Chrysalis

Around the scene of the battle I could see the oversized footprints pressed into the ground all over the place. It was clear that they approached from the direction we had pursued the commander, meaning they had come from the direction of the capital city, Liria. It was also clear that the creature who had come here had cleaned up all of the Biomass we had left behind. I'm not certain if Biomass could fade on the surface as it did within the Dungeon, I suspected not, which led me to believe that the creature who had come here had chewed all of it up before departing.

There was no doubt in my mind who these oversized Croc prints belonged to: Garralosh.

The mother Croc.

There were so many damned prints in the ground it wasn't easy to tell how many legs the creature had. Judging by the progression from Croca-Beast to Croca-Commander, I can expect that the number of limbs, tails and heads has only gone up. Images of bizarre formations of Croca parts run through my head. Four heads? Nine tails?! Twenty two arms?!

I shook myself to push the pictures from my mind. Ultimately, it didn't matter. The rare core had been lost in my carelessness and I couldn't get it back. Disappointment and guilt washed over me in that moment. If it had been for me, I doubt I would have cared this much. So stupid!

Only one way to fix it. Try and hunt down another Croca-Commander and present its core to Mother! Heck, I'll bring her the core of big momma Garralosh myself if I have to.

With a upwelling of determination, I decided to ignore the idea that I'd just pledged to defeat a Crocodile who's feet are larger than my whole body and turned back to meet up with my crew. I spent the journey once again huddled in the long grass, my minds grasping at the mana in the air.

Curiously, I found the mana replenished itself the further from the battle site I found myself. Why the heck was the ambient mana so thin in just that location? It seemed weird. There must be a reason.

The only significant event I could think of that had occurred in that place is that Garralosh, a very old, very powerful monster, had passed through the area. But what did that have to do with the mana in the air?

Wait.

Hang on a second.

needs mana, mana in the

dots here

my main mind, sending my awareness outside of my body in the strange way that was only possible here in this world, to sense the mana in the air. Like part of the atmosphere, the mana suffused everything, every

a vice of pure will, and drew it down toward me, toward my body and then inside, toward my core. To my shock, the mana was drawn straight into my core

Holy moly!

order to sustain my core whilst I'm up on the surface? Why the hell didn't I think of that before?! The core draws mana into itself passively, I guess I just didn't think of trying to supplement its automatic replenishment function by controlling the mana around me. Negligent! I've been negligent again! I should not have neglected the External Mana Manipulation

using this skill and a much higher level than I am in order to offset the demands of its core whilst moving on the surface, but I still feel it isn't enough to explain how such an evolved monster can move about up here. I'm only estimating here, and on only a tiny amount of data, but I feel like if I were to rank up the skill and devote my two sub brains to constantly pulling ambient mana into my core, I would still be short of breaking even by just a smidge. If Garralosh has risen the skill to rank four or five, and has a powerful mind

come at all? It just doesn't make

up a nice rate. The fact I didn't even have to use my main mind to do it was even better. As a rank one skill, it's still limited in the knowledge and skill that it grants. I'm excited to see

had dug I found Morrelia, Crinis and Tiny resting. All three of them looked up at my

I

set foot on the

using external mana manipulation to drag mana into her core. The

Morrelia nodded.