11 Improvements

Inside of Erik's core, there was mainly life energy, while other types were not nearly as much present. The sprout could still absorb life energy into its vessels, but it did not go into the core anymore, instead only improving its body. From that moment onwards, Erik had started to cultivate with every type of energy equally, since he was practically fully healed anyway, the wounds from the beetles' assault slowly disappearing.

After some days of cultivation, the core would not let anything enter anymore and actually began to move, to Erik's bewilderment. It started calmly spinning on itself, going faster and faster until Erik believed that it would rip him apart. He was not in pain, but he felt himself losing some parts of himself. Instead of suffering as a human would, he simply stopped sensing his damaged parts.

Since the core was not seemingly going to stop any moment soon, Erik did the only thing he could, pushing energy out. Sun, water, earth, and life energy, everything he had filled his body with was charging toward the outside, but the core didn't stop spinning, just losing some of its momentum. Erik was distressed, he didn't know how much time his body could hold on and to tell the truth, he didn't want to know.

He kept sending energy out, something which scared away Blaze, a name Erik gave the cat because of the feline's prowess with fire. It was simply sleeping serenely, but soon looked panicked and shocked as it ran away from the sprout, which was dangerously releasing potent sun energy along with others in the air.

Only after a few hours did the spinning sphere stopped, looking quite different compared to before, when every energy was separated inside the core, making it look like a crude but colorful 3D painting. Now, however, it was completely uniform, as if you had incorporated and mixed every ingredient from a recipe together.

[The system congratulate you on acquiring a real core! You have complete the hidden quest:

{Make a core}

Objective: Form a core inside your body.

Reward:

-One B.A. point

-{Forced Mutation} (0) (23h59min before forced)

Be well on your journey]

_"There is actually hidden quests? Oh, whatever, I'm not gonna get surprised every time something happens, it's great anyway. But what is a mutation, don't tell me it's negative?

[Mutation is the upgrade of one of your improvement with (0) level with total randomness. You can use it whenever you want before the countdown gets to (00h00min), but it will be forcefully installed after. Hope for luck!]

_"So it's forced, but it's not bad at all."_

Before doing anything, Erik wanted to check what was new within his core. He wanted to know his current ability, then choose what he would buy. However, the core was completely emptied, so Erik would have to wait for it to fill itself.

The cat that was scared away came back after some time, observing the terrain and assuring itself that everything was safe before going back to sleep, not caring about the energy remains, the feline was strong enough to live in them.

When Erik's core was filled, he experimented how this homogeneous sphere worked. What surprised him was how it was not attached to a certain position anymore, it could slowly move around inside his body.

Erik tried pushing out life energy for practice, not wanting to scare the cat away with sun energy. He could actually move his core right to the spot he wanted, then energy had close to no traveling to do after exiting it. This really made the extraction process faster, as long as he pushed out energy in a single spot.

Another discovery was how he could manipulate energy with much more ease. He actually went and tried to draw something with it. He was portraying the sleeping feline, tracing it right on the sprout outer coating, where he had applicated the outed life energy.

He was not doing anything complicated, Erik was merely trying out his control. That was also his usual healing process, covering himself in life energy, which could accelerate his healing procedure.

He felt he could do something more, that his newfound control was not so useless as to only enabling him to draw with it. He tried to accumulate energy in a single spot, forcing it to take less volume.

It made life energy turbulent, as if it revolted from the forced maneuver, but Erik was not someone who easily gave in, he quickly made it bend to his orders with his iron-will. Once he felt that it couldn't be condensed anymore, he simply placed it on his wounds.

_"This is much better than before!"_

This method regenerated his body greater than when he was just applying everything equally on himself, a great revelation to Erik. Everything he had learned from the experiments was that he could move his core and therefore energy faster, energy which could also be condensed to get stronger.

This was making him happy, his new core was better than he was hoping for. He continued cultivating while practicing energy manipulation, he was sure it would come handy some days. He also finally decided to finally buy some improvements.

_"Use forced mutation"_

There was no waiting, no suspense, he just got the result.

[You have gained {Evolution analysis} (1)]

_"Not the one I hoped for, but maybe it will bring in some good results. Buy body control."_

[You have gained {Body control} (1)]

_"Wait, no, don't!"_

But it was too late, intensive pain assaulted him. Not only did he forget about the improvement's pain session, he also forgot about pain itself. Being a plant, he never really suffered, only those transformations can remind him of the feeling of pain, it was actually because they were linked to the soul. Now he had to go through two of them at the same time, he was really not having a good time.

_"Not doing this ever again, definitely never buying two improvements."_

Erik had used {Forced Mutation} before his B.A. point because he tried getting {Body control} at random and choose something else he wanted after or even keeping his B.A. point for later. But life doesn't often do things your way, so Erik gained an improvement he was not clear about and then spent his lone B.A. point. He was not sure if {Body control} was the best thing to go with, but he believed it was the one boosting his survival capability.

Erik actually knew nothing about the forest he was in, he didn't know how strong beasts were in there. Imagine if the Blaze was an herbivore, he would be dead right now. The best strategy in life, when danger is ahead, is to sprint back full speed. Of course, he was a plant and couldn't even move until now, he had no hope of escaping his hunter for the moment, but he hoped one day he could either run or fight back properly.

Some would say that he should have wait to be able to move with energy itself, but Erik didn't know when the day he could do that feat would come. Imagine having to think about what exact movement you need to do and will for something to push your member in the good direction, that would be incredibly annoying and problematic, any complicated movements would be impossible to do.

Since his energy expenditure would also be astronomical, he had all the reasons to ignore this plan and went with the only viable option, {Body Control}. It's not like those other improvements could enhance his cultivation, so he really just went with survivability as the ultimate priority. Now the pain had passed, he would finally be able to move...