Resh realised that it was not a mistake. The Female had intended to cut into the tree that way and as the process continued Resh saw that a larger and larger wedge was being removed from the tree, within a few more strikes the tree’s base had become unstable enough that the whole massive tree just toppled and fell straight down into the nearby brush. The whole process from start to finish of the Female walking across the bridge, felling the tree and then grabbing the base of the trunk and just hauling it over the ground back to the other side of the bridge was a matter of a minute or less. Resh was fascinated! So this was what it looked like to be huge and have that level of strength. It was inconceivable to the Water Slime, beasts and creatures existed like this Human that would be able to destroy trees within a few strikes. Resh longed for that kind of power. It had been working hard and thinking that it was getting strong but that Human could destroy the Panther with a few Axe swings, it knew there was no contest. Of course, it did not know the extent of the Panther’s abilities but Resh was fairly confident…hmmm, sort of confident about the outcome of a fight.

Where was all the raw power coming from? And then to just drag the tree back across the bridge as it was doing now….that was very impressive. The tree had to be at least 100 kg or more, Resh was not sure about weights other than its own but that was still a lot. When would it be able to do something like that? The Water Slime was contemplating the strength this creature would have to have to do these feats and act so casual about it. Was this strength common? Maybe the place that this Human came from had a lot of individuals with strength like this and so this was commonplace.

Resh was both terrified and morbidly curious about finding a place with such strong individuals. What could it learn, assimilate and gain from finding such a place? Could it make any of those strengths its own? Could it even survive in a situation like that if it did manage to get there? The Human (Female) had long since left to head back the way it had come. However, Resh could see in the distance a very hazy and blurry collection of structures that stood out from the rest of the hazy grey that Resh could see. Whatever that was Resh thought that it much be the destination of this formidable creature. The land of the strong. Resh was planning to make that location its next goal.

Resh stared on in quiet reverence of this being. It would aspire to greatness while watching this individual and others like it. Resh had seen the Panther so it knew powerful creatures but for some reason, these Humans resonated with it. As a Slime, no matter what type, it did not have any other creatures that it had encountered that looked like or could do what it did. In some ways that Resh had not understood or perhaps even comprehended before it did feel alone. It had never considered it before but that could easily be attributed to it not having the brain function to consider it. More like though was the fact that it was usually running for its life from one bad decision to the next. Sighing and looking back on the last few weeks, Resh gave it some serious thought….for about 5 seconds.

Then its timer for being out of the water ran out and it started to disintegrate at a rate of 1g per second!

Aaarrgghhh! Why? Whyyy!!!? There is always something I have not thought about! Too many things to consider. Need to find a better way. Resh immediately unstuck from the side of the bridge where it had been observing and dropped straight into the water. If it wanted to get stronger, it was time to start gaining mass and Consolidating. That would get it stat points. In addition, it would need to keep training its abilities and find a way to gain strength as well.

Sinking to the bottom of the river under the bridge Resh began the next step. It began to Consume like it never had before….spreading out across the bed it started with the pebbles of the bed and the soil underneath it. More and more, with the bonus from its Mouth Resh was able to Consume almost 25g per hour of matter, it was not a huge amount but compared to what it could before this was astronomical. That equated to over a kilo every 2 days. Within a week it could be over 4 kilos in weight! Even though there were weight restrictions on its Fins of the Darter Fish that did not mean it had to stick to them. Maybe if it got big enough it would not matter. The Human (Female) it had seen earlier was so much bigger than it, what would happen if Resh became that size! Even bigger…? How big could it get? Resh’s imagination started to go wild, imagining Consuming that whole blurry area with all the structures, becoming large enough to do that. But with its pitiful Consumption speed how long would it take? A year? Maybe 5? It was not practical to aim for that right now, maybe it could someday! The idea of Consuming those Humans did not sit well with it though for some reason. It would need to figure it out and understand why that was, maybe due to the dream. For now, though it was content to Consume and Consolidate a few times to improve its stats, there had to be some advantages of doing that, last time it had gained over +20 stat points! Although none of those had been strength though… Still, at this moment Resh would take any advantage it could get!

Resh ended up spending four days. Four days of nothing but river bed and tiny fish, as Resh grew it spread itself out more. Covering more and more of the river bed, until the whole river under the bridge was covered in Resh’s body. At one point Resh thought it had a chance at a River Crab again but then it scuttled away and left Resh to its own devices. With Resh not moving at all during the process and just getting bulkier, it also became harder to move as well, and give chase.

Ignoring all distractions Resh emerged from 4 days of gluttony its body now covered the entire area that was shadowed by the bridge in a very thin film of Slime.

You have Consumed 2,657.76g of River Bed including Pebbles, Soil and Various Creatures! Your Weight has increased to 3,743.76g; your Volume has increased to 1,627.72cm3!

Resh was HUGE!! The biggest it had ever been and yet it was still small compared to the Human!! Even the Human (Female) was so huge compared to what Resh was now. How was that possible? If this speed of increase was any indication then Resh would need to continue Consuming for over 60 days to get to that size! Resh hadn’t even been alive that long yet!

Consume has increased to Level 16!

Consume has increased to Level 17!

Consume has increased to Level 18!

Resh checked on its skills to see how they had improved after its restful period.

Watery Insect Eyes has increased to Level 17!

Watery Insect Eyes has increased to Level 18!

Corrupt Mouth that Feeds has increased to Level 11!

Corrupt Mouth that Feeds has increased to Level 12!

Ears of the Field Grole has increased to Level 7!

Ears of the Field Grole has increased to Level 8!

Nose of the Darter Fish has increased to Level 3!

…

Nose of the Darter Fish has increased to Level 6!

Strong Odour Alteration has increased to Level 15!

Strong Odour Alteration has increased to Level 16!

Strong Camouflage has increased to Level 17!

Zen Meditation has increased to Level 11!

Zen Meditation has increased to Level 12!

Natural Plant Healing has increased to Level 16!

You have just received -1.7 Luck!

At some point during those 4 days, between shooting off Water Gun, Resh realised that it was also wasting time. It could be identifying things near it and getting better with that. It could get much better with understanding the world around it.

Identify has increased to Level 5!

…

Identify has increased to Level 8!