It’s been a few days since Gizmo gave me a name, and basically adopted me formally. Or well as formally as he can. I hadn’t made any progress in how much volume I can control. The sweet spot seems to be a mixture of mass and density. I had considered making most of my body a dense membrane and having a stomach for dissolving, but I cant eat efficiently if I do that. I had also found out that when I compress my mass, that I’m squeezing out excess water and compressing my slime.

I had wondered if my control had something to do with the over saturation of water, but that didn’t feel right. Whenever I have to much volume or I over extend a limb, I just loose the ability to control it, I simply loose connection past a certain point.

Besides my own progress, Gizmo had finished three new golems. He has them sparing right now in the front yard. Me and him are watching as they are being put through the ringer. He looks ecstatic. He was going on about the efficiency of observing the physical plane, as appose to utilizing magi-sight, and how much more room there is to enchant for offensive and defensive enchants. I do have to say that the golems appear to move faster, and react quicker. As for their power, well they hadn’t been able to hit each other since the first day of ring testing. That’s what Gizmo calls these duels. But from what I can see, they are agility focused glass cannons.

After Gizmo had seen enough he had the golems go back inside, but we remained out.

“Guinevere, do you know what a Mana sail is?” he asks, looking above the tower. He had his goggles down, looking into the magi-plane at something there. I nod my head, saying no.

“Hmm, well it’s an invention of mine. One that everyones been trying to get their hands on.” He said pointing above the tower. I realize what he’s signaling, and look up there. I tried flowing magic into my mana sight, but couldn't see anything above the tower. I look at him and shrug?

“No, Look further up” he said smiling. I think about how to do this. I reel back in my mana sight, and then had an idea. I focused my mana sight into my eyes, controlling the direction of mana output through my field of physical vision. Which was still a little blurry. As I get the magi-sight to work I make a mental note to test with refining my eyes to get better clarity.

Once I finally get it to work, I notice a massive sail made of mana, it was a wide ovular shape, made up of segmented panels. I couldn't tell how large the thing was because of how high up it was. I didn't even know how high up it was. I was in awe, and I guess Gizmo noticed because he started smiling.

“I figured out how to make a mana structure that would collect ambient world mana without disrupting the ground level mana fields. It’s how I power all my enchants here at the tower. I dread to think how slow my work would go without such a power supply. The lord and king have been trying to get me to make one for them and theirs. But I can’t. This thing could be used for the wrong reasons, as much as the right reasons. I’m sure you understand?” he said looking over towards me with a warm smile.

I nod to him. This thing sounds like the magical equivalent of a nuclear reactor, in the form of a solar panel. This is amazing, I guess it’s no surprise that people are after him. Not just for the golems, but also inventions like this.

“Now follow me. Since you’re we’re family now, I think it’s time I showed you something.” He said starting towards the front door. I followed him, and we head towards another door inside. He had multiple locks and enchants on it. I had to lessen the mana I was pouring into magi-sight so I wouldn’t get blinded. He had various places he placed his hands, poked, and even licked on one occasion. Which earned a questioning look from me. He just laughed it off.

Once he opened it, we headed downstairs. Huh, I guess his lab isn't the only subterranean part of the tower. Once we were down there, he does a lot of the same to the next door, and then some. These are some serious security measures. Once he’s finally finished he takes me into a chamber lit by small yellow orbs, and within the circular room I see enchants all over the wall. There where standing obelisks, and beams of mana coming off of hanging obelisks. I could see enchanted circles all connected together, going to and from one another. This was hands down some form of an advanced 3d enchantment… matrix? I have no words to describe exactly how mind boggling this is.

“Beautiful isn't it?” he said. He was simply taking it all in with a passion. I do as well. I had a idea, so I might as well ask. I get his attention. I didn’t want him to think I was needing this, but I sheepishly persist. I point to myself and then at something that looks like the center or collection point of the advanced construct.

“Ah, I figured you’d ask, I thought about it too. Not now though. I’d like to have a proper channel before I try and throw you into all that mana. Something controllable. Your time in that golem wasn't pleasant was it? I reckon this would be a worse experience than that.” He explained. I nodded, still feeling shy about it. Asking for things was never my strong suite, and I can tell this work was like his baby.

“I want to bring your attention to this right here.” He said pointing to a fist sized red gem.

“This is the support pillar, and also a teleportation crystal. Should things ever go side ways, and this tower gets raided for any reason… we meet here. Once this gem is pulled, the entire tower will self destruct, before that happens, the gem needs to be thrown at the ground. Anyone around will be teleported away to a far off continent.” He says.

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I take it in, thats a heavy topic to take in. The idea of completely uprooting and scorching earth to get away. I wonder what kind of fear warrants this type of preparation. But I take a look around the room and remember that he told me that the king and local lord have been trying to pressure him into making one of these for them.

I nod to him in understanding.

“Good. Having to retreat to a far away land is the worst case scenario however. I have plenty of precautions before we have to resort to that. Speaking of which, I should revise some of them, now that I have the new knowledge from you.” He said turning around to leave. I follow him. He closes the doors, and observes as the enchantments lock the door. We go up the stairs and again, wait for the door to be locked.

“That is my legacy, and if something happens to me, I want you to run. Ill fix the locks so you can get in, in the future. In the mean time, ill be leaving for a couple of days. I have to keep up appearances after all. The guard golems will patrol regularly. Borus and Howl will still be hunting for you. I trust you to melt anyone who tries to force their way inside. Hopefully the golems will take care of anything before that comes to pass however.” He stated. We made our way back to the lab, and he was doing check ups, and minor repairs on his golems.

I was worried if I was going to be honest. I had a thought that I couldn’t shake off so I got Gizmo’s attention. He looked at me, and I pointed to the golem, and then to my head, and then away or at least outside. I then pointed to the golem, and replicated the motions of the golem being destroyed, even allowing one of my arms of fall of onto my lower mass, and then made my form bubble before “exploding.” In a small burst. I recollected myself, and then mimicked his motions when he was working on them, and then to my head, indicating knowledge.

“All ready ahead of you little Guinevere. I don’t want my work to be replicated. The colosseum does have a winner takes all policy. I’m not going to let my creations get replicated. The moment certain perimeters are met, the mana circuits self destruct. It’s more of a sped up erosion, but it gets the job done. I was extra through with the new models.” He said with a knowing smile. I nod my head at that, and the nagging feeling dissipated.

Gizmo had putted around, checking on various things throughout the lab, and I thought back to the last fight I had. And then I thought of the mana sail. I was thinking, and thinking. I then looked down to my core. Seeing it physically was an odd sensation. Then I had an idea. I waived Gizmo down again, he was happy to see what I had to “say”.

I pointed to my core, and then formed a cage with my hands by melting my hands together. I then pointed held it in front of my core, and then made a motion for taking something into my core.

“Hmm, a cage for your core? Protection I’m guessing? And you want it to draw in ambient mana? Should be more than do-able. Maybe I could even have it resonate on the mana sail power supply line, give you some extra juice. Yea, that actually seems easier than making a magic pad for you to rest on.” He said getting out some tools and materials.

“This should be a fun and quick little project.” He said as he started heating some metal sheets. He had various had tools for heating, and stationed tools for bending metals with precision. He was done with the frame rather quickly. Now he was working on the enchants with his enchanters wand. It was like a pen, and I’m guessing it drew mana from the mana sail as well. Otherwise all these enchants would have to be powered by himself, or a whole team of enchanters, probably working perfectly in sync.

By the time it was night, he had finished it, a cylindrical cage with a single point at both ends was presented before me.

“Alrighy, it opens up at the middle, and the prongs on one side fit into the sockets on the other half. I’m assuming you can make some thick slime to keep the two pieces together, so I didn’t bother with a clasping mechanism.” He said. I took it and slid it under the poncho and moved it around inside my body. Once it was around my core, I did what he suggested, making a couple of bands around the flat metal bars of the cage. I also modified the inner membrane to fit perfectly inside of the cage.

I lift the poncho a bit, and lower my core down to show him. He seemed to want to protest, but looked it over all the same.

“Alright, now you have to activate it. I made I to where it’ll draw mana from the area, and the mana sail. The thing is, it’ll only give you mana if you channel mana into it. It’ll give you twice the amount of mana you put into it. That should make it to where you are reimbursed from using it, and get the mana needed for your core. I did put a max limit on it, just for the sake of safety. And I’d have to guess it’ll be tricky to get used to, but I’m sure you’ll manage. Take off the cage if your core grows to big, and worse case scenario, dissolve it. It’s cheap enough to make.” He said pulling out a stone from his pocket.

“Ah, well. I guess it’s bed time. Let me know how it works for you in the morning.” He smiled. I gave him a hug at that. I looked up to him and mouthed “Good night grandpa”.

“Ah hah, good night my little Guinevere” he said patting me on the back after returning the hug with a warm smile.

As he walked up the stairs I felt like a dumb ass. Could I have just mouthed words this entire time instead of acting them out like some scaredy cat of a purple dog from a cartoon? Oof.

I sat in my dish, and played around with directing my mana around. It was a sensation I wasn’t used to. Like finding out how to control a new limb. In my case as a slime, I think my core did a lot of auto translation with my previous life’s muscle memories as a human. But I digress.

Trying to use mana however, is like training a ghost limb. Like discovering you have a whole second body you weren’t aware of, and then then trying to control it. I manage however, trickling a little bit of mana into the cage. I luckily didn’t have to worry about where to plug the mana into. I just simply pushed it into it.

Once I got past the hurdle of manipulating the mana, I realized I had to be a little more precise than I wanted to be, as to channel the mana into the cage and not my core. Once I did that I saw, and felt, the mana begin to pool inside the cage. I focus on my core with the intent to refine as Gizmo- grandpa, had suggested.

I smiled at my self correction with referring to Gizmo. I got back on track and channeled the excess mana into my core with the intent of refining. I’m not pushing my mental capabilities to the limit, but it does take a lot to stay focused. Now I was putting mana into the cage, and taking excess mana into my core, and refining.

I can't feel any immediate results, and I don’t think I’m at the cages limit, but I decide to stay at this rate for now until I got used to the process. Unlike any of the other nights, this one is crawling by at a snails pace, probably because I am doing more than sifting through my core’s memories. I bring my focus back to the task at hand. This is going to be a long night.