'Hello, it's me, Derian. Derian Ends. Strange last name, you say? Well, I decided on it just a moment ago. Got a problem with that?'

'...'

'Fuck, I miss talking with my family..'

Why was I talking to myself?

Well...

When my subconscious took over again, after my soul taming, it started running circles around the artificial forest before heading back near the pond and tiring out. I resynchronized with my body and the exhaustion that I received was unbelieveable. Even though I didn't have the need for sleep due to the mana dust I inhaled, I couldn't move either.

So I just lied there near the pond. Fortunately, my back was resting on the wall, so I was able to see the room itself. The carcass of the wolf near me was starting to smell awfully.

'Ugh... Should of moved that before heading out.' I thought.

Being talkative in my own mind was neither the result of defeating the ogre nor from the mana dust. It was boredom, after all, sitting in one place for hours is quite boring. The only thing I was able to do was warm my ass with mana so I wouldn't freeze up.

'One sheep, two sheep, thre- Yep, this isn't working.'

I was frustrated out of my mind. If I was able to, I would of pulled out all my hair by now.

'Guess I have no choice... I wanted to do this after I got better..'

I looked at the pond with water in it that reflected light coming from the magic stones. My sixth sense developed a whole lot more after my trip to the forest. I was now able to use it while keeping my eyes open. Focusing on both of them at once was still tough, but with every attempt, I got better at it.

8 souls in total: 1 wolf, 1 ogre, 4 rats and 2 birds. With all the spirits I gathered and their capacity, I used the mana storage to release some mana towards the pond. I was able to control the mana that went through me much better than the exterior mana. Like a slithering snake moving in for it's prey, the mana moved smoothly in a curvy line.

Once the mana went inside the water, I started lifting it for starters.

The water wasn't heavy at all, my mana actually outweighed it. The weight of the mana would purely depend on it's density. That's why there are easier to use elements such as by order: Wind, Fire, Water, Earth. All of those required their own mechanism to be used, but water was one of the easiest, so I started with that.

Mana density wasn't a problem, since I only had to compress the large amounts of quantities in my storage.

The water lump floated in mid-air right above me. I looked at it's beautiful form, but noticed it was dirty. I plucked out the impurities with seperate mana hands; stone pieces and blood drops flying everywhere.

Once I was done cleaning the pond water, I cut off a piece and drank it. I was able to use my digestion organs because the mana dust didn't affect them.

I put the rest of the water back into the pond and looked at the carcass next to me. I figured that the best way to learn mana is through practice.

I manifested three large hands and two knives, all made out of mana. All of them had high density and I wasn't even using a quarter of my mana.

With my three hands.. or 'claws', I picked up the wolf carcass and had it float in the air, only a meter away from me. I needed to see what I was cutting, since I haven't done this before.

From the palms of the claws that were holding the carcass came out tiny sized threads and entered the corpse. Using those small threads, I seperated the inner flesh from the furry skin. With a large knife I cut a straight line in the torso and the skin just slipped off.

After that was done, I used the two knives to cut off the fresh looking meat from the bones and caught them with newly manifested smaller hands. The room was now filled with the energy seeping out of me.

It took me 5 minutes to complete the process. The carcass was now only a pile of blood, bone and rotten flesh. I threw it in the tunnel between this room and the forest, far away.

'Finally! The awful smell is gone, although I'll need to check up on that later.'

I looked at the bloody skin on the ground. Seeing as it's not fit for use with such a displeasing look, I soaked it with water from the pond. I grabbed the skin of the wolf by the legs and raised it up with my mana hands.

'I'll let that dry for now.'

Next up were the chunks of meat. If I had one thing to name about mana, it was warmth.

The knives I used morphed into formless mana lines and circled around two chunks of meat. I started filling the previously knives mana lines with more mana until they were huge and plump before cutting them off from my soul. Even after cutting off the connection, I still felt full control over the two mana spheres.

I gave the command for the spheres to start spinning at extreme speeds around the meat. Using the velocity, I tried to heat up some food.

'Since all is well and done, I'll take a nap now...'

Indeed, I was mentally exhausted after working around with mana, and so, I closed my eyes.

.......

...

"?!"

All the hair on my body stirred. I woke up as my instincts were screaming danger. I looked around me and saw small black gooey piles slightly hopping around the room.

I was able to move my body now, but I didn't. I had to conceal my movements in cautious of the large black goo pile stuck in the tunnel, trying to enter.

'Slimes now?!'

I looked at the large smile and the way smaller slimes in unison.

'A mother and the children..'

Inside the mother, I saw the bones of the wolf I threw away. Knowing that, I cursed at myself for being such a fool and baiting the slimes in.

The mother spit it's goo at my whirling mana in hopes of the half-cooked meat falling down for it's children. It didn't stop the spin, but slowed it down enough to drop the chunk down.

I quickly jumped out of my position and grabbed the meat, even if I had enough mana to catch it, I didn't care. It was time to show superiority in this room.

"You bitch, stay away from my meal." I said.

The mother slime spit goo at me, but I was able to block it by using the pond's water as a shield. It turns out that slimes are not compatible with water, so the goo just bounced off. Knowing this, I circled water around the baby slimes and raised them into the air.

"See this?" I said to the mother. It only aggravated the large slime and it started shooting more goo at me, but each shot was blocked with my precisive water manipulation.

As a counter-attack, I formed two large mana knives and shot them at the mother, but as it turns out, slimes are extremely resistant to magic attacks. It did absolutely no damage to the mother slime, so I used my sixth sense to see what was going on with the slimes. The slime's outer shell was simply a void to any attacks that have mana in them. Inside of the shell was a huge mana reserve, but I couldn't access it with the shell completely blocking me off.

The mother slime continued it's goo spitting, so I started crushing it's baby slimes while thinking of a strategy.

'I don't have enough water to block off the big slime, but the smaller ones are easy to crush, even if direct attacks don't work... Hm? Direct attacks?' I wondered.

The mother slime got even more flustered seeing it's children crushed and started rapidly spitting more goo without losing it's colossal size.

I started charging at the big slime, dodging the flying shots, although mostly were blocked by the water. As soon as I got in reach, I put my hand straight and stabbed the slime right in the center. Once I was through the shell, I activated my soul stealing ability.

'The inner parts of the slime are weak and this one specializes in magic resistance, which means that physical attacks are bound to be more succesful.'

The slime started eating my hand; skin and flesh melting off with ease. I built a small tolerance to pain in my right hand, but I had to finish it quick.

Using my own mana and the mother slime's mana alike, I started to lessen the density of the mana and instead expanded on it. The slime's insides were beginning to fill up with mana and air, causing the slime to also expand. My right arm was further devoured as I kept expanding the mana.

And soon enough...

*BOOM*

The mother slime exploded and hundreds of pieces of it flew all around the place. I placed my meat on my left hand behind my back to cover, but the other one that was still being heated was not spared.

After it was done splattering everywhere, I quickly activated my soul steal skill and cut or crushed the scattered pieces that were trying to get back together. After I absorbed the soul, the goo stopped moving.

I covered my melted right hand with water and started healing. Inserting mana into my blood flow increased the speed of the recovery.

I looked at the rest of the baby slimes that were still alive. I clenched my right hand and all of the slimes were crushed except for one. Earlier, when I was scouring with my sixth sense, I located another slime with the capabilities to grow into the mother slime I defeated. If I were to let it raise, I could harvest a lot more than now.

I put the baby slime caged inside the water aside for now and moved onto more important matters. The meat on my left hand started off with a spin again as I poured mana around it.

I had to quickly tame the slime before it's soul escaped my grasp.

The spirit of the mother slime was actually quite powerful, more so than the wolf or the ogre. It was a true creature of mana. But all that didn't matter when faced against the experienced me. If I would of encountered the slimes before the wolf, I would be dead in an instant. But, coming this far with all the knowledge I obtained, defeating a measly slime is easy!

But it was not the case with the mother slime.

An hour later, sweating vastly and still unable to quench the mother's anger. I felt it's rage and sorrow as I tried to understand it's soul storm.

Three hours later, I was suffering. My nose was bleeding and I couldn't regenerate any mana while focusing on the slime's spirit. I had to conquer it with my willpower instead of mana.

Four hours later, I finally tamed the slime, but I was on the brink of losing consciousness. I was bleeding through my eyes and coughing up blood. My heart had an irregular beat to it and I was exhausted out of my mind.

There wasn't anything to fret though. I gained a powerful force as soon as I conquered the slime's spirit. It was huge and profound in absorbing mana. Even with all of my other spirits combined, it couldn't match the power of the slime!

My recovery was swift and soon enough I would walk again.