My multitasking became much more developed; while I was cultivating myself, I was able to slightly move around the external mana near my skin. It calmly vibrated as I took control of it and directed it near my central burrow. Doing that allowed me to take in more mana than I was naturally able to.
I continued my constant soul densifying procedure until I felt a disturbance in information that a mana string transferred into me. Putting my cultivation on a hold, I got out of my meditation and swiftly got in a defensive position. I looked around with my sixth sense to spot any anomalies and found 7 mana sources, excluding mine and my guardian skeleton's, in the same cavern. My glance immediately pointed towards the direction of those sources.
Anger swelled in me as I stared at the back of my skeleton and the 7 slimes infront of him. My guardian stood strong even when faced against so many opponents, only equipped with a rusty sword. Although, such certainty was to be expected when all he had in that skull was my order. Even with the strong standing that my guardian posed, I wanted to burst into laughter. Those slimes could melt his bones in an instant.
'Shitty slimes, how were they able to get this close?' I thought. They were almost near the foundation with only the skeleton standing between them.
I swept the cavern with my sixth sense and discovered a new hole melted through the ceiling.
'What?! I already checked the upper floor for any dangerous mana sources, but I only found small bits.'
My base was in danger if the slimes were able to preach through the walls so easily with their tremendous acidic prowess. I had some ideas which I could put in to use to eradicate my pest problem, but I had to take care of the intruders first. My hand started trembling at the thought of trying to destroy the slimes with my hand, just like I did with the mother slime. Air bullets were out of the question since the pressured air was surrounded by mana, which the slime's shell would be able to deflect. The bone nails that I stored were too small to make much of an impact.
All I had at my disposal was the skeleton that had a stalemate with the slimes at the moment. Ofcourse, I could use the colossal skeleton, but if my guardian cannot defend me from mere slimes, what kind of a shitty creator am I?
I sent out a command to my skeleton to dodge any incoming attacks for now. I calculated that he was agile enough with my vast amounts of mana pouring into him.
The slimes observed for a little longer before one of them started bouncing slightly on one spot. It looked like it was preparing to spit out a huge amount of goo chunk towards the guardian. Unexpectedly, it pulled back its whole body before lunging forward at a fast speed. I immediately ordered the skeleton to take the hit and reinforce its frontal bones with.
The slime crashed right into the skeleton and rammed him into the half-wall of the foundation I was standing on. My miscalculations caused the skeleton's rear bones to crack, some even shatter.
I hastily increased my mana stream on the strings so that the bones would start healing. I didn't have enough time to recover my guardian and get him back up before all of the slimes started making a move. Behind the attacking slime from before, the others split into two groups and started hopping to the sides. Three slimes on my left, three slimes on my right. Meanwhile, the attacking slime prepared for another jump.
I calmly examined the situation. With the rusty sword I would be able to infiltrate the slimes shells, but I had only one of it. With the skeleton's sharp arms I would be able to infiltrate the slimes shells, but the slimes would crush him all at once.
I was out of options; it was time to take things into my own hands. Although a bit risky, I figured it would be time to test out a new element.
Jumping off the foundation and landing far from it, I 'breathed' in as much mana as I was able to. Not knowing whether it would work or not, I slammed both my hands onto the ground and started guiding mana into it, similar to the method I used to control my skeletons with mana strings. Roots of energy delved further and deeper away from me as I kept unleashing whatever force I was able to.
I felt as the earth became more and more submissive to my will. Stone, mud, metal - All of these were becoming more sensitive to my reach.
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The slime infront of the recovering skeleton began bouncing on the spot, ready to break the defense of the guardian. I wasn't ready to lose my first skeletal warrior in combat yet, so I took action. Expanding with my sixth sense, I determined the location of the attacking slime and pinpointed it down to its exact position.
Suddenly, the ground become more unstable under the slime. It started wobbling before instantly flying up to the ceiling and smashing between the stone roof and the rock underneath it. Its lifeforce, the ooze, stained itself on the ceiling while the rock, that erupted from the ground, fell down.
Slimes that had split up became enraged at the sight of their companion's death and started hopping at my direction. I felt my luck increasing with the slimes raging.
Commanding my skeleton to take action, it swiftly stood up after half-recovering and ran towards the slime squad on my left side. The slimes were cleanly cut in half by a flying rusty sword controlled by an extra mana string and the skeleton's sharp arms armed with mana in the inner bones. All of it was possible since the slimes had diverted their attention on me.
The slime squad on my right side I took care of by myself; I raised three rock boulders from the ground and hurled them at the slimes direction. 2 of the 3 got smashed while the last one narrowly managed to avoid the boulders thanks to my bad aiming. My mana was running empty so I couldn't use the earth to my advantage anymore, but I fret not.
As the only remaining slime, it stood out as the most dangerous. Up to its expectations, it began bouncing on the spot. Before it could initiate its attack, the skeleton guardian charged at the slime with straight hands. The slime was cut in half by the corroded, but sharp arms.
As the slime's form broke apart, I let out a long sigh of relief. I looked at my damaged guardian and smiled, knowing that both of us were able to survive this attack together. Though, I could of called upon reinforcements, but where is the fun in that?
Once I was done recollecting myself and absorbing the soul of the slimes, I headed towards the hole that was newly melted. It took me half a minute of walking to arrive at my destination: beneath the hole in the ceiling. I stared at it while it ooze slipped down the corroded walls. Debating whether it was wise to jump up there, I decided to go.
I figured that testing out my legs would be good, so I leaped upwards. I fell a bit short and grabbed the gooey edge of the hole. Since I wasn't able to grasp anything solid my hand slided down and I began falling an eight meter fall.
My instincts howled like a wild animal and I subconsciously packed the ground with mana. I softly fell onto it and kept descending like I was a feather coming down. After my back gently touched the ground, the mana underneath me dissipated. I quickly stood up sighed out of relief again. It was amazing how developed my own body became, to the extent where it protects me without me directly desiring it. I also hit myself on the head as punishment for my stupidity.
This time, before venturing in like an idiot, I cleared the edge from the ooze with air bullets while also breaking apart some melted stones. I could of done it more 'peacefully' without the involvement of air bullets, but that would have taken too much time. Now that the way was clear, I leaped up again and grabbed the cleaned off edge. I pulled myself up and put my feet on the floor which was covered in ooze. Realising that my feet found themselves in a very dangerous place I quickly retracted them, but the ooze did not hurt one bit. After knowing that, I felt relaxed walking around.
'So slime with mana has more corrosive acid..' I thought. It brought up new theories regarding mana.
'From what I have gathered, mana boosts something when inserted. Such was the case with the fireball and enchanted bones. The fire grew larger in quantity while the bones hardened.' I examined.
Even with the knowledge I've gained, I didn't have a way to produce fire. I needed fire to clean out the upper cavern where all the slime goo was situated. Thinking back on when the elite skeleton used a fireball, it formed so easily from his hands. Convincing myself that I could do it aswell, I tried it out.
I put my right hand forward and began focusing. I directed mana to center ontop of my palm, doing that allowed me to feel a sensation. The sensation figuratively asked me what was my desire, specifically, what form did I desire. I felt this just like before, when I was using mana to manipulate earth, water and the wind. I thought of it no longer and demanded the form of fire. Ofcourse, it didn't just appear so easily; I had to visualize the fire and its essence ontop of my palm. The more I felt the essence of fire, the more my soul responded to it.
In an instant moment flames bursted out of my hand. I regulated my mana flow and stabilized it so that it would form into a ball. I stared at its beautiful form as it warmed my hand.
After I was done admiring it, I expanded its reach by shooting it out like a flamethrower. Bit by bit, I added more power to it until the ooze that it touched started vaporizing. I brought in my left hand and manifested a second flame to assist with the nest burning. In a few seconds half of the upper cavern was set ablaze. It all glowed brightly as I finally eradicated my lasting problem, but that was not the case...
Suddenly, all the slime ooze in the upper cavern started moving at an incredibly fast speed, moving to the center. Even the ooze under my flames were called to the center and all of it gathered together began circling itself in midair.
'What is that?!' I thought as I witnessed the forming of something ominous...