Syl

Chapter 15: Croaked

I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the day when I'd finally get my revenge on that menacing frog. I stored away my morning water and replenished the diminished slime mass from my surplus savings. I exited my home and perched on a branch, relaxing while I settled my thoughts. I had a plan to deal with the frog, although it was slightly risky, and I wish I had more options available, but I lacked the physical strength to deal with something so massive.

'I really want a strength trait...'

That wasn't the message I wanted to hear, even though it made sense since I lacked muscle, bone, or anything solid. I assumed humans couldn't buy traits like [Pseudopods], so I swallowed the bitter truth pill and started moving to the pond.

When I arrived at the pond, there was no sign of the giant frog, so I proceeded with some fishing to pass the time. Despite gaining [Acid Slime], I could still touch and drop tendrils into the water without detriment. While snacking on a few fish, I saw the familiar shadow from the pond depths approaching, and I hastily retreated from the shoreline.

The repulsive frog emerged and belched a croak, looking around to see what was disturbing the water, and when its eyes fell upon me, I could swear it chuckled with glee. My slime was compressed and spread out for maximum traction, and I mentally turned off all dissolving - I was ready.

The toad wasted no time, and its massive tongue was launched towards me, latching itself to my slime once more. The frog pulled and tugged at its tongue, trying to rip off some of my tasty blue goop, but I held firm this time. It must have recalled our previous tug of war and changed strategy to start moving towards me, hoping to scare me like our past encounter, so I'll release my slime to escape. I held my ground, not budging as I wanted the frog away from the pond in case it tried to escape.

'This frog thinks it's got me, but it can't see the noose tightening around its throat.' I chuckled to myself, trying to cover the small doubt growing inside me as its hulking form got closer and closer. 'This thing is just way too big.'

Eventually, the frog was right next to me, with what I could only describe as a big goofy grin as its tongue tightly held onto me. I knew from the green slime that its hide was too resistant for the acid to melt, but that didn't apply to its internals judging by how fast it retreated its tongue and even quickly vomited up the tiny amount of green slime.

So when the frog widened its mouth in an attempt to start taking bites out of me, I released my grip on the ground and dove straight into its maw. The tension from the tight grip on its tongue helped propel me towards my target. The entire time, I was madly trying to compress the slime around my core beyond its maximum in case something went wrong.

The frog seemed shocked at the slime flying towards its mouth, but even if it had the reaction time to close it, I doubted it would, probably thinking it was getting an express meal delivery. Once inside the greedy monster's gut, I could tell its own digestive juices were trying to eat away at my slime, and I thanked the resistance portion of my trait.

Now, to spring my trap. I did two things simultaneously that I was sure would claim me victory; I started to rapidly expel all my stored slime mass, which kept its density, and also turned on my [Acid Slime].

'I got you now, you bastard. You tried to eat me, and now I'll eat you from the inside out!'

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The frog's gut suddenly swelled in size, and the slime started pushing out of its throat and even leaking out of its mouth - I had been storing a ton of slime! Its eyes bulged in horror, not knowing what to do, and when the acid kicked in, it wanted to wail in pain. It frantically hopped around and tried to start heading towards the pond, maybe hoping to flush the slime out of its stomach with pond water, but it was far too late.

If that tree had a negative exchange rate for slime mass, then frog meat was far into the positive, as new slime accumulated rapidly. I felt the frog struggling and trying desperately to move around - I wanted to laugh at how well this was going. I wondered if this counted as a [Sneak Attack].

The metaphorical floodgates opened on that notification, and suddenly, slime was melting through the last resistances of the frog with ease. I quickly set an order on my core to not melt through the skin, just in case; I didn't want to upset my [Dissection] skill, which screamed at how valuable that skin was. All struggling soon stopped after that, and I felt a surge of power throughout my core when the notification appeared.

'Wow, two whole levels! Even though its level was lower than mine, I really don't understand that. And now I have two trait points to spend... Hey Gramps, I'll trade you two trait points for [Enhanced Strength]?'

'That's not fair, Gramps. Am I going to be a wimp my entire life? I get the feeling that even if I raised [Slime Density] to the max - it would not be enough for me to actually lift things properly.'

'There has to be some way for me to gain strength... I know I don't have muscles... If I raised my [Slime Density] and [Shape Slime] high enough, I could maybe make some fake muscles. But that seems needlessly complicated...'

. . .

'Where's the trait guidance [Experiment] promised me? There has to be something else, right?'

I stared at the message with both surprise and some concern. I know I was jokingly calling the system Gramps, but was he actually hearing my internal monolog? The thought did worry me, but I was losing this feature when I evolved - whatever and whenever that was.

This trait allows control over the raw mana flowing throughout your being.

Mana Regeneration is increased scaling with trait level.

Unlocks Mana and further Mana-related Traits and Skills.>

Harness the raw mana flowing throughout your being to enhance yourself.

Reinforcing body parts with mana raises your physical durability and strength at the cost of mana.

Maximum reinforcement and mana efficiency scale with trait level.

Having control over the flow of your raw mana is a prerequisite to acquiring this trait.

Unlocks further Traits and Skills related to Mana Reinforcement.>

I felt a headache pulse through my core at the information overload rapidly flooding my mind. I wondered if Gramps was upset at me for pestering him repeatedly about [Enhanced Strength]. When the pain subsided, I took a moment to sift through the information and puzzle together the solution Gramps gave me.

'Okay, so [Mana Reinforcement] was the real goal to get something like [Enhanced Strength], but I have to spend mana to do so. I can't enhance myself without being able to control my mana, which needs [Mana Circulation]. Both hint at unlocking more things down the line as well, so I don't see why not. Please purchase both, and thanks for the help, Gramps.'