9 Discovering

Erik did not only use Sun energy because it was an effective way to kill but also because it gave out a very unpleasant sensation to anything that sensed it. If there were insects, apart from the beetles, that wanted to take him as prey, they would probably have ran away by now. It was not a definite solution, but it may let him some time to recuperate from the battle.

As the pain from the transformation finally stopped, Erik could already feel the changes in what he could sense. Before, he could only feel how much life energy he produced himself, and in which direction there was the most of it, along with being able to differentiate a bit between some of the plants around him.

Even though other plants would also take in life energy, they never had access to {Greater perception}, his first improvement, and they didn't improve their vessels with earth, water or sun energy to be able to take more of it. Therefore, he was really the fastest to possess so much life energy.

Now, it would only be better, as he could feel so much more than before. Forming a sphere with his body as the central point, Erik could feel everything which produced life energy approximately in a seven meters radius.

He could differentiate between lifeforms, knowing their locations and a bit of information about them. For example, three meters from him, there was a plant at the border of a small river, he could know that is was long and thin, with a lot of leaves, healthily living, looking like it was leading a very calm life.

Some were affected by insects or animals munching on them, but none had to suffer from the same fate as him, attacked by an enormous beetles group and knowing that more would come for their life, Erik was a bit jealous. Well, some had it worse than him, as he wiped out every plant right around him, but that was the least of Erik concerns.

_"Don't pity the dead, pity the livings"_

His choice of {Exceptional life energy awareness} brought him a lot of benefits but it was still a gamble, since he would take in even more life energy, making him a better meal. He went with this plan because he figured out that he was still one of the only rare plant having so much life energy, it would not really help even if he didn't take more of it.

It's not like every other animal would stop wanting to consume him for some reasons if he stopped, he was still very precious right now if compared to the vegetation around him. Since he would grow anyway, he saw no problems with doing it faster and as having more life energy inside his core would also boost his body, he had no regret.

While cultivating, he was observing plants around him, trying to understand more about this mystical power and simply to see if it gave him any good information. It was quite relaxing too, seeing the gentle flow of life moving around him. However, after some times, he started to feel movings stuff getting near his position. Before, he didn't know when there was an insect or an animal because he didn't really notice when life energy was moving. Now, he could clearly know where they would be.

_"If my attack didn't scare them enough, I'll kill all of them, if they dare to take me on_"

He began to channel sun energy from his core, which had the time to go from 10% full up to 80%.

In his last fight, he had practically emptied it to make a sure kill. With 80%, as long as it was normal insects, he would be able to kill them without any problem. Suddenly, an assault began, coming from under him.

The system didn't give him any notice, since it didn't see past an obstacle, but Erik felt them coming to him by sensing their life energy. He managed to understand that they were all bigger than the earlier beetles, but there was nowhere near the same amount of them.

Without his earlier improvement, he could never have done that, his new ability made him really happy, it would be way more convenient than to rely on the system, who only possessed limited skill.

He actually didn't exactly know what they were, but he didn't really care, Erik simply had to kill them all. When they got near him, he was able to push sun energy out before any of the insects could do so much as a scratch on his body.

Like last time, everything near him was highly burned in a fraction of a second, aggravating the status of the beetles' corpses which remained there. The thick carapace of his new opponents didn't protect them at all from the sun energy, killing all of them. He had only used around 60% of his core capacity this time, since 90% like in the last battle was really overkill.

What surprised Erik was that he didn't receive a quest, so he had no possibility to gain any B.A. points. When he asked the system, it only answered that how the quests were given was confidential.

[Altought the system can't tell you this, the system can present you another goal you can give yourself. Here is something the system wanted to show you only when you reached it's first level, but it seems you need some more motivation.

{soul contribution process}

Soul energy level:

{3/10} (0)

Basic information: When the system sees you kill a being possessing a soul, it will transfer it into soul energy, allowing you to gain B.A. points and a strengthened soul every level.]

Erik didn't know how to feel with that, it seemed the system was hiding of a lot of things from him, but at least he had another way to gain B.A. points, apart from the unreliable quests. Without any other question, Erik returned to his routine, cultivating every type of energy, even the moon one, still highly privileging life energy. He was starting to have a lot more of it than other types of energy inside the core, it definitely helped him recuperates from the beetles' attacks.

After that, he got attacked by some other insect groups, but Erik was always able to counter them before they damaged him too much. This was an excellent way to live for him, but he was finally discovered by a tricky opponent, an imposing giant beast.