Infinite Adaptation: Starting As A Level 1 Slime-Chapter 8: Mana Manipulation

He looked around.

A cave.

Well, he had already figured that much from feeling the walls earlier. But what surprised him was how clear everything was. The jagged stone formations. The uneven floor. The distant walls stretching into winding passages.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a cave? Underground? So why was it so bright?

Then he understood.

Mana sense wasn’t like eyes. Eyes needed light - photons bouncing off surfaces to create an image. But mana was different. It simply... was. It permeated everything, and by sensing it, he could perceive the world as it existed, regardless of whether there was a light source.

Interesting.

Then he remembered something else.

That voice from earlier. The one that had announced his new skill.

Where had it come from?

It was the first voice he had heard since arriving in this world. It had sounded almost like a person, but with a slight robotic quality to it.

Maybe he wasn’t alone here after all.

Before he could think further...

Grrrrrr.

A sound.

A growl.

He finally noticed something he had been ignoring this entire time.

Before him stood a wolf.

No - not just a wolf.

A massive creature, easily two meters tall at the shoulder. Its fur was pure white, almost snow-like, and its bright blue eyes stared down at him coldly.

Looking at it, he felt an overwhelming pressure bearing down on him.

So this was the reason he couldn’t move.

It hadn’t been the mana density at all.

It had been this thing.

He really had become monster food in the end.

Wait.

He paused, a realization cutting through his fear.

He could hear.

The growl. The faint sound of the wolf’s breathing. The subtle shift of its paws against stone.

He was hearing sounds.

The way it worked was similar to how he saw. The mana particles in the air vibrated when sound passed through them. And since he was perceiving those particles, he could detect the vibrations.

Mana sense wasn’t just sight. It was hearing too.

If he could hear, then could he also speak?

By vibrating the mana particles around him to produce sound, maybe he could...

He tried it.

Nothing happened.

While he could sense the mana particles, he couldn’t control them. He could perceive, but not manipulate.

He looked at the wolf.

His form deflated slightly.

Even if he could talk, would it understand him? And from the way it was looking at him - those cold, predatory eyes fixed on his small form - there was no way a few words would be enough to make it let him go.

The wolf began moving toward him.

He panicked.

But he was completely frozen. The pressure was too immense. His body refused to respond.

It brought its snout toward him, the massive head lowering until he could feel its breath washing over his membrane.

This was it.

He was really going to die.

Right after finally gaining his sight. What a cruel world.

The wolf’s snout tapped against him.

And then...

Thud.

It collapsed.

The massive creature fell to the ground with a heavy crash, its body going limp.

He stared in shock.

What just happened?

When the wolf fell, he noticed something behind it.

A small shape. Huddled. Trembling.

A cub?

Had the wolf been protecting its young this entire time? Was that why it had been so wary of him?

Then why did it suddenly die?

He moved toward the wolf’s body.

That was when he noticed it.

A deep gash ran along its side. The wound was severe - far worse than anything he could have thought. Dark miasma seeped from the laceration, curling into the air like smoke.

He jumped back several paces.

The miasma was nauseating. Even without a sense of smell, he could feel its wrongness.

He noticed the cub was experiencing the same thing. The small creature could barely keep its eyes open, weakened by proximity to the tainted energy.

He looked at the wolf’s body.

Then at the cub.

Then he sighed.

What was he doing?

He hopped over to the cub. With his flexible slime body, he was able to wrap around the small creature, enveloping it gently within his mass.

Then he began leaping.

They needed to get away from here.

He didn’t know what had killed the wolf. But whatever it was, it had struck down a creature that was overwhelmingly powerful - and his perception of its strength was after the wolf had already been injured so it was probably even stronger than this.

That was definitely not something he could confront.

He moved as fast as he could, bouncing through the cave passages, retracing his path by memory.

A few minutes later, he was back at his safe area.

The cub rested above him, nestled safely within his gelatinous form. At some point during the journey, it had fallen asleep.

It was kind of cute.

The only problem...

He had lost his sight.

Well, not completely. He could still see, but only dimly. Faint outlines. Vague shapes. Nothing like the clarity he had experienced before.

He didn’t understand what had happened. Back there, he could see just fine. Had his theory about mana sense not needing light been wrong?

That didn’t make sense. There hadn’t been a light source back there either.

Unless...

He considered the wolf. Its brilliant white fur. Its overwhelming presence.

Wait.

Source?

He finally understood.

The wolf had been the source of light - just not in the traditional sense.

That intense pressure he had felt earlier, the one that had been pressing down on him and preventing him from moving - that had been mana. The wolf had been radiating it constantly, flooding the surrounding area with dense magical energy.

And he saw through mana.

In simple terms, the wolf had been blasting mana particles everywhere. Because those particles filled the space around him, he could perceive everything clearly.

But here, where the ambient mana was thin, there wasn’t enough to see by.

It was exactly like light.

Mana was the light. And he lacked it.

He was essentially blind again unless he was in a mana-rich environment.

He thought about how to solve this problem.

After a moment, an idea came to him.

If mana was the light, then he simply needed a torch.

He had absorbed quite a bit of mana into his body while he was in that dense area. It was still there, swirling inside him.

He concentrated inward.

He focused on that stored mana and tried drawing it out.

Slowly. Gently.

He pushed the energy forward, guiding it toward his outer membrane.

And then...

The mana seeped out of him, dispersing into the air around his body like a soft glow.

Instantly, the world began brightening.

The cave walls came into focus. The ground beneath him. The sleeping cub nestled in his form.

He could see again.

[ Congratulations ]

Extra Skill Acquired: Mana Manipulation

You have learned to control the flow of mana within and around your body.