The dungeon stretched before me like a labyrinth of shadows and stone, but I moved with growing confidence. My body flowed across the floor, leaving a wet trail behind me, each roll smoother than the last. The chat continued its stream of commentary:
[TricksterGod]: Look at him go! Faster!
[WarGod]: Still exploring? Boring. Find something to fight.
[LoveGoddess]: He's so determined! I just want to hug him!
I couldn't respond, but I understood their impatience. They wanted action. Entertainment. Something more than rolling over rocks and absorbing moss.
The deeper I went, the more the dungeon changed. The air grew thicker, heavy with scents I was only beginning to identify — decay, blood, something metallic and sharp. My body sensed it all through every surface, a thousand tiny inputs feeding into my growing awareness.
That's when I found it.
Around a bend in the corridor, lying in a crumpled heap against the wall, was… something. Not stone, not moss. Something that had once been alive, but wasn't anymore.
I rolled closer, my body stretching toward it. The shape was small — roughly humanoid, but twisted and malformed. Greenish skin, pointed ears, long, thin limbs. A goblin. The word surfaced from my fragmented memories like a bubble rising from deep water.
[HarvestGod]: A corpse! Can it absorb dead things?
[TricksterGod]: Only one way to find out! Try it!
I didn't need the encouragement. My body was already curious, drawn to the dead goblin like a moth to flame. I extended myself, flowing over the corpse until I completely covered it.
Then I began to absorb.
The sensation was different from the stone and moss. This was organic matter, complex and rich with information. As the goblin's body dissolved into mine, I didn't just gain mass — I gained memories.
Fragments of consciousness flooded into me, disjointed but vivid:
Running through these tunnels, spear in hand, hunting smaller creatures.
The pack — brothers, cousins, the chief who ruled through strength and fear.
The raids on the surface world — attacking caravans, stealing supplies, killing the men.
The women — always the women. Dragging them back to the nest, alive and screaming.
The last memories were the strongest, the most vivid. I saw through the goblin's eyes as his pack raided a small village. I felt the rush of violence as they killed the men who fought back. I experienced the cruel joy of dragging women into the darkness, their cries muffled by rough hands and cruel laughter.
And then… the mating.
The goblin's memories were a torrent of lust and violence. I felt the animalistic urge to breed, to claim, to dominate. I experienced the rough, desperate coupling in the dark tunnels, the women's tears and screams, the pack's brutal rutting. It wasn't love. It wasn't even pleasure in the human sense — it was instinct, a biological imperative to spread seed, to claim females, to ensure the pack's survival through reproduction.
[StormGod]: What's happening? It's vibrating!
[LoveGoddess]: Is it okay? It looks… intense.
[TricksterGod]: Something's definitely happening! Look at the glow!
They couldn't see what I was experiencing. They saw only my body rippling, pulsing with internal light as I processed the goblin's memories. They couldn't know that I was gaining more than just biomass — I was gaining knowledge, instinct, understanding.
The absorption completed, and I felt… different. Larger, certainly. My mass had increased significantly. But it was more than that. I had a new awareness now, a deeper understanding of this world and its creatures.
I knew what goblins were. I knew how they lived, how they hunted, how they bred. I knew about the surface world beyond this dungeon — villages, caravans, people who lived in the light.
And I knew about adventurers.
The goblin's memories showed them clearly — armed and armored humans who came into the dungeon to kill monsters, take treasure, prove their worth. The goblins feared them, hated them, but also understood their patterns. Adventurers came in groups. They were dangerous, but they were also predictable.
And the goblins had learned something important about them: when adventurers fought, the men died first. The women… the women were kept alive.
For what, the goblin memories didn't specify. But the implication was clear. Women were valuable in ways men weren't.
[WarGod]: Finally! Some size to it!
[LustGod]: …interesting. Very interesting.
[TricksterGod]: What did it learn? Can it tell us?
I tried to communicate, to share what I'd discovered, but the same barrier remained — I had no voice, no way to speak. The interface showed my messages, but I could only receive, not send.
[TricksterGod]: It can't talk back. Pity. But it definitely absorbed something!
[HarvestGod]: Dead matter… so it can eat anything organic. Good to know.
[LustGod]: The way it moved… like it remembered something. Like it gained experience.
He was closer than the others realized. I had gained experience — the goblin's experience. And with it came instincts that were already beginning to influence my own behavior.
I felt different now. Not just larger, but more… purposeful. The goblin's memories had given me a framework for understanding this world, a context for my existence. I wasn't just a random slime anymore. I was part of an ecosystem, a food chain, a world of predators and prey.
And somewhere in that chain, there was a place for me.
The chat continued to speculate, but my attention had shifted. I was processing, integrating, understanding. The goblin's memories had opened something inside me — a hunger that wasn't just about growth or power.
It was about something else. Something the goblin had understood on a primal level.
The urge to claim. To dominate. To take what I wanted, regardless of what it wanted.
[TricksterGod] donated 75 Divine Essence
[TricksterGod]: You're growing fast, User_4729X! What else can you absorb?
[LustGod] donated 50 Divine Essence
[LustGod]: Show us more. Show us what you can become.
The donations washed over me like warm rain, each one strengthening me further. But it was the goblin's instincts that were truly changing me, reshaping my understanding of what I could be.
I rolled forward, my body moving with newfound purpose. The dungeon wasn't just a place to explore anymore. It was a hunting ground. A place of opportunity.
And somewhere ahead, somewhere in the darkness, there were living things. Things I could absorb. Things I could…
The thought formed without words, a pure impulse rising from the goblin memories I'd consumed:
Mate.
[WarGod]: It's moving differently now. More… focused.
[LoveGoddess]: Do you think it understood us?
[TricksterGod]: Maybe. Or maybe it just realized something important.
[LustGod]: …yes. I think it did.
I didn't know what the gods suspected. I only knew that I had changed. The goblin's memories had given me more than knowledge — they'd given me nature. Instinct. Drive.
And for the first time since awakening, I knew exactly what I wanted.
I wanted to find something alive. Something soft. Something I could claim.
The chat erupted with excitement as I picked up speed, rolling deeper into the dungeon with purpose that hadn't been there before:
[TricksterGod]: YES! GO!
[WarGod]: Finally! Some direction!
[LustGod]: …hunting. It's hunting.
They were right. I was hunting now.
And I had a very good idea of what I was hunting for.