9 Ranked Wielder!

An hour had already passed since the slip slime defeated the storm wolf.

Currently, Alaric held a small, rough gem in his hand. It was the so called "Soul Shard" that one would find inside a rank-3 or higher beast's heart. In total, Alaric had collected 9.

1 soul shard was held in his hands as he meditated, while the other 8 surrounded him in a circle. While meditating, Alaric of course had the slime stand guard— the slip slime was still sleeping in his bag though.

Alaric exhaled, thinking, 'After meditating for an hour, with the support of 9 soul shards, my absorption speed has increased by ungodly amounts. I've doubled my mana reserves in a mere hour of meditation.'

This hour however, was more taxing than the 2 hours he would normally meditate. And, the quantity of the mana in the low-tier soul shards was simply too little. They had already run dry.

"Still, this is enough. I'm already at a point where I can begin to breakthrough and become a ranked wielder. All I need to do now is adapt to the reserves in my body, and make them truly mine.

At rank-1 my influence over the slimes will become much firmer, and I'll be able to expend mana at a much higher rate than before."

These weren't actually the biggest benefits of cultivating to rank-1. At rank-1, one could access the libraries of the occupational guilds in the Neuling Kingdom.

The alchemy guild, the formation guild, the blacksmith guild, these were all possibilities. The Neuling Kingdom's first emperor had made sure that the spread of knowledge would be unrestricted, and that as long as someone had become a ranked wielder, they would have complete access to any and all libraries in the kingdom.

'I want to become a formation master quickly, and use formations to protect the village from harm.' Alaric thought.

None of the villagers had the aptitude to create formations, so he felt it necessary for him to do it. His family and friends lived in Forger Village, it couldn't remain unprotected.

"Enough distractions," Alaric took a deep breath, "time to breakthrough."

The process of adapting to the reserves of mana he had saved up could be done with 2 different methods.

1, Alaric could simply let his body naturally adapt with time. This would take more time, days even, but would lower the risk.

2, Alaric could forcefully guide the mana he had collected into his soul, or rather, his "mana sea." The mana sea was a metaphysical organ that all creatures in this world possessed, it generated mana as long as it hadn't reached maximum capacity, and said mana would automatically flow throughout the body. This method ran the risk of forcing all of the collected reserves outside of Alaric's body.

'Naturally, I need to choose the quicker method.'

Alaric sat in a meditative position, first sensing the mana he had within himself, and then guiding it. As long as one awakened, sensing the location of their soul, which also acted as the mana sea, was relatively simple. The soul is found inside of a person's brain.

The act of guiding the mana took every ounce of Alaric's concentration— after all, it wasn't even a part of him yet. He slowly brought it from all around his body, and guided it to his head. Once the soul began overflowing, it would stretch and mold in order to accept the new reserves.

It is said that a rank-10 wielder's soul is larger than the very body that contains it. At this moment, Alaric understood that that was very likely the case. It hurt, a lot, but he felt his mana storage capacity increasing by the second.

Sweat began to release from his pores.

'Almost there!'

The pain was explosive, a splitting headache threatening to lapse his concentration and cause a mana drain incident at any moment.

And then, he had guided the last drop.

Nothing happened, but the pain stopped, and Alaric felt that he had undergone a huge change.

"My reserves and mana generation rate have both doubled... the use of my talent comes off naturally now. I even feel... physically stronger." Alaric thought aloud.

He jumped, experiencing the new lightness in his body.

"It feels like I have grown wings! This is the so called ranked awakener? I get the hype!"

Even Wurst, who was considered an expert in the range of the Great Forest of Neuling, was only a rank-3 wielder. As a ranked wielder, Alaric could be considered powerful. He only became this way so fast because of his quick access to soul shards.

Alaric paused, forcing a rising feeling of arrogance down, "I mustn't get cocky. Even the slip slime could easily defeat me as I am now..."

'Kri!'

The slip slime, notified Alaric that it had awakened with a sound, which seemed to mean something like, "You're damn right!"

"You're awake? Come out of the bag now, I've been lonely while you slept!"

'Kri!'

The slip slime seemed to slide out of the leather bag, latching onto Alaric's shoulder. All that surrounded Alaric now was dust, formed from the breaking of drained soul shards, and a grove full of slimes.

"Slimes, gather around me!"

When he spoke, the mana release from his voice was stronger than ever, a small blue shockwave even releasing as he gave his command.

Soon, the slimes gathered.

'It's time to get back to the village... these guys will make the journey rather slow, but it's better than nothing.'

Alaric could definitely evolve some more slimes, but he still needed the rank-1 slimes for something. Evolving them now would go against his next goal.

"Follow me!"

Alaric unsheathed his sword as he began moving from the grove, and towards the forest clearing... very slowly.

'Kri!'

"I know, you damn slime! Your brothers are simply too slow!"

...

In a dark cave, a large, brown scaled creatures was thrashing about.

"A mere human and slime duo dares to murder the subordinate of the mighty Grander?!"