A couple hours later I wake up and regret sleeping on solid rock. I decide to check out this cave since it seems to stretch on forever. Plus it would be safer to see if anything is living in here. After a few minutes, the only thing I achieved was sore feet. Which gave me a skill, they're small steps but it's better than nothing.

I headed back to see if I could make some sort of light source. I find a decent-sized stick, I figured I could use my clothes to make a torch. Then I realized the state of my clothes or lack thereof. I had only a thin T-shirt and shorts. I hesitated but thought

'Who the fuck is gonna see me?'

But I settled on ripping a thin strip along the bottom. I gotta look somewhat civilized if someone finds me... Hopefully. 

Then I realize another problem 'How do you make a fire?' I can't exactly ask Google. I vaguely remember that you could rub some sticks together. But that is ineffective and would use too much of my energy.

But I again realized that I had no other option. So I used my Mana sight to find the suitable twigs and got to work. After a bit of fruitless work I facepalmed. I have fucking magic, well not really but if I can manipulate Mana. Then maybe heat counts too, I settle down to see if my idea works.

It does! Heat is a type of Mana, I focus on the small dot of Mana and urge it to grow. Slowly but surely the dot grows into a golf ball. At this point, the twig caught on fire and I scramble to light the poorly-made torch. I moved too fast and the flame sputtered out. I sigh and set back to work.

I succeed faster this time and successfully lit my torch...again. I sighed when I noticed yet another blocked skill, I can't even be a mage.

God just why? Magic is so cool yet I can't even use it.

Anyways the torch is burning fast, so I gather a couple more sticks as a backup. Who knows how deep this cave can go.

Thanks to the light I can see that this cave is quite spacious. A couple minutes later the corridor splits into three separate paths. The weird thing  is while they all looked roughly the same. The mana from each one was different.

The left had a breeze wafting from it, the Middle a more earthy tone, and lastly, the right one was normal so I choose that one. Seemed like the safest. Since my Danger sense triggered from the others.

It was not.

Almost immediately after, Neutral Slimes started oozing out from the walls. I couldn't even sense them. I naturally being caught off guard tripped backward and fell.

Slime sensing I was in danger, jumped out from my shirt and stretched to block them off, allowing me to retreat. It moved with me, Thankfully the slimes didn't move past the tunnel's entrance. Honestly got a little worried there.

But their inability to move past there gave me an idea, I can just kill them from here and use Slime as bait if they lose interest.

Huh speaking of slimes I wonder how many I can tame. A brief image of an army of slimes flashed through my head. But I quickly wave that thought away. Since I would probably just get assassinated and I kinda want to live this time around.

They all look the same so I try it on the first one I see.

Oh welp, I am still only level two, so guess it's time to farm.

I can't do anything to make this more efficient. Like some sort of blockade to funnel them in since they'd probably just melt it. So let's not waste any effort attempting to do that.

Picking the most sturdy stick I brought with me and approached the slimes. Kinda creepy how they just sit there motionless.

Right as I step past the entry all the slimes surged forward. I quickly formulate a strategy: Analyze to level the skill and swing the stick like my life depends on it, ah well it kinda does.

Hitting a slime with a blunt weapon is WAY harder than it would seem. After three swings my hands were throbbing in pain.

And that wasn't enough to kill one but the fourth hit was it. After that the rest was hellish as all grinding should be. thankfully I only needed four more kills to level.

I make sure to keep a safe distance from my new grinding spot and see what my potential skills are 

It is really pushing the healing but I don't need it now since I'm one-shot anyways. While a shield would be nice, Slime is a fine shield for now. So that leaves me with

I immediately picked yes. It especially is a multi-heal, now I just a heal skill. 

I got another perk from Analyze [5] which showed weak points. It turns out slimes have a core. The only reason I didn't notice it before was, that the core isn't solid and thus blends in but now I can track it. This discovery turned four hits into two and one if I get a lucky shot.

And just like that, I got another level.

I don't plan to center my healing around a god so that's a no for holy magics(you know how fickle they are?) as I was about to pick the Weak heal [1]. A brilliant idea popped into my head. Using Healing manipulation[1] I can use Health regen and that should work.

Assuming the wording of the description I can use it on others, so I got it. I also viewed my Status.

Now it's time for Slime to shine or wobble menacingly(I dunno). Also, it seems like the slimes are never-ending and I killed about 20. Yet they are still coming out of the walls, replacing the ones I kill.

But on the other hand, that means they have some sort of respawning feature that is a part of a dungeon or slimes reproduced here and this cave is so old that, there is an abundance of them just chilling here.

Either way, I can farm for a while hoping I get a certain skill.

But let's forget that right now and focus on a more important goal. There is no WAY I sleep on solid rock again, that shit hurts trust me. Also, I realize I've been an idiot and forgot about my inventory and was just carrying around these sticks.

So I toss my sticks in...together and it works. Thank God wait no fuck him until I see cute girls, there is no point in being here.

A short walk later a starry night greets me. Jeez despite almost dying numerous times, just this sight almost makes up for it.

A growl interrupted my thoughts. Nothing besides Slime, Me, and the trees pop up. So I just look around confused.

Then I embarrassingly realize it's been quite a while since I last ate and that growl was probably my empty stomach.

Time to see if Slime has more useful memories, it does! It's steadily getting easier to understand its mind. So I notice my spots were food is.

Along the way, I gather anything even a bit of value, twigs, and leaves mostly. Every now and then I see mushrooms, a couple is poisonous... I feed them to Slime. It had no Hp loss so all good in the end right?

I finally reached another one of those rainbow berry-bushes. I know this is another world but hello? Natural selection? seriously it has no form of camouflage. If anything it wants to be eaten.

Well, I'm not complaining. An easy delicious snack and it's confirmed safe from Analyze.

You know what I can probably sell these things. They're basically candy but the healthy kind.

*sigh* never thought I would say candy was healthy.

Time for a quick test. Remember the second torch I made? Just before it burnt out I lit another and stuck it into my inventory. The torch lasted a decent couple of hours. So I'll keep using that, anyways when I took the torch out.

A bright flash of light blinded me for a sec. When I recovered I saw that it was still burning, but there was only about half of it left. That would mean that there is at least a time reduction on my inventory. The flash must have been light that was slowed and taking the torch out accelerated it²Since time is slowed but still progressing the light got trapped in that space. Make sense?

It's not a total time stop but it still is convenient nonetheless.

Also another weird thing about this forest, It changes a lot. Somehow there are trees I know for a fact don't grow in this weather.

I don't remember if I told you but this place has a nice spring breeze. Kinda undermines how dangerous this place is actually is.

The rest of the walk was uneventful besides Slime slowly turning purple. Guess it's from all the poisonous mushrooms I'm feeding it. Before it was a crystal clear color, by the time I reached the cave again and the suns rose. It was basically a solid purple. I hear the familiar ping of my "System"