Syl

Chapter 8: Core Processing

I woke up feeling fresh and ready for the day, and best of all, no more pain in my core. I exited my tree hole and spread out on the branch, noticing that once again, I had water mingling amongst my precious bright azure slime. I created a bowl with my [Shape Slime] at the end of a pseudopod and filled it with ejected water. When all the water was gone, I examined the reflection of my core in the water; it was definitely rounder than I remembered, and the intensity of crimson seemed even more vivid.

'My core isn't fat, is it?' I joked to myself.

I wanted to see if I could use this water to catch birds, so I lowered the slime-shaped bowl to the ground, then extended the arm portion of the attached pseudopod to run along the ground and against the tree. I hoped to have the slime arm appear less conspicuous by having it not dangle from the tree branch directly to the ground and bowl.

Now, I just needed to wait and keep myself occupied by continuing to practice my skills. I needed [Slime Density] to catch up now that [Pseudopod] ranked up, as both were acquired almost back-to-back, so I assumed it wasn't far behind. From how I ranked up [Core Refinement] it was from putting mental pressure on my core by doing strenuous tasks or too many tasks at once. I assumed from the trait description I could also rank it up by testing its defenses, although I had no immediate plans to throw my precious core against branches or rocks - I was not a masochist.

Yesterday, I had somewhat figured out that I could almost program my core to do a routine task, which it would do to the best of its abilities seemingly forever unless I changed the order or perhaps overloaded my mind. Grip the branch with slime compression, avoid dissolving certain body parts, or even carry my tusks in a pocket of slime; my core did all these tasks for me without complaint. I could imagine any human being green with envy over my core's mental processing power.

Using this function, I wanted my core to train two skills at once automatically throughout the day by having the slime around my core compress and decompress around my core repeatedly. My goal was that by squeezing my core I'd be training [Core Refinement] with the mental strain of the automatic task and testing its defense from the compression, and [Slime Density] would also get a workout for free as a bonus.

At first, I did the task manually, and I could feel the pressure building around my core. It was not pleasant, as if my head was trapped in a vice, and I sighed with relief when I decompressed. I repeated this manually a few times and then handed the task over to my core. I monitored that it was doing the job correctly and did a celebratory wiggle after it repeated the tenth repeat. If I had to estimate, I'd say this alone utilized perhaps sixty percent of my core's mental function capacity, while my little tusk pocket only took five percent.

'I guess as I level up [Core Refinement] I'll get more capacity, or maybe there's a trait to add more directly?'

'Gee Gramps, I'm sorry for slacking on the level-ups. Can you please explain?'

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Adds a small independent core that can act as a substitute core.

The complexity and quantity of task assignments scale with trait level.

Primary senses can be projected through the sub-core temporarily.

Requires 8 hours of rest and slime mass to regenerate if destroyed.

This trait can be selected multiple times, each purchase producing an additional sub-core with an independent trait level.>

'Okay, that sounds impressive. I especially like the part about projecting my senses through it. Couldn't I put my sub-core into a tendril to look around corners or peak through a hole without risking my real core? Definitely going on my shopping list.'

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Coming out of my little world, I finally pay attention to my surroundings and notice that birds are splashing in the water already. The birdbath bowl suddenly snaps like a beartrap, and all the birds within are caught. They flail in the water while slime mass floods in and replaces it, and then their struggles slow down and eventually stop. I surprisingly get no notifications of their deaths, but it does at least feed me. I eject the water at the roots of my tree, extend a tendril towards a nearby tree, and start moving. It's time to do some experiencehunting and level up so Gramps doesn't shout at me for being insufficient.

Once I get into the rhythm, I'm shocked at how quickly I can move from branch to branch. I try to only go in one direction so I can hopefully find my tree again without too much difficulty. After some scouting, I locate a boar, although this one has no tusks, and I position myself on a branch above it as it forages herbs. I lower my three pseudopods, one to grab the hind legs and two to form rapiers tipped with a tusk. The boar squeals in panic as I rob it of movement, and then two rapiers pierce its throat.

The corpse is rapidly lifted with my three tendrils and tossed inside. I insert slime into its mouth to eat at the inside and eventually the flesh, but I try to give the order to avoid dissolving the hide. I watch as the hair and dirt on the skin melt away and happily nod when I don't see it eating beyond that. Below, a larger boar with two massive tusks burst into the scene, looking rather frantic, and squeals in anger.

'I might have just killed his mate, and I might need two tendrils to pick up this big boy.'

I start compressing two tendrils to the limit, preparing each one to grab a leg.

'Looks like this job and my auto compression finally paid off.'

I give both tendrils some extra reinforcement, and thankfully, I've got a meal fueling the extra slime mass required for this density. Waiting for the right moment when the pig is sniffing the last spot where his missus was previously foraging, my two tendrils lash out and wrap around his hind legs. He lets out a rage-filled squeal and tries to turn around but is unable to as soon his legs get lifted, and his chin slams against the ground.

Once he's off the ground, the poor pig can only seem to squirm and squeal helplessly. I form my rapier with added tusk and try stabbing it in his neck repeatedly, causing superficial wounds, but nothing like what happened with the smaller and presumably female boar.

'If I had enough slime mass, I could probably just engulf him, stop him moving, and eat him, but I don't think I have enough to cover his entire body in dense slime.'

I stare at his squealing mouth, then look towards my third tendril and grin at the nasty idea I've thought of. I lower my remaining tendril to his head, but he is still flailing wildly, and one of his tusks nicks it. I watch the portion of slime fall to the floor, feeling miffed at the waste. I attach the third tendril to his back this time, and then snake my way towards his mouth and violently inject my slime inside. He tried to bite the slime, but I made sure to compress it, and I didn't think boars had sharp enough teeth to rip through. Eventually, I reach his throat and start distributing slime mass to the tip and expanding to fill up the cavity, which causes the boar to flail even wilder and more frantically until it jerks and goes dead still.

I feel both happy and a little bit disappointed at the notification. That was pretty easy compared to my other fights that had desperation or frantic moments. I slide closer to the tree trunk for a wider perch, then bring up the boar and deposit it inside. Its corpse floats in the expanding slime next to the other, which is barely a husk now.

I temporarily stop my automatic core compression to free up some mental capacity and focus on eating these boars, but I set orders to ignore the tusks and the hide. My slime eagerly gets to work. Meanwhile, I form my rapier and stare at it for a moment.

'Once I stopped trying to stab him, I'd argue it was maybe even easier than any of my previous fights. I just thrust slime in his throat and choked him.'

I form and bring another tendril next to my rapier, and shift its form erratically into strange shapes.

'Perhaps... I should stop trying to fight as a human would and fight more like a monster?'