Chapter 9 – Second Fight, A Little Better...

The leap from the branch Resh was on to the lower branch was further than it originally thought. It hurt as usual. It really needed to think and plan before it leapt. But it was an Aerial Mini Slime so it tried to slow its descent with its wings…which would not co-operate as they were tired. Resh landed with a soft heavy "plop." And immediately began to Absorb the creature and Digest it at the same time. Predictably though, since both Digest and Absorb were so slow the creature struggled.

You have received 4HP Damage from Squitter!

It had been caught unaware. Otherwise, Resh knew, it would have taken a lot more damage, but as its slime body covered the Squitter's eyes, nose and mouth and the rest of its body its movements slowed. Attacks came less frequently and Resh tried to finish it off with Slime Club.

You have surprised the Squitter and incapacitated it! Squitter can't breathe and is losing the will to fight!

You do not have enough Volume to use Slime Club! You need a minimum of 50cm3 to form the weapon!

You have received 7HP Damage from Squitter!

You have received 9HP Damage from Squitter!

You have received 12HP Damage from Squitter!

You have received 17HP Damage from Squitter!

You have received 22HP Damage from Squitter!

Resh tried not to give it a chance to fight back but it was unlucky. The Squitter began biting it from the inside and chewing on it and swallowing parts of its body! If it could not use Slime Club, which was extremely irritating it would need to find another way and quickly. Otherwise there would not be much of it left. It started to aggressively use its body to force itself further down the Squitter's throat to try to smother the creature. It should just count its lucky stars that it had enough Volume to suffocate the Squitter. It was on the verge of panic as the Squitter had already eaten 20% of its body and was still going! But since it had not been able to breathe this whole time and Resh had made its way into its lungs and not its stomach the Squitter would not be able to eat all of it. It would not stop it from losing more Volume though and part of its weight. If Resh knew of the Gods, it would have prayed to them as to why it was always so unlucky, all the time!

You have gained the Mythic Stat Luck. Your Luck is currently 0. Luck can change unpredictably from time to time. Be aware!

Resh groaned inwardly. Even if it could not read, it could understand the message and it had not received any good news from this information. The moral of this story was that it could only rely on itself.

In the end, the battle did not end with Resh utterly destroying the Squitter. No, in the end it was simply that the Squitter needed to breathe, and the Aerial Mini Slime did not let it. If there had been any thinking behind the Aerial Mini Slime's actions, it might had done things differently. Alas, it was not to be. Perhaps it should invest more in Intelligence or Acuity. No, Resh was definitely not a deep thinker but it would need to approach things in a different way, or it was definitely going to die and very quickly.

You have Absorbed the Squitter!

You have gained 13 Exp from Squitter!

You have Assimilated 1 Squitter and can now choose what to Assimilate from the Squitter. Would you like to Assimilate the Paws, Eyes, Nose, Mouth or Tail? If you do not choose then an option will be selected at random!

You have lost 2.57cm3 of your Volume due to battle. Your Weight is now 21.90g and your Volume is now 9.95cm3.

It was at this point that Resh realised that it had no idea what a Squitter looked like. Yes, it had felt it so it had an idea, but it would have liked to see it with its eyes as well to get the full picture. It knew that the creature was small, smaller even than the Treaber had been, but not any of the other specifics really. It did not know what parts of the Squitter it wanted. It already had Eyes of the Fly but what was a Nose, Tail, or a Mouth? Paws it knew from the Treaber as they were the part that had attacked it.

Resh knew it should take Paws, the Treaber, and Squitter had both used them very effectively as weapons against it. Resh would take Paws. There was really no other choice.

You are awarded Paws of the Squitter! Congratulations, Paws of the Squitter is compatible with another of your abilities! Your skill Legs of the Fly and Paws of the Squitter have merged to form Legs of the Squitter! Skill Level is maintained and you gain a bonus of +200 Exp for evolving the skill! Stronger Legs has improved your carrying capacity from 300g to 700g!

Legs of the Squitter has increased to Level 8!

You learned Slime Claw Level 1! You can use your Paws and Claws to form a Fist Type Weapon. Damage depends on the Level of the Skill and your Strength Stat. Note: Slime Claw requires your Volume to be above 10cm3 otherwise the skill will fail. To extend the skill from your body will require more Volume.

Yes!!! Finally, a weapon for small me!

It had taken it 5 hrs to Absorb the Squitter before moving on and in that time Photosynthesis has restored its Volume and Weight to the point that it could use Slime Claw if it needed to. That was a relief! It now had a weapon it could use if it got attacked.

It was getting tired of messing around with its Weight and Volume so much. If it wanted to fly, it needed to be small and if wanted to do anything else it needed to be big. Why was everything so difficult! Why was it so hard to figure everything out? It kept getting distracted and could not think clearly.

Resh had also noticed or rather finally decided to think about the fact that if it Assimilated something successfully, it was not able to Digest it. It was annoying not being able to use it to grow, but it seemed like successful Assimilation led to the creature being completely deconstructed and left nothing to be Digested.

It moved on, not overly concerned now that it was out of danger. It had also lost a lot of its size in the fight, so it needed to replenish that. It would take some time to Meditate and recover its significant Health loss at the same time.

Resolved as to its next course of action, the unlucky Aerial Micro Slime moved through the tree to a location where there was more foliage, and therefore, more to Absorb and Digest, while also keeping its Eyes of the Fly on things.

You have just received +2 Luck! Greater chance for good things to happen!

Yes!! Getting luckier!

Odd, but then Luck is always odd, isn't it? Resh was not one to complain about a good thing. Buckling down, it started to Absorb and Digest the tree once more. It got another great surprise as it digested through the bark of the tree branch; inside was an infestation of Termites! Having had the great experience with Flies before, it could only be a good thing. The Termites were larger and heavier than the Flies had been! Needless to say, Resh gorged itself.

You have Absorbed 40g of Tree Bark!

You Assimilated 1g of Tree Bark and gained +2 Endurance from Bark Armor!

You have Digested 39g of Tree Bark!

Then it got to the good stuff. Termites! Their Mandibles did hurt a little, but it was very insignificant until they were attacking in the hundreds. In the meantime, Resh kept Absorbing them and using its body to reduce their movement. It was gaining more Experience like it had with the Flies!

You have Absorbed 2746 Termites!

You have received 3287 pincer attacks, -33 HP!

You Assimilated 4 Termites and gained Mandibles of the Termite, Eyes of the Termite, Legs of the Termite and Wings of the Termite!

Assimilate has increased to Level 4!

Your Skill Eyes of the Termite is compatible with Eyes of the Fly they have Merge into Compound Eyes! You will gain a bonus +200 Exp and an increased visual angle from 90deg to 180deg.

Your Skill Wings of the Termite is compatible with Wings of the Fly they have Merge into Insectoid Wings! You will gain a bonus +200 Exp *2 for Aerial Mini Slime Bonus! Synergy has increased your Wings carrying capacity from 200g to 250g!

Your Skill Mandibles of the Termite is compatible with Slime Claw they have Merge into Melee Weapon Skill Termite's Bite! You will gain a bonus +200 Exp! Synergy has decreased Volume requirement from 10cm3 to 8cm3! Termite's Bite cannot be extended from your body. Damage from Termite's Bite is boosted from base 0.2 HP to base 0.5 HP

Your Skill Legs of the Termite is inferior to Legs of the Squitter! You cannot gain anything from this Assimilation! No benefits gained!

You have Digested 2742 Termites!