Syl

Chapter 9: Treetop Assassin

I focused on eating the remains of the two boars, spitting out bone after bone without a scrap of meat or sinew remaining. A small pile was growing on the forest floor, and I wondered if some creature would find them appealing. I carefully extracted the two large tusks and placed them with my smaller ones, although I still felt I needed to retire my rapier until I got better traits. After much time, my work was finally complete, and I stared at the perfect hide floating inside me and my tusks.

'Wait, what? Dissection?' I questioned and waited for Gramps, but there was silence.

'Does he seriously only help me if I ask about traits?' I grumbled as I opened up my Status Menu.

Name: -

Race: Slime (Blue) LV 4

Class: -

Status: Healthy

Emblems:

[Experiment]

[Mana Slime LV MAX]

[Pseudopod LV 3]

[Slime Density LV 3]

[Core Refinement LV 2]

[Shape Slime LV 1]

Trait Points remaining 1

Skills:

[Dissection LV 1]

[??? LV 0]

[??? LV 0]

Skill Points remaining 0

'Wait, not only do I finally have my first skill, but I'm close to getting two more?' I'm shocked by this information, as I clearly need to pay more attention to my Status Menu. I gave [Dissection] a mental poke.

This skill helps with Butchering, Skinning, Harvesting, and Dismantling beasts and monsters.

Accuracy and speed scale with skill level.

Intuition on valuable parts for rarer creatures requires a higher skill level.>

It sounded useful, although I would not have spent a skill point on it if I had any. But I got it for free, so no complaints. I was eager to discover my other two potential skills, but another matter was becoming rapidly apparent. I looked at my slime with a heavy sigh.

'I've gotten fat.'

After eating the two boars, I was absolutely massive, as my slime was practically overflowing from the tree, and when I tried to compress myself down, the tree would creak a bit from the weight.

'Looks like raising my slime density and compressing my size doesn't just magically reduce the weight. I wonder if I could store my excess slime?'

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'That [Experiment] emblem really does only helps me when I ask questions about traits. I might be in trouble when the helper feature of it goes away. Anyway, Gramps, please explain [Core Storage]'

Allows the core to act as a dimensional storage unit.

Initially only able to store slime mass, extra storage options are unlocked from trait levels.

Storage volume scales with trait level.

Storage does not degrade over time.>

'Ugh... That is exactly what I needed, but I wanted to get [Sub-Core]. But I suppose my actual core still has mental capacity remaining, and moving around the trees with all this excess slime would make it hard to remain stealthy. Please, buy [Core Storage].'

I felt a mental cavity open up in the mind of my core and thought of putting slime mass in it. I felt myself shrink as the slime stored away rapidly, and then I tried to retrieve it and felt myself balloon out again. I compressed some slime to the maximum density and attempted to store it away, curious if it would be allowed and if it would retain the density level. The answer to both questions was yes, which made me ecstatic - a discovery deserving of a happiness wiggle.

I deposited a large portion of dense slime until I felt nimble enough again to move and then moved back to my temporary home. My sense of direction was a little bad, but I eventually found the large tree again. I deposited my tusks in the hole and left the boar hides to hang on the branch, which would act as a unique marker for my trip home. I didn't think animals would try to eat such clean hides if I left them here, although I guess a wandering human could steal them.

I took a moment to activate my automatic core compression to resume training my traits and then flung myself from tree to tree. It was time to hunt.

Grappling from branch to branch, I searched for any potential prey and came across another large boar. I snuck over it and repeated my earlier method: two tendrils to lift the legs and prevent escape, and then suffocate it with slime down the throat.

Disappointingly easy. This time [Dissection] tickled my mind and confirmed that tusks, hide, and meat were the only things of value. I tried to move around with the boar, but it was a bit too large and cumbersome, so I focused on digestion and harvesting, spat out the bones, stored the slime mass, and moved on.

The only other animal worth eating I found after that was a sizable horned rabbit, which I found very bizarre, and the edge of its horns had dried blood stains. I waited for my opportunity, withdrew some slime mass, and engulfed the entire rabbit. It barely had a chance to struggle and soon died.

The only thing of value was its horns, so I ate the rest and then went home. I hung the new pelt and went inside my tree hole, ready for sleep.

Eventually, I found myself in a routine - wake up, eject water, hunt one or two creatures, drop my goods off at home, hunt again, return home, and sleep.

After sneaking up on that last boar, I finally unlocked my second hidden skill.

Helps the user hide their presence, scaling with skill level.>

It made perfect sense I was heavily relying on my treetop ambush tactics.

The deer were nothing special, and I was honestly surprised they even gave a notification. I didn't even bother to skin them, at least they gave a good amount of slime mass. When I returned home, I received my third skill.

The user gains a mental sense of direction, allowing one to retrace their steps or explore new areas.

Higher skill levels provide more function and lead towards a mental map.>

At my current skill level, [Mapping] only gave me the four cardinal directions. However, with this, I felt more confident in exploring further away, which was needed as the nearby wildlife was becoming scarce. I really wanted to eat more to store more slime and eventually increase [Core Storage], and gain more experience to reach level 5 for another trait point.

When I woke up the next day, I decided to head straight East from my tree, as I had the vague insight that going West would lead to the human city. I kept heading East and noticed that the trees were becoming a little sparser and eventually opened into a clearing with a shimmering pond.

'Time to add some fish to my diet.'