The nameless slime gasps for air; his consciousness returns like pulling himself out of a bog, his mind still spinning from the ordeal, an overwhelming feeling of nausea rising in his nonexistent throat. Forcing himself to focus in an attempt to orient his mind, he faintly hears the familiar voice of the system, the announcement little more than noise through the haze of his spinning mind. “Aargh… what the heck happened? It feels like I just came off a week-long bender.” Focusing his mind in an attempt to shake off the mental haze. “I… I need to stay focused and remain calm.” He takes several deep rhythmic breaths, centering and calming his mind, the mental haze still pulling at the edges of his consciousness.
After several minutes, he directs his attention, in a hazy attempt, to recall how he found himself in such a sorry state. “I was trying to gain sensory abilities, and… I almost lost myself to the dark abyss of my mind, but I made it out somehow. Did Winter help me?” He mentally shakes his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts, but he is unable to recall how he made it back from the brink of unconsciousness and his mind being consumed by the dark abyss. “Once I was out… I tried to use my new sensing skills, and- and that was dumb.” He mentally face-palms at the stupidity of his actions. “I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of sensory data flooding my mind. The sensation was like being enveloped in a vast sea of stars, the overwhelming mess of energies overlapping in a dazzling display, overloading my mind.”
The nameless slime’s mind clears by the minute, his thoughts and memories becoming easier to process as time passes, requiring less focus to push back the mental fog tugging at the edges of his mind. “I should have stopped while I was ahead; considering the mental exhaustion condition, I should have known it would be too much, but I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me earlier.” He worries that status effects and conditions may be able to affect his ability to think clearly and make rational decisions; he quickly pushes the concerns aside, calming and focusing his mind once again. “I’m guessing I depleted my mental energy pool that the system was talking about earlier. If that can render me unconscious, I’ll need to be careful in the future since it will likely also apply to my other resource pools.” He sighs to himself in annoyance. “Considering how bad I feel, the mental exhaustion status must still be in effect. System, repeat the most recent messages.”
“Status condition [Incapacitation] gained.”
“Status condition [Mental Exhaustion] removed.”
“Status condition [Mental Fatigue] gained.”
“Status condition [Incapacitation] removed.”
“Congratulations, you have gained the skill [Minor Soul Recovery Level Two].”
“Congratulations, you have gained the skill [Minor Soul Recovery Level Three].”
Examining the system messages, to his surprise, he finds that the condition [Mental Exhaustion] has been removed, replaced with the condition [Mental Fatigue]. But his greatest surprise is that his new skill [Minor Soul Recovery] has automatically increased to level three without any action on his part. “It looks like the [Minor Soul Recovery] skill is automatic, a nice feature, but it could be troublesome if it consumes too much energy. I wonder how much my core has recovered; the energy drain was high, so I hope my energy isn’t too low. I don’t want to pass back out from zeroing out my physical energy right after waking up; I’ll need to check my status screen before I do anything else.” Having not viewed his status screen since delving into the abyss of his mind to acquire extrasensory skills, he calls to the screen with a thought. The status screen dutifully appears in his mind at his beckoning, displaying his updated status.
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Species: Small Lesser Slime Spawn
Race: Beast
Name: (Nameless) (No Surname)
Grade: Low G
Level: 0
Body Size: 2.54 cm (1 inch)
Core Size: 0.5 cm
Core Health: 5 / 3.105
Slime Body Health: 10 / 10
Stamina: 10 / 7.506
Mana: 3 / 0.3015
Mental Energy: [Unknown]
Condition: [Mental Fracture], [Mental Fatigue]
Stats:
Strength – 0
Agility – 0
Constitution – 1
Intelligence – 0.15
Wisdom – 0.15
Presence – 0
Perception – 0
Speed – 0
Skills:
[Spawn] – skill level 1, [Digest] – skill level 2, [Lesser Slime Acid] – skill level 3,
[Lesser Acid Resistance] – skill level 4, [Unknown] – skill level 1,
[Mana Cycling] – skill level 2, [Suck Up] – skill level 2,
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[Lesser Fear Resistance] – skill level 1, [Attention] – skill level 3,
[Immersion] – skill level 1, [Counter] – skill level 1,
[Augmented Sense – Touch] – skill level 1, [Life Sense] – skill level 3,
[Energy Sense] – skill level 3, [Soul Sense] – skill level 3, [Ponder] – skill level 1,
[Hunch] – skill level 1, [Energy Manipulation] – skill level 1,
[Minor Soul Recovery] – skill level 3
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To alleviate his concerns, he inspects his available energy first, and to his surprise and delight, his total has increased since he left the abyss, recovering by roughly ten percent. “How long was I out for; it looks like the energy drain is nowhere near as bad as when I was dumping energy into my core to get the skill. That’s a pleasant surprise, at least. I’ll need to keep that in mind if I do something similar in the future. It also looks like my energy regen is faster than the drain; however, the recovery rate of my core is still abysmal.” He frowns at the status screen. “I restored my core to around three-fifths by the time I left the abyss, and it has hardly made any progress since then despite gaining two skill levels.” Despite the progress of his skill, his disappointment is palpable. “Well, the longer it takes, the more levels I should get, so there’s that.”
He scans over his other resource pools in thought. “I wonder how long I was out for? My mana has seen a twentyfold increase, so it might have been for a while. I might as well see how long it takes to recover.” He sits, counting the seconds as they pass him by, and to his delight, after twenty-seven seconds of waiting, his core health increases by 0.003 points, bringing his total to 3.108, and at the same time, his stamina and mana also increase. “Well, that explains why it’s taking my core so long to recover.” His stamina increases by 0.002 points, bringing the total to 7.508, while his mana increases by an abysmal 0.0015 points, bringing his total to 0.303. Continuing his count, he finds that after a minute, he sees the same increase across the board to all of his resource pools, confirming that either he regenerates spent resources every minute or the status screen updates every minute. Either way, it confirms a general time frame for his recovery.
Despite the joy of this discovery, his happiness turns into disappointment once he realizes how slow his recovery rate is. “Why is everything so slow!? Hey, system, why are all my recovery rates so slow!? It will take hours to restore my resource pools, and once they get bigger, that time will increase to days!” He mentally shouts at the system in anger, which remains silent, much to his irritation. Doing some quick mental math, glaring at the system screen in annoyance, he realizes it will take well over six hundred minutes to heal his core; ten hours is not the worst possible time frame, but it is longer than he would like, considering this time will only grow along with his resource pools. After a moment, he sighs, mentally slamming the system screen shut in frustration. “It’s better than nothing, I guess, and hopefully, my recovery rates will improve alongside my skills.”
The nameless slime begins to set off, looking for more mana grass to consume, when he stops in his tracks, struck by a realization that he completely overlooked. “I acquired a [Minor Soul Recovery] skill that lets my core heal by consuming my physical energy. If that’s the case, why don’t I have a stamina and mana recovery skill or even a health recovery skill?” He sits in thought for a moment, considering the possibilities. “Energy and mana seem to have a natural inborn regeneration rate, and I imagine my health also has one, or at least I hope it does; however, there is a possibility they don’t have corresponding skills, but it seems more likely they do or at least they should; based on what little I understand. Hopefully, the skills increase the regeneration rate above what is normal, like a healing factor for my resource pools. That should also apply to my physical health recovery as well, I hope.” He considers how to acquire other regeneration skills but quickly shakes off the idea.
Sighing in frustration, he considers his next move. “Okay, what should I do now? Improving some of my new sensory skills or getting new skills would be nice, but considering I still feel like I got hit by a truck, I should avoid taxing my mental state for now. Normally, I would drink some water and sleep off a bender, but despite how bad I feel, I’m not even the least bit tired. I hope I can sleep; it’ll be a pain if I can’t.” He sighs in thought. “I’ll have to go back to eating mana grass and working on my other skills; hopefully, they don’t aggravate my condition, but I can’t sit around until I feel better.” He grumbles at the monotony of his new life. “Well, looks like it’s back to eating tasteless grass; too bad I can’t smoke it.”
He chuckles mentally at his attempt at a joke. “Well, if my stats continue increasing at the same rate, I should only need to eat seventeen more mana grass to hit one in my intelligence and wisdom stats. Hopefully, something new will happen at that point.” Keeping time with his [Counter] skill, he picks a random direction and travels in a straight line, searching for more mana grass; the sense of dirt shifting under his weight, thanks to his [Augmented Sense – Touch] skill, the only reason the nameless slime can tell he is moving, but in less than a minute of travail, he hears the all too familiar voice of the system sounding in his mind.
“Congratulations, you have gained the skill [Augmented Sense – Touch Level Two].”
He stops in his tracks for a moment, focusing on his newly upgraded skill, attempting to feel the difference, but despite his best efforts, he cannot feel any improvement. “I can’t really tell if there’s a difference; perhaps my skills are progressing slowly over time, and only once they hit a certain threshold do they level up, but the progress is slow, so it keeps me from noticing the minor changes. Kinda like hair, you can’t tell it’s growing until it’s too long and you need a haircut.” He considers the possibilities before shaking off the thoughts and continues his search. After another minute of aimless wandering, he slams into a familiar object that he can now quickly identify as mana grass.
Engulfing the base of the plant, he begins consuming the mana grass. Knowing from his previous experience that it will take around five minutes to complete the digestion process, he focuses on developing his skills; he uses the [Augmented Sense – Touch] skill to focus on the sensation of the plant matter dissolving and dispersing into his from while splitting his attention to picture a digital clock in his mind ticking away the seconds with his [Counter] skill in an attempt to occupy his mind during the mindless task of digesting the tasteless plant matter. After a tedious and uneventful five minutes, he finishes consuming the mana grass, triggering the familiar voice of the system.
“Congratulations, you have consumed one unit of [Mana Grass].”
“Congratulations, your [Intellect] has been increased by [Point Zero Five] units.”
“Congratulations, your [Wisdom] has been increased by [Point Zero Five] units.”
“Congratulations, your [Maximum Mana] has been increased by [One] unit.”
“Congratulations, you have gained the skill [Split Focus Level One].”
“Congratulations, your stamina has been fully restored.”
The nameless slime focuses on the system messages with keen interest. “Huh, that’s interesting; my stamina got restored. I guess that makes some sense; eating food provides nutrients to your body, supplying it with energy and nutrition over time, but in my case, I’m basically just a mobile stomach. So, I guess the energy is absorbed directly into my form; no need for all the normal bodily processes.” At that thought, he chuckles to himself grimly. “That might explain why I never saw my stamina drop until I dumped a large portion of my stamina pool into my core.” He ponders this new development, considering the possibilities before directing his attention to the new skill after a moment of thought.
He considers the new skill with excitement, the new skill lifting his mood. “Well, at least the new skill is self-explanatory; I was hoping for a multi-tasking skill, but this is still good. I wonder how it works? Does it just make it easier to divide my attention?” He ponders the new skill, questions racing through his mind. “Humm, why did it take so long to gain this skill? I have been splitting my attention for a while now, but I’m just getting the skill now. Could the skill be a higher level, rank, or rarity, making it harder to get or take longer to train? Perhaps there were requirements that I needed to meet?” He shakes off the questions, focusing on what the skill can do. He pictures a clock in his mind ticking away the seconds while concentrating on the texture of the ground, but after a minute of effort, he can’t be sure if there is a difference. “I think it’s easier, but I can’t be certain.”
He sighs to himself, directing his attention to the system. “Hay, system, I know you have other functions, so why don’t you tell me what they are.” He frowns internally at the silent system. “Fine. System, what is [Split Focus]? System, what is [Split Focus Level One]? System, define [Split Focus]. System, what is the function of [Split Focus]? System, explain skill [Split Focus].” He screams internally in exasperation at the system’s continued silence. “I know you have other functions, you stupid system!” He grumbles in annoyance. “Why did Winter not add a help function or something; is this her idea of some kinda annoying test, or is she just trying to give me a hard time at this point?” He stews in his anger for a moment longer before shaking it off. “Whatever, I don’t have the time for this, but don’t think this is over.”