It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 40 - Language Learning

Yes! Oh, wait, no! This is useless! I can't use this in conjunction with anything. Why is everything that I get so useless? Everything requires a huge amount of work before it is useful in any way. I can tell that this is going to be incredible with time but it is completely useless right now. Okay, calm down Resh. It is going to be fine. Just keep working at it, like everything you do and it will work out.

"Argh!!! Why? Why is this so hard!" Resh spoke actual words for the first time with its mouth. Instead of using its first words to say something profound or intellectual it complained. Then paused, "Wait, I can talk out loud? I had no idea that was even possible." Then Resh saw something new that had popped up.

You have learned a new Language: English! Your current English language mastery is at 25%. Speak the language more to gain further mastery! Failure to speak the language for a day will result in a reduction in mastery. Once you get to 100% it will remain mastered.

"All right! So I know a language now!" Resh was inspired, the words seemed to bloom in its head. Words flowed from Resh's mouth without any control or inhibitions. "Dedicated, powerful, interesting, yes! Brave, shout, read, run! Speak, speak, speak...speak?" Resh said a meaningless string of words just for the sake of experimentation. Then it said "speak" one too many times and it lost its meaning, for Resh that was four times. Such was the intrigue of learning a new language for the Earth Slime.

Resh's jaw was now tired. This was the most work that it had put the muscle through other than eating or biting and those were different muscle groups. Or it could just be that Oral Devastation was not suited to talking in English.

Language Mastery: English Increased by 1%

"Oh, language learning is really easy! Got 1% just like that, I'll just keep going then!" Resh decided. And so it kept nattering on to itself, only realising about an hour later that it was probably not going to gain any more mastery. It would need to speak a little tomorrow to see if languages operated in the way it had thought. Never mind. Ignoring that for now Resh – feeling it had rested its mind enough – moved on to its next pursuit.

Resh had started with working on improving the speed at which its hearing improved and that was important. But it was not immediately as large a concern as Consume was. Dense Slime was Resh's next goal and without improving Consume it would not be able to make it there in any reasonable time frame. It was time to pull out all the stops and get to work on this lackadaisical skill.

Resh began with thinking of the process of the skill. It had been formed of two of Resh's skills, to begin with. Absorb and Digest. Both were a part of the skill now, but the process ran between the two more seamlessly. Resh used a particle of soil as an example, concentrating on how it moved from the outside, through its skin and then moved slowly through its body towards its core or the centre of its being. In the slow progress and movement, it was gradually dissolved. There was a limit to how much soil Resh could bring in through its skin. There was also a limit to how quickly that matter was dissolved and therefore incorporated into the Earth Slime's matter.

Resh concentrated harder forcing its mind to dig deeper into the process. When it extended its awareness deep into the furthest reaches of its tendrils it looked closer again at how the soil was moving into its body. Resh knew that it was not just soil but also organisms in the soil as well. It wanted to see if there was a difference between the process for inanimate objects and animate ones. The inanimate soil came through the skin and was dissolved with no mess. The small creatures however did not get absorbed in such a docile manner. There was the initial struggle before they entered the skin and that was where the most damage was done. Because these creatures were so small there was not much they could do to Resh, it was a force of nature to these creatures. A point of damage or in most cases much less than that was incurred as a penalty.

Once the creatures made it into the viscous fluid that made up Resh's body they were dissolved relatively quickly. Their bodies provided little in the way of resistance past that threshold and even less in damage. Another thing that Resh observed was the way that everything seemed to get crushed into smaller volumes by its body.

Resh felt there was still more to be learned of the process, minute ways in which the process could be streamlined further, improved upon. Taking an even closer look at the skin, Resh saw that not all parts of the skin were working on absorbing soil. Resh estimated that around half of its skin was being used to absorb soil at any one time. Now that Resh knew what to look for it saw that the same was the case for its whole body. So in that way, Resh would be able to double its ability to absorb soil. However, that would be useless if it was not able to similarly break down and crush what was absorbed at the same increased speed.

Upon closer observation of the digestion process, Resh could tell that there was a secretion that was being ejected by its body everywhere internally to convert the materials absorbed to what could then be simply added to Resh's body. The chemical process seemed simple enough with different secretions breaking down different types of materials. Unique secretions for Earth, Water and Air with everything being absorbed here made of a combination of the three. Moisture in the soil keeping it cool and damp, the air in the gaps between soil particles and within the creatures being absorbed, made for a rich tapestry of life. Resh explored how those secretion glands worked and saw that if it injected more mana into them they could be made to produce more of the chemicals needed, effectively pushing them into overdrive production. Resh required a lot of fine-tuning of mana control and found that it could gradually up the mana flowing to it to push the glands further and harder into that express production state.

Resh tried to let the mana control be done automatically but after about 20 seconds of that process being continued Resh felt intense pain all through its body. All the secretion glands were throbbing. Resh was gritting its teeth against the onslaught. Then, before Resh could stop it, there was a long cascade of pops each accompanied by a needle-like spike of pain, with so many of them happening at once all over its body Resh was left limp and panting. A keening wail emitted from its mouth. Resh was in too much pain to even be able to scream. Curling in on itself Resh shuddered and waiting for the pain to subside, hoping that it would be soon.

Your Secretion Sacs have burst throughout your body. Your ability to digest will gradually be restored over the next 9 hrs. You have received 537 HP damage!

"Argh! Damnit! Why? Why? Why!!!!" Resh screamed into the soil around it. This Earth Slime had found its voice. The Earth Slime just rocked back and forth trying to will the pain away.

Pain Resistance has increased to Level 4!

Pain Resistance has increased to Level 5!

Pain Resistance has increased to Level 6!

Only then did Resh realise that this was the perfect chance to improve on its Pain Resistance capability. Time to shine! Resh tried to be flippant with the remark but the crippling pain that it was in was still too much for it. Should I be concerned that I just gained three levels in Pain Resistance?

Breathing in Resh examined what was happening for the pain it was experiencing to be so prevalent in its body. At first, it could not pinpoint the exact place that the pain was originating from as it seemed to be coming from everywhere. Further examination showed that the pain was emanating from the glands that produced the digesting fluid. So with a little concentration, Resh was able to feel how the pain was being transmitted from the brain to those locations to show that pain was being felt in those places. It was the neural network that was transmitting the signals for pain. If Resh could dampen that effect it could effectively neutralise the pain as well! Resh felt that this incredible revelation deserved some type of reward and so waited for the universe to reward it with something....nothing happened. Oh well...I'll try something else then.