It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 115 - Hips and Knees

Sitting down on the grass, he started with the left leg. He had been left-handed in his old life. He channelled the required Mana to that limb alone. Aarav was trying to understand and feel how the energy flow moved around the leg, aided the movement of joints, and stopped the scraping of bones. There was no cartilage since that had disintegrated long since from the skeleton he used as the template. Instead, Aarav was using his slime as the lubricant in each joint. It was perfect for the job, even better than cartilage. The Slime was extremely dense, which made it hard-wearing but at the same time slick when it needed to be. It allowed the bones to slide past at the joints even more smoothly than an average human's from Earth could.

Now that he had saturated the limb with Mana, he could see that it was slowly leaking out, which made sense considering it was an upkeep cost. He would be able to reduce the loss given enough time and practice. But that was not important now. The Mana almost seemed to form ethereal tendons that would allow him to move the bones as usual if he only pulled on them.

Starting with the hip joint first, he pulled and caused the leg to twist clockwise first, then anti-clockwise. Even though there were no other bones joined to his hip joint, it was something he would need to get used to with a whole torso as well, so he might as well start with that. The leg responded sluggishly like stiff muscles after a particularly intense workout session. Creaky and slow they might be, but they responded, and he was ecstatic. It was the first time he had minutely examined the process of moving individual sections of one's leg, and he found it fascinating. Especially since he could peel back the layers and observe everything, I couldn't wait to try it with the muscle layer when he finally acquired it.

"Okay, so you can rotate your leg now, not very useful for walking," Haemish commented but continued watching with intense concentration on what the Slime was doing.

"Indeed, but one step at a time, right?" Aarav replied without looking up from the hip sockets. They had tugged a little free, and Aarav had to slot the socket back into place before continuing.

Once Aarav was satisfied with his control of the left hip joint, he moved on to the opposite side. He took just under five minutes to familiarise himself with both joints and how tugging on the ethereal tendons made them move.

"Okay, I think I have it. Next, I want to try the same movements but to stand." Aarav said, looking to Haemish to help him up. The Older man happily obliged and continued to watch the progress Aarav made hungrily.

Once standing and supported by the reformed cane – it had returned to the default shape when he dropped it upon sitting – Aarav began rotating his hips in the same way. Pulling and pushing the tendons until it felt a little more natural. He had to spend another fifteen minutes on that task. He constantly thought about the process, committing it to muscle memory.

"Okay, looking good, looking good. What is next?" Haemish asked, "the next joint? Knees?"

He was right on the money, and it was the next logical step. Aarav sat back down on the ground and assessed the damage to the hip joint from such vigorous movement. There was nothing, not even the faintest of scarring or scratch. If I get blemishes or scars, I can just reform those limbs brand new, and that particular perk would be convenient. Who didn't want flawless skin?

Focus Aarav, get back to it. "Indeed, knees." Aarav said, moving his knees, bending and straightening while sitting on the ground, just as he had with the hip rotations. It was easier to learn the motions on the floor than when already standing. He needed to pull so many individual threads to make it move just right. Either he was not pushing it enough, or he snapped the bottom half of the leg to his hip joint. Not painful but irritating that the finer points of control eluded him. He kept adjusting, moving the limb slowly back and forth, then faster and faster. Once he had some semblance of mastery with the left, he moved to the right. He had needed over an hour to master the left leg. The right side took less than ten minutes as the legs worked in symmetry. Once he had learned to move one knee, the other was easy to get working.

"Aarav, I think we should stop there for now," Haemish said as he looked up from the book he had been mulling over and the notes he was making. About an hour ago, the man had stopped being so fascinated with Aarav's every move and decided to get some work done. The great thing about spatial pouches was that it was easy to carry your world with you. Case and point, Haemish was not sitting on the ground and reading. He had pulled out a chair and an entire foldable desk from the pouch he carried. It was unclear if the items were limited to the pocket's mouth size; however, Aarav had no idea how the desk would have come out.

"Haemish, have I told you that I find your pouch incredible? Any chance you can show me how they make it?" Aarav asked.

"Yes, you have told me, and no, I cannot show you how the pouch is made because I can't make them," Haemish said. "First, we would need to go into town for that and right now, it is more effort than it is worth to take you there. The people alone would be a huge challenge to surmount. Then, if we were to get past all of that and make it to the vendor that sells them, it would be impossible to convince him to share his secret with us. After all, it is his livelihood, and no one else can make them."

"But you know the man. So we can talk to him at least? Understand how they work?" Aarav asked, getting up and leaning on the walking stick, which Haemish packed up his furniture and books and slotted them all into the pouch.

"Well, you see, he operates in a different spatial dimension. So it is hard to say that I know him. I have never seen his face, you see. He is always wearing a cloak with a hood, and there is nothing but blackness in the hood. I can only assume that there is a face in there." Haemish shrugged helplessly.

"That is a serious mystery. Aren't you curious?" Aarav asked, knowing the man's inquisitive nature. It did not seem natural for Haemish just to accept what he saw at face value.

"It is as though you do not even know me! Of course, I am curious!" That was the Haemish Aarav knew. "The question burns in me every minute of the day! Why do you think I bought this thing in the first place? It is advantageous, do not misunderstand. But the main reason for my purchasing it was to try to understand the rumours I had had about the being selling them. I was not disappointed, let me assure you!" Haemish went into lecturer mode again.

Aarav held up the hand, not holding desperately to the walking stick, as he nearly stumbled in his haste to get up. "Woah. Okay, I'm fine, stable now. Haemish, so let's work together and find out more about this suspicious and mysterious creature!" the Slime said.

"Very well. But for now, you have your own problems to fix. Get your body working, and we can talk more about this. I, for one, am never ready to stop searching for answers." Haemish stated.

"That is the Haemish–." Aarav yelled as he slipped, tripped and fell again. Face first into the cobblestones of the path, losing 20 HP from falling on his face was embarrassing, but Haemish just hauled him back up to his feet.

"What happened?" Haemish asked. "You were fine on the way here. And that was before all the practice."

"I tried implementing what I learned today into my movements while talking to you. Bending knees was my downfall." Aarav grumped.

"No, bending your knees while trying to talk simultaneously must have thrown your control off. You know you need to focus on things while they are new. Once they become natural, you can do other things." Haemish couldn't help chuckling, though, and soon Aarav couldn't help but join in.

"Right, no-" Aarav nearly tripped again, but Haemish came to the rescue. "talking?" Aarav looked at his new friend and Master. "Uh, right." The rest of the walk consisted of silent, focused, and deliberate walking. It had taken forty-five minutes at least to get to the gardens. It took over an hour on the way back, but Aarav was able to bend his knees accurately each time he took a step, his foot still flopped about, but he couldn't help that. Perhaps with the aid of some Mana Potions and practice, he would get those under control. He was not looking forward to the headache that would more definitely give him as he tried for control.

One thing from the last few hours was clear. Aarav was getting it back, slowly but surely.