[Occasional Trivia function created]
[Sanctuary leviathan's are one of the largest life forms in the ocean, they are generally indistinguishable from normal islands, though, one glaring fact is that they constantly emit frightening amounts of mana, deterring any predators from even approaching it.]
[The smallest are two kilometers in diameter and the largest recorded size was thirty five kilometers in diameter.]
......
'With all that being said, I really should get going.'
'Hmmm, right now the Corone flock is eating sea weeds, it's quite miraculous for a bird species to even be able to dive that deep and not suffocate for more than an hour.'
'Maybe these birds are fishes in disguise! Nah, they aren't actually descendants of fishes.'
While looking at the flock eating, I kept thinking of my next moves, question is.
'How do I even find land? Maybe the flock knows about it? I'll ask them after they are out of the water.'
My gaze kept falling on the sea weeds, like my subconscious mind is telling me that I am forgetting something.
'Isn't it ridiculous? What I'm feeling right now is similar to when I want to say a certain word, but just can't say it, like it's at the tip of my tongue. Of course, I've never had that problem, at least not for long.'
'Hmmm, sea weeds, sea weeds, sea weeds, what an enigma you are, come and tell me what you are.'
A couple more seconds pass by with my gaze fixated on the sea weeds, trying to ascertain what I was not remembering.
'OH! So it was that, sometimes sea weeds can be an indicator of nearby land, it's a slim chance, but a chance I'll take nonetheless.'
For a minute, I celebrated, my long awaited search for land is finally getting closer to its finale.
'It seems that my prayers have been answered, finally, I have a clue as to where I'm supposed to go.'
'All I really need is to decide on which direction I'm going to travel on first.'
'Whatever, let's just put a tracker over here first so I don't get lost.'
[Tracker charges remaining: 2/5]
An Icon with the shape of an anchor appeared on my map.
'Seems like the flock will be eating themselves to sleep at this rate, I can travel for quite a while if that's the case.'
Without further ado, I immediately took flight towards a certain direction.
....
After flying for a 2 minutes and discovering no land in sight, Alto returned to where he put his tracker charge on.
Seeing that the flock was still there, with some circling the skies overhead, Alto decided to keep going on another direction, hoping for a continent to appear.
10 minutes later
'My hopes have been extinguished, there is no land in this world, this is the worst. The only ones I saw were the Sanctuary leviathans living islands.'
I sulkily thought as I watched the flock circle the skies around me, or more specifically, circling just above my head.
The same old daring Corone was perched on my shoulder once more, finding it comfortable to rest upon.
Sometimes communicating with some of its fellow birds, even engaging in playful bickering and fighting.
'Well, at least I'm not alone in this endless sea, let's hope I'm not old by the time I find any types of landmass, of course, I'd have to exclude the sanctuary leviathans as they aren't proper landmasses.'
While they were busy frolicking around, I gently patted the Corone's head, the one perched upon my shoulder.
Since it was inconvenient to keep calling it Corone, I now call it "Kuroni".
'I know, very creative of me, in fact, I know I am a genius.'
After having a laugh from such thoughts, I quickly regather my composure and keep a straight face.
"So, Kuroni, what am I gonna do today?"
*Caw* *Caw* *Caw*
"Hmmm, will that even work?"
*Caw* *Caw* *Caw*
"I guess so, it's not like I have any other options I can currently think of."
*Caw* *Caw* *Caw*
"How dare you! I'm not dumb! You should look at yourself, you're the one who is dumb!"
...
Alto engaged in a heated bickering with Kuroni, they got so loud that the flock was just staring at them, visibly annoyed at our overly loud arguing.
Slowly, we cooled off on each other, giving the flock a breath of relief.
Everything resumed back to their normal operations, flying for a couple of hours before landing on a random living island.
....
I sighed, feeling mentally tired from looking at the same scenery for the last few hours.
'These flying sessions really do bore me out, the only one I can comfortably talk to is Kuroni.'
'Come to think of it, what is Kuroni's gender? Never really asked 'em, eh, I'll just ask later, it's not important right now.'
Throwing that thought to the back of my mind, I laid on the canopy of a tree, finding it oddly comfortable.
Making me wonder as to why I find it to be so.
'Maybe I'm just feeling really listless as of today. Can't disregard such a possibility after all.'
'Perhaps I should familiarize myself with mana? After all, the birds are currently dozing off on the nearby tree canopies, so nothing will distract me.'
While thinking so, I looked at the dozens of trees around me and gazed at each individual Corone's.
Mentally counting all of them, I nod to myself, reassured that no one was missing.
'Alright, how did I do it again? It's been a few days since then.'
'Oh right, I just think of pulling the mana particles towards me and that's it.'
I check my nearby surrounds once more, using the view of my storm body to sense any nearby creatures.
'Nothing in sight nor within the range of my storm body, good.'
I began to think of pulling mana towards me.
Numerous streams of visible mana started to gather around me. I raised my eyebrows.
'Hmmm, it wasn't this much when I did it last time, what could have affected it?'
'But you know what? That is for future me to figure out and present me to utilize it.'
I put all my attention on attracting the mana towards me, ignoring the immediate surroundings.
Slowly, the mana seeped through my skin and went towards my heart, where there was an illusory ball of condensed mana.
Saying that it was just condensed was an understatement, in comparison, if we equate this to a metal, it would be hundreds of times denser than tungsten.
If I turn this all into mana particles, it would probably number in the hundreds of thousands. And definitely beyond one hundred thousand.
'Does that mean I excel in terms of mana quantity and density?'
'I mean, I don't really have anyone to compare to right?'
'If I compare myself to the Corone's, it would take nearly a hundred thousand of them to compare to me.'
'So, I guess that's a standard then? Hehe, I am one hundred thousand Corone's'
Plastered on my face was a very smug smile, definitely enough to annoy someone.
As my partial mind was busy with being smug, most of my attention was still on gathering mana and fusing it with my mana core.
'I wonder if I'm doing this mana thingy correctly, hmm, maybe I shouldn't go too far with this, time is what I have plenty of.'
.....
Alto's mana gathering session only lasted for an hour before he stopped.
Thinking that if he messed up at the early stages, it would implicate his own future.
What he didn't notice was, below the roots of the tree he was laying on, an unknown thing with the shape of a finger was glowing.
Flickering with pink lights, letting out lights in a certain interval, getting faster and faster, similar to a heartbeat.