[SS] Chapter 13: Sometimes, all you need is a good plan to make yourself feel better.

I was feeling great! Good even! I had eaten the two wolves, greatly ignored how weird, awful, and gross that was, shimmied my way up out of the hole, and then repaired the minor damage to my door.

Then? Then I had taken a nap. Or, as I woke up to the sun shining on day 2 of my year stuck here, a sleep rather. And I was feeling absolutely amazing. The first rest had been cut short, the second has been me passing out from exhaustion and the third? The third had been heavenly.

Alright, new day, game plan. Making a spike pit, even a small one, had used up almost all my mana. I could spend the next few days literally storing up all my mana and working on my home base or…. I could totally ignore that and finally play with magic. One of the issues with having something be part of your soul, is that its part of your soul. It isn’t other. Meaning even though I had been a slime, due to [Natural Instincts] it felt almost as normal as being in a human body, except with now being surprised at what your body can do. Meaning even though I had literally summoned ghostly ethereal hands and multiple of them at that it had seemed almost normal. Like reaching out with my normal human hands.

But my Dark magic skill? Oh no, that was entirely a learned thing. Meaning it still filled me with awe and amazement.

I stood outside my home and shot a few dark bolts out. It wasn’t innate but it’s not hard to point and push out energy. Well, point for a slime that is. It just, conjured what looked like a ball of darkness that zoomed out and hit the wood. It exploded a little and then just, faded away in the light. It was so, fantastical. I mean can you imagine it? You just point and boom! A ball of darkness gets launched out, traveling at good speeds before boom! It hits something, only to then melt away in the sun like a mirage. It was amazing! Magical even.

And feeling magic was weird. It wasn’t like I exactly knew any spells. It was all under one thing. To say I didn’t understand it would be an understatement. I just felt this energy, pushed, and out it went. Next, I tried controlling it but had to find some shade as it kept melting because of the light. I was shocked. Just keeping a ball of darkness hovering in the air and not going anywhere took both a ton of focus and a lot of mana. It wasn’t like the Dark mana(?) wanted to go anywhere. It was more like I was barely holding something and it kept threatening to slip out of my metaphysical hands.

It got so, so much worse when I realized I was wearing the bracelets and unequipped them. My natural skill with my Skill was so, so much worse. Suddenly, the mana was slipping out of my fingers and directing the bolts of darkness towards anywhere was a massive pain. My MP started to bottom out and I had to take a break. I wish I had been less excited, just a little bit. If I had only used 40% of my mana, I could’ve abused the mana potion a little but as it was, I’d just have to wait till I was at least at 60%. I wasn’t going to be caught with my pants down again. In that vein, I had finally found an absolute direction for my stats. Mana. Not just any mana, specifically, Max Mana. I had all the regeneration I needed right now and every point in MP raised it by 4. It was a numbers game. If I had, theoretically, 1000 mana, I could put 400 in, spend 600 to get back up to max, and repeat. That would boost my base building capabilities by a lot. It was a bit of a pipe dream because that would be 213 stats in it. I was a bit annoyed because only after I had put them in, that I realized raising my natural mana regeneration might actually help me regenerating so much constantly. But well, all of it was useful.

I had also made a hard decision. I changed my plan. I wasn’t going to wait to evolve into a [Core Slime] and then a [Princess/Prince Slime]. Even if I technically had plenty of combat options, I still felt too weak. I could see up to 2 generations ahead. Which meant I could see 10 different evolutions.

From [Slime] I could evolve into [Core Slime], [Liquid Slime], and [Acid Slime]. All great and amazing options. From [Core Slime], into [Prince/Princess Slime] or [Mimic Slime]. From [Liquid Slime] into [Water Slime], [Liquid Metal Slime], or [Medicine Slime]. From [Acid Slime], to [Alchemist Slime] or [Acid Metal Slime].

I needed strength and I had to walk before I could run. Evolving into [Core Slime], then [Prince/Princess Slime] was still my goal but they required eating human hearts. Something that even if I had access to, wouldn’t be that easy to get. I might have a walking solution in a year due to my Curse of Lust but until then, I’d have to come back to it. That meant I was going to be aiming for [Acid Slime].

[Acid Slime:

Gain 3 Astra per day

+2 END

+1 CON

Requirements:

70 Astra

Melt 30 unique items

Skill Gains:

Enhanced melt - Use your slime to corrode through materials. Can melt through adamantite tier items and gold.

Devour - Your Absorb Skill is enhanced and is able to eat objects at an increased pace.

Skill loss:

Melt

General Info:

A cute yellow slime with increased melting prowess. The bane of all adventurers and smiths around. Although alchemists like these slimes due to them being able to create a strong acid base.]

It was, in a word, perfect. Enhanced melting and absorbing powers, an influx of stats from evolving and not even that hard to obtain. For the Astra requirement, well,

Astra: 598

I had it covered. 30 Unique items was just as easy. I’d already eaten grass and wolves. I was eating a wooden spike I had made right now. Wood kind of annoyed me. Flesh took hours to absorb. I gave up on bones but I’d have to revisit the ones in the pit. Wood seemed to take even longer than flesh but still fast enough not to entirely stop doing it. I could probably scavenge a rock from a cave, a bone from the wolves, and then I’d need to either create the items from the dungeon core or go out and try to find some stuff. But it’s a forest. What am I going to find, trees? Plants? As much as it felt like cowering away, the smart move and even more importantly, what I wanted to do, was stay in here until I had evolved. That way I’d at least have a chance against any wolves that touched me. I didn’t want to stay here for a whole week but it’d probably take at least a few days for me to make enough items to count them as unique.

As for hidden evolutions, bah, I had to survive now, not later. I couldn’t think of any hidden Acid slime evolutions I could become except even more acid-y. And I was fairly certain that wasn’t part of its line up. The reason being its next evolution, [Acid Metal Slime].

[Acid Metal Slime:

Gain 3 Astra per day

+3 CON

+1 WIS

Requirements:

20 Astra

Absorb and Melt 20 metal objects

Absorb 5 oz of Adamantite

Skill Gains:

Aqua Regia - Your Acid is enhanced to levels almost never seen in the world. Now capable of melting all metals and materials, as long as they are not protected by magic.

Metal Casing - You now have an incredibly durable outer shell made out of adamantite. Few can break through your shell. It’s also incredibly shiny.

General info:

A Metal Shelled Slime that houses an intense acid within. They say that seeing a shiny metal slime brings good luck.]

My mind boggled at the fact that this was a Gen 2 monster. A line up had 7 Gen’s at minimum. It filled me with awe and trepidation. Some Gens were weak and probably had a long line up to get anywhere. Others were strong but weak. A plague rat can be killed with a sword but could wipe out a town. But I’m starting to feel like, some paths were strong because they were hard and the future line ups were even harder. Look at the requirements for this. Adamantite. I’d bet all the money I didn’t have that it was stupidly valuable and rare. Most slimes that became this probably never became the next level. Even if you knew the requirements to make this slime, it’d be hard. Even with a human mind, the Gen 3 of this would probably be damn near impossible in any amount of time. I was actually looking forward to seeing what it was after I evolved into an [Acid Slime.]

I was also filled with trepidation because not all monsters are created equal. Intelligent monsters had to exist. I was sure of it, especially based on evolutions. While dragons were the obvious big badasses of any fantasy area, they weren’t alone. Knowing that this planet probably had at least one or two Gen 7 monster… I had a suspicion in my heart that the Big Leagues were well and truly over my head. Country destroying monsters might not be common but the fact that they exist and might not be the most dangerous things by a long shot, well, I was going to have to keep my head far, far more down than I expected.

I had to keep reminding myself. Even if I ever become OP, most Godlings fail. That means there's something far more dangerous out there.

Which was necessary because I started to drool at my own future. You don’t usually lose skills when you evolve. Meaning, you can usually keep all the previous ones. If I could become a [Metal Acid Slime] and then eventually a [Prince/Princess Slime]... oh yeah. That’s the ticket baby.

No, focus Slimy Slime, we have magic and eating to do. Speaking of my name, I regret nothing. Haha.

Final plan: Become Acid Slime, train magic, complete bunker, murder any wolf that attacks me, train more magic, see how much mana it’ll cost my dungeon to make Adamantite, and finally, train my Astra.