Mana Core

Getting off the corpse of the Deer-bird, Finn sprawled on a spot that didn't have much blood or mushroom juice.

Feeling a wave of exhaustion and the pent-up fear dawn on him, Finn breathing became heavy and louder. 'Ah… That was scary…'

The crown of the tree blocked the light, but he could feel the presence of the moon. He gazed upward, random thoughts crossing his mind as he calmed himself down.

Finn finally acknowledged he was in another world and living here may even be harder than the last. He wasn't even human anymore, that alone was a huge change for him. 

He didn't really get damaged in this fight, but it was still a scary one. If not for having higher intelligence and the adaptability humans were so praised for, he would have died. 

'Still, these monsters shouldn't be underestimated.'

The plans he made were something he devised all of a sudden. He now knew to be careful.

With a sigh, Finn added, 'But I still need to gain battle experiences or I'll remain weak. There are more ways to use Mana than just activating skills, I'll need to work on that.'

The luminescence insects of the forest began gathering in this area, with most perching on the corpses. Their appearance brought Finn out of his thoughts, and led him to ask a question.

'How will the surrounding monsters react to this? Will they stay away from a region that has a new 'ruler', being chased by the sights of the corpses of the strong or they'll gather to eat this corpse?'

Finn wouldn't wait to confirm his question, he'd be leaving this area after a bit. He was more interested in exploration than camping around.

Glancing at the corpses, Finn could see a trail of mana naturally entering his body. He was accustomed to passively using Mana Sense now. 

This inherent ability of the White Fenrir along with the others he got proved their efficiency in this battle.

Another thing Finn noticed was that he could also use the Mana that's within the core of the Fenrir.

This increased the amount of Mana Finn could use, hence why he was able to use that quality and quantity of his skills.

This also played a part in his current stamina deprived state.

Before the Deer-bird engaged with the Walker Crabs, he had exhausted the Mana within the Fenrir's core and by the end, he had used part of his own core's Mana.

The trail of Mana from the corpses that entered Finn's body replenished his own core energy, making him sigh in satisfaction.

Seeing he could gather Mana from the corpses, Finn tried increasing the speed at which it entered his body.

He guessed it wasn't easy, but his motivation to do this was that the body that was hosting him, a White Fenrir, according to the status description, had a higher affinity to Mana compared to other creatures!

Finn sat like a wolf would, trying to enter a concentrative state.

Without needing to use his Mana to boost the default effects of Mana Sense, he felt the effects of the skill increase.

He felt the weak link between the corpse's core mana and his core's mana. Concentrating more, he could feel a weaker link between the atmosphere's mana and his own.

This was how a being in this world passively replenished their energy.

Seated in the aftermath of a territorial fight, silence lingered, insects' wings sounded slightly, disrupting the silence.

In his concentrative state, where he was trying to actively replenish his mana, Finn was enlightened.

'This… It's also increasing the capacity of how much my core can store! When it's passive, I can barely sense it, but now that I'm actively doing it, I see it!'

As a bubble of happiness swelled upon the new found opportunity, a needle of further enlightenment popped that bubble.

Feeling the capacity of his core increase, Finn could tell…

'Shit. My core capacity limit isn't large.'

His core could grow in size, but the Fenrir's core couldn't any more. Yet, Finn felt like he could only surpass this young Fenrir's core by a little margin when he reached his core limit.

'No no no no. Right when I began to see a future for myself! I can't even increase Mr Fenrir's core capacity! At this rate, I'll hit a limit.'

It's time like this Finn would look up and think about his life, 'I'm beginning to know the worth of the [Release] skill. Tsk, I wonder if all ghosts have small cores. A young wolf's core size is not so different from our limit!'

'I need a way to increase my capacity limit, there has to be a way. Or I'll just have to find how to get that [Release] skill and get a new host with a good core capacity! The plans I have will need a bigger core!'

With a long sigh, Finn added, 'What damn uniqueness is limiting me! Tsk, at times like this, I just want to have a drink and go sightseeing… Ahhh, now I wonder if I'll find a place with civilization here…'

After wallowing more in the painful enlightenment, Finn finished gathering the Mana of the dead creatures, replenishing some of his energy.

He estimated he took about 2 hours to complete the process.

In that time more luminescent insects appeared, they were perching the corpses and eating them. During the process, Finn could also see as they passively gathered mana into their small body.

'I wonder if killing them would bring me more Mana for cultivating my core.'

But that was just a thought, he could detect Monsters gathering around this region. 

With their strength, he guessed that some hoped to eat the corpse like the insects were doing, while others wanted to fight for this territory. In fact, areas not so far from here, some had already fought.

Upon seeing that, he had already begun walking away from this Mushroom maze. He wasn't even going to consider reaping more monsters here; His Mana was too low to attempt that.

His next course of action was to find somewhere to sleep and something to eat- but after recovering part of his mana, he wasn't feeling much need for them.

'I still have to recover mentally…'