After a bit of trial and error JJ discovered that he could, as best he could describe it, imbue his “will” into mana. He likened it to mentally screaming at the mana to do what he wanted it to do, until it actually did.
'This is definitely enchanting! There's nothing else it could be! Real enchanting! And Mom said those games would never prepare me for the future...'
The dense clump of mana sat perfectly still within the statue once he stopped fiddling with it. Not only did the mana not dissipate, it also prevented any more earth mana from entering or passing through.
JJ sensed that the enchantment would not last forever. Unlike a living creature, it had a finite amount of “will” that allowed it to resist outside forces. He suspected this clump within the statue would disappear naturally within a few days.
The end result being that the statue was significantly strengthened both magically and physically while the enchantment was in place. This also meant that his efforts to carve out the face and other details of his new statue became twice as difficult.
None of that put a damper on his sense of achievement as he finally carved the finishing touches into his second goblin statue.
As he finished the last few detailed strokes, JJ realized that he was practically looking straight into the goblin's eyes, at least in so much as a slime could be considered to look something else in the eyes without having eyes itself.
Dwayne's core hovered steadily within its gooey body, mere inches away from the statue's face. JJ had originally sculpted his statues with the rough dimensions of a normal goblin in mind, which stood around four feet tall, so Dwayne should have sat half as tall as the goblin statue, at best.
Breaking out of his crafting trance, he looked down and saw what was holding his core up. In his extreme focus, he'd subconsciously elongated Dwayne's body like a pillar. With a diameter of less than a foot, the column of slime stood precariously in front of the goblin's statue, reaching all the way up to its head.
'Of course!' JJ realized 'I can already control the body of these slimes to roll around when I want to move, so why can't I take on other shapes as well? Logically, there's nothing that should stop me!'
Rather than create another statue, JJ began molding Dwayne's body into a facsimile of the statues already sitting beside him.
He ran into none of the structural problems of his previous sculptures, as the high mana density and high viscosity of his own body held it together perfectly. Dwayne's body easily supported itself with two normally proportioned legs, and the goblin replica quickly took form, relatively speaking. Where the statues had each taken hours to form, Dwayne's body only took a handful of minutes.
However, due to Dwayne's limited mass, the humanoid form didn't reach any higher than the chests of the two goblin statues that loomed overhead.
JJ sculpted a jagged scar over both eyes, sharply pointed ears, and large vampire-like canines just for the hell of it, before noticing the rest of Dwayne's body had already reverted to looking like a small dough man.
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After a bit of back and forth, he realized that maintaining a non-spherical form required perpetual concentration. Any lapse in attention would result in a loss of detail.
In the end he settled on enchanting his own body with bits of will-infused mana to maintain his crafted physique.
As the trace amounts of light mana in the surroundings began to fade, hinting at the approach of nightfall, three fierce goblins stared back at each other with stony gazes.
JJ looked on with pride at his craftsmanship for a while, before he sensed movement directly “behind” him. At the furthest range of his perception there were two large masses of mana creeping into his view. A pair of adult goblins approached, each with a gnarled branch-club in their hands.
'A bit earlier than I'd like, but Dwayne does still need a combat test' he mused.
Debating his options, JJ decided against a surprise counterattack. Aqua was capable of such an attack with some rapid water control, but Dwayne's earth control was far too slow to hit anything faster than a snail.
He recalled several programs he'd seen in the past about natural predators and how they instinctively avoided attacking while their target's eyes were visible. 'I sure hope magical predators work the same way' he thought as he slowly turned his “head” to face in their direction.
Without the ingrained sense of balance that came with a normal humanoid body, he didn't dare try to move Dwayne's pudgy little body, so he could only swivel his sculpted head around on the stationary base, to glare at the newcomers in silence.
JJ spent nearly a dozen seconds on this simple move, but it was more effective than he could have possibly imagined. He'd hoped to intimidate the goblins long enough for him to sharpen his arms into makeshift weapons, and possibly split the pair up if they attempted to encircle him.
Instead, the goblins stopped in place as they watched him finish, before vanishing from his field of view. After a few moments of confusion, JJ returned to his astral form to see what the goblins were up to after leaving Dwayne's perception range, but he couldn't find a single goblin still in sight.
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Grog and Grug were proud hunter-warriors of their goblin tribe.
Many times had they warred with other goblin tribes, and many times had they forced their lessers to submit to the one true goblin tribe, lead by Krag the mighty. Many being at least two, as most goblins only cared to distinguish between “one” and “more than one”.
Arriving at their shiny stone watering hole, where they collected shiny stones at the behest of their mighty leader Krag, they found two other goblins attempting to steal their shiny stones. With a quick glance at the other, they shared a thought 'They not more than us!'
As they approached, they realized that there was actually a third, smaller goblin. They didn't let that stop them, as the last goblin was nothing more than a child. The first two goblins may have looked quite large and fierce, but they were too stupid to notice Grog and Grug approach.
Getting closer, they realized that all three goblins were quite fat and ugly, even by goblin standards. That was good, as every goblin knew that fat meant food, and fat also meant slow.
'Hehe, easy prey' they both chuckled, grinning at the thought of stealing all of the food from their newfound targets.
The taller goblins remained oblivious to their sneaky approach, but as they drew closer the smaller goblin seemed to notice them. Knowing that their ambush was blown, they paused to see how their foes would react. It would be best if they threw themselves to the ground in surrender like the weak, fat losers they were.
Grog and Grug watched as the small, fat goblin child slowly turned its head towards them. They expected to see signs of fear and hatred on its face, but instead, as the head slowly spun towards them, all they saw was a rictus grin.
Without stopping, the head continued turning, far past what any mortal creature should be capable of, greeting the pair of hardened goblin warriors with the most terrifying visage they had ever seen; distorted ears, a mouth full of fangs, more scars than even their mighty leader Krag, and not a hint of fear in its eyes.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Without a bit of hesitation, they turned and ran. Their screams rang through the forest as they fled in terror.
They returned to their tribe that night and, through a mixture of crude language and charades, told tales of the demon goblins that had invaded their territory. In their tales the demons were accused of various horrible deeds such as hoarding all of their food, stealing the shiny stones, and ambushing innocent goblin warriors in the forest.
When asked to describe these ferocious demon goblins, they told of horribly fat goblins, with spinning heads that never stop laughing, and more scars than even the mighty Krag. All of the goblins in their tribe were very impressed, except for Krag.