— "Finally home." Arriving in front of his hut, Edart threw himself on the grass and rested.
When the ambush came to an end, Edart wasted no time and headed towards his house. Although he was tired, he didn't stop until he got here.
Now that he was in a slightly safe place, he could relax and rest.
…
An hour passed and Edart managed to recover a little. For the last 10 minutes, he had been looking at the messages from the slimes he had killed.
— "This is never-ending, maybe this title is right." He said, thinking about the title 'Slime Slayer'.
— ["With this title it will be much easier to kill the slimes and become stronger."] Eris said.
— "I just think I was the victim and not the slimes." Edart couldn't help but think about the description of the title he had received.
Reaching the end of the long list of notifications, he spoke.
— "Thinking about this doesn't make sense, better focus on what's coming."
— "At least today was a good day. We got 10 more levels, which gives us 20 free points, now we just have to decide which attributes we'll focus on."
— ["How about dividing it between Strength and Intelligence? That way we'll have more power in our attacks and we'll be able to throw more fireballs with the extra mana."]
Eris was focused on increasing their strength. With greater attack power, she believed it would be easier for him to eliminate his enemies.
Edart agreed with her, but it seemed like that wasn't the right path.
— "That's an option, however, I feel like we shouldn't do that. Maybe dividing the points between all attributes is the best choice."
— ["Keeping your attributes similar is also good. That way, we won't have any weak points."] Eris noticed Edart's uncertainty. Despite being in a safe place, today's event was still shaking him, wanting to help him, she didn't insist and said.
— ["We can leave this for later, it's not like we're going to die from not assigning the attributes now."]
— "You're right." Edart agreed.
With that, he stood up and began preparing to end the day. There was no need for him to assign the free points now.
…
Looking out the laboratory window, Edart observed the forest in the distance. After a few minutes, he thought, 'I'm not going out today, because I have things I want to test. It has nothing to do with what happened yesterday.'
Looking at the central bench of the laboratory, there were 7 cores lined up side by side. These were the cores of the slimes that Edart caught in the slimy plain.
From right to left, there were two water cores, two earth cores, one plant core, one fire core, and one lightning core.
— "Eris, how are the cores we caught yesterday?"
— ["Both of them are already full of mana."] Hearing this, Edart approached the bench and picked up the red core. Just like the others, this core was black, like black glass. As it filled with mana, the color of the element shone inside it.
Edart watched the elemental mana that seemed to flow like red water in the core. However, even though Edart shook the core, the mana inside it did not seem to be influenced by the movements, which continued to flow without interference.
— "Let's begin the tests." Returning the red core to its place, he turned to the first in line.
— "Eris, if something gets out of control, try controlling the mana with 'mana manipulation.'"
— ["Leave it with me."] She replied.
Looking at the water core, Edart moved the others away in case the tests got out of control.
Edrat began activating his 'Mana Perception', at the same time, the mana contained in the core shone brightly, leaving a feeling of power escaping from him.
— "What power." Edart let his thoughts escape from his lips.
Regaining his concentration, Edart began to focus his perception on the core, gradually he began to feel the mana contained there.
Edrat tried to manipulate the mana out of the core with just his will, but there seemed to be a barrier that kept the mana trapped inside.
— "It's not working." Edart said, frustrated at not being able to get the mana out.
— ["If you use your mana to manipulate this mana out."] Eris tried to help by giving some ideas.
— "Yes, let's try."
Focusing on himself, Edart began to feel the Mana in his body. Soon, he felt it circulating in his body.
Activating 'Mana Manipulation', Edart began to form a thread of mana. Controlling this thread, he guided it out of his body towards the water core.
Little by little, the thread got closer until it touched the core. As it touched it, Edart felt the barrier preventing its advance.
— "Interesting, but that won't stop me."
Tuning the thread of mana, Edart began to put more force against the barrier. As the mana touched the core, a feeling of power filled his body.
—"I did it." Edart celebrated.
— "What should I do next?" The first step was complete. Now it was time to figure out what to do next.
— ["Try to bring that mana out."] Eris suggested
— "Right." Following Eris's idea, Edart tried to do that.
The first thing he did was to remove the thread from the core. At that very moment, the barrier regenerated and kept the mana trapped inside.
Edart had already expected this to happen. Wasting no time, he pierced the barrier again.
This time, he created a small hole in the thread he controlled, thus creating a mana needle.
At that very moment, the internal mana began to leak out in a jet, and as it came into contact with the air, a jet of water formed, wetting everything around it.
— "Oh, shit." At the same moment the water began to form, Edart stopped controlling his Mana, but he wasn't fast enough and ended up getting a little wet.
— "It's a good thing I started with the water core." Edart wanted to see what happened to elemental mana when it came into contact with air. He ended up getting wet due to his curiosity.
— "So, elemental mana, when it comes into contact with the environment, becomes the element itself. How do I control this?" Since everything was new to him, all that was left was to do was trial and error.
Wasting no time, Edart started trying new things. Soon, the first core was almost empty, with less than 1% of its capacity remaining.
Seeing this, Edart took the other water core and continued testing.
He discovered how to control and direct this mana. However, he didn't believe he could use it to create an attack. All he could do was create a flow of water and control where it would flow, without having the strength to cause any attack.
Having mastered this, there was something he wanted to test. He took an Erlenmeyer flask that was nearby and placed it on the bench next to the core.
Activating his 'Mana Manipulation' skill again, Edart controlled the mana from the second water core and directed the newly created water into the vial. Slowly, the water began to accumulate in the Erlenmeyer flask.
— "Eris, what do you think of this water?"
— ["I don't see anything wrong, what do you have in mind?"]
Without answering, Edart picked up the bottle and took a big gulp.
— ["Edart!"] Eris said, startled and worried by his action.
— "Really good!" He exclaimed after taking a large gulp.
A little while ago, Edart used 'identify' on the water, seeing that there was nothing wrong, he wanted to test it to see what it was like. Eris also saw this notification, but was still a little wary.
— ["Name: Pure water."]
— ["Description: A water created from pure elemental mana, without impurities and with mana present. Great for consumption, helping a little with mana recovery."]
As soon as he drank it, he felt a warmth filling his belly, which lasted for a few seconds and soon dissipated.
— "It feels like an energy drink." Feeling refreshed, Edart continued his tests.
The last thing Edart wanted to test was to see what happens to the water after some time. Draining the last core of water, he filled a glass and placed it on another bench so as not to interfere with his next tests.
— "Now all that's left is to wait and see if there will be any change in this water."
Taking one last look with the 'Mana Perception' skill, he saw the abundance of water element mana. His doubt was whether this amount would remain the same after a day.