Whoever was sending people, apparently realized that they needed reinforcements.

Behind us, an identical portal had appeared, and once more people started pouring out. This time, though, they were a lot more aggressive, immediately pointing their guns at us.

I only raised my hands and prepared to blast them with magic, but Mike stopped me.

-Give me a second.

-Again?

But, he didn’t reply.

Instead, the group of people he stopped before had also started moving, joining the group pouring from the portal.

-What are you doing!? - I hissed at him, but he only waved me off.

-What’s going on?! Why are you unarmed?

It was one of the people who just arrived. He noticed that the group that was here before was still there, although without weapons.

He definitely knew that something was wrong.

But, before he managed to give any kind of order, “our” military had attacked.

While most of them were still unarmed and just leaped in, punching and kicking, some still had weapons.

And used them.

He definitely had all of them under control. It was a bit unsettling to see a sudden fight that just emerged in front of us, with the two of us standing in the background, just waiting for the resolution.

-What a waste… - mumbled Mike.

-Huh?

-Waste. I need to be faster next time so they won’t need to use weapons.

-I didn’t think you’d be one to pay attention to bodies you left behind.

-Oh, don’t get me wrong, that’s not the problem here - he assured me. - It’s just I’d rather have a larger force. If I can absorb more people into it, I’d rather do that.

-And why do you need said force?

-It’s not like I need it. It’s either that or to have them pester me for the rest of my life.

-Hm. Fuck! I forgot about the janitor!

During the sudden appearance of the reinforcements, the slime had slipped my mind.

I frantically started looking around, trying to find him in the mess of fighting, but that was pointless.

-Don’t worry about that. As long as he’s not stuck to either of us, we should be good.

-Hm… I guess… That’s until they find another way to track us down.

-Maybe. Oh, look they are done.

-Hm?

Despite what he said, it didn’t seem like the fighting was done.

Sure, the people were no longer shooting, but the melee was still going on pretty intensely.

-That doesn’t seem like…

-Stop.

The last one wasn’t directed towards me.

I felt intent behind his speech, and not just in his tone of voice.

There was mana in that word.

And, like commanded, all of the people stopped moving, freezing on the spot.

-Attention.

Like some general, he started commanding the whole group.

Honestly, that was not surprising.

The only thing that was startling was the amount of time he needed this time to get the situation under control.

-You’re getting faster - I commented.

-It’s not like I am faster, it’s just I had more helpers this time - he admitted. - First time I had to start from just a singular one, now I had a whole team.

-True enough.

-What, do you intend to keep doing this until… I don’t know? - I asked Mike after gathering myself and we started moving forward, apparently with some kind of target in mind.

-You think they’ll get bored? - he chuckled. - Hah. No. I just need to get to a good spot…

-A good spot?

-A leyline. I need to regenerate. And so do you.

-You seem fine to me… - I muttered under my breath, not sure what to think of that statement.

Was he trying to pull off yet another large spell? What kind of bullshit did he think of this time?

I think he noticed my expression, because he laughed again.

-Hah, don’t worry. Nothing that would involve you.

-Mhm.

He was lying.

And I noticed. His mana was quite obvious.

Honestly, it was surprising. For a long while now I wasn’t taking my sensing seriously. Sure, I was seeing other people’s mana and all that, but always felt like people were truthful to me.

I mean, sure, I didn’t have much contact with other people, and those that I met weren’t exactly trying to lie. Besides, a powerful person could probably hide their intentions. Especially him.

So why now I could see that?

Was he tired or something?

No, couldn’t be it he’s not dumb. Was he doing that on purpose? Can’t be that.

Maybe my skills have improved?

Was that even possible? It’s not like I trained…

Well, I did manage to move my own consciousness… and not only mine… Did that make me see lies better?

Makes no sense.

Just like the whole situation of mine.

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I couldn’t help but notice it more and more. That whatever I did, it seemed like nothing had any point and I just followed whatever I had in front of me. Even after being almost destroyed, that didn’t change me at all.

I probably should do something about that… but what?

At this point, I probably should change my name to “Apathy”...

-Damn…

-What?

-Nothing - I replied. - Just thinking about stuff.

-Okay… Well, anyway, we’re here.

-Here…? What’s… Oh.

While the place didn’t look like much from the outside, just yet another patch of forest, just a glimpse of it using my enhanced senses gave a clear answer why we stopped.

The leyline was absolutely massive.

It was surprising.

Even compared to the spot I knew was a ruptured one, this one was leaking mana all over the place. Was this place similar? That would definitely explain the forest.

The only weird thing was the fact that there was absolutely no other indication. Something like this probably should be in use… or at least marked somehow. It wasn’t that far away from the city, right?

I took a glance towards the direction where we came from and…

Well, I might have underestimated myself and my speed under the effects of the enhancement.

Mike did confirm my suspicions.

-We’re so far off that I bet they never thought to even use this place, despite the power. -Lucky for us.

-Eh, they are just using the one directly under the city.

-There’s one there?

-Of course. Every city has one. Or, well, most of them. Unlucky for them.

-Unlucky?

-Remember the experiment?

-Oh.

-Yeah.

Right. We did manage to rupture a leyline… and the damage was spread to the other ones as well.

-Since they all were connected, it went just like one big pulse. And I intend on using that again.

-What? - I asked, interested.

-You’ll see in a while. For now, let’s deal with those people…

Right.

We still had a rather large company with us.

I wasn’t sure, I thought he was planning to use them for something, but hearing him it seemed like they were made to follow us just because.

-I was wondering when you’re going to say that… I was kind of worried that they’re going to track us down using them, but it seems like they’re taking their sweet time doing that… - I pointed out.

-If they haven’t done that until now, I am sure they can’t - said Mike. - After all, it took them just moments to send a new wave.

-I guess… But maybe they’re just careful?

-Possible… but that doesn’t matter. With that many, I can just take control in moments.

-Hm. Yeah.

-And speaking of, I need to focus. I’m going to convert them now.

-Convert? And you needed a leyline for that?

-Well, no. It’s just going to speed up the process. And it’ll be handy later.

-Okay then… You need me for something then?

-Not now. Just give me a moment.

With that, he stepped forward, beckoning the rest of the people to come to him.

Standing in the middle of the leyline, where he was almost too hard to look at, he made them form a circle around him.

It looked somewhat eerie, them crowding him shoulder to shoulder.

I was wondering what exactly he was going to do. I mean, I knew what the supposed effect was going to be, but not the process. So far, the only ones I’ve seen that had been taken under his control were done so stealthily, so I didn’t know what to expect. Since that was supposed to go faster, I assumed that it would be more noticeable.

But, it wasn’t really the case.

Sure, I could tell that he was moving his mana. It was a bit annoying to look at, since he was standing in the middle of a rather large mana source, but I could bear it and soon my eyes even acclimated to the overwhelming light that was the leyline in front of me.

It looked like he was absorbing mana slowly into himself. I am not sure if that was a part of the whole ritual, because, after all, he was wounded and it would definitely help him recover.

Besides that, I could tell he was also pouring his own magic towards the circle of bodies surrounding him. Or was that something else…?

No…

It was more like he was connected to them, and from him the mana was flowing, connecting everyone, and then returning back to him.

It was just a simple string at first, but soon the singular flames started fluctuating.

Like a small wave, something was pulsing from him, and with every pulse mana was slowly changing. Eroding each flame steadily, just to return to him and repeat the process over and over again.

If not for the overwhelming light in the middle, it would’ve been mesmerizing. The light, even with me being used to it, was still too distracting.

The whole process seemed pretty simple. And effective.

It took maybe two or three loops for me to be sure that the flames of the soldiers were already different… more similar to his own.

And mine.

I shook myself off from the trance.

I had to also do something.

I’ve been too lenient and lazy. Again.

Sure, so far Mike was pretty friendly to me, but I knew better that it was not going to be like that for a long time. Even if I didn’t feel anything about his earlier words, I knew him. And myself.

If he was going to try anything, I should be in the best possible condition. And what’s the best way to recover my strength if not the leyline right in front of me?

Sure, Mike was supposedly going to use it, but it’s not like he forbade me to use it myself. Nor could he.

Not interrupting his own meditation, I moved a bit away from the whole ritual. I didn’t want to accidentally do something and then get blamed for it. And, since it was the leyline, the mana problem was non-existent; everything here was brimming with energy.

So, I started absorbing.

He noticed.

I mean, I wasn’t really trying to be stealthy at all, so no wonder.

I was hoping that he wouldn’t notice since he’d be too focused on his own business, but that was just wishful thinking on my side.

But, I was right about him being too preoccupied to be able to do anything.

Good.

With that, the two of us were just sitting there, immersed in our own rituals.

I was done pretty quickly, at least with bringing my own body to top condition.

It wasn’t that hard, since I had plenty of practice with melding the Crystal recently, be it my own flesh or otherwise.

Seeing as I still had time, however, I decided to absorb more.

I knew that my body could host an abundance of energy, and having that plentiful source in front of me it would be stupid to not use it as much as I could.

Hell, maybe it was going to mess with his plans later, but so what?

I planned on sitting there until he was done, but I actually overestimated my own capacity. Or maybe his objectives.

Whatever the case was, I had already had my fill of mana to the point where I couldn’t actually absorb any more, and he was still messing with the military group nearby. I am not sure what he wanted to accomplish, because to me their magic was already dispersed equally, their mana looking exactly the same as his.

Oh well, at least I learned the limits of my own capacity.

So far it was actually hard to determine, and sitting here I could finally say that my own crystal wasn’t actually limitless.

Of course, it was obvious that it would be the case, I mean I am still human after all. Or mostly, that is. At least I am limited by being a physical being.

But, even then, I absorbed more than I thought it was going to be possible.

I knew that it was not going to be even remotely possible to deplete the leyline in front of me, or any other, so I didn’t stop myself, but I actually managed to make a visible dent.

At first, I thought that it was just my own sight being accustomed to the light that the leyline was giving off, but the more I looked, the more I was sure that it was not the case.

Even though I wasn’t absorbing anything directly from the source, the spot where Mike was stationed was darker than before.

Okay, right, he was also using it, but it wasn’t much. Hell, he probably would be fine with a random tree nearby. Sure, the tree would be gone, but that would be it. No way that would be enough to make this difference. And since there wasn’t anything else draining this particular leyline, it had to be me…

Right…?

Mike knew that as well.

Still absorbed in his own meditations, he was giving me some glances every now and then.

I only shrugged him off, and so far he didn’t react so I guess it was fine?

Done with my own thinking, I sighed, wondering how much time had actually passed?

The sun was gone, but that was hardly any indicator.

But, at least I knew that the supposed pursuit was not coming.

I sort of was not believing what Mike said before, that they would give up so easily. I mean, they sent that many people after us, wouldn’t it be a waste to give up so soon? Both of us, after all, were very important, or at least very valuable test subjects. Especially me.

I wondered who exactly was the leader that was sending all those people after us.

I was interrupted by Mike finally moving from his spot.