Resh knew that there must be useful things to get from the Treabers…maybe. It could be useful for it to look for more. It needed to become stronger and have better weapons in its arsenal. Otherwise it was going to get destroyed by everything that it encountered. Slime Club was great… as a starter weapon, but it was hardly useful. Just to beat something as small as the Treaber, it had needed to hit it almost 30 times!

Maybe it could find something better as it continued to move around? It had yet to absorb the foliage of the tree it was sitting on, so it went to work. With so much Health to regenerate and its Stamina at around half, it was in no great hurry to move so it just kept slowly Absorbing and Digesting. Photosynthesis also continued working passively. Over the next 24 hrs it made some reasonable gains.

Odour Alteration has increased to Level 5!

Camouflage has increased to Level 5!

Photosynthesis has increased to Level 9!

Through Digest and Photosynthesis, you have gained 188.4g of Weight. Your Weight has increase to 342.35g; your Volume has increased 163.02cm3.

It was now above what Wings of the Fly could handle so moving to the next tree was out the question unless it used Consolidate. The tricky thing with Consolidate was that it did not know what stats would change until it completed the process and while it would gain there was also a chance that it would lose some as well. The only way it would know was to try it.

No point messing around.

It again entered the meditative state that allowed it to rest and use its abilities at the same time.

You have gained the General Skill Meditate Level 1! Improves your HP, SP and MP recovery. This skill can only be used while stationary.

Yes!!

Its celebration was short lived as the meditate skill did not seem to be doing much. It should improve with levels, all of its abilities seemed to be slow to grow and improve. It was difficult and none of its skills had even reached level 10 yet.

It would need to consolidate if it wanted to fly again so it checked.

You are planning to use Consolidate! This is irreversible and will take 5hrs and 42min at your current Weight of 335.02g and Volume of 163.02cm3 after the process is concluded you will have a Weight of 17.12g and Volume of 7.78cm3 your new Density will be 2.2g/cm3, while Consolidate is happening you will be unable to perform any further actions, you will not be able to use any passive skills related to movement or growth, only those related directly to your safety, at this time there are Camouflage and Odour Alteration. Do you wish to go ahead with Consolidate? Yes / No?

No. Not yet.

If it became a little bigger then when it Consolidated, it would take longer but it would not be left so weak like it was last time. It had taken it a long time to get back to its original size. If it had been attacked during that time, it might not have survived. It was too big of a risk to take now.

Another day passed, and it grew and expanded more. As its size increased, it also spread itself out to try to absorb more sun. It didn’t know if it would make a difference to Photosynthesis which used the sun to make mass. But the warmth on its body felt nice, like the manure had except this was dry. Another day passed and it grew larger and heavier.

Absorb has increased to Level 8!

Digest has increased to Level 8!

Odour Alteration has increased to Level 6!

Camouflage has increased to Level 6!

Meditate has increased to Level 2!

Eyes of the Fly has increased to Level 9!

Through Digest and Photosynthesis, you have gained 208.6g of Weight. Your Weight has increase to 550.95g; your Volume has increased 262.36cm3.

Now it was at a reasonable size to Consolidate, Resh could comfortable reduce its size and still retain a reasonable size.

You are planning to use Consolidate! This is irreversible and will take 9hrs and 11min at your current Weight of 550.95g and Volume of 262.36cm3 after the process is concluded you will have a Weight of 27.55g and Volume of 12.52cm3 your new Density will be 2.2g/cm3, while Consolidate is happening you will be unable to perform any further actions, you will not be able to use any passive skills related to movement or growth, only those related directly to your safety, at this time there are Camouflage and Odour Alteration. Do you wish to go ahead with Consolidate? Yes / No?

Yes!

This time Resh happily agreed. It would not be able to fly unless it did this anyway and this tree was starting to show signs of an early death. Resh may have been a little overzealous with this particular tree but being a creature of low intellect, it also didn’t care very much. Clearing the top of the tree had ended in another unexpected result. No creatures came to the tree and the ones that had been living there quickly fled when Resh had consumed the top. In the end, this was a great advantage as Resh could Consolidate without any worries about being attacked halfway through.

There was the now familiar shrinking sensation; this time was not nearly as bad though, it didn’t go all the way to the size it started from. This time it was significantly larger, having not lost as much.

Because Consolidate Levelled?

You have Consolidated to 27.55g and 12.52cm3 your Density has increased to 2.2g/cm3!

Consolidate has increased to Level 6!

Consolidate has increased to Level 7!

You have gained and lost the following stats due to size and weight reduction! +2 Speed, +2 Reaction, +1 Resistance, +1 Intellect, +2 Acuity!

Resh gave a huge WHOOOP! It hadn’t lost any stats. It didn’t know why but it didn’t care either, considering what it had gained. Perhaps at some later time after it had finished celebrating it would think about it, considering its attention span though, probably not.

In any case, with this new development it was feeling much better about its Consolidate skill, as long as it did not push itself too hard with the skill or try to use it too early, it suspected it would not have a problem with it. In addition, that piece of good news most of its Health, Mana and Stamina had regenerated as well with the help of Meditate.

With its Weight now under the threshold, it headed out to search for more prey to attack. It would need to sneak up on them and work harder to make sure it took less damage from the next fight.

It had been lucky this time. If the Treaber had not flinched, Resh’s story would have had a very different and very abrupt ending.

The trouble was that Treabers’ were hard to see because their fur blended so well with the trees and leaves, and while Resh could not see green, the black of the leaves and the black of Treabers still helped hide them.

Resh’s Perception, however, was a different story. With it, the Aerial Mini Slime would be able to feel everything within its range. The problem was that Perception’s range was very small. At a Perception of 7 it was under 20cm. It would literally be breathing on the Treaber by the time it was able to detect it with Perception.

The only choice left to it was to fly around near the canopies and hope that it encountered some more. If it could just Assimilate its claws or its fangs or something else that could be deadly, that would be perfect. It would have some additional weapon. It should also break off a branch and see it could use that, although its own body could do the same job. Its thoughts were going round and round in circles. It knew the real reason was that it was scared to be hurt again.

Hunting time!

With that it manifested and unfurled Wings of the Fly and flew low over the trees in search for more prey.

In the 12m that Resh flew it managed to cover four trees that were in close proximity. It didn’t see anything, so it landed in the fourth and rested waiting for its wings to recover while Absorbing and Digesting. Finally, while it was still Camouflaged against the tree branch it saw another small creature foraging on a lower branch. It was not able to fly yet as it was still recovering, but it could drop directly onto the creature.