In order to try and test out these skills I first needed a target.
I picked up a nearby rock and completely enclosed it in my muddy left hand. Trying to recall the unpleasant feeling of having my skin and flesh dissolved, I pictured the mana as small particles that slowly ate away at the rock like a school of piranhas.
'Hmm. So this was how that mud monster ate me.'
Thinking back to when my flesh was being affected by this skill I shuddered as the rock slowly disappears. Soon I felt a flow of mana coming from my left hand.
'It appears that this skill converts physical objects to mana. My mana reserve has even gone back up to 80. Is it percentage based?'
From my understanding the only way to get mana back was to wait a while and let it naturally recover. How this works, I'm not too sure. Maybe the mud monster's body naturally absorbs mana from the environment.
But now I can also use this Dissolve skill to recover mana more quickly. Although it takes a while and a bit of concentration to dissolve things.
'Alright I think it's time to continue trying to find an exit to this cave.'
With a new, stronger body and an almost complete understanding of my skills, save for Assimilate, I decided to explore once again. If Fran was here, my other classmates might be as well. That means that Flaire and Danae could be somewhere in this cave.
'Hopefully, I can find traces of them before they end up like me or Renz…'
I owe Danae for always letting me copy her homework. She and Flaire have been my friends since my high school life began. What kind of a friend would I be if I don't at least try and help them?
'I just hope they don't turn out like Fran…'
I walked out of my base and reached the fork again for the umpteenth time.
'If I became the protagonist of a novel, then the author must be lazy as hell reusing the same location over and over again.'
Just as I was about to go left, a thought popped up in me.
'I remember that those giant cockroaches were pretty easy to kill. Maybe I should test out my new powers on them. They were afraid of the mud monster after all. Since I've technically become the mud monster, doesn't that mean that I am now their predator?'
An evil like grin surfaced on my face. Quickly doing a 180 degree turn, I headed down the right path. Of course, I didn't briskly walk down the path like an idiot. I tried to reduce the noise I made while moving forward hoping to get a jump on those critters. I also didn't forget to restock on some rocks because that's what I used to kill them last time and they can serve as a mana potion with my Dissolve skill.
Soon I was able to hear creepy crawlies lurking about.
'Hehe found you.'
I slowed my pace and continued forward. However even after walking quite a bit since I started hearing them, I never saw any cockroaches.
'What's going on? Are they avoiding me? Oh right let me retract my mana.'
I've always kept the mana around me in a form of barrier for safety precautions. Of course it was only around 3 cm thick. Thinking that it was what was scaring the cockroaches, I stopped.
Screeeee.
There was an immediate effect. Focusing mana in my eyes with Sight Enhancement, I saw giant cockroaches started rushing towards me from all directions.
'Shit they were even behind me! Urgh!'
As I was about to restart the mana barrier, I was hit on the side by something. Taking a look, I saw a chunk of mud missing from my right hip. I looked towards where the projectile came from and saw what looked like a dung beetle-type cockroach holding a round object.
'Oh my god, they have ranged units!'
While reforming my hip, the first batch of cockroaches reached dangerously close to me.
'Shit!'
Without having the time or concentration to activate the mana barrier, I morphed my left arm into a blade and swung at the nearest cockroach.
*Swish*
I easily bisected it. I swung at the next cockroach killing it in one swing. I continued to swing and mow down the cockroaches.
'Left, right, left, behind, above ugh flying cockroaches…'
One swing, one kill. Like a human blender I butchered any cockroach that came within my reach of about 2 meters. When there were none within that range, I turned my arm into a whip and attacked the further cockroaches until they got closer again.
'Ouch! Those long range cockroaches are a pain in the ass! Literally!'
A projectile had hit me right on my butt while I was killing the cockroaches. Fortunately, I had given myself some "assets" much unlike my previous figure because I thought "If I can adjust my figure, might as well hehehehe." But now a chunk of my left butt cheek was blasted away.
Reforming my missing behind with mana, I continue the cockroach massacre while keeping an eye out for the cockroach slingers. I decided to give up putting up the mana barrier as this was good, fun training and I didn't want to scare away my practice targets.
'Ow!'
Suddenly I got hit in the back of the head. I try to turn around and see the perpetrator but saw nothing despite using Sight Enhancement to see 20 meters away.
'Could it be a sniper type? Damn things aren't good if that's the case.'
The hit had disoriented me and caused me to lose focus. Seeing this opening, several cockroaches jumped towards me. When I regained focus and saw what was happening, I panicked a little, and used Mana Release in all directions.
*Woosh.*
All the cockroaches that were near me were pushed back a meter or so. Unfortunately, that little maneuver had taken a toll on my mana reserves and I started to get a headache.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out what I thought was a rock. Immediately putting it in my left hand, I activated Dissolve to try and regain some mana. A huge surge of mana started to flow from my hand towards my lower abdomen where I kept the ruby.
'Woah what the hell? This didn't happen before!'
With my headache immediately disappearing, I used Self Analysis and found that my mana reserves were half full.
'Was that one of the crystals I got from the cockroaches I killed earlier?'
Deducing what had just happened, I repositioned myself back into a good position to swing my blade arm.
'I'll think about what happened later. For now, I gotta take out those slingers.'
As the cockroaches that were blown away earlier returned, I turned my left arm into a sling and put a rock in it. Using my right leg which I morphed into a blade and kicking/slashing the incoming cockroaches, I flung the rock from my sling arm to the cockroach slingers in the back.
'Bullseye on the first try! There looks to be about 4 more. I'll keep this up.'
Cashing in on this momentum my battle with the cockroaches continued.