Looking at the dozen cores,Marg held one in his tiny palm and concentrated on it.
[Inspect]
Item: Core
Rank: Common
Compatible core,used to increase ones mana pool or to reconstitute the creature it came from,can be combined to form a high rank core.
Marg concentrated on absorbing the tiny core...
[Core absorption initiliazed...]
The moment that the system chimed in his mind,Marg found himself rolling on the dirt floor of his dugout hideout, clutching at the lower end of his chest,all in severe pain.
It felt as if he had been pierced through with a burning wooden spike,full of shards of glasses, a million nails and coated with sizzling acid.
The pain ended as fast as it struck,living a sweating , twitching Marg grasping for breath, still clutching at his chest,lying on the dirt floor.
[Congratulations,you have formed your core...]
[Congratulations on unlocking a mana pool..]
[You have learnt, Mana Manipulation...]
[Mana Manipulation: Helps detect,manipulate,shape and utilize the mana around you.Consecutive use increases the skill's level...]
"Finally..."
Marg sat up before flexing his muscles for a minute,and pulling up his status panel...
Name:Marg
Race: Goblin (Brood)
Level:5/5
Mana:10%
Might:2
Toughness:1
Cunning:30
Racial Skill:Craft Mastery +3
Battle Skills: Siren Screech,Death Claw, Love Bite, Archery +3
Mana Skills: Mana Manipulation
Scouting Skills: Scouting, Superior Trap
Crafting Skills: Inspect,Excavate
Skill Points:0
Biomass:2,523
"Nice.."
"Also why is the mana pool in percentage instead of digits?"
Marg gave up pondering on it as he quickly tried to detect the mana in his surroundings.
Extending his sences outside,he could grasp several weak wisp of what felt thick and slippery, just like a slugs slime,but lighter,potent and obviously transparent.
After playing around for a couple of minutes,as to familiarize himself with the concept of mana and Mana Manipulation,he picked up a second core and tried to fill the mana within it.
Compared to the surrounding mana,the mana in the core was thickly packed. It felt like dough but one in constant clockwise flow.
Marg took his time detecting the mana in the remaining eleven cores,at his eighth core, the system chimed in his mind...
[Congratulations,Mana Manipulation has upgraded to +1....]
[Mana Manipulation +1: Helps detect,manipulate,shape and utilize the mana around you.Can compact and manifest mana in simpler constructs.Consecutive use increases the skill's level,range and unlocks further skills...]
"Huh!"
"So now I can attack with mana,not bad..."
Marg thought as he filtered through the remaining cores, separing them into three groups,those with weak amount of mana,those with moderate amount of mana and thirdly,a single core with the highest amount of mana among his collection.
Afterwards,he started absorbing the mana in the weaker cores...
[Core absorption initiliazed...]
Four and a half cores later,his mana pool hit a hundred percent.
He wanted to test out the upgraded Mana Manipulation but chose not to,as he decided to test out option three, combination of cores to form a core of higher rank.
Picking up two of the cores with moderate concentration of mana,he concentrated on them...
[Core combination initiliazed...]
[Core rank identified, Common Rank,five Common Rank cores needed to form a Special Rank core...]
"Damn system..."
"Want to squeeze me of my hard earned cores..."
Marg cursed as he picked up three more of the moderate cores.
A dull white light engulfed the five cores for a minute before distinguishing, leaving behind a single core,a little bit bigger,shinner and sturdy than the previous cores.
Marg inspected it as he left his hideout to go check on his pitfalls, which he knew had enough prey to fill him up with at least two hundred more points of biomass,as the painful growls of unfortunate creature never seized.
In the connecting tunnels,he stocked up on the carcases that he couldn't eat at the moment,since he was already full,as well as changed on the wooden spikes in the pits.
He did not bother covering the top of the pits as there were still creatures lacking about.
Marg had already deduced that these creatures lacked intelligence or rather their cunning stats was in the lowered one digits.
If it had been him in their situation,he would have just broken through another section of the wooden fence,a fence that I had reinforced by piling heaps of soil, excavated from the connecting tunnels and pitfalls.
I had cut down all the thorny thickets within the settlement and piled them on those sections I deemed still weak and easy to breach through.
Also the lack of intelligence on these creatures was evident during my night hunts,or rather night lures.
At times, I would head to one of the pitfalls at night and activate my Siren Screech, luring them into the gaping pits.
After he was done cleaning the pits,Marg decided to head back into his hideout,where he absorbed the special core...
[Inspect]
Item: Core
Rank: Special
Compatible core,used to increase ones mana pool or to reconstitute the creature it came from,can be combined to form a high rank core.
"Let's do this..."
[Forceful Core absorption initiliazed...]
"Aaaarrrrgh!"
Marg screamnt in pain as the wisped of mana sipped into his core,it felt as if his chest was being dug out,healed and dug out again,for a million and one times.
If he had sweated a pool full during his first absorbing,now he was sweating an ocean full.
He wanted to scratch at his chest and dig out the core,but his mind held off the idea,since he would only be physically applying damage on himself.
Ten minutes later,an exhausted one foot long goblin brood finally regained conscious.
He had fainted immediately after he had emptied the core.
The first thing he did was detect the mana around him as he rubbed on his still itching chest.
"At first,it ain't notable but still it's better than before..."
Marg thought as he detected the tiniest change in the Mana Manipulation Skill,he could now detect mana a little bit faster than before,and at also at a further range.
"Well, it's better than none..."
He sighed as he accessed his status panel,only to find that nothing had changed with his mana pool,but rather his core.
The mana in it felt more concentrated and potent than before.