D.G. - Chapter 259 - GRASPING IN THE DARK

The man-made tunnel ended jarringly, the walls and floor replaced by coarse stone between one step and the next. The rocky ceiling swept high, distant stalactites little more than threateningly-poised needles. Massive, glowing mushrooms produced enough light that Jiran’s castigation was no longer necessary.

The cavern was larger than he first thought, continuing well beyond the twenty-eight meter range of his aura; that distance was only if he extended it in a perfect sphere. In a straight line, its range was significantly greater. Jiran was immediately appreciative of his Cartography System when it notified him that the mapping of the vast tunnels ahead of them was complete before he even arrived.

However, it failed to reveal any details about the beasts living inside. His aura contorted to scan the area for threats, twisting around corners and through naturally formed magma alcoves.

Thick fog clung to the floor around the base of the mushrooms. The faint shadows of beasts skittered about inside, wary of exiting their natural environment. Unlike the Land of The Lost, Jiran’s aura easily penetrated the obscuring mist, revealing the true forms of the beasts. 

When the first took notice of his auric intrusion, growing restless and wary, Jiran withdrew, not wanting to make experimenting on them more challenging than it needed to be. He hung back with the group, snapping his aura to its normal spherical shape to warn if anything tried to ambush them directly through the surrounding rock.

“Mathayes, that’s far enough. Return to the last central chamber and wait for us there. If anyone asks where we went, tell them we’ll be back soon.”

Mathayes stiffly spun and raced back up the tunnel at a comfortable speed. Olive peered after him, wearing a conflicted expression, “I honestly despised him. He fled from the peregriscension by joining the cardinal, plotted to murder the rankers and emperors, and even attempted to overthrow the entirety of the empire. He is exactly the kind of scum that should never be allowed to live. Nevertheless, seeing him reduced to a mindless puppet is deeply disturbing, albeit satisfying.”

Not wanting to spoil the mood, Jiran ignored most of what she said and latched onto the unfamiliar term, “What’s the peregriscension?”

“I’ve mentioned it before, though not by name. Upon coming of age, direct descendents of the emperors must venture into Graymin lands to ascend, or die. With each tier, we buy only a few years of peace before we must embark again.”

Jiran nodded, remembering their short conversation about it in Mortan, “Right. Otherwise, the entire empire would be packed with their-your siblings by now, and there isn’t enough space to go around.” Jiran frowned, “I suppose that’s not going to be a thing anymore.”

Olive’s expression fell at the implication that there weren’t any emperors left. Seeing the hurt in the wrinkles of her brow, Jiran shook his head and clarified what he actually meant, “Don’t you remember what I said? I’m going to push the Graymin back a thousand kilometers before the end of densoon season. And that’s only the beginning. The empire will never again suffer from a shortage of land.”

Her jaw clenched and she dipped her chin sharply, simmering motivation reflected in crystal-blue eyes. They shared grins packed with a desire to get started. Mayalyn’s growl from behind reminded them to mind their brimming emotions. Clearing his throat, Jiran hopped into the air and dragged himself through the framework.

He stopped a short distance from the cloying fog, not bothering to hide their presence just yet. The nearest beast, still on alert, took notice. Its triangular, insectoid head swiveled in their direction.

Without making a sound, eight, jointed legs scurried to bring it closer. Moth-like wings on its back buzzed, reminiscent of a mountain’s howling gale. The sound filled the cavern and the fog directly around it scattered, fully revealing the disfigured creature. Small sacs of fluid along its length drew in air, then released more of the fog.

Jiran was in no hurry to kill it. He knew exactly how heavy a tier seven corpse was and since the beast was delivering itself all on its own, he let it. Olive and Mayalyn dropped into defensive positions, their speed surprising him. Lightning came to life across Mayalyn’s body, burning the dress she’d borrowed to ash in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, Olive’s blood boiled in her veins, releasing a startling quantity of potent mana through her muscles.

As much as he wanted to watch the two of them all day, he forced his attention to the beast. Gaze of Pediamus—Previously Identify—filled his head with knowledge about its strengths, and weaknesses. Since he was still getting used to the newly updated skill, Jiran chose to further tweak the way it presented its findings.

[Putrid Swarmer: (Tier - 7) (Concentration - 64) (Attributes - 2033) (Estimated Power - 136,618) An insignificant limb of a gargantuan hive-mind. These creatures convert oxygen into paralytic gas. After capturing their victims alive, they are delivered to the hive for incubation. Minor auric proficiency. Individually low threat]

Disturbing description aside, Jiran immediately decided he loved the new presentation. The estimated power was a numerical value of Concentration multiplied by attributes, then further adjusted based on the creature's skills and proficiency. While it had high agility in the air and on the ground, and an active aura, it had no powerful offensive ability, making it fairly weak for its tier.

Following the same system, with 54 Concentration and 540 in each attribute, Jiran’s baseline estimated power would be 29,160. However, that number was highly misleading. With 150 Mana, rather than the normal 54, he effectively tripled his estimated power to 81,000. That was only the beginning. His mana was always spread through every nook and cranny of his body, significantly empowering his speed and strength. Additionally, his knowledge of the elements, mana, and soul, gave him ridiculous modifiers to all his skills. 

He couldn’t activate Gaze of Pediamus on himself, but he was confident that if he went all out, his true power using this scale would be somewhere a little shy of a million.

Jiran’s aura stretched out to surround the swarmer. He casually swept aside its meager auric proficiency. The creature found itself bundled up in thick soul-stuff, unable to escape. Jiran plugged its sacs so they couldn't draw in oxygen or release more poisonous fog. Then, with a flexing of his will, its legs and wings snapped, crumpling like dried twigs, completely unuable to withstand his aura’s pressure. The helpless beast couldn’t even twitch as it came to a stop mere meters away.

Jiran didn’t need to lift a finger. Elemental Castigation converted a tiny marble of mana into a blistering inferno of trapped and condensed elemental fire. It sprang into existence a few centimeters from the creature's head. The marble’s payload was released in a ray of superheated particles that plunged directly through its skull and body. Partially hollowed out from the intense heat, it died before realizing it had been attacked.

Jiran didn’t take his eyes from the corpse as he deposited it on the ground. Olive’s blood cooled and her mana returned to normal. Standing to his side, she looked up at him with hearts in her eyes, “I knew you’d gotten stronger, but that was ridiculous. Was that honestly a tier seven?”

Elemental Castigation wrapped the group in a wall of bending light to hide them from the other nearby swarmers. Excited to begin, Jiran approached the creature, rubbing his palms, “It was indeed. Now for the fun part. And when we’re done, I want to go over your new skills. I noticed you didn’t have a manapool anymore. I had no idea the changes went so much deeper.”

Olive preened from the attention, but hid it well. Mayalyn on the other hand was at his opposite side with her tail furiously lashing the air, “You should have told me it was no threat. My dress is ruined.” In a snap, Mana Transcendence wrapped around her, spending a miniscule portion of itself to replicate the little remaining cloth, rapidly restoring it to its former glory. She beamed at him, “Thank you!”

“Mhm. You’re welcome. Give me a minute, I need to think,” Jiran’s minds raced, trying to figure out the best way to go about his task. He started by absorbing the creature’s unspent beastmana with Enthralling Touch. With Mana Omnis able to see it, the connection needed to overwhelm the mana was formed. His superior knowledge, combined with the fact its host was dead, allowed him to easily take control and pull the cloudy energy from its body.

Quick as thought, Mana Transcendence created a filtering formation in the air. It took the shape of a palm-sized circle and rapidly filtered the blood and genetic material from the beastmana. Jiran greedily sucked up the purified mana, depositing most of it into Armament via a tiny black hole that appeared above his palm when he summoned the skill. The filter remained hovering nearby, caught in his aura; he would certainly be using it many times before he was done.

Jiran further tightened his aura around the corpse, popping off the little sacs of liquid and tossing them into the nearby fog. Devoid of mana, what remained of the beast was pure, tier seven density-packed flesh. Since its Concentration was higher than his own, it would certainly be tasty whether he cooked it or not.

“How much Growth would this give if I ate the whole thing?” He wondered aloud.

Olive showcased her academic training with a lightning quick response, “Assuming your… tier is roughly equivalent to it, around one hundredth of one percent.”

Jiran whistled at the horrendous conversion rate. He would need to eat and digest ten thousand swarmers to reach one hundred percent Growth.

No wonder it takes decades, and eventually centuries, for rankers to get through each tier. Considering there’s no way to eat this whole thing in one sitting, and most aren’t lucky enough to eat beasts above their tier every meal, it really would take lifetimes.

This thing’s basically a big slab of potential Growth just waiting to happen. But eating isn’t why I’m here. I need a much faster way to increase my Growth. The question is: how?

There was no point thinking about it too hard when he could simply try. Since he knew his mana could convert itself into ambient density, there should be no reason why he couldn’t do the same to the beast’s flesh. Mana Transcendence surrounded and infiltrated the corpse. Following his desire and intent, it rapidly began eating away at the body.

Mana Transcendence: +4

Olive and Mayalyn stepped back as the melting corpse released a hiss of displaced air. Since neither of them could see mana yet, they had no idea what he was doing. Jiran formed a large bubble of mana around the body, making sure none of the gaseous density escaped. He couldn’t directly see it, so he had to use the senses from his mana to feel it. Within seconds, all that remained of the beast was a melted puddle of red goop, then even that was gone. 

Eager as a child on tiering day, Jiran pulled the density against his skin and trapped it there with his mana. With a deep breath, he pulled some of it into his lungs and stomach. Near-microscopic feelers of mana came in with it. Since his mana could ‘feel’ things on a much smaller scale than his other senses, and that information was delivered directly into his brain through his connection to said mana, he was able to somewhat track the density’s progress inside his body.

It quickly separated into clumps of spores so small that even his mana could barely perceive them. They slowly dispersed through his bloodstream. Once the entirety of the spores were split and in position, all at once, they soaked into his muscles, at which point they truly did vanish. The process of absorbing the entire corpse-worth of density took around thirty minutes. Ninety-five percent of that time was spent waiting for the density to get into position.

He snuck a peak at Olive and Mayalyn. They were sitting nearby, heads together and whispering excitedly. He felt his heart swelling from how well they got along, then clamped down on the feeling before Mayalyn noticed. He continued blocking out their conversation with his aura, having no desire to invade their privacy. 

Moving on, he closed his eyes, disappointed that Olive’s guess had been spot on.

Growth: +0.01%

STRENGTH: +0.054

AGILITY: +0.054

ENDURANCE: +0.054

DURABILITY: +0.054

WISDOM: +0.054

INTELLIGENCE: +0.054

Further upgrades delayed due to lack of density

The numbers weren’t large, but the little rush of power zinging through his limbs still felt great. Thanks to his Concentration, each full point of Strength he gained represented five times the total strength of a regular human. While five percent of a full point was small compared to his total, across all his attributes at once, it was still an easily noticeable difference.

The sensations failed to banish his annoyance. While significantly faster than eating, at this rate, he would still end up sitting on top of a mountaintop absorbing density for years at later tiers.

I’m not a damn cultivator from some second-rate fantasy novel! Get a grip, Jiran. There’s definitely several ways to speed it up but I should still take it one step at a time.

What's the density doing? It’s spreading out, then sinking into bones, organs, flesh, and skin. Reinforcing them somehow. Since Growth equates to additional weight, I know the density is adding to my body on a molecular level. Wow. The complexity of what it's doing is mind boggling. It doesn't matter what creature consumed that swarmer, it would grow stronger. That means the density somehow figures out the cellular composition of its new host, and then upgrades them in a way specific to them.

No, that’s stupid. It’s definitely the host’s cells that instructs the density on what to do. Each tiering sunders the body completely, breaking it down so it can be rebuilt stronger. During that time, the cells, or DNA, or mana, or whatever, must be getting rewritten with new instructions for any future density.

Can any of those assumptions help me speed up the absorption? At the very least, I can try to keep it contained so it doesn’t waste so much time spreading through my blood.

Jiran lifted a finger in front of his nose and peered inside it with Mana Omnis. With a thought, the mana in his finger converted to density. He directed fresh mana to flood into the same area, squishing the ephemeral density into the smallest ball he could. It squirmed inside his flesh, splitting into spores that tried to flee through his blood. After being unable to for a brief moment, the spores sank into his muscle tissue and vanished.

That was definitely faster, though the actual absorption portion was the same.

Other than the tiniest tickle felt in the meat of his finger, which could have been his imagination, there hadn’t been much difference. He shook out the digit, not feeling any pain or weakness. His flesh looked and felt perfectly healthy. Just to be safe, he directed Mana Transcendence to heal any possible microscopic damage his cells may have suffered from the forced, localized absorption. Since there was nothing to heal, the skill didn’t drain any of his mana.

Well, at least I know I’m not hurting myself. In that case, it's time to amp up the power!

Eyes glowing with excitement, Jiran dropped a portion of his obfuscation. Another swarmer caught sight of him. He quickly reformed the wall of bent light as it raced in his direction. He similarly swaddled it in aura, this time killing it by crushing its head in a conjured fist of elemental ice.

He drained its mana, then once more melted its body into density. This time, he trapped the density in a sphere of mana and condensed it as much as he could. Now the size of a coin, he tried to push the density into his palm and quickly discovered that wasn’t going to happen. 

Similar to how a normal person’s mana couldn’t pass through their skin, the density refused to enter his body quickly. Instead, it wanted to be slowly absorbed by his skin, which would then see it spread out through his blood. Shrugging, he formed a scalpel of mana and quickly sliced through his palm. 

The density was forced inside and he cringed as his rendered flesh gave way for it. As before, he trapped the density in his palm, not letting it spread through his blood. That’s when the real pain began. Jiran clenched his teeth, eyes bulging as a million little fish hooks ripped his palm apart from the inside.

Why is it damaging me? Did I increase its Concentration when I compressed it? No, that shouldn’t cause pain. The greater the density, the greater the pleasure.

Jiran shunted the pain by blocking the nerves in his wrist, then focused with all his ocular might. The skin he previously cut writhed as the compressed density swarmed into it like coming home. Where the two met, his flesh danced with activity too minute to clearly observe. His mana only gave him a slightly clearer picture. The density was being attracted to the damaged portion of his body, the spores piling into his rent cells and vanishing.

Compared to the previous hour, in less than five minutes, the density of the entire beast corpse was absorbed.

Jiran healed himself again. Then flexed his hand repeatedly to wash away the last remnants of disgust at what he’d seen. His eyes drifted shut.

Growth: +0.01%

STRENGTH: +0.081

AGILITY: +0.081

ENDURANCE: +0.081

DURABILITY: +0.081

Further upgrades delayed due to lack of density

His brows furrowed because he definitely didn’t feel the same zinging boost in his muscles. Considering he gained more physical attributes, that inconsistency was highly alarming.

Did I mess up? Please don’t tell me I just wasted those attributes by screwing with the normal process of absorption!

Battling down panic, Jiran grabbed a rock in each hand. He first equally reinforced their structures with mana, then squeezed. He kept ramping up the pressure until the one in the hand he’d cut cracked. A little more pressure and the other followed.

Thank the Voice! Why didn’t I get Intelligence and Wisdom? Is it because those attributes are directly tied to my brain and I only allowed the absorption into my palm?

Wait! It all makes sense now! Muscles don’t simply grow stronger on their own. They have to be torn before they grow back stronger. The same is happening with the density. Absorption takes time because what's already there has to be broken down before it can be reinforced.

That’s it! That’s definitely the key. That's why lower tier density isn't worth eating, because it doesn't have the strength to break down the existing tissue! The same theory perfectly explains why I got almost nothing from absorbing ambient density.

By breaking myself first, I made it several times easier for the density to incorporate itself into my cells. Why hasn’t anyone figured this ou-nevermind. Eating when injured wouldn’t produce the same results since the meat would still be slowly digested into density. Then it would need to spread through the bloodstream, further diluting the sensations. All anyone would feel is a slight tingle in their injury which is far from abnormal. 

Not like anyone’s crazy enough to stuff a steak into an open wound to test if density could be absorbed faster that way…

Don’t do it, Jiran. Don’t do it. This method is definitely faster than that would be!

His eyes snapped open, excitedly landing on his beautiful companions. He couldn’t wait to tell them the good news. They were both sitting cross legged, watching him critically. Olive’s shoulders drooped and her head rolled to the side. 

Mayalyn’s large, soft ears twitched in satisfaction, “Five minutes, told you.”

“We don’t even know what he’s doing! How could you possibly have known that?” Olive whined. Mayalyn merely held out a hand which was promptly graced by a golden coin.