It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 26 - The Fifth Sense

You have Consumed 35 Darter Fish! You have gained a total of 195 Exp!

YOU HAVE REACHED Water Slime Level 2! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Strength, +1 Reaction, +1 Accuracy, Talent Water Born has increased to Water Born +1, Water Resistance +10%

YOU HAVE REACHED Water Slime Level 3! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Vitality, +1

Command, +1 Focus, Talent Water Born +1 has increased to Water Born +2, Water Resistance +10%

You have Assimilated 4 Darter Fish and have Assimilated Fins, Eyes, Mouth and Nose of the Darter Fish.

Your Limb Skill Fins of the Darter Fish replaces Slime Fins! Now you have a real set of fins! Not the fake imitation that your evolution forced on you. You will be able to Level this skill now and gain movement with Level. You are limited however to 500g of Weight for this Skill, beyond that your Fins of the Darter Fish will revert to Slime Fins and you will lose any bonus you had.

Your Sense Skill Eyes of the Darter Fish is compatible with Many Eyes of the Insect they have Merge into Watery Insect Eyes! You will gain a bonus +500 Exp and are now able to move your eyes freely to any part of your body. You can have them on opposite ends, on stalks of your body or anything else you desire!

Your Skill Mouth of the Darter Fish is compatible with A Mouth to Devour they have Merged into The Mouth that Gets Fed! You will gain a bonus +400 Exp! Special bonus for Consumed water creatures (excludes Assimilated creatures). Water Feeder, you get 50% Bonus Exp! This only applied while you are a Water Creature yourself, Strength Talent.

The Mouth the Gets Fed has increased to Level 10!

Congratulations on reaching Level 10! The Mouth that Gets Fed has evolved into Corrupt Mouth that Feeds. Corrupt Mouth that Feeds will release a small amount of poison into any creature that you bite allowing you to start breaking it down before you Consume it. It must be dead before this Skill can take effect. +50% Consumption speed for dead creatures.

Your Melee Skill Crushing Jaws has evolved into Slightly Poisonous Crushing Jaws! You will do +10% Poison Damage that will damage the target for 1% damage for the next 10 seconds! +500 Bonus Exp!

Slightly Poisonous Crushing Jaws has increased to Level 9!

Why did this skill have this obnoxiously long name? It was so completely ridiculous Resh even know what to do about it.

You have gained Sense Skill Nose of the Darter Fish Level 1! You will be able to smell things that are around you. Your sense of smell will improve with level.

Something was happening it was like a lot of things that Resh had been missing suddenly clicked into place. Resh raised its newly acquired nose, really just 2 holes next to each other on the side of its body and allowed the smells to enter those nostrils it had just acquired. The Water Slime had had a few of these new experiences when it got eyes first, then a mouth, ears and now a nose. This was the thing that brought the rest together. It was like a light bulb had gone off in Resh's head and those new sensations made total sense. Just like its other senses, it was starting weak but wow! What a difference it made having a nose! Resh had no idea what it was missing out on up to this point.

Resh finally understood why it had seen other creatures raise their heads and stick their noses in the air, in Resh's case, the water! It was so they could smell from all angles and directions at the same time. Resh couldn't smell much other than the river water but it was incredible to sense. Resh had been able to see its appearance since it got eyes but had not experienced the difference that Odour Alteration made until now. With the access to the sense of smell Resh also understood the role that Odour Alteration played in changing its smell. It seemed as it gained more and new abilities its instincts were also being refined at the same time.

Resh felt a sense of completion, that it now had a full complement of information coming in from the outside world that it could understand, analyse and learn from the world through. They were all fairly weak right now, short-sightedness, poor sense of smell and taste and poor hearing. However Resh already knew that they were getting stronger, it had felt it.

Then, just as Resh was concentrating on that feeling of completeness something started to happen. Resh felt energy coalesce in its core and start to build. It built and built until Resh thought that it would explode out from the amount that was gathering. Resh was starting to feel real fear similar to when it had felt the pain from that earlier evolution but this was very much within Resh's own body and not a memory of pain. Then the building energy reached a crescendo and light exploded out of Resh through its skin. If anyone had been looking they would have a seen a silhouette surrounded by a halo of multi-coloured light. The flash and brilliance were blinding and Resh had to shut its eyes to Whites and Grays that surrounded it. Nothing happened for a little while and all creatures near the Water Slime quickly fled having no idea what this new phenomenon was.

Resh itself felt completely out of control, like it had climbed a tree and just as it reached the top the branch holding it broken and it was plummeting to the ground with no way to control the fall, its wings too weak and legs useless, just in freefall while the ground sped up towards it at a staggering speed. This was too much, too much. Resh couldn't handle this. It had to stop! Resh was terrified and there was nothing it could do! This creature that had started so small and so weak now felt even more helpless as more and more fear crept into its being. As the light ebbed and Resh started to relax think that this was all finished and over.

The feeling changed. No, it didn't get better. It got worse... much worse.

Pain flared first in its eyes, then ears, followed by mouth and nose and then all across its skin like lightning course through its entire body. Resh had never seen a rain storm nor had it experienced lightning so it didn't know how to explain or comprehend what was happening but it felt like its entire body was on fire or being submerged in acid or any number of other excruciating and disastrous feelings. Shocks and ran through its body and seemed to rotate between its eyes, ears, mouth, nose, skin and then the rest of its body. The flux of power, pain and energy continued to move between them in a distinct pattern, faster and faster. Until it all became a uniform blanket of energy, agony and light. At that point, Resh could no longer handle anymore and to protect its sanity Resh fell unconscious....

Resh opened its eyes. The scene in front of it was both familiar and strange at the same time. The first thing Resh noticed that it never had before was the smells. There were a few, each distinct and unique but also mended together in a way Resh had not had a chance to experience as yet. An amalgamation of scents that tickled its newly acquired nose. But it wasn't newly acquired... Resh knew that. Somehow in the back of its mind, it got conflicting information. The Resh that was in this place knew that it had always had a nose. This was neither new nor unique. But the Resh in the river the Resh that was a Water Slime knew that it had only just acquired a nose. This paradox was acknowledged and then promptly forgotten as more information came pouring in. This nose was smelling burnt rubber and smoke river water but with garbage and rubbished mixed in, there was the coppery smell of blood on the air and it seemed to be coming from Resh, the Resh was currently lying on the ground and unable to move. Apart from the addition of the smells, Resh again acknowledged this scene as familiar. At the same time, more details that it had not been privy to before resolved themselves.

Apart from the smells, Resh was now able to taste the coppery blood in its mouth, this mouth was a different shape than what it had out in the River but it was a mouth nonetheless. Tongue with blood oozing out and dripping down onto the rubbery material that Resh lay on. It was tarmac, a hazy thought filtered through the memory of pain felt. Resh was lying on a road. The air tasted like smoke and fire and heat. It was difficult to breathe. Resh paused, a Water Slime didn't need to breathe....why was Resh short of breath? Why did it suddenly feel the need for air? What was this feeling of suffocation? Resh also realised, at that moment, it was not just a lack of breathable air. It was also the fact that it had a crushed chest and internal bleeding, It was hard to pull that life-giving air and Resh got lost in the feeling for a moment before pulling itself back and remembering that this was just a dream, a memory perhaps, although it didn't know where it was from.