[Slimy Slime] Chapter 43: An Epiphany and Level Up.

My eyes finally took in my surroundings. I was in a pit, a wide pit. The trees around me had been crushed into splinters and far above me, I could see a massive, massive hole in the treeline reflected by the pit I was in. It was like the hand of god had decided to crush the earth down into nothing. It was flat, with only the edges showing signs of damage.

Good god… was that really… only a Tier 3? What were with the monsters in this world… holy crap. That thing must have been at absolute max stats for its species, whatever they were. A quick talk with Krrrgg had shown that her Agility had already broken through 50 while she was still a goblin. Which was, thankfully, extremely abnormal for any goblin, which was why [Hob-Goblins] were so rare. In comparison, the rest of her stats lagged far behind. So there was balance but still… I had a feeling that slimes got the real short end of the stick on stats and natural growth. After all… 50 was definitely not a ‘natural’ limit on growth. No… the limit for me was probably only that high because I was a crowned monster.

A new spike of fear shot through me. Wasn’t… the [Goblin Chief] a Tier 3? A Tier 3 that most likely was maxed on stats? And going to become a Tier 4 soon?

For the first time, I cursed the gods. Damn it, what kind of system is that?! I don’t even get anything special for beating him, besides the ability to live. He’s only going to give me 4 stat points when I eat him! Four.

The shape of this world had been readily made apparent. Monsters weren’t like humans, they didn’t level up and grow that way, at all. We reached a new tier, we ate and ate and ate, till we hit our maximum stat points. Maybe some of us worked out to squeeze a bit more in or something. That, that wasn’t exactly growth. That wasn’t our way to get stronger per se, that was us just coming into our natural bodies and limits. After that… it was basically all down to species and that was it… for normal, mindless monsters.

You could probably pit an [Acid Slime] against a [Hob-Goblin], both Tier 1, and the [Hob-Goblin] would win every time. Same thing with exactly one [Sharp-Vulture] vs a slime, except the slime would win every time. The vulture would just dive right into the [Acid Slime] and be eaten.

Most monsters were probably different than me then… they would probably only care about eating so much if they had just evolved. Otherwise they’d just… exist I guess? Maybe work on evolution but most monsters didn’t even know how to evolve. Krrrgg had just shrugged when I’d asked her about it. She didn’t exactly ‘know’, most goblins just felt it when they were close or ready or on the way there. [Hob-Goblin] was easy. Just be strong, in something. Anything. Strong enough, you reach the tipping point, you evolve. For Krrrgg, that had been her Agility. She had always loved running, according to her.

I hadn’t spent much time with Krrrgg, now that I thought about it. Most of our conversations had been light and in passing in the five days I spent planning and building up the kingdom, while she took a few more Common lessons from Sandra. I should really talk to her more. She probably had a wealth of knowledge.

I shook my head, I needed to focus on this enlightenment. So… monsters hit a natural limit and then what? Evolution probably became the focus but then… most didn’t know how to evolve. Or were mindless and didn’t care, but most monsters had some kind of intelligence. Maybe you tried a lot of things and then gave up, letting it happen naturally. Maybe you never figured it out. Maybe you just died of old age.

Actually… that last one made a lot of sense. The Alpha wolf had been old. And he had been more than a little determined to get my [Dungeon Core]. With what I know now… it probably have given access to the [Crowned System] if he managed to kill me and take it away. If nothing else, that would give him the information on how to evolve not 1, but 2 steps further, giving him the unparalleled ability to plan out his future and probably achieve it.

Even if it wasn’t straight up written out for him to where he could read it, he could probably sense what the system was telling him, like most monsters could. Even I probably could just go off the ‘feel’ of my system, given enough time. Thankfully I could read and could just skip that step.

So, looping back around… what if you can’t evolve? What do you do then? Most monsters just die of old age and that’s that. That was why not every wolf had become a Tier 7 [Destroyer of Worlds] or something. It wasn’t just hard, they had no path for it.

But for the intelligent ones? They build, they grow, they train skills. After all, the Alpha had at least two skills that I don’t think others had. The ability to fucking fly via jumping, and an iron stomach skill that made me die to acid. Even I had gained the [Leadership].

[Leadership] - Your presence invokes respect and awe in those that would follow you. Your followers are less likely to lose hope or morale and more likely to complete their tasks in your presence.

It was pretty simple but pretty effective. It was a bit… disconcerting given the mental effect but it was more like ‘naturally’ looking beautiful rather than manipulating someone’s mind. I just gave off a presence now, at least for Sandra, Krrrgg and Michael. The goblins… well I wasn’t sure.

All together, this made me realize something.

I had never been more absolutely sure of my decision to invest all my skill points into Astra. After I reached max stats… then what? Nothing? Try and evolve and if I run into another Big Bird, die again? Possibly permanently? No!

I had fists, magic, perception, and Astra to train.

My growth wasn’t completely tied to my system, something I felt was a good thing. Otherwise I’d be stuck, possibly for good. I was starting to understand more of what I needed to be and do, to become strong. More of what any strong monster would have needed to do. Namely… the [Goblin Chief] was absolutely going to have skills completely unrelated to his evolution and species. He’d been around too long, was too smart. There’s no way he had limited himself.

I felt like there was something else though. Something at the edge of my mind. A new… something peeking into my brain. Like I had taken the first steps down a path-

The birds! I had forgotten about the birds!

Quickly, I moved my slimy behind, finding an absolutely destroyed mess of dead birds. Damn it! At least some of them had been destroyed by the blast, but there was also birds I was sure I hadn’t killed.

I focused on quickly eating them before someone else did. After it was all said and done, I looked at my status. Stats might not be ‘Thee’ thing I needed to become stronger overall… but they were still damn helpful while they were helpful! Not to mention… I could skip the ‘natural’ part completely with the [Crown System] completely breaking through the normal limits after I killed a Tier 2.

[General/Crown/Evolution/Dungeon

Name: Slimy Slime

Free stat points: 43

HP: 287/287

MP: 166/166

STR: 50

AGI: 35

DEX: 35

CON: 35

END: 43

INT: 35

WIS: 35

SPI: 35]

Damn. That was a lot but also not enough, at the same time. Still… I was going to be a tiny bit more discerning this time. I would have died, for real, if I had been slower. My own speed was meh, but my hands needed to be able to ‘go quicker’ if that ever happened again. In fact, my hands were my main priority, at all times. They were my defense and offense.

[General/Crown/Evolution/Dungeon

Name: Slimy Slime

Free stat points: 43 (0)

HP: 287/287

MP: 166/166 (166/174)

STR: 50

AGI: 35 (41)

DEX: 35 (50)

CON: 35

END: 43 (50)

INT: 35

WIS: 35

SPI: 35 (50)]

See… my hands were cheating. Absolute, outrageous cheats and I can not believe it took my this long to fully notice. My hands… were made of… something. They took mana to make but what they actually were, was in the name. [Spirit hands]. They didn’t just take power from physical stats but the ones that were typically mental too. They were, literally, my spirit, my soul, made manifest.

As expected of skills given by gods, none looked simple on the surface. Even more so for the ones without levels. [Danger Sense], [Universal Speech], [Spirit Hands], [Astra Acclimation], all monstrous skills.

In that vein… I needed to bump up my physical stats. Although Agility isn’t ‘quite’ as important, it’s synergy. It may mainly focus on the movement of my body, but I could clearly tell it affected my hands somehow. With dexterity, my hands will probably reach a new level of control, at the very least.

Endurance was a no brainer, my hands were constantly under attack. In fact, I probably should focus more on this stat more than any other in the future. Although my stat growth was different because of the [Crowned System], it still represented hundreds, possibly thousands of creatures I’d need to eat in the future. I had no idea if the ‘limit’ only went up 50 when I evolved after all. Maybe the ‘limit’ For Tier 3 was 500 or something.

And then… there was Spirit. Nothing about it, outright helped me. There was no element to it that said it helped. It was mainly a mana regen and partially max mana upgrade stat. But… well… my hands were called [Spirit Hands]. They were an odd physical and non-physical part of me. Even if their was no direct, obvious benefit… that was almost assuredly because I just raised all my stats together most of the time. My fists were… honestly a little scary. Even without my fists, I’m pretty sure I could absolutely wreck a wolf by now with my physical body. Hell, if Krrrgg was still a [Hob-Goblin], I’m pretty sure I could take her down. I was only limited by the weakness of my form. But even that had to start bowing down to pure stats. I was already Super human, and definitely a Super Slime. I should really do some tests at some point…

With a shake of my head, I finalized my stats.

[General/Crown/Evolution/Dungeon

Name: Slimy Slime

Free stat points: 0

HP: 287/287

MP: 174/174

STR: 50

AGI: 41

DEX: 50

CON: 35

END: 50

INT: 35

WIS: 35

SPI: 50]

I felt a new strength fill me up, but it was an extremely… esoteric mix this time. My hands did feel faster, but even more than that, they felt… smoother. I brought one up and only now realized how much I had absolutely wrecked my balance by increasing strength before. Most humans had, what, 5 Dex? I had 50. My hands felt like they were… almost liquid in the flexibility. I could probably play a piano, harp, and violin all at the same time without missing a string. I could touch things with enough precision to defuse a bomb.

It was beyond amazing. I hadn’t really thought of a lot of things much, too busy, but… wow. The endurance also kicked in, making my hands feel like they were made of fucking steel. I could punch through trees… how long until I can punch through actual steel and iron?

But the most impactful was Spirit. I could feel it now, feel exactly what it did. Sure, it absolutely increased how fast my mana came back and how much mana I had, but it was more than that. Just like every stat did more than give big numbers, I could feel spirits affect. I could…. I could feel my soul now. Some kind of… barrier had been reached. My mind also felt more clear, more… poised maybe. I wasn’t smarter, I wasn’t able to do any stronger calculations, my mental ‘fortitude’ and my mental speed was the same… but I felt more… goal oriented? Like my natural state was less muddled. Like I could clearly take a step back, as if I’d gone to spa and had a brief talk with a therapist, and think about my life and what I wanted and where I wanted to go with it.

And that now just my natural state of being.

It was… awe inspiring. I summoned a hand and I could feel it. Feel how my spirit, how my soul formed the fists. I was right, there was no direct benefit to raising Spirit but… I felt like my body was… almost whole. Not quite, not yet, but I was so much closer to all of me than I had been before. It was like before I was ‘just’ a pile of a slime and a bunch of disconnected floating hands.

Now I felt like I was more. Now, I could almost feel the whole ‘connection’ between everything. It was like having one body, even if it was separate. It was just… not quite enough yet. Many, many things were missing. But I didn’t even the inner perception to tell that before now.

I smiled. Send all the goblins you want [Goblin Chief]. I’m going to be ready for you.

And then? And then I’ll build up my city.

I’ll evolve, again and again and again.

I’ll explore this world. I’ll beat that bird.

I’ll make a Kingdom, an Empire, that I can be proud of. One I’m happy in, that I want to live in.

And then finally?

I’ll become a God.