0004 - The Barrier and Continued Expansion [Edited]

When I awoke from the Mana Exhaustion, another screen appeared before me once again.

[Mana Exhaustion Resistance] has leveled up!

+5 System Points]

Well, that's good, so I can earn System Points from leveling up skills?

Then I noticed another notification that I did not see until now.

Then shifting my vision towards the two slimes, I was surprised to find that they stopped just before a strange misty barrier that was impossible to see through.

[You have reached the Dungeon Border, level up, or purchase the Border Expander from the System Shop to expand the border further!]

A barrier? Does this mean this mist surrounds this 'floor' in some shape?

Commanding the Slimes to start eating around the barrier, I noticed that my theory seemed to be correct. Slimes could level from consuming since the second slime now was max level and could evolve.

I found that it had all of the same options as the other slime, but instead, I decided to evolve the slime into a Greater Slime Variant this time around.

Upon the evolution completing, the second slime became slightly larger and seeing nothing special about the common evolution option, I had the slime use its [Split] skill. To my surprise, the slime seemed to have two small blobs of slime split from the larger primary slime.

[23:59:59 Until Pseudo-Slimes form cores]

Oh?! The Greater Slime can produce more slimes? That's certainly beneficial!

But, it seems that these Psuedo-Slimes are currently useless since they could not be controlled no matter what I tried. So, they wandered around senselessly and ate what they came across without care.

So, leaving them to consume and expand the floor mindlessly, I had the two evolved slime continue expanding by eating around the border until they came full circle. I want to know what shape my border is in to construct my floor around it.

I wanted to ultimately build my first floor before I informed the System that this floor was completed.

I do not know whether the System would allow me to start another floor or open an entrance to the surface or outside world. I do not know.

Other than that, I scanned the tunnels the Slimes consumed through and found several ore veins of Coal, Iron, and even some pockets of Marble and other common Minerals.

Deciding to test one of my earlier theories before summoning my first slime, I decided to try using my mana to mine away at some of these ore veins so I can store them into my inventory and use them at a later date.

And upon using my mana, I watched as what appeared to be tendrils of blue light appeared out of thin air, and I felt I could use these tendrils as if they were my limbs.

I sharpened the ends of the Mana tendrils into hooks, began chipping away at some Iron, stored every small piece that fell off, and put it into my inventory.

[Congratulations on earning a new skill!

-[Mana Tendril Lv 1]-

+10 System Points]

Once I managed to mine off a chunk of Iron the size of a basketball, I found that my mana went down by a total of 10 points, leaving 90% of my mana left for use.

So, I continued to mine and hack away at Iron and Coal until my mana reserves reached 10% and decided to wait until my mana replenished.

In the meantime, I checked on the Slimes and found that they have not made much progress, which leads me to assume that I must have been unconscious for quite a while if the slimes could consume so much material.

And after doing some tests, I found that it's even harder for slimes to consume other minerals, which means it could have taken even longer than I suspect since the Slimes must have consumed different kinds of material for them to have those evolution options.

I was also glad that I had the Select Evolution option from my [The First Dungeon] title. It also led me to believe that usually, Slimes would evolve into Greater Slimes by themselves since it was labeled as a 'Common' evolution.

Although I wouldn't know the true answer to this inquiry since it's also possible that the slimes in their lesser intelligence could choose randomly or the highest available option without much care or thought.

But enough about that somewhat intriguing thought. It's time to start grinding.

...

As many hours passed and I mined away at the ore, and my slimes tunneled against the border, I found that my Mana Manipulation and Mana Tendril leveled up several times and reached levels 3 and 5, respectively, earning me a total of 60 more System Points.

So much time passed that I did not realize that the two slimes that split from the Greater Slime formed their cores, becoming full-fledged slimes.

How come I don't feel tired after staying awake for over 24 hours?

Is it because I am now a Dungeon?

Can dungeons even sleep?

I mean, I did fall unconscious, but I did not even dream during that. It was just darkness, then I reawoke.

It seems that being a Dungeon is not all perks...

Other than that, I had the two new slimes begin eating a tunnel with the other two slimes and found that the next time the Greater Slime could split was in two days, meaning it had a three-day cool down before it could split again.

Man, Slimes seem to be menacing. If they can reproduce so fast and level so quickly, then within a year, there would be countless slimes!

But since they are so weak to start with, they would have difficulty gaining strength.

Either way, the Slimes are an excellent starting monster since they can produce great numbers and lure in people to their deaths.

Speaking of people dying, I don't feel too bad about it for some reason. It's like I no longer feel a lot of the moral dilemmas an average person would face, nor would they even make me flinch.

Whether this would be a great hindrance in the future will be decided in time.