It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 48 - Undergrowth

When Natural Plant Healing was working above the ground the absorption of the air particles and water and energy was seamless. However, as soon as Resh went underground the soil which was so tightly packed together did not allow for airflow! It seemed so obvious now that Resh was seeing it but before it had not occurred to the Slime that while it did not need air to survive, that Natural Plant Healing needed that commodity to work. Once Resh understood that it was easy to solve the problem. Not only that but by not having to change the fundamentals of the skill it was able to add the functionality without having to use a Talent. Ergo, direct manipulation of the environment would solve the problem!

Feeling pretty good about its latest and greatest discovery, Resh sank back into the soil and pushed tendrils up through the soil to create those pathways to the surface. Nothing was ever simple and so as soon as it broke the surface Resh's timer started for being outside in the open air. Although it was now able to stay above the ground for over an hour and a half it was still not an indefinite period and so it was not a perfect solution. But when Resh went to retract said tendrils the soft loamy soil collapsed in on itself and sealed the Earth Slime inside its soil cocoon. Resh sighed again with frustration. What can I do here? Resh posed the question once more to the universe and somehow the universe answered in a memory.

Resh recalled the den of the Groles that it had entered. Both had a chamber where the creatures stayed but also had an opening to the surface that was never closed. It was a small opening and so would not collapse on itself and the chamber was kept long and narrow so the structures much have been of a nature that it kept itself from breaking down. Resh tried something similar. Slimming down the tendrils it had used before Resh once again pushed through the soil to the surface. This time it had split the two tendrils into twenty or so and slowly moved up to the surface. This time when it retracted the soil only collapsed in a little but upon testing the skill Natural Plant Healing worked! And the gaps in the soil did not trigger the countdown timer either! Resh was safe!

The only other challenge occurred a few minutes later, once Resh had settled in to recharge and Natural Plant Healing was working well and Targeted Healing – which took one hundred minutes to max out - had just started ramping up. Suddenly, Natural Plant Healing stopped working and with it the Talent as well. Resh couldn't understand what had happened and so reached out with its tendrils again to find that its carefully made ducts had collapsed in on themselves, It had taken longer but they had collapsed eventually, thinking that it was the thickness of the tendrils that had once again cause it Resh split the tendril from twenty to one hundred very thin ones that again crept towards the surface and emerging into the light to create the passageway for the air to flow in.

Again Resh pulled back and allowed its skills to take over, this time only ten minutes passed before once again, the skill stopped working. This time Resh knew it was not the tunnels it had created collapsing, it was sure it was something else. So resolved to find the problem area, Resh extended its appendages one last time to understand once and for all what the reason was. This time as the tendrils emerged from the holes, Resh placed eyes on each of the tendrils that emerged from the soil. The first two were manageable and then as three, four and five came out into the open, the number of perspectives started to give it a headache and very quickly Resh removed all the eyes but two from the tendrils. It was enough.

Up above on the surface was a Grole, and as Resh observed the annoying little creature it saw that as the animal thumped about on the ground it quickly collapsed all the holes that Resh and painstakingly made through the soil. That was the reason the skill kept failing. Once again nature was beating Resh! It was now at the point where it made more sense for Resh to keep poking holes up to the surface while using the Body Cleansing Talent since that allowed Resh to continue moving while it Zen Meditated. It was time to accept that Natural Plant Healing was always going to be difficult underground. All the more reason to stop being an Earth Slime, it was time for Resh to chase down the next evolution. While Dense Slime had been the target, it was more urgent for it to get stronger so that it could have a safe place to live, where it did not need to be alert at all times for any dangers that might come.

Luckily though, Consolidating was still its fastest and most reliable way to grow stronger. It would increase the damage of its weapons and the stats that it gained. Now that strength was also on the table for Consolidate the primary reason for becoming a Dense Slime was lost. Once it had healed a little it would be able to work on growing. Evolving seems to cleanse my body oddly; maybe if I can evolve I can be rid of this damn healing blockage! It was a nice thought but there was only one way to prove it.

Al this experimentation and the reduced healing had once again tired out the Slime, it was a side effect of the situation it was in that it became tired very quickly as well. But Resh thought, if I am asleep I can't do anything stupid. Overall it was a positive way of looking at the situation and understanding that it was likely to do something stupid was already a wise step in the right direction. Sleep lasted longer this time. With nothing better to do except allow healing to take its course. The sun, set, rose and set again before Resh woke up. Underground, with no light, there was no passage of time the only thing that hinted at the passage of time was the countdown in the back of Resh's mind for its life-saving Talent. On the Brink had twenty-eight days remaining of its initial thirty before it could be deployed again. Not that Resh ever intended to use it, it had come at a heavy price but something about having it there and available was comforting. Do I want to go through that pain again? I guess if it means survival then I would be willing to but wow! The memory of that all-consuming pain was enough to make Resh crumple; it had been absolute, unending agony. Wouldn't death be preferable to that amount of pain?

Resh looked at the Talent with revulsion. It felt like more of a curse now than a blessing. Give the stupid creature a Talent so powerful as to save it from certain death but make sure you feel the pain of the attack, something that would be enough to kill it many times over and make sure it stays awake and conscious throughout. It was a bitter thought, surprising Resh with its venom. Why was I awarded this skill? There are so many creatures that die all the time, so why did I get this skill and none of the others do? It doesn't make sense? What is special about me that the others don't have?

Part of Resh was incredulous that it was even asking these questions. It had survived, what more was there to ask? It was enough...wasn't it? But experiencing that much pain changes a person or being or whatever Resh was. It was life-altering in its devastation. Questioning why the Talent forced it to live through that pain was something that had to be asked. It could just as easily have been a Talent that let the natural unconsciousness take hold. It required something extra to keep it awake during the process. So it was likely intentional, and that begged the next question, why? Why was this skill awarded to a lowly Earth Slime, just Tier 3 and why keep it awake. They were bigger questions than Resh had answers for right now, perhaps one day it would find them.

The one thing that Resh was clear on was that the next time it used On the Brink could be the last. It might drive the Earth Slime insane, and that would be the end. Resh reflected, if it didn't have a mind or intelligent thoughts and such then this would not be an issue, it would just be a ball of instincts, and so it would not matter. Still, Resh was happy to have thoughts and intellect, it would not give those up, it might as well die if that were the case.