Syl

Chapter 6: Jellyfish Slime

Waking up to light and the sounds of the forest was a refreshing experience; I half expected to wake up floating in the void, and I'm glad I safely survived the night. My core felt pristine, and I really wish I could see what it looked like after obtaining [Core Refinement]. However, my slime mass felt... odd. I exited the safety of my tree and sat perched on the branch to examine my slime mass, forming my two pseudopods and giving them a look over as well.

By the way, I figured out a pretty good way to sit securely on my branch; I enveloped myself over the branch and then raised the density around the branch to form a grip. I was initially worried I'd eventually eat into the branch, but ever since I got [Core Refinement], I can selectively turn off my dissolving.

Crystal-clear gaps were floating in my blue slime, and as I stared at them, I was nearly overwhelmed with an instinctual desire to purge it as soon as possible.

'I'm not sure what this is, but it's ruining my perfect blue complexion. It's not mixing with my slime mass, so let's try just pushing it out.'

I could feel the effects of [Core Refinement] in my control and movement of my slime, and I effortlessly isolated the fluid and pushed it outwards from my slime to expel it. I could feel my size deflating from this, but my instincts were praising me and filling my core with endorphins, so I just watched in silence as it trickled down to the forest floor. By the end, a large puddle had formed, and even some birds had arrived and were splashing and drinking from it.

'I think that might have been water, probably very pure with how crystal-clear it was. Us slimes must be pretty damn useful to those humans if we can turn garbage into mana slime, and even our waste becomes water.'

The birds eventually get scared off from their bath time by a small pig-like creature with very tiny tusks, which then greedily starts drinking the water. I suddenly felt ravenous, my instincts demanding me to replenish my slime mass, and I begin to lower both my pseudopods cautiously behind the pig.

'I probably look like a stupid jellyfish with my blob up top and tendrils dangling below.' I chuckle to myself.

I start sending slime mass to my pseudopods; one is becoming my trusty slime rapier while the other is expanding enough to engulf the pig thing. With coordinated precision, I begin my sneak attack, my rapier going for the neck while my other pseudopod envelops it's behind to lift its rear legs and prevent escape. The pig squeals in horror and tries to bolt, but I am strong enough to lift its legs as planned. My trusty slime rapier, unfortunately, fails to meet my lofty goals for it and only gets a few inches deep into the pig's neck, and I have to attempt a 'death by a thousand pinpricks' approach instead. I keep lifting and stabbing until, eventually, the thrashing pig stops.

'It had no level... Does that mean it was a baby? Well, I wanted food and not experience anyway.'

I plop the lifeless body inside my slime mass, eager for my meal, but it's dissolving very slowly. [Core Refinement] should have improved my dissolving, but this was slower than the meat the humans gave me. Thinking about it, I probably should cut the meat up, exposing it to more slime and improving the dissolving process. I form my compressed pseudopods and reach into myself even though it's a bit bizarre, but I don't want to lose any boar by doing this outside.

I grab a leg with a tendril, form my rapier with the other, and try to compress around the boar with my body to hold it in place. While pulling the leg, I stab at the joint repeatedly, and eventually, it rips off. I repeat this process with the remaining legs. While the idea disturbs me at first, I also flood slime through its mouth and start eating away at the boar from the inside simultaneously. I can sense the process has sped up, and my slime mass is steadily increasing.

Examining the boar, I can see its small tusks are almost unblemished, and I get the idea to keep and use them. I set two dissolving orders to my slime: avoid the tusk and focus on the flesh and cartilage. A warm feeling spreads through my core from the strain, and I hoped to get [Core Refinement LV2] soon to ease my burden.

'When I get trait points, maybe I should dump them into [Core Refinement]? It definitely seems to have improved all aspects of me. Anyway, let's try to extract those tusks with a new idea for my pseudopods.'

I focus on my pseudopod and try to make a claw, which proves to be quite a mental struggle as my pseudopod seems reluctant to split. Hoping to ease my mental burden, I retract one of my pseudopods and give the remaining one my full focus. Once again, I can feel my core straining, but I keep focusing.

A wave of cool relief floods my core, and I want to celebrate, but I feel so close to making my claw. The extra mental processing immediately proves its worth as I split the tip of my pseudopod and immediately start to raise the density to strengthen the form of my claw.

Once my claw is sufficiently condensed, I give it a few snaps to try it out. There's sadly no satisfying clacking noise when the claw tips meet, but I still feel absolutely giddy at my success and find myself wiggling my clawed tendril in joy.

'Hehe... My pseudopod has become a pseudoclaw.'

With nobody to laugh at my bad joke, I bring the claw to the base of the tusk, which has become quite tender from all the dissolving. I snap the claw shut with as much force as I can muster and begin to tug.

Snap, tug, tug, release, snap, tug, tug, release.

I keep repeating this process until, after much time and effort, the tusk is finally extracted. Before I can even mentally celebrate, I'm interrupted by a mental notification.

'Explanation, please!'

Improves and assists in shaping slime mass into various shapes, objects, or tools to mimic their use.

Complexity and creation speed scales with level.

Successful creations can be mentally stored for automatic creation.

Compatible with other slime traits.>

'Yesssssss!'