Chapter 8: Infusion, Evolution
With the success of the experiment, Lan began claiming every animal as part of his domain. Whether it be a rodent, insect, or plant, he infused his neutral mana into each and every one of them. However that constantly required cycling new neutral mana, as each infusion took an amount depending on the creature infused.
With each creature claimed, Lan's awareness of his domain became more thorough, more... Complete. He now knew where each creature was even without exclusively focusing and searching for them. That also allowed Lan to know whether any new creatures entered his domain, as they would not be marked.
It took quite a while to find each one though. When he could no longer find an unclaimed creature visually, he began tracking them by their mental strands.
It took Lan the rest of the day to finish claiming all of them.
When moonlight once again covered the ground, the herd was once again bunched up in the center of the clearing, and the rest of the critters were in their own burrows.
With the surface dwellers mostly still, the others who were still moving were all the more conspicuous to Lan. The underground dwellers are the most noticeable of the bunch.
Through his mental connection, he felt the movement of large earthworms, and moles moving beneath the surface, tunneling along, each having their own purpose.
Observing these creatures once again reminded Lan of his 'creature habitat creation' plan. So, he got on with it. Tugging at the threads of earth mana below the surface, he, just like the moles, started carving out stable tunnels. Slow at first, but after getting the hang of it, the digging went along smoothly.
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By the time the night came to an end, Lan had already made a small network of tunnels, consisting of small chambers, just enough for a mole or two to live in, all of them connected by tunnels.
And, his effort paid off. One of the moles, having received a suggestion from the Core to dig towards this network, has just dug through a wall of one of the chambers, peeking its nose out cautiously, and then crawling in, starting to settle.
Another thing caught Lan's attention while he was observing that mole. When it was digging, earth mana subtly moved around its claws, helping it dig faster. That surprised Lan yet again, prompting him to once again begin mana research.
'Hmm, does that mean that some animals may be able to manipulate mana? Kind of logical to be honest. But what influences it remains to be seen. Speaking of mana and animals, my neutral mana was able to help heal the wounded deer, and then the whole claiming thing came about. But what will happen if I continue infusing mana into them?'
Lan quickly returned his attention back to the surface. The deer were still there as always, doing things that deer do.
Still, Lan quickly pulled on the cycled neutral mana floating in the air, as well as some from underground. It quickly converged on the deer herd and things surrounding it.
Soon after, a series of rapid changes happened to that area.
At first, grass began to grow rapidly. Flowers that were still closed and yet to bloom immediately opened their petals, showing themselves to the world.
And then, the thing that Lan liked very much, happened.
It began with the smallest doe. The flow of mana in her mana veins accelerated, rapidly infusing energy in her muscles and bones. Then, they began rapidly expanding, compressing, and expanding again. While the doe was distressed by the sudden changes, seemingly in pain, her size rapidly increased from a humble 2 meters in height to 3 and a half, not being inferior to some of the males, her antlers gaining a metallic sheen, looking as if they could pierce through anything.
But, this change happened to every single member of the herd. While small females became bigger, the males also rapidly gained strength, increasing in height to 5 meters on average, the same as their leader, but that wasn't the full extent of their changes.
Except for an increase in height, their antlers became fully metallic, shining under the sun, and their hooves weren't left behind either, now looking as if each one was a bone-crushing hammer.
The leader, however, had the most drastic change, gaining all the traits other males did, increasing to 6 meters, but his two pairs of antlers changed in shape, each gaining an additional offshoot, which then intertwined between themselves. After that, various patterns emerged on them, reflecting mana veins beneath.
And, finally sparks of electricity began running through those patterns, coursing and converging on the antler's intertwined tip.
'Now that's awesome... Should I call him a lightning horn now? It would be hella cool if he can shoot lightning now, which he probably can.'
Then, Lan turned his attention to the male deer, who had their horns become metallic.
'And as for them, doesn't Steelhorn sound about right? I mean, technically they still have antlers, but they are more streamlined now rather than branched out, plus steel antler just doesn't have the same kick.'
'As for the females... Well, while they still don't have metallic horns, they are kind of big. So why not Greater Deer?'
What also attracted Lan's attention, was that the mental mana output of the herd increased along with their evolution, most noticeable with the Lightning Horn, which had it nearly doubled. Observing his mind, the thoughts of the Lightning Horn became more complex, and it could now be seen planning solutions for its needs ahead of time.
The Core continued observing the changes, observing the ground under and around the deer.
There, not only did the plants increase in size, but the whole patch of land was almost radiating vitality. Various insects also grew bigger, insect eggs underground hatched, and a passing earthworm below also received a share of mana, gaining a set of circular teeth. Wonderful.
While this experience drastically reduced the ambient cycled mana, reducing domain range, it gave Lan valuable knowledge.
'In conclusion, under the influence of dense or concentrated mana, plants and animals alike are capable of... Evolving, for lack of a better word, which also increases the intelligence of a creature. Mana can also speed up hatching processes, probably periods of gestation as well. I guess you could call it all-purpose super fertilizer. As for whether there are upper limits to the evolution, that remains to be seen.'
When the whole process ended, Lan started to infuse mana once again, having already replenished it to full.
However, this attempt was to be met with disappointment, as he couldn't concentrate neutral mana any further than he already had, as it dispersed in other areas, bringing evolution and growth.
'While it is nice seeing everything become better and stronger, that's not exactly what I wanted...
Having no further success on the surface, Lan began infusing his underground tunnel network.
There the moles rapidly grew, growing to one and a half meters long, their claws lengthening, gaining 'mana patterns', as Lan now termed them, the flow of earth mana around them becoming apparent.
As for the earthworms, they didn't become any prettier, but they did become longer, at around a meter in length, gaining circles of teeth, slightly beginning to resemble giant alien worm monsters in certain movies. Surprisingly, earth mana also began to flow around them, not to the extent of mole's claws, but it was there.
'Alright then, fascinatingly enough, some creatures are more 'innately attuned' to elements. Moles and earthworms spend most of their lives underground, so it should come as no surprise that they have earth affinity.'
However, the mana density continued increasing in the tunnels, moss began growing on walls, small mushrooms started popping out of nowhere, and while moles were busily enlargening their dwellings, they received a further boost, amplifying their earth affinity, not much, but a boost.
Overall, the limit of the concentration of mana was denser than that on the surface, and it was further amplified in enclosed chambers with only one exit.
That gave Lan some interesting information.
'Basically, the deeper, the more mana there is, that I already knew. But, enclosed environments can contain more mana, without it dispersing as much, facilitating further evolution of flora and fauna. In theory, if I were to create tunnels on the same depths as my core, they would be able to have multiple times the mana density, and as a consequence, stronger and more intelligent creatures. And that means more mental mana, which means more growth for me.'
But all the thoughts about mental mana reminded the Core of something crucial.
'I think I have plenty of mental mana now, right? Especially after the evolution. I guess I can increase my Core size significantly. Well, no need to wait, let's get on with it.
The abundance of mental mana allowed the growth to be especially quick compared to before.
From 32 centimeters...
To 35...
To 40...
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Finally, Lan managed to increase his Core size to 50 cm before the recovery speed couldn't keep up with the demand.
After once again expanding his domain, he could see in a radius of 500 m.
And what Lan saw on the surface half-worried and half-excited him.
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