Chapter 25 Slime Collection

Ybur ran back and forth between the fungus buffet and Luminous Rock, and after indulging for a day or two, discovered something interesting.

The fungus was growing more and more inside its body.

But this didn't seem to be a bad thing. As mentioned before, this was not ordinary fungus; these were Fungus Beasts, special fungus creatures that could run and jump. A large number of different mycelium even formed their shells and muscles... Yes, Ybur found that the mycelium growing inside it seemed to have formed something similar to muscle fibers.

It filled the spaces between these mycelium with its own gel substance, and when it exerted force again, it felt like it could finally "put effort in the right place." Although the absolute strength of its body didn't increase, the output power increased manifold.

However, it had to align these mycelium correctly to leverage them for exertion. Otherwise, the growing mycelium might restrict and interfere with its movements. Every time it wanted to use the mycelium muscles, it had to arrange and comb through them for quite a while, which was quite troublesome.

After some thought, Ybur simply gathered all these mycelium inside its body, rolled them into a ball after combing them through, and placed them at the core of its body. It kept them that way normally, and would only unfold them when necessary.

Besides this, there was another matter that caused Ybur a bit of worry.

It was about the materials for advancement.

To be precise, the "body tissue of the Mimicry Object" material.

Ruby, who was not a Shapeshifter herself, was not particularly familiar with the details of Shapeshifter advancement but had mentioned it broadly. Ybur, on the other hand, noticed a detail—when advancing, it needed a bunch of materials, such as wheels, blades, thick skin, and the like. But actually, those were just for show; they only borrowed their representative concepts, so after the ritual, those materials wouldn't be consumed. They would stay as they were.

The only material "body tissue" was indeed directly spent. This was the main material for advancement and would be sacrificed to Vocational Practitioners themselves. The [Deep Mimicry] ability obtained afterward came from this sacrifice.

Therefore, Ybur guessed that different sacrificial materials could lead to different outcomes.

Take Slimes, for instance. To most people, all Slimes looked more or less the same, but in reality, Slime was a vast category that encompassed six different subcategories.

These are the Gel Monsters, Gluttonous Monsters, Metamorphs, Freezers, Symbiotic Monsters, and Elemental Monsters.

Among them, Gel Monsters are best at secreting corrosive acid. The acid inside their bodies is the Gel Monster's ace in the hole... quite ordinary with no particular highlights.

The ones good at devouring are the "Gluttonous Monsters" subtype, like flesh eaters and gluttonous tumors. These mud-shaped monsters generally have strong bodies and powerful digestive abilities, living purely to feed and grow larger. They have a broad diet and can eat and absorb almost anything. Additionally, Gluttonous Monsters sort of act as a catch-all category; if a new mud-shaped monster is discovered and its classification isn't clear, it's defined as a Gluttonous Monster... basically just eating, crawling, and growing.

The Metamorphs, as the name suggests, are adept at transforming and disguise. Some Metamorphs are rather low-level, like Trap Monsters or Chest Monsters, which can only disguise as a few specific shapes to lure prey before attacking.

Others are much more powerful, not only using transformation to deceive their opponents but also using their ever-changing bodies as weapons, like growing numerous limbs for attacking, or even imitating other creatures' forms, turning into a variety of powerful Magic Beasts, or even Great Dragons.

Freezers might sound like a strange name, but their representative ability is to split. This type of Slime has strong vitality; even when chopped into several pieces, each segment can survive independently and turn into new Slimes.

The ability of Symbiotic Monsters is also easily guessed from the name. These mud monsters generally have a weaker main body but can symbiotically coexist with other creatures. For example, common Mucous Monsters live in perfect symbiosis with a large number of fungi and toadstools, lacking digestive ability themselves and relying totally on absorbing nutrients from the waste of digested fungi.

Another kind of Symbiotic Monster has a different style and burrows into another's body, enhancing and sometimes even controlling the host's mind.

Last are the Elemental Monsters, which are half mud monster and half elemental creature, like Lava Mud Monsters, Flowing Water Mud Monsters, and Plasma Mud Monsters. Their names pretty much give away what they are.

However, these classifications are not absolute. The classification of mud monsters is actually a summary by people, and many powerful mud monsters often possess abilities from multiple subtypes. For example, [Nest Master Freezer] has abilities from Gluttonous Monsters, Freezers, and Gel Monsters all at once.

But Ybur was not such a powerful Nest Master Freezer; it was merely a Black Pudding Slime, classified under Gel Monsters.

And its pitiable transformative ability as a Black Pudding... it's better described as shape-changing rather than transformation.

Thinking about it, every type of Slime subcategory excelled in different things, so how could they possibly all yield the same result?

And if that were the case... Ybur would have to consider getting a better material.

Using its own body tissue as material would indeed satisfy the advancement needs, but that was not enough for it to master new abilities. It would still be an ordinary Gel Monster, nothing special.

The brown mud monster from before wouldn't do, either. The brown mud monster is a mud-shaped monster that falls somewhere between a gelatinous creature and a shapeshifter, far too low-level, and its abilities actually overlap significantly with Ybur's own, rendering it rather worthless.

However, Ybur was quite envious of the abilities each of the other subspecies of slimes excelled at.

Whether it be devouring or splitting, transforming, or symbiosis... Oh, but elemental monsters are out of the question. Elemental slime monsters are relatively rare and generally powerful, making them hard to find and even harder to deal with. Additionally, Ybur figured that once he advanced a few more ranks and mastered new forms of mimicry, he could probably obtain abilities similar to those of elemental monsters through something like elemental mimicry.

So he needed to find a different variety of slime, not necessarily a powerful one, but preferably with a high-value ability...

But slimes are such a nuisance, just like rats in a garbage dump, you know they're there and probably in large numbers, but when you actually go looking for them, they're usually impossible to find!

So annoying!

Ybur drew a few circles on the ground with his tentacles.

Finding them on purpose was unlikely to succeed; he could only guess where different slimes may live based on their habits and then try his luck—nearly all slimes lacked intelligence, acting purely on instinct. It was unlikely they would roam around erratically like Ybur. Slimes are a very passive lifeform, once they find their comfort zone, they would happily burrow into it and stay put.

In the city sewers, one would mostly encounter creatures like brown mud monsters and black pudding monsters because, to some degree, they can be considered nature's decomposers capable of devouring plants, waste, or rotting flesh, yet they don't grow in size as voraciously as devouring monsters do, making them comparatively safe.

Mycelium monsters are likely to live within the nests of fungi and insects. To be precise, any dark and damp place where fungus and mold grow, given enough time, may become occupied by mycelium monsters. They are a very quiet type of slime, lacking the ability to digest food themselves, they must rely entirely on symbiotic fungi that break down organic matter into decaying nourishment easy for them to absorb. The mold and mushrooms that grow on the mycelium monsters in turn get plenty of nutrients.

Each mycelium monster is a mini ecological cycle, unique in the world due to environmental factors influencing its existence; there are never two mycelium monsters that are quite the same.

However, to be honest, Ybur isn't particularly eager for the abilities of mycelium monsters. Even among symbiotic creatures, mycelium monsters are comparatively weak.

Then there are slimes that were created. Among the many kinds of creatures living in the wilds, the ones most fond of creating mud monsters are witches—those witches can use a mysterious witchcraft knowledge passed down through their bloodlines to create something known as "witch's eye mud monsters," which serve as their mobile surveillance devices.

The term "witch" made Ybur shudder.

Witches are a truly terrifying type of creature, labeled as such only because of their inherently evil nature and their instinctive malevolence toward cities and civilization. Thing is, witches are even slightly more intelligent than humans and are born with some witchcraft abilities. They possess physical strength capable of crushing a cow with their bare hands, along with mysterious knowledge inherited through their bloodline.

Almost all witches can easily Enter Dream, and among those of Ninth Rank and true namers, as many as three are witches—known as the infamous "The Three Sisters with Sinister Eyes."

Other than those... uh...

Ybur pondered for a moment and started to get a headache.

Apart from elemental monsters, which have very clear elemental tendencies, the habits of various mud monsters are quite similar, just eating and crawling... Slimes could emerge from any corner of the Underground World, but similarly, they're hard to find. Other than relying on luck, there really isn't a way to ensure you can find other slimes.

Ybur scratched his head, "Sherry, what do you think? Help me strategize."

Sherry remained silent.

"Sherry?"

"Be quiet, I'm thinking."

And so the two fell silent together.

But all of a sudden, a thought popped into Ybur's head, making his "heart" race with excitement.

He thought of a place, a place where there was a high probability of encountering powerful slimes—

Ruby's laboratory.