Flac Navator looked at the group of sentients that he couldn't bring his dear wind-earth mana over to kill, and felt like crying.

  If he killed them then he could get more essence, and with more essence he could probably buy a new [Uncommon] skill which he would be able to use as another template to learn from, until he could finally bypass the doubled price of a new realm of skills.

  And he could also be a bit more certain in his survival, that was the most important part.

  Though the skill thing was also pretty important actually...

  But he couldn't do it.

  His instincts halted him every time he brought some nice and rowdy mana over to introduce it to the sentient population, no matter which sentients he tried to target. Whether it be big or small, wide or thin, grey or not grey. Instincts blocked him at every turn, making him use himself to stop himself.

  ...Falc looked at his legion and the sentients he had decided to slay, honestly considering directing the former to kill the later. And instincts took no initiative to whine about that, so why was it so bad to kill them with wind-earth mana instead?

  While thinking about that, he casually affirmed the apostle candidates that they could kill that specific group while setting up stockpiling measures.

  Having let go of wind-earth mana- After being forced by instincts to bring it somewhere else, it reminding him that the mana was close by to a random sentient group he had decided to use as a test subject- He considered what differentiated directing slimes and directing mana towards a sentient while managing the slimes.

  Maybe it was that slimes weren't under his direct purview? Unlike his mana that he could drag around wherever he wanted, slimes had to move around at his commands. It wasn't as if he could pick up a slime and throw it somewhere else, at least he had never tried to.

  After a quick try to regain rule over the water in the slime, he found that it wasn't exactly working. He could feel it was possible to take control of the water, though it was interesting to note that it needed a lot of mana... It was possible, probably.

  Then what if he used the slime aspect instead of the water aspect?

  Of course, he directed a few slime apostle 2 candidates while deciding on a random standard slime to test on.

  He designated a simple D-1 elder slime, a simple cheap little thing that existed merely to distract and was created only to fill a quota, as his target. Since the slime aspect pertained to slimes it should be able to do what the water aspect did to water, possibly.

  Though he didn't feel anything pertaining to whether it would work or not.

  While he did wonder as to why he wasn't afforded one, aspectual truths would probably allude him no matter how much he thought and pondered. Instead he merely took some mana gathered over a small while, and offered it up the same way he did to the water aspect.

  It was interesting to say the least, but also... Far to expensive to be reasonably efficient.

  He could feel it, as he reached out with his aspect. Exerting some kind of affect through the connection already there between him and the slime, extending his authority as to bring it under his supervision. It just... Felt off. Not in the way of an aspect being unruly or anything akin to it, it was just a bit exotic.

  The slime still lived as he ruled over its existence, it still held the same bond he had used to conquer it.

  It was the first time that something under his control was, well, alive. Water was mere substsnce, no will nor any vitality held within despite both slimes and sentients being made of it. The same was true for stone and air, just a substance whether it be material or not.

  Even as he lifted it up from the ground, it wriggled around. While it wasn't actively trying to defy him, its mere nature as a being seemed to defy subservience. It was not even close to impossible for him to move it around, it was actually easier than the mana used to create it. Though there was a slight problem, his authority was slipping.

  Maybe it was because his grasp was weak due to the shaky nature of the slime aspect, or because the slime was alive as stated previously. Falc couldn't be sure, but he could be sure he didn't have much time to test his instincts' reaction if he didn't want to waste mana.

  Though just to make the results of the experiment undebatable he once again asserted his authority over the slime, before picking it up with little familiarity showing with his haphazard transportation of a fragile, pathetic little creature.

  But it mattered not, it was mere fodder in the end. The most important thing was the information gained from potentially sacrificing it, gained through launching it towards a duo of sentients that usually kept to the upper parts of his reaches while taking the moss for some reason.

  And he heard- More like felt- his Instincts screech once more. Roaring for him to stop, and stop he did; severing his authority over the slime in one smooth mental motion born from the near-constant practice of letting go of his mana to create nuclei.

  And it actually worked, his instincts stopped whining for whatever reason!

  ...Though, while it was wonderous he had found a method to circumvent his instincts. The effects left much to be desired to be totally honest, it was merely throwing a slime at sentients. Slimes, the things that died from one or two hits from any sentient.

  Though maybe it'd have a better effect if he did the same with some kind of acid? It could be possible. Though it was totally possible that his instincts had only stopped whining due to the mediocre affect of a mere D-1 slime, at least it was certain that it didn't like him personally bringing something under his rule to attack a sentient.

  Finally, slime apostle 2 was canonized... Or were they?

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Oh, that one had attached along with a D-2 slime weave to fulfill the affinity requirement, it wasn't exactly revolutionary but it wasn't exactly surprising that it had taken one of the sentients' lives for itself. The D-2 slime weave hadn't had a big effect, but maybe its 4-5~% boost had helped its as well.

  ...It felt nice, seeing his slime apostle candidates level up after killing sentients. With just a single victim from the assortment of six sentients hidden in darkness, after their light sources were viciously reduced to nothing, bringing a slime to level one.

  But then came a question while watching them, which one would take up the mantel of slime apostle 2 in full? And more importantly, he found none of them having their weaves or anything else within them shifting like slime apostle 1- Originally dubbed 'Acid test 3'- And he couldn't be sure why.

  The slime apostle candidates had been enhanced, he was certain of it merely by looking at their traversal towards another victim. He had given them free reigns to go after another group of sentients, though they weren't of the essence generator kind they were still on the higher end sentients.

  Though there were only four of them wading through the slime plains for elder slime nuclei, they would probably be more dangerous than the sextuplet of sentients they had felled before merely because they were covered in grey and even had one of those sentients that could direct attacks at a block of grey material.

  It brought back a memory, back from when he was still a mere [Common] core. One that knew next to nothing about aspects and struggled to merely use them for the most basic of things, while slime apostle 1 was still a regular little slime begging him for more mana. And remembering it, he was certainly happy he had taken the step to [Uncommon].

  Back then slime apostle 1- Long may he reign- was besieged by sentients as the one and only slime that could think and learn. A true pioneer, but it was almost certain he would fall when he faced with one of those shield sentients that called for it to attack them. But he had interfered, forcing it to both flee and direct it to attack in a place that was not a mere buffer.

  It was an unpleasant memory, but it was more importantly a memory that held information that he could use. Back then he had interfered so deeply in the situation that one might even say he was taking action directly, but his instincts had stayed silent without a single complaint about the whole situation.

  Then the question came whether it was because of the situation or because the slime itself still took action in place of Falc himself, luckily there was a sentient ready to help him experiment.

  He directed a few of the slime apostle 2 candidates to fell the sentient that could heal other sentients, pelting them with multiple shots of acid before any of the sentients even realized it. And of course the healer sentient was the first to realize as seen from their air reverberation created to inform of her damage, which he had half a mind to completely deafen.

  If not for instincts helpfully informing him that they would not stand for such an action, going against the precedent that messing with communicative air ripples was fair game- As seen from that time that Falc had fought against the extreme shuddering of the world, where he had carried an air communication wave to the entirety of the slime plains- He would've gone through with it too.

  Maybe the intent of the action mattered as well? Back then he was only experimenting to see what happened, while instead now he was trying to make it easier for the slime apostle 2 candidates.

  So, it wasn't exactly implausible.

  Before the shield holding sentient began to get in the way, he directed a few slimes to also attack that sentient that used mana.

  Though the few shots of acid were prevented with a barrier of sorts, a classic physical one that could be gnawed through with acid. So it wasn't exactly a problem, what was the problem was the fact that the shield sentient finally did its thing. Somehow, with a intense wave through the air which he assumed to be trying to communicate to the slimes, maybe?

  Regardless, it had the same effect as usual, every single one of the slime apostle candidates found themselves leaning towards attacking the shield-wearing sentient. Though the effect seemed less intense than the one which affected slime apostle 1 back in the day, he still needed to suppress the slimes as to stop them from wasting their charges.

  While it was a little troublesome, requiring him to take a bit of himself off of the production line keep the slimes in line.

  Then he directed another few to shoot at the head of the shield sentient while leading all of the leveled slimes to take down the only sentient yet to have been pelted.

  Then he just sent a majority the others to take care of the mana using sentient while retaining a few if one of the other two still living sentients needed a few more servings of acid.

  But it looked like only the barrier sentient would be able to resist the onslaught for any amount of time, it being decided that they were to be besieged by all other available slime apostle candidates.

  As he watched doom loom over the sentient, Falc felt his emotions sooth. It was absolutely nice to watch his creations fell a few sentients, whether or not he planned to double down on the slaughter.

  It also afforded a confirmation of the fact that it seemed that merely directing slimes brought not a single complaint from his instincts. Or, at least, those complaints were so minor that he could completely ignore them in the constant stream of whining about his core not being at the deepest sections of his dungeon.

  He casually watched as the barrier was finally corroded to the point acid entered after some time of it being constantly restored while the sentient tried to run away, though it was not a long time due to the compressed nature of their weaves.

  ...No level up? Maybe one of the leveled monsters killed the sentient?

  Though, one thing that did make him wonder was how easily the slimes leveled up. How many sentients slime apostle 1 killed to get to level 1, he wouldn't know. But there were a few regular slimes before slime apostle 1 that killed a singular sentient but hadn't leveled up, why?

  Maybe it had to do with those 'Transcenders' and 'Double transcenders'? Not that he knew what those were.