All slimes are formed from alchemical mishaps. Wild slimes are formed when water collects enough magical detritus from various plants to react; all other slimes are formed when some foolish alchemist miscalculates an action.
All slimes are dangerous.
A recently formed slime is insanely caustic, dissolving almost anything given time, though glass will contain it for a short time.
A slime that absorbs enough of something will take on some of it's properties, which can make it more dangerous. On the other hand, a slime that dies will leave behind more of what it absorbed than it originally took. On some rare instances, a slime has somehow developed a second base.
The most common, and least dangerous slimes of all are dirt and plant slimes. Fragile and relatively non-caustic, but also effectively worthless.
Gold slimes are commonly created intentionally by alchemists. These are more caustic than dirt or plant slimes, and a little more sturdy. They are prized because you can feed them rubbish for a few months, destroy them, and reap in a significant amount of wealth. If it were not for it's use in enchanting, gold would have been devalued beyond belief. Nonetheless, alchemists and wizards who have abused gold slimes have driven the price of gold down low enough that you can reasonably expect a meal in a tavern to be half a gold piece.
Metallic slimes besides gold are less common, both because they’re less lucrative and thus less likely to be intentionally created, and because they’re much, much more dangerous due to their resilience.
Flesh slimes would be as weak as dirt slimes, if not for their cunning. Fortunately, they’re rare….
Experiments with isolated slimes have revealed that the type of flesh used can effect the process. Heart slimes spew blood; Liver slimes purify alcohol.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES…. IS A BRAIN SLIME TO BE CREATED.
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Hungry.
That was my first thought when I came into existence. Not “I’m hungry”, because I was not developed enough to be an ‘i’. In fact, thought was a stretch. I did not think I was hungry. My existence was hunger.
Hungry. Trapped.
For you see, I was in a rather spacious beaker. Uncapped, but since I was about the same size as a thimble, that hardly mattered.
...Eat?
I attempted to eat the beaker, which worked out….not at all.
….Ow! Food? FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD!
….I had had a chunk of something...something….delicious dropped in me. I quickly withdrew from the walls of my confinement and began devouring the morsel.
I Want More.
…
What Is I?
….
FOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOODFOOD
(Another morsel had been fed to me)
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From The Journal of Archmagus Azera the Exiled
Those fools fail to understand the true potential of slimes. All they see is the money they can get by abusing these freak accidents of magic.
I see a potential they never would have seen.
What if a brain slime maintains the intelligence of the brain it was fed? Why, such a thing would grant whoever it was fed to, if not immortality, then a second lease on life.
I must test my theory, and damned be the rules! I have found an old man, desperate for another day but on the brink of death. Even alchemy cannot restore old age.
…
Until today, that is.
He all too eagerly agreed to be my first test subject, knowing his end was soon. I stayed by his side, ready with preservative spells, and extracted his brain once he breathed his last.
If this journal reads no more past this point, then this experiment was folly. May the Gods forgive me if my actions bring destruction to the land.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Yet if my experiment succeeds, then I shall be hailed as one, and on the day of my death I will join him in slimedom. I have built an alchemically treated shell in case the caustic properties of a slime are not controllable on a conscious level. It should look identical to any golem, which is good, as most golems cannot talk and I cannot assume that he, as a slime, would be able to.
It would be a mere trifle to build more, far less work than a golem.
I must be off. I have treated this journal, too, so that any who come after me may know of my folly or success.
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[Congratulations! You have evolved from a Common Slime into a Brain Slime!
+20 Intelligence!
+5 Constitution!
+25 Wisdom!
+2 Strength!
+1 Dexterity!
+10 Charisma!
-5 Corrosion]
As I devour the last morsel, something appears in front of me. I jump, startled.
My flinch, combined with my increased mass from the meal, upsets the beaker, which flips and shatters. Vibrations rend the air around me(I would later determine that the vibrations were someone screaming) as I land on some kind of odd flesh.
[You have consumed Leather.
Would you like to add Leather to your evolutions?
Evolution cap:1/11, based on Charisma.
Opportunity timeout in 5 minutes.]
Not knowing what the words said, I ignored them, instead simply consuming the odd-flesh, aka leather, and soon entirely destroying it. I feel myself shaken by the creature the leather adorned in an attempt to kick me off, but cling stubbornly as I begin consuming their flesh in earnest.
[You have consumed Muscle
You have consumed Fat
You have consumed Bone
You have consumed Nervous Tissue
Would you like to add any of these to your Evolutions?]
The creature stops screaming, grabbing something before poking it at me. Sparks fly.
[Archmage Azera has cast Shatter Cohesion on you!
-2 Charisma!]
His hand shakes and he pokes it at me again, making the same thing pop up before hurling it away in frustration.
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Why wasn’t the anti-slime rod having any effect! It was unheard of for it to take more than one casting to effect a slime, and I hit both times! Oh god, I’m going to die, aren’t I?
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[By increasing your body mass, you have increased Strength and Constitution by 1 and decreased Dexterity by 1!]
I had consumed approximately a third of a meter of height off my food, and still seemed to have the most juicy bits to go.
The messages kept cropping up and disappearing. About midway through my meal, the vibrations stopped. (I would later learn that I had consumed his lungs and he could no longer breathe.)
[You have consumed: Liver, Kidneys, Lungs, Heart, Stomach, Eyes, Ears, Vocal Chords]
As I finished my meal, a surge went through me.
[By consuming a complete complex nervous system, you have obtained:
+5 Intelligence
+5 Wisdom
+1 Charisma]
Curiously, I poke at some of the pictures and manage to select Lungs entirely by accident.
[You have added the Lungs evolution!
You have learned the skill (Pump Air)
Pump Air level 1 0% experience, cost 25 stamina
Blast air to slow a enemy, knock them back or effect your environment!
Currently generates a 1 second blast of air at 1 m/s
+.25 Air Affinity
+10 Constitution
+2 Strength
+5 Dexterity
2/11 Evolutions Used]
I feel the sudden urge to do a thing and push air around for a minute. Wheee!
After a few minutes of that, I feel incredibly tired.
[Pump Air level 3 15.3% experience, cost 24 stamina
Blast air to slow an enemy, knock them back or effect your environment!
Currently generates a 1.2 second blast of air at 3 m/s
+.75 Air Affinity]
Meanwhile, my body has been eating the floor under me, chewing through the wood and down to solid rock
[You have consumed:Oak Wood, Granite
By consuming 10 different types of food, you have earned the title Novice Gourmand!
Novice Gourmand:
+50% eating rate while equipped.
-10% negative food effects while equipped]
Hmm, that moving thing was tasty. This ground stuff is kinda bland.
I know! I should go find more moving things! My body can feel tremors in the ground, so I dial back on the floor eating and instead just feel the floor.
…..
[By attempting a action, you have obtained the skill Tracking!
Tracking level 1, 0% experience, passive
+1% effectiveness of all tracking related actions]
Oh, hi, weird thing!
….
I think I hear something that way?
I casually slide in that direction until I bump into something, then simply digest that in order to force my way inside.
[You have consumed Clay Brick!]
I stumble upon what I would later learn was known as a ‘rat’. But more immediately, I got to know it quite intimately as ‘food’.
[You have consumed Fur!
By consuming a complete simple nervous system, you have earned 1 wisdom and 1 intelligence!]
Mm… Delicious, but a little less hearty than the big one.
[By exercise of your opinion, you have unlocked the Food Criticism skill!
Food Criticisim 1 0%
You are the worst kind of person.]
Blissfully ignorant of the judgement of the very fabric of the world upon me, I cheerily puff air while listening for my next meal.
[The status, Broken Cohesion, has faded!
+2 Charisma! +2 Charisma!]
Do these things actually mean anything?
In fact, how am I even percieving them? It isn’t feeling, which is the only sense I really have…
(I would later learn that the Menu would not let a silly thing like blindness prevent someone from seeing it, and thus it projected itself directly into the brain--er, mind-- of any living thing.
Yes. Even plants.
Not that it does plants much good, as they lack a way to pick things. And usually lack minds.)
Hmm.
Oh, hey, another meal! I nab the meal(rat) and quickly dissolve that too, blissfully ignorant of gaining another point of Intelligence and Wisdom.
….I’m feeling a bit slow. Maybe I should shed some mass?
I quickly focus inwards, trying to reduce my mass.
[You have unlocked the special Slime skill:Reprocess Slime!
Reprocess Slime level 1, 0%, cost 1 ounce of mass/minute
Per minute:
+100 HP
+100 Stamina
+100 Mana
Per half hour:
+1 Dexterity
-1 Strength
-1 Constitution
Per 5 hours:
+1 Density
Through use of a skill that grants ranks in the skill, you have unlocked the special slime skill Density
Density level 1, 0%, passive
-1% damage from all bludgeoning sources, -.5% from all slashing and burning sources
+2% Strength
+2% Constitution
+1% Dexterity
+5% Corrosion]
Nng, that’s slow...but still, it feels good! I feel like I have a lot more energy now.
While my instincts are warring with it, something tells me it would be wise to leave that on, so I do.
Alright, so, uh…. Yeah, I’m just gonna keep hunting these tasty things.