Chapter 24: Wolfing Around

Chapter 24: Wolfing Around

It was finally time to try out my evolution; I wish I could have witnessed the transformation myself, but my [Sub-Core] did not regenerate while evolving, much to my disappointment. I pictured the wolf, which was crystal clear thanks to the completed profile, and I felt my main slime body rapidly shift to match the form. Four legs, ears, snout, fangs, tail, everything grew out of my slime ball, and then the ball molded itself into the wolf's torso.

'I guess my gut feeling was right. I really was on the verge of raising that trait. I bet I can complete my tree model now.'

It felt strange to have legs again, so I sat down to lift a front paw to examine it closely. Physically, it matched perfectly, but it looked alien by being bright blue and transparent. I focused on my [Chroma Shift] skill and tried to apply the coloration. The color of the slime shifted before my gaze and would likely be a perfect match if not for the transparency.

'A transparent grayish wolf is better than being blue, I guess... I hope I can raise that trait soon. Looking at previous traits, they didn't take too long to reach level two.'

I sat up and did some light walking, something I never thought I'd be doing since becoming a slime. I was surprised at how well everything worked, and I fully expected I'd have to test and experiment, but that wasn't the case. The strangest thing was the nose working, and when I selected the trait [Enhanced Nose] to mimic, I was bombarded with an overwhelming amount of scents and frantically swapped to [Enhanced Fangs].

A surprising feature I didn't expect with my shapeshifted form was that my legs were not taking up any [Pseudopod] capacity. When I had originally thought of trying to give myself slime legs, I thought I'd need to sacrifice some tendrils to be makeshift legs. I made my four tendrils emerge from the back of the wolf and wiggled them happily.

I continued to sprint throughout the forest to get used to the form some more, jumped around, and even tried jumping and then swinging from a branch with a back tendril - it was exhilarating. I eventually settled down and decided I needed to spend my points.

Many of the traits I had looked at seemed very good, and I had planned to get [Slime Burst] manually. However, the one I thought would be effective immediately would be [Mana Well], which I hoped would push me above the mana regeneration threshold to upkeep [Mana Reinforcement] perpetually. Speaking of which, I needed to enhance my slime core since I didn't have my [Sub-Core] to do it for me, which I did and then made my trait purchase.

Mana Reserve is increased scaling with trait level.

Interestingly, I could get profiles from almost anything. The things I consumed seemed to generalize into a broad category, and then if I found a new species or type, it would update the original profile. I had found at least three different species of trees interestingly.

Tomorrow, I was planning on trying to use my wolf form's nose to find some animals, but before nightfall, I wanted to head to the pond and see if I could eat some of those bugs. I approached the pond cautiously, and it reeked of death, even without using [Enhanced Nose].

Plenty of bugs were hanging around the pond, far more than usual, likely due to not having anything to kill them now that the frog was dead. I rapidly fired [Slime Shot] at them, repeating my target practice approach and letting them die when they flew into me. I could frequently hit them now mid-flight with the accuracy skill.

Along the way, my trait leveled up, which boosted the degree of analysis and, by extension, reduced the amount I'd need to consume to complete a profile. The profile of the blood bug wasn't that interesting; its only trait was [Enhanced Probiscis], and its only skill was [Flight].

I wondered if I could fly if I turned into it and shifted into the bug from my wolf form. I had to deposit a lot of my slime mass away to complete the transformation, as its body was tiny in comparison, barely able to hold my slime core, which seemed to have grown significantly since my evolution.

After numerous failed attempts at getting off the ground, I gave up. I'd likely need a bigger flying creature or possibly get the [Flight] skill. I shifted back to my comfortable slime form and headed home.

When I arrived home, the first thing I did was work on completing my model tree, and it came out perfect, although I was probably cheating now with the profile I had learned. I used my [Chroma Shift] to "paint" my tree model and was frankly shocked at how decent it turned out despite the transparency.

I spent my evening shifting into rocks, trees, and bushes and coloring myself. Even though I really wanted to work on getting [Slime Burst], I planned to bump both my evolution traits to at least level two first.

Before sleep, I checked my mana level, which remained Overflowing. I was ecstatic about my choice to get [Mana Well] and wished I had my [Sub-Core] to work throughout the night. I planned to do a lot of hunting as a slime wolf to work on completing more profiles.