It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 39 - Digging Deeper

After receiving that cascade of repetitive information Identify levelled up and went past the level 10 threshold. None of this information was useful to Resh, it could have easily seen all this in its status screen if it just looked. No, the purpose of this had been to see if Identify could increase in level...which it had. Perfect! Continuing to use Identify on everything I see seems to be the way to go. Let's have a look now and see if Consolidate will reveal its mysteries to me!

Slime Species Skill Strong Consolidate Lv. 17 Exp. 9058 / 9146

Consolidating will result in a net gain of stats, a medium chance of some minor stat loss.

Okay, this is the one! It doesn't tell me how much gain and loss but this much information will at least stop me from Consolidating too early. I can check each time and then Consolidate when I am sure I will not lose any stats. It seems like there is some Luck in effect as well though. Maybe that was why I lost stats?

If Luck played a role in this skill then Resh was going to win because it already had 11.2 Luck and it would improve with time.

Now it was time to get back to the grind. Consume wouldn't happen by itself! Resh was also going to try and go for more enemies that were weak so that it could slurp them up without any difficulty as it had faced with the Groles. Resh decided if it was going to find those minute creatures it was time to stop tiptoeing around in the shallows and head deep, deep underground. That was where the many creatures resided and all the creatures that lived in the shallows had to breathe air so they could not go any deeper.

With the next course of action determined Resh plunged in without hesitation, digging and Consuming as it went. Resh, having no depth perception to speak of just went to town. Before it had realised it was over 20m deep and working to go further. It was completely pitch black and Resh could see nothing with its eyes. Ears, nose and touch working for it to feel its way forward. Determined to take in the sounds and feel of the depths Resh stopped and calmed its movements, perfectly still it activated Zen Meditation and prepared for the long haul.

Resh was now sitting at full health, mana and stamina, deep in the cool soil of the ground. Resh was the most comfortable it could have been as an Earth Slime. Something else was getting in the way of its happiness. I am so bored! Can't just sit here and do nothing. This is not as fun as I remember it being in the water. There I could see fish swimming by and occasionally I could swallow a creature that actually fought back. This is boring! Boredom was not a problem that Resh had needed to face before. Ever since Intellect had risen above sixty Resh had been finding that it needed to keep doing different things to stop from experiencing this sensation. Also, it had started realising that it needed sleep at regular intervals but that was more linked to when it had developed a brain and neural pathways and blood system. Resh still didn't fully understand what that was all about but several things had come together at the same time. I can still feel that my thoughts are all over the place, but the needs that my body has have been increasing as time goes on. As I get stronger it seems that other things have to come together for me to continue to function and I am always being limited in my capabilities.

Resh decided that alleviating its boredom was the first order of business. It was the only order of business as apart from Consolidating and Evolving it had no other goals. Resh continued to explore the surrounding with its tendrils. Neural signals from the tips of each bought sensations and information to its brain. There were so many diverse creatures here. Like the ants and termites and flies, all was Consumed in the process. None were big apart from a Burrower Worm or two but Resh managed to gain some experience anyway. Resh also managed to alleviate a little of the boredom by trying to push harder on some of its skills, trying to get more and more from the skills so that it could grow faster in a shorter amount of time. That was how Resh reached an epiphany.

It had started with boredom. Recently everything idiotic that Resh had done seemed to start that way. Resh had become tired of the slow progress it was making in Consume, Consolidate and pretty much every other skill it had. It felt like everything was just happening at its own pace. Resh felt like nothing was within its control. This was a problem. If Resh wanted to improve its eyesight faster there was no way for it to make that happen. It had to just manifest eyes and let them just level on their own. It was the same with more of its acquired skill. Resh wanted to take control of what skills it could use and how they got stronger. So while Resh would normally just sit idly and let things happen, this time it decided it was going to take a more active role in its activity and progress.

Resh decided to start with its eyes they were the most important and most useful of the senses it had acquired. Even though it was pitch black and it could not see anything with its eyes it tried to concentrate and focus closely on the soil that was right in front of it. It put all its attention into the eyes and tried to see....after about ten minutes of doing this Resh again grew bored and realised that nothing was happening. Choosing to focus on an organ that was extraordinarily useless underground had been a bad choice in hindsight but Resh was not ready to give up on this line of thought, just changing to a different organ.

Ears are better! I meant to choose that all along! Considering Resh's life it was a new low for it to start lying to itself. Even having the presence of mind to do that was surprising. Moving forward though Resh focused all of its paltry attention on understanding its ears and making them work more efficiently and accurately. With very little sound to listen to and hear, it was easy to try to pick out any sounds that Resh could make out. It was a dull roar that was very faint and seemed to be coming from far off. Resh focused on it, trying to make that sound clearer and more distinct. A few seconds passed and the sound came in and out of focus gradually becoming clearer. It was not getting louder but the clarity of sound became more pronounced. Time seemed to slow in Resh's mind as it was absorbed in the flow of the task. Making minute adjustments to the small bones and organelles in its ears, Resh was tuning its ears for better hearing and quality of sound. Resh would make a small adjustment of a few millimetres and then listen to see if it made the sound better or worse, then it would repeat the process.

After countless repetitions and adjustments, it was clear that Resh could do no better, then it relaxed. As it came out of its trance Resh had no idea how much time had passed but it realised that much had happened. The other thing that it realised was that as soon as it stopped focusing on its ears they immediately started reverting to the useless lumps of flesh they were! In its panic, Resh quickly refocused on its ears once more, this time the process seemed a little faster than the first time. But what had taking Resh ages to perfect had reverted in a matter of seconds! Then reconstructing those perfect ears again took it time as well. It was not a permanent solution, it would be temporary. Resh decided to give it a rest as it was starting to get a throbbing headache from the intense concentration it had to dedicate to this. Resh had lost its hold on Consume while it had been muddling around with its ears and hearing. Once Resh let go of its need to concentrate on its ears it was able to see what progress it had made. Resh was also able to start Consuming again as well.

You have gained the Talent Dedicated Hearing, each minute you focus on your hearingyou will gain an additional +1% Exp up to a maximum of 100%. Evolve this Talentto get greater bonuses. No other Active Skills can be employed while using thistalent, all your attention must be focused on your Ears or Hearing Skill.