I wanted this experiment to be fast.
First, I contoured the slimy man’s body, separating it from the liquid complex, then…
Cells started bursting here and there for no apparent reason.
What is going on?
I reconnected the slimy cells to the liquid complex, and… the popping stopped.
My slimy man had been separated from the Aqua slime cells, but while moving it around, I had kept it connected to the liquid complex so it didn’t die of starvation.
The cells didn’t die of hunger or oxygen deficiency. They straight-up imploded.
The experiment would’ve lasted only for a few seconds, so I hadn’t thought of creating the liquid complex to sustain them during that short period.
I gave it another try, but this time I zoomed in on the cells to better understand what was going on.
The slimy man was cut off, making the liquid complex lessen between its cells, and…
Suddenly, the liquid inside the cells burst out. The quick motion caused the cell walls to break, making the insides spill.
So that’s what’s going on…
This time, I not only separated it from the liquid complex but also infused it with the same liquid that I created using biomnacy.
The result was different, but still undesirable.
The cells, instead of exploding, expanded until the rods escaped their sheaths, making the slime substance turn fluid as it lost what was holding it together.
What is it now?
Looking at the liquid I had infused into the complex… it was of the same composition as the original.
Maybe…
There had been a moment between the replacement of the liquids. So, if I could erase that shifting phase, then maybe the cells wouldn’t face different… pressures?
Experimenting more, I couldn’t figure out a way to diminish, not even erase, the shift time, so I decided to go at it from a different angle.
I created the slime matter immediately separated and supported by the liquid, and… it worked!
I moved on to the main objective, doing a spin around the Aqua before returning inside it.
Hopefully, no one would notice.
It… didn’t go as planned. It never did.
The moment the slime man’s foot stepped on the ground, it bulged before spreading to cover a bigger surface.
I was about to force it back into shape, but decided to wait so I could understand what was happening.
The slimy foot expanded, eating the leg, then the torso, until it had the entirety of the body.
The slimy man became the same shape as the Aqua slime, but on a smaller scale—a dome.
After experimenting, zooming in, and looking at it from different angles, I decided to call this phenomenon… water gathering, as it looked like when small water droplets gathered into a half sphere.
I didn’t find a solution to this problem, so I decided to reshape the slime mass into a man with brute force, using biomancy, of course.
I made it do the loop around the Aqua before returning inside
The motion was weird, with the slimy body needing precise controls to move, and with its liquid composition, it juggled a bit, but I knew that with practice and some more time, everything would work out.
I guess this is the end of the physical part. Now, onto the soul.
The soul pain had turned into a constant buzz now, showing that although it was intense, it was momentary, unlike before the upgrade.
Thankfully, the new soul, or as I decided to call it, clone 4, didn’t inherit any skills, so that was one less thing to worry about.
Controlling clone 4, I made it float towards a random cell inside the slime man.
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The slime man shone red.
Oh, no!
BOOOOOOOOOV!
The explosion was so violent that it immediately evaporated half of the slime mass.
The organs were flung at a wall. Some were torn, others squished, and a few survived completely harmless due to the slime cushioning the explosion.
I had, unknowingly, created a bomb similar to the Blood Bomb, but instead of giving it a small soul piece, I gave it an entire soul.
Searching for my soul…
It had disappeared.
At least it was painless.
I shoved the film’s Mana into the [Heal], trying to salvage the slime.
This is a disaster.
I had not only lost a soul, but if anyone were monitoring this slime, he’d notice the discrepancy and investigate.
I was careless.
With my film being half of a half of the original, I didn’t have that much Mana, and trying to control the Mana inside the crystal of the host yielded nothing—I couldn’t control this Mana unless I were controlling a perfect unity host like Somani.
I think this type of Slime, water-based, mitigated the explosion, or I would’ve lost two souls… I should be more careful with the experiments from now on.
I waited for something to happen, but after half a day, nothing, so I continued with my experiments.
Activating [Anima Replica], I was about to split my soul again, but…
I can’t.
I knew that to continue my Temporal Host creation, I needed a soul; there was no getting around that, but I… couldn’t go through that pain again.
No… You have to, for the sake of achieving your dream.
To increase my All, and live a happy life, I had to do this.
Pressure mounted. I gathered my will and pushed against it.
I’m One for All, and All is for Me!
But then… I remembered the excruciating pain; Misery on an unimaginable scale.
My soul shivered, and… I backed off.
It’s not like I can’t do anything else.
I decided to put it off for now and move on to the third part of the Temporal host creation.
The Mana core.
But with my spent film, and half of my organs still damaged…
I’ll start after I finish healing.
It took me a week to return to optimum health.
I had debated whether to continue the experiments on Somani’s side, but decided against it.
I wanted to try to keep this project secret from the kid.
A wild card.
I gained [Forced Mana Regeneration] on the Aqua’s side, and levelled it to three. I also worked on condensing my Mana film to return it to pre-split levels.
Although I had to interfere with Somani’s fights a few times, the week was mostly peaceful—I had grown used to the dream torture, while the sadistic torturer was getting more bored with me.
I even pretended to be in pain the last time to prevent them from changing the status quo. I also provided wrong info, but Toread didn’t seem convinced.
Thankfully, we didn’t fight anything on the Cyclop’s level, although our opponents were getting weirder.
Once, we fought a horde of finger-sized hornets; we defeated them using fire Mana. In another confrontation, we faced a camouflaging lizard with weird eyes inhabiting an artificial jungle biome; we took it down by using its weak sight to our advantage. Camouflaging ourselves behind a skin film with an addition of the cells that gave it its colour, the lizard stepped out to find us, only to end up with a bone arrow to its head.
We faced many more threats, and I noticed a similar trait in all of them: Our prisoners were gauging the variety of our arsenal and flexibility in the face of different scenarios.
As long as they don’t kill us, no problem.
I also spent the week focusing on the Aquas’ and Somani’s cores… they were complex, to say the least.
Somani's core was much denser and more complex than the slim’s, so I mostly focused on the latter.
This wasn’t my first time observing a core, and probably wouldn’t be my last. Inside, there was a labyrinth of heavily compressed Mana particles that formed an awe-inspiring trapestry.
Did this tapestry have a certain design to it? After a week of observation, I could barely tell, but I’d lean towards yes.
Not knowing the design behind the function, I did what I had always done; I copied the design.
With my film all regenerated, I started my work.
Taking control of a Mana string, I drew it away from my core.
The string consisted of about a dozen Mana particles loosely held together.
If I were to compare the distance between the Mana particles in the string and the core, I’d say that the string particles had about a hundred times the distance that the core ones had.
When I first got the [Manima Senses] skill, I had struggled to see the Mana particles, but now, after all the level-ups, it was a bit easier.
So, my goal is to shorten that distance by about a hundred times… let’s hope it’s as easy as it sounds.
It wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
Taking control of two particles, I tried to push them towards each other.
The particles moved about 10% of the distance but then…
This is impossible.
No matter how much I forced them through [Mana Manipulation], they just refused to budge.
I didn’t give up.
AHHHHHH!
I gave up.
This is insane.
The particles moved another percentage, but after slipping from my control for a moment, they bounced away from each other, as if they hated each other’s company.
The final distance grew.
I can’t brute force this… I have to try something different.
Thinking on it for a moment, a crazy idea popped into my mind.
If [Mana Manipulation] won’t suffice, then…
Cells had a nuclease, from which twirly strings moved out and headed towards a foamy thing.
The twirly thing then separated into two, revealing thin, comb-like bubbles of tiny materials.
The building blocks were then organised on this bubbly material in patterns, creating bigger building blocks.
I couldn’t create these building blocks as they weren’t considered biological matter, but I could build the twirly things. Using them, I hoped to make something tiny.
The tiny thing would look like a cup, and through it, I’ll have a better grip on the Mana particles.
A problem: Mana could pass the gaps in biological matter, so I had to make it extremely tight.
I activated [Rudis Subtilis Biomancy].
The Mana strings shot from my core, smaller than ever.
The barely twirled and…
They fizzled out.
Is [Rudis Subtilis Bimancy] not enough to create them?
I tried again and got the same result.
My biomancy skill was not strong enough to create something so small, I concluded.
I didn’t give up on this way.
Zooming in on a cell of the slime, I focused on the twirly things, hoping to find a bowl of building blocks that’d help me.
The twirly things created myriad things. Some were spewed out of the cell into the bloodstream, while others stayed inside, doing different tasks. They had multitudes of shapes, from a pan to a cube, an entangled sphere, a spiky snake, and many more.
This’ll do.
I focused on this spiralling hollowed thing, and…
This is harder than usual.
The thing kept slipping out of my biomancy skill’s control, but with some perseverance, I managed to drag it outside the cell, and…
It melted in the bloodstream.
Argh… this’ll be annoying.
Finding two suitable building blocks, I created a tunnel for them to pass through.
Moment of truth…
With [Mana Manipulation] and biomancy, I aligned the building blocks’ hollowed parts facing each other, while the Mana particles were in between.
The Mana particles were about the size of a building block of the building blocks—there was a huge difference in size.
I pushed from both sides, using Mana manipulation and biomancy simultaneously.
The result…
It didn’t work.
The Mana particles reached the ten per cent mark before stopping, then the building blocks came.
Hitting them, the Mana particles pushed the building bocks of the building blocks aside, while refusing to budge closer.
Why does it never work!
Although I knew this wouldn’t be easy. Still, facing a hurdle at every step…
What should I do? What should I do?
The problem was that the building blocks had been pushed aside by a greater strength than the one holding them together.
If I can increase the power holding them together, making them firmer, then maybe they could stay in one piece to push the Mana particles closer.
But the problem here was that I couldn’t even create these things to even hope of altering them.
I tried to zoom in on the space between two building blocks in the hopes of seeing how they were glued together, but…
[Manima Senses] failed me, too.
I was dealing with too minuscule stuff here.
I need to strengthen them. Strengthen… strengthen… Mana Infusion!
I didn’t know what [Mana Infusion] did under the scope, but if it could help me in keeping the building blocks together while I pushed them towards each other, then…
I didn’t have the skill, but I could do it. Although without the skill, I’d probably hurt the slime.
The Mana particles flew and… They became a halo?
The halo covered the cells. In some parts, it was more aggressive, tearing cells apart, and in others, it seemed to energise them.
It increased the cells’ speed while giving them a green shine.
I tried to zoom in on the halo, but it too was above [Manima Sense]’s level.
Would you like to gain the skill [Mana Infusion]?
I accepted.
Now, for the hard part.