Syl

Chapter 10: The Pond

A feeling of excitement bubbled up inside me as I stared at the pond, wondering what creatures I might find nearby. The slime instincts the strange [Experiment] emblem sometimes fed me were tickling the corners of my mind, causing me to gaze longingly at the water. Blue slimes must enjoy being near water, for whatever reason, as I remembered my brethren hanging around the stream when I first woke up.

My only concern was that I would be leaving the safety of the treetops to approach the pond, but thinking back to how easily I killed multiple boars, I felt strangely confident. With a wet splat, I hit the ground and did a few hops and a slime crawl - both felt terribly slow after I had gotten used to moving around with my pseudopod.

My previous confidence sputtered with worry, and I decided to see if I could adapt my tendril grappling movement to a ground-based option. I flung a tendril forward, which did not travel far since the ground wasn't flat or clear enough. I then threw another tendril out, but at an upward arch, it flew a much better distance. When the tip of my tendril hit the ground, I raced into action and flung my core while also spreading the exit point of my tendril out to cushion my landing. As my core moved, the slime rapidly followed afterward, and soon I found myself at the destination tendril, the entire process making me look and move like a strange slimy slinky.

I practiced a few times until I could do it speedily enough and even tried throwing out a secondary tendril ahead while in mid-flight to chain together these movements.

'Looks like the days of auto-compression training and complex slime manipulation have finally paid off.' I thought with a happy jiggle.

Satisfied, I traversed to the pond edge, taking in my surroundings as I approached. A few wildlife were drinking from the opposite end of the pond, and I noticed dog-sized flying bugs darting back and forth along the water's surface. The pond was relatively clean, only having a few patches of algae. When I reached the water's edge, I leaned my slime mass and raised my core to peak into the depths. The pond wasn't that deep except in the center, where I could not see the murky depths, and I could see plenty of fish-like creatures swimming.

I produced a tendril and poked the water, finding it hard to break the surface unless I used a compressed tendril. I tried an uncompressed and limp tendril and found it floated on the surface.

'As stupid as it sounds, I guess blue slimes having an affinity with water makes sense.' My thoughts are interrupted as a few fish come to see if my floating tendril is food.

The fish cautiously poke at the slime and take a few nibbles, and due to the low density, they even steal a few chunks. Mildly annoyed, I want to catch and eat those fish myself. I form my second tendril above my head and create a spear, then wonder if I could create a fishing net and struggle for a few moments and make that. Withdrawing some slime mass from [Core Storage], I then use it to extend out my net tendril and another to help hold it. Once sufficiently far away to hopefully not spook the nibbling fish, I deposit the net into the pond as smoothly as possible and trawl it through the water.

I catch quite a few fish that aren't smart enough to flee and lift my net out of the water happily. I dump more slime into the net while enclosing it, and soon, there's a bubble of slime filled with fish - which I promptly eat.

I assumed the fish would not give any experience points, so the sudden prompt really surprised me. Honestly, I had sort of forgotten all about [Shape Slime] since I did most of its functions without its help before I got it. I'm surprised it took this long to increase since I assumed it was passively helping me anytime I create a rapier or claw.

'Perhaps it gets more experience when I try to create new shapes? Extra reward for experimentation? I wonder what else affects trait and skill gain.'

I try other ways of catching fish and feeding myself more slime mass, such as the spear, my trusty rapier, a claw, and even a smaller net. [Dissection] doesn't tell me they have anything worth harvesting, but they dissolve fast, lacking strong bones or tough hide, so I eat them whole.

All my fishing has seemingly disturbed one of the residents of the pond. I notice a large shadow approaching from the water, so I fire a tendril backward and slinky away to a safer position. I've turned off auto-compression, raised my slime mass to maximum density, and even withdrew some extra slime to increase my size. A massive frog-like creature emerges from the pond with a sickly green-tinted skin covered in blackish-purple splotches.

'This damn thing is bigger than four boars put together!'

It lets out a belching croak and stares directly at me.

'I wonder what level this thing is, or if I cou-' my thought is interrupted, as without warning, its tongue fires at lightning speed towards me and smacks into my slimy exterior.

The tongue fails to penetrate too deeply into my slime, and I sigh with relief until I realize the tongue is latched onto my slime and is actually trying to pull me into its maw. In a panic, I construct a rapier and stab at the tongue - it bounces off. I create two claws and try to claw and tear away at the tongue - the frog merely gives a hearty croak as if mocking me.

I'm trying to think of some shape or weapon I could use to cut this tongue, and I can feel it trying to pull me towards it, but I'm gripping the ground tightly with my large surface area. The frog, to my horror, decides if it can't win this tug-of-war, then it will simply approach me.

My mind goes frantic as the monster frog trundles forward, and the only solution I can think of is to sacrifice the slime mass and flee. Mentally, I partition off the slime around the tongue and drop control of it; the frog's tongue snaps back into its mouth, and I see it happily ingest my slime. It even licks its lips!

I've thrown out a tendril to run away, but I'm not fast enough, and the frog tongue has already latched on me again. I quickly partition off the slime, which rips off without negatively affecting my escape momentum. Its tongue rapidly retracts, and I watch it smugly eating more of my slime.

I keep repeating my slinky movement over and over again until I can reach the forest edge. In my escape, I managed to dodge the tongue twice, possibly just by fluke, as it managed to steal a third portion of slime from me before I was finally out of its range.

Considering the density of the slime stolen, I had lost more than I gained during my fishing trip. I felt humiliated as I tried to find weaker prey to stock up on slime mass before I went home.

All my harvesting paid off, but I'm not in the mood to celebrate. I throw the pelt on the branch, head into my tree hole and spit out the tusks.

I need to get stronger.

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