Chapter 37 – Survival of the Fittest

Resh having finished off the two Adults moved in on the Juvenile Groles. None of them had moved. Quivering as they were from the fight and death of their parents, looking to them for protection. There would be no protection now. Resh moved in with the inevitability of an avalanche. Of Resh's spells Water Gun had come out of cool down and was ready to use again. Resh sent it into the ranks of terrified Juvenile Groles. They would attack soon, their instincts would kick in and this was a world where it was survival of the fittest. There was no time for hesitation. The water blasted through all the seven enemies in an arc and they tumbled to the ground gasping. Sonic Boom would have been good to use as there was an elemental advantage to using Air Magic on Earth creatures. Resh needed to get it stronger otherwise it would not be able to use it as a viable attack.

As it stood, the Water Gun blast shaved off over half the Juveniles' health. So as they marshalled their forces they were already at a disadvantage. Further readying attacks as it had done before. In quick-fire rounds, Resh was able to take dirt from the ground and turn it into projectiles to fire at the enemy. Only doing a quarter of a point of damage which shooting three times a second, in the 10 seconds that it took the Juveniles to go from cowering and protecting themselves to forming up and charging Resh had shot over 30 shots at them aimed at the same enemy, trying to take out at least one so that Resh had less to deal with at once. It didn't work and by the time they had reached the Earth Slime, there were still seven angry individuals baring down. One was limping up behind the rest but there were still seven all told.

They targeted Resh's blood vessels and neural pathways having seen that these areas were Resh's points of weakness. Resh could have easily chosen to remove those portions of its body but hesitated, it would lose the stat boosts that those organs and pathways gave if it did that. In some cases, this might be to its advantage but facing off against these enemies at point-blank range was not the time to be giving us its stat advantages. It would bear the additional pain and endure. This time there was much less strategy. Resh used its Shell of the River Crab to try to reduce the damage where it could but how much defence was possible when seemingly every part of your body was being pummelled? Resh continued to attack relentlessly while also being attacked in turn. Eventually after many its exchanged the final Juvenile Grole went down.

Resh slumped right there in the Grole den and set about Consuming the Groles present. It needed the Claws of the Grole and so Assimilate was its friend now. Resh just hoped it would be successful. It took Resh another 36 hours to Consume all the Groles.

YOU HAVE REACHED Earth Slime Level 2! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Endurance, +1

Dexterity, +1 Strength. Talent Earth Born has increased to Earth Born +1, Earth Resistance +10%

YOU HAVE REACHED Earth Slime Level 3! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Strength, +1 Resistance, +1 Dexterity. Talent Earth Born +1 has increased to Earth Born +2, Earth Resistance +10%

You have Consumed 740g of Adult and Juvenile Groles! Your Weight has increased to 2,201.25g; your Volume has increased to 880.50cm3!

Consume has increased to Level 20!

You have Assimilated 2 Field Grole and can now choose what to Assimilate from the Field Grole. Would you like to Assimilate the Paws, Nose, Mouth or Tail? If you do not choose then an option will be selected at random!

You have chosen Paws. You have gained the Paws of the Field Grole! Your skills Strong Legs of the Squitter and Paws of the Field Grole are compatible and as such have merged to form Digging Legs! You will gain +500 Exp for this adjustment. Digging Legs increase your carrying capacity from 2kg to 5kg.

Digging Legs has increased to Level 16!

You have chosen Nose. You have gained the Nose of the Field Grole! Your skills Nose of the Darter Fish and Nose of the Field Grole are compatible and as such have merged to form Smell of Watery Soil! You will gain +500 Exp for this adjustment. Your sense of smell will direct you to Elementites within 100m of your current location if you are underground or in water. This distance will grow with Level.

Smell of Watery Soil has increased to Level 8!

Smell of Watery Soil has increased to Level 9!

Identify has increased to Level 9!

You have gained +1 Luck!

Shell of the River Crab has increased to Level 5!

Strong Odour Alteration has increased to Level 18!

Resh gained two whole levels with that fight alone. Granted, it was an intense fight and once Resh took stock it had lost about 30cm3 of Volume but it was a price worth paying. Resh also lost about 300 HP as well, but with its health now at almost 800 HP that was an acceptable loss. The Groles did not hit hard compared to some of the creatures in the area. Already Resh could see that its growing strength was going to be a huge advantage as it continued to level up.

If Resh Consolidated now it would take just over 12 hours and its Volume would shrink down to 130.44cm3 at least that was over 100cm3 so it was on the borderline of acceptable and not. It was time.

Consolidate! After this, I will have reduced my size to something more manageable. These underground holes and dens are difficult to navigate with so much Volume and Weight. Hopefully, this makes it easier. Resh's thought continued to spiral, knowing that it would need to Consolidate more than thirty times to make it to the prerequisite for Dense Slime. It might not have the time or patience to get there. But it was also a great way to gain strength and now with its latest stat, Dexterity it would need that more than ever since it had a ranged weapon as well. Eventually, it might not even need to approach an enemy at all!

Resh checked on the experience of that brutal fight. For some reason when it thought back to the Juvenile Groles when it had first started attacking them it felt something from inside. It was much like a feeling of wrongness it got when it tried to go against its instincts. Resh had felt a similar sensation when it had recently tried to live underground while its mind told it that the water was its home. This was a much more intense feeling than the other though. The Earth Slime knew exactly what to do with those traitorous feelings. It would stamp them out quickly and efficiently before they got it killed! This was not the time for instincts to deter it from survival. Again Resh felt the war with its psyche.

Why do I keep feeling like each time I take two steps forward in controlling my mind and instincts I feel like I then take a step back? Yes, I am making progress but it is honestly the most frustrating progress that can be made! Resh reflected once more on the status of its mental faculties.

While Consolidate was happening Resh was not able to think anything so just as its senses and mind faded to black Resh checked how much experience it had gained during the fight. Expecting pretty significant gains in melee fighting and some in ranged. However, what Resh was most interested in, were the Spells. Using Identify on both spells on instinct:

Water Magic Spell Water Gun Lv. 14 Exp. 4506 / 5418

Air Magic Spell Sonic Boom Lv. 9 Exp. 1413 / 1698

+1 Intellect and +2 Acuity for having the foresight to use Identify on your skills and spells!

Resh noticed that even though it had used Water Gun far more than Sonic Boom due to the lower cool down, the higher-level spell had not gained any experience at all! What is that about? All of a sudden I don't get any experience from using spells? Is it the Level? No that can't be right. I have abilities that are above level 14 but they still get experience. What is it then? I am going to need to understand this and figure it out. Not a big deal right now but eventually it will become one if I ignore it. Resh knew that it did not affect all spells, Sonic Boom's experience gain made it clear as day. Something else is going on here and I don't understand what that is yet.

More and more the Earth Slime found itself musing internally. Thoughts were becoming clearer and more present by the day. It was a great feeling and even when Resh felt frustrated by its lack of progress in the strength department it took some small comfort in that progress and its expanded capabilities. That was also coincidentally Resh's final thought before darkness took it.