LOG 6

(DAY 80)

there has been a regular decrease in the amount of mana in this place. while I am not exactly sure what it is, it is not a good sign. presently the mana is almost equal to the concentration that is present above land. it gives me the feeling of breathing ( or more accurately of a circulatory system ), though any being for whom mana is a necessity to live is a dangerous being.

the general feeling of danger that I have felt the last couple of days, has not been helping.

I have gone almost semi-crazy hunting down every beast that I can find. I retreated to the outskirts of this place, hunting the more dumber beasts and absorbing their cores. I agree that it is grunt work but it is not like I am exactly powerful.

I have absorbed precisely thirty-three mana cores and my core has grown by a lot.

this is my present status.

species - undead( unknown mutation)

mana - 70/70

skills - bone bolt - lvl 3

string manipulation - lvl 5

dream walker - lvl 0

this has been my progress on the mana core. I have managed to build another five percent of the meridians( I am finding it becomes more easier to build though ). I have yet to figure out the conditions to open the third page of the book or conditions to build a class 9 core. honestly speaking, I want to see the third page of the book. if the second page in itself has such complicated knowledge then the third page might be even more useful ( the dark bone art is a dangerous thing, but the page also contains the methods to create multiple string circuits and even more simpler magics.)

anyway, I have more immediate concerns. I have to build a base. in the wild forest, most of the beasts in this place can destroy me(I only managed to acquire beast cores either by ambushing or due to the dumbness of the beasts ). I also have other worries, such as a place where I can relax my mind. it is not exactly easy to maintain the state of focus that I have to maintain to prevent even any ambushes. otherwise, I will fall in the first attack that an enemy does. a ghost doesn't need sleep, but the mental exhaustion has other effects on me, so I need to rest.

I have found the perfect place to build a base, a cave present in a hill. the cave has a narrow entrance, preventing most beasts from entering, and with the proper reinforcements, I have a feeling that it will be a place that I can guard on my own.

the first order of business is to seal the cave opening with some kind of a gate. the cave though it has a narrow entrance, is spacious on the inside. I am thinking of planting a tree in the place, reinforced with projection magic, to guard this place. the main problem is transporting a kind of plant into the cave. I need some kind of plant that can be moved, but the kind of plants that can bear the strain of projection are not many and most of them are massive plants, which can not be sent into the cave. I have a solution for this, though I don't know if it will work or not and even if it were to work, whether the final product will be any good at all.

there is a tree in this place, called ironwood, which is known for the strength of its bark. anyway, the thing about this plant, is that it propagates by its branches. if you were to plant a branch into the ground, the branch shall begin to grow as if it was a new plant and more importantly it can store mana without burning out. I will need to keep a record of my attempts, otherwise I tend to repeat my mistakes.

(attempt 1)

the very first attempt of my spell is naturally a failure. creating a projection is a pretty complicated business. first of all, you need to have a strong material, to handle the strain caused by mana. mana is not a physical substance but is something like water. it has a nature to flow. that is the very first problem with projection, you need to have a method of preventing the flow of mana. normally it is prevented using multiple types of complex seals, but you can say the art of projection is the next best method after that.

you can take a piece of anything and make it as the base for whatever you want to make(also called the core). you stuff mana into the core, making it full of mana, and then using a simple seal to seal the mana in ( mind you, this seal Is so simple that I could make It as a kid). then you manifest the mana outwards projecting whatever you want. as long as the seal is not damaged, your projection is perfect and there is no loss of mana( at the very least for a couple of months. then the projection begins to fade.) that is where the very first problem rises, most materials are simply not capable of handling the kind of pressure that storing mana in it causes.

so ironwood is something that I can use, but even then I need to make an idea of just how much mana I can store in it. to figure that out I have taken most of today.

(attempt 39)

I have managed to complete the first step, storing of mana. I almost managed to carve the seal, but the core turned to ash before that. that happens sometimes, though it is rare. it looks like my luck is just bad.

(attempt 41)

it took me a couple of attempts to finally carve a seal in that piece of wood. now comes the hardest part. manipulating mana is not easy, it is like trying to make a statue of water. we can use our mind to give it a shape for a moment. projection is like freezing that statue at that very moment. so it is a process that requires a lot of precision. I am going to be having a lot of failures just based on this.

(attempt 53)

I need to change my approach with this matter, rather than trying to create the gate from projection, if I were to create a rudimentary gate with the plants already and then use projection to fill any mistakes in the gate,( the same way that I do for arrows). I could create a more feasible projection, the only problem, I don't have an idea as to how to craft a gate.

(attempt 60)

this new method of mine is more feasible, but I still can't get a good enough projection to use it as a gate. I had forgotten how annoying this magic of mine was. it is such a hard magic, that there are barely any users of this kind of magic, I may very well be the last user of this kind of magic. even I did not learn it for combat purposes, but to make sure that I did not become too lazy. ( some idiot had the idea that if you were to give a kid an impossible task it would cultivate the ability to work hard in the kid) , anyway, I am close to a success and It took me five days of hard work and just a hint of luck.

(attempt 75)

I might have celebrated a bit too early, as it took me quite the time to build the gate finally.

luckily I have an equally large number of arrows and a pretty good bow, after all, having a stronger mana core is useful to me in most scenarios, though I still can't use it.

(DAY 86)

I have discovered a new feature of my memory magic, it allows me to record memories in real-time. I need to figure out just how much of an experimental magic has been shoved in my soul. if my soul explodes one day I have a lady to kill.

(live recording)

today, I am going to be hunting a more tough beast. it is a chimera with three separate heads. ( each head resembles a dog, a wolf, and a tiger) it is one of the only beasts with multiple cores,( precisely three cores). naturally, it is a hard enemy to fight, almost equivalent to fighting three beasts individually.

the only reason that I dare to fight them is due to stealth. the chimera has a very clear flaw, it is a blind beast. If I can fight it from a distance, I can kill it and I have my trump cards as well.

for now, I am far enough away from it so that I can mask my smell and sound. even here, it will be tough for me to hide myself. thankfully I have a bow.

calming my mind I am the bow at the middle head of the beast, the one that can use wind magic. ( it can use wind magic to increase its speed.) the other two faces can use earth magic(the dog head) and flame magic( the tiger head) respectively, both magics that don't have a strong effect on me.

I take my shot and the arrows pierced the throat of the middle head. the beast reacts quickly sending a fireball at my head, I retreat backward, taking a fixed path through the forests. I have already checked out the path before, making sure that I will not have any other distractions In the path. I need to keep a certain distance from the beast or it could use it's earth magic to bind me. I have spent a long time studying the beast( other than trying to create a gate, I need to do something else.) And figuring out its weaknesses.

anyway, my plan is working, for now, the beast is at quite a distance from me, trying to throw a flame ball at me.

the path that I have chosen is full of trees, specifically chosen by me so that I could confuse the beast from aiming at me accurately( blindness is a dangerous thing In any environment, there is always some kind of noise to hide the sound of your movement) I need to keep the beast busy, just for a bit more. the beast is more capable than I had expected it to be, It is finding my position better than I expected it to do. thankfully that means that I don't need to keep shooting arrows at it, to keep its attention. though, I will not have the time to shoot anyway.

I dodge a fireball from the beast, with the flame whizzing past me. I can't feel the heat but I can feel my body softening ( it is a weird sensation), most likely melting in the fire. suddenly the beast roars, causing the ground under me to shake ( caused by the dog head's earth magic, not its roar). just that instant of imbalance is enough for the beast to throw a fireball at me. thankfully, I managed to react quick enough, just jumping out of the way as the fire hits my arm. my arm is melted off in an instant. thankfully I have reached my goal. you see I have dug a hole in the place, putting spikes of ironwood at the bottom. a simple trap but which can hurt most beings. I have carved an explosion seal on the spikes(it is a favorite of the military. one of the few seals I can carve )

as expected, the beast falls into the pit, though it has not gotten impaled by the spikes, (it seems that the earthquake earlier caused the spikes to fall out of place. you can't blame me, I don't have the strength to did it very deep, even the pit was already there. I simply projected a small platform at the top, to hide its existence.) whatever, let's just see explode the spikes and see if it survives.

the explosion was stronger and louder than my expectation( so loud that I most likely will gain attraction), looks like I need to escape again, without any rewards.

anyway, my main purpose for coming to this place has been completed. right now there are no really powerful beasts surrounding my camp so my camp is somewhat safer than before.