Exiting the large closet, or rather the small library, Clarity found herself in the familiar, brightly lit space of the guild hall. However, only a few lone adventurers lounged around inside, with a single receptionist sitting, face down at the reception desk, and a single employee manning the bar inside the cafe.
Walking over to the receptionist, she asked “Where did all of the adventurers go?”
The receptionist looked up with dead eyes and said “Sleeping, like I should be doing, it's the middle of the night right now. I just had to get stuck with night duty.”
“Oh... I'm sorry” Clarity replied, glancing out the door and realizing that while the grounds closest to the guild hall were still lit up with magical lights, the town faded into night as she looked further out.
The receptionist slumped down as Clarity walked away, before popping back up to say “Oh yeah! Slime girl... Esmeralda wanted to talk to you about something.”
'Whoops... I was supposed to go back and see her... I hope she isn't too upset with me.'
“... How long have I been in the library?” Clarity asked for clarification.
“Today's Friday” the receptionist remarked as she slumped down again. “No wait... it's Saturday, now.”
“That doesn't tell me anything” 'I don't even know what day I got here on.'
“Oh right” she sleepily replied. “Monster. Right. Well, you got here on a Saturday... so a week... 7 days ago.”
“Thank you, I'll go talk Esmeralda later” Clarity said with gratitude as she walked towards the door.
The receptionist suddenly perked up, yelling out “Wait, curfew!...” but Clarity was already outside and chose not to acknowledge the cry, pretending not to hear it as she sped off into town in the direction of her entrance. 'I doubt the guards would be thrilled with a monster showing up at the gate in the middle of the night, so I'll just hop the wall again'
Clarity had even less trouble getting out than she had getting in, jumping into the night sky and easily clearing the town wall in moments.
Within two minutes she was back on the dirt road, running towards her home lake at a speed that would put a pre-mana horse to shame. No longer was she sneaking through the forest like a rat, fearful of any unexpected encounters. The status card she received from the guild should prevent most confrontations, and even if that failed, nothing in the surrounding forest should pose much threat to her.
On the way back, she stopped to slaughter any monster she could find, even going out of her way to chase them down, their bodies quickly broken down into mana to feed her core. She would need the mana later.
The night still held strong as Clarity returned to her old home, coming to a stop on the shore with a wide view of the lake.
JJ projected his astral form outside of Clarity one last time, reminiscing over his time spent here.
He had considered the area to be something akin to a tutorial zone built specially for him. The threats were scarce, the mana was plentiful, and new experiences hid behind every rock and bush.
This was where his and Michael's bodies found their final resting spot. This was where he first found Aqua, who protected him from... he wasn't sure what, nonexistence? This was the grave of who he was, and the birth of a slightly vengeful spirit who bore his name.
This was where he found Rocky and Dwayne. Where his experiments created Disco and Shadow. Where a freak occurrence and an even crazier decision led to the birth of Clarity. Where Shiny created his toughest armor.
This would be the place JJ's ghost succumbed to his final rest, and Clarity would truly come to life.
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Perhaps he was being a bit melodramatic, but during his time in the guild's library he had learned a lot, and now he had a choice ahead of him. A choice to set himself on the path to greatness, or possibly his own doom. But that choice wasn't easy. It demanded sacrifice, hard work, and a whole lot of risk.
There were three types of beings in this new world; The material, the magical, and the spiritual.
The material, those who were completely reliant on their physical bodies. Often considered the weakest of the three, almost never reaching the heights of the other two no matter how hard one tried.
The magical, those who bound themselves to a magical core for power. The most common, and widely considered the most powerful option. In fact, it was so widely regarded that, outside of scholarly debates, most considered it the only viable path to power, breaking it down into two paths, those of magic and might.
The spiritual, those with no relation to the physical at all, who merely projected themselves through magic. The least common of the three, but also the most terrifying. Impervious to physical harm, but incredibly weak to magic. Some held great power over magic, making them a nightmare to face, as the only way to harm them was to overcome their greatest strength. Others, such as JJ, were capable of possessing other beings and making that strength their own.
Of course, there was a lot of overlap between categories, especially the first two, but they could roughly be broken down that way. For example, nearly every monster in this forest would be considered a material monster, despite most owning a magical core, because they had yet to bind their soul and core together.
Once they made the transition from material to magical, both their intelligence and their strength would begin to increase, something the guild was keen to watch out for as such a monster would eventually outgrow the beginner adventurers who were supposed to train here.
While spiritual beings may seem quite strong in comparison, JJ had concluded that most of them were little more than parasites. A point of view that certainly didn't help his already damaged psyche from the loss of his original body.
They were dangerous, tricky, and hard to kill, yes, but strong? Not so much. Nevermind the fact that anyone with half a brain would squash him with extreme prejudice if they ever found out what he was capable of, what good was the ability to control those weaker than yourself when facing something stronger?
Sure, he could work to make his possessed creatures stronger, but the library had plenty of anecdotes of brave heroes who bid their time when possessed by some evil ghost, until they grew strong enough to throw off the reins and take back control of their bodies. In that sense, JJ was incredibly lucky to discover the slimes, who seemed to have no souls or minds of their own, and thus no ability to resist.
But his slimes as they were now had limits. Their mana pools were merely reservoirs, filled with mana that was already collected. Any mana used would be drained and have to be replaced, weakening both body and senses, as the pool ran low.
Looking at it in gaming terms, by tying himself to a magical core, he would throw away his ability to swap characters, he would throw away his extra lives, and he would throw away the easy experience he currently enjoyed. In return, the new magical core would gain the ability to grow. A short-term sacrifice, for long-term benefits. Hopefully.
With a final sigh, he returned to Clarity, walking down into the lake where the other slimes rested.
'The books advised gathering as much mana as possible within the core before binding it. Because, while mana will be lost in the binding process, it will still be much less of a loss than the hundred times slower growth rate on the finished core.'
With a great deal of melancholy, Clarity stared at the menagerie of slimes. They weren't thinking, feeling creatures. They were practically nothing more than living machines, and broken ones at that, ever since their possessions. Still, the memories and attachments were real, the same way one would grow attached over time to their video game characters.
'I need your mana one last time. I will not forget you guys' Clarity vowed, gradually strengthening her arm with mana and driving it into Shadow's core. With a gentle crack, the core broke, and mana began to flow into Clarity. She repeated the process with each slime, only having trouble with Shiny whose metallic goo had to be slowly pried away from the core to reach it.
Glancing up, she saw wild slimes darting to and fro in the calm lake. Releasing small pulses of mana, she began to attract all of the nearby slimes, quickly slaughtering them much like she had done to the monsters on her way back so that she could gather their mana.
With her surroundings cleared, Clarity sat down in a meditative pose like the books suggested, reaching deep inside to picture both her core and JJ's soul. Slowly, the two began to merge, the core itself beginning to overflow with life.
Opening her eyes, Clarity saw the early morning sun shining down into the lake, and felt more alive than ever before. The world seemed to slow down when she focused, and her mana perception covered everything within 10 meters, a rather sizable increase.
'It's like this is truly my body now' she thought with a grin.
Stepping out of the lake, she carefully reached for her mana, finding the pool within her core diminished to less than a quarter of its previous heights. 'I already knew this would happen' she reassured herself.
Looking back, she felt one last bout of nostalgia. Contemplatively, she strolled up to the small, fierce looking goblin statue that stood half-destroyed on the shore. Reaching inside for her mana once again, she drew out a small portion of her pool, slowly manipulating the ground near the statue's feet to bulge upwards in the shape of a headstone. Carefully, she carved out a memorial on the face of the headstone.
Here lies
Rocky
Dwayne
Aqua
Disco
Shadow
Shiny
Michael
Junior
You will be remembered.
She felt her core begin to produce mana, regenerating what she had just used only a few moments later. The growth of her core would be much slower now, but any mana used would be regenerated within only a short few hours, even if she were to use her entire pool. Even areas without a shred of ambient mana would no longer be a threat to her.
'Now it's time to get back to... huh, I never caught the name of that town' Clarity glanced down at her soaking wet robes, now filled with innumerable cuts and rips due to her nighttime dash through the forest 'Ah crap, Amy is going to be so pissed...'