Strength flowed into the tendrils that was missing before. The corporeal nature of the limbs dulled and the crystal was able to watch as they became less of a haze. Excited over the series of improvements, the crystal went through its meager memory and tried testing each new skill.

To its dismay, none of the new skills seemed to have any active use. [Degenerate] was capable of affecting the material inside itself, however the strangest sensations occurred when it used [Degenerate] on the new ‘stuff’ that appeared after [Degenerate]ing the initial ‘stuff’.

It just disappeared. To be exact, the material was released from the crystals ‘where’ and it felt something flood through it.

[ Criteria Met. Lesser Energy Manipulation leveled up. ]

[ Criteria Met: Lesser Reactor leveled up. ]

[ Criteria Met: Lesser Energy Circulation leveled up. ]

A burst of layers expanded from the crystal’s surface growing it by a couple millimeters all at once. The once filled pool inside itself gained volume, and yet that shallow vat wasn’t quite full. The passive skill [Energy Circulation] was kicked off by the crystal for the first time in months.

No wait needed, it felt earth affinity energy enter it, filling that shallow vat a little at a time. The crystal noticed the threat back off in the slightest after it started absorbing the energy, and its curiosity about the threat itself grew.

Without a viable means to discover it, as the threat was still invisible to its new senses, the crystal continued along the path of what worked up to now. As it found [Degenerate] was capable of something so wonderful, it started using the skill non-stop.

Every bundle of debris transferred to the ‘where’ was broken down until it disappeared from the ‘where’. The crystal emptied its current stock and while it let its tendrils do their thing in the background, it turned to the second skill that seemed to do ‘something’, [Lesser Identify].

A tendril that just finished dragging debris to the crystal was raised up and selected as the target of [Lesser Identify]. The results stunned the crystal, each of the mana tendrils halting mid motion in tandem.

Within its mind, a stream of information expanded as if from nowhere. The data constructed itself in such a manner that even the crystal could understand it with its pitiful intelligence.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Energy Tendrils ]

A slender, thread-like appendage created from energy.

It was on the cusp of something. The crystal knew that ‘something’ was important, and so it acted once again.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Energy Tendrils ]

A slender, thread-like appendage created from energy.

The information delivered itself once again to the crystal. The instincts built into it sharpened after gaining the knowledge as if by design. It now ‘knew’ what the tendrils were rather than just ‘knowing’ it both had and could control them.

The crystal directed the skill at anything it could sense, excited by the influx of new information.

[ Lesser Identify: Pure Energy ]

Energy without affinity. Capable of assuming the affinity of any energy nearby given enough time.

[ Lesser Identify: Terra Attribute Energy ]

Energy aligned to earth. Fuels Terra aligns magic and skills.

[ Lesser Identify: Granite ]

A very hard, granular, crystalline, igneous rock consisting mainly of quartz, mica, and feldspar and often used as a building stone.

The information flooded it, much to the crystal’s satisfaction. Its wiring grew more dense every time it came across new information. It found the sensation of learning thrilling and as the changes slowed to a halt, the crystal realized something. It had yet to [Lesser Identify] itself, so it did.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Unknown Nucleus ]

Name: N/A

Race: Unknown Nucleus

Rank: Lesser

Level: 3

Health: 2/2

Mana: 28/30

Stats:

N/A

Skills (Active):

Lesser Identify - Level 1

Lesser Energy Tendrils - Level 3

Skills (Passive):

Lesser Energy Circulation - Level 2

Lesser Energy Manipulation - Level 1

Lesser Terra Assimilation - Level 1

Lesser Energy Perception - Level 3

Lesser Proprioception - Level 1

Lesser Energetic Growth - Level 1

Lesser Energy Resistance - Level 1

Lesser Reactor - Level 2

Lesser Chemistry - Level 1

Lesser Spatial Storage - Level 1

Skills (Unique):

Degenerate - Level Max

Soul (Unique):

[Locked]

The information flooded it. It was the first time the crystal gained an understanding of itself. Though it understood the information, ingesting the meaning rather than the words presented to its mind, the crystal found itself lost

Though the meaning was passed, and many of the items matched up to what the crystal understood them to be, the skill section left it confused. One by one, the crystal focused on each item.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Energy Circulation ]

Entry technique to absorb any natural energy.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Energy Manipulation ]

Enables a minor degree of control over energy nearby.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Terra Assimilation ]

Entry technique to absorb Terra attribute energy.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Energy Perception ]

Requests and reads the information from energy in the surroundings.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Proprioception ]

Enable a vague awareness of the position for any extension to the body.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Energetic Growth ]

Enables the conversion of energy to health.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Energy Resistance ]

Creates an inferior shield fueled by mana.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Reactor ]

Enables wielders to nudge fundamental evolutions.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Chemistry ]

Inferior insights into the fundamental components of matter.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Spatial Storage ]

An inferior means of controlling space for storage.

[ Lesser Identify: Degenerate ]

Single owner skill that breaks down materials.

[ Lesser Identify: [Locked] ]

Unknown.

Each item resolved itself in the crystal’s mind. Though text was presented to the crystal, it couldn’t read it. Rather, the meaning of each [Lesser Identify] soaked in osmosis style. Unlike prior times, the crystal couldn’t feel a strong reaction to its internals from the new information.

Something was refined, however it was more of a quantitative change rather than qualitative. The simmering sensation wasn’t unpleasant, just unusual compared to what it experienced so far.

The budding intelligence of the crystal allowed it to hypothesize the dulled reactions were from the [Lesser Identify]. It knew intrinsically that the skill was the weakest version of itself. The jumbled and vague information received from some of the skills it targeted were likely also the result of that.

As the crystal focused on the final item, it found itself confused. [Locked] was a complete oddity. As far as it could tell, [Locked] wasn’t a skill like Degenerate or [Lesser Reactor]. It’s as if the information itself was blocked from the crystal, something it found unusual since it involved itself.

Tremors reached the crystal and its tendrils, breaking it from the infantile thoughts. Its fear of the ‘threat’ lashed out in full force as the crystal focused single mindedly on [Lesser Energy Perception] and [Lesser Energy Tendrils]. Reverberations traveled through the ground, the tendrils, and finally the crystal’s nucleus itself.

Each lasted but a moment, however the crystal found a subtle change in the terra attribute energy density flowing through the rock near it. As if released from a bottle, the energy appeared to migrate at a trickle.

‘What happened?’

The inquisitive emotion burned at the back of the crystal’s mind. The fear of the ‘threat’ no longer even on the crystal’s mind. With the shift of the terra energy, the threat withdrew as well. Needless to say, that changed nothing about the curious crystal’s plans. It was no longer a simple, passive seedling, running from some intangible threat.

With budding intelligence and wisdom came pride, courage, and everything else required of a sentient creature. Such things were still fledglings, however it was enough. The crystal Observed the situation for a while longer and found the tremors increasing in tempo. Without an accurate sense of time, it couldn’t measure the time between each, however it knew the tremors were becoming more frequent and some far more powerful than the others.

Tendrils burrowed into the surrounding material as much as their inferior capabilities allowed and the crystal continued to ‘observe’ the phenomena. After monitoring the situation for what must have been a few days, the crystal chose to focus back on expanding its immediate surroundings.

Days of thought allowed the crystal to determine that the tremors didn’t pose a direct threat to it, however it failed to understand what the tremor was beyond movement in the ground around it. Some of the tremors were powerful enough to fracture the granite surrounding it enabling the crystal to dig far easier.

Months of tremors and digging continued, however the crystal noticed the tremors halt without notice one day. The rock became silent, however that wasn’t a good enough reason for the crystal to stop digging. Over those few months, it used [Lesser Identify] on everything it found.

It learned of concepts surrounding fissures, vibrations, durability, and more. A few well timed [Lesser Identify] on cracks opened those concepts up to it. It consumed and used [Degenerate] on more debris in the past few months than perhaps the total of its life up to that point.

The once few centimeter diameter cavity grew to hundreds of centimeters, encroaching on the meter boundary. The crystal itself engorged without restraint, leveling up a few of its abilities and expanding the crystal’s diameter by nearly 60 millimeters. Its new pebble like appearance would, from an outside perspective, look rather sinister.

Hundreds of tendrils were undulating in defiance of gravity, each with their base wandering around the surface of the crystal. The fibrous web of tendrils moved through each other in ghostly fashion while tearing into the surrounding material. No longer was the granite too dense for the tendrils to break apart, though it still took some effort.

The crystal used [Lesser Identify] on itself while filtering out the information it cared little for, something it learned to do by happy coincidence. Self satisfaction flooded it after seeing the accelerated progress. In its heart, it hoped the tremors would come back as they provided a dramatic boost to its progress.

Lesser Energy Circulation - Level 6

Lesser Energy Manipulation - Level 5

Lesser Terra Assimilation - Level 4

Lesser Energy Perception - Level 7

Lesser Proprioception - Level 9

Lesser Energetic Growth - Level 4

Lesser Reactor - Level 4

Lesser Chemistry - Level 2

Lesser Spatial Storage - Level 3