**

Name:

Species: Slime, Grey

Age: 1 month

Power Level: 2 (15%)

Life: 17/18 (Max in 00:02:15)

Mana: 5/5

Physical:

- Might: 3

- Agility: 1

- Vigor: 3

- Grit: 3

Mental:

- Intelligence: 5

Bonus:

- Luck: 3

Abilities:

Slime Body

Increased Potential

Skills:

Body Manipulation - Inept (20%)

Iron Will - Inept (10%)

Stealth - Inept (10%)

Toughness - Inept (30%)

**

After getting over its initial shock, the slime immediately dove inward. And to its surprise, it was immensely stronger. Now, it was time to check out its new stuff! Just as it was about to find out what all its boosts had done, and especially about what Increased Potential was all about, the slime picked up something on the edge of its perception: the sound of footsteps. If it could have spoken, it might have made a surprised sound. But as it was, it hastily unwrapped itself from the now long dead rat and hurried down this branch of the cave it was in.

It sensed the end ahead. There were no more monsters here, other than itself, but that wouldn’t resolve its conundrum. Now was the time to locate somewhere to hide, and where better to do that than behind the only thing that isn’t smooth stone? It’s slightly boosted agility allowed the newly enterprising monster to quickly cover the distance from its former spot on the floor to a small box-like object. It was about half a meter in size, which would be just big enough to hide behind. It seems that this was a lucky day for the slime, because the dungeon decided to place a Treasure Chest down this path.

The slime was just sliding into place behind the box when it remembered the rat corpse that it had left behind. It couldn’t remember what exactly happened to corpses like this one, since it never survived long enough before to figure that out, but it was going to trust that the Dungeon had its own kind of recycling system. And so, hoping for help from this new attribute of Luck, the monster focused on staying as hidden as possible. And just in time, too. For not a minute later, the voices of the adventurers were finally close enough for its perception to pick up.

“... I mean, it’s just weird. This new slime has been appearing in the same place of this dungeon for the last few weeks, and now it’s not there.”

“Alright, I’ll give you that. So maybe the Newb Dungeon just had an event happening? I heard from my cousin that they can do that sometimes.”

“If that’s the case, I knew we should have tried to visit this place before now. Everyone has been going on about this ‘rare monster’ for a while now. It was supposed to boost you by a level at least. And that was with six in the Party!”

“This is such a huge loss…”

The slime, being tone-deaf due to its limited perception, couldn’t tell if there were two or more in the group, but they seemed to be looking for it specifically. That just made the slime attempt to condense itself as much as possible behind this chest.

--- Would you like to activate your stealth skill? Yes or No?

Yes! Of course, yes! The slime immediately responded, putting its absolute all into the mental selection.

--- Stealth has been activated.

Even though it felt relieved, the slime did not allow itself to relax, focusing so intently on hiding that it did not notice anything else being said by the adventurers. It did, however, notice when they entered into its perception area. There were four of them.

They seemed to be approaching with caution, stopping only four meters away. It seemed as if they were considering something for a moment, then they let their guards down. One of them, maybe the leader of the group, approached the chest and haphazardly threw it open, only to sigh at the lack of anything useful. They still took it with them, turning around to show it to the rest of the group. This presented an intriguing opportunity. Should it attack the adventurers, maybe getting the drop on them and taking down the one with his back to the slime? On one hand, it seemed like there was something almost encouraging to the idea; however, it resisted the urge and remained hidden.

After what felt like an eternity later, the party continued on their way. They had briefly discussed how odd it was to run into not only one, but two tunnels empty of Monsters. They laughed for a moment as one of them pondered aloud about if the Boss door was already open and the Boss itself lay dead on the floor. The laughter almost seemed to be forced, and quickly died away.

The slime only allowed itself to relax a full minute after they left. And was greeted with another notification.

--- Congratulations! Your Stealth skill has improved from Inept to Untrained. The Attribute, Physical - Finesse, has been created and has increased to 1. Finesse +2, Agility +1.

Well, that should help if it ever wants to sneak up on anything ever again. Which, to be fair, it probably would. And who knows, maybe someday, the slime will be the one to get the drop on these homewrecking thieves! It realized after a moment that the raiders never mentioned anything about a rat lying dead somewhere… or maybe the monster was so caught up in not being seen and consequently killed, that it missed any comments they may have made on the subject. In order to confirm that it wasn’t completely inept at survival, it slowly, and quietly, made its way back towards where the rat corpse should have been only a few moments ago.

About three meters away from the chest, the former hiding spot vanished, leaving behind empty air. The slime paused for a moment. That was odd… but maybe that’s normal? Having never really survived long enough to notice what happened to any boxes the monster had previously spawned near, it wasn’t entirely sure of that answer… Maybe tonight, after the adventurers stop visiting for the day, it could find out? But then again… Monsters don’t spawn during the evening. Would treasure chests be the same? Maybe one day, the slime would be able to clear out its own dungeon before any adventurers would arrive? Putting its hopes and dreams off to one side of its mind for the time being, the slime continued to investigate the rat corpse that, it surmised, would no longer be there.

And sure enough, the slime reached the end of the passage with no rat-like mound lying upon the ground. This ignited a desire within the slime to find out what exactly would happen to these creatures, and in turn itself, after they were slain, but that would have to wait until the next time. Or maybe even the time after that. After all, the monster’s third step in its four-step plan still remained incomplete. It still needed to safely hide until the adventurers were gone. And so, thinking that it would be able to find a new corner to make itself unnoticeable once more, the slime turned to its left at the main passage, heading further into the dungeon, and most likely following after the party that had just looted its prior hiding spot from existence…

The slime slowly approached the end of the main passage in the Dungeon of Newb. The passageway quickly spread out further than its senses could pick up, so it stayed to the right wall. This entire time, it had kept its stealth up, but upon checking its stats, the skill had not moved from its current point since the group had left it behind. Erring on the side of caution, the monster kept crawling forward at a pace that most crawling toddlers should be able to surpass with ease. By the time it was going around to where the passage opened up, the slime was feeling a small sense of accomplishment.

Judging from the vibrations at the end of its senses, the adventuring Party had already begun to fight with the Boss. Though the slime had never seen the Boss personally, it imagined that the group would be occupied for at least another few minutes. With that in mind, it kept moving along the edge of the cave.

Eventually, the slime found what looked to be an oddly sharp corner. It didn’t know exactly why the cave wall looked like this, but the wall on the left side was surprisingly thin. In reality, this was the wide open Boss Room door, though the slime did not have enough evidence, nor common sense, to deduce such a fact. It did, however, notice that there was an opening on the other side of the “thin wall” (door), and that there was a similarly wedge-shaped wall across the way (the other door). To this monster, this oddity of a crevice would be just the place to hide until those pesky monster hunters left. Said monster felt that it had survived much longer this respawn than all its previous respawns combined due to its own wit and desire to survive.

By the time that it had placed itself behind the door, still leaving its Stealth active, the fight with the Boss was over, and the “heroes” were crying out in victory. Well, maybe that was a bit too enthusiastic. They were just glad to be done with it, and able to move on to better and more dangerous prey. The slime waited, making itself as condensed as possible. Maybe it was trying to imitate a stone. Not that it had seen any as big as it was, but it was still hoping to not be noticed. And it didn’t have to wait long for those bandits to make their way out the opening. From its current vantage point, it had no way to know exactly where they were. The monster was able to surmise that they were getting closer to its location, then moving further away, if the sounds were anything to go by.

A few seconds passed as the door closed all by itself, exposing the slime to the open room once more. Sitting as still as the stones it was trying to imitate, the slime tried to just “act natural”. If slimes could sweat, then this one would certainly be doing so by the bucketload. The sounds of footsteps on the stone surface slowly faded away. The slime was not spotted. Only after several minutes of nothing disturbing its senses did it finally relax into a puddle on the ground. That was too close, it thought, thanking its lucky slimes that it was able to pull off the most daring plan it had ever come up with. Granted, this may have been the only thing it had ever tried resembling an actual plan, but it had worked thus far. And in order for it to continue to work, it needed to be ready for anything. And to actually be ready, it would need to know what it was currently capable of. And so, it pulled up its Stats once more.

**

Name:

Species: Slime, Grey

Age: 1 month

Power Level: 2 (20%)

Life: 18/18

Mana: 5/5

Physical:

- Might: 3

- Finesse: 3

- Agility: 2

- Vigor: 3

- Grit: 3

Mental:

- Intelligence: 5

Bonus:

- Luck: 3

Abilities:

Slime Body

Increased Potential

Skills:

Body Manipulation - Inept (20%)

Iron Will - Inept (10%)

Stealth [+] - Untrained (18%)

Toughness - Inept (30%)

**

Increased Potential

“I wish I was that lucky… Oh wait, I am!”

Something within you has determined that you are capable of great things.

As such, you have the potential to grow at an accelerated rate.

What increases and the amount that it does so is based on your Luck value.

Body Manipulation

“Yes, but can you do THIS?”

You have become more capable at determining how your body will move.

Being a slime, the amount you can change your body has been boosted.

You are currently Inept at this skill - 40 Skill Points remain until you increase in mastery.

Iron Will

“Mind over matter.”

You have become able to resist pain caused by attacks to the mind.

All mental attacks have a 5% less chance of breaking your concentration.

You are currently Inept at this skill - 45 Skill Points remain until you increase in mastery.

Stealth

“You can’t see me. You can’t hear me. Unless you can…”

You have learned the art of slinking around, and the practice of the unseen.

You may now attempt to evade another’s senses.

You are currently Untrained in this skill - 410 Skill Points remain until you increase in mastery.

-- You may now choose one of the following boosts:

- Hidden One: Increase one's ability to hide.

- Quiet One: Increase one's ability to move quietly.

Toughness

“You can hit me, but you can’t hurt me.”

Your body is now able to resist physical attacks.

All physical damage received will decrease by 5%.

You are currently Inept at this skill - 35 Skill Points remain until you increase in mastery.

The skills were fairly nice to have, but the Ability, Increased Potential, was a huge boon. Even the now rebellious monster knew that. It just didn’t know exactly how it functioned. These boosts appeared to happen at any time, with no warning or foresight whatsoever. While it wanted to know how to benefit the most from such a powerful boost, it would just have to wait and watch how it affected everything. Now, on to the two important points standing out on its Stats. The first was the new ability it could acquire. And the second was the boost to its Stealth skill. It first wanted to choose the boost Hidden One, thinking that not being seen was more preferable to not being heard.

--- Congratulations, you have acquired the Skill Boost: Hidden One. Finesse +1.

The slight increase to its Physical state was a surprise. The slime felt like it should have picked up that everything would have a benefit somewhere. On to the Abilities:

--- You may choose one new ability from the following list:

- Consume

- Energy Sense

- Increased Vitality

- Increased Soul

Consume

“Mmmm, tasty!”

The energy contained in the fallen bodies of your enemies can now be yours.

You may consume a corpse to regain lost Life and Mana.

Energy Sense

“You may find fault with my eyes, but Energy will always show me more.”

All things found in Creation are made of energy, and you are tapping into that.

Your perception is increased to perceiving the flows of energy more effectively.

This ability will grant you sight.

Increased Vitality

“I shall now make my body better.”

Being able to boost your own life force can make you stronger.

Your body increases in rating.

Increased Soul

“Harnessing the Energy of the universe, my soul will ascend!”

Tapping into the mystical forces will boost your own soul.

Your soul increases in rating.

The slime stared at its options. Each one seemed to be useful in its own way, but which one to choose? It looked over them again and again, but ultimately, there was really only one choice it could make at this time.

--- Congratulations! You have gained the following:

- You have acquired the new Ability, Energy Sense.

- The Attribute, Mental - Awareness, has been created. Awareness increases by 1.

After that notification, the Slime looked at the world around it for the very first time...