Eating Mana?

What Alaric saw next, astounded him. A barrier formation meant to keep any being above rank 2 from exiting the forest, began dissolving!

Of course, he couldn't see the barrier exactly but felt the weak mana signature disappear.

The cause?

Sonic extended his tentacle forward, and Alaric heard a faint sizzling!

"You... you can dissolve mana?!" Alaric exclaimed.

Sonic turned its new head in Alaric's direction, and its eyes waved around, 'Yes, my lord. It is one of the many new abilities I've acquired at rank 3. In fact, my lord, the mana becomes my own soon after.'

Alaric looked at Sonic's tentacle, which had nearly exited the forest, and said, "Does that mean you can evolve with just this?"

'No, my lord. The mana absorbed through this method dissipates soon after I acquire it. It is merely a temporary boost in battle.'

The slime then turned away from Alaric, focusing on the barrier, and asked, 'My lord, why do you speak vocally when our telepathic link allows for us to both speak telepathically?'

Alaric, watching the barrier's mana signature slowly disappear, was quick to answer, "Because it's uncomfortable."

The slime seemed confused but quickly continued its feeding.

Later, the barrier had wholly lost its signature, even if only a small part of it. Meanwhile, Alaric was still marveling at the possibilities of mana absorption.

'Kra!'

The giant slime behind Alaric had knocked him out of his stupor, and he ordered, "Yes. Let's return to Ooze Village."

'Ooze Village, my lord?'

This time, Alaric used the telepathic link to communicate with the slime, 'I renamed Forger Village.'

The cthulhu slime seemed excited at that, and began to ramble about an "Ooze Kingdom."

...

Alaric and his 3 slime companions arrived at Ooze Village. Even though it was evening, the villagers seemed hard at work.

Strong men were loading the warehouse with even more materials, some were working on Mulder's forge, and women and children were developing a farm for the spinach seeds Alaric bought previously.

Obviously, this efficiency would definitely be credited to Clarus. His supernatural talent probably kept the villagers motivated during Alaric's absence.

'The temperature is beginning to drop, winter is soon.'

Now that Alaric had full authority over the village, he could more easily introduce new concepts to it. When Ravio Forger was in charge, everyone rejected Alaric's knowledge as a waste of money. As such, this would be the easiest winter he had experienced in the last 18 years.

Alaric was on his way to the village warehouse, both Piko and Mulder seemed to be discussing something there.

'I can gather reports and introduce Sonic at the same time, it's great.' Alaric thought.

Alaric soon commanded his new, unnamed giant slime to go meet up with Gunnar. He would directly put Gunnar in charge of any giant slimes he evolved in the future.

Within a minute, he arrived in front of Piko and Mulder, and they were discussing the allocation of the village's materials.

"Sorry, Mulder... but with the Chief's plan to raid the Ryders soon, we will need more housing! We only have 5 cords of wood, and half a ton of stone!" Piko exclaimed.

"I know that... but my forge is of high priority, we need to arm a hunting team as soon as possible! On top of that, we need more quality-of-life tools in this village, lad."

Alaric soon appeared beside the bickering men, and said, "There is a rather simple way to handle this problem."

Suddenly, both Mulder and Piko flinched, turning around and seeing Alaric. They both seemed a bit flustered, Mulder's beard and Piko's glasses jumping as they turned.

"Chief!" they both exclaimed.

"For now, allocate materials to Mulder. Actually, after raiding Ryder Village, we can simply combine it with our current territory. It's only 20 kilometers away, establishing trade and movement will be simple."

Although Alaric knew that 20 kilometers is quite a long distance, in the future when he developed his territory into a city, it would stretch for far longer than 20 kilometers. Some cities even had a total surface area of more than 500 kilometers, it was completely realistic to take the Ryder Village in.

"You mean to annex the Ryder territory, Chief? But with a distance of 20 kilometers from here to there, it will be difficult to manage during the winter! The transport of food will also become more difficult than if all the villagers stayed here!" Piko exclaimed.

Mulder quickly nodded his head in agreement, knowing personally from his walk to Ooze Village how difficult it was.

As they were both rather typical villagers, annexing other territories felt a bit unrealistic to them. To Alaric, however, his previous world had countries that even spanned half a continent, and the surface area of 20 kilometers was much easier to manage.

"Don't worry about that. When it comes to traveling through snow and preserving food during the winter, no one is stronger than Ooze Village. Slimes can clear the snow and open the path to Ryder, and we can have someone competent to manage the territory while away. 20 kilometers is nothing, the capital is 120 kilometers in width!"

Both Mulder and Piko seemed a bit unconvinced but decided to listen to Alaric. Their thought process was, 'It's easier than building new houses, at least.'

After the material allocation problem was solved, Alaric quickly received their reports. Mulder's forge had finished the framing process, and it was now time to build the walls. They had decided to build the walls out of cobblestone, for safety purposes. Piko reported that the collection of materials was practically progressing at the same rate, but was sad to explain that there was still a lack of food, thinking that winter would be a bit difficult.

"Alright, don't worry about food. The Ryder family should have plenty, and I can collect more if necessary. For now, talk to Natali and request that she begins providing provisions to the villagers. Soups and stews would be best, we can freeze and reuse those."

They were a bit surprised at Alaric's confidence, but since they had already rested their fate in his hands, they didn't mind. Piko and Mulder would simply act on the village chief's orders, and hope for the best.

Afterward, Alaric introduced them to Sonic, and return to his quarters.

Alaric gestured for Sonic to establish a telepathic link, and said, 'Sonic, watch over the village while I sleep. If anyone leaves during the night, apprehend them.'

'Yes, my lord!'

Alaric then told Wurst, who he brought with him on the way home, since the corpses in the cold storage were already handled, and ordered him to guard his house.

While laying down in his bed, Alaric hoped that no one left.

'A traitor... would be the worst possible outcome.'