It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 42 - Pursuit of Healing

Resh settled itself on the surface, part of its body still in the earth to test how much of its body could be exposed to the surface without triggering the countdown timer. Turned out it was not much. Thought some of Resh skin could be exposed without triggering the countdown. Luckily for Resh because of its increased density and the higher level of Land Dwelling Resh was able to stay above ground for just over forty minutes before it needed to go underground again. Rather than messing around with staying underground, Resh decided if it was going to test this theory this was the only practical way. All or nothing time!

Spreading itself out over the surface Resh found a quiet spot that was exposed to the sun fully. Resh first entered a Zen Meditative state, this was the first thing it wanted to analyse but no point in losing out on potential healing for the next forty minutes so it activated Natural Plant Healing at the same time. Then Resh sank its mind into the individual components of the process. First examining what happened with its body components as it began to relax. Resh was made up of goo effectively. However there were residual components of its arsenal of weapons as well, Slime Club stayed partially formed inside its body then slid out when it can time to work, same with Dual Wormtail's Stab. Not just the weapons but all of its appendages remained half-formed. It allowed them to form within a moment's notice when required. It also had the unfortunate side effect of stopping Resh from becoming completely relaxed, much like the skeletal structure of some creatures stopped them from becoming a puddle of muscles and blood and guts on the ground. In their case that was a good thing, in Resh's...not so much. Resh was a Slime and to live his best Slime-life it needed to be able to relax itself completely. It would allow the Earth Slime the capability to improve its Healing by at least a quarter beyond what it was capable of now, maybe more in the future. The problem was that in a pinch it would take a few precious seconds to manifest any weapons or appendages it needed to either fight or flee.

Settling on the next step Resh worked to dissolve those appendages and weapons fully only a memory on them remained to be called upon. Immediately the flow of energy through its body with Zen Meditation improved. Channels that were previously blocked with stiff body parts cleared and slime, blood and signals flowed more freely. Resh could sense that with some further practice this is something it could get better at but for now, this was enough.

You have gained the Talent Body Cleansing, focusing your attention on semi-formed appendages in your body to more completely dissolve them into your essence. It will make your energy channels clearer and give you greater healing powers with Zen Meditation. Each minute of focus will improve your flow by 1% up to a maximum of 25%. When you cancel Body Cleansing your appendages will reform at a rate of 1sec for each minute in Body Cleansing. You will be unable to use your appendages and weapons that require reforming until this time has elapsed. Each minute in Body Cleansing increases the experience Zen Meditation will gain by 4% up to 100% bonus. Evolve this Talent to get greater bonuses. No Active Skills can be employed while using this talent, all your attention must be focused on your dissolving appendages and weapons.

Yes!! Faster healing! Stronger healing! Resh was wiggling around celebrating and no paying any attention to the fact that the timer had almost run out. That strict concentration had taken the best part of an hour and the celebration was cut short as Resh's body began deteriorating and it lost a bit of its Volume, wised up and dug itself into the ground, once there Resh calmed and took stock of its new capabilities, after all, Zen Meditation worked both in and out of the soil. This was good but Resh knew it could do better with more time. The next target was Natural Plant Healing.

Once the countdown stopped and Resh had fully regained its composure the Earth Slime was ready for round two, this time the opponent was the other healing skill it had.

Once back on the surface the timer started counting down so Resh knew it needed to get on with the process. Its body was once again spread over the ground and exposed to the intense sunlight. Time continued inexorably onward. Resh examined its skin first, watching how the light touched its skin and Resh sensed how the energy from the light was transferred across the membrane to the cells inside. Specific cells took the energy and converted it into a form that was then fed into Resh's musculature, organs and other body parts. It was suffused through Resh's body evenly. However, if Resh focused on that movement of energy it could focus that healing to areas that it needed it the most. It was much more efficient. While suffusing it throughout the body was healing and made Resh feel better overall. If Resh saw a gash or dent or damage and directed the energy there it made everything more functional faster. So in this instance with its digestion glands out of commission Resh focused on getting those up and working. The energy responded to the Earth Slime's direction, moving and swirling on the many hundreds of glands damaged. Resh's HP regeneration did not go any faster but the countdown timer for Consume that said when the skill would be available for use again adjusted based on the amount of focus Resh kept on it. Starting at eight hours and then changing to seven, six then five before settling on four hours and continuing to countdown. Resh had forty minutes on the surface to make this work for it. Then it would need to dip down and start the process again.

But as always Resh kept trying to push the barrier and make things go quicker. It was not very patient, that was one of the traits that had landed it in dangerous and problematic situations many times before. This time Resh examined how the energy was being absorbed and interacting with the damaged parts of its body. Once again Resh quickly recognising that this process was also inefficient. Hmm...If I push the energy directly into the cells instead of just letting it flow, would that work better? Maybe I should start slow, don't need a repeat of the last time. Resh couldn't use Consume right now for a reason...

Gradually increasing the concentrated flow of energy into the cells of one particular gland Resh was ensuring an overload did not occur again. It took a full ten minutes for Resh to increase the flow of energy until it was edging on pain. Then easing off a bit until it was comfortable Resh eventually levelled off at twice the speed of the norm. This time Resh could see its healing numbers going up faster. Twice as fast, but Resh was unable to maintain both the increased absorption of energy into its body through its skin and the increased healing. So it had to switch between the two. In time Resh knew that it would be able to maintain both but it did not have enough Command to be able to maintain both right now. Resh was rewarded for its efforts with not one, but two Talents with which to improve its skills.

You have gained the Talent Touch of Light, focusing your attention on your skin and control the flow of energy in the form of light into your body. It will increase the amount of light and therefore energy that you can absorb at a time. Each minute of focus will improve your flow by 1% up to a maximum of 25%. Each minute in Touch of Light increases the experience Natural Plant Healing will gain by 4% up to 100% bonus. Evolve this Talent to get greater bonuses. No Active Skills can be employed while using this talent, all your attention must be focused on absorbing light through your skin, light intensity and amount of exposed skin will affect each incident's results to some minor degree.

You have gained the Talent Targeted Healing, focusing your attention on your damaged cells and increase the speed of healing there. It will increase the amount of energy that your damaged cells can use to heal. Each minute of focus will improve your flow by 1% up to a maximum of 100%. Each minute in Targeted Healing increases the experience Natural Plant Healing will gain by 1% up to 100% bonus. Evolve this Talent to get greater bonuses. No Active Skills can be employed while using this talent, all your attention must be focused on the cells of your body that are damaged.

Sufficient Command will allow you to use more than one talent at a time or merge talents in time.