Battle, Discovery

Detecting rapid movement and an unexpectedly big burst of mental mana on the surface area of his domain, Lan quickly turned his attention upwards, stumbling upon an unexpected scene.

Instead of the peace and quiet of the night, it was now a standoff filled with tension.

As for the opposing sides, The herd of deer was wide awake, gathered together in a circle, with females on the inside, and males on the outside, heads lowered, with two pairs of horns pointing outwards.

As for their opponent, it was a pack of what resembled wolves. Covered in midnight-black fur, three meters tall on average, with muscular bodies and eyes gleaming in the dark, they were circling around the herd of cautious deer.

At first, it seemed that no side was at a disadvantage, Lan soon noticed that one of the female deer wasn't among the herd, but was dragged away and already bleeding out from a fatal bite wound on the neck. She was probably too slow to react to the attack after the herd noticed the predators.

Lan also couldn't help but notice that the amount of mental mana generated by the deer was much bigger than when they were asleep.

'Is it because they are awake? Or is it...'

Lan wasn't given much time to ponder, as the wolves began their attack.

Two of them stopped circling the herd and simultaneously ran up to one of the male deer with surprising speed. One of them pounced from the left, aiming for the neck, and another pounced from the right, aiming for the side of the deer.

The deer wasn't one to do nothing however, as he struck with his horns towards the wolf aiming for the neck, sending it flying with a whimper, leaving the wolf lying on the ground with multiple gnarly wounds on the belly.

However, it created an opening for a second wolf, which left a gash on the deer's side. While the wounded deer snorted with pain, another male deer from the formation chased away the attacker.

No side went unscathed.

Though the wolves were a fighter down, the wounded deer was now a weakened link in the chain, which was an opportunity they didn't miss. While two pairs of wolves pounced towards the deer near the wounded one, another three wolves went for it. One went for the neck while being cautious of its horns, and others went for the sides. This time, there was no one to save it.

Wary of the one in front, the deer tried to once again fling the offender away, however, the wolf dodged. Noticing the others, the deer tried to jump away, but unfortunately for it, it was too slow.

One of the remaining attackers tore another gash in its already wounded side, weakening the deer, then another followed up by pouncing towards the yet intact sign, toppling the swaying deer to the ground. The wolf that was originally aiming for the neck didn't miss its opportunity, finishing the job.

The trio quickly dragged away the fallen prey away from the herd, while the two closest deer were distracted by their own attackers, unable to change anything. While other deer maintained the formation, guarding against the remaining two wolves, which were not yet entangled.

After dragging the kill out, the remaining wolves of the pack gathered around it. Two of the four who distracted the deer were wounded not too heavily, while another one was impaled on a deer's horns, leaving no chance of survival. Of the original 10, 8 wolves remained.

Having completed the hunt, the wolves dragged away their prey beyond Lan's domain, out of his sight, while two wolf corpses, a startled herd of deer, and trampled grass covered in blood remained.

While all this sudden violence was new, shocking, and a bit disgusting to Lan, another thing caught his attention.

When the wolves and the deer died, their final moments were followed by a burst of a massive amount of mental mana, which shot toward the ground below not only fully refilling Lan's Core, but even slightly expanding it, greatly surprising Lan.

Also, during the battle, in the moments when an animal was wounded or closely dodged an attack, they also produced a burst of mental mana, which was much bigger than normal output.

His Core, which was previously at 30 centimeters, now expanded to around 32, which made his potential domain range 320 meters.

This gave Lan a lot of questions and possibilities.

'First of all, one of my ideas was correct. Mental mana is in some way related to emotions or feelings.'

Taking his time to observe the recovering deer which were still on alert, looking around, he noticed that their mental output was little by little lowering down to previous levels, about the same as when they slept.

'So, if a being is nervous, afraid, or in some other way agitated, they probably produce more mental mana than they would have when they are idle or calm.'

'That also means that it would be beneficial for me to have creatures in a state of agitation inside of my domain. Death produces especially high amounts of mental mana, enough for me to increase the Core size. Now the question is, what do I do with all this information?'

Several ideas began taking form in Lan's mind. From somehow luring predators and prey to his domain, causing hunts and battles for survival, to somehow causing territorial conflicts between predators. However, he had no idea how to even start implementing those ideas.

There was one that stood out though.

'What if I create an environment where there is a constant battle, constant conflict? That way, I would have a constant influx of mental mana! Growth and profit, this is Grofit!'

As he thought about it, it seemed like a feasible project, considering that he was slowly figuring out the usage of magic and earth mana in particular, shaping the environment to his will didn't seem so unrealistic.

'There is a problem though... My domain isn't exactly big on the surface.'

Yes, the fact remained that Lan's Core was 300 meters underground, leaving the surface as the tip of the iceberg, or in this case, the domain.

'That means I will have to do most of that underground... I mean, most animals are capable of living in caves, plus there are plenty of things capable of life underground... Still, that's a lot of digging to do.'

As plans were slowly taking shape in the Core's head, he suddenly remembered the current problem.

'If those deer go away, my mental regeneration will drop drastically, making all the digging projects progress a lot slower, that would be unwanted... Now what can I do about that?..'

While he did just gain somewhat of a control over earth mana, it's not like he could trap those deer in the ground, keeping them as mental generators, his control wasn't that strong yet. So, his thoughts turned to the other sort of mana he wielded, a neutral one.

'While it doesn't really do anything for my Core... What will happen if I infuse it with other creatures? Well, time to fudge around and find out.'

Having made up his mind, Lan focused the 'breath' of neutral mana he just exhaled, and rather than let it disperse across his domain, he let it flow towards the deer.

And then, something rather surprising happened.

The neutral mana seemed attracted to the deer like a magnet, converging on them. While the herd was startled, seemingly sensing something, the deer that was wounded in the battle found their wounds regenerating rapidly. Soon, there was no trace of any wounds, new fur having grown over them already. And while the deer were confused at the new development, Lan was confused as well.

At first, when he began infusing his neutral mana, he was unhappy about the fact that his domain, just as he expected, had decreased by around 40 meters. Quite a chunk, but recoverable, however, it severely limited his perception of the surface.

But then, what surprised him to his Core, was that his experiment resulted in something completely unexpected. 

He could now 'feel' the herd of deer as a part of his own domain. He could sense their heartbeat, every part of their flesh, their uncertain emotions, their entire being lay clear before him, their minds open.

Soon after, just to satisfy his curiosity, he tried to nudge the deer leader to move forward.

To his surprise, after looking around with uncertainty, the mighty deer moved forward step by step.

To the exact spot, Lan wished for it to move to.