Experiment

After she returned home, Claire opened her cell phone. It was an old first generation Apple phone, which are the only ones she can afford. She opened it right to the classroom chat. 

It seems the people from awakening are returned. The chat room was full of boasting from the returnees. 

Claire thought of a way to repay Zayne for the mana core skill. 

For that, she needs to run an experiment first. 

" Zayne. After the children sleep, meet me outside. " She told him, when he went to wash the dishes. 

Zayne stiffened, his cheeks turning into tomatoes, but Claire did not notice it at all. 

Instead, she happily read the night time story for the children, both Robin and Dolce fighting to lie down besides her. In no time at all, four children, save for her, Zayne and Brea were sleeping. 

Brea picked up Dolce with a practiced motion. 

Zayne picked up the twins. Claire held the door for them, as they left with the children. 

After some time, Zayne met her outside her house. 

" Let's go down. " Claire called. 

She took him towards the vegetable garden, which is empty. 

" Where are we going ? " Zayne asked doubtfully. 

He came with the full expectation this is a romantic moonlight walk. 

However, this is looking far more like an adventurous midnight robbery ! 

Claire thought outside the village was enough distance.

" Give me your hand " she told Zayne. 

" Cl.. claire.. We.. " are not in that kind of relationship yet, is what Zayne wanted to say, but before he could get it out, Claire grabbed his hand roughly. 

Then, she held it in her hand with the slime ring. 

Next moment, they are in the slime dungeon. 

" It worked ! " she jumped around. 

" Let's try something else. Come here. " She commanded Zayne, pulling on his waist. 

Then, she vanished from where she was at, and arrived in a place with scalding walls, set in the middle of a volcano. 

It was a floating island, over a sea of magma. Fortunately, she was wearing tough leather boots, otherwise, her feet would be blistering in no time. 

In the center of the island, there was an altar, where a red stone shone with the brilliance of red, blue, gold and green. 

Claire let go of Zayne. She pointed to the stone in the center. 

" That is an awakening stone. Go on and place your hand on it, then, push your mana into the stone. " Claire told him. 

Zayne's face cooled down at her words. 

' Why does he seem strangely disappointed ? ' Claire wondered. 

He went and placed his hands on the awakening stone. 

Then, he pushed his mana into the stone. All of a sudden, the stone lit up with brilliant red, then the fire mana started pouring into Zayne at a torrential speed. 

Claire could not believe her eyes as she watched the volume of mana absorbed by Zayne. 

' What in the world is he ? A fire spirit ? ' she wondered. 

Her own mana core, which was merely the size of a few thousands, looked like an ant in front of molehill when she compared it to the amount of mana that is being absorbed by Zayne. 

' he must be far more powerful than it was advertised in the previous life. ' Claire thought passingly. 

While Zayne was occupied here, she returned to the slime dungeon, then, to the place outside the village. 

She walked back to their home. Just as she was about to enter their place, Brea came out from the otherside. She looked like she has seen salvation as her eyes fell on Claire. 

" Sister. " She rushed up to her. 

" Brea ! Did something happen ? " Claire asked surprisedly. 

' Damn ! This is the worst sort of time for their guardian to be absent. '

" I think my period is here. " she answered. 

' If it is so, then take care of it, why are you telling me this ? ' Claire thought for a moment, before the realization dawned on her. This is probably her first one. ' Damn '. 

" Come with me. Do you have pain ? " she asked, leading Brea inside. 

She lent her pads, then explained how to use them. Fortunately, Brie seems to be in good health, thus, she has no greater discomfort than the moodiness and a little pain. 

" Do you know how to calculate the next date, Brie ? " She asked, after she gave Brie a glass of cider to drink. 

Brie shook her head. 

" Well, it's after twenty eight days, starting from the last day. However, for young people it's not quite regulated. So always carry spares. You can keep these with you for now, I will go with you tomorrow to buy ones suited for you. " Claire told her. Brie nodded gratefully. 

She looked far more relieved after talking to Claire.

" You can come to me any time if you have any other problems. I may not have medication, but I will know better than you. Don't randomly follow stuff on the internet. Some of it is right, some of it is wrong. " Claire told the girl. 

After some thought, she did a search on the internet, and chose the most educational, and not connotative video she could find. 

" Here. Watch this. They explain the concepts most accurately. " she handed the phone to Brea. 

" Sister ! I know as much. We also have the Internet. " Brea answered. 

" That is what I fear. The information out there is always mixed. What you need are accurate facts, not voodoo science. " Claire answered. 

Brea nodded her head, and obediently watched the video from beginning to the end. 

" Sleep here for the night. I will tell your uncle. " Claire said, making bed for both of them. Perhaps because of the stress being relieved, Brea fell asleep immediately. 

Claire went to the rooftop to enter the slime dungeon. On her waist, she tied a towel, on the towel, she wore the red bubbles from the slime dungeon in twisted ropes, like a tribal chief. At this point, Claire had an idea about slime drops. The jellies are edible. The bubbles are pure elemental mana. The marbles are always skills, even if it's something as simple and stupid as water drop. 

Among these, if bubbles are left alone, they keep gathering elemental mana. A fire bubble will become a fire crystal, from there, it becomes a fire gem - at least for now, that seems to be the case. 

Zayne is still absorbing the fire mana from the crystal - it's past two hours. 

Claire's clothes are drying up by the second. 

She removed the fire bubble belt from her waist, set the bubbles all around the floating island. Immediately, the heat in the air dissipated. 

Claire returned to the slime dungeon, looking to kill a few slimes while she waited. 

She has a space now, though it's only as big as a medium sized cardboard box. She retrieved her awl. 

Then, she extended her perception, entered the first room. 

She felt the attack rather than see it. She turned to the side face. 

Then, the slime in front of her floated, and went up in the air. 

It's only when she saw the weird behavior did she look up. 

The ceiling is full of slimes. They shifted half a foot, so that they will fall right atop her head. 

Claire stepped back almost in shock. That saved her. All the slimes fell down at the same time, only to catch themselves at the height of her head. She stepped back, thus avoiding the hit. 

This time, when the slimes shifted, Cliare just held the awl straight in her hands, and put one fist over another on her head. 

The slime fell, just like a water balloon, the nucleus hit the awl in a straight line. 

The falling marble hit her. 

Then, it was like rain. The falling slimes hit her with more and more force each time. Making it hard to even stand strong. 

Claire fell down with her legs shaking by the time the attack finished. 

She never expected just slimes to have this kind of attack power. 

Sure, it's a very simple attack, but the slimes themselves do not take any damage. If one slime falls down, it's alright. But if they are coming at you like rocks from top, even a small amount of shift in your location makes the slime survive, while you are pushed down under the weight of the slimes. 

But they don't remain on the ground, they won't even touch the ground. The moment they hit, they fly up the ceiling. If there's enough of them, she would be buried alive. Fortunately, there were not too many of them. She was able to hold the awl straight and on point. 

Claire collected all the marbles on the floor. 

[ flight ] 

The skill was simple. It uses antigravity to keep her feet off the ground. Guess it's pretty good when you don't wanna get your shoes wet. Actually, it's three skills. There's float, which uses antigravity to stay off the ground, move, which uses kinetic energy. Then, there's the flight, which combines both cores. 

But none of them are absorbed by her. 

' Why ? ' Claire wondered as she collected the marbles.