Slime#47 focused all his demonic force on his palm and tried to form the mark of the Ancient battle style.
He started with the basics—forming a square.
"It's tough," he muttered as he glanced at the weird shape in his palm.
A black, glowing half-circle—half-box—formed on his palm.
'Is this even a square?' he mused. His eye twitched.
He dispersed the shape with a flick of his finger.
He repeated the process again and again.
---
Time passed as he focused on forming the mark…
Outside…
"Looks like he isn't in a hurry," Thomas said with a wide grin as he sat back on his chair.
Nobi meditated, placing the potion beside her legs.
She glanced at the lion-headed instructor with narrowed eyes. "You didn't warn Young Slime about not trying the mark on the soul directly?"
Thomas grinned widely. "Because I wanted to check Young Slime's mentality."
He had seen many demons hungry for power rush to carve the mark onto their souls—without even knowing the shape had to be perfected first.
However, he wasn't so ruthless. He'd made Nobi prepare a flask of soul-smoothening potion.
But their worry was unnecessary—Slime#47 wasn't an idiot like the others.
---
Ten days passed…
"Finally," Young Slime muttered, grinning as he glanced at the glowing black Ancient combat style mark in his palm.
It was an unfurled scroll formed from black demonic force. In its center was a small hole forming the shape of a half-opened demonic eye.
It had wooden-like rods at each end.
"Good. It's done." He clenched his palm, and the demonic mark dispersed.
He opened his eyes. The instructor was enjoying his beer, while Nobi sat cross-legged, meditating to increase her energy resources.
Sensing his eyes open, Thomas—Crack!—threw the bottle to the floor and asked sharply, "Did you learn to shape the mark properly?"
"Yes," Young Slime nodded.
Nobi opened her eyes and grinned. "As expected. You are not a power-hungry, idiotic demon."
"What?" he asked, tilting his head. He didn't understand what they meant by power-hungry.
"Why didn't you rush to inscribe the Ancient combat style mark directly on the soul?" the lion-headed instructor asked, glancing piercingly at the multicolored slime.
Slime#47 replied, shrugging, "Because you never explained how to inscribe it on the soul. You only taught the shape."
Nobi asked playfully, "Then why didn't you practice it outside, but you entered your soul dimension?"
Young Slime held his forehead and replied, "Because you can't practice the mark without soul essence."
He sighed, knowing she was checking his knowledge. "Soul essence must be fused with demonic energy to maintain the mark."1
"Good," Thomas nodded in appreciation. "Looks like you remember the mechanics. Now you can inscribe the mark directly on your soul—but first show me the mark you trained."
Young Slime nodded and formed the mark by pulling some of his soul essence and demonic force.
'It's quite easy to form the mark now,' he thought, as he started to form the scroll.
He had entered the soul dimension because concentrating on demonic force and soul essence together was tough for him.
And the soul dimension itself was filled with his soul essence due to leakage—it would fuse with his demonic force involuntarily.
A scroll unfurled with a half-opened demonic eye at its center in Young Slime's palm.
"It's not perfect," Nobi said flatly, glancing at the scroll.
"Well, I am not an artist," Young Slime muttered, "and I am not good at controlling demonic force efficiently."
"Not bad," Thomas praised Young Slime. "It doesn't matter. After you inscribe this mark on the soul, the soul essence will reshape it to the perfect shape. You'll just need the mark appropriately formed."
Nobi cut in. "Good. Now inscribe the mark."
The instructor informed, "You only have five days left—six days, and one day must be left for battling the dragon."
He then explained the process of inscribing, "….."
---
Young Slime's soul dimension...
He reformed the scroll mark on his palm as soul essence floating in the void fused with it.
"It's time." He slowly floated up to his half-free soul, taking a deep breath.
His soul was just five inches, but he was even smaller—less than one inch to a human eye.
A five-inch soul might feel weak and small, but for those with extraordinary senses and incredible vision, the soul would look and feel like immense power.
As Young Slime reached near his soul, he felt refreshing cool energy sweeping out from the surroundings of his unsuppressed soul, while he'd felt burning hot waves emitting from his suppressed soul and Vael's soul.
Taking a deep breath, he controlled his soul and made a gap in all his barriers, even the Will barrier.
He started to lay the mark on top of his soul, entering from the gap, and slowly tried to fuse with it.
A chilling, alien pain tore through him as the soul rejected the mark, pushing it back.
He didn't blink—but his focus fractured.
The pain made his concentration twitch.
He dispersed the mark, understanding this couldn't be done in one attempt.
---
Outside...
"You've got to be kidding me," Nobi uttered, her mouth wide open.
Thomas's eyes almost popped out as he glanced at Young Slime, who was sweating but didn't even move an inch from his place.
No finger movement, no blinking of an eye, no twitch of his lips.
He'd just broken into a sweat as if nothing had happened.
"Anyone watching would think he was just sweating from the heat," Thomas muttered, his mouth hanging open.
"No, no—how can someone tolerate this kind of pain?" Nobi exclaimed, standing up.
Both Nobi and Thomas had also experienced the pain of inscribing the battle mark on their souls, and they couldn't form the combat style inscription on their souls, due to that pain.
"Did anyone form the mark without the elixir of refreshing mind and the elixir of great numbness… Instructor?" Nobi asked, still wide-eyed at Young Slime.
"There was no one who could withstand it in the entire history—and even if they could withstand it, they couldn't inscribe the mark, as their body would twitch involuntarily due to the excessive pain," Thomas replied, patting his forehead as he took a deep breath. "But here he is—Young Slime—who just broke into a sweat. Nothing more, nothing less."
Nobi lifted her flask, pointing it at the lion-headed instructor, who shook his head.
He ordered, "Let's wait. As I said before—only if this kid asks for it himself, we'll hand it over to him."
"Isn't it cruel?" Nobi asked, her voice rising.
"Cruel?" Thomas said, his voice stiffening. "Just look at this kid. Do you think this kid is suffering? His lips didn't even twitch. From which angle does this look like agony to you?"
Nobi turned silent, pulling back the flask.
'Just how strong is his Pain Tolerance?' Nobi and Thomas wondered as they glanced at Slime#47, his body faintly glowing gold.
In the previous chapter 142, Thomas also used soul essence with mana to form the shape, but Slime#47 couldn't sense Thomas's soul essence.