Unable to feel anything with my five senses, I had to rely on my sixth sense to get around the cavern. My body was depending on the slime fluids to keep it alive, but I also inserted mana into it to boost vitality. Cells were slowly, but surely regenerating following the pattern of my soul form. My soul evolved several times after the battle with the spirits and took priority, which means that my soul form was much more prone to the human embodiment.

The giant black ball of ooze turned into a much more compact humanoid form. I wanted to be able to move around freely, since consumption was needed if I wanted to keep the slime fluid alive. When I integrated with all the spirits, I gained the knowledge and instincts of their entire being. Although most animals needed to eat, the slime was particulary in need of consuming. The more it ate, the bigger and stronger it would grow.

The best part of a slime is its ability to eat anything. It can dissolve rocks, grass, metal, flesh and all sorts of matter, doing so the slime cultivates itself and advances both physically and spiritually. Now that I have gotten my hands on its abilities, I am able to increase my strength just by eating whatever I can find, which was also good since I would of had a problem if my human body went on without eating.

Not only did I obtain the slime's prowess, the other spirits that fought in the ring of supremacy were all overtaken by me aswell. After I integrated with them, I realised that only two of the spirits were in their full form: The boss slime and the wolf. Every other spirit was absorbed thanks to the wolf's soul steal ability, which seemed to be able to only take in the souls partially. Even with that being the case, when I integrated with the incomplete spirits, I gained more power when compared to just keeping them inside my soul.

With my remaining torso and head surrounded by humanoid-formed ooze, I attempted to exit the upper cavern. Using my sixth sense, which had advanced several times aswell, I could manifest the surroundings accurately in my mind and started walking towards the hole in the ground that connected the two floors of the cavern. I was still inexperienced in the usage of the slime fluids, so I stumbled with every step I moved forward. It took me a few minutes before I was capable of walking even a few metres. The density of the ooze I packed together into a humanoid form also made me unbalanced, even if I had obtained knowledge on how to manipulate the slime.

After about 20 minutes I was able to crawl into the hole that led to the lower cavern. I simply flowed down with my torso and my head inside the ooze like a smooth, slow waterfall.

My sixth sense view of the lower floor of the cavern became much more clear as I entered it. The skeleton that I had placed to guard me was still standing there strong, but it was disconnected from my soul. All of the other skeletons were out of reach aswell, since the mana strings were cut off during the battle with the slime. The mana of the digging skeletals had run out since they were constantly working while I was gone. When I managed to get to the dark-green foundation, I reattached mana strings onto my minions.

Since I evolved several levels from before, my mana control was immensely more keen. If I focused enough, I would even be able to pull off amazing feats with a skeleton just like a master would control his marionette.

I commanded the skeletons to continue their tasks which I gave them before, but I set my guarding skeleton to assist with the digging since it was too weak to protect me with a rusty sword and fragile bones. I even far outranked the colossal skeleton at my disposal in terms of durability, which was its forte.

I slovenly walked towards the artificial forest between the cavern and the pond room. Feeling good about the reconstruction, I witnessed how much my skeletons had progressed: the tunnel was carved out with a 10 meter distance between the walls and an 8 meter distance between the floor and the ceiling. Luckily, the tunnels were long so the skeletons didn't carve out any holes into other rooms within the cave system.

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I walked really long since I was still getting used to my slimy legs, but I finally reached the forest. The skeletons were digging only a few metres away towards the pond room. There was also some stone rubble scattered around the tunnel floor, but I quickly ate them up with my legs. I felt my vitality increasing everytime I dissolved a rock chunk, even if only a little bit.

I was on the edge of the tunnel where the drop to the artifical forest ground was a few meters of height. I could of just absorbed the large amounts of stone that was carved out and thrown into the cavern where the foundation was if I wanted to increase my power, but I had a definitive reason to come to this forest. There was a mana source half the size of the boss slime in here.

I already knew what it was, another slime. It made me angry thinking how much of a nemesis the slimes have been, but I was relieved knowing that thanks to those slimes, I am far more powerful than I ever was. A small measly slime wasn't going to be a burden to me anymore.

Before leaping into action, I took a good look around the forest with my sixth sense. I was able to slightly see the physical world with my new sense, but it was enough for me to get around. The fake sky had a bright sun illuminating the green leaves of the trees underneath. The grass over the muddy soil was much longer than it should be, but some spots were missing grass completely. Instead, a trail, that looked like something was dragged off, went somewhere further away from the tunnel entrance.

I reassured myself that it would be fine this time around and jumped down. I lessened the impact by expanding my slime legs in an instant since my heavy weight would of meant harm to my human body if I just crashed into the ground from so high up. Once I safely landed I quickly retracted my ooze expansion and packed it all together nicely, just like before. As long as I had slime connected to me I was able to move it freely just like I'd move a limb.

After I formed the ooze back into humanoid legs I began following the soily trail. While on the way to find the end of the trail, I thought of the possibilities that might have turned up the situation of the slime in the forest. Once I analyzed the cave system broadly with my sixth sense, everything became clear.

The baby slime that I had captured and held in the water cage had escaped with my mana connections cut off. It sought to consume, but the pond room didn't have much in it, so it went towards the artificial forest where the 'food' stock was in high amounts. In addition to that, the leftover ooze of the dead slimes was dropped in there aswell. Since there was no sight of the leftover ooze, my theory proved to be correct so far. Its size is the most mysterious though, how could it have evolved so much within a few days? The answer to that is the bush, which had leaves full of glowing mana dust on them, I encountered before when coming to this forest the first time. My theory was proved correct again with the absence of the mana bush.

With every step I took I saw the trail getting wider. In a few minutes I reached the end of the trail, which had already expanded many meters in diameter. The place I stopped at was also the place where the battle with the ogre took place, as seen with the wrecked trees around.

The slime that I had come to kill was calmly resting where the ogre's corpse once was. It seemed like it had just ate and was taking a rest. I was able to tell its condition easily since I was basically a slime myself.

I closed the distance between us by just sliding on the ground with my slime legs. I took a good look at the new slime who just matured, but it was still underdeveloped when compared to the boss slime.

'You have fulfilled your purpose, just like I wanted you to.'

It was by my will that the slime had survived the slaughter in the pond room, but now was the time to repay the kindness that I reached out to him.

I put forward my shoulders, which were slightly done regenerating, and my upper arms, which were still in the phase of regenerating the bones. Ooze still surrounded the healing parts and acted as substitute arms, so I used them to make contact with the sleeping slime. Once my black slimy arms touched its shell, a short fight broke out again.

Instead of physically battling the slime, I directly started integrating with its soul. Since my soul was several times more powerful than the enemy's, I was able to quickly absorb all its life into myself. It woke up swiftly, but it didn't matter; I had more control over it than it did itself. The battle was over quickly as I ate up its soul and its ooze like a vacuum.

Once again, my power had increased. Directly integrating with the soul instead of absorbing it allowed me to take in its full form. It was a far more useful way to gain strength as an alternative to the wolf's soul steal.

Since I was attuned to its physical properties, eating the slime boosted my vitality by a half. My regeneration ability also became much more developed in terms of speed.

'Just a little bit longer...'