Slowly I push out a little bit of my mana but the moment it exits my body it disappears, I didn’t just lose control, I lost the mana.

So I increase the amount, sacrificing a whole tendril’s worth of mana and focusing it all in at the tip of one of my tentacles in an attempt to create some sort of mana beam.

I fail again and barely even manage to hold onto my mana for a second longer than my past attempt.

Still, it’s progress, I’ve gotten one step closer to becoming more powerful, one step closer to actually being able to protect my creator.

If a tendrils’ worth of mana buys me an extra second of control then I wonder how much an entire tentacle will get me?

With a pulse, I consolidate all the mana within one of my locomotive tentacles at its tip and then, just like I did with my tendril, I try to shoot it out of me in a beam.

I don’t manage to unleash an energy beam but I do succeed in retaining control over my mana for a solid couple of seconds, far better than my first two attempts.

Its helped confirm something for me, the more mana I use the longer it takes to fade and the more control I have.

A rather obvious fact but then again I need to have evidence before I start assuming things about something like magic.

I need far less evidence to be disgruntled about my creator's treatment at the Empire’s whims.

Still, what can I do about it? For as long as my shackles remain undone they’re necessary.

I’m not bound to this reality, I’m just a visitor, a temporary guard.

Perhaps magic may hold the secret to letting me stay here more permanently?

Even if it doesn’t it should still empower me at least somewhat, I need to be at least capable of holding something like that Rover monster back for a minute.

Just a single minute should give my creator enough time to escape and survive the encounter, though that only really holds true in an ongoing warzone.

If I have to fight something like that again and there’s no one around to help my creator or attract that creatures’ ire once it’s done with me…

I need to get stronger and magic is one of the only paths forward that I presently know of, yet I don’t know how to walk this path.

Evidently just shoving my mana out isn’t going to do anything but that Rover summon had used magic so there has to be a way I can use it as well.

Actually, now that I think about it, wasn’t the attack that Rover summon did physical in nature?

It’s not like it shot out a fireball at me or something, it physically attacked me and now that I think about it I was able to heal Coralet but only when I was cradling her.

So I can use magic, it’s just more for physical elements like healing rather than ranged ones like spewing out gallons of water.

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I shouldn’t be spending my time trying to control mana outside of my body, that’s a difficult task and might actually be a fruitless endeavour.

No, what I should be trying to do is boost myself further, I can already regenerate but what if I pump one limb completely full of mana?

Could I perhaps make a bomb of sorts? Or will that just mean that any damage gets repaired exceptionally quickly?

With there being only one way to find out, I pick a tendril at random and then draw in the passive mana from nearby limbs, surging it all into my chosen appendage.

Upon the influx of power, my tendril bloats with arcane energy and elongates, becoming more like a tentacle than a tendril.

Then it begins expanding and twisting in on itself, creating a writhing knot of flesh.

Despite being connected to me, I don’t have any control over this tendril anymore, it just curls around itself and lashes out at the air automatically, it’s like it’s possessed by another intelligence.

Then slowly my tendril starts to dissolve, with large bits of my flesh falling off and evaporating, then once most of the bloated flesh is gone the wiggling ceases and I regain control over my appendage.

It probably was only moving about like that thanks to the large amount of mana animating it but still I could see that potentially being useful.

More so as a terror tactic rather than an actual battle strategy but still, maybe if I was surrounded by opponents it could prove useful in a combative way?

Then an epiphany hits me, I should direct mana into my teeth!

I don’t normally use my mouth to bite opponents since usually I can just batter and rip apart most threats with my limbs but there may come a time when I need to chew through an iron gate or something similar, like a knights’ armour.

If such a situation occurs I need to be ready, hopefully, it’s never going to happen but what’s the harm in trying out my mana on my teeth?

Gently grabbing a hold of a chunk of my passive mana, I direct it into one of my jagged fangs with my wave motion.

It proves a little tricky but I do eventually succeed and force the mana into my tooth.

Only for it to immediately enlargen and then crumble away afterwards, evidently I put too much mana into it.

Before I can experiment further with my teeth a dangerous thought passes through my mind, what would happen if I direct mana into my eye?

I’m guessing nothing good will come of it but still, it can’t hurt to try, hopefully.

Gently and carefully I peel off a thin layer of mana from the tip of a tendril and slowly bring it towards my centre of mass, directing it cautiously into my eye.

Nothing happens when the first little bit reaches into the depths of my pupil but just as I am halfway through feeding the rest in, my vision disappears and I’m rendered blind.

Panic takes hold of me but thankfully I have enough sense of mind to ease the mana away from my pupil, extracting as much as possible to help restore my vision.

What changed? When I got stabbed by that bandit I was able to regenerate my eye with no issue, was it because my eye wasn’t damaged?

Was that the issue, did the mana just have nowhere to go?

Oh, it was probably mutating my eye and that’s why I can’t see right now.

And so I nudge up backwards a little bit to more easily cover the cave entrance and wait.

After my eye is repaired I think I’m going to go back to experimenting on my limbs.

It will just be easier to learn how to use my mana if I stick with one thing I think.

It’s a bit hard to keep track of time while blind but after what feels around ten minutes my vision suddenly returns.

There’s no in between, one moment I’m blind and the next I’m able to see again.

And the first thing that I regrettably see is the outline of a contingent of cloaked figures, the Rover trackers have arrived.