An excerpt from 'Immortals: The ageless creatures explored' by Dr. Kairon:
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The image that comes to mind when you imagine a slime is most likely that of a weak slimy lime green mass of gelatinous goop slowly sliding across the grassy planes driven purely by the primal instinctive need to survive.
Which could not be further from the truth. You see dear reader while slime's are most definitely slimy lime green masses of gelatinous goop that slowly slide across grassy planes driven purely by instinct.
They are by no means weak. No slime's may be the most resilient and accomplished species on terra.
Slime's are without a doubt the most popular mana beast on terra appearing in everything from children stories to modern art pieces.
But despite it being the most popular and well known mana beast. There still exist this association between weakness and slime's. Which i am going to correct now dear reader.
Well if everything i know about slime's is wrong then what are they? You may or may not be asking right now. Well let me tell you.
Slime's are a pseudo awakened E- class immortal single celled species of ancient mana beast that belong to the Idiomorph family. They typically look like 20-30cm large masses of gelatinous goop. their color can vary depending on species and environment but are most often some shade of green.
I remember feeling incredibly confused when i found out slime's are classified not just as immortals but also ancient mana beast as they seems simply simply weak and insignificant compared to some of the beasts with the same classifications like Dragons, Gryphons and Leviathans. Which they are when you only comparing they destructive ability.
But a slime's ability to survive may be unrivaled among all beasts.
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A slime's biology may be one of the most bizarre in the whole beast kingdom as slime's are to 65% made up of mana, the rest being 20% slime and 15 organs... well one singular organ more accurately.
Slime's only have one organ the Cellcore or Kryttucir, functions as the slime's substitute for the mana core as it has all of the mana core's features and abilities. But it can do so much more than just be a mana core.
The cellcore is surrounded by a layer of 2-4cm thick tissue that is covered in small glands which produce the slime's slime.
These glands have an interconnected rune system inside and around them that help with the production of the slime and imbue it with it's magical properties. The slime's slime from which they have their name, is their most important tool as it is their main form of protection but is also you used to hunt ant eat their prey.
The slime produces two different types of slime one is used in inner layer of the slime and has acidic properties to kill and digest their prey.
The second type of slime is used on the outer layer of the slime this slime has adhesive properties and also has shock absorption this type of slime is used as a form of protection and temperature regulation.
Slime's also use their slime to move by moving their slime around the cellcore in a circular motion to propel themselves forward almost like wheels.
Slime goop is an incredibly useful thing, because of it's adaptive and adhesive properties as well as having high magic conductivity.
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It's used in all types of things from alchemy to mage crafting and even mundane crafting.
There are even slime farm which specialize specifically on harvesting it.
The cellcore also seems to also have the ability to regenerate the slime perfectly.
Slime's have the greatest regenerative ability on terra even outclassing the regeneration of ancient vampire's by far. This ability is the key to how slime's were able to achieve immortality and survive long enough to be classified as ancient mana beast.
The Slime's regenerative ability is a complete mystery but what we do know about it is that it's comes from cellcore which seems to have the ability to somehow to use mana to regenerate to mana out of nothing.
Which sets it apart as one the strongest abilities in the whole beast kingdom right next to the likes of dragon fire and phoenix flames. As every other magical healing ability only accelerates the growth rate of cell slime's seem to be able to create the out of mana. Which is how slime's are able to achieve immortality, as they heal faster than they age.
As most adventures that have faced a slime before slime's are notoriously hard to kill. A slime's regenerative abilities are actually so good that when you cut a slime in half both half's of the slime will regenerate perfectly creating two perfectly healthy slime's.
Which is actually the way slime's reproduce. Slime's do not need a mate to reproduce any slime is actually able to to created offspring as slime's actually don't have genders.
Slime's reproduce using a process called binary fission. When in a comfortable environment a slime will cut of a small part of his cellcore and push it out of himself this cellcore will then absorb the environmental mana and used it to regenerate itself and produce the slime's goop. which then leads to a new slime being born.
Im sure you already know this dear reader but just in case let me refresh your memory.
Ancient mana beasts (or ancient beasts for short) Is a classification for the mana beast of old that have survived the Dimensional Extinction 200 million years ago and have survived to this day.
Beast who have survive this extinction event that erased 65% of the population on terra back then are the likes of Dragons, Gryphons, Phoenixes, Fenrir, Leviathans, Sekhmet, Unicorns, Basilisks and Jormundandr and then then there's the slime.
The slime seems weak compared to all these legendary beasts it doesn't have their intelligence nor does it have their power or magical ability. So how did the slime's survive the extinction? I hear you asking.
Well they used their incredibly regenerative and adaptive abilities. Which allowed the slime to quickly recover and adapt to their new environment at and incredible rate.
It is often debated about which of the ancient beast are the most ancient while some think it's the Dragons other think it's the gryphons
But I dear reader think it was the slime's. Yes you read that right your humble author thinks the slime's out of all the ancient beast are the oldest. But no i'm not insane at least i don't think so nor am i the only one who holds this believe there are in fact many scientist and scholars also think this because slime's are known to live longer than any of the ancient beast as the oldest known slime is a Giant cave slime known as Blob and is around 35.000 years old and still still alive today. While the oldest known dragon died 100 years ago and made it to around 10,000 years old.
The reasons slime's tend to live so long is a mystery though it is most definitely related to their regenerative abilities.
Most slime's are omnivores and will it literally eat anything they get their slime on from grass to dead animals. Though there are some species of slime that are carnivorous like the Spitter slime's.
Slime's have a surprisingly complex way of digesting live prey. When a slime absorb living animals it will first forcefully inject its liveforce into them which gives it a severe case of mana poisoning causing the it to lose control over it magical abilities if it has any. It will the used the acidic slime on their inner layer to dissolve their prey while it still alive and then consume it.