The slime was disappointed. It had tried launching its own body into boulders, dissolving boulders, even jumping off boulders but the message simply would not return. It was a genius however and it was resolved to figure out how to bring the elsuive message back. It would not be discouraged.

The slime milled about aimlessly, straining its brain juice, or rather, core juice. Eventually the beast of probabilty directed the slime's gelatinous form over to the roaring wet snake beast. The valley it lived in was not very large and could be traversed end to end within the span of half a day after all.

As it pondered the intricacies of the universe, gazing at the river before it, it suddenly saw something that boggled its monstrous mind. A fleeting flash of gold, spewed out by the rushing waves. Was this a new kind of boulder or insect? Ever since its mana sight had developed, it had not yet witnessed such a color.

The slime wanted to see that flashing gold, that sliver of sunlight once more. It waited by the banks of the river, and after a short time its efforts were rewarded, although not in the way it had expected. A new flash, a new color. This time the color spoke of moonlight. A solid silver flash burst from the river. displaying its glory for any who might care to bear witness.

The slime was amazed. It did not realize insects grew to that size. That floppy silver insect was almost half the length of its own body. The slime kept watching, and although it saw many of those silver flashes, it did not see another gold flash. Perhaps the gold insect was scared off by the slime's massive mind. It was quite confident that this was the case, for it had seen a bunch of dfferent types of insects but none had yet matched its brilliance.

The slime now had a new goal. It very much wanted one of those insects. If the insects it was already devouring were giving it as much mana as they were, how much would such a large specimen give? It hopped madly along the bank, but despite its core running at maximum capacity, it could not devise a plan that would allow it to snatch one of those flashes of color.

However, a flash of inspiration struck the slime like a bolt of lightning! Again its massive intellect bore fruit. If the insects would not come to the slime, why, it would merely have to go to them! In a bold display of misplaced confidence, the slime flung itself from the bank into the water like a professional.

The slime immediately regretted this decision

Though it did not need to breathe, it had almost no control over its body amongst the thrashing waves and the turbid water almost overwelmed its mana sight. Frantically the slime searched for any means of escape from this nightmarish hell of churning water but it simply could not reach the bank again. The water was moving too fast and it did not know how to move through the water.

After a tense few minutes in which the slime doggedly pursued the true meaning of fear, it slammed wholehearted into a tree that had sadly fallen and had been half submerged beneath the water. The holy tree of life stopped the slime's rapid descent into the bowels of hell. Shakily the slime used its wobbly appendages to haul itself back to the bank and onto solid ground.

After resting for a moment the slime looked at the skinny boulder that had saved it. It felt gratitude for this guardian angel that had rescued it from the maw of the mighty river. The slime patted the tree lightly in thanks.

After its brush with sure death, the slime was resolved to never jump into that hellish moving monster again, new giant insects be damned. It did not give up on the prospect of gaining one of those insects, however its only plan had ended in disaster and it was quite discouraged. It gave up on those shiny new insects for now and went back to slaughtering the insects it could reach as revenge.

It killed insect after insect in its fit of pique, for the rest of the day and night it did nothing but kill those damned insects. Slimes had no need for sleep you see, they were beings of mana after all. Eventually, after much needless bloodshed, a new message appeared.

ding

Free stat point +1

You have stats ready to be allocated

Assign unallocated stats now? Y/N

The slime was smart. It had learned that pressing "N" would not result in anything and thus, it smugly pressed "Y".

Creature: Slime

Life Force: 14/14 Mana: 25/31

Name:

Traits: Corossive Body (P), Slime Body (P), Born of Mana (P)

Unassigned: 1

Strength: 2

Agility: 5

Intelligence: 3

Regeneration: 4

Luck: 82

The slime confidently extended its appendage and pressed the mana script related to its intelligence. After having the fear of death put into it, it did not want to try anything risky like putting a point into one of the other scripts. It knew what Intelligence did because this was the second time it had seen that message and both times it had, good things happened to its core.

Intelligence: 3 > 4

Confirm stat allocation? Y/N

After confirming its stats, the slime felt its brain-fog clearing up even more, although not quite as much as the last two times. The slime simply could not get enough of this feeling, it knew it must be one of the smartest insects in the world by now. The slime had only ever lived in the little mountain valley and so it thought the valley was the only place in the world.

Due to the effects of its massive brain, the slime realized something. Every time te message appeared, it was after it had slaughtered a bunch of insects.

Previously the slime did not engage in the wholesale extermination of the insect species. Their deaths, and later subsequent dissolving, was merely a byproduct of it being unable to see and thus it would randomly climb and fall upon the insects crushing their bodies. After it had gained a modicum of intelligence, it had persisted with its free-falling ways because it had been bored and falling was fun. It realized later that dissolving them imbued its body with mana as well, and it also liked the sound the insects made when it fell on them.

Now however it had learned the secret to gaining power, and so the murder-spree began. Everywhere it went insects would flee in abject terror. No insect could escape the wrath of the mighty slime god. Corpses littered the forest floor, chunks of chitin were flung about mercilessly as the slime rampaged across the land. Wherever its shadow landed, the insects would hear the final toll of the bell for they knew their time had come. They kissed their families goodbye, workers saluted each other in a touching display of comraderie as their lives ended.

Why this demon of death decided to plague them they did not know, but their queens must eat and so they ventured into death's embrace willingly for they would sacrifice everything for their country and kinsmen.

Unaware of the trauma it had inflicted upon the insect ranks, the slime continued its killing frenzy, and a week in, finally the elusive message once agin decided to grace the slime with its presence.

The slime of course put the new point into intelligence. It would continue to do so until even the mighty water trembled before its intellect. With its brain now the size of the sky above, the slime noticed the insects were far less numerous than before, though it was not nearly as bad as when the white fluffy boulders in the sky fell upon the land. When that happened it couldn't find a single one.

Still, whenever it found an insect it would mercilessly steamroll and dissolve the poor creature. The slime did not concern itself with the plight of the insects, it was solely focused on the development on its most important organ.

For the next few weeks it killed any insects that happened across its path, yet the message did not rear its head. The slime was confounded by this, for although the insect population had suffered a decline, it was sure it had killed at least as many as it did when the previous message had appeared.

The slime's attention was again brought back around to the river. It knew there were large insects in the river and it was sure the message would appear again if it were to dissolve one of those giants. The slime trundled up to the river and put its prodigious intellectual might to the problem before it. How could it obtain one of those giant insects?

Day after day passed. The wind blew the leaves off the trees. The leaves fluttered through the air, settling amongst the roaring waves, and yet the slime still did not move. Unbeknownst to the slime, the clouds begun to gather overhead.

The clouds gathered and still gathered forming dark masses of near black density in the skies above. A massive shadow was cast over the land portending the demise of all creatures unlucky enough to be caught in its wrath. Perhaps the summer had been too hot causing more snow to melt upon the mountains than usual, foreshadowing the imminent disaster that now spoke its tale upon the whipping wind.

Rain fell like the wrath of the gods, inundating the land under its righteous deluge, and still the slime did not move. Trees bent and swayed, some buckling under the might of the demonic winds that now cast their eye upon the land. Lightning, fast and fierce, sundered the very earth, sending chunks of smoldering rock skyborne, and yet the slime, still absorbed in its thoughts, payed no mind.

That is, until it felt itself being scooped up as though the heavens sought to reclaim it.

Very quickly it realized that it was not, in fact, the heavens claiming it, and it WAS, in fact, the river claiming it. The river had swollen beyond its natural threshold and encroached upon the land until the slime was caught in its icy grasp.

The slime thrashed about, searching for its saviour, the tree, but alas, the heroic tree was nowhere in sight. Swept out by eddies that swirled amidst the tumultuous waters, the slime neared the center of the raging river. Carried by the waves, the slime was forcefully pushed under the water and back up again against its will as it neared its destination.

The slime did not know where the river went. It had never explored the full extent of the river.

But it was about to.

Ahead yawned a chasm into the abyss, a dark hole cut straight into the mountain above. Like the maw of a demon, the hole sucked the water up as though it wished to devour everything. Not even the light escaped its jaws, for nothing could pierce the inky blackness that composed this rip in the mountain.

WHAM

hissss

A flash of gold. One of those insects had slammed into the slime, and the slime's natural response was to trigger its dissolving tendencies

Free stat point +6

You have stats ready to be allocated.

Assign unaloccated stats now?

Y/N

And with that, the slime was swept away.