Chapter 124: Gathering more biomass

The roots dug into my core and began interacting with the mana inside. I could feel my core cracking, leaking mana from the inside. Both my mana and my core felt as if they were fusing with the roots.

It was an excruciating process that sent a ripple of pain through my entire body. It felt as if every cell inside my body were being ripped to pieces and then put back together, except differently from how it first was.

I fought with the things inside of me, trying my best to force them out with mana, but with every damage inflicted to this parasite, it felt as if I were hurting myself, and soon a cold, emotionless voice rang inside my head, and a screen popped up in front of me.

[Congratulations. Special Item Acquired: Celestial Seed!]

[Description: Celestial root increases the mana capacity of them, acting as a sort of a bank.] In exchange they take a small portion of this mana as payment and protect their host in times of danger. Celestial root also refines the host’s mana pool.

As I listened to the voice and read the scream in front of me, the pain began to dissipate, enough for me to focus on what was happening.

Refine mana? What does that mean?

I more or less understand the part about it acting as a bank since I have done a lot of research about mana and magic. Theoretically a person can produce an infinite amount of mana. It just depends on how much mana your core can hold and how quickly you replenish it.

From the description it seems this parasite can increase the amount of mana I can hold inside my body. like a mana reserve. That made sense. Because of this parasite, a single breath from the ants produced more mana that I had in my entire body.

What a waste. If it had so much mana that it could waste it with every breath, then it was clearly a waste. Plus, the ants had no affinities, so it instead used its mana to improve its physical strength, and even that had its limits.

I could feel the excess mana my core was creating being drained into the roots. It felt as if my manna were falling into a bottomless pit. It made me wonder how long until I reached the capacity for how much mana this root could hold. Or if this root even had a capacity.

"Are you ok?" Amanda asked, resting her hand on the back of my carapace, her face etched with worry.

She looked ready to cut the roots from outside of me.

"I’m fine." I rapped.

"But the roots—"

"It’s a special item from the game, it seems."

Even then, I’m still not sure if this root has any side effects that I’m not aware of. I’ll have to do some research on it when I get back to the university. It’s not like I could do anything now, and trying to forcibly remove it could make things worse.

Amanda’s expression softened when I told her it was an item, but she still seemed worried.

"Let’s take a break to rest before going any further."

He nodded his head in agreement.

While I rested, Amanda scanned through the ant’s corpses for its cores. Afterwards, I devoured what was left of the beast, gaining a total of 1100 biomass.

Soon after we continued our journey through the rest of the nest. The size of each tunnel and chamber caused every sound to echo ominously inside. And it wasn’t long before more monsters came our way.

They were just as big as the ants before them. Some were even bigger, and they all had plant fibres growing out of them. There were four of them in total. The vicious monsters charged at me while Amanda flanked them on the right.

I covered myself in sharp obsidian spikes before firing several firebolts. The firebolts slammed into the monster’s hard exoskeleton, causing the cracks on its exoskeleton to widen. Still, the monsters barely reacted as the roots instantly helped to heal their wounds.

I slammed my body into the ground while activating my magma creation spell and eruption spell at the same time, causing a tidal wave of magma to rise into the air. At the same time, I combined my earth control spell with my mold skill to create a wall of obsidian to protect Amanda from the huge wave of magma.

The wave of magma washed over the colossal ants and melted through their exoskeletons. Almost immediately they were turned into giant sludge, and the roots inside of them were burnt alongside them.

Before, I had been conserving my mana, since I had been fighting ever since I came here. I saved my mana in case I encountered a monster that required me to go all out. But now that I had this root to store most of my mana, I no longer had to worry as much.

Still, the amount of mana I used to combine those spells seemed way less than before. Even the firebolt spell now used less mana.

Is this what it means by refining my mana?

Even though they were melting, the giant sludge of ants still tried to crawl towards me even though their bodies were falling apart. These ants almost seem lifeless. They don’t react how regular ants would, and considering I had the same parasite living inside me, I couldn’t help but feel concerned.

Soon their bodies stopped moving completely.

[You have slain a Splicer Void Ant.]

[Magma Absorption]

I quickly reabsorbed the mana back into my body and gained 4400 biomass. Amanda stood on top of the wall of obsidian with her mouth slightly open, watching as I reabsorbed the magma back inside my body.

She then clicked her tongue.

"This is why I hate mages. You’re always such show-offs. " She then paused, as if she were deep in thought. "I’m guessing you have some kind of bloodline that allows you to gain spells. There is no way any guild would sell a spell book to you."

"You may be right about that," I answer casually as I finish reabsorbing the magma.

She went quiet, which was uncharacteristic of her. I finally looked up at her to see a cheeky smile on her face. "Tell me, how does a centipede obtain a draconic bloodline?"

I froze.

"You knew?"

"Those horns on your head are a dead giveaway. You forget that my father also has a draconic bloodline. My father has the singularity dragon bloodline. The first of its kind and a dragon that was said to have been born from a black hole in space."

That would explain his ability when I met him. It felt as if he had the ability to control gravity itself, which was an area of magic no mage had ever been able to control.

"Having a power like that, no wonder he’s one of the top-ranked players. Most won’t even be able to come close to his strength."

Amanda lowered her head slightly, a remorseful look crossing her face.

"You would be surprised. There are things out there that you and I can’t comprehend."

"Why are you telling me this?"

She fanned her hand dismissively.

"Let’s just say I’m no longer interested in keeping my father’s secrets. " Her chirpy expression soon returned. "Come on, no more talking about unpleasant things."

She hopped down from the obsidian wall, and I followed behind her. Before we even reached the next chamber, we were ambushed in the tunnel. It was then that I realised that the tunnel we were in acted as a cross-section between multiple tunnels, making it the perfect place for an ambush.

Instead of one generation of ants, this time there were multiple. And the sheer size of the tunnel made it possible for me to use magic without fearing the tunnels would collapse down on us. Amanda and I worked as a synchronized team, complementing each other’s weaknesses and strengths.

These ants were much more powerful than the ones we faced before. It seemed as if every time we killed an ant, a dozen more would show up in its place. It took hours of continuous fighting and thousands of dead ants before we moved on to the next tunnel.

Their bodies piled up, creating small mountains of corpses. The walls of the tunnel were painted in their blood, and the smell alone was enough for me to gag.

[Magma Creation]

[Eruption]

Once again, I combined my magma creation spell and eruption spell to create a tidal wave of magma to wash over the bodies. Amanda was in the next chamber while I used obsidian to block all the entrances of the tunnels, creating a giant tank of magma.

When everything was melted down, I reabsorbed the magma, gaining over half a million biomass. This was it. With this much biomass, I could evolve myself enough to face the queen and the newest generation of ants.

Without hesitation, I began my evolution.