It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 50 - When Ants Come to Play

Two days, many naps and sleeps and a lot of aimless digging later Resh arrived in the vicinity of the destination, the large anthill. Wasn't it bigger? Maybe it shrank? Resh mused. Resh peaked out of the soil with just its eye tendrils and observed the movement of the ants. They seemed organised, unaware that their ultimate predator was approaching. Just going about their Ant lives, Resh Identified them again. Just to make sure it understood what it was up against, once again there were two distinct types of Ant.

Worker Ant - Level 1, Exp 0.01, Weight 0.001g

Soldier Ant - Level 1, Exp 0.1, Weight 0.01g

This time there was a lot more information made available, with it planning future levels and further progress would also become easier. It was impossible to tell the exact number of Worker and Soldier Ants that were milling over the hill. Essentially they were limitless. Resh dove back underground and slowly crept closer, it was close enough now to be able to get a peripheral sense of the underground part of the hill and it was quite extensive. Much larger than Resh's body, it was larger than the Panther even and the Humans as well. Not the largest thing I have ever seen though, Resh suppressed another bought of panic creeping to the fore.

Perception was an interesting trait; it helped Resh understand the world around it and was limited to a certain amount of distance from the surface of the body. However, Resh had learnt that the surface of its body could mean many things when the surface of one's body was such an abstract concept. For example, if Resh extended a tendril of its body covered in said surface skin further towards the Ants' lair would Perception extend from the tip of that skin in the same way as the rest of its body? It turned out that it would! It was an incredibly useful loophole that Resh had every intention of exploiting just like it would exploit the Ants for the experience! Pushing tendrils through the soil was a simple enough task, until drawing close to the underground portion of the anthill itself. As the Ants had hollowed out tunnels in the soil for their brood and pathways for the workers to commute the outer edges of the structure had been compacted and made denser, therefore harder to penetrate. That was the point that Resh stopped. Gradually Resh was able to have over one hundred tendrils poised at the end of the hard shell waiting for the final punch to get through to the ants themselves.

Resh considered how much longer getting into position had taken compared to how it could reshape its body before. Though that reduction in manoeuvrability came with a lot of additional perks that Resh was more than happy to take as a trade, as far as the Ants were concerned Resh was their god at this point; invincible! The Ants had no idea what apocalyptic awaited them, over a hundred snakes waiting to swallow them up completely.

Resh was just about to feast when something occurred to it. To the Ants, Resh was like that massive creature that had attacked it earlier. The irony of the situation was not lost on the Earth Slime but this was the way of the world, the strong consumed the weak and gained strength, and this Slime was not about to let a buffet like this go. In one swift motion one hundred tendrils pushing straight into the anthill from the eastern side with the force of a hundred tiny punches, the anthill experienced a miniature earthquake as its structure collapsed just a little and the Ants went into a wild frenzy. Scrambling all over the tunnels trying to get their eggs and queen out and away from the danger, trying to fight the tendrils as they crept slowly, deliberately and unerringly through the channels of the anthill. Following the paths, the Ants themselves had created in the first place. Resh Identified one of the Eggs.

Ant Egg - Level 1, Exp 0.002, Weight 0.0002g

There were thousands of Eggs, Resh couldn't count! Almost as many as the number of Worker Ants, and they were just there ripe for the plucking. They gave less experience but it was still something. Resh continued to push sliding its tendrils and body further and further into the anthill and deeper into the ground penetrating further and further. The best part was that even the Soldier Ants were unable to do much damage. A few months ago Resh wouldn't have dared attack the colony directly; the bites from the Workers alone would have finished it off at that time. Now with its caprice and denser flesh, it was a different story entirely. It relished the feeling of utterly dominating the colony with no repercussions. Reaping Ant lives while gaining the benefit of experience easily earned. This is brilliant! I am going to keep hunting nothing but insects! Resh was going to enjoy the ease of this growth that did not require coming to the brink of death to finish the fight, there had been too much of that of late. As Resh's tendrils continued their slow and inexorable advance the form of the hill was brought more and more into Perception the picture gradually gained form and structure in its mind. Giving it a greater overview of what remained of the colony. It was time to analyse the situation so that it did not completely deplete this resource. It would be just like Resh to greedily consume everything including the hill and leave nothing of the colony, especially when overcome with the ecstasy that gaining this amount of experience at once brought. Resh would forget itself and just consume non-stop.

This time would be different, moderation would be pivotal to the success of this endeavour. If Resh planned to make full use of this resource it would need greater control over its base instincts and need. That insatiable hunger to consume everything it came across would not be its undoing here. Stay quiet! Resh suppressed the voice in the back of its head that screamed to eat everything that it came across. Now it was a struggle, one that Resh's conscious mind was losing, if the Ants had been more of a threat or the gains had not been so great Resh would have had an easier time quieting the voice. As it was Resh became a victim of its own success.

YOU HAVE REACHED Earth Slime Level 7! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Strength, +1 Resistance, +1 Dexterity. Talent Earth Born +5 has increased to Earth Born +6, Earth Resistance +10%

The experience continued to rush in, ticking up much faster than Resh's HP was ticking down, at this rate the entire anthill and everything in it would be consumed before Resh was even in danger of having low health. Resh fought with its psyche, thinking it would be easy to force the instincts down. Resh was becoming just as frenzied as the Ants adamant that every single Ant had to be consumed. Resh was in the middle of the vortex that was nothing but consumption and hunger. All thought for planning and slowing down and moderation fading away like smoke as Resh grasped desperately for it. All the while Resh's body continued to act without conscious thought. The instinct that Resh thought it had mastered long ago instead suppressing reason and intellectual thought instead as the mad need to feed continued. Resh's body was no longer within its control.

YOU HAVE REACHED Earth Slime Level 8! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Endurance, +1

Dexterity, +1 Strength. Talent Earth Born +6 has increased to Earth Born +7, Earth Resistance +10%

What is happening right now....STOP! Resh felt suspended in time as it continued to watch in horror as a body that was no longer its own just attacked the Ants with abandon, they had no chance. A little sadness crept into Resh's mind and it saw the last few Ants in the deepest part of the hill creep away from the rest while trying to hide from the tendrils and the rest of the Ants sacrificed themselves to slow the progress while the Ant Queen attempted to escape to safety with her final few Soldiers, Workers and a handful of Eggs. The tendrils were catching up to her with alarming speed. This was it, the closest tendril made straight through the soil to their location. It was going to take less than a few seconds to make it there.

YOU HAVE REACHED Earth Slime Level 9! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Strength, +1 Resistance, +1 Dexterity. Talent Earth Born +7 has increased to Earth Born +8, Earth Resistance +10%

Now or never! Resh felt all its instinct bend to this singular task of consuming the Ant Queen. Resh focused its entire will on the task of stopping this one tendril. While its instincts were focused on the Ant Queen, they were also controlling over one hundred other tendrils and so Resh's mind had the advantage on this one. Resh struggled, first the tendril persisted, then slowed straining to continue its reaching and fighting hard. Resh began to perspire. It would feel that this was another of those breaking points. If Resh's mind lost here it would not easily recover. Baser instinct would take over and Resh would cease, becoming nothing more than another creature of the forest like these Ants, or the Groles ruled by baser instincts. Its goal to become greater and evolve to something more would be lost and future evolutions would be guided by something that had a lesser intelligence.

The struggle had caught Resh off guard and that was why it had won the first struggle. This time Resh was ready and primed. The tendril continued to strain and bend to the left and right, up and down trying to break free of the grasp Resh had on it. Resh could feel its mind fading.

YOU HAVE REACHED Earth Slime Level 10! CONGRATULATIONS! +1 Endurance, +1

Dexterity, +1 Strength. Talent Earth Born +9 has increased to Earth Born +10, Earth Resistance +10%

A boot swung for Resh's head and the broken body lying prone on the tarmac exploded once more with pain. It was agony, nothing compared to the huge monster that defied Identification, it was enough.

"ARRGH!!" With a wordless scream, Resh's mind slammed back into place and he pulled. Come on! Let's do this! The tentacle retracted, slowly at first but then faster and faster, at first one, then ten, then a hundred all retreated towards Resh's body. Swallowed into the whole. Resh grinned with its toothy mouth, breathing hard but satisfied. "Hahaha! Yes, that's what I'm talking about! Totally did it! Had to win something eventually, am I right!"