It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 23 - Healing Express

You have just received +2.6 Luck!

Resh took twelve full hours to recover and wake up from its evolution this time. Again haunted by those same images and sounds other sensations that it had experienced during its evolution to Water Slime. The slow progress to enter the water, the dreams, or more accurately the nightmares and everything else that had happened, all the changes had taken their toll. Now it was in a comfortable environment and well-rested, ready to hunt. It had managed to recover a little of its MP but none of its boosters worked while it was asleep.

A Mouth to Devour has increased to Level 9!

Camouflage has increased to Level 14!

So with a quarter of its MP recovered Resh moved out and started swimming with its new fins along the bottom of the river bed. There were so many new things to see and hear from this new perspective; it had not had a chance to see all of these amazing things, there were plants and grasses and animals and fish and so many other things that Resh had never seen before. Even though it had been in the water it had always been in the shallowest parts, Resh had not been able to control its movements in the water before. What now it was able to do instinctively it had not even been able to imagine before. Maybe being a Water Slime wouldn't be so bad after all!

Resh didn't even see the Fanged Carp coming from behind, lucky Resh was right on the floor but as the massive fish grazed up against Resh it could not help but give off a shiver. It would have to keep a much closer eye on the waters, not just get lost in the wonder of the moment. There were still dangerous things here. Resh, suitably cautioned started to move out further towards the relatively deeper waters of the middle of the river.

This is where Resh encountered some interesting looking plant life that looked a lot like the grass above. It was different enough to intrigue the Water Slime though and it looked at it with interest. Upon getting closer Resh actively tried to Identify it. Actively using the skill for the first time, up till now Resh had only used it by accident but it had resolved to make use of the ability to understand the world around it better.

Identify has increased to Level 3!

After having the ability for such a long time it was only Level 3, a testament to how little Resh had used it. Even though the Level was low it got something.

River Weed Grass

It wasn't that interesting to Resh but the Water Slime was hungry and it needed to eat after its long sleep, grass was easier than trying to hunt down a small fish that could move around and away from it if it wanted. Just because Resh could now move around didn't mean it could keep up with the fishes. It was still pretty slow and becoming a Water Slime hadn't helped much in that regard.

Starting to Consume the River Weed Grass and not being in a rush, since its Photosynthesis and Meditate were both working full power, it was happy to allow its MP to recover, it planned to use Water Gun as possible today again. It was excited to see what it would be able to accomplish.

It had stopped looking at its map skill halfway and started to look at evolution. Now while Consuming Resh returned to looking at its mental map. It would see where it was now relative to what it had entered the river area. It seemed it had gone back on itself a little along the river. If it headed straight into the forest from where it was now it would make it back to the forest area where it had spent much of the last few weeks. So it had done a large circle. Resh was happy to continue to remain in the water and stay in the same area. There was plenty for it to see and do for the moment. Eventually, it would come out of the water and explore the surrounding areas again, visit some familiar areas in the forest perhaps but it was content for now.

After about an hour of snacking on the grass, Resh got an alert.

Youhave Assimilated 1g River Weed Grass. You have gained the Environmental Skill Crassulacean AcidMetabolism Level 1! This skill allows you to gain weight withmoonlight! CompatibilityDetected! Your Skill Photosynthesisand Skill Crassulacean Acid Metabolismare symbiotic and have merged to form NaturalPlant Healing! +500 Exp Bonus you will receive +50% Bonus Exp when using Natural Plant Healing! This skillallows you to heal HP, MP or SP both during the day and at night. As with mostother skills, you still need to be awake to be able to use it.

This was better but it would still need to be awake. That restriction still applied. Resh had eaten enough in the last hour so it was ready to move. First Resh wanted to try its wings again they hadn't worked when it was a Copycat Slime but now it was a Water Slime so maybe it would, it didn't but Resh belated realised that it could be due to its weight now being over 300g with the grass it just ate. Same with its Legs of the Squitter; looks like it needed to use its fins for now. Resh decided this was fine and it could just get on with the exploring.

Eyes, mouth and ears ahead Resh continued moving. The first thing it encountered was a River Crab. Resh silently moved up next to it while Camouflaged as the River Bed. It wasn't small exactly, only a little smaller than Resh but then, Resh was quite small itself.

The River Crab had two huge claws at the front the side opposite where Resh was approaching from and what looked like many legs that it was crawling along on. This was very different from what Resh had seen before. If the crab could walk on its Legs why couldn't Resh? It had to know. I spent the next few seconds just slowly following the River Crab and checking if there was anything different about the Legs the creature used. While they did function in the same way Resh could see that these Legs that the River Crab was using had claws at the end, similar to the Claws that were at the end of the paws on its legs but these were somehow angled down instead of out so that it could pierce its legs into the rocky soil in the bottom of the floor bed, also it had a hard covering over its legs, like the bark of the trees it had been climbing and resting in but somehow harder and shinier as well. It looked much denser than its own body, and there was not soft flesh as its legs had.

Maybe it needed legs like those to use them in the water. Otherwise, it made sense that it could be dragged along by the current like it had when it tried to use them when it first entered the river. There was a lot that Resh didn't understand, but it thought that this was something that made sense to it. The best way to get Legs like those was to Assimilate them of course. The chance of Assimilate had gone back to being very low so Resh would need to hunt down a lot of creatures with Legs to have a chance. Resh continued to sneak up on the creature and just when it was going for some grass to eat, Resh pounced. Quickly hitting it with Water Gun which only did half the damage it normally did and then followed in close succession with Slime Club and Crushing Jaws. Resh had tried to hit it with Tail Stab and Tail Swing but for the same reason as its Legs, Resh could not manifest Tail of the Burrower Worm they were not possible to use in the water. It seemed that whenever Resh changed environments all the tools that it thought it would be able to use were suddenly useless. It would need to find something with a tail to Assimilate as well. It seemed that once again the universe was punishing it for not having the Intellect to think things through, just an hour or so ago it had thought this would be pleasant living in the water. This was turning out to be like the nightmare it kept having, nothing by frustration and pain.

Author's Note: Thank you all so much for reading the story so far, if you are interested in supporting my writing and would like to read ahead of the story chapters here, my Patreon is up to Chapter 43 + 8 Interludes, or you can wait for the chapters to release here, they will continue to be released bi-weekly. This is the link to Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kevalshahaudio