Restructuring, Growth

Still, having achieved his goal, Lan immediately got onto creating said lamps.

First, he needed to find where to place them, he couldn't have them just stick out of the floor or the ceiling after all, who knows if they'll fall or what if some curious animal damages them? So, he quickly thought of a solution.

'...Can't just place them on the surface of things... Then how about... Inside?'

A curious idea popped up in his head: Form the lamp inside the walls, ground, or ceilings and then, depending on the amount of illumination needed, form cavities in said wall to release the light. Not perfect, but effective.

Soon, mana was converging inside the ceiling of the entrance chamber, forming a sphere of pure stone and then turning into a mana-fueled lamp.

Then, Lan carefully dug out a crevice leading to the lamp, and soon the gentle light was filling the entire chamber. It looked similar to when light rays get underground through small holes, creating a wondrous scene.

The critters and various animals that were previously afraid of the dark did not keep themselves waiting for long, the underground chambers welcoming a new surge of life, for now, limited to the entrance chamber.

As the rest of the underground remained unilluminated, Lan soon got onto converging and infusing once again.

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

Somewhere in the nearby wilderness

A shadow was stalking through the darkness, its' agile form making nary a sound as it moved through the undergrowth.

The prey it was stalking, quite a big rabbit with a horn on its' head, did not notice it either.

When it noticed something wrong, it was already too late, jaws and claws filling its' vision.

A moment later, atop the corpse of the rabbit with bloodied jaws stood a majestic figure, its blood splattering as it devoured the kill.

It was a cougar, big even by the standards of the awakened planet, standing proudly at two meters tall, three and a half meters in length. Although it may not compare to large herbivores and some of the greater predators in size, its' agility and stealth are unparalleled among the inhabitants of the forest. By the time anyone notices it, they are usually already dead.

The fact that the hunt succeeded was nothing new to the cougar, it never failed since it learned to hunt on its own.

As it was devouring and absorbing the prey's meager mana, it noticed something abnormal in the flow of ambient mana.

The amounts of mana brought by the flows from the north were incomparably more intense compared to the mana it was used to.

Having absorbed the remaining mana within the rabbit, the cougar turned to the direction of the north, the direction of mana.

To the direction of its new hunting grounds.

...

Similar scenes happened in the nearby regions.

A group of two-meter-long lizards left their caverns.

A flock of birds, whose feathers gleamed with the sharpness of metal turned their heads and, set off in search of a new nest.

A tiger with numerous scars covering its face, telling of many hard-fought battles, turned its head in a certain direction while standing atop a defeated foe. Living creatures around it either gathered in worship or were already dead.

All sensed a new promised land, a promise of mana, a promise of strength.

A promise of evolution.

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

Unaware of the winds his metaphorical wings have made with their flapping, Lan was finishing the last lamp in the second underground chamber.

Soon, the entire chamber was filled with a glow akin to moonlight, as if it was not underground at all.

'Phew... Now that that's done, I think this place looks too simple, doesn't it? Not that tough-looking either... Time for a renovation!'

Now that Lan was confident in conjuring earth and stone, he was excited to reinforce his entire underground. First, he decided to start with the entrance.

Currently, it was raining outside, and what didn't make Lan happy was the fact that some of the water was indeed leaking in through the entrance.

'As expected... Restructuring is a right choice.'

First, to stop the potential flooding, he changed the entrance itself. Manipulating the earth mana, he raised the roof of the entrance, making it so that the rain slid off the sides of it, not into the cavern. Then, he reinforced the entire circular entrance with earth mana, solidifying it into stone.

Following that, he noticed that the whole hill under which most of his domain was situated was... Rather bare and ugly, still looking rather bald after it was created. Not liking this one bit, Lan quickly infused it with mana. 

Soon after, grass and various flowers sprouted from the seeds that were either remaining or brought up from the underground.

Satisfied, Lan got back to reinforcing structurally the underground, not noticing how a tiny tree sprout was rapidly growing, spreading its roots, quickly absorbing the abundant mana...

Meanwhile, Lan was turning parts of the walls into stone, making it so they wouldn't collapse because of one reason or another, and at the same time leaving space for animals to dig their burrows or nests.

In the second chamber he even added a pillar connecting the top and bottom in the middle of it, and in the middle of the pillar, a shining crystal, that being the mana lamp, illuminated the entirety of the chamber. It also grew over with moss and vines under the influence of dense mana, giving off a natural and magical feeling.

While Lan was at it, he couldn't help but notice that just like his hill not so long ago, it was... Rather barren. Other than some mosses, mushrooms, and vines that grew from existing seeds and spores, no surface plant life was here.

Considering that despite being underground, the chambers were teeming with life, including surface animals, why couldn't the surface plants be here as well?

Putting the idea to the test, Lan pulled some berries, fruit, and other ripe seed containers underground, planting them and nourishing them with mana.

They didn't seem to require any sunlight, mana replacing the sun's rays.

Sure enough, previously gloomy caves now looked as if they were a small underground patch of forest.

With new additions though, Lan realized that the amount of space was lacking with just two chambers, and to make a large new chamber, he needed to enlarge himself, that being the Core.

As he was always busy reasearching mana or realizing his ideas, he never really got to growing the Core as much as at the beginning, despite having abundant mental mana.

So, focusing only on the Core, he began the rapid growth.

At first, the core was sitting at now seemingly humble 52 centimeters. That didn't remain like that though, as it began to grow as if on a timelapse.

From 52 to 60...

To 70... 

85!

One meter!

As the core grew over 100 centimeters and into the meters, the growth slowed down slightly, but not that much. It still kept on going.

It still stopped at 120 centimeters however, bringing a feeling of exhaustion, and satisfaction to Lan, as logically his mana capacity, and by extension, domain, have increased to 1,2 kilometers of perception!

Immediately cycling through his neutral mana, his 'vision' quickly expanded. This process gave Lan a feeling as if he was opening his eyes for the first time... Once more.

He now saw far beyond the small hill he created, beyond the surrounding woods. Taking in the sights, he took note of his newly discovered surroundings.

Not that far to the west, not even close to the edge of his new domain, there flowed a river, fish occasionally jumping in and out... The fish were gigantic as well.

To the east there lay what seemed to be slopes leading into the mountains, though the mountains themselves lay beyond his perception.

To the south, the woods seemed to become yet denser, being home to beasts more ferocious-looking than the ones surrounding his hill. 

To the north, were what seemed to be the beginning of plains, trees thinning out, fields filled with sunlight and dancing winds replacing them.

 As Lan took in those sights, he was touched by a sliver of melancholy.

'Hah... Isn't it just like it was back home? Our Firefly town always had mountains to the east, which were surrounded with dense woods and mystery... There was a river there as well.. Guess fate just wants to rub it in my face that I'm never going to see them again huh...'

Still, he quickly snapped out of it, a newfound determination beginning to blaze, replacing his former glum mood.

'...So what if I won't see those sights again?! Those plains, forests, mountains... Give me enough time and I will make my own! Sunlight? Heh, I will find a way as well! I will unfold the secrets of magic of this world, make them my own! Magic will be my hands and mana will be my feet!'

Burning away the melancholy, a newfound ambition started in Lan's heart.

As Lan quickly began digging into the ground once more, much faster than before, thoughts echoed through his mind.

'Mom, Dad, even if you aren't going to find me all the way in this world... I will find you eventually somehow, bring you here, and we will be reunited! I will carve out a world underground, and I will show it to you someday... Though I may have left you for now, I will make you proud!'