Reincarnated as a mana core

Over the next three days Argul was watching out for Aina like a hawk. If the goal of the identify had been to make her paranoid, then they had very much achieved that, congratulations.

Despite that she had managed to continue her experiments, though she only did them one at a time with breaks of random length in between them.

The branch that had grown a tiny root did not show the same reaction again. Similar to the stone it took a small amount of mana before it threatened to break apart and then expelled that mana again. 

There was one small difference to the stone however. Around the very center of the branch were a few small channels through which Argul could move mana more easily. It was more difficult than moving mana through air or her own body, but an improvement nonetheless. By her guess these channels normally transported water to the leaves.

The next few experiments after that had rather disappointing results. Paper nearly immediately fell apart as if Argul had put it in water for a long time. She wasn’t sure if it had to do something with paper being less tough than stone and wood or if it was just the result of the fibers coming loose. Why the latter would happen however, was a mystery to her.

The different clothes and fabric she had chosen to test couldn’t even take half of the pressure that the branch had been able to take and were ripped in small pieces if the strain on them got too high. 

The whole thing was really frustrating for Argul. She had thought she could put at least some mana into them, but it just wasn’t meant to be. The only small hope she had was that the weakness of the paper and cloth had something to do with the fact that they had been made with pre-mana-plants. That might make them less susceptible to mana.

On the third day Argul had cleaning work after her lessons with Mia. She smuggled Aina to Tania’s stall with her invisibility spell to keep the slime around her, even outside of the wooly sheep.

Aina had grown to twice her original size and was bound to split by tomorrow evening, hopefully not while they were at work though. That would make things quite difficult for the foxy mother.

The cleaning session luckily went over uneventfully and the only thing Argul had to complain about was having to cast cleanse one too many times. It was good training however and she always used it to further improve her skill and her mana manipulation.

Her luck didn’t stay around and Aina got skittish on the way home. The slime tried to escape Argul’s hold and she had to somehow secure her while running back to the inn as fast as possible. 

She was quite aware that this would normally not work and Aina was holding herself back. The girl could just slime her way around Argul’s arms if she really wanted to and Argul wouldn’t be able to do much against that without using any force.

After 5 minutes of sprinting they finally reached the inn and rushed inside. Argul took a look around and assessed the situation. The rest of her family was playing card games together with other customers in the chilling area. This was quite honestly not the best place for Aina to give birth.

The slime had already started the process of reproducing so the two didn’t exactly have time to run to their room either.

Argul decided to do the only reasonable thing and made herself invisible too before she rushed to the kitchen door with Aina. It would look wrong if she just rushed towards there and hopefully no one else had seen her enter the inn. 

Imagine seeing someone disappear a second after entering the inn you were in. That was bound to give birth to some rumors and horror stories. Not the best that could happen to your inn, except for all the freaks interested in the rumors.

Argul practically fell into the kitchen and carefully sat Aina down on the ground. Then she turned around and closed the door.

With a sigh of relief Argul let go of their invisibility. That had been much to close and already taught her a very important life lesson. Do not go working while being pregnant in the 9th month. It was a very bad idea.

She turned around and looked at a scared Luna, who was pointing a knife at her. Argul smiled weakly and waved. “Hi Luna?”

Luna opened and closed her mouth several times trying to find the words before she was able to respond agitatedly. “You- Don’t ever do that again, you hear me?!!”

Before Argul could answer she turned excited. “And holy shit, have you just been invisible?”

The girl was gesturing wildly with the knife, much to Argul’s chagrin, who was keeping a wary eye on the tool. “That’s so cool! Can you show me again?”

Argul scratched her head a bit puzzled by the situation. She had expected to get yelled at angrily or something, but not to gain a fan because of her invisibility spell that was really easy to see through.

She nodded towards Aina. “Maybe later, I just used it because of a little emergency.”

Aina was currently wriggling around weirdly on the ground, stretching herself out in the process. If someone were to tell Argul that two invisible children were pulling on the ends of the slime she could imagine that just by the looks of it. She wouldn’t believe it however, because it sounded absolutely ridiculous.

Luna looked at Aina for the first time and the excitement of the girl increased some more. “Is she doing what I think she is doing?”

Argul leaned against a cupboard and nodded. There wasn’t much she could do for Aina during the division but be around and give emotional support.

Luna did a small hop. “That’s so weird!”

She put the knife away. “I love it.”

Then the sheep girl scurried through the kitchen and began to collect various organic trash and leftovers. “Let’s give her and our new friend something to eat as a present.” Trash sounded a bit degrading so Argul decided to call it slime food in the future.

She watched the happenings in the kitchen while secretly keeping an eye on the door. The last thing she needed right now was to explain what was going on to some random stranger.

After 15 minutes the two slimes finally stopped stretching and finished their procreation process with a slight blob. Luna stood behind the two of them with a plate full of slime food in each hand.

She watched them curiously. “How do we tell them apart?”

Argul got up from the cupboard and pointed at Aina. “Aina’s silver is slightly brighter and her mana signature is light blue, not yellow.” The blue of curiosity, but Luna didn’t have to know that.

Argul held out her arms in an inviting gesture. “Wanna hug?” That was the second trick to tell which slime was Aina.

Luna cocked her head. “Su-”

Argul got tackled by Aina and catched her. She petted the slime lovingly. “You did a good job.”

Argul looked at a somewhat put off Luna and pointed at one of the plates. “May I?”

Luna blinked and looked at the plate. “What- Oh, sure.”

She handed the plate to Argul who took it and opened the door with her elbow as she didn’t have the hands free to do it. 

She looked over her shoulder and winked towards Luna. “Have a fun time with your new friend.” Then she went out of the kitchen and closed the door behind herself again.

Argul ignored the people in the main room and went straight to her own room with Aina. She had to put the plate down to unlock the door before she went inside.

There Argul put Aina down next to the plate, cleaned herself and laid down on the bed. “You can come and cuddle if you want Aina.”

Aina moved over the plate and emptied it in one go. Then she jumped on the bed where Argul had to pick her up, because she had a hard time moving over the blankets.

Argul hugged her and gave her a few pats and kisses. “Congratulations on giving birth I guess.”

Aina received the cuddles happily and began to massage Argul after a while. Argul put Aina on the blanket, sat up and took off her shirt. “That will make it easier for you.”

She turned on her belly and maneuvered Aina on her back with one arm. The slime continued to massage Argul with her incredible body control and Argul began to purr deeply. Receiving Aina’s massages felt really good.

Argul closed her eyes to enjoy the heaven she was in fully and rested her head on her arms. 

After a few minutes she took a quick peek on the one lake on her 9th floor and created the underwater leaves. Argul didn’t wait for them to grow and moved her consciousness back to her still purring body. Her knowledge domain would tell her what she had created anyway so there was no need for her to be around.

The leaves that grew in the lake were red and grew to a height of around 20-30 cm. Even their yellow berries were perfectly normal. They didn’t do anything special otherwise.

Wait! They weren’t supposed to grow berries!

Do underwater plants even do that?

Argul sighed. Who cares?

A bit of weirdness here and there made things more interesting.

She let go of her worries and fully relished in Aina’s treatment. The time between now and dinner was bound to be her favorite of the month.