Success, Investigation

When Lan looked to the surface of his domain he witnessed a 50-meter-tall towering tree casting a shadow over the hill and the immediate surroundings.

Its roots enveloped and burrowed into the top of the hill, absorbing the mana, and preventing it from leaving the underground domain. At the same time, it seemed to emanate Life Mana, filling the very air all around with vitality.

'That's a big bloody tree...'

At first, Lan was confused as to how he even missed it, but then he remembered that he was basically cooped up like a mole deep underground.

'Still, it's not really detrimental in any way to have it there... On the contrary, less mana 'evaporates' from the underground thanks to it, so it's rather beneficial. And the mana it emits...'

Lan could constantly feel the vibrant Life Mana, which now replaced the previously bland neutral mana.

'This might be very, very beneficial.'

Compared to the brief feeling of Life Mana during the Monster's manatization process, or the weak feeling of it coursing through the Life-attuned Steelhorns' mana veins, it could be constantly felt, strongly and vividly.

Thanks to that, if he could remember that feeling and attune to it, he could attune to Life Mana, which was crucial in the 'Respawn' project.

'If you have a problem, the answer is always nearby... Thank you, miss...ter? I don't know, thanks my dude Big Tree.

After giving thanks to his benefactor(tree), Lan didn't dally and immediately began attuning to Life Mana, instead of merely trying to manipulate it, as it would be much too inefficient, as previously proven by Earth Mana when he was unattuned to it.

As always, he concentrated on the feeling of it, purging all other mana from his senses, which came quite easily after the previous times, perhaps owing to his newfound photographic memory.

Life Mana.

Green. Lush.

Vibrant, Nurturing.

Lifegiving.

A ripple of Life Mana resonated throughout the domain, a faint sound of swaying grass and singing birds could be seemingly heard all around. And, as if unlocking another type of vision, Lan once again saw it.

Green motes spread all around in the air, strings weaving inside the grass, intertwining with the trees.

He saw, he felt Life Mana.

'Ah... Never going to get tired of doing that.'

The feeling of 'unlocking' a new mana type was exhilarating as if opening a door to a brand new world of possibilities... When he hadn't even used much of the ones he already had.

As if doused with a cold shower, Lan came back to his senses.

'That's right, it's good that I feel it, but it's of no use if I leave it just like that. Off to work with it!'

Putting the newfound capabilities to the test, Lan started off slow, filling the Entrance Chamber with it.

Quickly the scattered, nigh omnipresent Life Mana gathered inside that 100x100 Chamber. The various plants and lichens grew ever bigger and longer, and previously unclaimed walls after the expansion began to gain a life of their own, joining the picture of greenery.

Overall, it seemed to have the enhanced effect of a standard neutral mana infusion, accelerating the growth of living things. It came with an added effect which well... Let's just say that the Entrance Chamber won't suffer from a lack of population anytime soon.

'...Well, that's one way to use it.'

But that wasn't the way Lan wanted to use it, no, he wanted to recreate a Mana Beast from scratch! To create a ready-made body to put the souls of the fallen beasts in, to respawn them!

Still, each soul had a corresponding body, if you put it in the wrong body, then, as a result of Lan's tests, it would lead to the destruction of the soul due to the inability to adapt. He often wondered why that didn't happen to him when his soul got trapped in a Core, but that wasn't something he could find an answer to yet.

So, Lan took a look at currently available, recently deceased souls hovering around him. Although Connected Creatures did 'listen' to Lan, they weren't pacifists, and as such, they often killed each other during various hunts.

One among those unfortunate creatures was a mole, who was killed and eaten during a fight for a female. His soul was hovering around the Core, not yet absorbed, leaving a possibility of resurrection.

Initiating the first experiment, Lan focused, on creating a mental image of the body of such a mole. Then, picking a spot in one of the empty burrows in the Second Chamber, he 'funneled' the Life Mana into such a shape.

Quickly, it began to converge, forming a glowing green image of a mole.

Then, it went further, becoming flesh and fur. Soon a 'mole' was lying on the ground. A perfect replica of an image in Lan's mind.

'Whew, mental mana is truly something... Hold on, wait a minute, something ain't right.'

A small problem became apparent when he examined the 'mole' further. It was a shell instead of a body. Quite literally, it only possessed the animals' outer appearance, being hollow on the inside, lacking all organs, bones, and whatever else there was supposed to be.

This issue didn't take Lan long to figure out.

'...I get it, I never saw a Mana Beast mole, nor did I witness a process of manatization of one. And without getting a 'blueprint', I can't 'build'.'

With vast amounts of mana at Lan's disposal, that wasn't much of a problem though.

Lan quickly found a Monster mole, or rather the better sounding 'Earthclaw', which was nearing the threshold of manatization. As it already possessed an innate Earth Affinity like the rest of its kind, it would (probably) not fail the Core Formation.

Plus, Lan would increase the mana concentration in its lair, just to speed up the process.

'Rejoice, for you have been chosen... to Ascend! To become a progenitor of your kind!'

Shouting various tacky things over the mental connection, Lan increased the neutral mana concentration to the maximum amount possible, even adding some earth mana to the mix.

The greatly confused Earthclaw almost immediately began the manatization, successfully forming a vibrant yellow Heart Core soon afterward.

During the whole process, Lan closely paid attention, paying attention to every little detail, to every movement of mana, which, after the Core Connection became surprisingly easy.

'Why would I even want a human brain? Cores for life!'

As a result, if you could project Lan's memories onto a wall, you'd get a super detailed video filmed from every angle of Earthclaw manatization.

Having obtained the 'blueprint', Lan began to 'build' once again.

Lan returned to the 'test burrow', disposing of the empty shell of an Earthclaw by dissipating it into mana, Lan began the experiment anew.

He focused his mental mana into an image, and then funneled the Life Mana into it once again.

Once again a glowing image was formed, the result being completely different this time.

The condensed mana formed a Earth Heart Core, and then... Dissipated.

This confused Lan for a second, but he discovered the problem once again.

'Ah, of course! At first i had the 'bottle' without the 'water', and now i have the 'water without the 'bottle'! Both must be present for things to work out nicely.'

In high spirits, the Soul Within the Core continued the experiment.

For the third time Life Mana poured into a shape given by Mental Mana, shell forming first, making a 'bottle' of skin and tissue made of mana, followed by the 'water' made of circulating Life Mana and a Heart Core.

This time, the result was...

'A success! Yeah! Call me Lan the Researcher from now on!'

A copy of an Earthclaw lay on the ground, mana circulating within, Heart Core sending out heartbeat-like pulses. However the eyes of the body were dim, lightless, lacking the spark of life.

Mentally holding his breath, Lan pulled the soul of an Earthclaw to the prepared body.

The soul went in without much resistance, like a pebble sinkining into the water.

Not long after, the pupils of the body... Moved.

The limbs of the body began to twitch, clenching and unclenching. Soon, the body, no, the Earthclaw stood up groggily, as if waking up from a deep sleep. The soul accepted the body.

Lan let out the breath he was holding, bursting out laughing, which sent reverberations in mana.

'Hahahahaha! It's alive! ALIVE!'

'You! Your name is Frankens-, no you're Frank from now on!'

----------------------------------------------------

Somewhere to the West

A team of 4 humans were trudging through the plains, walking towards their target, even though they didn't know where exactly it was.

They were dispatched on a 'Locate and Investigate' mission, but they had yet to complete the first part of it, as they have been walking for an entire day without any result to speak of.

A woman with short brown hair, equipped in leather armor a broadsword hanging on her back, was walking in the middle of the group. She sighed, with tiredness being audible in her voice.

"Hey boss, are you sure you didn't get on the higher ups' nerves lately?"

A man walking in the front, being more heavily armored, wearing armor of boiled leather further reinforced with steel plating, who also had a big shield and a heavy mace, replied.

"No, why the question Stacy?"

The short-haired woman called Stacy let out a snort.

"Well, if you didn't, then why were we sent out in the middle of nowhere out of the blue? If it really was a monster nest that they detected, then we would have found it long ago, not walking who knows where for the second day in a row! Ian, do you even feel anything?"

The man behind her who was lightly armoured, wearing slacks, and a knee-long jacket with a leather chestplate underneath, looking much less muscular, replied.

"What, you question your walking mana sensor that easily? Come on, I thought we were closer than that!"

Stacy merely scoffed. However, as if to further rebuke Stacy's claim, another person, this time a woman replied.

"If you don't trust your mage, than trust your tracker, that being me, Anna!"

"Why do you even constantly remind us of your name, its' not like we'd forget it..."

The slightly flustered woman, who wore camouflage clothing and leather boots with a crossbow on her back, who called herself Anna, ignored the question.

"Anyway... What I'm trying to say is that there are a lot of animal tracks going in that direction. It's unlikely for it to be a migration, as there are different species mixed in, it's as if they were lured by..."

Finishing her thoughts, Ian replied.

"By mana. I told you I can feel it. The flow from the east is intense, like a beacon. If we follow it, we will find something... Eventually. But Johann, if it could be felt way back from ol' Cypress..."

The mace-wielding leader of the group, Johann, finished the thought.

"It must've been powerful enought to be felt... We will have to be extra careful, we alone might not be enough."