A pop sound echoed in his mind, sending a momentary numbing feeling through his water body. As a result, a small wave stirred over his surface.
At that moment, Ronata somehow knew it, that his Water Magic had now risen in mastery and reached Tier 2, finally caught up to Mana Eye, which similarly had reached that point.
[Normal Skill: Water Magic]
[Mastery: Tier 2]
[Mana serves as the source, while the will is the means to bend, control, and create water. Seek the truth about water and appreciate its greatness; doing so will lead you to the revelations you aspire to achieve.]
[Special Spell: Aqua Imitation. Your unique trait has transformed your Water Path, granting you the ability to imitate the forms of the beings you consume.]
Instinctively, Ronata knew that the source of the information that told him that he could now form the same bug he was currently dissolving, which was called Stink Bug, with his magic.
His mastery in Water Magic is currently still limited to Tier 2, so he still can't form a perfect Imitation of Stink Bug. Still, as long as he continued to raise his mastery in this Magic, he instinctively knew that he would soon be able to produce it later.
'Hmm, interesting. I wonder what the Imitation can do after I created it?'
With that thought, Ronata focused his mind and willed his Mana to cast Aqua Imitation, following the instructions he had in mind.
A blob of water began gathering in the air from his water body as Ronata cast the spell. The sudden appearance of the water blob, of course, was noticed by Whitey and its mate. Whatey's eyes sharpen, eyeing the blob warily.
Ronata chuckled in his mind at the sight.
'Chill, little guy. I won't do anything to you.'
To emphasize his intention, Ronata moved the blob away from them, placing it on the other side of his Puddle before finally beginning to reshape the blob into the form of a Stink Bug.
When Ronata looks back at Whitey, it relaxed after it made sure that the blob was not a threat to both it and its mate.
Since he followed the instructions carefully, it was unsurprising that he succeeded in casting Aqua Imitation.
Now he had a Stink Bug-shaped water floating beside him; its form was similar to the original Stink Bug, but it still looked transparent like normal water. It, however, continued to consume Mana to maintain its existence. It only requires 1 point of Mana per minute, but it's still a continuous output.
The spell sounds useless by that aspect alone, but this spell is not that simple. Ronata later found out that he could shift part of his consciousness into his Water Stink Bug, capable of controlling it like his own body.
Ronata felt like a hivemind, with the Puddle as his main vessel, and the Water Stink Bug as his subsidiary vessel. A wonderful experience, in short.
'Does that mean that I could now begin exploring this place?'
After he thought so, he couldn't stop himself anymore.
With his current Magic stat, which had risen to 87 after continuous absorption and growth, including the speed at which his Mana would naturally restore itself, he could maintain one Water Stink Bug for a full 12 hours and still have some Mana left.
Aware of that, Ronata thought it was the right time for surrounding exploration, so he willed it and began controlling his Water Stink Bug to circle the area near the Puddle.
The flight speed of a Stink Bug was slow, so even its Imitation version was also limited to the original's speed. But Ronata doesn't really mind it. Being able to check his surroundings alone is already good enough, so there's no need to complain about trivial things like flight speed.
As expected, the place he reincarnated was indeed a grass plain. Unfortunately, since his Water Stink Bug's vision was also limited by a normal Stink Bug's ability to see, he couldn't see what was too far away from his Water Stink Bug. The vision is even blurred and not as clear as a Human's sight. If not for his Mana Eye, which also extended to his Water Stink Bug, he probably wouldn't have been able to see so far that he could at least measure how vast the plain even was.
Roughly, the plain itself was clearly wider than 10 Kilometers, with a forest, mountains, and a rocky hill surrounding it.
Since his Water Stink Bug's vision was limited, he couldn't be so sure, but he could see colorful spots moving around the plain, which he suspected were animals, beasts, monsters, or whatever residents of this world they were. At the very least, he was sure that they were living beings. Amongst them, some had a height of over 2 meters, which made him wonder how big the average height of the world's residents truly was.
Since there are Dragons here, Ronata thought that maybe a being so tall that they even tower over a mountain existed in this world.
'Hm? What's that?'
He stopped his Water Stink Bug when he spotted a group of grey figures. Their height ranged from 145cm to 190 cm. They stood on their feet, with their heads raised between their shoulders.
Ronata paused.
'Wait... No, no, no...'
He doesn't want it, but that was, unfortunately, highly likely to be true.
'Don't tell me...'
If he could do a gulp, he would have done so at the moment.
'Humans!?'