Now which direction should I go to…

If I fallow up stream, I’ll eventually find a mountain or something like that were the river starts from, and if I fallow downstream, I’ll eventually find a lake or another large body of water where the river ends.

But whatever way I choose, I don’t actually want to be near the river, or any other water source, because if I do make my main base location next to the river, I am probably going to have quite a few unwelcome guests.

So, upstream, I guess? I mean, if I am lucky and the mountains where this river originates from is near, I might be able to find a cave or a hole big enough for me to enter that also doesn’t have a bear in it and after finding a private base location I can finally start searching for the surrounding area.

And even if I don’t find any mountainous or hilly regions, upstream and downstream will be nearly identical so going upstream is a no brainer… unless the trope of dragons living on mountain tops holds true which I really hope it does not.

But would a dragon even bother with me? Probably not, but I’ll still worry about it because I don’t have any entertainment in this forest, and I might as well let my imagination run wild.

After saying that to myself, I went next to the river and started walking upstream, not caring for the odd animal or 2 that I came across because I assumed they were familiar with the big bugs living near the river. And that they were!

Whenever I saw an animal, they would just raise their defence for a moment and when I went away, return to whatever they were doing.

These bugs must be a real pain in the ass if they get worked up by me just passing by… not that I care because I don’t plan to stay as one of them for long!

But there is no point in just bullying random animals while I am passing by so I should stop focusing on them and… try to get the dreaded mana manipulation skill… I mean, maybe? A man can hope, and I hope I don’t have to worry about not getting it for another day!

So, I started diverting some of my attention to my mana cloud, which looked like a 9 limbed bug at this point because I had manipulated my soul to fit this body better.

But while looking at my mana cloud I noticed something, there was a really small dent in the cloud near my back. It wasn’t anything substantial, and it definitely wouldn’t affect my movement to any degree, but I hadn’t done anything to that part of my soul, so it was quite a surprise.

“Hmm… why does it do that?” I asked myself and started thinking of a few reasons. Maybe my soul had a maximum size and because I was stretching it, it was taking some material from my back to compensate, whatever that material maybe. Or, I may have damaged my soul in some way… I don’t feel anything weird so it’s probably not that…

And then I continued listing a few more things but none of them made a lot of sense, until I stopped walking and did the bug equivalent of a face palm, remembering a something that I probably shouldn’t’ve forgotten.

“Fuck! I still have a hole in me from the mama bug that pierced me!” some mana must be entering my body from that hole and deteriorating my mana cloud! That’s the only thing I can think of that makes sense!

Now, the deterioration wasn’t anything big, if I had only a point or 2 more mana, I wouldn’t’ve even noticed it, but that wasn’t the point. What if I need to use a lot of mana on something like a fight, and I win but then I die because of that hole?

Nope, I am not letting something small as that kill me! If I ever die, I am dying to the demon lord or something, not a small injury!

But what do I do about it? It’s not like I can wait it out for my body to repair it and I doubt I have any more hp to go around anyways…

Getting curious, I quickly willed my hp and mana counters in front of me.

Health Points: 0/19 Mana Points: 19/43

Yup, no more health, now I should start using a lot more mana to move my body, so I can’t afford to have that hole being a literal mana hole.

Hmm… what to do about it… what to do… wait! This-this is the perfect opportunity for me! I need to learn mana control anyways, so couldn’t I use my mana cloud to make some kind of… I don’t know, a wall, and block the ambient mana from going inside me?

HAHA! I am a genius!

Now I have to actually start doing it… eh, I’ll figure it out. Not like I don’t have time, at worst, I’ll ambush a rabbit or another big bug and get a new corpse. But if I get a new corpse, I will no longer have this opportunity… eh, let’s hope that, even if I don’t get mana control while I still control this body, I get enough insights from this body to learn mana control later.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

So, I started manipulating my mana cloud, stretching and pulling it, trying to first shape it like a wall and then I didn’t manipulate my soul because my soul equally distributes mana all across itself so pulling it into the hole would literally do nothing. Thanks system or whatever god that made the souls this useless. Thank you, a lot.

But, like the first time I tried to manipulate my mana cloud, it just receded back to its place after a few moments.

Then I started thinking what I could do to actually make it stay there. Then I reminisced about when I learned mana sense, but that wouldn’t work here now, would it?

What I did then was just cut a chunk out of my cloud, and throw it in the hopes of it working, if only I could somehow keep a connection to it, I would be able to get mana control and start improving mana sense… hmm… why don’t I just... extend a tendril of mana and try to reconnect with the chunk I throw away after it’s left my cloud? It could work… maybe… look, I may be the most experienced person in mana in this forest, but that doesn’t mean I actually know mana theory, if something like that even exists.

Well, can’t hurt to try…

So, that’s what I did, I extended 2 chunks of mana from my cloud and pulled one until it vaguely resembled a rope… or a tentacle, but I am not saying I have mana tentacles. That’s just not happening.,

Then, I extended the other one a bit more, shaping it’s tip to be big enough to cover the hole and with quick movements, I first send a jab forwards with it, to give it some momentum, and then cut my connection to it then, I quickly sent my mana rope forwards to where I sensed it to be, and I was able to connect to!

…But this was another bust because as soon as I stopped controlling my mana cloud, the blob of mana and the rope went back to their place, like nothing had ever happened.

Then I started thinking of things to do, ways to somehow manipulate mana outside of my mana cloud but I couldn’t come up with anything.

“WHY! Why the fuck can’t I think of something! They always show learning magic as something easy or mathematical in books! And even though this shits not that mentally challenging, I can’t do anything!” quickly coming to a stop, I took a quick rest to recover my mana pool and while doing that, I started hitting rocks into the river.

What? I don’t have a hand so I can’t skip them, this is the next best thing I can do! Give me a break.

…Hands, huh? I wonder if I’ll ever have hands again… I mean, I am not killing a human or controlling someone’s corpse unless it’s a life-or-death situation so… maybe? I mean, apes and monkeys exist, so there is a non-zero chance that I’ll get to have hands sometime in the future.

Hmm… having a hand would actually be really useful. I could make traps, hunt with projectiles like stones and makeshift spears, and even use them in things like skipping stones.

Hell, if I am too bored, I can even make stupid hand signs with them, not like I have a lot to do here… wait, hand signs?

“Hmm…” shifting my attention to my feet, I remembered that in fantasy worlds they usually use things like chants, circles, and items to cast magic. So, why couldn’t I use this body as a conductor of my mana and channel it to do… something.

I mean, the system already acts like this body is like an external piece of equipment, giving me extra stats in the parentheses next to my stats, so, why not give it a try? The worst thing that can happen is I lose some time.

Quickly finding a small opening, from where I could watch the surrounding forest and make sure nothing got the jump on me, I sat down and bringed one of my front leg’s forwards focusing both on my mana cloud and the leg at the same time.

Now, I didn’t know how exactly mana travelled through a normal body, and neither did I see an animal that used mana, but I could take a potshot or 2 from the things I’ve seen.

First of all, mana permeates throughout beings, not allowing any ambient mana to go inside of them and harm the soul. And even though this bug got penetrated by a long horn and its insides exposed, it didn’t immediately kneel over and die because its soul got obliterated, so mana defends the soul in multiple ways or, a being dying and their soul being obliterated are not the same. And I know that is the case because stray souls exist, if a soul dies a being dies, but if a being dies their soul doesn’t immediately go kaboom!

Secondly, mana needs to travel through the body or at least be transported by something. Because I don’t have a physical body my mana just travels around my soul and all is fine, but in a normal being, I think I can say that they would have something not entirely dissimilar to blood vessels that carry mana. Mana vessels if you will, or just blood veins, I don’t know if they use their own circulatory system and I can’t check due to one simple reason, I don’t have blood!

Thirdly, this is something I know for sure but, most skills, if not all, require mana to use, so even a small bug like me should be able to use mana and carry it through my body!

So, let me just try that! As a bug I don’t really have veins, but I should still be able to do something with what I have on hand.

After saying that, I started moving the leg that was in front of me, tuning my mana cloud finer and finer until their movements were basically 1 to 1.

Then, slowly, I started circulating mana in the part of my mana cloud that was connected to my leg, gathering more and more mana in that leg until I had an amount that I was satisfied with.

Then, I started trying to feel that mana moving with my physical senses, trying to feel the raging river that was beneath my exoskeleton, though it took long, after a long time that I wasn’t quite sure of the full length of, I felt something in that leg!

It could’ve been my imagination or my 2 senses overlapping of course, but I didn’t let that bother me and steeled my resolve, gathering all that mana in the tip of my mana cloud, where the tip of my leg would be.

Hanging on to the feeling of warmth that was beneath my chitin, I imagined the mana passing through my chitin to the real world, going above my leg and bursting forwards!

And… it didn’t work.

Then, I tried it again and again, until maybe through a stroke of luck, it actually worked!

A cloud of mana shot from the front of my leg, causing the blades of grass around the place I was seated to sway around, but quickly after I was done, a weird sense of tiredness hit me, and I started to loose vision on the edges of my eyes, but not before I heard a familiar ding that was more than welcome at this point in time.

*ding*

Congratulations! You have developed the skill Mana Control (Z)!

WAIT I GOT THE BETTER VERSION?!!??!