A few days after reaching his new resolution…
Ren sat on his bed, every muscle protesting after his night training with Lin. The mushrooms in his hair barely pulsed, exhausted from another day’s work in the mines.
Correct Maturation: 10/100
Incorrect Maturation: 82/1000
The amount of crystals he’d collected and his mana resistance had taught him something important.
No matter how much he trained or how hard he pushed himself, his limits were painfully clear.
He couldn’t venture beyond 200 meters to work, could only stay for a few hours, and accumulated 4 days of incorrect maturation… Plus, the monsters wouldn’t let him stay in one place for long.
Even 150 meters sometimes yielded better results.
At 250 meters it would be 8 points of incorrect cultivation, and he’d be dangerously close to the bronze ring’s mana levels… He wouldn’t even manage an hour of work there if he considered the time needed to climb up and down.
Or the time to avoid monsters.
Today he’d barely lasted two hours at 150 meters before excess mana forced him to retreat.
His cultivation was oversaturating him as well.
“But if I want to make more money…” he murmured while massaging his aching arms, “I need to go deeper.”
The mushrooms pulsed weakly, as if nodding.
It wasn’t just about knowing how to find good materials anymore, he needed to be able to reach them.
The iron ring and the -100-meter level, with their low mana concentration, were safe but limiting.
Even in just over a month, when they will have their next collection trip, he couldn’t achieve much more than before if he wasn’t able to endure…
The truly valuable materials were in deeper zones, in territories where higher-rank beasts dwelled.
‘Ten million crystals,’ he thought while remembering his promise. ‘I won’t get them by settling for what I have now.’
Ren knew that even at bronze rank his fungus wouldn’t have the power of a common beast.
Its capability was unique but its raw power and mana processing were far below a common beast.
If he wanted to give his parents a truly comfortable life, he needed access to rarer, more expensive materials.
But with his current level…
Ren stood up and took out the Mirror Mantis core. He had kept it thinking it might be useful eventually, but now that he was closer to being ready…
“A second beast,” he murmured while the mushrooms pulsed more intensely. “With the right process…”
He stopped, an idea forming as he remembered a story his father used to tell him before bed.
A tale about dragons and the origin of eggs.
♢♢♢♢
The world was divided by the abyss, a chasm so deep no one had seen its bottom.
Some said it reached to the planet’s heart. The abyss cut the world into four parts with its two perpendicular lines.
One line was the dead abyss and the other the living abyss.
Yano controlled one quarter of the world. Yino another quarter…
Or so they said.
Ren smiled at the idea. “Control” was a pretentious word when 90% of those two territories belonged to the dragons.
Humans barely occupied a circular area that monsters simply despised for its lack of mana.
The other half of the world, divided by the living abyss, no one had crossed.
The dragons won’t let you go there…
The mushrooms pulsed while knowledge showed him why.
Behind the territory of the dragons guarding the living chasm, the abyss wasn’t the dark and dry void that divided Yino and Yano…
It was a living river of pure mana, so concentrated it glowed with its own light. The few adventurers who had ventured that far and seen the chasm from afar swore eggs were born there, floating in that primordial flow.
“Like seeds in a current,” Ren murmured, remembering his father’s words. “Each egg absorbs mana from the nearest dragon’s territory, and that’s how it gets its color and potential.”
It was a beautiful story. Romantic even.
“It’s just a tale,” Ren reminded himself, smiling. “A pretty story about dragons and mana rivers.”
But his knowledge told him there was more to it… Though something didn’t add up.
If eggs only came from the abyss in dragon territory, how could the kingdom release hundreds to the market each year? How did they collect them? Who ventured that deep into dragon territory regularly?
Knowledge whispered a different answer.
Ren observed the mantis core again.
“They don’t need to go that far,” he murmured while the mushrooms pulsed with excitement. “Because the abyss isn’t the only source of pure mana.”
Knowledge flowed more clearly: mana veins ran throughout the world, like arteries carrying life. Most were small, barely detectable. But some…
“The ruins,” his eyes widened with understanding. “The ancients built over a point where a huge vein came close to the surface… Or so I believe.”
It was so obvious once you think about it. Why else would you build a city over ancient ruins? Why was there no mana in this part of the world?
Ren didn’t know the exact answer… But with his fungus’s information that didn’t quite fit, he could guess… There should be mana in this abyss too.
How had they achieved such a thing? Ren didn’t know, but he was certain.
He had no proof, but also no doubts.
After all, the best tales always hid some truth. And if he was right about the ruins…
But that wasn’t important now…
The mushrooms glowed while Ren followed the thread of thought.
‘It needs pure mana,’ he thought while studying the fractures in the core. ‘Like the kind that flows in the world’s natural veins.’
Knowledge unfolded in his mind: the core could revive if it absorbed enough pure mana. One hundred thousand units exactly.
With that, and using a secret technique the mushrooms whispered to him, he could recover the mantis’s complete evolutionary line.
His eyes shone with new determination. An extra beast… Eventually a bronze beast.
It would mean being able to venture deeper into dangerous territory, collect more valuable materials, and work for longer periods without succumbing to mana excess.
“But first…” he studied the core carefully, “I need to feed it.”
Injecting his own mana was out of the question, it would be a waste considering his current limitations. But the mines…
The mushrooms pulsed while Ren began calculating. At his current mine level, the core would absorb 4 units daily. At that rate, it would take decades.
But if he could find a small mana vein deeper down… One his knowledge told him exactly where to find…
His eyes narrowed as he did the calculations.
“Ten days,” he whispered, the plan taking shape in his mind. “I just need to find a way to get it down there without dying.”
Ren stood and began organizing his materials. If he was going to do this, he would need a perfect plan.