Light of the Sun

However much Lan was unwilling to try and attune to yet another type of mana without having mastered even the basic usage of Heat mana, there was no other option in case he wanted to create an artificial sun.

But to attune to said element, he needed to find an initial source of it first, to feel and understand it.

That option, however, was temporarily unavailable, as it was currently night on the surface, forcing Lan to find other ways or push the project back for now.

Lan was unwilling to just give up on it and tried to remember the light and feeling of the sun from back when he was human, and could still see the sun itself instead of just the light it cast on the ground.

'Damn, it feels like it has not been that long since I... Died. But at the same time, I barely remember my human days.'

Freezing at the thought, Lan was startled. He had perfect memory, which he verified many times over. So how the hell was he forgetting something that recent? Lan began racing along his memories, trying to find the source of the problem.

It didn't take long to find it, the border between the foggy and crystal-clear memories being rather noticeable. That was the moment of his death and awakening as a Core. All memories before that moment were obscure and quickly being overwritten by new and perfect ones.

Lan felt quite distressed, as most of his human memories faded to the extent that he couldn't remember how it felt to have a human body, how food tasted, or the warmth of the light on his skin. Nearly all feelings were gone, only facts like 'That food tasted good', or 'That person was irritating' remained, nothing more.

Only the most vibrant moments shone amongst his fading human side. He remembered the most joyful moments of his life, how his parents spent his time with him, his mother's obsession with nature, and his father's love of sailing.

But that was enough for Lan to sigh in relief. As long as he remembered what defined himself, what made him who he was, and who was dear to him, his form didn't matter. He may be a human, a sentient rock, or maybe a tree, but he would remain himself.

As he calmed down, his mental mana which was distressed alongside him settled down as well. But he felt something unexpected. The mental mana which served as a conduit between his Core and the rest of the world seemed to change and seep into other types of mana even further.

Lan, as if his gaze was sharpened, could feel that he had grown even closer to mana, understanding it even further. He understood that he only partially understood most of the mana.

For example, heat mana.

Heat may drain the land of life, and devour everything in a fire,

But from the ashes left behind, life will be reborn and nurtured in warmth.

He understood that although he may have been attuned to heat mana, he was only attuned to certain aspects of it, not mastering the element in its entirety. It truly was like the Dao, you may comprehend something, but that something is a part of a greater whole.

And the fact that his connection, his mental mana, was improved after his contemplation and resolution of the conflict within, meant that he was attuned to it as well. Mental mana was a byproduct and the essence of the soul, and by understanding himself, he understood mental mana.

The most mysterious kind of mana unraveled its mysteries slowly, ideas appearing from newfound understanding. If these ideas proved true, then his domain, his dungeon would be improved by structures and mechanisms of previously impossible complexity.

The knowledge of this filled Lan with joy at the prospects of his growth, both in building his domain and himself.

And thanks to the upgraded connection to the elements, especially the heat mana, opened new solutions to his problems. For example, gathering heat mana would be much easier now, as he could now perceive that it was everpresent as well.

Heat mana, just like the name suggested, was in everything that contained heat, however little it may be. But generating it by infusing mental mana with the concept had its own advantages, as pulling heat mana out of surrounding (usually living) things pulled the heat directly from them, and this could be quite deadly.

As mass death of flora and fauna was not what Lan wanted, this remained a questionable option.

In the end, Lan decided to lay off the light mana attunement until the sun rose up once again, and turned his attention to other things.

The biggest of them all were the human souls which were still hovering around his Core after being drawn from slain humans, being absorbed at pitiful speeds.

However, even though the souls were absorbed slowly, the effect could already be noticed, as upon examination of his mind, Lan witnessed his understanding of the German language was much higher than it was before, along with some minor knowledge of surrounding geography.

Still, it would be much faster to absorb them manually now that he had the time, as his passive absorption was rather slow at this point in time. Lan did exactly that, forgetting briefly about his previous experience.

He only tugged on three out of seven souls as he managed to pull only these before the part which he didn't pay attention to began once again.

Hundreds upon hundreds of scenes began flashing through his mind, chaos of sounds and images blending together into a cacophony of knowledge. It was three times worse than the previous experience, as if multiple people were talking to you at the same time all while music was blasting over them.

"Hunt...Exploration...Responsibility...Cypress...Home...Defend...Group...Lands...Fire..."

Different perspectives of the same events eventually began to play out, merging in between themselves, showing flashes of moments when the group was organized and sent out on an expedition. Lan then got to witness how the forest fire erupted, from the perspective of the culprit and the bystanders.

"What was that... Katie, no!" "The wolf, too fast!" "No! I want to live! I will live-"

The images then split off, each showing a different perspective of the battles fought. In the end, they showed the demise of the soul's owner. One of them was bitten by Tag in half, one was ambushed by Nacht, and the last one was beheaded by her as well.

It was disturbing seeing their deaths from their perspective, how the companions of a woman reached out to her, her vision falling to the ground, seeing her other severed half. An unpleasant experience to say the least.

But by the time it ended, other than Lan feeling nauseous from the information overload, he found himself in a better position than before he started the absorption.

The first reason for this was the knowledge he gained from all that he saw. Although the scenes were many, and shown in a chaotic manner, he memorized them all and categorized them soon after.

Lan could now be said to be a native German speaker, which he found out was a language often spoken by the members of this group. He also gained knowledge of the purpose of this group and where exactly they came from.

Confirming his guesses and suspicions, they came here from a town that was his old home - Cypress Town. The town itself bore little resemblance to its old look, with many buildings that he recognized being ruined or replaced in their entirety. Also, there were new additions to it, apparently, the town had a wall and the town's citadel got turned into a Magic Tower of all things.

He gleaned many insights from the absorbed memories, confirming once and for all that he was indeed on Earth, but quite some time seemed to have passed since his death, with a tiny addition of a magical apocalypse, no biggie.

Mentally sighing out, he continued perusing the information. This group was sent here to subjugate a 'Monster Nest', which they assumed was something entirely different than what he was.

Other than that, he couldn't gain much more, as the memories extended for only a brief amount of time backward with the exception of general knowledge, which was imprinted deeply within mental mana.

Thankfully he still had more souls to absorb, which he got to, but in a more controlled manner, absorbing them one by one rather than all at once.

And so, four souls were absorbed in rapid fashion, Lan soon getting used to the absorption sequence, the chaotic scenes becoming easier to handle.

Upon finishing the process, he gained additional knowledge and filled in the gaps at the same time.

This group was comprised of three separate exploration teams due to the difficulty of the exploration. They were sent out on the command of the 'Tower Master', a woman possessing high authority in the town, but being rather reclusive.

Apparently, the mana emitted by his 'dungeon', a name he liked more and more for his domain, was sensed and subsequently investigated by the first group of humans who returned rather miserably.

Among all that knowledge, Lan noticed that humans surprisingly lacked in individual strength, relying on numbers rather than prowess. The only path to a human's progression of strength was the consumption of mana-rich food, which was rare, and the increase was rather small.

Additionally, they seemed to possess no memory of things like Heart Crystals outside of his dungeon, surprising Lan, and plunging him into thought.

'If the humans discovered that either I am a unique source of growth, or at least the one closest to them, then they will continuously send explorations into my dungeon, with gains outweighing the danger within.'

A metaphorical smile slowly spread on his metaphorical face.

'Then doesn't that mean that I am practically guaranteed to have 'returning customers'?'

Lan's growth depended on mental mana, and humans generated a lot of it, especially upon death.

'Growth and profit. This is grofit!'

Still, with continued explorations and delves into the dungeon, the humans would gradually gain strength, and the ability to explore the floors even further down, putting Lan in a bit of a hurry to build more floors, as he didn't want them to reach his Core in any way.

'Speaking of growth... Oh boy.'

All the mental mana gained and absorbed by intense emotion and the death of humans was very beneficial for Lan's growth. Not that long before absorbing the souls his growth was at 7 meters in diameter, but now it expanded rapidly to 13 meters, bolstering his growth immensely.

The mana cycled and circulated by itself at this point, or maybe it was already done on a subconscious level by Lan. Regardless, with the capacity doubling over, mana surged like a tide, filling out the Core and then flowing outwards, expanding to 13 kilometers.

Lan's field of perception, his domain expanded rapidly, witnessing the ash-covered forest to the south, plains with rivers and lakes in the north, hills, and mountains in the east, and the prairie to the west, a road coming into view at the western fringes of his domain.

Most astonishing of all, his sight extended into the sky, reaching the clouds above.

Lan was a bit overwhelmed, being astonished by his own capabilities and natural beauty before rational thinking kicked in.

'This is... So inefficient!'

A lot of Lan's domain lay in the sky, where he didn't have the slightest plans to do anything, wasting the space he could influence, as he would expand downwards rather than upwards. But the solution was obvious.

'I have to move downwards myself. I need to move my Core somehow.'

However apparent it was, Lan decided to do things one by one, as he hadn't yet finished his artificial sun project.

Also, upon looking at what was his Core Room Lan sighed, blaming himself for forgetting a certain thing. Enormous quantities of mana flowed around the Core, making it emanate light in all directions, with what seemed like glowing mist flowing around it. Rock and Stone retreated away from the rather big Core, being infused and eroded by mana.

A spherical space 70 meters in diameter formed with the Core as the center. Lan was then forced to remake the entrance tunnel to the Core Room, as the previous one was eroded in the process of expansion.

Metaphorically wiping his sweat, he gazed upon his grand domain, of which the dungeon was a tiny part. On the surface the sun rose, orange rays being brought from beyond the horizon which was unseen to Lan.

Lan stood mentally atop the Tree on his hill, trying to be there with his entire being. And as the light dawned on the world, Lan observed the morning clouds and the understanding dawned upon him along with the light.

The Light brought brightness to the world, being Illuminating.

The world woke up when Light came, Dazzling all living things.

And yet, if one stared at the Light for too long, one would never see the Radiant Light again.

As one witnesses the Light and basks in it, one wonders about the journey it took.

Yet another veil previously preventing Lan from seeing the truth was blown off. Dancing spots of light were now part of his vision, part of the mana he saw.

The light always moved in various ways, coming from distances untold and from a light source that was close, and never stopped moving. Wherever some kind of light was present, it was present as well.

Even in dark places, it was a question of quantity of light, as light mana was present there as well.

Instead of celebrating his success or getting to work immediately, Lan briefly enjoyed the sensation of the newfound feeling. It was indescribable to one who hadn't experienced it.

After a brief break, Lan got back to his unending work. As he had gained Light Mana, he could now continue with his Artificial Sun Project.

Lan turned his attention to the Mana Crystal containing Heat mana on the third floor. But surprisingly enough, it was gone, as some Beast has probably claimed it. Unsurprising.

Still, Lan now had a space for experimentation. This time he created a larger mana crystal, about a quarter of the size he planned the artificial sun to be. He then began to gather light mana.

Light visibly gathered around the crystal, the surroundings of it brightening with seemingly no reason. Soon a pure, white light began to emanate from the crystal, it being filled to around half capacity, following Lan's plan.

He then began to conjure heat mana with his mental mana, this time the process being noticeably slower, but he didn't want to kill all life nearby. But with his massively increased mental mana, it was easier to do than the previous time.

Gradually the crystal which was previously glowing in white now took on an orange tint, like that of a flame. But it shined brightly, illuminating the whole patch of land it was in and beyond, now also gaining a rising temperature.

As the capacity of the crystal was slowly filled, the orange glow was becoming ever prevalent, and the heat emanated from it ever hotter. When the capacity was finally filled, the heat grew unbearable, all nearby grass turning dry and waning away.

The light which was tinged with yellow and orange, just like the real sun, now illuminated the surrounding jungle brightly. Lan would spread out his arms in success if he had a body.

'YES! PRAISE THE SUN!'

His project was a resounding success, and all that remained was to install the scaled-up version on the ceiling, giving both light and warmth to the underground jungle.

Before that, Lan disintegrated the previous crystal so as not to cause a wildfire, but he would have no trouble making it again as he perfectly remembered the process.

On the ceiling, Lan carved out and infused a chunk of rock, turning it into a mana crystal. He decided to be a bit more creative this time, making it in a rhombus shape, being connected to the ceiling with stone vines, as if suspended in them.

He then began to fill the transparent crystal with colors of heat and light, this time simultaneously, not being afraid of messing up.

As the crystal once again gained the color of the sun, it heated up rapidly, before becoming scorching hot. When the capacity of the crystal was reached, Lan was forced to reinforce the decorative vines so that they did not turn into slag.

After doing so, a wonderful scene lay before his eyes: A bright light shining out on the grounds below, illuminating and warming them. The shadows cast by the stone vines around it formed a pattern with shadows on the ground, adding an air of mystery.

Finally, after all the holdups and challenges, a Sun shone underground, illuminating the Dungeon.