Being perpendicular to the ground again was fantastic. I was high enough above the ground that I didn’t need to worry about attackers and the vibrations were less annoying up here. Wall gang forever!
If I could whistle, I most certainly would right now. Sadly, slug anatomy didn’t allow for jaunty tunes, so I had to make do with singing songs mentally. I was about halfway through my rendition of Fool’s Garden’s Lemon Tree when I arrived back at the watering hole.
Once again, the small pool was surrounded by all kinds of shapes and blurs, curiously not fighting each other. I wonder what would happen if somebody broke the unspoken treaty here? Would they all just descend on the unsuspecting party? Or would an all-out brawl ensue until only one was left standing and the rules were restored? Would poisoning the water supply count as aggressive behavior?
I still suspected this to be a great avenue of XP, but there was still a certain degree of risk associated with trying. For one, the monsters might realize that this particular pool of water was bad news and abandon it. Or my poison would cause them to puke their guts out into the pool, which would be bad news since there was no drain for this thing.
Generally, I think this was still a good farming strategy, but it’d have to wait until I was a mighty tier-one monster.
No, what I came here for today, was two things. First, I was thirsty. So it was with some trepidation that I descended from the safety of the wall and approached the water. Once again, I could feel tens of eyes focus on me for a moment, before everybody went back to drinking. Yes, we did this bit before, moving on!
I eagerly vacuumed in the liquid in front of me, quenching my thirst. I’d assume that this would also top off whatever was generating my mucus, which was important. After all, I used that stuff to move around and defend myself. And in general, I don’t think it was particularly fun to be a dried-out slug. That’d just make me dead lickity-split!
While I was drinking, I also eyed the monsters that were present and spotted the usual suspects. A few hyenas, some centipedes, I think I saw a giant praying mantis, what appeared to be a gorilla, a huge snake of sorts, and many others. What stood out to me was the fact that these “monsters” were decidedly un-monster-like, aside from their size and strength.
It seemed like someone took a bunch of regular animals, made them bigger, and labeled them as “monsters” with their fancy new labeling machine. Maybe that’s what it meant to be a tier-one monster. Maybe tier-one monsters were just regular animals that got turned into monstrous beings.
So then, what would a tier-two monster be like? I think the key to figuring this out was actually myself. When I created my slug body, I got some mutations as a bonus. At this point, I’d guess that a tier-one monster got some crazy mutations when they evolved into a tier-two. This would make them look a lot more like a traditional monster, and if I was correct, it’d be pretty easy to spot a tier-two if I ever saw one.
Just take me as an example. Compared to other slugs, I was bigger, had fancy colors, and had deadly abilities. I guess I could be considered a tier zero-point-five. Not quite there yet, but definitely stronger than a tier-zero was supposed to be. Speaking of other slugs, they were actually my second reason for coming here.
Slugs needed to be hydrated at all times, so it’d stand to reason that they’d come here, or hang around in the vicinity. So as long as I stayed within the non-aggression zone of the pool, I could look around for them as much as I wanted!
I wasn’t able to spot a single slug hanging out by the water, so I retreated a bit and started patrolling the pool’s edge. If any slugs came here they’d have left a mucus trail, which I could follow. A bunch of the monsters present seemed to get kinda fidgety as I approached behind them, but they all behaved themselves and adhered to the rules of not eating the slug wandering around.
It didn’t take a long time for me to stumble over my first mucus trail that lead towards the pool, but that wasn’t what I was looking for. So I continued on my search, and sure enough, I eventually found one leading away from the pool, presumably from the same slug. The hunt was on!
I started following the mucus, like a greyhound on the hunt. The trail was relatively fresh, so I suspected it hadn’t been a long time since the slug left. Which also meant that I would catch up to it right quick. And it didn’t really take long at all because I spotted a small brown blur moving away from me after I turned around a big boulder.
Not wanting to stay exposed and away from the pool for too long, I didn’t beat around the bush and started eating the little one as soon as I caught up. Still a fucked up thing to do, but I had places to be and eight other slugs to eat. I got another ten experience points for finishing off the slug, as well as the update on my quest. Satisfied, I turned around to the pool.
If it was this easy, I’d get done with the slug part of my quest in no time. They were tier-zero after all and just existed to help weak monsters like me to level up.
Stolen novel; please report.
I got back to the pool without issue and resumed my patrol around it while being eyed by the thirsty visitors. And just like before I found two more trails that I followed to a tasty treat. Well, they weren’t really tasty, since I still had no tastebuds, but you get the gist.
Eventually, when I was close to completing a full round of the pool, I crawled across the motherlode. Multiple mucus trails overlapped each other, and they all came, and went, in the same direction. Oh boy, looks like I finally found a group of slugs.
I eagerly followed the trail, which lead me closer to the wall. Ah, good ol’ trusty wall, once again being the best place to be. The trail lead me around a maze of rocks until I eventually arrived at the wall proper. I was led up the wall at an angle and eventually arrived at a small hole, barely big enough to fit me.
Oh, what a nice hidey-hole you had here, my sluggy friends. Too bad that this predator right here could fit into your sanctuary no problem. I squeezed myself into the hole and started crawling down towards the buffet. This whole tunnel was covered with mucus, so there was no way there weren’t any slugs home right now.
Soon, the tight tunnel opened up into a small cavern, and it was just absolutely filled with slugs! I wasn’t entirely sure what they were doing camping out in this hole, but I wasn’t complaining. Time to dig in!
The slugs were smart enough to realize that I wasn’t here to play and assumed a defensive posture by activating Compress. Too bad that this only made my job easier, since they stopped moving. I ate slug after slug, once again proving that I could somehow eat a lot more than I was physically supposed to. And when I had eaten every slug present, I was sitting at nine out of ten consumed slugs.
Damn! Just one short!
I didn’t see any offshoots to this cavern, so I slowly made my way back out. Only one more slug to go, so that should be easy enough since my method of camping the pool seemed to work well enough. I just needed to wait until another slug got thirsty and follow it once it left.
So it was with some slight anticipation that I returned to the local water hole, keeping my eyes out for tiny, brown blurs at the water’s edge. And then I waited, and waited, and waited some more. But no slugs turned up.
I briefly considered going away from the pool for a bit, but that was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. No, it was better to camp out at the hydration station number one. Even if it was incredibly boring to wait, there was no doubt in my mind that eventually one of them would show up. Patience, dear slug, patience.
I spent my time observing everything else that came to drink, wishing that the system would offer me some sort of bestiary so I could remember all the variations I saw. By far the most monsters seemed to be either a feline, canine, insect, or ape type, with a few other variations in between. The elephant I’d fought earlier must have been an outlier, or could only be found towards the center of the cave.
It was hours later, as I considered eating some left-over hyena from my inventory when a lone slug finally showed up. I immediately perked up, watching my prey with the shittiest hawk-eyes in existence. The time it took for it to drink its fair share was well used by me to approach behind it. Eating it right here wasn’t an option, as I was fairly certain that I’d call pandemonium upon me, so I had to settle for following after it when it was done.
And follow, I did. Never far behind the slug, I waited until we were a sufficient amount of distance away from the pool. Hehehe, I got you now, little slug!
Not wasting any more time, I pounced upon the slug, closing my jaw and biting a piece of flesh off. Just like the other slugs, this one didn’t put up much of a struggle, and let itself be eaten without any fuss. I cherished the last bite, grinding the slug’s final part into sludge while waiting for that delicious system message.
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You have completed a bonus objective!
Consume ten slug type monsters 10/10
Congratulations!
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There it is! Apparently, I didn’t get any cool extra goodies for completing the bonus objectives, but that was alright. At least I was a little closer to achieving a better evolution! Now I just needed to find myself a tier-two creature and kill it. Preferably before I reached level ten, as I still didn’t know if I could delay my evolution upon reaching it.
I probably was allowed to, but you never knew. Maybe, once I completed my main objective of reaching level ten, the bonus objectives would be considered as failed. So I decided, no more killing until I found myself a tier-two, or if I absolutely had to.
For now, I should probably return to the pool and hang about a bit. Maybe a tier-two would just happen to fall into my lap. If not, I could at least make a plan of action there without having to fear for my life.
I was about halfway back to the pool when I started to feel some unusual vibrations around me. What the hell was that? Not wanting to take any chances, I crawled over to a nearby rock and hid myself.
The vibrations were growing stronger with every passing second, and I was beginning to fear what might be causing them. This felt worse than when the elephant was stomping around. And what was even weirder was, that the vibrations seemed to be coming from below me. Was there something tunneling through the rock?
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Danger! Emergency Quest! Danger!
A Tier 4 monster has entered your vicinity and is on the hunt. The gap between power is too immense, so avoid it at all costs.
Objective: Survive.
Reward: Depending on actions taken.
Failure: Death.
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Uh oh...