It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 16 - From Big to Small

Resh woke the next morning, determined that today would be the day that it finally ruined the Grounded Squirret it would Consume it and hopefully gain that wonderful part that helped it differentiate between Odours! With its newly acquired Soil Odour, it went in search of a Squirret. It didn't take long this time. Within a few minutes, it found one.

Same one? Resh thought. Can't be!

Yup, it was the same one, the same black nose with a streak of white fur through the red from the left ear across its face and down through its mouth. Another white streak ran from its right shoulder to the tip of its tail. It was time for revenge. Wait, was the Squirret smirking? Making fun of Resh. No, that had to be in its mind. It would have this Squirret! Resh knew that all this was unproductive thinking but since its intelligence had increased from 21 up to 28 it was able to think more and more deeply about situations instead of just acting on instinct. But for some reason that had not been a pure advantage that it thought it would be. It go distracted in other ways. Or it started thinking and then another thought came in and messed it up. Sometimes it was still better for it to allow its instincts to take over.

Resh was looking and smelling like Loamy Soil. It had its eyes on the opposite side of its body. It could have got rid of them entirely but it was not willing to do that anymore. It enjoyed being able to see too much and was too used to it now. Only going with Perception made it shudder involuntarily, which, incidentally, had also been the cause of one of the Squirret escapes yesterday.

Resh brought itself back to the moment at hand after its mind drifted off. The cause of another of the Squirret's escapes.

It was now 10cm away from the Squirret again. That was the record so far. Then it inched a Slime Club over the Squirret. It had not suspected anything yet and Resh had come at it from behind hoping to ambush it. It was looking like it was going to be successful! The Squirret spun around to see a mound of Loamy Soil behind it that had not been there before and a rod of Loamy Soil hovering over it. Resh had not taken into account the shadow that would be created this early in the morning. It was at this point that Resh decided to go for broke and slam the Slime Club down hard on the Grounded Squirret. The Squirret moved just enough that instead of hitting it squarely on the top of its head, Slime Club hit it on the back and scored a line down its spine, it also damaged its nerves and cause the Grounded Squirret to become temporarily Dazed. It was not Paralysed so it was not incapacitated for long but the 15 seconds that Resh had been given were long enough for Resh to manifest its Mandibles and use Insect Jab while also continuing to hit the Squirret with the Slime Club.

Resh was still not "fast" but quick enough to get in over a dozen hits with each of its weapons. When the Squirret finally came to from the Paralysis it was at less than half HP. The Squirret was also not in any shape to be able to run away, by coincidence and not design Resh had hit its legs and torso since they were closer than its head had been so with damaged legs it was unable to run effectively. It was, however, very much able to kick Resh, and it kept kicking. It devolved into a battle of attrition with very little finesse on either side, the Squirret trying to survive and Resh trying to kill it before it succumbed to its injuries.

The Copycat Slime had started at an advantage so it was only right that it won. Paying a heavy price, Resh lost half its Health but was successful in the end. It congratulated itself before collapsing right next to its victim.

Slime Club has increased to Level 3!

Insect Jab has increased to Level 7!

Slime Club has increased to Level 4!

Resh recovered enough thirty minutes later to see what it had received from almost 2 days of work.

You have Consumed the Grounded Squirret!

You have gained 75 Exp from Grounded Squirret!

YOU HAVE REACHED Copycat Slime Level 2! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Intellect, +1 Reaction, +1 Vitality

You have Assimilated 1 Grounded Squirret and can now choose what to Assimilate from the Grounded Squirret. Would you like to Assimilate the Paws, Eyes, Nose, Mouth, or Tail? If you do not choose then an option will be selected at random!

Assimilate has increased to Level 5!

You have not made a choice, Mouth has been selected. You have gained the Sense Skill Tongue of the Grounded Squirret! You can speak, however, you have to learn a language to speak it. Known languages: None. You can Consume faster if you use Tongue of the Grounded Squirret!

You have gained the Melee Weapon Skill Teeth of the Grounded Squirret!

Your skills Insect Jab and Teeth of the Grounded Squirret have synergy. They have merged into Crushing Jaws! +300 Exp bonus! Base stamina cost per attack has been reduced from 1 SP to 0.9SP!

Crushing Jaws has increased to Level 8!

You have just received -0.9 Luck! Better Luck next time!

Once again Resh's Luck had gone down....that was now 3 times in a row going now and only once going up. This was becoming tiresome, but at the same time, was there really anything Resh could do about it?

For constantly getting into Brawls and coming out on top! +2 Strength!

For getting into battles of attrition and just hammering away at the enemy! +1 Endurance!

At least it was being rewarded for its actions, even if it was annoying actions. Resh wanted one decisive win, just one, all this hammering away until one of them was dead was getting exhausting and bothersome, not to mention painful.

Resh had got something incredible! It had a mouth and teeth! It didn't know what it could do with those things yet. What it could do would come with time, and that time was now. Time to test out what this mouth could do! The Squirret was gone so it could not bite down on that to see, but it started with a close-by tree and took a huge bite out of the truck. With its mouth able to be whatever size it wanted, Resh made it close to the size of its body. So when it took a bite it was large, however as with everything Resh didn't think it through, there was still a limit to how much mass it could add to itself at a time and that was still the case whether it could bite a whole kilo of matter at a time. Not only that but in its enthusiasm, Resh also forgot that there was still a weight limit to use its legs, and the moment it took the bite Resh's legs gave way and it dropped on its belly to the ground. In that bite, it Consumed 14.14g of matter which pushed it over the 2kg limit.

Tongue of the Grounded Squirret has increased to Level 2!

Great! Resh thought. Need to Consolidate...

Unless...it could just continue to accrue Weight, it didn't need to use its legs or wings at the moment, yes they were faster but Resh didn't need to move particularly fast right now. Just test out the new addition.

"Arrgghhh!" Resh said, testing out its new mouth, it reduced the size to make it more manageable but all in all, it loved the fact that it could make noise now. It would terrify its enemies and have some serious fun with this.

You have gained Air Magic Skill Sonic Boom! Damage increases with level. Range increases with Level. This is an Air Magic Spell and requires Mana.

For learning your first Spell you have unlocked the Mental Attribute Focus! Focus +5, Focus will increase the damage your Magical Spells will inflict.

For learning your first Spell you have unlocked the Mental Attribute Fortitude! Fortitude +7, Fortitude will decrease the damage you take from Magical Spells.

Resh finally had a Spell it could use to attack from a distance! No need to walk right up to an enemy or drop down on them! It could fire off this before it approached the enemy. This was going to be a game-changer for the Copycat Slime brilliant. Now with its Spell in hand, it started practising. Shooting off the skill, waiting for the sixty seconds cool down to expire, and then firing it off again. It was having so much fun with it that it did not even realise when its Mana completely ran out and it had to rest.