Syl

Chapter 20: The Howling

This morning, I felt miserable, as yesterday's events had left their mark. I was sluggish to exit the tree and finally realized my error - I had left my [Mana Reinforcement] on all night. I immediately told my [Sub-Core] to stop and pulled up my status.

Mana: Draining

I expected worse when I realized I had left my [Sub-Core] to work on it since the wolves I fought, so I felt relieved it was at least a familiar status and not something potentially worse. I headed to the pond to do some fishing and get breakfast.

The pond was eerily quiet, with no deer or wolves, but I was moody, so I ignored it and plopped down next to the water and started to fish. My thoughts were a mess, recalling how easily that slime had died.

'Would I have survived that blade of wind?' It was a good question; I had traits that other slimes did not, from what I could tell, like [Slime Density], [Core Refinement], and [Mana Reinforcement]. I could hope that my slime would be too dense to penetrate or that the defense of my mana enhancement and upgraded core would be able to tank the hit.

I was so deep in thought and idly fishing that I didn't notice anything until I heard a growling noise that surrounded me. Snapping back to reality, I took in my surroundings and noticed four wolves bigger than the ones I killed yesterday glaring at me with hunger and hatred.

I probably should have felt some level of concern, but after what I had witnessed yesterday, these wolves just felt pathetic - could they even hurt me without melting themselves? I swelled in size by withdrawing slime mass and formed a slime greatsword overhead.

My threatening display seemed to have the opposite effect as three wolves lunged toward me while the fourth let out an ear-piercing howl like a feral battle cry. I swung the greatsword down on the fourth wolf to stop the unpleasant sound that showed no sign of stopping. During the downswing, I added mana to the blade to enhance its strength, and it collided with the beast, which had severely underestimated my reach or my lack of care for its attacking companions.

The wolf died near-instantly as the dense combination of acid and mana proved far beyond its simple animal fur protection and bisected it. At the same time, the other wolves took bites at my slimy mass, only for their toothy maws to get a mouth full of burning and melting acid.

The three wolves leaped backward in pain, but only one managed to withdraw as two tendrils emerged from where their mouths had previously bitten and engulfed their heads in return. Dumping acidic slime forcefully down their gullets, they didn't even have the time to suffocate.

I felt that exhilarating rush of leveling up and wanted to spend the trait point, but there was one last wolf to clean up. I could have let it go, but these creatures had tried to ambush me and take my life. The wolf was mid-pivot to retreat when it caught the backswing of the greatsword.

I was about to harvest and eat when I remembered the trait yesterday. I considered taking [Magic Resistance], the fear of that wind blade spell still present, but logic won in the end - I could continue to avoid humans and get it later. I made my purchase.

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As I devoured the four wolves, minus their fangs and claws, I received a notification when I ate enough of each corpse.

It was fascinating as I gained jumbled bits and pieces of information at random, but the puzzle pieces were falling together with fewer gaps each time I finished consuming a wolf. It was like I had a detailed model of a wolf in my mind; I had information on their vital points (heart and brain), any resistances they might have had (minor cold resistance), some of their traits ([Enhanced Claws], [Enhanced Fangs], [Enhanced Nose]), and even some of their skills ([Tracking], [Pack Tactics], [Evasion], [Stealth]).

I could use this information to discover traits and skills without needing that orb-thingy. I only needed to consume another wolf to complete the profile. I felt like I could probably build an exact replica of a wolf, even with the small information gaps. My overthinking was interrupted by an even louder ear-piercing howl when it appeared.

A massive black wolf with silverish fur tips, despite its body surpassing the size of any wolf I had seen previously, it seemed trimmed down, relatively speaking, and refined. Its tail was likely longer than its actual body, entirely covered in that silvery fur, and most strange of all, was flat like a blade and jagged in shape like a lightning bolt.

It wasn't alone as another six wolves followed after it - thankfully, they were ordinary and smaller than the ones who had ambushed me. One of the wolves suddenly charged at me, snarling with savage and burning hatred. When it leaped, I reflexively grabbed it out of the air with all my tendrils, engulfing and killing it in seconds. Its corpse rapidly dissolving away - [Acid Slime LV 4] combined with [Slime Density LV 3] was no joke.

The giant wolf let out a massive howl that even shamed the gigatoad's mighty croak - the other wolves immediately cowered before it. I expected it to charge at me, but instead, it slowly approached and looked back at the other wolves as if telling them not to get involved before looking at me again. It swished its tail twice, and I swear I could hear it cutting through the air.

'Is this wolf challenging me to a duel or something? Not like I expected we could talk things out...'

I checked my mana level, which was back up to Ebbing, so I quickly used [Mana Reinforcement] on my core while turning off the cycling auto-compression around it and ensuring nothing but maximum-density slime surrounded it. Doing these both with my primary core used less than half its mental processing and thoroughly freed up my [Sub-Core] to support me. While I wasn't afraid of this wolf, I didn't want to take any chances.

For my [Pseudopods], I created a greatsword, rapier, and tri-claw. Upon completing my three weapons, the wolf leaned down as if ready to pounce. It barked as if to signal the start of the duel and then blurred.

I struggled to keep track of the fast-moving creature as it was darting around with blinding speed, and I swung at it with my greatsword. The wolf somersaulted mid-air, bringing its bizarre tail to the front, and parried my slime greatsword! It then flung itself into the air into another spin and sliced through the tendril, which dropped a large portion of slime mass, including the greatsword, to splatter against the ground.

A combination of shock and anger ran through me from the strange fighting style and losing so much slime mass. I immediately started withdrawing tusks and fangs and set my [Sub-Core] to handle supporting fire as we rapidly utilized [Slime Shot] at the wolf. The wolf dodged to and fro - I couldn't land a single shot. When I tried to bring the rapier in to stab at the wolf while it dodged, its tail seemed to shine momentarily before slicing through my rapier and causing the entire [Pseudopod] to fall with a wet splat to the floor. The slight delay in its dodging to attack caused a few shots to hit it but only caused superficial damage at best.

I tried to chase after it with the claw tendril to grab hold of it, but it did a backflip, and that accursed tail once again sliced through and destroyed my precious slime mass. I started withdrawing reserve slime mass to replenish my stock when suddenly the wolf blurred again and was suddenly directly in front of me while spinning violently.

'Shit!' I cursed and retreated my core deeper, 'If I put enough slime mass between me and it, it won't be able to penetrate to my core unless its tail were longer.'

While the wolf spun towards me, I hoped to envelop it in a tidal wave of slime when it failed to penetrate deep enough to hit my core, but the wolf had other plans. Its tail flickered wildly with bright light, and when it reached its maximum spin, it performed a massive overhead strike that sliced cleanly through my body and sent a projected force of slashing energy toward my core! I screamed when the ghostly slash approached rapidly and struck my core. There was a cracking sound, and unimaginable pain assaulted me. My vision began to waver and blacken.

Pain. It hurts! Pain. Don't want! Pain. To die! Pain. Save me! Pain. Pain. Pain. Must kill! Pain. Kill! Pain. Pain. Pain...