Syl

Chapter 23: Tutorial Complete

I once again found myself floating in the infinite void of darkness, except this time, instead of being a disembodied nothing, I was my slime-self.

'Shit... Did I die during evolution or something? After surviving that crazy monster wolf, only to die in my sleep.'

With a wet squelch, I found myself in a familiar chair. Fear and dread filled my core while I worried that Gramps was about to scold me.

"Welcome, welcome! I'm glad my little experiment is going so well. You've certainly been a busy little slime, haven't you?" The voice of Gramps suddenly echoed everywhere. He sounded very pleased, which made me deflate visibly as the tension drained.

'So I'm not dead, I'm still alive? I was really worried I'd let you down.'

"Heavens no. You're unconscious while having your first evolution, so I thought I'd pop in for a little pep talk. After this evolution, it will be a long time before I can visit again." I could hear Gramps chuckling in his response, which had me tremendously relieved, until he went eerily quiet, "Unless you die, of course."

'Nope! No dying for me! Going to live my best slime life and do you proud.' I quickly thought and tried to reassure him while holding back internal tears. When he had spoken that last line, it had made my soul shudder with unnatural pressure.

"Yes, good. Although you cut it close with that wolf, you had the potential to take it out yourself without the [Experiment] emblem's assistance, but you seemed to freeze up after he hit you once."

'Is that why my body just seemed to move automatically?'

"Yes. Basically, it flooded your mind with unfiltered survival instincts. You have a habit of overthinking things too much. It was a bit of a failsafe protocol to help you get past the tutorial."

'Tutorial?'

"Yes, up until your first evolution was what we consider the tutorial. You had a surprising amount to choose from, but you've been very busy trying out so many things you rapidly unlocked them."

'Sorry, can you explain a bit?'

"For monsters, evolutions are achieved by any combination of their environment, actions taken, or the skills and traits they've acquired. You unlocked Predation, which is quite rare, by gaining [Stealth] and [Sneak Attack] and then also by hunting higher level monsters."

'And I earned Aquatic just by hanging around the pond too much?'

"A bit more than that, but yes."

'Thanks for the information. I'm glad that I can somewhat influence my future paths. Back to what you said previously, what did you mean about tutorial?'

"Now, the training gloves are off, and you're all on your own. There was supposed to be a reward if you didn't trigger the failsafe - regretful that it happened right at the finish line."

'Wait... All on my own, that means no more help with traits?'

"Of course, I don't think any other candidate tried to brute force the help as much as you. Although, you are the only slime one."

I wasn't paying too much attention after he confirmed I'd be receiving no more help, and a horrible feeling dawned on me; I'd completely forgotten to look at more traits before evolving. Dread and a tinge of loneliness clouded my mood, and Gramps seemed to have sensed it.

"Tell you what, I'll show you one more for the road. Think of it as a consolation prize for almost making it without the failsafe. I'm honestly surprised you didn't accidentally earn it from all your experiments."

Violently explode slime mass in a pressurized burst that can coat a large area in slime.

The area affected, maximum volume detonated, and burst delay reduction scale with trait level.

Compatible with other slime traits.>

'This would have really been useful against that wolf.' I thought, immediately recognizing that this was a good trait and one I could feasibly get without spending a point.

"Exactly. Hard to dodge a bursting balloon full of slime."

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'Thanks, Gramps. I'll miss our talks if you can call them that.'

"Don't worry; we can chat again on your next evolution, and I'm sure you'll find someone else to poke eventually with so many questions."

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I was about to ask more questions, like about my nonexistent class and emblems, and as if sensing my intention, the chair suddenly disappeared below me.

"We've run out of time for today. Good luck, little slime. I'm rooting for you."

The blinding light below swallowed me up before I could protest.

I woke up to a barrage of notifications.

My curiosity was bubbling; I had received two new traits and even a skill. I quickly looked at my two new traits.

Enhances an existing trait that allows bodily transformation or manipulation and allows shapeshifting into a close facsimile of any creature or object.

This trait level, knowledge of the target, and practice all affect the accuracy and capabilities of the form in an additive or substitutive manner.

The combined level of both traits reduces any physical discrepancies between your natural form and shapeshifted form.

While shapeshifted, traits the target possessed can be mimicked, provided there is sufficient knowledge about them.

Quantity and Maximum Level of mimicked traits scale based on this trait level.

Enhanced trait: [Shape Slime LV 3].>

If I had to guess, this was the defining reason to pick my evolution, going far beyond any traits I had gained previously and truly showing the power behind evolution.

Mentally picturing transforming into a wolf, for example, I could see that my thorough knowledge of them from the profile created by [Consuming Osmosis] would give me a perfect transformation. I held off turning into a wolf, as I had another trait to read and still wanted to look at the emblem.

Allows the slime to shift its coloring to better blend into its environment or to match its shapeshifted form.

Level 1: Change the color of slime mass.

Level 2: Change the opacity of slime mass.

Level 3: Change the slime core.>

I was surprised to see a trait description so clearly laid out, with a specific benefit for each level. I guess [Shapeshifting Mimicry] didn't include changing color for some reason, but with only three levels, this was nothing to complain about.

Next, I looked at the skill; this was the first skill given directly, so it must be related to my evolution.

Blocks identification skills and items of a lower level from inspecting your profile.

If combined with transformation, shapeshifting, illusion, or other forms of deception, then a false profile can be shown instead of blocking, leading to a higher success chance.>

I didn't know what identification skills were, but hiding the fact I was a slime could definitely be beneficial. That gigatoad learned the hard way when I was pretending to be an ordinary blue slime.

Finally, I looked at the emblem, still being one of the biggest mysteries ever since I first looked at my status menu.

Achieved by defeating multiple apex beasts or monsters.

Receive a Skill Point whenever defeating another apex creature, provided it is of equal or greater level.

Equipping this emblem will alert the owner when encountering a valid target, and any experience earned will receive a boost from confronting the target.>

'So if I understand this correctly, if I do something Gramps thinks is noteworthy, then I can earn an emblem. This one seems unbelievable, and I can finally get skill points!' I thought to myself happily, 'Equip [Apex Hunter]!'

It was good to learn that you can only equip a single emblem per day, but my answer was immediate, 'Yes.'

Curious, I pulled up my profile

Name: - [Apex Hunter]

Race: Mimic Slime (Blue) LV 1

Class: -

Status: Healthy

Mana: Overflowing

'Oh... It puts it next to my nonexistent name. That's interesting, although I'm not sure what the purpose is.' I thought curiously, then wondered if I could give myself a name, 'My name is Blue.'

Warning: This cannot be modified again without system privileges.>

'No! Abort!' I quickly screamed, worried about that warning. I'd have to think hard for a name I'd like eventually. I pulled up the rest of my status for thoroughness.

Emblems:

[Experiment]

[Apex Hunter]

Traits:

[Mana Slime LV MAX]

[Acid Slime LV 4]

[Pseudopod LV 4]

[Slime Density LV 3]

[Slime Shot LV 3]

[Shape Slime LV 3]

[Shapeshifting Mimicry LV 1]

[Chroma Shift LV 1]

[Consuming Osmosis LV 1]

[Core Refinement LV 4]

[Core Storage LV 3]

[Sub-Core LV 2]

[Mana Circulation LV 2]

[Mana Reinforcement LV 2]

Trait Points remaining 1

Skills:

[Dissection LV 4]

[Mapping LV 2]

[Stealth LV 3]

[Sneak Attack LV 1]

[Improved Accuracy (Lesser) LV 2]

[Identity Block LV 1]

Skill Points remaining 1

I had a trait and skill point to spend still, and no new surprises yet. But I wanted to try out my evolution, so those could wait. I exited my tree feeling like a new slime, and today felt like it was going to be a great day.