Chapter 11 – Seeing the Light

Resh decided that eating insects was definitely the way to go. It was the only thing it had had any real success with since it had been "born". It was time for it to capitalize on this revelation and it would not look for other enemies, they were too deadly. Why hadn't it thought of that before? Because it wasn't thinking clearly, of course it wasn't. The fog on its mind had lifted slightly, but it was by no means gone.

Keep going forward! Wish…could…more clearly.

That pretty much exhausted is internal musings capability. Time to go to work!

There weren't many Termites left in the tree where it resided so not much was to be gained in that regard. However Resh did also think, it was small at the moment, so there was no harm in absorbing and digesting more of the tree material to bolster itself. It sat and absorbed more of the tree material. The Termites seemed to have wised up and retreated to lower parts of the tree. Unless it was actively going to hunt them down there would be no more gains on that front.

After about 12 hrs of Absorbing and Digesting with Photosynthesis working in the background it was sitting at 187.14g and 85.06cm3.

Photosynthesis has increased to Level 10!

Congratulations for reaching Level 10! Your Photosynthesis has improved to Strong Photosynthesis! You can now use Strong Photosynthesis to heal yourself instead of gaining mass. At the current Level Strong Photosynthesis will heal 10 points to HP, SP or MP per hour of active use. However it will only work in sunlight.

Would you like to change Photosynthesis's capability to heal instead of change weight? This is irreversible and you will only be offered this choice once, choose wisely.

Resh really needed a way to heal itself faster. Its natural healing was hopelessly slow. With this its healing ability would increase by almost 2.5x. It was definitely worth doing it but did it want to forgo its ability to gain weight using photosynthesis, what if in the future it could not Absorb or Digest? What would happen when it evolved into something other than a Slime or something similar? It wasn't going to stay a Slime forever, they weren't exactly the strongest creatures. It knew that much even now. It had only been offered Slime or Insect evolutions so far but that was because it had only really been successful with Insects. That would change…eventually, not yet though.

At this point its mental capacity was again expended and it got tired of thinking. Healing! Thinking further was pointless and healing was necessary.

Your Strong Photosynthesis Level 10 will no longer give you additional mass. You will have the choice between healing 10 points to HP, SP or MP per hour of active use. However it will only work in sunlight!

Crap only during the daytime! It forgot about that requirement. Nothing for it now, with it being night time at the moment it could not use it, but it was at full Health, Stamina and Mana anyway since it had just evolved. To be on the safe side though it would need to wait for day to find new insect prey.

The amount of weight and volume it had gained was good enough for it to be able to use both attacks it had as well as being able to fly! Great! Now that it was in the sweet spot. It was time to put its new flight capabilities to the test and hunt down more insect colonies.

Being an Tier 3 Aerial Slime, meant that it also got an additional bonus to flight so it was a 50% boost to distance but 3x boost to experience gained, which was great. It could now fly up to 45m before it needed a break. It needed to understand its capabilities more. But was unable to figure out how to learn more, with that thought it got a notification:

Passive Limb Skill Strong Insectoid Wings Level 10!

You will gain 1 Exp for this skill for each meter of Flight.

You get a 50% Species bonus to flying distance.

You get a 3x Exp Species Bonus that will increase with Species Level.

Identify has increased to Level 2!

Hmm, that was interesting, along with everything else it had used a skill called Identify that it had gained a while ago but not really understood, more information on its Strong Insectoid Wings had been revealed and more importantly it understood what it needed to do to work on it. It was still night time and it would not be able to use its brand new Strong Photosynthesis skill yet. It was itching to go.

Compound Eyes have increased to Level 10!

Congratulations for reaching Level 10! Your Compound Eyes has improved to Strong Compound Eyes! You can now see in grey scale not just black and white. Keep improving your eyes to get more benefits!

Resh's eyes burned for a second and then when it looked with them again it could see in slightly different shades, not just 2 colours but a whole cascade of hues from white all the way to black with many shades in between. It didn't know this was possible! With these eyes it could see so much more than it could before. It was night time as well! It couldn't wait for what the daylight would reveal!

It decided that it should manifest its new legs and paws so that it could get a feel for them while it was still night. Manifesting them was nice. Resh felt immediately that it could move faster. With its Legs of the Squitter at Level 8 that was 8% faster than it could move without them. So it would run around and explore using its new legs and more importantly paws.

Using the claws that it had gained on its paws, Resh began scaling up and down the branches for the next few hours, at first it was stop and start and pretty slow going just to get used to the larger and more deliberate movements. After that rocky start Resh gradually got the hang of it. As the sun was peaking over the horizon of the new day, it was moving as it was with its fly legs. In the time between then and sunrise it was feeling more comfortable with its new appendages, all 6 were moving in unison once more and the claws were really great as well!

With its higher movement speed and legs it was able to actually explore the area where it had started, not just with its wings but with legs as well. Resh could keep trying to get stronger and stronger. Not just in terms of skill levels and abilities but also in terms of getting stronger appendages.

Odour Alteration has increased to Level 7!

Camouflage has increased to Level 7!

While it was getting used to its new legs, some of Resh's other skills had improved as well. It was morning and it could use Strong Photosynthesis! Its night time movements had almost depleted its Stamina completely and it was running on dregs. It immediately directed Strong Photosynthesis to work on Stamina Regen, this increased Stamina Regen from 20 per day to 260 per day! A huge improvement! Within 5 hours it would have full Stamina again, this was great. Not only that, it would be able to fly as much as its wings allowed at least during the day. And with the sun up it was able to see all the greys from white all the way to black, it was incredible to see the view, and it had not even tried flying yet.

Keeping its legs out and Strong Photosynthesis active it absorbed and digested in place and with Meditate active as well, it would be even faster with recovering its Stamina.

Meditate has increased to Level 3!

You have Absorbed and Digested 40g of Tree Material. Your Weight is now 227.14g and your Volume has increased to 103.25cm3.

Having satisfied its need to consume something Resh was now raring to go and find some easier insect pray to fight, not really fight but just Absorb and Digest. And it was really looking forward to it!

Taking off Resh began searching with its sight. It could now see movement much more clearly and was relying on that now more than Perception. To be able to really make out anything as small as an insect it did need to be quite close but as long as it was within the range of sight it would be able to see.