What's the difference between liquid and solid?
When I placed dew and a bead together on the wide, flat plate-like pebble, the difference was visible.
When the droplet spirit peered at the dew and touched it with a plop, the dew was absorbed, while the bead simply rolled away and fell into the grass.
Retrieving them was a little different too. For liquid mana, absorbing the wet soil through my roots was clean. By contrast, I had to turn the mana bead into liquid first before absorbing it.
The difficulty of retrieval is because my mana level is low, but I think the difference is clearly big.
Solid mana is more dignified and independent.
Even if I forgot the mana bead existed, it stayed right there. No, more accurately, it remained fine even when the droplet spirit freely fiddled with it, tossing the bead into the sky and such.
I had a good idea.
Until now, liquid mana had been able to capture mana because it possessed the unique condensation force of a liquid. But that condensation force also had the drawback of making it difficult to take complex forms.
Solid mana isn't like that. Do I really have to make only beads?
I placed the bead on a leaf. When I focused my mind, the bead warped and began taking the shape I imagined.
It's still crude, but I think it's possible.
The bead changed shape. A helmet form was made, and horns peeked out on both sides. The shape was crude and the size was very small, but it was a perfect helmet in form.
Woohoo, horned helmet complete.
I looked for the droplet spirit.
—Come here. I have something for you.
The droplet flew over and settled on a leaf. I carefully placed the helmet on it. The horned helmet, sized perfectly, settled on top of the droplet.
Woohoo, horned-helmet droplet complete.
The droplet seemed unfamiliar with it for a moment. It looked at its reflection this way and that in the dew beside it, then bounced and trembled as it giggled.
The horned-helmet droplet shot up. I wondered if it was going out, but that wasn't it. It found a distant fallen rock and drove straight down.
The horned helmet collided with the rock. A roar rang out. The rock shattered to pieces, and fragments scattered. Grass blades swayed along with the dust.
The horned-helmet droplet bounced on the stone corpse. I could almost hear its giggling laughter.
Wa, waaah.
Thaat isn't why I gave it to you, but since you won, wonderful.
Since I had already given it a helmet, I tried making something else too.
The mana changed form and became a sharp sword. It was so small it looked like a toothpick, but it was a proper sword.
—Try holding this too.
Since it didn't seem to know what to use it for, I explained a little.
The droplet used the sword awkwardly. The toothpick sword twitched. The dew beside it was sliced with a swish, swish.
Waaah, warrior droplet. Wonderful.
[【Solid Mana Crafting Technique】 acquired.]
【Solid Mana Crafting Technique】
Uses the high stability of solid mana to process mana. Allows solid mana of the desired shape to be made, but requires delicate mana sense and high application ability.
But the droplet itself seemed to find the long sword cumbersome.
After pretending to cut dew a few times, while I was busy observing the mana stone, it quietly abandoned the sword beneath a pebble. It even covered it carefully with a leaf. A perfect crime.
I only realized the sword had been abandoned a day later.
Woohoo......
I guess it didn't suit the droplet's eye.
***
My soul grew.
【Lightning-Struck Sapling Lv.3】
Exp: 0/3,000,000
[Influence Radius]
13,850cm → 20,250cm
Endless trees spread out beyond the forest.
This really is an immense forest. The green scenery is dazzling.
Among the dense thickets, faint little paths caught my eye. They were natural paths where repeated animal footprints had pressed the grass down, leaving only pale growth behind.
Did the rabbit follow that path to come see me? I think it did.
Farther away, at the edge of my field of vision, I discovered one abandoned wooden arrow. It looked intact, as if it had been shot and lost.
Beyond there lies the birth and life of wooden arrows. Wonderful.
After watching for a while, I focused nutrients in my roots.
For some time, sunlight left, starlight descended, and sunset rose again.
·Influence Radius
13,850cm → 16,530cm
·Production
41,550/d → 49,590/d
My smooth pioneering encountered a difficult obstacle.
When I stretched out my roots, I felt moisture in the soil. It was a dense moisture that felt bewildering to sense deep underground.
When I dug in carefully, I faced thoroughly wet mud. Beyond the mud, I sensed the presence of an enormous liquid.
Is it groundwater?
I widened my vision, which had narrowed because I was focusing on my roots. Groundwater densely mixed with sand and gravel came into view at once. It took the form of a long obstruction across my path.
It really was groundwater.
Groundwater is a good neighbor, like boulders. When my roots dry out and the sunlight's kindness feels burdensome, if I place my roots near groundwater, I can happily quench my thirst.
But there was a problem.
I had never suffered from a lack of water. I had worried that my submerged roots might rot when the rainy season continued and everything filled with moisture, though.
If my roots penetrated the groundwater, they'd rot before long. But it blocked too long an area for me to detour around it.
What should I do? Should I try some civil engineering?
I called the droplet spirit.
The droplet set the horned helmet down on the plate pebble, then jumped to the ground. It soaked the earth with a splash and descended deep.
Before long, when it reached the groundwater, the droplet clung to my roots and peered around.
—Can you push the groundwater back for a while? Like making a dry vertical passage. I'm worried something unexpected might happen while I work.
The droplet was small, but despite how it looked, it was an existence compressed from ten thousand mana. If it used mana, it should be able to hold it back.
But unlike what I thought, the droplet didn't use mana.
The droplet's surface rippled. The groundwater withdrew on its own, revealing dry sand and gravel.
Huh? You can just control water? That works?
I see. It works because you're a spirit.
Even though I knew that, I hadn't realized it.
It really was a droplet spirit. Wonderful.
—Can you control soil too, by any chance?
The droplet twisted its body back and forth.
Since its origin was a droplet, it seemed soil was impossible.
That's a shame, but I was planning to do that myself anyway.
First, I stretched a root vertically. The dried sand and gravel were roughly pioneered. When I reached the bottom, I faced rock. It was wider and larger than a boulder, but I wasn't afraid. I could drill a tunnel through this later.
I wrapped the root that had taken position in liquid mana, then hardened it with solid mana. Focusing on my mana sense, I expanded the solid mana little by little. The sand and gravel were gradually pushed away, creating spare space.
Now theen.
I extended solid mana from the mana pipe. Countless mana hooks tangled among the surrounding sand and gravel, fixing the pipe in place.
Woohoo. I think it worked.
If necessary, I could remove a little of the pipe, stretch out my roots, and drink the groundwater.
—You can release the groundwater now. Thank you for your effort.
The groundwater rushed in and wrapped around the pipe. A slight crack formed. Waaah? I hurriedly reinforced it by adding mana, and it became sturdy again.
Even if the mana was thin, water is stronger than I thought.
Still, either way, it's complete.
·Influence Radius
16,530cm → 20,250cm (Max)
·Production
49,590/d → 60,750/d
Woohoo.
***
I furrowed the brow of my mind and watched the end of a branch.
At the tip of the branch, an additional branch made of solid mana had been installed. Mana dew resting on mana leaves shook in the wind.
I watched silently, but no mana was captured by the dew. Rather, it shook with the wind and even flowed down.
As expected, once it's separated from my body, my mana sense doesn't reach it.
When mana mixed into the wind is startled by unfamiliar dew, I have to soothe it myself, and that procedure was missing. I think my mana level will have to rise for this.
In truth, even if it followed the form, it was so artificial that I'm not sure it would match the principle of natural circulation.
I got rid of the mana branch and honestly grew my branches.
·Maximum Height
1,280cm → 1,520cm
·Capture Amount
Average 80/d → Average 90/d
Since my mana capture amount was steadily increasing, if I kept leveling up, twenty thousand mana would soon come within sight.
Solid mana required more mana than expected, so I had spent mana making the pipe, but as long as time passed, more would appear anyway.
But what could I do once I actually gathered twenty thousand mana?
Couldn't I make another droplet? Though I don't really know how to make a spirit.
I had done everything so far without theory, so I also felt like maybe I should just do it. Wouldn't worrying be more of a loss?
Unlike me, who was seriously considering making it a little sibling, the droplet finished playing outside and returned in high spirits.
Today's droplet carried no gift. It must have played so happily that it had no room to think about gifts.
The horned-helmet droplet flew straight toward me. It floated this way and that as if telling me to look.
—I'm already looking.
Had it prepared something while outside?
The droplet flew under a pebble. Huh? There? It moved the leaf aside and picked up the abandoned mana sword.
Waaah?
The droplet settled on the pebble and stayed still for a moment. Its surface moved, and its shape gradually changed.
Very small arms stretched out, and legs appeared. A head took shape, and hair made of water rippled.
A very small water-colored girl held the sword.
Huh?
The spirit made a serious expression and moved the sword.
The toothpick sword stirred through the air. It swished this way, swished that way, then stared at me with sparkling eyes.
Waaah.
—Wonderful.
The spirit covered its mouth and giggled.
Then it made a serious expression again and stirred the sword through the air.
Swish, swish, swish, swish.
Then it stared at me again. Its watery eyes sparkled.
—Waaah, wonderful. That was the greatest sword strike of my plant life.
The spirit jumped up and down and raised both arms in celebration.
Could it be that seeing me disappointed had bothered it?
It seemed that was really the case. It showed me wonderful swordsmanship for a while and made me happy, then soon returned to its droplet form once it finished.
It must prefer the droplet form.
—By the way, where did you see and copy that shape?
The droplet tilted its upper part to one side. The helmet horn pointed in a direction. It was where the wooden arrow had been.
As expected.
Is there a practice ground beyond there? A place where someone shoots bows and swings swords. Incredible.
Since the wooden arrow had a crude shape as if handmade, it might not be enough to call it a practice ground. Maybe it was a girl's secret clearing.
When I checked the direction, another wooden arrow had fallen beside the first.
Huh? When did this appear?
I remember it probably wasn't there yesterday. I don't think it was there at dawn either.
Then did someone practice archery today and shoot wrong......?
As I watched, a new wooden arrow flew in with a whoosh. It landed with a tap where the existing arrows were.
Waaah.
In a bad sense, her aim was accurate.
You could call this talent.
That's not a lie. It really seemed like talent.
Being able to shoot in the same place meant her posture was stable, so wouldn't she quickly become good with just a little practice?
Suddenly, the thicket rustled.
A hand pushed aside the leaves. A foot came out and stepped on the grass.
Her eyes looked around the ground.
When she discovered the arrows, her face lit up. Then, realizing three of them were in the same place, she made a stunned expression.
Abundant golden hair and blue eyes.
A girl with slightly long ears.
Waaah.
An elf.