Welcome, Whether You Know It or Not

[System Active – Chapter 00016]

Status: Rooted

Primary Objective: Survival

Secondary Directive: Data Acquisition

Mana Core Activity: Slowly Increasing

There was no warning.

No scent.

Just a sound.

A tremor, first in the moss, then the roots. A far-off thunder—fast, chaotic.

It was not weather.

The stampede burst through the second ring like a flood—fur, claws, fangs, and blood. Dozens of mana beasts crashed through underbrush and vine walls, barreling toward me with eyes full of terror. I knew many: a plated hornbuck, a scaled ash-rat, even a spined forest crawler. Some were wounded. One was already dead, still being dragged by the herd’s sheer momentum.

They weren’t running toward something.

They were running from something.

And then I heard the hiss.

Not from the stampede.

From the one I’d nearly forgotten.

The serpent.

The serpent I’d watched grow in the third ring, drawn to my mana, feeding off the rising saturation in my domain. At first I let it linger—curious. Later, I watched it from a distance. A future threat, perhaps. But not a present one.

Now it was fighting.

Fighting for me.

The serpent coiled between the stampede and a flicker of spotted death. I saw it just as the first flash hit—a blur of golden muscle and shadow, spots streaking through the trees, paws crackling with pressure, not lightning.

Mountain lion. Mana Hybrid Classification: Velocity-Aligned Predator.

Core Saturation Estimate: 61.8%

It moved like collapse.

Like inevitability.

The serpent struck first. Smart. A bluff feint, tail whipping around to snag its hind legs. The predator twisted midair—spinning—and used its own velocity to slam into the serpent’s side, claws raking scales with force meant to tear trees in half.

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The serpent reeled.

Bleeding already. Too slow.

The predator did not hesitate. It didn’t roar. It didn’t grandstand. It pressed. Pounced. Slammed its paws down on the serpent’s exposed flank and drove three claws deep into muscle.

The serpent screamed, mouth full of venom that never landed.

I intervened.

Seven roots surged from beneath them—six to shield, one to strike.

The strike root hit first. Straight through the feline’s left shoulder. The predator cried out, the first sound it had made, and twisted free with a burst of mana that cracked the soil beneath us.

I moved again.

I had seen it now.

No lightning. No elemental coating. Its strength was in pure kinetic control—every burst, every twist, every pawstep redirected inertia. A living missile with claws.

I changed tactics.

Vines lashed forward from above, blinding it as roots below shifted not to trap, but to misdirect. I softened one side, hardened the other. Gave it a slope, not a wall. It pushed off—

—straight into the serpent’s mouth.

Wounded but not done, the serpent coiled one last time and clamped down. Blood sprayed.

But again, the predator twisted, sacrificing flesh to escape the bite. Its spine bent unnaturally. It shredded its own back leg to get loose.

I caught it the moment it landed.

Three sharpened roots impaled the space around it in a triangle—then closed.

Not to kill.

To make sure nothing ever came back not it not another beast, it would serve as a warning to the others beyond my reach.

The predator stopped.

Breathing heavy. Leg ruined. Chest rising and falling in deep, slow heaves.

Its golden eyes lifted to the forest.

To me.

No challenge.

No fear.

Understanding.

I dropped my roots an inch. Not a gift. A warning.

It ran away as fast as it could in its condition—past the tree line, past the watching stampede beasts, dragging a trail of blood into the moss.

And the serpent?

Still breathing. Barely. I laid a patch of enriched mana beneath it, not to heal, but to stabilize.

Let the others watch.

The beasts who fled in terror now circled. Confused. Trapped. No clear exit. No clear leader.

They looked at my root.

They looked at me.

And they saw not prey.

Not competition.

But the thing that ended the hunt. Their safehaven

[System Summary – End of Chapter 00016]

Root Expansion: +122.6 m

Total Root Depth: 1,288.7 m

Mana Saturation Rate: +33.4 m/hr

Core Status: 78.3% Saturation

Trait Unlocked: Root Manipulation

Environmental Observations:

‣ Serpent remains near death

‣ Multitude of new animals

‣ Wild stampede stoped and under control

Time Since Rebirth: ~3 years, 5 months