‘The skill is instant, so we first need to account for that above all else,’ the Queen stated, the Core quick listen in. ‘This would mean that you refrain from sending out Mana through an elongated period and should instead use the bundling method that I am sure you are already aware of.’

That part was easy enough, the Entity more than capable of doing so. Taking out a small piece of Mana from the nearby air, it began to pull together a small ball of Energy. It wasn’t too big yet but a few seconds of preparation could easily get it to be about a hundred Mana or so. Not that it expected to use that much but-

‘Next, we need to adapt to the standardized Mana-Point cost which is two hundred and fifty Mana. This number will never decrease but can easily increase,’ the Queen stated, making the Core debate its life-choices. Looking at its status screen, it was not happy to be reminded of its lacklustre amounts put into Wisdom. Or, it was supposed that it was higher than any other stats that it possessed. The issue was that it was just six points lower than it needed to be before it could cover the costs of such an operation without first overflowing its container.

It wasn’t an issue now since it was covering the costs outside of its actual Mana-Container yet the [System] would instead take direction from it. And that meant that it had to either get a few points within the next few days or it had to start getting used to overfilling itself with Mana and feeling the effects. It could luckily only need to get through it for a smaller while yet it was still quite annoying.

‘How high could it potentially get?’ the Core questioned, just to make sure that it still had some form of chance to get through the experience. If two hundred and fifty was the absolute minimum, how much effort was needed before the cost increased and at what rate did it increase?

‘I do believe that the standard low-tier evolutions are five hundred Mana each, the Mid-Tier would be two thousand, and the High-Tier could be anywhere from ten thousand and beyond. And that might just be me low-balling it. It has been a long while since this information was told to me,’ the Queen answered, mumbling further on about various states of intoxication. The Core ignored that in favour of being scared of how much it needed to grow. If it wanted to create a [God], it would need to be able to survive having several thousand Mana inside itself. Just… how? It could survive two hundred and fifty with some amount of pain but even three hundred would be beyond what it felt comfortable with.

There had to be some major increases to stats later on in the upgrades that could be attained or the Core wasn’t sure how it would ever be expected to reach such levels of power. It had looked upon itself and thought that it was powerful yet it was instead just extremely nuanced in its powers. It could terraform the earth, yes, but doing anything else was getting close to its physical limits. What could truly be done at that point?

‘I understand,’ the Core sent back, not sure how to feel about the information received. It was disheartening and it was beginning to see how it might not be as powerful as it once thought itself to be, yet it also showed off the fact that there were still so many places to grow. If it could synergize its efforts and create a build more powerful than anything else, it would be able to do so much more without anybody being able to stop it. It just needed the right skills, the right techniques, and perhaps even a new class. Everything just had to work together instead of being separated. ‘Please do go on.’

‘Your emotions tell another story, little rock, but I shall listen to your pleas anyway,’ the Queen said before getting back into the instructing mood. ‘There are various ways to go through the process of Intent. At some level, though, they are all the same. Our wish for the creature that we send the Mana to is that they take in Mana at an increased rate. This would be utterly impossible in the traditional sense of the word since Mana-Veins have an absolute limit on how much can be taken in. But, luckily, we don’t have to worry about that part of the equation since we will not be inserting in Mana through the traditional openings. Instead, we will be going through every single part of the creature’s body. Their eyes, mouths, legs, arms, and every single pore of skin on them will be blasted with more Energy than they have ever gone through before. We need to cycle decades worth of Mana through their bodies and it will require a lot of Energy. Hence the initial cost. Though, you should trust me when I say that it scales with the size of the creature as well. A [Titanic-Ant] can easily require twice the energy of a [Giant-Ant], even if the Tiers are the same.’

… The Core was suddenly happy that they were trying it out on the seed of a tree instead of anything with a regular size. If that piece of organic material, hardly larger than a mere pebble, required two hundred and fifty Mana, the costs of a [Giant-Ant] would be more than just that. The Entity could already feel it and it certainly didn’t like it.

‘That's about the gist of it,’ the Queen stated. ‘Send in the Mana with the intent to cycle the Mana from outside through the creature’s body at extreme speeds. Make sure to never have any intention of keeping any of it inside, lest we get a rather large explosion on our hands.’

Don’t make any dumb mistakes. The Core could understand that part.

‘Is there nothing more to the method?’ the Entity questioned, just to be sure. The bundle of Mana had already been prepared, only needing to be inserted into the Seed of the Oak Tree, yet the Core just wanted to be extra sure that it wasn’t messing anything up. The idea of a Mana-Induced explosion hinted at it being able to affect Mana-Constructs. And, well, that wasn't something it truly wanted to risk. ‘No other details that might be needed.’

‘I will gladly remind you, little rock, that we are skipping a decade worth of Mana-Theory because we just don’t have the patience for it,’ the Queen stated, not sounding like she liked it either. ‘While I would gladly explain it all to you, including the other various methods that could be used, I don’t truly believe that it will increase the chances of this working out. You have a gift for working with limited amounts of information, though that is likely due to your [Class Bonus] instead.

Well, that didn’t sound- wait.

‘My [Class Bonus]?’ the Core asked, not exactly sure what that was meant to be.

‘If I had to wager a guess on that, it allows you to gain the initial level. Quite powerful in the early stages but not that good when you already have a solid base of skills,’ the Queen continued, completely unaware that the Entity had no clue on what she was talking about. She did get the hint of that, though, when the Core couldn’t help but exclude massive amounts of confusion. Emotions were hard to keep contained, after all. ‘And… if you didn’t know about class bonuses until now, they are the entire reason that classes exist. Some give stat-increases while others increase your affinity at other, more specialized tasks. Learning new skills, in general, is a rare one, but [Necromancer], as an example, allows me to utilize skills that use [Dark Mana] more efficiently. I am a bit surprised you didn't know about this.’

‘I am as well,’ the Core stated. It wanted to ask so many questions, yet it knew that it had to shut it down now rather than later. ‘We will save that for after we are done with evolution. Until then, we need to focus on this. You said there was nothing else to do if I wanted to get the highest chance of success, right? No other tricks?’

``Other than the standard requirement of emptying your mind of all thoughts that could potentially interfere with your needed [Intent], there are no other standard tricks that I feel you need to hear,’ the Queen responded her words like gold to the Core’s ears. It just needs to do it. And… that was surprisingly hard.

Yet it is preserved, never able to falter for too long. Filled with the right intent, the Core began the drive down through the earth, forcing the Mana to stay in place perfectly until it hit the point where the Seed of the Oak Tree lay. It was perfectly calm, looking as normal as it positively could.

But… that wasn’t allowed for long. Instead of sitting around in silence, the Mana entered through every single piece of it, enveloping it completely within mere moments. And then? That was when the actual process started up. Like a vortex of energy, the Core felt all the Mana inside that part of the domain start to be funnelled into that small seed. Yet it did not stay that way for long, it all floating right outside mere moments later. It was constantly filled to the brim and then forced to not explode due to a Magical Overload. Oh, how painful it would have been for a living creature to go through such a thing. The Core looked with its Mana-Sense, not exactly sure it was happy to see it. Since the process itself was over from its part, the process as a whole was still well underway. The Queen had warned it that the process could take several minutes.

And she was not lying about that. A minute into it, the seed had started to glow, the light coming through the dirt and out into the air around. While it wasn’t exactly dark outside yet, it was starting to catch up into the afternoon. And with the hills that surrounded them, the darkness was removed from their sights only due to the Mana spiralling inside that seed.

Not that it was a seed for long after that. Since the lights had started, the Core had feared that an explosion was imminent. It had desired to stop the process, to envelop it all and absorb every piece in fear that it could develop into a weapon that could hurt those present. Yet the Queen had stopped the Entity before it had even started, stating that such an event was extremely common. Becoming beacons of light was something that the Core needed to adapt to seeing. It was a common way to disperse energy, light being the easiest one to create. Why exactly that was so, the Core was not sure, yet it did not doubt the Queen’s words too hard.

Instead, it looked upon the sapling in great interest. For the seed was only formerly so, instead of having turned into something bigger, something that had a few leaves on top. It was barely fifty centimetres tall yet it stood prouder than anything else the Core had seen from the forest around them. The Queen again explained that it was due to the ideal situation that the plant had been put into but the Core couldn’t believe it was as simple as that.

Oak Tree

Common plant found in the wild

[Appraisal] did not show anything being different, no new changes to the Sub-Race or the race entirely. Instead, the only change was that the plant had grown taller. The Core wasn’t directly disappointed by this result or anything, the Entity just happy that it didn’t blow up in its face, yet it was so sure that something more… interesting could have occurred instead.

‘When you said it was fifty-fifty on either growing or just getting a new alteration put onto it, I believed that it was another one of your overestimations,’ the Core stated, continuing to look upon its work. It had required so much Energy and some amounts of the Mana inside the Domain needed to be cycled through to gain its perfect colouring again, yet… it still wasn’t sure what to call the results. ‘Now I believe you might have been right.’

‘We could force the next round to have an alteration if you want,’ the Queen offered but the Core shot her down with a pulse of refusal. It didn’t outright say that but the emotions it was laced with told the story rather well. ‘Or, I guess not. From your lack of expectations, I take it you didn’t get the skill?’

‘I did not,’ the Core answered, confirming the Queen’s suspicions. ‘Could it be that I need to attain both results before the [System] thinks me worthy of the skill?’

‘You might need to do it on an actual creature that the [System] looks at as being sapient, is the right answer,’ the Queen stated. ‘But, we can just continue with the trees for now. I need to make sure that you aren't making mistakes and just getting lucky with this first try. And we do need a few more seeds planted anyway, so it’s not like we could stop now even if we wanted.’

That wasn’t the truth, since the Core was more than able to stop at any point it wished. It just understood the consequences of such an action and wanted to avoid it above all else. Yet… it did understand the sentiment behind it and decided to not correct the ant on her stance. Instead, the Entity just prepared another dose of the Mana, that being precisely two hundred and fifty Mana. From the Core’s previous experiences with the plant-type, it knew that they grew up to twenty meters. It wanted at least fifteen before it could accept anything. Since the plant was currently under one meter… it would take a while to get right.

‘Do stand a bit back now,’ the Core suggested as it began the last phases of preparations. Bundling the Mana into the same density as last time was the hardest part, but it decided to go through the extra efforts of making it happen. Changing more parameters after each trial was the height of stupidity after all. If something failed this time, it could point to it as being due to the change in the creature instead of the density where the alternative would be to have to repeat the test one more time anyway to make sure which part made the process fail.. ‘It might grow quicker this time.’

‘I highly doubt that but your precautions shall be upheld,’ the Queen stated, taking a few extra steps back while making it obvious she thought them unneeded. ‘While we might get a meter or two from this point on, I highly doubt we can get more than that. Trees don’t grow too fast.’

The Core ignored the discouragement, making sure to believe in the growth. Two hundred and fifty Mana was a lot of Energy. If the tree couldn’t grow bigger from that, it didn't do what was required.

Sending it in, the process started up once again. With another burst of light or two, the tree did grow by quite a bit, making the Core think that the initial process of getting through the seed had taken a lot of the Energy. In the next five minutes or so, the sapling went from under a meter in height to ten full meters. It was quite beautiful, even if the Core couldn’t see any differences in colouration when compared to the other trees around. It was still entirely normal, even if it had grown to an enormous size within a mere hour of being alive.

That was when the Core got an idea.

‘Mother Carapace, I have a question,’ the Core stated.

‘You know,’ the ant in question began. ‘I have very bad experiences with people using that sentence. For some reason, they always need to sound a little respectful before they say something so extremely stupid that I kill most of them. Not that I can do that last part to you but you understand the meaning.’

‘Your opinions are noted,’ the Core stated. ‘But I still have that question of mine.’

‘Then ask it, little rock,’ the Queen said. ‘We could have already moved on to the third use of the skill.’

‘Yes, that was the part I was wondering about,’ the Core stated. ‘You mentioned that bigger creatures would need larger amounts of Mana. Since this tree is now quite bigger than it was originally, would it not need an increased amount of Mana to sustain its growth.’

The Queen looked up to the spot that the Core looked down from.

‘... You know what? Just do it. Try it out. See what happens. I’m just taking a few more steps back.’

The Core waited patiently as she got into the tunnels. Then it increased the amount of Mana going into the process to five hundred, and then, without a moment of hesitation, inserted into the tree. That was about the point where it exploded.

… huh.