The Raven, as she had recently taken to calling herself, held her nose high in the air and boasted proudly. "Looks like I got the most kills this time. Maybe you're losing your touch in your old age, teacher." Getting no reply to her jabs, The Raven looked over at her mentor.

The seasoned fighter was looking down at the last Grey Wolf he had killed, and scratching his beard as he usually did when lost in thought. Squinting towards the party's handsome boxer, he finally spoke. "You felt it too, didn't you, Kim?"

Crossing his arms and nodding, the pugilist replied. "Indeed. I noticed it near the start of the fight, watching us from the treetops. I felt it leave shortly after you killed the last wolf. Do you have any idea what it was?"

Frowning bitterly, the swordsman scanned the surrounding canopy. "...No. I know every creature native to these woods. There are none that fit the description. I didn't look at it directly so as not to spook it, but it was too big to be a bird or slime. It was the size of a child, at least."

Walking to the side of the fighter, the sheep-horned priestess tried to follow his gaze into the thick foliage with her horizontally-pupiled eyes. "Maybe it was a scout or hunter? One of the shorter races, or just young? I've seen some pretty small kids selling beast bits at the hall before."

The swordsman shook his head. "No, that wasn't a sapient. The way its body moved was all wrong. Maybe it would be possible for a powerful ascendant with some weird Rare Skill, but if that were the case, they wouldn't be so incompetent at hiding. No, it's more likely it was an opportunist hoping to ambush whichever side won the fight if they were weakened enough."

"Actually, I don't think that's the case either" interrupted Kim. "When that wolf tried to sneak up on Ovis, I was struck with an illusion of noise coming from behind me. I looked behind myself by instinct before I realized what it was, but it was thanks to that spell I was able to notice the attack."

Once again bringing his hand to his beard, the swordsman finished his ally's thought. "And the only one who could have sent that illusion was whatever was watching us, right? So, it was helping our side, even though we had the advantage at the time. If it wanted to eat the scraps from the fight, it should have been helping the wolves."

Kim expressed his agreement with a firm nod.

"Oh well, I'll report this to the Association when we get back to town. For now, Suzy, help me butcher these wolves."

Leaning forward and fists clenched, she yelled "It's The Raven!"

----------------------------------------

Unaware it had been noticed, Mud proceeded towards the river clearing in which it had previously hunted slimes. As expected, it quickly found a Green Slime after arriving.

Instead of dropping on the wriggling gelatinous glob like it usually did, Mud decided to experiment with its spells as forms of attack. First, it tried sending a burst of concentrated Mind elemental mana to create the loudest noise it could manage.

The slime reacted immediately to the artificial stimuli, pulsating and grasping wildly for the source of the disturbance. While it appeared extremely agitated, the attack didn't seem to do any actual damage to the monster.

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Switching to its other spell, Mud tried to move the monster with Telekinesis. As it pushed on one side of the Green Slime, the creature responded immediately by sending several grasping tentacles in an attempt to envelop whatever had touched it. Since the force was purely the result of mana, the slime grasped only at empty air. Continuing to prod the flailing slime, Mud found that while it could nudge the monster around, it wasn't able to exert quite as much force as it had managed when it tried the spell on inanimate objects such as rocks and furniture. Perhaps a result of natural resistances? As it was, the slime could be pushed a bit. Lesser Telekinesis lacked the strength to crush the monster or lift it into the air. Similarly, while mud was able to pull parts of the membranous surface of the slime by pinching it between two opposed forces, the grip wasn't strong enough to actually tear it apart or cause any noticeable damage.

After spending a long while experimenting with Lesser Telekinesis, Mud opened its status and noted that it had only spent ten mana points over the course of the session. An amount which would likely recover completely before it managed to find another slime, based on past experience. Either these Psionic spells were considerably efficient, or Mud's mana pool was as impressive as the demon Jabrax had previously implied. Either way, it appeared Mud was safe to use these spells freely without worrying overmuch about the mana supply.

Satisfied it had learned all it needed about the spells, Mud fell upon the slime in a whirlwind of dirty tentacles, killing it.

[Experience Gained: 29]

Mud continued hunting slimes until noon. As it hunted more, a worrying trend started to become apparent. The slimes were giving less Experience than the day before.

The difference was slight, but consistent. While before the slimes had given values hovering around the mid-thirties, now the value was closer to thirty on average. The Green Slimes themselves were just as strong, and in some cases even stronger, than the day previous. The only difference that could account for this incongruity was Mud itself; it had gained a level. Since the value of Experience depended on the difficulty of the opponent, perhaps the golem growing stronger had made the enemies comparably weaker, and therefore less valuable. If that was the case, that meant Mud's plan to simply hunt slimes repeatedly until it had several thousand levels would have to be adjusted.

After the fourth slime of the day, Mud was greeted by the long awaited announcement.

[Mud Golem Species increased to Level 3]

[Skill Points increase to 1]

Wasting no time, Mud opened its status.

Name: Mud Golem

Level 3 Mud Golem

Class: none

HP

6/7

SP

0/0

MP

120/140

Spells: [Psionic] Lesser Telekinesis, Paracusia

Skills(1): Climbing 3, Housework 8, Mathematics 3, Psionics 1, Sneak Attack 3, Stealth 3, Unarmed Combat 4, Amorphous Form ®, Dictionary (U)

Status Effects: Incomplete (Articulation Runes)

The HP and MP once again increased by the same amount as last time, perhaps a standard feature of leveling? Aside from that, the only change was that another skill point had appeared. After quickly scanning the Skill list to make sure there were no new options, Mud did as he had previously planned and purchased "Enhance Skill: Dictionary (U)".

At that moment, Mud felt a curious sensation very different from the usual flow of information that followed acquiring a skill. Instead, it felt shifting and sliding in its soul. This wasn't the first time the golem had felt a sensation from its soul; when it had first obtained Dictionary, it had felt something take shape within itself, and when it had formed the contract with Jabrax, it had felt a distinctly different kind of pressure. While the sensation was unusual, it was not uncomfortable, and after a moment something seemed to click into place. The experience left Mud’s soul feeling much the same as before, but with a subtle feeling of increased complexity.

[Dictionary (U) Skill mutated into Almanac (U) Skill]