Moving past those morbid thoughts took it out of Resh expected and it needed another nap soon after. Somewhere in the back of its mind, Resh knew that needing this much rest was a sign that things were healing and recovering. It drew some amount of comfort from that thought. But the greater sensation by far was that of complete and utter exhaustion.

Resh was more than tired, it was a weariness that had seeped deep into its core, straight to the brain and permeated every fibre of its being. Resh hoped it would go away with time or failing that then at least the next evolution. Resh resolved to work on that as soon as it woke up from its nap. So…tired… before it knew what had happened, Resh had sunk deeper into the sweet embrace of terra firma.

This time it was two full days before Resh woke up again. It dreamt fitfully, of large metallic bridges and small, dark underground spaces. In fits and starts, Resh awoke, expecting an ambush or death at any moment. While not a fully refreshing sleep it was enough.

Only now, four full days after the incident did it feel like it was possible to chase the next goal. Resh started slowly without any Talents, its head was still hurt too much. Pushing tendrils up to the surface and activating both Natural Plant Healing (Health) and Zen Meditation gave the first indication of everything working as it should be. That was the same as the previous days and pushed its meagre regenerations to their current limit. A paltry 4HP, 1SP and 1MP per hour was the limit of what it was able to achieve.

Next Resh slow began to once again amass volume and weight as before to grow and expand further. The more it grew the more stable the earthen body became and a stably seemed to settle in. Gradually without rushing Consuming Blorenar came incrementally into effect. The steady thrum of blood pulsing and neurons firing became the symphony that conducted the growth and accumulation of mass. The gradual process seemed almost gentle in the quiet of the underground with small organisms also succumbing to the inevitability of joining the greater whole. Experience accrued and eventually resulted in the long-awaited level up message Resh had been waiting for.

YOU HAVE REACHED Earth Slime Level 6! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Endurance, +1

Dexterity, +1 Strength. Talent Earth Born +4 has increased to Earth Born +5, Earth Resistance +10%

Yes! Finally! That took soo long! Resh had noticed that the level ups were coming further and further apart. More and more experience was required for subsequent levels. As expected since Resh was still at Tier 3, this would be the fourth Tier 3 evolution. Continuing in Tier 3 did not seem like the best plan, with the promise of greater and greater experience requirements while gains would remain the same. It’s time to start looking into Tier 4 options. Maybe Dense Slime is better left for Tier 4….but there might be some great abilities I can get from it… Resh was going to have to decide eventually and it had not forgotten about the insects where it had first gain the majority of its experience. It could still go back to that anthill and eat everything. Even with the recent stat loss, it was still much stronger than when it had first gone there. Maybe it is time to explore those options again?

Essentially, Resh could get an infinite amount of experience from those tiny creatures. Insects were easy to defeat and consume, did very little damage and were plentiful in the environment. Not seeing a downside Resh decided that as soon as it could get out from under the soil it was going to rush over and find the nearest colony….Wait! Ants are in and around the ground. I can hunt those right now! I am actually better suited to hunting them now than I was before! Resh was really excited and immediately consulted Mental Map. Right, where it had seen before was the Ant Colony. They will have replenished their numbers by now as well since it has been a while. I will eat some but not all of them that way I can keep coming back. This is going to be so good!

It was going to take a while to get there though, with Resh’s reduced speed and moving through the earth being a little more taxing on Resh’s body as well as the reduced recovery rate. The epiphany was exciting and made Resh excited for the prospects moving forward. There was a clear and easy path towards strength that incurred no risk and definitely none of the pain it had recently felt. Resh was unable to suppress another shudder. I hope I can stop doing that…eventually.

Resh had made the trip from the Ants’ location partly by being swept through by the river, while terrifying it had also hastened the journey considerably. This time the trudge would have to be done the conventional way. But one thing that Resh could use was wings. Not having cause to use them for a long time; now was the perfect reason to unfurl them and let the wind take them! While a part of Resh felt that familiar excitement at the idea of flying above the ground the Earth Slime art of it which currently had the majority baulked at the idea of being so far from the ground where its power and affinity lay. An unfamiliar and unsettling feeling overcame the Earth Slime’s mind at the thought of flight and leaving the ground behind. The ground meant safety and security. The ground was home and an Earth Slime should always be touching the ground! Once again Resh’s instincts were at loggerheads with its mind and passions. What once had brought it a great deal of joy, seemed now to instil fear.

Resh did what it always did when the two were in contradiction. By ruthlessly squashing those ideals it wanted to follow the most and ploughing relentlessly forward. Resh had learnt over many iterations; that decision making was best done with the mind and not the instincts. At least, that is what had worked best so far. It would be more accurate to say that it was two sets of instincts; one was its animalist instincts directly from its current evolution that told it what was safe and what wasn’t. The other set was the historical collective knowledge of what it had been through and what it had done as well as something else, something that hid beyond the cloud and fog, hidden from view, intangible unknowable and dark. That something scared Resh some moments. In some ways, the decisions Resh took were to appease that unknowable presence. The fog was a representation of what Resh did not understand and the more the fog was peeled back, the more Resh could understand and the fear could recede. Increasing Intellect and Acuity was always the best way to remove and roll back that fog. There was not only safety in the knowing but great power and unknowable growth as well. It was one of the many avenues open for survival. Resh would not neglect any of them.

Speaking of, Resh had received an indication that Luck had increased again by another +7.8. After a lot of back and forth, Luck seemed to have started growing now. Resh looked forward to what that would bring for it in the future. So far Luck had not been a strong point for Resh…How unlucky can a Slime get…

While musing on life choices, Resh made its way slowly through the undergrowth to the location of the ants. It was a long trip and when it was only able to move two and a half kilometres each hour it took a while to get there. Resh had to keep consulting its map to make sure it was not diverted in the wrong direction, tree roots and other fauna of the soil getting in the way of its destination. When Resh was tired of digging it would surface and plod along on the surface using Land Dwelling, making sure that its body was always touching the ground like a good Earth Slime. Battling its instincts was all well and good but it was exhausting as well. That is not a fight I want to keep at for the next ten hours!

That was roughly how long the trip would have taken, another half day ticked off the countdown of On the Brink. Resh watched the countdown with mixed feelings. But it did help to keep track of how much time had passed. The gaps in Mental Map also slowly filled with the journey, covering areas slightly outside what had been explored before closer to the river was like a painter filling in the darkness with an even brush stroke. With immense satisfaction, Resh went out of its way to fill in those gaps so a journey that would have taken half a day ended up taking much longer, with the back and forth. Of course, Resh also got tired on the way and had to rest and sleep in the interim as well so the hours continued to stack up.