I narrowed my attention to the creatures. Despite the fear probing at my mind, I felt rather calm when facing them. The group entered my cavern and seemed to muddle about while traveling deeper in. They would often stop and poke around at the surrounding walls.

Though their actions weren’t harmful to me as far as I could tell, my caution didn’t decrease. Rather, I continued preparing inside my main cavern for them. I lowered my nucleus into the hazy water to hide it as best as I could.

The creatures didn’t appear to be rushed, so I had a large amount of time. My [Lesser Energy Perception] never left their group, however I split my attention off to monitor the cavern entrance. The last thing I wanted was to be surprised by another group of intruders with more malicious intent.

The group finally reached the halfway point. Their actions up to now appeared innocent, so I chose to only remain an observer. The group moved together through the tunnel and as they approached, I found myself focusing more and more on them. I wasn’t too interested in what [Lesser Energy Perception] showed as I was already familiar with them in that way.

Rather, I was more interested in what I couldn’t see. After realizing there were ‘things’ in my territory I knew about, but couldn’t see, it was obvious that was a weakness. These creatures walking through my cavern held little energy inside them. I wouldn’t have missed them as blatantly as I did if they held more.

My gaze took in their voided shapes with [Lesser Energy Perception] only showing specks of light at their core. My focus intensified on one creature in particular, scrutinizing the void around it. Every minor movement it made, the void shifted oh so slightly and with it, my awareness followed along. Every step the creature took, I was there watching with heavy observation.

The creatures reached the inner cavern that held my new lake and as they walked up to the edge of the water, I was graced with a familiar sensation, rewarding my overtaxed mind.

[ Criteria Met: Attempting unlock of unique skill Spiritual Sight. ]

[ Success. Acquired unique skill Spiritual Sight. ]

The world opened up to me as colors and shapes far more defined than [Lesser Energy Perception] ever provided entered my mind. In contrast to the sparkling energy that resided inside bodies of void, I found myself unable to even see the energy inside the creatures with [Spiritual Sight].

Rather, It was as if [Spiritual Sight] filled in the void that [Lesser Energy Perception] missed. As my attention was focused on the creatures at the edge of my lake, I caught my first true glimpse of their visage and with the help of [Lesser Identify], their descriptions flowed easily into my mind.

Thick snow white fur covering a mass of muscle was supported by 4 legs. Eyes as blue and pure as sapphires scoured the surroundings with caution while the other members of the group started lapping water from the lake. Their long snouts filled with pristine white fangs set in reddish gums drew a sense of amazement from me.

[Lesser Identify] was even kind enough to provide a name for them.

‘Greater Dire Wolf’.

The wolves circled the shoreline a few times as if scouting out the cave for dangers. My new found vision watched the creatures rapt. I felt something inside me change as I watched them, and after finally tearing away my attention, [Lesser Identify] elucidated something rather surprising.

[ Lesser Identify: Lesser Unknown Nucleus ]

Name: Wolf

Race: Unknown Nucleus

Rank: Lesser

Level: 16

I couldn’t understand what caused it, however it was clear that I acquired a name. The most profound aspect was something inside me changed. Something far deeper than my stats, deeper than the wirings inside my crystal, deeper even than my mind. Scouring my statistics didn’t reveal anything different, however I certainly felt it.

My attention turned to the outside world, leaving the wolves to their rest. I found something assaulting my senses that was previously missing. [Lesser Energy Perception] and [Spiritual Sight] overlaid on each other showing me a world of color and flowing energy. The grass and trees which once appeared as only meager strains of energy became verdant and lively. The ‘things’ across my territory I couldn’t see before were colored with splendor variety and held all sorts of shapes and sizes.

The creatures at the base of the hills were performing their gathering at the small structure once again. For the first time, I managed to catch sight of their figures. As [Lesser Energy Perception] alluded to, the creatures were bipedal. Their figures were mostly hairless with the exception of their head and tails. Their ears resembled the wolves, however exhibited a more elongated feature.

As my gaze crossed over them, I saw for the first time facial reactions in response to me. The color drained from their bronze skin and they huddled together. Swiveling heads scanned the area while a few of the individuals with more powerful energy immediately turned to glance at the mountain.

These new sights affected me. I felt my thoughts alter with the new influx of information and as if to follow with my internal changes, the territory around those creatures changed as well. Unconsciously, these changes inside me altered the land surrounding the monument by turning it into a flat area with a trenched border.

The alterations drew excitement from the creatures, though I found it hard to believe they were accepting of the changes. Their figures were obviously shaking and though I couldn’t discern their emotions very well yet, their energy fluctuations were in overdrive… Perhaps preparing to repel me if I tried something against them?

‘What a strange reaction.’

I left the creatures alone and turned my attention to the rest of my territory. I found some aspects of it pleasing, while others left me with a vague sense of disgust. Not something so potent as hate, nor something that would drive me to do anything against, more along the lines of preference.

It was as if I found a new sense of self and with that new sense, I turned my attention inward to my cavern to ‘look’ at it for the first time. It was dark, dreary, and worst of all, colorless. Sludge lined the edge of the lake and the water was pitch black with a hazy material floating inside it. [Lesser Energy Perception] revealed to me what that haze was, however [Spiritual Sight] was enough to reveal the lacking aesthetics.

As I reexamined the interior and watched the wolves make the site their home, I started planning how to adjust the interior as well as the path leading to it. The first task at hand though was to bring light to the cavern. The little light scattering in from the cave tunnel did nothing. Rather, it appeared that most of the light in the cavern was in fact coming from the waterfall dropping onto my nucleus.

When I traced the light source, I found that the light was somehow following the water from the top of the mountain. I toyed around with the aperture a bit and found that I could increase or decrease the amount of light in the cavern by adjusting the size and number of apertures hitting the water flow.

I boosted the light until I noticed the wolves could find their way around with absolute ease. Though still dim, it provided enough light that the water turned from the pitch black that it was into a more clouded blue white color. I learned my lesson from earlier and chose to avoid any large scale changes to the ground while the wolves remained inside.

Instead, I adjusted the density and mixture of the ground below them through a mixture of crushed Inferior Pure Energy Crystals, crushed quartz, and crushed mica. Luckily, the surrounding granite provided enough material and my [Lesser Spatial Storage] held massive reserves for just such a project. It only took me a few [Degenerate] invocations before the broken down debris could be mixed into the clay with [Lesser Energy Tendril].

The subtle manipulations and mixing was outside the scope of what the wolves could detect as they already lacked strong energy. The process took a few weeks, however I noticed that as the wolves drank from the lake, the energy inside them grew rapidly. The once flickering energy I saw a few weeks ago was now a brilliant bead. With this change, I also noticed the wolves slowed down their consumption of other creatures.

What was once required daily by them, now turned into a weekly affair. Out of curiosity, I used [Lesser Identify] while focusing on those beads.

[Lesser Identify: Beast Core.]

The solidified component of power for any mythical beast.

The beast cores reminded me of the bipedal creatures at my hillside, however there were obvious differences. While these beast cores contained power, it seemed more pure and natural than the ones at the hillside. Also, the hillside creatures held a core that seemed to spin as a bundle rather than these beast cores which were more solid, however more small. That wasn’t to say that the bipedal creatures didn’t have solid cores, though. In fact, it was clear the ones with the strongest energy densities held a core, a trend I put to memory as they were the ones capable of tracking my gaze.

I left the wolves alone while I continued my cave remodeling. The one slick mud beneath them eventually turned into a plush sand after thorough mixing. I continued with my crystal practice as well, eventually receiving a wonderful notification.

[ Criteria Met. Lesser Energy Perception leveled up. ]

[ Criteria Met. Lesser Energy Perception evolved into Minor Energy Perception. ]

I felt the world become more detailed once again. The strings and sparks that I could only grasp the edges and hints of became more corporeal and defined. Not only that, I noticed I was able to see the structure of the inferior pure energy crystal in greater detail. It was a revelation for me really. No wonder it was considered inferior. There were massive gaps between the energy I stuffed into the quartz. The new understanding allowed me to use [Minor Energy Manipulation] in a more fine tuned way. The results were rather pleasing.

Though it was still identified as inferior, the crystal produced this time contained nearly double the energy density compared to any of my previous attempts. In fact, though the crystal was inferior according to [Lesser Identify] I held a strong feeling that it was only because I leveled up halfway into the process. I was eager to test that feeling and tossed the inferior crystal into the lake allowing it to dissolve like those before it.

I isolated some quartz within my [Lesser Spatial Storage] and ramped up [Lesser Energy Circulation]. I felt the unattributed energy pump through my nucleus and with [Minor Energy Manipulation], I focused it into the quartz. [Minor Energy Perception] locked in onto the energy as it was compressed.

Instead of just pushing the energy into the material, I fought against the instinct and tried stacking the energy inside it. The controlled action took quite a bit of effort, however as I saw the results, a familiar euphoric sensation overtook me. In my excitement, I ejected the new crystal from [Lesser Spatial Storage], its visage tumbling into the lake to dissolve like its inferior cousins.

[ Criteria Met. Lesser Energy Circulation leveled up. ]

[ Criteria Met. Lesser Energy Circulation evolved into Minor Energy Circulation. ]

I was giddy from restructuring that tore through my internals, however the results were as expected. When I regained my focus, the crystal had long since disappeared beneath the lake surface. I noticed [Spiritual Sight] was unable to see it, however [Minor Energy Perception] was able to make out a hotspot of energy diffusing into the surrounding water. I lost the change to [Lesser Identify] it, however I felt confident that my creations were no longer of inferior quality. An hour later, I confirmed that feeling.