There are still a few bundles around it, and, belatedly, they seem to have noticed Doll, slowly crawling toward it.

Doll has no knife. Or rather, Doll has the stump of a knife. The blade has entirely rotted away, smoking.

Doll needs food to get its knife back. So it takes a few steps, lining itself up, and leaps forward, arm in front of it.

Doll hopes this works. Because otherwise, Doll might not have an arm anymore.

[Acid Resistance: Minor]

Two pieces of food, its knife back, and a little more knowledge, none of which are very satisfying.

Doll knows that these are Slimes. They know that Slimes aren't, technically, very hard to kill. They aren't even very hard to feed on, because there's only a little resistance to Doll's hands, let alone Doll's knife. And it knows that it can only feed if its hand touches food. Well, it isn't sure on that point, but it's safer to assume...

Also... it'd just fed on two of them, and all it got was... The ability to be hurt a little less. Irritable, it steps toward the third, and thrusts its hand in, grasping...

...Nothing. It got nothing more than a tiny feeling of growing stronger, and a pain on its arm that, thankfully, doesn't seem to last long.

Its arm still looks bad, though. There are tiny holes, and its arm is discoloured. So Doll sits against a wall, as it had when it first awoke, and thinks.

Slimes... Are weak.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Dolls... Are weak. Well, not Doll (relatively), but still, it seems that Dolls are weak.

Warhounds are not. Warhounds are predictable, but they are by no means weak.

Fish can be strong, so Doll puts them in the middle.

None of these things think. Especially not Slimes. Slimes just move toward things they can eat, and it's bad luck that Slimes on ceilings do that by letting go of the ceiling. Break their food, and they simply die.

Thinking about it, if Doll wasn't feeling picky, it could maybe do that thing it did before, the water bullet, and kill the Slimes from further away. Doll resolves to try that once it's finished thinking.

Doll has definitely moved forward, judging by what the adventurers considered backward. But it has the vague impression that forward should mean stronger, better food. Not weaker, if different food. And Slimes very much are not stronger food.

Is this what that Rex meant by not following rules?

Doll stands up. Thinking is over. Doll needs to try things. To know more.

There are more Slimes over there. Three. Stepping toward them, it thinks. How did it make that bullet? It wasn't something it did by thinking, so it just holds up its hand and feels the feeling it had.

Nothing.

Okay... Doll closes its eyes. It made water. It remembers that much. So it should try making water. In the air. It remembers the look of water. The feel of water inside it. The feel of the water from slimes.

And something... Happens. It can feel the water. It pictures it, senses it, tries to shape it, and, opening its eyes, it thinks of it flashing forward, a deadly needle.

SPLOOSH.

The slime... Popped. With a very satisfying sound.

And Doll slumped to the ground, suddenly tired. Doll hadn't felt tired before this, but it knew that if it tried that again, it would fall over. It didn't know if it would die, but, more importantly, it didn't know how long it would stay fallen over.

Slimes may be slow, but even slow things can eat you if you stay still long enough.

Doll stands up, wearily. Nothing for it. Doll has to... Eat slimes to get stronger. Lots of them.

Doll is tired. Doll is angry.

But it's not like Doll has much of a choice, since there isn't any other kind of forwards.