David sat cross-legged on the kitchen table, steam curling around him, filled with the energy of monster cores. Charged mist clung to his skin and filled his lungs with every breath. He held himself still, eyes half-lidded, forcing his attention inward.

  There, at the center of his being, the mana core pulsed. To the untrained sense it would have seemed like nothing more than a small bead lodged in the void of his chest, but his sharpened perception revealed more.

  David leaned into the sight, losing awareness of the kitchen around him—the chipped counter, the hum of a small refrigerator (that he refilled with drinks after his experiment), the faint taste of steam on his tongue. All that mattered was the rhythm of the core, its quiet expansion and contraction, and the threads of mana bleeding into and out of it. With every heartbeat he understood it a little more.

  The familiar laws of physics and chemistry didn’t apply to the core, and yet its changes followed a rule David could almost recognize. When mana thickened, it shifted state; when it shifted state, it adopted a new function. Not bending reality, not warping the world around him, but changing itself.

  Condensed mana hardened into a crystal, and that crystal no longer pulsed raw energy outward. Instead, it gathered it, drew in the loose threads of liquid mana like a sponge. Simple. Mundane, almost. A battery.

  David exhaled through his nose, a faint ripple of disappointment tugging at him. For all the mystery and promise of the core, for all his hope of unlocking some grand law or forbidden trick, the result seemed almost laughably straightforward. A reservoir. A container.

  But even disappointment carried a seed of curiosity. He rubbed his thumb across his chin, mind ticking. If the system allowed one state to accumulate, what else might be possible? Was this simplicity a foundation, not a dead end?

  “Fine,” he murmured under his breath. “You’re just a battery now. But let’s see what happens if I push harder.”

  Resolved, David leaned back into the quiet hum of his perception, refusing to draw conclusions too soon. One experiment never told the whole story.

  David continued changing the free-flowing mana in his body into a more solid form in his chest, and soon got a notification:

  You have improved your magical core: Rank F- → F

  The notification burned faintly across his perception, and he felt the difference immediately. His mana pool stretched wider, connecting to the newly grown parts of his core, carrying the distinct promise that one more lightning bolt now lay within his reach when fully charged. Not a leap forward, perhaps, but a step nonetheless.

  The function of the core, however, hadn’t changed. It was still just a battery—storage without nuance.

  His eyes shifted to the dog’s crystal resting near one of the tables. Its surface gleamed with a cold, inner light. He remembered vividly the last time he had tried to consume one raw: the surge, the unbearable tearing sensation, mana cramming into every vein until his body simply failed. Death, swift and merciless, before the loop pulled him back.

  But now things were different. He had a stronger core, greater understanding of laws, more refined control. The overload he had suffered before—was it truly about the amount of mana, or its type, or even something else? Perhaps he could tame it this time.

  David took the dog's crystal core, rinsed it clean, and without further hesitation swallowed it down. The effect was immediate. A surge of raw mana spilled into his body, burning hot and wild. This time, though, he noticed what had gone wrong before.

  The mana wasn’t passive—it refused to be obedient. Instead of flowing naturally into his core, it spread recklessly through his limbs and chest, overloading his veins, every muscle trembling under the flood. His heart hammered as if it might burst, and his vision swam.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Gritting his teeth, David forced his will upon the torrent. No, not this time. He reached inward, shaping the unruly current, dragging it toward the nucleus at his center. The struggle lasted only a minute, but it felt far longer, sweat dripping down his face as he held the current in check. Then—finally—the flood relented. The energy settled, compressing, and slipped into his core. The storm inside his body calmed.

  A notification flickered in his mind:

  Mana Perception skill leveled up.

  David let out a ragged breath, almost laughing in relief. The difference was clear—by eating the crystal raw, the efficiency skyrocketed. If he had directed the flow from the very beginning, the cost would have been nearly halved. Two crystals for a lightning strike, instead of four. Although it was easier to suck mana from the core in the form of steam, it clearly lost some of its charge in the air

  “Not bad,” he muttered, wiping his mouth.

  David closed his eyes, the last threads of mana still humming faintly through his veins. He was about to enjoy the calm when his phone buzzed sharply on the table. The alert made his stomach sink: one of his patrol drones had been destroyed.

  He didn’t waste time. Within minutes he was outside, the night air heavy against his skin. A sleek shape moved in the distance The panther had slipped past his machines and torn the robot apart. David raised his hand, lightning sparking along his fingers, and released it. Two bolts cracked through the dark, and the beast fell, charred to a crisp.

  The panther’s carcass still smoked when the next wave arrived. Sleeker shapes darted in the dark, and David finally unleashed everything he had. His robots weeded out many, spitting bursts of gunfire, but their clips bled dry too fast. He had to reload each with fumbling hands while the night pressed harder around him. The reloading cycle was endless and irritating.

  Still, he had no shortage of firepower, even when his robots started to be destroyed by overwhelming force. The police station’s armory had yielded enough to outfit a small militia, and he carried it like a walking arsenal. Shotguns barked thunder into the dark, shredding anything that dared to close in. Assault rifles hummed in controlled bursts, their recoil hammering his shoulders raw. Even the heavier rifles had their turn, cracking skulls of the beasts clean apart with sharp, echoing snaps. Ammunition wasn’t the problem—he had crates of it.

  [Level Up]

  [Level Up]

  Sometimes between changing and reloading weapons he turned to magic. Mana still threaded through him like a second bloodstream, and after he discovered that he could now eat the cores, he was replenishing the mana during the small breaks, but he didn't do it often because every time he had to rip open the carcasses of monsters—even with panthers—he had to tinker a bit.

  Time stretched, and the waves of predators kept coming. More panthers and dogs. Too many. “So many… I’ve never pushed this far before,” David muttered, forcing his weary body to stay sharp.

  Then something new crawled out of the shadows. Not feline this time, but reptilian—long, sinewy, skinless like the rest of the nightmare menagerie. Its eyes burned with an alien glimmer, and when it opened its jaws, no claws or fangs came. Instead, a sphere of black energy gathered between its teeth and launched toward him.

  David braced. The impact hit his arm with a sizzling hiss. Pain erupted—his flesh seemed to melt, nerves screaming with fire. He bit back a cry, forcing himself to hold the line. A message flickered before his eyes:

  [Pain Resistance acquired]

  Breathing hard, David steadied himself. The dark energy hadn’t dispersed; it clung to his arm like tar, seeping into him. He pushed inward with his perception, dissecting its nature the way he had with mana and lightning before. What he found made his breath hitch.

  New Attribute Learned: [Minor Law of Darkness]

  His thoughts stumbled. Physics, chemistry—he’d managed to rationalize everything so far. Electricity had its rules. Crystals, storage, flow. Even light would’ve made sense—photons, wavelengths. But darkness? How did one explain that within the framework of his world?

  Another orb hurtled toward him. He raised his half-burnt arm, and the impact was weaker this time, dulled by the law he had grasped. It still hurt. Another came, and then another. The lizards didn’t stop. Each strike chipped away more of him, eroding his strength. He sank to one knee, vision narrowing, body consumed by searing black.

  As the darkness swallowed him whole, one final notification flared across his fading sight:

  New Attribute Learned: [Major Law of Darkness]

  Then there was nothing.