Resh, grumbling, made its mental way deeper into the process and tried to clamp down on the core nerve that was coming out of its brain and to the rest of its body. With greater concentration, it was able to smother the connection rather than pinching it. This had the effect of reducing the pain. However, it also had the effect of reducing all sensations effectively numbing Resh to everything. All the creatures moving about in its body without being digested, all the creatures outside its body trying to bite Resh, it was all dampened so Resh had no idea where and how its health was being eaten away. Resh quickly realised that removing the feeling of pain altogether might not be such a good thing but for now, it was blessed relief.

You have gained the Talent Pain Killer, focusing your attention on the end of your Sciatic nerve will momentarily relieve pain symptoms at a rate of 1%/sec up to 100%. Each second of Pain Killer will extend Pain by five seconds. When you cancel Pain Killer pain intensity will be reduced. This skill will multiply the experience you gain towards Pain Resistance by 3x when you are in Pain. This skill will multiply the experience you gain towards Pain Resistance by 10x when using Pain Killer. Evolve this Talent to get greater bonuses. No Active Skills can be employed while using this talent, all your attention must be focused on your Sciatic nerve. WARNING: You will be unable to use active skills while still in the Pain status after using Pain Killer.

Okay, so that is good but now I am going to have to deal with the additional pain eventually just for a much longer time. If it is a reduced amount of pain, I can handle it. I think….Also, it does not reduce the damage at all. Okay, I knew that much already. Not to worry. I can handle that as well. I am going to have to recover from the damage as well at some point. I will just get through the worst of it and then evaluate.

Having already choked off the pain for over a minute now it receded to manageable levels, Resh was beginning to instead get a headache from the focus. The pain flared back to life, it was much less than before, it was still a lot but Resh gritted its teeth and bore it. After another few seconds, Resh knew it was a no go. Activating Pain Killer again, Resh held to it for only around forty seconds this time. Resh had barely managed thirty seconds of pain before needing Pain Killer again, it was that bad.

The good news was that Resh had continued to heal as normal so being in pain and healing seemed to be distinct things. That was lucky. Extending its pain would not extend its healing time. The only disadvantage was that if it remained in Pain status then it would not be able to fight. Effectively crippling itself anyway. It needed to tread with caution here. The longer it stayed without being able to use its skills the longer it would be defenceless. Not only that but under normal circumstances, Pain reduced Resh’s chance to hit and dodge attacks as well as reducing the damage it dealt. There was a lot to dislike about Pain. Now it was in a situation where it was not able to use Consume at all because its experiment had gone horribly wrong.

After all the back and forth between Pain Killer and Pain Resistance Resh got its Pain to a manageable level, about half, in the end though, what would have faded away to nothing in under a minute if Resh had just gritted its teeth and bore it, lasted almost ten minutes before going away. Resh was still debating if this was a worthwhile trade-off or not. The one thing that Resh knew for a fact was that if it ever used this Talent in an actual fight; that would be a death sentence.

So there Resh sat, ten minutes after the agonizing pain now having subsided but still nowhere near recovered and within nothing to do but sit there. Not able to Consume anything with its capabilities not working and the skill not functional yet. But it could still do active stuff so it started to make its way back up to the surface. Even if the time underground and been semi-fruitful it was still dull and not worth the effort in Resh’s opinion. I can still get more creatures and stronger more interesting opponents in the shallower parts of the soil. No need to stay so deep unless I need to recover without the chance of further damage and when I can Consume in peace.

Having decided, before it changed its frivolous mind again, Resh headed closer to the surface. Planning to use what remained of the nine-hour cool down to fight and level up some more so that it could come back strong when it tried to optimize Consume again. A requirement to become a Dense Slime since that was what it wanted next. In the meantime, it’s time to hunt!

Zen Meditation has increased to Level 13!

It took Resh a while to get back to the surface but it had not wasted its time in the depths. Gaining enough experience to level once again.

YOU HAVE REACHED Earth Slime Level 4! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Endurance, +1

Dexterity, +1 Strength. Talent Earth Born +2 has increased to Earth Born +3, Earth Resistance +10%

Upon closing the distance to the surface Resh once again encountered a family of Groles, this time though the Earth Slime played it smart. Seeping in from the bottom and the side Resh used its limited perception to great effect, detecting where the enemy was and how many there were before emerging to attack. As before Resh attempted to take out the single Adult Grole that was present this time. That would be the greatest threat, clawing its way into the den, Resh managed to get the Sneak bonus as well which helped immensely. Sonic Boom did its deadly work as well and Slingshot peppered the unsuspecting creature full of bruises while keeping it on the back foot with its knockback effect. Baring down on the Adult Grole with all of its bulk and its arsenal of melee weapons is what sealed the deal after that initial barrage. Within the ten seconds of the Sneak bonus Resh had taken down the Adult Grole and only the Young remained, there were only three this time. Resh went to fire off some more Slingshots but stopped.

Slingshot required a certain amount of Volume for each shot and with Consume not working Resh was not able to use the materials around it. That meant that while attacking the Adult Grole Resh had lost almost a third of its Volume and therefore Weight. This was another unexpected side effect of its broken body. It would need to reserve Slingshot for essential moments from now on. Melee and Magic would be the way to fight for now. With only three Young this would be easy, Resh started with Water Gun on all of them a blast of water spewed from its mouth hitting all three in a wide arc, Sonic Boom was still in cool down. With this done all that was left was a smack over the head to each of them while it closed in. Tail Pole Smash twice took out the one on the left while it was still reeling from Water Gun. Dual Wormtail’s Stab took the middle one in the gut just as it recovered and moved into an attack position, and finally, Slime Club, Resh’s original and most reliable weapon battered back the one on the right mid-air as it pounced to sink its teeth into the soft mush of Resh’s Earth Slime flesh.

Dual Wormtail’s Stab has increased to Level 5!

Tail Pole Smash has increased to Level 5!

That taken care of Resh needed to recover its body and focus once more on getting its skills to work faster. There were still several hours left on the countdown for Consume to start working again but Natural Plant Healing did not work underground so there was no way to aid the process from where it was.

The only way that Resh was going to improve the speed with which it healed was to scrutinize Natural Plant Healing and see if that could make something happen. Zen Meditation might gain some benefit from Resh’s attention as well. Resh decided it was time to visit the surface, some serious work needed to be done.