Chapter 9: Evolution (Patreon)

Chapter 9: Evolution

When the next night started, Mercury woke up again. That time, the air was still heavy from rain, but the clouds had stopped crying at least. Some mist still hung above the floor, but it was barely enough to be mentioned. So, Mercury started the night off with some light exercise alongside shooting a squirrel off a tree using a rock. Which he then snacked on. Yummy squirrel.

Anyways, he went for a jog, making his way back towards the edge of the spider's territory. The drastic increase in cobwebs made it fairly easy to spot when looking out for it. From there on out, it only took a few more steps for the eerie silence to set in. In short, the whole zone was lifeless. So he threw a rock at it, just using the first one he saw and throwing it straight ahead into the darkness. After it made its landing he could hear the scurrying and clacking of chitin-plated legs hitting the grass floor. They sure didn't like that. They sure were about to hunt him. They sure were about to go face to face with a rock.

Or so he thought, until threads came shooting out from the undergrowth and he had to use <Dash> to even be able to avoid them. Well, shit. The bastards were hiding. This wasn't outside of Mercury's calculations, but it sure was bothersome. In the end, he decided to quickly climb up a tree and throw down some sticks, which seemed effective to some degree when he caught glimpses of a few legs suddenly leaving the ground. Wait. They were leaving the ground. That meant they were- OH SHIT!

Mercury was able to jump off just in time to avoid the volley of sticky strings shot at him, but essentially he was also back to square one. Well, except for that fact that he could now see his targets, three of them, actually, straight up chillin' in the air. They were apparently holding onto thick threads of silk, maintaining their position as all 24 of their beady eyes were staring straight at him. Luckily, they were quickly reduced when two pebbles took two eyes out, both of them on the same spider of course. Then, with one of them silently screeching, they decided it would be an amazing idea to attack him frontally, making all three of them drop down. Alright then, time to try this out, <Bloodlust>!

It only lasted for a moment, but all three of the spiders flinched. Luckily, this moment was all Mercury needed to throw the big rock in his inventory at one of the healthy spiders and another pebble at the already injured one, taking down a third eye. The spider tried to dodge the rock at the last second, but only managed to shift to the side a little. It still got 3 of its legs crushed by it.. He was almost sad to destroy the beautiful symmetry oof equal eyes and legs, when he activated <Throw> on everything in his reach, making every pebble, twig and piece of bark fly full force into mister 5 eyes. Well, that nickname was rather unfitting now, since, well, ya know, it kinda just...

His explanation was cut short by the last healthy spider jumping at him.

It seemed that these spiders relied more on hunting to catch prey, rather than just waiting in their nets. They were most likely a little big to sustain themselves off insects only.

But jeez, can you believe these guys? Not even letting him finish. Didn't they realize it was rude? Ugh. After jumping back, Mercury again used <Throw> on everything his paws touched, which ended in lumps of dirt and some pebbles striking the last healthy spider, while faceless and 5-legs were still struggling to get their shit together. And thus, three spiders were defeated by a cat throwing pebbles at high speeds.

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 11 Gold.]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 11 Gold.]

Well, weren't these guys worth good Exp! He didn't notice it the first time around, but with the need to get close being eliminated, it was quite doable to take them down. This way, he wouldn't just be able to cut down on the Mother's army, but also possibly increase his own level as well, which would definitely be handy in the fight. It would be a lot harder to hunt them if the spiders had half a brain or appeared in greater numbers though, so he needed to be ready to run away at any point. Just like that, Mercury's hunt began.

He never stepped very deep into the spiders' territory, he simply ran along its edge and assassinated every spider he found. At the beginning it actually proved to be quite troublesome, since the spiders kept ambushing him instead of it being the other way around, but nonetheless, Mercury kept trying, always utilizing <Sneak> and <Quiet>. He also got better at spotting the spiders with time, catching glimpses of their feet or eyes in the darkness and quickly launching something at them, but in the end, he only succeeded in surprising a single spider in the very middle of the night, after which the growling of his stomach made him hunt for a mouse again. But the notifications seemed to stay in his head.

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

[<Quiet lv. 1> has levelled up!]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 11 Gold.]

[<Sneak lv.1> has levelled up!]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 11 Gold.]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

[<Throw lv. 7> has levelled up!]

[Killed a giant spider. Get: 50 Exp, 10 Gold.]

Seven more spiders. He ended up killing that many in the end. He only succeeded in surprising the last one but he still managed to kill the others. He was also happy that they never showed up in bigger packs, only moving in groups of two at the most. This time, it wasn't a war of attrition but a guerilla war. He was going to slowly chip away at the spider forces and run away at the sight of danger. Now to go back home and hope the next night would turn out just as well.

When Mercury arrived back at his log, he immediately went inside and started to focus on his mana, having it splash this way and that. For now he was limited to moving it only left, right, forwards and backwards. Sending even a drop upwards with just his mental power seemed to really frigging hurt his head. When that same pain came kicking in after a while anyways, he stopped with his mana training and dedicated the last bit of time before sunrise to practicing <Throw> some more.

The next night started off fairly similar to the ones before, simple physical exercise combined with hunting. He made sure to always get squirrels or mice, since eating the poisonous spiders sounded like an absolutely terrible idea. After his morning routine, Mercury started another excursion to the spiders' territory, which was just as lifeless and gloomy as he had left it. The silence weighed down on him like a heavy, thick blanket. Knowing that there were also dangerous, poisonous killing machines in the area made it even less comfortable, almost like adding nails to the bottom of the blanket. Nail blanket. What a terrible day to think.

But back on track, spiders. Everyone's least favourite, eight legged companion, the creepy-crawlies no one wanted to see at night. Except Mercury, because he was nocturnal and armed with rocks. Also, the spiders were extraordinarily stupid. Like, seriously fucking dumb. They gave up the biggest advantage of spiders, stealth, in exchange for size and power, which was less useful since they are easy to find. They were quite fast, but Agility was the stat Mercury was most confident in. 

So, since their stealth was garbage and he could outrun them, dodging their fangs was fairly doable. They might have stood a chance if he were to walk into their nets, but those were largely in the canopies instead of on the ground. Now, if it were a contest of strength, the spiders would definitely overpower him. But it wasn't. Since he had a faster and more hard-hitting ranged attack, he simply kept throwing rocks at them. 

At his current level, they were completely unable to dodge those, and if there weren't any rocks on the ground, clumps of dirt also did the trick. And so, Mercury hunted spiders. If there were more than two, he ran away. If they were off on their own, he sneak attacked them to inflict good damage before the fight even started. And with the area being as densely populated as it was, he would easily find another spider within minutes.

The only limiting factor was in his Sp. They ran out if he fought consecutively. The fact that he needed to be constantly on alert was also putting some strain on him, as staying focused for an extended time was harder than he expected. Last time he had gotten carried away after his victory over three spiders, but this time he wouldn't risk that much. Three spiders would mean his death if they cooperated, he had simply gotten lucky before. No, his maximum was two spiders per fight and, with some time to regenerate his Sp in between fights, about one and a half hours of hunting time. With that strategy, he felled four more spiders, getting a total of 200 Exp and 41 Gold (leaving behind poison drops as carrying them would have made him too slow), when another pop-up appeared.

[Level Up!]

[You have reached level 10. You are now eligible for Evolution. Please choose one of the following:

Fangling:

A species of mopaaw known for their razor-sharp teeth. They are extremely feral and have a hierarchy solely based on power when moving in packs. They boast great speed and take down enemies quickly and efficiently by attacking them with their fangs and claws. Strong specimens may evolve further to saberlings or similar beings.

Zetraspa:

A species of mopaaw who are known for their intelligence. They hunt in packs using simple strategies, like surrounding their prey and only having the members in blind spots actually attack. They make decisions based on the well-being of their packs before anything else, and have been known to commit to both establishing something akin to towns or a nomadic lifestyle.

Greater Mopaaw:

This species is a derivative of the common Mopaaw. They boast a larger physique and greater intelligence. They hunt in small groups and carry their prey back to a base before consuming it. Their base often moves if they find less prey in an area. These creatures usually have little concern for the lives of their newborns and only keep them around if they are able to keep up with the pack, leaving them behind otherwise.]

Evolution? Was he a frigging monster now or something? Well, technically he was, I guess. What the heck, man. But this actually seemed like a good thing. How many stats would he get from this? Had the other denizens of the forest done this yet? What would his choice lead to? Luckily, he had already decided what to evolve in. The fangling was the equivalent of a physical warrior, strong and fast but bad with other stats. The greater mopaaw had a crappy attitude when it came to relationships with other people. 

Surrounding himself with either of those sounded like he wouldn't have a fun time, constantly needing to prove himself and shit. No, his choice would be the zetraspa. Having more of a communal society was a total must for him. Their higher intelligence and their way of life seemed to fit his ideal of becoming a king much more, plus they also seemed far better suited to becoming wizards, and they kept each other out of danger. This was good. It seemed far less stressful and dangerous than the other two options, so zetraspa it was.

As soon as he tapped the button, another pop-up rang out along with a white light gently wrapping around his body.

[The individual is now evolving.]

The light seemed to lightly push and pull on his body, molding it as it saw fit, slowly changing his physique. He felt his legs grow slightly longer and a bit more slim and his fangs poking out a little further as his face became a sharper. His fur also seemed to grow a tad, and he could feel his skin under it get more leathery. In total he was a little taller, more slender and had some more floof.

[Acquired the Skill <Enhanced Smell lv. 1> through evolution.]

[Evolution complete. The individual is encouraged to check their status window.]

Well, fair enough. His Status was still the most important detail after all. Status?

Status:

Mercury Rainfall Starlight

Lv.: 1

Species: Zetraspa

Titles: <Tutorial Completer>

Hp: 55/55

Mp: 62/62

Sp: 75/75

Strength: 19 -> 21

Vitality: 15 -> 16

Dexterity: 17 -> 20

Agility: 25 -> 27

Intelligence: 11 -> 17

Wisdom: 8 -> 13

Willpower: 10 -> 12

Luck: 8 -> 14

Ability points: 21

Skill points: 450

Gold: 588

Oh. Oh wow. Oh damn. Well shit, this sure was amazing. Every bit of his being had improved. The increase in his Intelligence, Wisdom and Luck was incredible, and everything else had made quite some gains as well. His mana had almost doubled, goddamn. How many total points even was that? He counted 27. Plus he had gotten 5 Ability points and 300 Skill points. This evolution shit was fucking crazy dude. I mean damn. This was basically four level's worth of points. Damn, damn, damn. This sure was amazing. But okay. Back on track. He could fawn over it once he was not in mortal danger anymore, so time to absolutely yeet himself outta the spider's territory.

When Mercury arrived back at his trusty log he simply laid down and let his jaw drop open. This was absolutely incredible. His stats had gotten a boost that was completely incomparable to the ones before. This was way too powerful. This was broken. Was this his reward for hunting down shit that no cat would usually attempt to kill? He was already excited as all hell for Cherry's reaction. Would she be happy for him? Maybe she'd freak out. That would be funny. But goddamn, these stats were just too good to be true.

To calm himself down Mercury began his mana training, only to be stunned once more. When he started to feel for his mana, the puddle he was looking at before had grown. To be clear, it hadn't just "grown" it was in an entirely different realm. Now, it wasn't as if it was no longer a puddle - compared to the size of his core it had actually decreased - but while the ceiling had grown higher, the mana now thinly covered the entire floor. It had grown to be a thin sheet of dense energy, covering the bottom of his core, but that wasn't all yet. The air in there was different. It was brimming with energy, full of potential he could use. He felt confident that if he tried to, he could create wind in there. Then again, that would be useless, but still, it would be pretty cool, so he actually tried to.

He did the same thing as he would when trying to move the puddle, imagining it and then slowly having it actually change shape. The more accurately he envisioned it the more the mana would move, but this time it was useless. It didn't budge, not even an inch, no matter how much he tried to envision the air moving. It wasn't even close, it was more as if he was pushing all his body weight up against a giant stone block. No, not even a block, a fucking mountain. And, in case it wasn't obvious, mountains don't budge, no matter how hard you push. Also, after attempting it for only a few seconds, a huge headache started building, incomparable to the usual ones. This wasn't even on the same scale as before. It was… insane. An absolutely insane task. Completely impossible, so to speak.

Great, with this much of a pounding head he couldn't even focus on anything anymore. While he was still utterly gobsmacked at the jump his mana had made he was also now pissed at the fact that he had a headache. Migraines suuuuuck man.

And while Mercury was both astonished and upset, the remainder of the night passed.

The next night started off slow. Mercury had slept poorly and could hardly force his eyes open even after dusk had passed. He tried to get up to hunt, but since he didn't really feel hungry and the simple idea of movement left him heavily listless, he gave up on it. Instead, he decided to lay down. He felt too tired to actually focus on anything, so instead of doing something like mana training he simply let his mind wander, having the same kinds of thoughts one may have at around 4 a.m., when all intellect disappears and the brain becomes mush. The kind of truly important knowledge, for example that fireflies are the opposite of waterfalls, or that you don't leave fingerprints if you use icicles as your murder weapon.

Oh, who am I kidding. Intellect doesn't disappear, it's simply reversed and twisted in the worst way possible by the mushiest of brains.

After going through the phases of half asleep, deep in thought, funny thoughts, existential dread, depression and finally dissatisfaction, Mercury managed to pry his eyes open to the outside world. This was also the first time since evolving he wasn't busy focusing or staring at his status window and something about the world seemed… different. It wasn't more vibrant or colourful, it wasn't especially loud or quiet, there also wasn't any special weather. But something was off. The air tasted a bit more distinct, a little wetter, more earthy. In addition, he could notice other things about it. From different directions there were also more smells, wrapping around the forest and the trees like puffs of smoke.

They all smelled a little different, too, some were darker, some more metallic and others watery. Once he focused on them some more they became just a little clearer, though picking each individual smell out was still more than a challenge. In addition, he also had absolutely no clue which smell meant what, rendering it fairly useless about now. And that's when he realized why the world was different. He had gotten a Skill from evolving, what was it again? Appraisal?

[<Enhanced Smell> (passive): This is a Skill which allows its user to better notice and locate smells. The higher the level the more smells can be differentiated and the easier it is to tell them apart from each other. The smells will also be visualized to some degree to make detection easier. At lower levels this might require a high degree of focus and sometimes smells may become overwhelming, so the user is recommended to turn it off if the information is putting a heavy burden on their system.]

Well damn. This Skill would most certainly do him good, only problem was that he had absolutely no clue which smell belonged to what. There was also not really any way about that except for simply finding it out and noting it. If he smelled something he was fairly sure he wouldn't forget that smell anymore. At least he hoped so. But until he had some amount of knowledge on the different smells and what they mean or what animal they belong to it would simply stay on passive duty.

After being kicked awake by his new ability and finally leaving his log a few hours into the night, Mercury licked his fangs. He was excited for once. With the world looking a little more alive, it would definitely be far more fun to hunt down something like mice or squirrels. In short, getting food today would be enjoyable. Maybe even a bit of a challenge. How quickly could he memorize what a mouse smelled like and then track it down? How long would it take him until he could smell things like adrenaline or bloodlust? Well, finding the answer was rather straightforward, no? And those same thoughts coursed around in Mercury's head as he took off with his trusty rock prepared in his inventory.

He found the answer to the first question rather quickly. It was harder than he expected. Way harder, actually. He first searched for a mouse until he found one, which was fairly doable, but when he tried to pinpoint its smell he struggled to figure out which one was the mouse's and which ones came from other sources. So, he decided to take it down and then take his time to fully figure the smell out, but after having hit it with the rock the smell of blood fully overwhelmed the other smells around, making it pretty much impossible to gain any intel from that mouse.

After making it into a meal he decided to try again, and he failed once more. Third try's the charm? Nope. After failing for the fifth time, he abandoned the idea for now. It was definitely possible, but smelling something as small as a mouse proved far harder than he anticipated. It would probably be smarter to start with the smells of larger animals, if he was lucky he could even pick ones with a strong smell, like a bear. Oh god no, a bear. Fuck that. Fuck every bit of that. He did not want to risk his life to figure out a smell. Going up to the bear to smell it was the worst idea he ever had. This was gonna go so wrong. He would definitely die if he tried.

Mercury kept thinking those thoughts while he quietly approached the pond where he usually saw the bear drinking. Luckily, it was there this time again, but Mercury wasn't fully stupid. He wasn't about to straight up sniff the fucker's legs, that would go even more wrong than approaching it. No, for now he would try to smell it from his current location in the bushes a few meters away. What could go wrong, right?

Turns out, everything. When he was still approaching there was a faint smell that differentiated itself from those around, but when he focused on it, it disappeared. He couldn't pinpoint it again. As soon as he started focusing on the smells around him there were so many that keeping them apart was near impossible. After just a few seconds, a slight pounding in his head also started. No, he wasn't about to repeat yesterday's migraine from being overexcited about his newfound powers. But if he didn't wanna get a migraine again, what were his options?

Well… getting closer. That was simultaneously the best choice and the worst humanly possible idea. So, of course, Mercury did so. This made him realize that the points he put into Intelligence didn't even get close to the necessary number. He would need to go about things a lot smarter than this, he thought as he snuck closer to the bear, taking one tiny step after another. He would most certainly never do something like this ever again, he told himself. He would definitely never, ever make a decision this fucking bad again, he thought and flinched as the bear raised its head.

Not right now, please, not right fucking now. In truth, Mercury was only a few steps away from the bear at that point. The distance between them might have been described as "the length of a small family car" by some news articles because those would absolutely never use actual measurements. In fact, if the bear had been on alert, he would have smelled Mercury. If he was less sleepy, he would have detected him. If he had thought there was even a miniscule amount of danger, he would have turned around and bitten our favourite cat's head off. If Mercury had gone into this with the intent of attacking the bear, he would be dead. He would be in a straight up fight with a surprise attack on him, against an opponent that was more than several times his size, without a plan.

But he wasn't.

The bear lowered its head again and continued to drink as Mercury's heartbeat felt like it was louder than roaring thunder. Only now did his held breath quietly escape and his frozen muscles give in. He had just shown death a solid middle finger and the only reason it didn't bite him in the ass was luck. Now, he really felt obligated to make use of it, so he smelled the air one more time while slowly walking backwards.

This time, he experienced the first success. The air was heavy with a certain scent. It was a little different from the forest air. It smelled like forest, but a little cleaner, like it was washed recently, mixed with wet or drying fur, sweat and a slight hint of blood. This was the only thing Mercury picked up as he scurried away from the bear, hurriedly disappearing into the bushes and then making a quick sprint back to his log.

Never doing that shit again. Near death experiences were so not his fucking things. Jesus effing Christ man, why was that asshole of a bear so scary. Only when he had time to actually collect his thoughts and calm down did his heartbeat slow a little. Curiosity really did just almost kill the cat.

But then, he realized that the smell of the bear was surprising. It wasn't nearly as bad as he had expected. It also wasn't quite as strong as he had thought. Seems like the smell of bears being oh so terrible was a bit of an exaggeration used in fiction to make them more menacing, huh. But to him, this was far worse.

See, he could maybe detect a bad-smelling bear from a distance, but one whose smell is hardly different from that of the forest? That was scary. The bear wasn't exactly sneaky, but if there was a sneaky bear, then detecting them by their smell would actually be inefficient. He was somewhat confident he could find a bear from a few meters away if he focused on it, but passively detecting one nearby? No fucking chance, not with a smell like that. Knowing this was good and important info for him, but the fact in and of itself remained scary. Extremely, extremely scary. That fucking thing could technically sneak up on him. Ever thought of a bear ninja? The thought was goddamn terrifying!

In awe about his newfound fascination and horror about a bear's smell, Mercury spent quite some time in his log. He, once again, had let his thoughts drift and spiral, first leaving him in horror, then later on they quietly veered from the bear and went to other things, like how his 3rd grade maths teacher was a real prick. Fuck you, Ms. Allister. No, he couldn't calculate with numbers in the millions in his head, you dumb bitch, why would you ask a question like that? Teachers that actively tried to fail students were assholes.

And, thinking about that, he both lost some time and his train of important thought and missed the alarm for <Daydream> levelling up.

When Mercury finally snapped out of it and popped back into reality, he saw the sun already approaching, slowly fighting back against the cold night sky, but he wasn't actually tired yet. He had slept for long whiles the last few days and basically wasn't at all in the mood for rest. Since his head still hurt he thought it was probably a bad idea to practice <Mana Movement> again and <Throw> felt too hard to level up by now, so he settled on trying to improve his runecarving again. Combining it with <Meditate>, he spent a few hours carving more reinforce runes into his log. Well, he thought he would have to combine it with <Meditate>, but carving a low 1st grade reinforce rune only required ten Mp. He could carve six of them before his mana was depleted and by now he didn't take long to carve them anymore either.

Each time he finished one, he could feel some of his mana moving out from his core and flowing into the rune he had just carved, filling the channels in the wood with his magic before the feeling dissipated and the rune stopped its glow, only doing what it was supposed to. After it had happened for the fifth time, Mercury had an idea. He was still carving low 1st grade runes, but what would happen if he channeled more magic into them? Was there a limit to how much mana a rune could take? Creating a mid 1st grade rune would require a slightly altered carving, so he knew it wouldn't evolve into one, but what would happen instead?

To find out, he first had to actually replenish his mana, since he had just spent 50 of it on the runes and he wanted to overcharge it at least a bit, so two Mp wouldn't do. Thus, he used <Meditate> to regain some Mana, feeling the air in his core move ever so slightly as droplets of it condensating on the roof of the cave, before dropping down into the puddle. After a few droplets fell down, he felt a slight change in the air, as it seemed to move a little faster. Even if it was just a tiny bit, <Meditate> must have levelled up. He kept his eyes on the cave a little longer, watching as the mana condensated and fell back into its liquid state. He could roughly estimate his amount of Mp by looking at the size after meditating for quite a few times and stopped when he was at around 40 Mp or so. This would definitely do for his test.

So, Mercury opened his eyes again and approached the wall of the log while having the message about <Meditate> levelling up disappear. Then he carved another low 1st grade reinforce rune, taking his time to make sure each and every line was placed correctly. He finished the rune after a while, and when he felt the familiar stream of mana flowing from his core, he commanded the mana of his puddle to move towards it. It took a few seconds, but just when the magic infusion was about to end, his mana reached the last bits of the stream and widened it a little. This way, the mana from his core started gliding down the established path and left his body to strengthen the rune until the path closed. It hadn't drained all his Mana, though he probably could have added more mana if he were better at actually moving it.

While he was still contemplating his decisions, multiple notifications rang out.

[Carved a low 1st grade reinforce rune. Get: 10 Exp, 3 additional mastery.]

[<Beginner Runecarving lv. 3> has levelled up!]

[<Mana Movement lv. 1> has levelled up!]

After reading the messages Mercury smiled to himself. This worked better than he had expected. First of all, he had gotten additional mastery for his <Runecarving> Skill. Then, it had actually made it hit a new level. In addition, it also got <Mana Movement> a new level, probably because it was the first time he had made his mana go outside his core. Then again, he had no clue on how he could do so without a pre-established bridge so there was that.

Then, Mercury directed his attention back to the rune, as the actual effect the extra mana had on it was unclear. Of course, it was great for him, but the impact it made when it came to the rune was unclear. When he focused on it, he noticed something ever so slightly different from the other runes. First of all, the initial glow was brighter and also of a slightly different colour. Usually the runes let off a faint blue glow before going back to being very unassuming, but in this case it had a bit of a silvery hue. Then, when the glow subsided it didn't seem much different from the other runes, except when he looked closely. There seemed to still be some leftover energy coursing through the channels he had made in the wood, slowly circling around in the rune as small, silvery streaks.

Now, there was a new question Mercury asked himself. Mana was usually portrayed as blue, so why the heck was it silver in this case? It had also been blue when he was condensating it in his core, so what was different about it this time? Also, how much mana had he actually used? Status? Appraisal?

Status:

Mercury Rainfall Starlight

Lv.: 1

Species: Zetraspa

Titles: <Tutorial Completer>

Hp: 55/55

Mp: 3/62

Sp: 75/75

Strength: 21

Vitality: 16

Dexterity: 20

Agility: 27

Intelligence: 17

Wisdom: 13

Willpower: 12

Luck: 14

Ability points: 21

Skill points: 450

Gold: 593

[Mana: The colour of one's mana is determined by the owner's preference. It can be changed at will through some effort or might take on the owner's preferred colour over time. This change is purely cosmetic and does not have any influence on the power of the mana. The colours do not necessarily reflect the owner's personality or traits, as it is a change that can be controlled. The colour of one's mana may influence the colour of spells or magic one invokes.]

Again, Mercury spent some time reading. The first shock was that the overcharging of the rune had consumed a whopping 40 Mp. This was probably nearing the limit of what a low 1st grade reinforce rune could take. The next question would be if he actually stood an okay chance at carving mid 1st grade runes now.

Next, he was surprised about this revelation about mana. Essentially, its colour could be controlled at will to make things look cooler. Well, he really didn't want to change the colour of his anymore, as he was perfectly happy with it being silver. Since mana, in its most useable form, was liquid, his name fit it perfectly. After all, Mercury was a liquid metal that looked like Silver. It also fit with Starlight, as his runes would now glow in the colour of most stars in the sky. Even though there were obviously many more parts and aspects of his name he wanted to fulfill, this colour change was most certainly a start, and Mercury was more than excited about it.

Third, he noticed that he was tired. Bone tired, actually. The kind of tired that made your eyelids feel like lead and every part of your body like an immovable lump of metal. So, with a smile on his face Mercury folded his legs under himself and fell asleep.