LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 5
Mana x Magic
Natural Mana debuffs magic of the contrary element up to 2% more mana usage, but does not buff the magic of the same element as the mana of the magician and the natural mana are still different. To find a region with pure enough mana for a debuff one has to be exceptionally lucky or unlucky.
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Argul had an epiphany. “Why would one want to level if you can just get stronger through quests?”
Alyra smiled at him. “Well, by my estimation your body should have absorbed enough mana at level 25 to cause an evolution. I don’t know what that evolution will do, but it could be anything, even enhancing your basis and making your stats much stronger in the long run.”
She created a few variations of birds. “The mana needed for evolution is different from species to species, but species that were never in contact with mana should have at least a minor one at level one.”
The birds morphed together and a glass appeared, which they then filled. “Your level is a measure of your potential. With every level you can add around 100 stat points to your being. The amount might change because of evolution.”
Oh! So it was not actually like in most games. “Now leveling makes some sense, but still isn’t that kind of unfair for those who always lived with mana?”
Alyra’s smile turned vicious. “Nope, mana makes a creature a lot stronger in comparison to one without, so the level one evolution is more to give them a chance.”
A human appeared and got slaughtered by a rat-like thing. “They will still be weaker than your creatures, but don’t get too full of yourself because they don’t need as much mana for their next evolution. Also some of the traits of evolution can be passed on to your descendents.”
His daughter definitely liked to mess with people, that was clear now.
It’s not like Argul was an angel of a person, especially now that he could make fun of humans without making fun of himself. “Oh it’s going to be fun to watch important human families trying to breed the best children only for some adventurer to get something better.”
Alyra could swear she smelled Argul’s amusement through their connection. “Has anyone ever told you that your sense of humor is weird?”
Argul laughed to himself. “Remember my trees?”
The avatar just sighed.
Having successfully made a bit of fun of his former people Argul got back to finishing his first floor.
He already knew that he wanted slimes and maybe mosquitos that preyed on the slimes. There was only one problem, that magic only goes so far. His slimes had to make at least some kind of sense.
Argul thought about it for a bit.
Slimes were in a sense a ball of digestive tract, but to make that work Argul had to add other necessary things for a living being somewhere.
He added a thick membrane and stuffed breathing and thinking and all the other needed stuff in there. Around that membrane they were going to have a second one focused on protection.
They perceive their surroundings through sense mana and small vibrations. That should work for the slimes, leaving Argul to regenerate his mana again.
It wasn’t that hard after all.
After waiting for about one hour, Argul got to work near one of his bushes.
3 cat sized silver slimes mutated into existence and started to happily wobble around.
They were damn cute and Argul really wanted to take some kind of picture of them, but then he remembered his trees and immediately identified them to make sure he hadn’t created another monster of nature.
Slime
This is a mid-sized animal. Slimes might not look like much, but compared to other animals they are smart and really good at understanding the emotions of other beings. Slimes are naturally curious and like to explore and because of their body can live anywhere as long as they have food.
Slimes usually divide at least once a month, but can do it more often if their population is small.
One of the slimes jumped and god damn was that cute.
Argul couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Goodness why are they so cute, they look like the perfect responsive cuddle pillows!”
Alyra eyed him and then nodded. “Are you sure you were male in your last life? But you’re right they are cute, a bit like kittens.”
Argul acted as if he had been hurt. “Hey, that's sexist! And I’m not sure if I have a gender right now, for all I know you could really call me mom.”
Alyra’s smile got very wide. “Heeh”
Argul despaired.“No please don’t!” He had wanted to make her stop calling him mom, but it was too late now.
The avatar made a motion as if to console him. “Do not fret mom, everything is going to be alright.”
He just gave up. He had just lost his manhood. “What have I done? You won't ever call me something else again will you?”
Alyra knelt down and smiled sweetly at him. “Nope, not ever, even if it means being stuck in your dungeon forever.”
It was silent for a few minutes.
Argul was touched by that. Nobody had ever said something like that to him.
He faked a sniff. “You would stay with me for such a small thing?”
She sighed, “Right, can’t leave you alone.”, and then tried to distract Argul. “Also you can’t cry, you are a crystal.”
Argul took that personally. Challenge accepted! “I can, just look at my core!”
He looked at his core for the first time.
He saw his core hovering in nothingness and was shocked, as he might have forgotten that his floor will only continue growing after he finishes it.
The core was a colorless sphere that had swirls of different colors appearing, moving around and disappearing again. Argul would have started a bit at the gem that he was himself, but he had a job to do.
He copied the movement of mana that occured around the Lunagrass seeds and created water drops on his core. Then he made the drops move in a tear like manner to the bottom of his core, where he let them drop off and reversed the movement of the mana of his first spell, dispersing the drops that left the surface of his core back into mana.
Multiple screens appeared before him.
Congratulations
You learned the skill/spell
- conjure Water
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- You can conjure Water! This skill helps with the spell formation and will let you conjure more water.
Congratulations
You created the skill/spell
- Water manipulation
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- You can manipulate water! This skill will increase your efficiency in doing so.
Congratulations
You created the skill/spell
- banish Water
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- You can banish water, returning it to mana! This skill will help with the spell formation and your efficiency.
Congratulations, you combined the skills conjure Water, Water manipulation and banish Water
You created the skill/spell
- fake Tears
- No matter who you are, what you are and how you feel, you can cry! You can even make others cry if you want. This skill helps to make making eyes all watery even easier.
Achievement made: Skill Creator (2)
You created 5 or more skills unknown to the archives and enriched the universe. Your skill learning got a moderate upgrade. Your skill identify got a minor upgrade. WIS +1
- Learning (3)
- Skills will be easier to learn and you will understand information better.
- Identify (2)
- The skill displays everything you know about your target. Even knowledge you forgot will be shown. The skill does not display false knowledge.
- You can upgrade the skill through quests.
Alyra couldn’t quite believe her eyes. “You had more than 6 days of time to create spells and now you created a party trick just to prove a point?”
Argul coughed embarrassed. “Well yeah, I thought I could be lazy and let people create or use the skills inside my domain and then have the knowledge to do it myself…”
She looked at him accusingly. “You just forgot mom!”
Argul had to try, never give up! “A manacrystel can have dreams!”
The avatar smirked and pointed at him. “Delusions not dreams.”
Mission failed, he deflated. “Rub it in a bit more will you?”
Alyra smiled brightly. “That’s what I’m here for.”
Argul really wanted to shake his head, but he would have to grow one first and that would take it a step too far for him. Fact is though he needed more slimes.
Argul watched the slimes for 8 days and one of them split, so he now had 4.
There was a lot more silver on the floor now then the gray of the ground. It was a good thing too, because the slimes had to eat now. The rest of the plants took longer to spread.
Argul watched for another 5 days.
In truth he took a nap, but he would never confess that to his hard working daughter.
Nothing much happened in these 5 days. He had 8 slimes now and one of them had developed some kind of friendship with the Negators.
With a refreshed mind Argul got to work on his mosquitos.
He hadn’t really slept, as he had still been able to perceive everything on his floor, but it was his version of sleeping and resting the mind.
Back to the mosquitos, they are going to be the size of a Negator and would prey on the slimes. Their poison was going to make the slimes really relaxed so that they won’t fight back.
As that should have been enough, he now really got to work.
Argul created 3 mostly mosquitos, their rear was split in two and a bit larger then he would have thought. They were colored in different shades of dull gray, oh and they flew silently.
Argul named and identified them.
Silent Mosquito
This is a small animal. This insect preys on slimes in low gravity regions. Silent mosquitos fly silently to hide themself from their prey, They have developed a special kind of poison, which is very relaxing for the slime and can be addicting when the slime is often exposed to the poison.
After ingesting the stomach fluids of the slime, they divide these fluids in the acidic and nutrius ones. The acidic fluids are stored extra and can be released when the mosquito is attacked to distract the offender.
They were a bit like a certain kind of demon was for humans. “The day I created mosquitos that drug slimes to suck them dry…”
Argul got distracted by notifications and left the mosquitos to themselves.
You finished floor 1. Your floor can continue to grow and you can decide placement and design for the way to the next floor.
Quest completed!
- Flooring away (1)
- You created your first floor. The future looks bright!
- Growing speed of your floors is doubled. Str +1, Wis +1
New quest:
- Flooring away (2)
- Requirements: Flooring away (1)
- Have 5 finished floors!
Please decide further floor growth!
Argul just wanted to let the floor grow like before.
Accepted
Please decide placement and design for the way to the next floor.
Now came the interesting part, because Argul wasn’t sure if it was possible to reposition the entrance to the second floor upon gaining strength.
He requested the entrance to always be randomly placed in the outer 10 kilometers of his floor. As for the design, a natural downwards sloping cave would do it for this floor and it should be big enough for multiple 3 meter tall humans to walk side by side.
Argul would likely change the settings later.
Request acceptable, design accepted, waiting for the floor to grow…
He wondered why he didn’t have to do all these things himself. “Hey Aly, how does the system manage all these things in my dungeon?”
She smiled at him. “The system takes some of your intelligence and wisdom to create something you could describe as AI that manages these things for you.”
She created a human shape with a wifi symbol above. “The AI is connected to you so you can update it should the need arrive.”
A crown appeared on his head and the shape began shaking random Erlmeyer flasks. “This design will help give you more time to do more important things such as discovering new knowledge. I made a similar system for kingdoms, other kinds of states and organizations, though they are a bit different and not really refined as I lack the knowledge to create something better for now.”
Argul was pretty impressed. “That's pretty smart you know? Just imagine being able to be king and still having time for your hobby! I still don’t want to be king. I would break under the responsibility.”
Alyra jumped happily. “Thanks mom! I noticed from the memories of your last life that people often got stuck with paperwork after succeeding and that they didn't have time for the things they really wanted to do anymore. I thought it was a flaw and mana can negate some of it so why not.”
Argul mentally knelt before her. “You are smarter than me, I surrender!”
She held her hand before her mouth and laughed haughtily.
Argul had to wait for another 5 day until his floor reached its current maximum size. It took another 2 day for the first Lunagrass to reach his cave system entrance.
You had to walk about 2km before the system ended, where Argul guessed his next floor would begin. The cave system was large enough for it to be comfortable to walk normally.
He checked his status before creating his second floor and leaving his first behind. May it grow in peace.