Unidentified Pond, Kai's POV

Main POV

Kai's body wiggled its way to the opening of the crack, his liquid body easily changing its shape to move through it.

Kai had found the source of the Mana Water; it was a lake filled with Mana Water. A lake that shone with an ethereal glow, one that looked out of this world. Or both. Kai chuckled as he made his way up.

The first bits of Kai's metallic body seeped out from an ordinary crack at the bottom of the lake. His body floated aimlessly in the still water, slowly floating up as Kai focused on getting the rest of his body out.

Anyone who saw this would find it oddly beautiful, the lake seemed to start glowing with a rainbow hue as rainbow light pierced the surface of the lake and into the environment. The lake looked as though it had its own rainbow aurora floating directly above it; it was breathtaking.

Kai, oblivious to the scene he was causing, finally managed to get the last bits of his body out of the fissure. Observing his surroundings, he was able to make deductions. Firstly: Man this lake is huge. And secondly: The water of this lake is all Mana Water!

Kai was excited if one could see whether a metal was excited. He had felt how just a small amount of Mana Water was able to increase his just-born body's mana by several folds. That's probably because I was a newborn at that time though.

Taking a moment to recollect, Kai first molded some of his body into 8 small wirelike objects, before sending them out to scour the lake for any potential threats, then made a 9th wire and sent it above ground.

Kai was delighted that the Mana Water he had absorbed along the way whilst he made his way out of the cave had bore fruit. He could safely deduct that Mana was related to how many points of view he could see at once, considering his size had barely increased even after absorbing all that Mana Water.

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*zip*

Vibrations could be heard in the water as strings of rainbow metal sped around, making the lights that had once peacefully rested on the lake to now look like a light show. The lone metal string likewise also zipped through the flora and fauna on the surface, passing by unnaturally large trees, humongous plants, and the occasional glowing herb.

Kai was able to map all of this in his mind instantly thanks to the capabilities of his new body, which he still couldn't understand why. However, he could tell that most of his body's capabilities were able to be controlled better as the amount of mana in him increased.

Considering how he had felt like throwing up from his death just half an hour ago, to now where he could be able to mentally construct a map from passing images - still in disgustingly vivid detail - was a tremendous improvement.

Not even a minute had gone by when his long tendrils returned, his elongated wires almost instantly reducing to a short, blunt end, as though it had been cut off.

Kai started aimlessly drifting and reviewed his mental map. According to it, he was currently in a large clearing in a forest, grasslands surrounding the lake he was in before transitioning into a forest. The forest was made up of large trees and plants of similar fashion, not to mention there to occasionally a glowing plant here or there.

The lake, much like the pond in the cave, was perfectly still, with zero creatures living in it. It had the same crystal clear water and enchanting glow, but what it did have was the abundance of flora and fauna living at the bottom of this lake. Other than that, Kai couldn't find any lifeforms residing in the lake.

They all had the same enchanting blue glow that the Mana Water Lake had, causing them to shine as though someone had encoded RGB lights directly into their DNA.

Taking a look at the surface, Kai noticed how he hadn't seen a single living organism that wasn't a plant living in the nearby surroundings. It was odd, way too odd. There was no way any creature would neglect this resource-rich place. Kai thought as he pondered on what to do.

Kai was greatly troubled, on one hand, he wanted to absorb all the Mana Water in the lake as soon as possible. On the other hand, he was afraid that some terrible consequence would befall him if he did so, considering how there was not a single living creature living in this resource-rich place.

Now that I think about it... Kai muttered as he watched the glowing plants residing at the bottom of the lake. He could see that they were obviously siphoning Mana Water from the lake, however, there was absolutely zero reaction from the lake.

Yea... and Mana Water had also been seeping into the crack leading to the cave all this time as well. Kai thought, his body gradually growing impatient at the unholy amounts of sustenance literally surrounding him. This hungry instinct of Kai's new body might have been the reason for his lack of caution, but thankfully it didn't do him any hard.

His body started slurping the Mana Water into its body, spreading itself out as much as possible to increase surface area. One could only imagine where all this Mana Water was going.

Kai suddenly felt an extremely sharp pain resounding deep inside him, where he thought his stomach would go if he had one. His "stomach" felt as though it was on the verge of exploding, as though he had eaten until his body could physically not handle it anymore.

Immediately ceasing the absorption of the Mana Water, Kai willed his body to return to a blob-like shape. Taking a good look at himself, he could see his body had barely increased in mass. While the amount of Mana his body contained had skyrocketed, causing his body to shine in even more dazzling hues.