your body instead of just soul.}

I do as she says and separate around tenth of the mana I am using right now. Then I think about pushing it through my soul into my legs, which comes surprisingly easily as the mana I separated gradually goes into my legs and starts coursing through my body quicker, joining the previous flow and greatly increasing it.

With surprise I immediately notice that my legs feel significantly stronger instantly.

I jump in place a few times and realize that the mana flowing through my legs is dissipating slowly, but my moves come a lot easier and I jump slightly higher than normal.

{Alright, take it back.} – Natria says.

I am a bit surprised by that, but do as she says and will most of the mana in my legs to flow back into my soul and join the rest I had there.

‘Hm?’ – I prompt in my mind.

{What you just did is the most basic method of body enhancement. What it was is simple increase in amount of mana coursing through your body. It puts a strain on your body though, so it’s not a good idea. The alternative method is to increase the speed and path of your mana, and I want you to work on this too along with your soul.}

‘Alright.’ – I nod.

{Good. Then the one last thing is that you can accumulate mana outside your body by channeling, and this is the use most important for people here. But for you the more important thing is that by speeding up mana flow in your body or soul you can increase your absorption rate by a large margin, so it can help you refill your Mana Core. I’d like you to try to guide mana inside your soul slowly into Mana Core.}

I do as she says, commanding the mana to rotate closer and closer to the Mana Core, a bit like water in a sink. I notice that as mana starts flowing into the Core, more of it gets absorbed into my soul from the outside and the flow of mana into my soul gets faster.

I take control over the mana freshly flowing into my soul and join it with the whirlpool flowing into my Mana Core.

{Alright, good.} – Natria comments. – {What you are doing just now is usually called meditation, though your method is still very basic and ineffective, and it simply speeds up your natural mana recovery and generation speed. For now try to keep it up and find monsters to kill to increase your mana capacity. Right now you have the smallest possible proper core possible and it can grow around… five times the current size until you reach the level where it will grow alongside your soul.}

‘Alright. Uh, you said, mana generation?’ – I nod my head, but then ask a question in confusion.

{Yeah. Where do you think mana comes from? It doesn’t just come from nowhere for creatures to use. Your Mana Core can be said to be a small mana engine which generates a bit of mana from the excess energies from your body. Though it is rather slow and channeling can provide at least ten times faster recovery.}

‘Oh. Say, then the mana density near Dragon Mountain…?’ – I ask with surprise.

{Yep. I believe there is a creature here that releases a large amount of excess mana it doesn’t need, though I can’t tell if it is from Mana Core or another source. But don’t bother yourself with this for now, we will probably sooner than later end up going there, but it will be in a few years at least.}

‘Alright.’ – I nod.

{Then the last thing. I don’t know if you have noticed, but the amount of mana your soul can contain is much higher than what can safely flow through your body. That said though, your body’s only limit in terms of how much mana you can put into it is how much it can contain without making it explode, literally. The best you can do in most circumstances is to direct your mana flow from outside through your body and soul to your Core, and the other way if you fight. In the future you will also be able to control mana outside your body, but that’s not important for you right now. Any questions?}

‘Um, what does speed of channeling mana through my body and soul affect?’

{Hmm, that’s a bit… complex subject.} – She muses. – {You can somewhat compare it to blood. The three most important things it affects is the power you can use continuously, but not explosive power, then is the thing of how quickly will your talents and abilities take to charge, unless you direct mana to them by yourself, and the last is how quickly your soul will grow, though the last effect is mostly negligible to you.}

‘I see…’ – I nod slowly, thinking about it. – ‘Well, I guess I understand the gist of it. Just correct me if I do any mistakes and I guess it will be alright.’

{Sure~.} – Natria replies cheerfully.

I walk for a few minutes more, then remember that I have a new ability to check.

I think about using it while looking into my soul and watch carefully as it proceeds quickly. First mana is absorbed in quite large quantity into my Origin Core and just after that it is released back into my soul, but with yellow tinge and distinctly different feeling to it, indicating that the mana is now attuned to earth.

{Though it’s not exactly earth.} – Natria chimes in. – {It’s quite similar to living stone, but still different since it’s unique.}

I nod my head and go back to watching the mana intently.

It gets released into my body and dissolves into it, turning it into stone. I glance at how it looks on the surface and notice that the skin on my arm is grayish and rough.

I then try to create stone on my arm as Natria told me should be possible and watch as a gray, moderately thick, spiky rocks grow around my arm. I also notice that the same mana that has hardened my body before flows into my arm and dissolves on its edge, creating more stone on its surface.

I confirm with a few hits that it’s more or less as tough as my hardened body and I release the ability, watching the stones dissolving and my skin turning back normal. At the same time I notice a wave of same earth attributed mana flowing out of my body into the environment, though it is significantly smaller than what was dissolved before.

‘Hey, Natria?’ – I ask in my mind as I get an idea. – ‘That mana was dissolved, so the energy it contained was released, right? What about normal mana then?’

{Nope, don’t try that.} – Her sweet voice shuts me down instantly. – {I mean, you can try, but it is very dangerous unless you know very well what you are doing. Mana with no attribute contains pure energy, which upon release turns into kinetic energy. It’s the very base of kineticism and telekinesis, but you need to be extremely careful with that and I advise not to try for now. If you are not careful you might just tear apart what you are trying to move.}

‘Okay, maybe later then.’ – I shrug. – ‘By the way, where are all the monsters? I wasn’t as focused as normally, but I haven’t noticed any monster within these… twenty minutes or so?’

{Tough luck I’d say. Though there might be less monsters here as they might have not yet returned to their habitats after I scared them out.} – She sounds as if she was informing me about today’s dinner and not power. – {Do you want me to guide you to some?}

‘I would prefer… No, on second thought, please do. I would like my Mana Core to catch up to my soul at the very least. As soon as that’s done I’d go back to Bluesky.’

{Sure~, there is one, or two depending how you look at things, around a hundred meters exactly to your right. Soul is of similar size to that Stone Beast, so you should have no problems.}

‘Alright.’ – I reply and turn right, approaching the area carefully.

I soon notice something flashing between the trees and when I come closer, I suddenly come face to face with two of the… strangest monsters in the outer parts of the forest.