Chapter 16: Mana is Fun

Chapter 16: Mana is Fun

Leveling up, gaining new traits and skills, or progressing their levels was always accompanied by a pleasant feeling or new knowledge filling my mind, and it was honestly a rather addictive sensation. Well, except for the first time I got [Core Refinement], but let's ignore that. Gaining these two mana traits felt significantly different than the rest; I suddenly felt a mystical force flowing throughout my entire being, except it had always been there and was patiently waiting with an extended hand for me to reach out and grab it, and only now I grabbed it and embraced its comforting presence.

I desperately wanted to try it out, but before I got further lost in my thoughts, I finally realized that I was still sitting inside the corpse of the gigatoad. I pushed through the mouth and exited the creature, which was almost entirely hollow now as my slime had done a thorough job. I double-checked the corpse for anything else worth keeping, but [Dissection] only pointed to its hide, so I ate the rest while I compressed and stored away my excess slime.

While expelling my entire reserve of slime mass was a valuable trump card for my arsenal, I would need to be careful with its usage as I noticed that my control over the slime diminished at large enough quantities. This abundance penalty made the slime react slower to my thoughts, and I could not give it complex instructions, and against the frog, I could only tell it to burst outwards and eat. I would probably gain superior control through levels of [Core Refinement] or possibly even higher levels of my Slime race, or perhaps I could get more [Sub-Core] traits and allocate them each to a portion of the slime. Regardless, for now, it would be my unrefined and brutish emergency solution to problems.

The gigatoad was like a buffet, and I gained so much slime mass from this that I actually reached a point where I couldn't store anymore, reaching my apparent maximum. I started ejecting water and replacing it with slime, and near the end of the last bits of frog, I received a notification.

'Maybe now I can finally store that tusk and possibly this gigatoad hide - I don't want either stolen. I wonder why the frog turned into so much slime mass, though. It might have been because of its level, and I haven't eaten anything higher than level 4 yet, so that could explain it. [Mana Circulation] hints at all of us having mana flowing throughout, so maybe the gigatoad has lots of mana, which gave me more slime?'

It was scarily easy for me to get lost in thought while my slime did the tasks I assigned, but thankfully, the job was complete, and there was no more frog. I tried to store the hide, and despite my gut instincts telling me it could, my [Core Storage] refused. Puzzled, I folded the hide once each, vertically and horizontally, then tried again, and this time it magically vanished inside. I decided not to question it and went home.

Upon reaching home, I immediately tried to store the tusk, and it magically vanished, joining my collection. I moved to a nearby tree because I didn't want to vandalize my home and amputated its branches with some creative use of [Acid Slime]. Finally, it was time to play with my mana.

I created a tendril and started by lifting the smallest branch, then moved on to bigger and bigger branches until I couldn't lift it. I mentally reached out to the flow of mana coursing through me and started to guide it towards my tendril. As the mana pooled in the limb, I could feel its strength begin to swell, and when I tried lifting the branch - it was an effortless attempt. Further wrapping around the branch and constricting caused it to crack and splinter into pieces.

'What the hell, mana is crazy good! Where have you been all my life?' I cheered and gave my mana-infused tendril a happy wiggle.

Inspiration struck me, and I recreated one of my oldest companions - the slime rapier. It looked magnificent, having never experienced the higher levels of [Slime Shape], and I made sure its tip was of the highest density slime available. First, doing a quick mental double-check that mana was still flowing to my tendril and the rapier, I then promptly thrust it into a branch - it glided through.

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I definitely squealed with joy as my rapier pierced through the branch, and I started to go on a bit of a stabbing spree with my new toy. At some point in my branch murder, I had the idea of adding [Acid Slime], and then, not only was I piercing the helpless branches with greater ease, but their insides were also being melted. The poor trees were not ready for what came next.

I recreated the slime mace and slammed it into a trunk with a loud crack, then added spikes to the ball and swung again, leading to a much more devastating impact, which sent splintered wood flying. Then, I created a slime greatsword and swung at the tree - it definitely couldn't cut, so it was more like slamming a large, thin, and blunt object of pure mass. I continued this for far too long, but it was so much fun trying out different slime weapons and creations each time. When I eventually stopped, I had toppled at least half a dozen trees, which I cleaned up by dissolving them entirely.

Having had fun creating numerous weapons, I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon practicing [Slime Shot], and then I'd finish with a quiet evening working on [Shape Slime]. Before using my tusk ammo, I tried shooting a bit of slime imbued with mana, and the result was quite devastating, penetrating pretty deep into the trunk.

It was good to know it was effective, but I wasn't fond of spending two of my limited resources. If there were real danger, I'd not be frugal, but for now, I'd stick to tusks and rocks. I tried seeing if I could put mana into a tusk, and it seemed to work a little bit, but as soon as I stopped trying to force it, the mana instantly leaked out. I assumed putting mana in things other than my body was a trait or skill I could maybe get later, and I was probably cheating by creating weapons out of my body, so I resumed my regular shooting practice.

Before settling down for a calm evening of [Shape Slime] practice, I decided to pull up my status menu to see if there were any hidden surprises.

Name: -

Race: Slime (Blue) LV 8

Class: -

[Mapping LV 2]

[Stealth LV 2]

[Sneak Attack LV 1]

[??? LV 0]

Skill Points remaining 0

Glancing over my skills and traits, I couldn't spot anything new, only the one unknown skill still in progress.

'I should probably get my [Sub-Core] to start training another trait. I can't see me needing a higher level of [Core Storage] anytime soon. Maybe I could get it to cycle through [Pseudopod] creation?'

Deciding that was a good idea, I set my [Sub-Core] on to that task, reusing the bicep curls idea I had for its routine. I was about to close the status menu when I spotted something new in the portion I usually skip over.

Name: -

Race: Slime (Blue) LV 8

Class: -

Status: Healthy

Mana: Ebbing

'I now have a mana section in my status... What does ebbing mean?' Obviously, I didn't get any answers, as Gramps only helped when it involved traits.

I decided to periodically pull up my status menu while I did my evening practice to see if there were any changes. My practice was going very well, and I felt I was on the verge of a breakthrough with my little slime tree model. I also tried seeing if I could make something like a hand, but splitting my tendrils like that was still a challenge, and at my current trait levels, I only managed to upgrade my slime claw from bi-pincers to tri-pincers. Finally, there was a change in my status menu.

Mana: Flooding

'Is that good or bad? My mana must be regenerating from the description on [Mana Circulation], so it went from ebbing to flooding... A flood is normally bad, but my mana did feel like a flowing stream, so in that case, more liquid is better, I think? Ugh, so many more questions! I wish I had someone to talk to.'

It didn't change again throughout the rest of the night, so I'd look in the morning. Settling down in my tree hole, I listened to the pleasant sounds of the forest and the occasional howls in the distance. Torpor soon took me.