Syl

Chapter 39: Badger Badger Badger

I planned to target any badgers on the outskirts of the den. If not for their [Defy Death], I could have used [Sneak Attack], so the plan was instead to surprise engulf and combo [Acid Slime] and [Poison Slime]. I snuck up on my first target, happily eating the remains of one of the goblins. I jumped and expanded to engulf, hoping my slime would muffle any sounds from the creature. It flailed wildly but wasn't strong enough to escape such dense slime. The paralysis poison was sadly too weak compared to my acid, and the creature died before it took hold.

Then, I transformed back into my disguise and walked to my next target. It was a simple and effective method and easy to replicate.

'Yuzz is going to be so happy with all this fur.' I thought with a mental chuckle, picturing the overeager crafter vibrating with excitement.

After reducing the monster badger population, I found one far away enough from anything else noticing, even if I was slower. I wanted to see the effects of [Poison Slime], so I disabled my acid before engulfing it. Like the others, it frantically tried to escape and slowly began losing its motor control.

It must have suffocated shortly after the poison stopped it squirming. I was a little disappointed in the poison, but it was only level one, so it was all up from here. I reread the description of the trait.

'Affected by outside factors such as delivery method, huh...' I mentally mumbled, 'Skin contact is probably the worst delivery method, so ingestion or maybe direct access to the blood?'

I gazed at the big monster badger and found it lazily sleeping, completely unaware of the danger. I moved on to my next target, although I was running low on badgers now. This time, after engulfing it, I stabbed it with a replicated dagger on a [Pseudopod]. The results were noticeable, and it stopped moving long before suffocating.

I immediately bought the new trait. Unfortunately, testing my new attack method would have to wait, as I did not want to wake up the sleeping beast, and I could hazard a guess that the badgers would make a noise when inhaling poisonous fumes.

I turned back on [Acid Slime], but I only wanted it to melt enough to create exposing wounds for the poison. I caught the unsuspecting monster and proceeded as planned, and the conclusion was a far quicker application of the paralysis poison.

Satisfied with lowering the numbers, it was finally time to deal with the big boss. The remaining badgers felt a little too risky to take out without alerting others, and ultimately, the big one. I wanted the element of surprise, my fight with the Blade Wolf still fresh in my mind. I crawled up the cavern wall sneakily until I was above the monster, and then I started to grow. I silently praised [Adhesive Slime], which made clinging to the roof effortless.

Using all four [Pseudopods], I created replicas of the mightiest weapon I had available, greatswords. A culmination of multiple traits all working together: [Slime Shape], [Shapeshifting Mimicry], [Slime Density], [Acid Slime], and [Mana Reinforcement] to empower these four blades. I allocated plenty of slime mass to my general size for safety and to get a helping hand from gravity.

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I couldn't think of any further preparations, and so I dropped. I allocated two greatswords to cleave the creature's neck like scissors while the other two would penetrate the torso and then promptly detonate from the inside.

Multiple notifications blazed through my head, but I ignored them. Despite all the advantages, my two blades were not strong enough to decapitate the monster in one go. But the wounds were excessive, and the threat of having its head sheared off was real. The two blades that pierced the torso sunk deep, and then their entire blades erupted into acidic shrapnel thanks to [Slime Burst].

The creature howled a raw and guttural scream of pain and rage. I wondered how it was even still alive. I knew it would have [Defy Death], but surely it would simply die after a few extra hits. I was clinging to its back and took another swing at its neck, only for my greatswords to meet with newly and rapidly regrown flesh. I kept hacking away at the neck when suddenly its bristled tail crushed me against its back. The force was enough to reach my core, and I felt crushing pain.

I endured the pain, but it wasn't enough to trigger my [Defy Death]. I wrapped a tendril around its chest, and when it raised its tail for a follow-up swing, I retreated my core from its back to its front. It could keep smacking its back all it wanted now, and I couldn't care less now that my core was safe.

I stabbed my remaining two greatswords into the previous wounds, which were struggling to close up thanks to all the acidic slime, and detonated them both. This was costing a lot of slime mass, but this is what my savings were for, and I would reap plenty from its corpse. With no more greatswords, I went for the simpler spear approach, using all four unoccupied tendrils to stab and then detonate.

I recalled one of my spear tendrils and wrapped it around its neck where the slime was like a noose, tightening as much as possible and melting away at the fresh flesh.

Its entire torso was engulfed by my entire 'body' at this point, and its frantic tail smacks had been joined by its claws digging into whatever slime it could reach. It must have asked for help because even the other badgers had come and started trying to claw and bite at me.

If it was going to have its minions attack me, then I'd use my own. I told my [Sub-Core] to deal with them and armed it with [Slime Shot], [Adhesive Slime], [Acid Slime], and [Poison Slime]. It immediately got to work and started firing shot after shot at each target, the sticky slime clinging to them to deliver the poison payload.

'I swear my head is ringing with so many notifications...' I groaned, 'Why won't it just die already...'

To my surprise, it gave up on trying to attack me and then started to dig, its claws practically gliding through the rocks. I moved my cores to a safe spot and clung tightly to its body with my slime mass. As I lost vision of the cave, I saw numerous badgers had collapsed to the ground, having succumbed to the paralysis.

The giant badger kept digging while I kept leaking slime into its wounds. Suddenly, the digging stopped, and like the flip of a switch, it became dead still. Then it jerked and dug some more and stopped. Then again, and stopped.

'What the hell?' I questioned before finally the notification arrived.

'Oh... I forgot about my emblem. I guess that explains all the traits and skills. It wasn't kidding around with the experience bonus.'

I stared at the giant corpse, and [Dissection] frantically pointed out the valuable parts. Claws, fangs, spikes, fur, this thing was a buffet of treasure. I started to chow down, and now that it was dead, I seemed to have little to no trouble digesting it. It was quite horrific how little of the monster remained inside, with its insides thoroughly melted away. Once again I questioned how it had continued to fight for so long.

'I don't think I'm going to break even with my slime mass spending, but the rewards were certainly worth it.'

Looking at the new poison type, it would dangerously hamper natural regeneration or healing and literally cause your blood to rot into a runny black sludge. It sounded like a hemotoxin on steroids.

'So that monster would cut you with its massive claws, and assuming you didn't die outright, then you'd uncontrollably bleed to death from the Bloodrot.' I puzzled together with the profile and sample, 'I guess it's a good thing I fought it alone, or there would be so many dead goblins.'