Reincarnated Entity: Human

Primary Inherited Trait: Intelligence

Designation: G1

Spawning in Pool L342.11e21

Infancy Stage begun. Stage 1 of 9.

Goal: Survive for 60 minutes.

Optional Goal: Slay 10 slimes for an additional reward.

A small droplet formed on the roof of an enormous cave. Glowing lines of fire pulsated through the rock of the cave, but the droplet was unharmed. As the fire inside the rock pulsed, the droplet swelled and just at the point of bursting, it thumped. The energy inside it shrank inward into the tiniest point of light inside the droplet. The light grew into a minuscule core at its center. Once it fully materialized, it locked in and the droplet released from the ceiling as a perfect oval.

With a splat, the slime Designated G1 was born.

G1, or Gi, as he thought of himself, snapped back into shape as a perfect slime with a tiny shining core. All around him other splats announced the birth of his other siblings. As they landed, they immediately went to war as was proper for any slime. The sound of wet membranes slapping against each other filled the cavern, growing louder as more and more slimes fell to the rocky floor.

Gi was confused though. Part of him felt the bloodthirsty call of war. Desiring nothing more than to destroy and feast on his siblings. Another part of him felt lost. It felt like he was supposed to be somewhere else. An image of a dark haired human came to the forefront of his mind. Who was she? Wait. How did he know what a human was?

Before he could try to remember more, a slime with a dark sheen rushed out from a nearby stalagmite and slammed into his body. As its membrane slapped against his, Gi went spinning away, his own membrane weakening. As a slime, he had a sphere of perception that allowed him to see in all directions around himself. As his body came to a halt though, the dark slime was nowhere to be seen.

It must be a rogue type.

Gi’s mind was already moving ahead of his instincts which only screamed to thrash his opponent. He couldn’t thrash what he couldn’t see after all. What were his options?

[Tackle]

[Engulf]

[Prod]

His natural abilities as a slime came to the forefront of his mind. His instincts told him exactly how each of the moves worked, but his mind told him how he should use them. If he had a mouth, he’d have grinned. With his plan forming in his mind, Gi focused hard on his perception sphere, trying to get as much time as he could. Thankfully, his increased focus paid dividends as he saw a shimmer at the edge of his sphere.

Compressing down to the ground, Gi leaped into the air, not even reaching his own height, but hopefully, it would be enough. The dark slime appeared about halfway through his sphere, trying to [Tackle] just like it had before. Except this time, it rammed into the bottom half of him and Gi’s body rolled over its own.

[Engulf] caused Gi’s body to flatten out, surrounding the dark slime on all sides. His membrane opened taking the dark slime into his body and his slime started to eat away at the dark slime’s own membrane. It used its inner juice to reinforce the failing film, but that only caused it to shrink and weaken further. As a last ditch effort, it used [Prod] from within Gi, stabbing towards his core. Pain spread out like lightning from the strike, making Gi's entire body quiver. Thankfully, the tiny light held on, but that small blow told him how fragile his core was.

Slimes are always so weak, his mind informed him. Gi wondered where all this knowledge was coming from. Could it be the dark haired woman?

Before it could attack again, Gi compressed his insides hard. The dark slime strained against him, but its membrane was drastically weakened by his continued use of [Engulf]. Gi pushed until the dark slime had shrunk until it was only its core. The core provided a last bastion of resistance, but Gi would not be denied. He shoved as hard as he could and the dark membrane popped. He drew the foreign core towards his own compressing down with his slime until the two combined.

Shadow Slime defeated!

Foreign Inherited Trait [Stealth] incorporated.

A rush of euphoria washed over Gi and his membrane shivered with the feeling of power that grew in him. The instincts of the Shadow Slime were absorbed into his own as [Stealth] was added into his list of active abilities. Activating [Stealth], his whole body vibrated in pleasure as he stalked through the cavern. His instincts screamed at him.

Engulf. Devour. Crush.

His soon-to-be victims continued to splatter down from the ceiling or were already fighting amongst themselves. He noticed several large packs of red tinged slimes that appeared to be ganging up on the other slimes around them. His instincts scoffed at their weakness for needing others, but his mind recognized it as a viable strategy. Were they able to communicate? As powerful as he felt, he knew engaging one of the red packs was the height of folly. He flopped stealthily to the edge of the cavern and followed it around looking for easier prey.

A timer ticked down at the top of his vision. His instincts had a sense for how much more time he had, but his mind had translated that into Arabic numerals. He had roughly fifty two minutes left. How many more slimes could he take down in that time?

A nearby splatter forced his mind to quiet and he crept forward, sliding across the ground nearly silent. His whole body seemed to fuzz out of existence as [Stealth] ratcheted up to the next level. Gi peered around a stalagmite. A blue slime bashed itself into the side of a crystal slime. That slime tried to fight back, but the blue slime was bigger, perhaps it had already absorbed another slime like he had. His mind told him to seek easier prey, but his instincts wanted the challenge. He wanted to fight against a slime as strong as him and absorb their cores as he had with the Shadow Slime. His internal conflict only last a second until his two sides came to an accord.

Kill the blue slime while it's distracted and then devour it and the injured crystal slime.

Yes. Devour all.

With that out of the way, Gi crept closer to the blue slime as it started to do another [Tackle] against the crystal slime. Just before it impacted, Gi performed a [Tackle] of his own, ramming into it. Startled, the blue slime flopped backwards, but Gi wasn't going to let it recover. With a small leap, he rushed at the slime again, flattening himself out like a blanket as he wrapped around the blue slime. Wrapping around it, he started to compress, squeezing against the blue's membrane. Unfortunately, this blue was much stronger than the Shadow Slime and his internal acid wasn't weakening it as quickly as he'd like.

The blue slime attempted to [Tackle] but without being attached to the ground, it couldn't get the required momentum. As it struggled, Gi took inspiration from the first Shadow Slime. Flexing his membrane inwards, he launched [Prod] in a flurry of attacks as fast as he could go. The blue slime started trying to block with its own [Prod] but going defensive had been a mistake. Gi fought through the blocks, both of their membranes being damaged by the impact. Gi, however, had struck the first blow. In the combat of slimes, that was key.

The blue slime's membrane finally shrank down to a small enough size that it cracked against its core and Gi's slime rushed in. He flexed, compressing his body as far as it could go until theirs cores aligned and merged with his own.

Aquatic Slime defeated!

Foreign Inherited Trait [Swim Speed] incorporated. Acquatic Slime's additional traits converted to 1 Evolution Point.

Again, the sheer power raced through him. His entire body quivered at his steadily increasing core. The undeniable need of conquering the other slimes and taking their power was all that he needed. No strategy. No thinking. His power alone would make all of them but puddles beneath his membrane.

YES. CONQUER. KILL.

A small voice entered his mind, interrupting his genocidal thoughts. "Y-You saved me!"