Antelligent Design

61. Return to the Others, the Plan

All over the scene of the battle are oversized footprints pressed into the ground. It’s clear they approached from the direction we pursued the commander, meaning they’d come from the direction of the capital city, Liria. It’s also clear that the creature cleaned up all of the Biomass we left behind. I’m not certain if Biomass fades on the surface as it does within the Dungeon, I suspect not, which leads me to believe the creature chewed all of it up before departing.

There’s no doubt in my mind who these oversized croc prints belong to: Garralosh.

The mother croc.

There are so many damned prints, it isn’t easy to tell how many legs the creature has. Judging by the progression from croca-beast to croca-commander, I can expect 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 shake myself to push the pictures from my mind. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. The rare core has been lost in my carelessness and I can’t get it back. Disappointment and guilt wash over me. If it’d 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 an upwelling of determination, I decide to ignore the idea that I just pledged to defeat a crocodile whose feet are larger than my whole body, and turn to meet up with my crew. I spend the journey huddled in the long grass, my minds grasping at the Mana in the air.

Curiously, I find the Mana has replenished itself the farther from the battle site I get. Why the heck was the ambient Mana so thin in just that location? It seems weird. There must be a reason.

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

Wait.

Hang on a second.

Big ol’ monster, highly evolved, powerful core, on the surface, needs Mana, Mana in the air is lacking after it passed through…

There are some dots here I feel I’m connecting…

Stopping in place, I hesitantly stretched out with my main mind, sending my awareness outside of my body in the strange way that’s only possible here in this world, to sense the Mana in the air. Like part of the atmosphere, the Mana suffuses everything. Every blade of grass, every leaf and the air itself. Not nearly to the level it exists within the Dungeon itself, but still, it’s there.

I grab hold of a small portion of Mana with my thoughts, gripping it tight in a vice of pure will, and draw it toward my body and then inside to my core. To my shock, the Mana is drawn straight into my core like a drop of water being soaked into a sponge.

Holy moly!

This means I can draw Mana out of the air in 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 Skill for so long. What other precious secrets does it hold?

It’s obvious now that Garralosh is using this Skill at a much higher level than I am in order to offset the demands of its core whilst moving on the surface. Though it isn’t enough to explain how such an evolved monster can move about up here. I’m only estimating with a tiny amount of data, but I feel like if I were to rank up the Skill and devote my 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 rig, she would still be running at a massive loss.

Perhaps she can only maintain herself for short bursts. Then why come at all? It just doesn’t make sense to me. I may need to grill Morrelia further when I make it back to them.

External Mana Manipulation has made it to Level four by the time I reunite with the gang. The constant use is certainly keeping the Skill ticking up at a nice rate. The fact I don’t even have to use my main mind to do it is even better. As a rank one Skill, it’s still limited in the knowledge and Skill that it grants. I’m excited to see what it will give at the second and third rank.

When I return to the improvised Dungeon we’d dug, Morrelia, Crinis and Tiny are resting. All three of them look up at my descent, my pets happy to see me, Morrelia more irritated than anything by the looks of things.

After connecting the Mind Bridge, I tell Morrelia what I found.

[Garralosh has actually set foot on the surface,] she frowns.

[I believe she’s using External Mana Manipulation to drag Mana into her core. The air in the area was extremely thin when I got there.]

[It’s a known tactic. Even humans use this method to recharge magic items faster.]

[That alone shouldn’t be enough, surely?] I waggle my antennae in protest. [A monster that size must have a potent core. If a few Skills were enough for monsters to operate on the surface, wouldn’t it happen all the time? I understand it’s basically unheard of for Dungeon monsters to run around on the surface!]

[It’s true,] Morrelia sighs. [The problem is the wave we’re experiencing. For some reason, it’s caused the density of the ambient Mana on the surface to rise. That isn’t meant to happen, at least not by nearly this much, and not for nearly this long. That can cause the normal monsters to come to the surface, but it shouldn’t be enough for a creature like Garralosh. There’s something strange happening and I can’t explain it.]

She appears frustrated by her lack of understanding. Ever since we had come to the former Kingdom of Liria, Morrelia contained a simmering anger inside her. Well, more simmering anger than usual. I have to remind myself every now and again this is her homeland we’re stomping around in.

[So, what’s the plan?] I ask. [I’m here for reconnaissance and I would love to get a chance at grabbing another rare core, so I’m going to stick around. What about you?]

Morrelia drops her chin to her chest in thought.

[I’ll stay,] she declares. [I want to get to the capital and see it for myself. I also want to find out just how a monster like Garralosh is moving around on the surface. There must be more there that we can learn.]

[Alright, give me a little while to get ready and then we can go.]

Time to spend some Biomass.