The rapid pings coming from the Builder-tool startled him. He was just minding his own business and eating the corpses, then it suddenly spoke in a loud voice.

He forgot that he stashed the Builder-tool inside his body. The robotic voice coming from within him continued its announcement.

Oh, eating all of those goblins actually got him to Stage III. [Red Fleshlings] have ten stages before they can evolve, but the DNA needed does scale up as his stage gets higher.

Most were pretty self-explainable, except the last one. Fortunately he knew what it is, as it’s one of the basic abilities a full-grown [Red Fleshling] have. is the ability to instantly digest food thrice his weight. That explains how he managed to eat all of those goblins.

If he had an Evolution Room, he could get a more detailed explanation for this, but since he’s still homeless…

, the ability he used to massacre the goblins, is the first and only ability of a young [Red Fleshling]. Every [Red Fleshling] learns everything about it immediately after they’re born.

Did he get stronger? Yes. Is he strong now? Not even close.

In his planet, young [Red Fleshlings] like him rarely survives. Bigger and stronger predators, harsh and deadly climates; many things can kill them there without any effort. Even fully mutated fleshlings have a hard time trying to live everyday.

Looking back, he was lucky to be taken in by his planet’s military government. Now he’s here to fulfill a mission, a mission that he will see through its end.

… This must be the result of his Stage II brain. Getting smarter is always a good thing.

As he turned to look at a puddle of clear blood, he noticed that his body had significantly grown. About… half his former size? Increasing his body mass made his body larger. His tentacles in particular also increased in length, width and girth. Though the added weight slows him down by a tiny bit, it’s but a small price to pay for a generally better body.

“Ruru?”

Suddenly, the giant roots of the even more gigantic trees weren’t so big anymore. Well, they’re still huge, but not as large as before anymore.

He knew that they didn’t actually shrunk, but him who grew instead. Even so, how can he explain it? This feeling of dominance… this superiority. True, he’s still far from being strong… but he’s also not weak anymore.

Oh well., back to base-hunting. He started dragging his case once again, followed by the huge trail of blood behind him.

“Ruru?”

“Pururu~!”

All of his invisible eyes blink in response to the thing he’s seeing right now. It’s a [Green Fleshling]! Though she does look a bit unhealthy, plus her skin looked awfully transparent too… Her tentacles are missing, either.

“Puru~!”

She introduced herself as Slime. Apparently, Slime had been living in this forest for a long time now, eating and wandering day and night.

“Wuru?”

He asked her if she already has a base here, to which she replied with a tilt of her ‘head’. When did the military send her? If he remembers correctly, he should have been the first invader for this planet…

Several question marks appear behind her. Instead, she ejects a piece of leaf she had eaten earlier, and offer it to him.

“Puruuu?”

No, he’s not hungry… It seems that she cannot understand what he’s saying. Nevertheless, he can still ask her directions around this forest.

“Duru, dururu.”

“Puruu...”

She turned to their south, from where he came from. There lies many delicious fruits, but she said that the tribe of ‘goblins’ live there, so she doesn’t go there. To the east is the giant river where she drinks everyday. The water is clean, and sometimes fish swims right through her body, turning into instant food.

The west will lead to a trail made by the human travelers that pass through the forest from time to time. They usually have scary humans with them, and they kill anything that they see there. Like the south, she tends to avoid going in that direction.

Slime paused for a second. Her whole figure trembled as she chucked out a fish-bone from her body.

“Kuru?”

He asked about the north, but Slime doesn’t seem to be listening to him anymore. She started crawling away from him, towards a patch of bush, to which she proceeds to eat by submerging it inside her body.

She doesn’t have a mouth. [Green Fleshlings] sure are strange.

“Puruuu…”

Since he’ll probably be full for two more days or so, he can probably give her a single food pill. Just so he can ask her again and be on his way.

After getting one inside his case, he crawled near Slime with the pill on his tentacle. He tapped her back.

“Puru?”

“Yuru!”

“Puru?! Puru~!”

Slime seemed happy. She melted it in a matter of seconds. Judging from her bouncy hops, she probably liked it.

“Puru!”

To the north is… nothing. Apparently it’s just an endless crop of trees. Nobody even lives there, as there aren’t any water and food there. Nothing beyond it, either. Just the edge of the forest, ending on a deep cliff towards the ocean.

Did he just waste a food pill for nothing? As if Slime heard his thoughts, she hastily told him more.

Apparently, if he follows where the source of the river comes from, he’ll reach the center of this forest, where the great tree, Yggdrasil, resides. They cannot see it from here as the canopies of the trees completely covers the whole sky, but if he reaches the river where there are no trees nearby, he’ll be able to see it.

“Kuru!”

Well, that was worth it. Now he knows where the important things are. For now, he’s going to this tree called Yggdrasil and maybe set up his base there. He could probably carve up a space inside it with enough work.

Sounds like a plan.

“Pururu~.”

Slime happily swayed from side to side as he walked away. He waved back a tentacle at her, bidding his farewell.

Slime was a nice girl. He’ll also wish her good luck for invading this planet. With the two of them here on this planet, they will be able to cover more ground, thus making their mission faster!

Behind him, Slime stopped moving. She turned to her side and sees a peach. Giddy, her empty mind chased the food in front of her eyes…

Slime told him that the west should take him to a river, and he had been walking as straight as he can be, but… it’s been two hours now. At this rate, it wouldn’t even be long till night settles in. Maybe he should find another tree to sleep in again.

It’s strange, but there seems to be no other living thing within this direction. So far he haven’t met anyone other than those strange green people, and Slime. This forest is huge, so its population must be on ratio to its size too, but…

Maybe it’s the same with his planet. It is big, but the apex predators mow down the lesser ones too fast for them to reproduce. Could something like that be living here, too? He hopes not.

After passing through a particularly thick group of shrubbery, his eyes were greeted to the sight of the setting sun. The sky was bathed in orange, and clouds looked pearly white. Here, the wind feels moist and damp, unlike inside the forest, which felt suffocating and dry.

The sound of running water can also be heard from ways away from him. It came from the pristine clear river that Slime was talking about. Truth to her words, it does look beautiful, and after a closer inspection, he does see a lot of fishes swimming beneath the waters.

Drinking something other than blood sounds nice.