Syl

Chapter 22: First Evolution

After having my core struck by that blow, it was like a part of my mind turned off. I felt pure desperation and fear and then a strange bloodlust to kill, no, devour the cause of my suffering. My logic and reasoning seemed to dull into a quiet voice while rage and primal instinct took over.

My body and actions became pure instinct, no longer overthinking and methodical, and my instinct told me to throw everything at the problem: all my slime mass, overpower the enemy through sheer quantity and spread my slime to cover the terrain to recollect fallen slime mass.

The battle raged on, and despite recollecting the fallen slime mass, it wasn't a perfect process, and there was still a loss. The urge to devour and replenish my slime overwhelmed me, and while I couldn't catch this prey - there were five easy ones nearby. I deposited some slime mass, like reserve army troops, and sent my [Sub-Core] out like a general to slay the foes.

The threat chased after my [Sub-Core], which led to landing a [Slime Shot] against it while it was distracted. Devouring the prey was successful, but the threat used its ultimate move to destroy my [Sub-Core].

My [Sub-Core] shattering shocked me so hard it seemed to give my reasoning its voice back. The weird autopilot on my body abruptly stopped. I noticed the silvery wolf lowering its guard, thinking himself victorious. I started to "play dead" with the slime mass over there, and then I began lining up two perfect shots of dense slime mass at his back legs to lower his mobility.

Once I hit his legs, I reformed the "dead" slime mass to grapple him with all my tendrils. The wolf dodged the first, but the three others grabbed him, and it was finally over. My mind finally started to clear, that primal voice dimming into obscurity.

'Wait... Since when did I have four tendrils?' I suddenly wondered to myself.

I looked through my mental notifications, which had been ignored till now while starting to bring my slime back to my core - which was currently everywhere!

x4

Emblem Achieved: [Apex Hunter].>

'That... Is a lot to take in. My traits improved, which is good, but now I have three new things to worry about... An evolution, an emblem, and a skill point.'

I wanted to get away from here because, with how this day had gone so far, I was almost expecting another even bigger wolf to show up. I looked at the corpse of the Blade Wolf, and [Dissection] was suddenly frothing in the mouth, screaming at me to claim that deadly tail.

Feasting on this corpse gave an absurd amount of slime mass, and the rarity of the monster combined with the perfect harvesting must have skyrocketed my [Dissection] experience. It was interesting that Blade Wolf updated my existing information, but I was glad I wouldn't need to hunt down more of those. When I had collected everything and deposited it into my storage, I headed home.

As soon as I arrived, I opened my status menu, and a new glowing prompt appeared, fighting for immediate attention.

I mentally selected it, which brought up a new menu that took up my entire vision.

Species Evolutions Available:

Slime (Green)

Slime (Purple)

Mutation Evolutions Available:

Gluttonous Slime (Blue)

Parasitic Slime (Blue)

Aquatic Slime (Blue)

Mimic Slime (Blue)

Predation Slime (Blue)

Special Evolution Available:

Queen Slime (Blue)

This was a lot to take in, but thankfully, I could select the options to get an explanation.

A weak member of the slime species, it is considered more of a pest than a monster.

Its iconic green slime contains a powerful acid that it uses to melt its prey or attackers.

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I felt my perception of the world shatter a bit when I read that. A pest! I quickly moved on before I spiraled into negativity.

A moderately powerful member of the slime species, often found in caves, swamps, or intermediate dungeons.

Its purple slime is a concoction of various poisons and toxins like a living alchemy lab.

To the unprepared this slime is deadly, but any resistance, immunities, or access to detoxification can leave it helpless to defend itself.>

Discovering a brand-new slime color excited me, and I quickly wondered how many others were out there. But couldn't I go and find a purple slime and integrate its core like I did the green one?

A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime has an endless hunger it constantly seeks to end.

This mutation can efficiently turn anything into slime mass and grow to tremendous sizes; plants, animals, even rocks, this slime devours all.

Due to their ability to devour an entire ecosystem into a wasteland and lack of subtlety, they are often quickly exterminated.>

Being endlessly hungry didn't sound appealing, but being able to eat rocks and plants for slime mass sounded impressive. Although, that last sentence paints a giant target on me, which I could definitely do without.

A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime finds itself a host body to consume and replace from the inside.

Lacking in its own capability, it uses its host traits and skills to compensate for its own.

Rare cases exist where this mutation has lived symbiotically with its host, but the majority involve a hostile takeover.>

This one sounded like what I did to the gigatoad, except I'd be piloting its corpse. I liked the idea, and being able to use the traits and skills was tempting. The only thing I didn't like about this one was it sounded like I'd be abandoning my own growth and power, although I'm assuming I could replace my host and upgrade to a newer model. If I ever lost my host body - I'd lose a bulk of my power.

'Couldn't I use this and just take over a human? Certainly tempting...'

A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime gains the ability to command bodies of water that its slime core is submerged within.

This mutation can freely traverse water and gain greater control over water as it grows.

Extremely destructive when angered, but fragile as water lacks the defensive properties of its own slime.

The largest recorded species took over a lake, and many fear what would happen if one found the ocean depths.>

This one would take claiming ownership of the pond to the next level; I could literally make it part of me. It sounded incredible, but water was not slime, and I doubted it would be compatible with all the traits I had accumulated so far. Honestly, it sounded almost like a shortcut to the same goal Gluttonous Slime would achieve, but I think I'd lean towards my tidal wave containing slime instead of water.

A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime usually disguises itself by shapeshifting its slime into another creature or plant and then devours unsuspecting prey.

Initially, its mimicry is only enough to fool simplistic animals or monsters, but if they survive long enough, they can fool even veteran adventurers.

Advanced cases of this species have been known to utilize traits from their borrowed forms, normally unavailable to the slime species.>

Now, this spoke to me on a personal level. Isn't this a massive upgrade to my [Shape Slime]? I already enjoyed making weapons and working on my little miniature tree, and now I could turn into a tree or a wolf. In a way, it was similar to Parasite Slime, although without the skill portion and still using my slime body. Assuming I don't lose my core, I could recreate my mimicked body, so it's got that benefit over Parasite.

'I think this one sounds the best... Could I turn into a human and fool them? I'd need to learn their language, though...'

A mutation of an existing slime species, this slime targets and hunts prey like a veteran assassin.

This mutation gains unique traits to blend into the environment and eliminate its own sounds and smells, in combination to make it nearly undetectable.

Advanced cases of this species are said to be able to detect lifeforce and conceal their lifeforce and mana signature.>

It was like fate decided to immediately prove me wrong in my opinion that Mimic Slime was the best on offer. If I compare my kills made from stealth or with the element of surprise, they were my victory almost instantly. Being an assassin slime and concealed from life itself sounded very appealing.

The apex of a particular slime species, this evolution is the final destination for any slime species as it turns away from self-growth to progeny.

The Queen Slime loses the detriment of decaying slime mass and instead produces new slime mass over time, which fuels its new goal and ability to create entirely new slime cores.

Slime cores birthed by the Queen that become independent slimes become the base slime species and sometimes inherit traits from the Queen.

For this final evolution, the Queen Slime gains a boost to all its attributes and traits.>

'Holy shit!' was my immediate response, followed by some confusion, 'Wait, am I a girl slime? Or would this turn me into a girl slime?'

'Come to think of it, what was I in my previous life?' I suddenly questioned and tried to dig into my memories, but all I could recall was Gramps mentioning nobles and cake.

'Whatever, I'm a slime now, so who cares? I'll live my best slime life now. Besides, this option mentions final a lot. I'd rather grow a lot more before considering something like this, as tempting as such a massive boost all at once would be.'

I looked over the options and pondered my choice. The species evolutions were out despite the purple slime sounding particularly deadly; I'd prefer trying to find one and integrate its core. Perhaps if the species evolution were some ultra-obscure slime type, I'd consider it, but purples were in three locations.

The mutation evolutions boiled down to two choices: Mimic and Predation. Mimic felt like the fun and experimental option, whereas Predation sounded like the kill-everything option.

I really liked sneaking around and ambushing, as it often leads to an easy victory, but if I worked on perfecting my disguises, I could achieve similar results from Mimic - like when I deceived that frog who thought I was only a tasty blue slime before I turned on the acid.

Also, if I mimicked something with a mouth - maybe I could learn to talk. I didn't want to live my entire life in silence, and finding even one person or monster to talk to would be nice. Maybe I could get Predation for my next evolution, assuming I could get another since there was no mention of final or an even more appealing option didn't appear.

Warning: Evolution will cause the body to torpor until complete.>

Grateful for the warning, I moved into my tree hole before confirming.

I felt an intense power surge through my core, and my mind slipped into unconsciousness.

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