Each new method in slime creation interacted with every single one that came before them, from the classic compression and multiple weaves, to the aspects that he now held rule over.
With the coming of the slime aspect, many new methods and interactions had come into play.
He had gone through the standard steps, making a weave of it and seeing how viable it was for future development. And though, in all honesty, it didn't seem that good- It's small increase in all affects not even close to the mobility increase afforded by air weaves- It had let him stumble upon a strange phenomena.
It had taken him some time to finally decide to focus on it, uncertain of what would be possible with it. And he had to make sure that what had happened a while ago was not a mere coincidence, but instead a repeatable and consistent method to create... Something.
He created a base slime template as usual, and attributed its weave the aspect which held the created creatures name 'Slime'.
After life was gifted to it, he once again watched the slime mana fall into the underlying genuine water. And then somehow, without a weave to hold it together or anything else really, tried to jump but instead fell apart.
The same as the progenitor 'Slime slime prototype'... Very interesting.
The core of the focusless variety made a special effort to examine the puddle of slime mana imbued genuine water, examining the present slime mana with interest. Even wondering if it would automatically make nuclei material when it was saturated to a high enough degree, though he found that the slime mana in the liquid was slowly leaving the water and returning to the standard ambient mana in the atmosphere.
...Falc didn't like it, not one bit. Why would he? The hard earned mana he had invested into the experiment was going to the wind right in front of his very metaphorical eyes, it was such a waste. But the water had left the range of his authority the moment he had given the slime life, and it was quite the troublesome matter to use and preserve the mana inside when he couldn't directly control its medium.
He quickly took some mana to surround the still leaking slime mana saturated genuine water to isolate it from the outside world, akin to how he had once isolated wind-earth mana out of fear for a possible disaster some time ago.
And his thoughts started to stew in search of any possibility to be more conscious of the dangerous risks of polluting the local atmosphere with rampant attributed mana.
Of course, he did not try to imagine an entirely new means out of nowhere. He steadily filed through everything he knew how to do, and found something surprisingly relevant that he had taken for granted; The molding and digging out of rock and stone.
The rock around his core was not his own, nor was it directly under his control. But still, he could exert influence on it with the earth aspect. Why could he not directly use the water aspect to regain control over the genuine water?
He had never once done so, using the water aspect to gain control over water instead of merely erasing or creating it. But he could try, he could most certainly try.
Wading through the realm of aspects mostly blindly, he took the water aspect and some mana and directed focus on the isolated genuine water. And then he used the water aspect to encroach upon its existence, using a bit of mana to- Step by step- Methodically regain his control over the slime mana filled water. At first it was obviously a bit foreign, but it wasn't all that difficult.
Though, to make sure he didn't mess up in his noble journey, he did not rush. Calmly and securely regaining his lost property in a time frame of moderate length.
He did need to keep the water isolated to keep in the slime mana, but he was easily able to reform the remnants of the slime slime prototype back into its original shape. And, as expected, it was a good bit cheaper than creating the genuine water all over again.
Compared to the 1.7 mp needed to created normally, recycling it had cost him 0.6 mp. Giving him a whole 1.1 mp in savings!
Just thinking about all of the wasted mp with how he had actively removed any left over slime, it made Falc shake in frustation!
-Figuratively, of course.
But he quickly quelled his rage, there was no way to change the past. Or at least he didn't know how to, even if he really, really wanted to.
At least he had realized it before it was too late, far too late. When he in some way put a thousand mp into the medium and just let it all get washed away...
Back to the matter at hand with his previous investment saved, Falc wanted to see what would happen if he dropped another weave of slime mana into the blob. So naturally he got some mana and turned it into slime mana before once again making muscles and giving the slime the life it never knew it wanted because it couldn't think yet.
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And he watched on as it sat there quite stably even without a traditional weave to hold it together, and it jumped up without falling apart!
Though it did leave a bit behind where it jumped... Before then reducing in size mid-jump with little parts leaving to walk their own path, before then breaking apart during its landing.
0.6 mp spent, a new slime slime template without a slime weave had graced the secular world with its presence. And that brought the question, what would happen if he added the slime mana saturated genuine water to a regular weave?
Well, it was pretty easy to check. With a pittance of mp he gave it a weave and a musculature musculature along with life, and he once again watched it live in a world that gave it no pity.
The good thing was, it seemed that the presence of slime mana in its genuine water wasn't actively detrimental seeing from how it could actually jump without falling apart. It even seemed to have a positive effect, probably.
Of course he'd have to experiment a bit, take a few measurements to see how much greater or lesser the slime mana holding genuine water made it...
Falc really needed to give a name to 'Slime mana infused genuine water' or 'Slime mana saturated genuine water'- Actually, could normal water also have the same interaction with regular water?- It was just a bit too long of a term, but what to dub it? What title was it worthy of?
'Hmmm... Umm...' Falc pondered and mused, for a few seconds before remembering a term he had cast aside for something a little bit more generic. It would be perfect, it would fit absolutely, it would be just right: 'Slime water'.
How he did not instantly realize this, how destiny had not led him to instantly choose it, he would never know. But he did know that it fit very, very well.
Now, with names decided on, it was time to return to experimentation. Immediately, right now, there was probably time to waste but no reason to waste it. Casually creating some regular- Not genuine- Water in the shape of a slime, Falc had only one thing in his mind 'Does slime mana do that weird thing with normal water as well?'
The solution to his curiousity was clear, he gave the blob of water 2.4 mp of slime mana lying atop it along with some muscles and gave it life. The slime mana fell into it afterwards, just like how it did in all the other experiments. It did seem a bit slower, maybe significantly slower, he could actually watch the process unfold instead of just finding out it had happened a few moments later.
And, it happened again.
Then another time when he made a slime out of liquid rock, it being even slower. Which could maybe mean something, not that he knew what that would be.
What he did know, was that there was genuine water filled with slime mana and normal water filled with slime mana. At least that fact didn't heavily disrupt his naming plans, he was easily able to title them 'Genuine slime water' and 'Normal slime water' or 'Slime water'. He wasn't exactly sure which he would chose for the latter actually, both were possible and not unaligned with the facts.
The simplicity of naming it even extended to liquid slime rock!
Though the... Utility of said material was still questionable despite the new additions.
The real question was what the slime mana in the slime water actually did, and of course since he couldn't see its effects by looking at the mana itself he cross referenced the jump of the twice recycled slime slime prototype with that of a regular slime. Conclusively finding a mere 4-ish% increase in distance, that was like 7.2 mp of slime mana when not considering the mana that had been lost before he had recycled it initially.
Three weaves worth of slime mana had around a 4% increase instead of the 3% thrice over that he could get when made into a full weave, it was extremely inefficient...
But it hadn't cost him a single extra sliver of himself to let the slime mana enjoy its residence.
If that trend continued, especially if the enhancing effect spiked at a certain amount of slime mana, slime water could easily become a staple for all slime apostle and completely theoretical slime paragon research.
But it seemed even more pricey than slime weaves, but it was recyclable so each point of mana invested would basically be in the slime population for some time... But how much slime mana could he put into genuine water? And honestly, if slime water only gave a general enhancement of like 4% with three weaves worth of mana, how did it keep the slime mostly together even with the power of a good leap?
Maybe the effect of the slime water wasn't equally distributed? But it was significantly more annoying to test endurance or anything else that wasn't jumping, it was literally the only thing slimes did.
Well, there was one aspect of slimes that he could probably test... How far a slime could fall without dying. He would just need to create a slime at a certain height and see how it survived.
...It was getting harder and harder to see the value of the slime aspect. Its effects were honestly subpar, well, to expect anything different from something related to the blind little seizure obsessed creatures was a bit stupid on his part.
At least he knew what an affinity was, as long as he made a weave of aspected mana he would give a slime an affinity. So it wasn't 'Innate aspectual inclinations' but instead 'Possession of connate aspectual ties'. But then what that specifically meant was still in question, whether the mere presence of a certain type of aspected mana indicated an affinity or not wasn't certain.
...
Maybe it was time to learn how to decompress mana? He still had that D-18 string just floating aimlessly at the top of the slime plains, kind of wasting away. And he even had about 2000 mp saved up by now, even it was a tiny amount compared what he had spent on a single D-14-0 slime it was still a respectable amount. A very respectable amount, he could use it to make less than a single slime apostle 2 prototype.
One of those cost more than 10000 mp, specifically 11287.2 mp. 3888 mp for the D-4, 12 mp for the wind weaves and 7387.2 mp for the D-5 twin full weave
...Something was off, well no, something was very off actually from what a part of him was telling him.
He was suddenly getting an unreasonable amount of essence, like, more than one or two essence generators.
He instantly brought up his records and found a new essence generator and an old essence generator at large dashing down through the beginning of the subterranean whirlpool, the former giving him more than any other of its kind before this moment while the latter also gave a larger amount than the last time it had tried to descend his recesses.
But like, why?
Were they fighting? Did sentients being in danger some how increase essence generation? How could he ever use a slime to kill one of them when they were so damn fast?!
He couldn't answer a single one of his questions.
Falc didn't like it, he didn't like it one bit.