Battling The Sponges!
Chapter 21
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"Fragment Expulsor… How interesting," Astaroth said amusingly.
Suddenly, he looked up from his thoughts. In every direction, there was a large mouth of fangs, and all of them were mere inches away from his face.
|Bounce Boost| X2
"Gosh, why is everything always actively trying to eat me? I feel as if all the creatures on this Sponge Pore are out of their damn minds…"
Heaving an exasperated sigh, Astaroth used Bounce Boost a couple more times and got directly behind the Lvl 2 and Lvl 3 Mini Sponges. The Lvl 2s were roughly the same size as him, while the Lvl 3s scaled up to ten times his size.
"Lvl 2s are green-tagged and the Lvl 3s are yellow-tagged…"
After understanding how cautious he had to be, Astaroth did a complete circle around the backsides of the sponges once more. Luckily, he did so, because his original attack path was immediately blocked off by the gaping mouths of three Lvl 3 Mini Sponges!
Dodging another Lvl 3, Astaroth swerved through a group of six Lvl 2 Mini Sponges.
Activating |Bounce Boost| over and over again, he eventually made it to a blind spot of an almost omniscient Lvl 3 Mini Sponge.
Assuming that they figured out where they were and who they were attacking based on water vibrations, Astaroth made sure his presence was less active. Doing this was just enough to fool the massive Lvl 3 Mini Sponge into turning in the wrong direction.
Taking advantage of the Sponge's lapse in judgment, Astaroth used multiple Abilities in quick succession.
|Multi-Pulsation Lazer| X29
|Super Pulsation Lazer| X35
|Jelly Slice| X7
|Razor Cross Slash| X4
|Fragment Expulsor| X1
Although Astaroth had to burn through 85% of his energy storage in order to launch off all these attacks, the result was well worth it!
BAZINGGG!!!
Focusing on a singular spot of the large Lvl 3 Mini Sponge, Astaroth's attacks exploded a huge chunk of sponge gunk out of its body!
Just as the Lvl 3 Mini Sponge was going to shift its mouth toward the prey and gobble him up in one bite, Astaroth used True Energy Absorption and latched onto the open wound with a countless number of slime tendrils!
Like an inseparable leech, he stayed on the open wound and sucked away at the energy of the Mini Sponge.
Skid! Skid!
A few smaller Lvl 2 Mini Sponges saw what he was doing and attempted to leap out and bite him. However, all it took were a few |Super Pulsation Lazers| to blow them to bits!
[Ding! You have absorbed 0.97 Energy from a Lvl 2 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 1.18 Energy from a Lvl 2 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 0.94 Energy from a Lvl 2 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 1.35 Energy from a Lvl 2 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have…]
Dozens of Lvl 2 Mini Sponges were dying by the second, and with an equal amount of True Energy Absorption usages, Astaroth neared a point of Energy Overflow!
Having already sucked up 20% of the Energy of the Lvl 3 Mini Sponge, he momentarily latched off and allowed his body to digest the acquired Energy.
[Ding! You have absorbed 35 Energy from a Lvl 3 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have reached a point of Energy Overflow! Would you like to go through with the evolution process?]
"I sure would."
BLING!
Faster than all the previous Minor Energy Overflows, this one lasted but an instant. And from this overflow, Astaroth advanced from a Rank 1 Mini Sponge to a Rank 2 Mini Sponge!
Astaroth's appearance had gone from a plain-looking yellow sponge to a light orange sponge with two horns protruding from the top of his head.
"Is the goal of every Minor Energy Overflow to make me look more like a devilish creature…?"
While muttering this to himself, Astaroth was suddenly surprised by a massive, yawning pit of fangs!
The Lvl 3 Mini Sponge was going in for the kill!
However…
Without even needing to use a movement ability, Astaroth was able to slide right out of the Mini Sponge's attacking range!
"Ahh, so this body color and these horns are capable of more than just attacking. They also appear to have a passive effect that allows for energy to be capable of controlling movement…"
Analyzing his own actions with a calculative gleam in his eyes, Astaroth also dodged the attacks of both the first Lvl 3 Mini Sponge and a few other Lvl 3 Mini Sponges.
After playing around with the seamless speed augmentations done to his existence, Astaroth stopped the games.
Using a new ability called |Horn Piecer|, he lunged at the original Lvl 3 Mini Sponge and drilled straight through its body. Emerging through the other side, he came out as the only one still alive between the both of them.
Trickling down his large, spiraling demonic horns was the dark pink blood of the Lvl 3 Mini Sponge…
Turning his head back toward the corpse of the Mini Sponge, Astaroth used True Energy Absorption and devoured it whole.
When it came to things that he had personally killed, all he had to do was activate True Energy Absorption, and he could absorb his kill. In this case, it didn't matter if the corpse had more Energy Mass than him.
However, if the dead organism wasn't killed by him, he would need to take the usual 'blink per time more powerful than oneself' route. The same thing also applied for killing alive things that were more powerful than himself.
[Ding! You have absorbed 780 Energy from a Lvl 3 Mini Sponge!]
The first Lvl 3 Mini Sponge died.
Then came the rest of them…
[Ding! You have absorbed 890 Energy from a Lvl 3 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 1.8 Energy from a Lvl 2 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 1,520 Energy from a Lvl 3 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have absorbed 3,450 Energy from a Lvl 3 Mini Sponge!]
[Ding! You have…]
After killing a good forty Lvl 2 and Lvl 3 Mini Sponges, Astaroth pulled up his system interface and perused all the changes.
BLING!
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{[Infinite Energy System]}
[Host: Astaroth]
[Evolution Stage: Mini Sponge (Rank 2)] - [92,500/100,000,000]
[Evolution Area: Sponge Pore]
[Energy Level: 2] - [92,500/100,000,000]
[Energy Storage: 5,020/10,000,000]
{[Current Energy Abilities:]}
[Level 1 (Spore): (Energy Absorption), (Unlimited Energy Absorption), (Spore Slash), (Spore Propulsion)]
[Level 2 (Micro Jellyfish): (True Energy Absorption), (Jelly Lash), (Undulation Zoom), (Razor Whip), (Pulsation Lazer), (Multi-Pulsation Lazer), (Super Pulsation Lazer), (Jelly Slice), (Razor-Cross Slash), (Micro Learning]
[Level 3 (Mini Sponge): (Bounce Boost), (Pit Eruption), (Fragment Expulsor), (Horn Piercer), (Improved Energy to Body Fluency)]
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"Oh? So that energy to control ability did have a name, and it's a passive ability to boot. Pretty nice."
While inwardly nodding his head, Astaroth saw a few yellow and red tags out of the corner of his gaze. Prompting him to look in that direction, he saw twelve Mini Sponges, two of which were Lvl 5, while the others were Lvl 4.
This could mean certain death for Astaroth…
But it could also mean immense benefits!
Making his decision in that instant, he already knew what he had to do!
|Bounce Boost|
Using this ability in conjunction with his passive energy control ability caused his orange spongy body to achieve speeds approaching meteoric stardom!
"A long day is ahead… Time to grind…"
With this statement as his sendoff, Astaroth participated in a seemingly unwinnable battle. And he did so multiple times after that… until eventually, he became…
The strongest Mini Sponge in the Sponge Pore!
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