Slime 3

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In any case, it was made crystal clear that the party, especially the girl, would absolutely kill him on sight. Before continuing, he had to honor his fallen.

If he didn't make the decision to leave that night, he would've been made into charcoal. Black ash covered the cave surfaces and thousands of life-crystals littered the floor. Right now, he confirmed another thing—he would die without his slime. One by one, the crystals began to lose their 'light-of-life.'

As he thought about what had transpired so far, it only affirmed his belief to leave this cave system as soon as possible. Even if it was only a little, he wanted to live this life to the fullest for the longest that he could bear. Hopefully, it won't come to that again.

He now resolved himself again. He couldn't be saddened just yet.

The slime rolled over the ashes and the crystals of his fallen and then realized something dire. Because the nutrients in the area were burnt, he couldn't traverse across the rest of the graveyard without possibly dying from lack of energy.

This was absurd!

Walking on a surface without nutrients could cost him his life. He needed to test his absorption ability. So far, he only absorbed slime and nutrients but he needed to test it on the crystals.

His siblings were dead so they wouldn't miss them. There was no time to waste and if he didn't do this now, the party would be lost to his three-sixty vision. He rolled over a dead crystal and took it into his body. He felt it inside him. But nothing happened.

He needed to figure out how to absorb this crystal. He thought for a few moments and had an idea.

Acid!

An acid with a low enough pH could dissolve any organic material. These life-crystals were organic. Concentrating within his slime was like looking outwards with his three-sixty vision but with the opposite effect. The more he concentrated, the smaller he could see—even to a molecular level.

He needed to manipulate the slime within him, just like what he did with his crystal when it was caught between the rocks. Slimes were already acidic, so he needed to gather the hydrogen ions to his 'stomach.' The crystal quickly broke apart and dissolved in seconds. Then, something happened to his own crystal. It absorbed the crystal fragments and grew a little.

The was also a slight color change visible as his slime adapted to the new color. A normal human wouldn't notice any difference in size or color. The slime could feel that he had more energy within him. Test successful!

He began to absorb all the dead crystals from his former spawning pool. His dead siblings were mindless but they were alive. Just like eating meat, sacrifices must be made to preserve the natural order. The living battles other living beings and the strongest earn their spoils. Although having 'earned' the crystals was questionable…

Whatever! It had to be done!

It seemed the other slimes in the area didn't think to absorb the crystals. Was he the bad guy now because he was eating his own kind? They were thinking the same thing when he went splat on the ground. Eating all those crystals was tiresome physically and mentally.

By the time he was done, his changes were visible to the naked eye. His slime had grown to the size of a pair of boots and turned a blueish color. His crystal also turned to the same color. With this, he had plenty of energy and could move much faster. He felt he could even last without nutrients for a while.

With his newfound mobility, he rolled quickly in the direction of the party that long went out of his sight. Among all the countless caverns in the cave, he found them easily down the cave as they were in mid-combat. They were fighting giant centipedes and lizards.

The two slime killers were engaging the giant centipede with the girl setting fire to the giant insect and the old man cutting through its body with his sword. The other two guys made quick work with the last remaining lizard. The corpses of the overgrown monsters were scattered around the area. Some were even stuck to the wall causing entrails to leak down like a faucet.

…Gross.

Somehow, something was different in the way his three-sixty vision perceived magic after consuming those crystals. He saw the blue flame-like aura that came from the girl casting the flame on the centipede. He also saw the blue aura forming a magic circle on the tip of the staff-arm. He then came to another conclusion. The crystals he ate were also magic.

Eating more crystals allowed him to turn into the color of mana. He could feel it now, running through his veins was the power of mana and magic. Everything in this cave from the spawning pool, to the walls, and to its creatures were filled with this natural aura.

As proof of their kills, the party took the horns of the fallen monsters and bagged them. They also did something else to the corpses and took their crystals from the flesh they cut open with their daggers. The crystals were located at the nape of their necks and they had to dig deep. The humans tore through the flesh as if they had done many times before.

Crap! He thought as he saw the party coming back in his direction after collecting their trophies. What they were doing was some kind of subjugation quest, killing dozens of giant monsters while he was committing cannibalism. Now, they got what they came for and they were heading back up. He had to hide, quickly. However, where do you hide when you become too fat?

He found a large crevice and formed his body into the hole. However, he certainly couldn't be hidden one-hundred percent. If he could, changing his color to match the rocks might be better to avoid detection.

He thought for a moment and just went with it. Everything he hypothesized so far worked in his favor, why not this too?

The party simply passed by without incident. However, he didn't change color. They just didn't notice the big blue spot against the dark background, even with their torches. Becoming blue was lucky for him because of not getting caught. It was bad for him because the size change that came with it made him less inconspicuous. He was curious though, what would've happened if he ate one of those large crystals from those giants?

Another experiment was in order. What would happen if he absorbed something with organic tissue other than those crystals or nutrients, like meat? Of course, the slimes were organics but they were also the same species so they didn't count. The nutrients covering everything in the cave were viscous so it wasn't solid like flesh was.

Also, this reminded him that he didn't test his sense of taste yet. With meat, the taste should be more obvious to him than anything he ate so far. He rolled over to a fallen lizard's amputated foreleg for his meal.

There was no way he would eat a giant insect. It was too gross for him. He still had some shame from being human.

The slime formed around the lizard's foot and completely consume it. He didn't bite the foot off, but the flesh dissolved up to its tarsals leaving nothing but bone. It had absolutely no taste and he became fatter. With this experiment done, he rolled back towards the direction of the party to follow the party of four to the surface.

He was full of energy and had to let it out with a sprint. He was no longer just rolling, but also jumping and bouncing off the walls. He easily caught up with the party. He was free, he never felt so much freedom in both of his lives before! Such a rush of adrenaline through his system, it also made him feel so happy.

For some reason, he was happy even though he died and was caught up in this situation with no direction. Regardless, he couldn't remember the last time he felt happiness this strong. He was a slime, but also strong and able.

Actually, never mind that.

Pretend that he didn't say anything.

Because the party stopped in front of his burnt-out spawning pool.

The wires then clicked in his mind. He ate thousands of tiny little crystals. It was abnormal for a monster to do that after all, to eat other crystals to grow stronger. That was proven by the way the slimes acted and how the giant creatures had similar crystals and features with each other.

They couldn't level up with crystals but he was certain that some creatures could. How else would his body have been able to gain such abilities? He was such a monster and the party realized their prize was stolen by him.

The party looked at the ground of ashes of his birthplace. Ah! He didn't think about it at the time but he left evidence of his actions. His rolling wiped the ground clean of ash. One of the boys had a bag opened, probably to collect the slime crystals.

Why did they even care?! You stepped and shattered so many on the way! He screamed at the party in his mind. With their realization, he could see with his three-sixty vision through the walls that they were coming back. They knew he was here now.

They drew their swords and looked around. Somehow, they knew his general location and were coming back. Rolling back and bouncing off the walls, he decided he needed to go deeper into the cave system. And so, he rolled past the large cavern with the fallen giants and hid near a wall on the other side. If he was this far away, they shouldn't be able to see him in the darkness.

Soon, the party arrived again to the cavern of the fallen giants. They had their swords drawn and were ready for combat. Suddenly he saw the girl, casting some sort of spell and pointed in his direction. One of the boys swung his sword while casting a spell that appeared as a circle with similar patterns to the girl's magic pattern.

The attack came as a projectile from his sword as he swung it. Coming out of his hiding spot, he avoided the blast. He leaped and bounced off the walls at high speed again, deeper into the cave system.

It was a very bad situation for him. If this kept up, the slime would be backed into a corner. He repositioned himself, readying for another attack. If it came down to it, he could rely on the monsters of this cave to distract them to make his escape. He easily dodged the swordsman's attack so it wouldn't be so hard to lure them into some sort of monster nest, given if he could find one.

He waited for the next attack but it never came. After a few minutes, he came out to the large cavern once again and the party was long gone.