Vesper was dying. Again.
The transition from a human being with a skeletal structure to a translucent blob of blue jelly was disorienting enough, but the immediate threat of being eaten by a nightmare from a horror movie made the existential crisis a luxury he couldn't afford.
The Cave Strider—a six-foot-tall monstrosity of chitin, fur, and clicking mandibles—towered over his small, squelchy form. To Vesper, the creature didn't just look like a monster; it felt like an earthquake in motion. Every step of its eight segmented legs sent a shockwave through the cavern floor that Vesper's entire body registered as a sickening vibration.
"Think, Vesper. Think!" his consciousness screamed. "You're a slime. You're basically a bag of water. If that thing steps on you, it's game over. You'll be nothing but a blue stain on the rocks."
[Notice: Target 'Cave Strider' is preparing to pounce. Estimated Impact: 0.8 seconds.]
The system's cold, mechanical voice was the only thing keeping him grounded.
"Impact? Not if I can help it!"
In his previous life, Vesper had been a marathon runner—a hobby that required a deep understanding of tension and release. He applied that logic now. He pulled his outer membrane inward, compressing his liquid mass until he was a tight, dense sphere of dark blue indigo. He felt the internal pressure build, his mana humming with a frantic energy.
Then, he released.
Using the Hardened Membrane he'd just assimilated from the beetle leg, he launched himself sideways. He didn't jump so much as he boinged, his rubbery body snapping against the stone and sending him tumbling into the shadows just as the Strider's weight slammed into his previous position.
The sound was horrific—the crack of stone shattering under the weight of the beast.
"Holy hell, that would have turned me into soup," Vesper thought, his body wobbling as he regained his balance. He was now tucked behind a jagged stalagmite, his 360-degree sensory awareness picking up the Strider's frustration.
The beast hissed, a wet, vibrating sound that made Vesper's core shudder. It spun with terrifying agility, its red, multi-faceted eyes scanning the dark. It couldn't see him clearly in the dim light of the glowing moss, but it could smell the magical residue of his mana.
"I can't run. I'm too slow in a straight line," Vesper realized, a cold pragmatism settling over his mind. "In every RPG I've ever played, slimes are the tutorial mobs. But I have the 'Devour' skill. That means I'm not the tutorial mob—I'm the glitch in the system. I'm the thing that eats the tutorial."
He looked at his status.
[Status]
HP: 10/10
MP: 4/5
Skills: [Devour], [Dissolve (Lv. 1)], [Hardened Membrane (Passive)]
"Four mana left. One shot," Vesper whispered to himself. "I need to get under it. The legs are armored, the back is bristled, but the belly... the belly has to be soft."
The Strider lunged again, but Vesper was ready. Instead of dodging away, he launched himself toward the monster. It was a suicidal move in any other context, but as the Strider opened its mandibles to snap him out of the air, Vesper flattened himself mid-flight.
He became a thin, pancake-like sheet of blue slime. He sailed right through the gap in the monster's front legs, sliding along the damp cave floor like a puck on ice.
"Now!"
As he passed directly under the creature's thorax, Vesper reached up. He didn't have arms, so he simply willed his entire top half to expand. He latched onto the creature's underbelly like a massive, sticky leech.
The Strider went berserk. It shrieked, a high-pitched sound that nearly shattered Vesper's focus. It began to buck and spin, slamming its body against the walls of the crevice to knock him off.
[-2 HP. Current HP: 8/10]
[-3 HP. Current HP: 5/10]
The pain was unlike anything he'd felt as a human. It wasn't a sharp sting; it was a total-body trauma, a feeling of his very essence being torn apart.
"Die! Just die already!" Vesper roared internally. "DISSOLVE!"
He poured every remaining drop of his MP into his Dissolve skill. His deep blue body began to pulse with a toxic, neon-green light. The acidic reaction was instantaneous. The soft, pale flesh of the Strider's underbelly began to hiss and smoke. The smell of burning hair and caustic chemicals filled the air.
Vesper didn't just sit there. He used his Hardened Membrane to form tiny, microscopic hooks, digging into the melting flesh so he couldn't be shaken off. He was a cancer, a blue plague eating the monster from the inside out.
The Strider's movements grew erratic. It stumbled, its eight legs tangling together. It let out a final, gurgling click before its legs gave way, and it collapsed heavily onto the floor.
Vesper was pinned beneath the weight of the dead beast, but he didn't care. The hunger was back—that hollow, gnawing void in his center that demanded to be filled.
"My turn to eat," he thought, his voice dripping with a newfound predatory edge.
[Unique Skill: 'Devour' activated.]
He didn't wait for the body to cool. He flowed into the wound he had burned, entering the internal cavity of the Strider. He began to absorb the internal organs, the copper-tasting blood, and the very essence of the creature's strength.
[Devouring...]
[Target: Cave Strider (Level 14)]
[Processing Bio-Data... 10%... 40%... 85%...]
As he ate, Vesper felt his levels skyrocket. It was a rush better than any drug—a feeling of expansion, of his very soul growing larger and denser. His blue color deepened until he was almost the color of a midnight sky.
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level 2 > Level 6]
[Analysis Complete. You have assimilated the essence of the 'Stalker of the Hollows.']
[Select your Inheritance...]
Vesper paused. He could feel the different "flavors" of the monster's power floating in his consciousness. One was the sharp, sticky taste of its silk. Another was the vibrating, electric feel of its senses. A third was the jagged, hard sensation of its armor.
"I need to see," Vesper decided. "I can't keep fighting blind. I need to know where everything is before it even thinks about touching me."
[Selection Confirmed: Passive Skill 'Multi-Vision' Acquired.]
The world changed.
Suddenly, Vesper wasn't just "sensing" the cave. He was seeing it in a way no human ever could. He had no blind spots. He could see the heat radiating from the cooling corpse of the Strider. He could see the tiny vibrations of air moving through the tunnels. He could even see the faint, magical ley lines running through the stones.
He was a Level 6 Slime in a Level 20 world, but for the first time since he died on Earth, Vesper felt something other than terror.
He felt like a King.
He pulled himself out of the hollowed-out shell of the Strider, his body now larger—roughly the size of a beach ball—and far more imposing. He looked at the wreckage of his first real fight.
"This world is vast," Vesper thought, his 360-degree vision catching the glint of something moving deeper in the shadows. "And I'm going to eat every single bit of it."
He began to slide deeper into the Abyssal Hollow, his new eyes watching every shadow, his hunger already looking for the next meal.