As we rested, I observed Somani’s soul… it was slowly mending and with it, the deformed parts healed.
At this rate, it’ll take a day, maybe more, for the deformities to return to normal.
I debated whether to try to hasten the process, but decided against it. Even though there was weakness in Somani’s left arm and stiffness in his back, it was still better than trying to heal his soul with manipulation and probably end up with new injuries.
Somani didn’t dare to rest against a wall in fear of another sneak attack from a ghost, so he was standing close to an intersection while keeping an eye out for any monsters.
‘I’ll start refilling your core, so keep watch.’
‘My eyes are wide open.’
I activated [Forced Mana Regeneration]. Picking up the newly produced Mana particles, I shoved as much as I could into Somani’s core before repeating the process. I had [Hive Mind] on as it hastened the process—the soul pain sprang, but like usual, I reigned it in with unstoppable will.
As I filled the core, my mind wandered to possible upgrades [Mana Manipulation] could unlock.
Hm… I don’t think I’ll get anything special.
Although I had trained almost daily since I got [Mana Manipulation], I neither improved nor found innovative uses for the skill.
I didn’t have the talent, it seemed.
What is even talent?
Whenever I took control of Somani’s body, my Mana manipulation skill improved a lot, reaching Somani’s talent. On the other side, when I tried controlling Mana on my own or through the slime host, my skill defaulted back to its normal level.
Maybe talent is a combination of the soul and body, so even though Somani’s soul is a part of mine, I’m still missing the body part.
That would explain why I got his talent when I used his body, but it wouldn’t explain how.
Should I go with the evolution?
I wouldn’t do it now, as we were in the middle of enemy territory, and skills had a chance of rendering me useless during evolution.
Even if the answer were yes, I’d still wait.
All my skill evolutions were good, and they had needed exceptional conditions to unlock, conditions that I didn’t believe were currently met with [Mana Manipulation]. The most exceptional thing I had done with the skill was use it to force Mana particles into my core, creating [Forced Mana Regeneration], and even then, I had heavily relied on other skills like [Manima Senses] and [Soul Mind].
Every exceptional condition I’ve met has been due to a need…
When I desired growth through multiple hosts, I split my soul, getting [Anima Replica].
When I needed to use my mind powers across multiple bodies, I pushed myself and multitasked, creating [Hive Mind].
When I needed to contact my sisters, I created ultra-small biomasses, giving me the skill [Rudis Subtilis Biomancy].
So… what do I want with [Mana Maipulation]?
The System had said that Mana was the path of everything, but what did that even mean?
What is even a path?
I believed, no, I knew, that a path was a destination to reach a certain end, but in this sense, what could walking on the myriad Mana paths allow me to reach? What’s at the end?
Is it a seventh-tier skill? Maybe higher?
Could Mana allow me to unlock or use any skill without having to occupy a skill slot?
But some skills don’t use Mana…
Like always, many questions, more conjectures, but no real answer. Still, I knew one truth and was sure of it.
I’m One for All, and All is for Me.
I had to find a use for Mana that would expand on the truth I knew, helping me grow my All.
I didn’t know how to do that yet, and until I found the tailored use of this skill that’d serve me, I wasn’t going to evolve it. I wouldn’t settle on something weak.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
‘Cello?’
With [Hive Mind] on, I could answer Somani’s question while simultaneously working on recovering our Mana.
‘Yes?’
‘Do you think we can team up with that eternal class wielder?’
Where did this come from?
‘No.’
‘Why? I mean, he probably has a vendetta against the Empire, seeing that he’s imprisoned with us, and can help us in defeating them.’
‘The guy’s dangerous, and seems unstable. He tried to kill us before we even saw his face, so let’s choose our comrades with more wisdom.’
As I spoke, I thought, using Somani’s technique to hide my true intentions.
In reality, the reason I didn’t want the Primal Hunter to join us was to stop Somani from befriending him, as I still believed I could turn him into a host—a strong one —and not sharing this info with Somani was for a simple reason: the kid was sometimes unpredictable, but then Somani surprised me.
‘I know that you want to turn him into a host. You could’ve just spoken the truth from the start, I don’t mind.’
I didn’t confirm or object, as Somani could be baiting me out as Hambara had done to us—I had learnt my lesson.
Still, Somani answered the untold question.
‘I caught a glimpse of you thinking about him earlier. You’re still bad at hiding your thoughts.’
How can he keep hearing my thoughts while I rarely hear his?
Somani was my partner, but he still wasn’t a part of me, and if the day came when we fulfilled our goal, I wanted to keep some secrets from him, so I really needed to practice his technique, or maybe try to find a way to keep my thoughts hidden.
‘Whatever the reason, I don’t think the Primal Hunter will make a good partner. We can still try our luck with other humans.’
‘Look, Cello. I won’t press you on this, but I want you to know that I, from the beginning, didn’t want the guy joining us, and that’s not for a selfish desire. I don’t want him joining us as he’s a ruthless killer, a monster… just like you.’
Even though the accusation was true, I still got a bit annoyed. I had believed that after the contract, the kid would start changing his opinion of me—we were partners now.
‘Even if that were my intention, it’s not selfish, as it still would further our goals, and remember, I can’t, nor do I want, to harm anyone you hold dear. I’m no monster… I’m Cello, your partner.’
Somani’s opinion of me mattered, as humans seemed to make a lot of their decisions based on their beliefs, not only their interests.
If I wanted Somani to cooperate and stay in line, I had to give him an impression of humane normality.
‘…Yeah, sorry. It’s just the idea of you taking control of a human, even a bad one, doesn’t seem right.’
‘I’m not sure what you think, but the hosts I take aren’t imprisoned in their bodies, watching as I control them. They’re dead. Their soul is gone.’
Somani didn’t comment on that, so I redistributed the BP I was using for the conversation back into [Forced Mana Regeneration].
Even though the skill’s level had increased, and although I was using about 10BP, it still took a while to regen only a quarter of the core.
I wanted to fill it before trying to rise through the ranks, but the floating eye, staring at us at the end of the corridor, didn’t look harmless.
The eyeball was about the size of a human head, with a green iris and quickly flapping wings; it was similar to a monster I had seen in a room.
Orbital Spacinator, Lv. ???
‘Why is it… not doing anything?’ Somani asked as he tensely staired at the Orbital.
‘Maybe it’s not violent. Try to escape peacefully.’
Somani slowly retreated, peddling away while keeping an eye on the thing.
A tear in the fabric of space appeared to the right of Somani’s arm out of nowhere, and before I could do anything, the dark cut in reality encompassed the arm, then closed shut.
The arm disappeared in a clean, painless cut.
‘Run!’
Somani didn’t need to be told twice.
His heels hit his butt as he sprinted away from the horror-inducing monster, but then…
A tear appeared ahead of us, and from it, the Orbital came.
Somani threw a Mana Bomb at it, only for it to be sucked into a tear to who knew where.
Another tear sprang.
There’s no weave!
I had been preparing [Primus Will] to try and stop the tear from forming, but the thing just popped into existence without a wave or anything, unlike the assassin’s teleportation spell.
Somani lost half his right arm.
It’s… toying with us?
The creature could’ve spawned a tear at Somani’s head directly, instead of severing another limb.
Either that, or there was some other reason I couldn’t figure out.
Somani continued running at the creature, charging the entirety of his body with Mana.
‘Stop! It has teleported in front of us; It clearly wants us to get closer, for some reason.’
‘I doubt it. If it wanted to get closer, it could’ve teleported near me.’
Somani’s logic was sound, but if the monster had wanted to keep its distance, it could’ve teleported behind us; that way, we would still be within its range, but without us closing the distance.
Maybe it wants to intimidate us with its shape?
Whatever the reason, the Orbital wasn’t afraid of physical confrontation; it shot a tentacle at us that had appeared from a tear behind it.
Somani squatted the tentacle away with the back of his hand—infused with Mana.
Two, three, ten tentacles were shot at us, overwhelming Somani as each two held him by a limb—three, without the newly destroyed one.
Somani tried to form a Mana Bomb and explode the tentacles, but a space tear ate the bomb. Physical resistance, assisted with Mana infusion, wielded the same result; the Orbital was just too strong as it slowly drew us closer.
Somani struggled to escape the tentacles.
I created three Blood Bombs, but before I had the chance to infuse them with soul matter, tears ate them.
As we got closer to the Orbital, a tear opened beneath it, and from it, a maw appeared.
The maw was double Somani’s length and had triangular, yellow teeth.
It was then that I finally saw it.
‘Somani… this is going to hurt.’
‘Thanks for the warning, I guess.’
Snap!
Focusing on Somani’s limbs, I ordered them to be severed just above the held area on the cellular level, releasing Somani.
I threw the kid away with biomnacy, but then a tear appeared behind us… It fizzled out.
I had seen it when we got close to the monster; it created the weaves next to it, then sent them at us.
Discovering this, I was able to dismantle the knitting of the weave next to it.
Got you, bastard!
The creature stopped playing.
Creating a tear, it shot it at Somani’s head.
I dismantled the weave, destroying the tear.
The floating eye twitched; it was… displeased.
Five tears formed around Somani, while tentacles shot at him.
I abused [Hive Mind].
Accessing 13MBP, I created ten bone arrows for each tentacle while trying to dismantle the tears.
Swish!
The arrows hit true, splitting some tentacles while injuring more.
Kzkzkz
The creature screeched in pain, but didn’t stop creating weaves while slashing at me with its remaining tentacles. It also stopped trying to draw us closer.
A mind contest ensued, where the Orbital created more tears, as I dismantled them while Somani bore the pain of the slashes.
A tear to my left, to my right, above me, below me. Everywhere and in every direction.
I ignored the attacks of the tentacles more and more, focusing on the increasing number of weaves.
At five weaves, things were going smoothly, with me able to fight back the tentacles with the bone sword. At 13 weaves, I had to endure the physical harassment—Somani had Mana infusion on—as I was busy dismantling the weaves. At 15 weaves, my mind was stretched to its limits as I barely fended the monster off.
Thankfully, at 15 weaves, the creature looked at its limits, too. The eye turned red from all the blood vessels.
‘So—mani.’ I struggled to speak from the strain. Thankfully, Somani was smart.
‘Att—ack?’
‘Ya.’
I was using a lot of Somani’s brain power, so he, too, was struggling. Still, the kid was iron-willed and advanced without complaining.
Taking a step forward, Somani was assaulted with tentacles. He squatted the first one away, kicked the second, and punched the third.
He took another step.
Another step, another attack. Tentacles from behind and the front.
Somani held the two coming from ahead in a vice grip before turning around and biting into the third. Somani intangled the two, with the third, forming a knit.
A third step, and more tentacles.
I thought the kid was trapped, but I heard it then… The kid’s inner thought.
For you, Mom, and Dad!
Somani dodged, kicked, punched, bit, and somehow, he reached the Orbital.
The Orbital created a tear to escape into.
No, you won’t!
I dismantled it as Somani punched.
Pop!
A yellowish liquid gushed, as the eye deflated before a tear appeared and dropped innards next to us… It smelled horrible.
Primus Will has reached Lv. 4
Primus Manipulation has reached Lv. 3
You have killed Orbital Spacinator, Lv. 120
Primus Magus has reached Lv. …40
2 points granted.
This is going to be tough…