Okay, I can work on both of my skills at the same time and, if I’m right, I can increase my mana, too. One would expect a wisp to have extremely low health and mana. I currently have five health and six mana. I think that my mana was originally five before I figured out how to check my stats. Then, my mana increased because I used glow as long as I could, draining my mana to zero. Theoretically, mana improves with usage just like my skills. There’s only one way to find out if I’m right, so it’s time to start glowing.
As expected, thinking about using my skill causes it to activate, illuminating the walls of the cave with a blue glow. Once my mana reaches zero and the glow subsides, I check my stats, and sure enough, my mana has increased to seven. After seven seconds, I can run my second test. Glowing for four seconds, letting my mana recharge, and then glowing for another four seconds to see if using my total mana will lead to an increase. I tried it out, but it doesn’t increase my mana at all. Maybe this method takes more time? I repeat this two more times, then another two times, and there’s still no difference. It looks like I can only increase my mana if I fully drain myself, no matter how much I partially use my mana.
…
All this testing has also allowed me to level up my skills some more. Repeatedly using glow while manipulating my mana has allowed me to get ‘Manipulate Mana’ to level three and ‘Glow’ to level five. My mana manipulation skill was leveling up faster than ‘Glow’, but level progress slowed once I hit level two. ‘Glow’ has been leveling at a constant rate with use. Maybe the difference is inherent in the skills; I’m using ‘Manipulate Mana’ wrong, different types of skills level differently, or some combination of those things and unknown rules of this world. My mana has also grown to fifty-nine total MP. I can’t really tell time down here, but I think it took me roughly an hour of repeated draining and recharging my mana to get to that point. I don’t, or can’t, feel tired, so time doesn’t feel too real to me right now.
With that sorted, I think it’s about time I actively tried to wander around until I find something interesting. One of the benefits of leveling up ‘Manipulate Mana’ was that I can shape my mana much more easily now. I can create a lot more mana threads that reach even farther, about fifty feet. I’m even able to alter the shape of mana into more complex forms, but I can’t create any fine details yet, like the fingers of a person or the fur of an animal. I tried to make my threads glow, too, but that didn’t seem to work. I have the mana to move around, but I can’t do anything to my mana yet.
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After a few minutes of wandering, I finally find something in here, another wisp! I guess it isn’t too surprising to find another wisp if I’m also here. I try to talk to it, then I remember that I don’t exactly have a mouth to communicate anymore. Okay, well, mana allowed me to see, so maybe I can communicate through it. I gather my mana into a ball and imagine extending it like a bridge to the other wisp. Once my mana connects, I get an odd feeling running through my mana. I can’t exactly place what I’m feeling, but it’s just odd. I don’t feel revulsion towards its mana, it just feels…strange. Either way, I think I can actually talk to it now.
“Hey, can you hear me?”
“...”
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“...”
I don’t think this is going to work. I’m pretty sure it can hear me, as I can occasionally feel it thinking about glowing right before it does. But it’s not thinking in words, just isolated feelings and nothing else. Maybe it isn’t intelligent enough or have any sentience to communicate with other beings. This world has godly beings, so wisps could be purposefully designed as ambient lights instead of being products of evolution. I don’t think I’m consuming anything to live, so my only current utility is to provide light or be consumed. Either way, it’s just a sick joke to reincarnate somebody into that kind of life. Hopefully, I can do something to stick it to that devil that reincarnated me. Speaking of which, maybe I can get stronger by consuming other wisps. If they can be killed, maybe I can get experience. I don’t have anything to use but my mana, so let's try to smother it in my mana to pop it. Moving my mana around the wisp, I picture my mana collapsing in on it on all sides. I feel some resistance from the wisp’s mana, then, to my surprise, it just popped out and started floating away. It felt like a tear opened in mana as soon as the wisp ran out of space and just slipped through it. That’s neat, I guess, but it doesn’t look like I can use my mana as it is to harm anyone. There’s nothing left for me here, so it’s time to continue my grand cavern exploration mission, but what’s that orange light creeping into my vision range?
