Before venturing deeper into the secret realm.......
'Should I check my abilities first?'
[Abilities: Devouring. Acid Production. Acid Resistance. Poison Production. Poison Resistance. Bloodsucking. Hard and Tough Skin. Body Transformation. Camouflage. Reproduction. Regeneration. Water Cannon.]
The slime's abilities formed a hexagon.
His offense and defense were well balanced.
For offense, he had Devouring, Acid Production, Poison Production, and Bloodsucking.
They were basic abilities, but.......
'That's what makes them so useful.'
They could be applied in all sorts of situations.
It all depended on how he used them.
For defense, he had Acid Resistance, Poison Resistance, Hard and Tough Skin, and Regeneration.
They were all basic abilities, but they were useful nonetheless.
Regeneration in particular was like having a spare life.
'I can use Body Transformation and Camouflage for both offense and defense.'
Being able to deceive his opponent gave him a huge advantage.
It would be even better if he could conceal his spiritual energy.
'Reproduction lets me command Mud Slimes as subordinates.'
They were like SCVs (construction robots) that collected spiritual energy from the mudfield.
As in StarCraft, they could also be mobilized for offense and defense.
Because the Mud Slimes gathered spiritual energy for him, he could grow spirit herbs and spirit fruit as well.
They also helped him cultivate medicinal herbs.
They truly were useful workers.
'Water Cannon gives me a ranged attack.'
A slime's weakness was its lack of ranged offensive power.
With Water Cannon, that weakness had disappeared.
He had completed a true all-rounder character.
[Mud Demon Beast Horns: Mudfield Creation. Has the effect of nurturing vegetation.]
Mudfield Creation was an ability that altered the surrounding environment to favor the slime.
There, he could raise Mud Slimes and grow medicinal ingredients such as spirit herbs and spirit fruit.
He could use the mudfield to hide and hunt.
Even by itself, it was a useful field for a slime.
'The usefulness of spirit herbs goes without saying.'
The power to nurture vegetation he had obtained from the White Deer doubled the mudfield's effects.
It allowed him to grow better medicinal ingredients in the mudfield.
[Mud Demon Beast Horns: Waterflow Control.]
Waterflow Control was one of the basic abilities of Water-attribute Demon Beasts.
It was the power to control water.
It allowed him to adjust the consistency of the mudfield.
He could also create currents to restrict an enemy's movements.
More importantly, it was the fundamental ability behind Water Cannon.
Now that he could control the flow of water.......
He could use Water Cannon.
'At this point, I'm not weak enough to get beaten up wherever I go.'
Against someone at a similar realm, he would be the one handing out the beatings.
'And I've even got a pet.'
The crow Demon Beast would not see it that way, but.......
It was as useful to the slime as a pet.
For starters, it was fast and could fly.
It did more than lure prey to him.
It was extremely useful for scouting, surveillance, and searching for items.
It was a great help to the slime, who used the mudfield as his base and could not move around easily.
'At this point, I'm practically omnipotent. Ha ha.'
He could do nearly everything by himself.
'What's so special about solo leveling? Now this is solo leveling.'
He was a character capable of soloing even high-level hunting grounds.
***
'Should I inspect my items too?'
[Lowest-grade spirit herbs and fruit: 32. Low-grade spirit herbs and fruit: 15. Lowest-grade spirit trees: 3. Assorted Demon Beast byproducts: 45.]
He had immediately cracked open and consumed every spirit stone he found while moving the mudfield.
Through Devouring, the slime could convert spirit stones directly into spiritual energy and spiritual power.
There was no reason to save them.
The proportion of low-grade spirit herbs was very high compared to lowest-grade ones.
Like Demon Beasts, spirit herbs formed a pyramid, growing sharply rarer at higher grades.
For every several hundred lowest-grade spirit herbs that appeared.
Only one low-grade spirit herb would appear.
For every several thousand or tens of thousands of low-grade spirit herbs that appeared.
Only one mid-grade spirit herb would appear.
The slime could raise the Grade of spirit herbs with his power to nurture vegetation.
'It's an incredibly powerful ability.'
Being able to produce higher-grade spirit herbs that grew scarcer at every level was an astonishing ability.
If a human alchemist learned of that power, they would lose their mind over it.
They were always desperate to secure ingredients for medicinal pills.
Obtaining the high-grade spirit herbs needed for cultivation was like plucking stars from the sky.
That was why... alchemists usually belonged to sects.
They grew using the sect's resources.
In return, they supplied the medicinal pills the sect required.
Independent alchemists were rare.
They had to gather spirit herbs themselves.
Or acquire them through trade.
That made it harder for them to develop than alchemists supported by a sect.
'But... each low-grade spirit herb has its own properties.'
Low-grade spirit herbs were divided from 1-Star to 10-Star.
They also had attributes.
Starting with the Five Elements attributes.
And extending to the rare Lightning attribute.
There were all manner of attributes, including Medicine, Poison, Antidote, Curse, Transformation, Yin, and Yang.
From low-grade onward, every spirit herb also had its own name.
Their names differed depending on their realm and attributes.
'How am I supposed to remember all of that?'
He simply lumped them all together as low-grade spirit herbs and put them in his storage sac.
He could use them as bait to lure Demon Beasts.
They would surely prove useful for other purposes as well.
Spirit trees were even rarer than spirit herbs.
They were not easy to obtain even inside the secret realm.
More importantly, they required more spiritual energy and time to grow.
For now, he left them at lowest-grade.
If he ever had time to spare, he planned to raise them slowly then.
'Since they're more valuable, won't they bear better spirit fruit or some special spirit creature?'
He would find out when he raised them later.
Demon Beast byproducts were items in which spiritual energy was concentrated, such as horns, carapaces, and venomous fangs.
They contained various divine abilities.
Humans could use such things to craft all kinds of magical artifacts.
When the slime ate them, he had a very low chance of obtaining an ability.
'This kind of thing is best when you roll everything at once.'
Many of the abilities contained in Demon Beast byproducts were ones the slime already possessed.
Even so, consuming duplicates could improve an ability slightly.
'That's easier than raising them through direct use.'
Take the Poison Production ability contained in venomous fangs, for example.......
If he simply used the ability.
[Poison Production: Your ability to produce poison has increased minutely.]
It would increase by only a minute amount like that, but.......
If the slime devoured a venomous fang.
[Poison Production: Your ability to produce poison has increased slightly.]
It rose a little more than it did through ordinary use.
That was why he had separately stored the byproducts obtained from hunting Demon Beasts.
'There's not a single part of a Demon Beast that goes to waste.'
That was why human cultivators entered secret realms to hunt Demon Beasts.
To humans, a secret realm was a treasure trove of cultivation resources.
To the demon race, it was a relatively safe place to advance their realms.
'Time to move on to the next place.'
The deeper one ventured into a secret realm, the denser its spiritual energy became.
The Demon Beasts that appeared there also grew stronger.
A secret realm was the perfect place to advance one's realm step by step.
The slime headed farther into the secret realm.
Leaving the outskirts behind, he gradually moved toward its depths.
***
The method of raising himself did not change much from 3-Star through 5-Star.
Whenever he arrived at a new place, he first created a mudfield where spiritual energy was dense.
He used Mud Slimes to collect the spiritual energy in the mudfield.
Then he raised spirit herbs and spirit fruit.
A hunting ground naturally formed around them.
He drove off troublesome creatures nearby with Water Cannon.
Anything that leaped into the mudfield was hunted down and eaten.
'Fucking sweet!'
The slime was like a fisherman who had cast a fish trap into the sea.
The secret realm was a sea rich in fish.
Every time he hauled up the trap, it was full of fish.
CAW— CAW—
(I'll find somewhere with plenty of prey.)
Whenever prey grew scarce nearby.......
The crow Demon Beast searched the surrounding region and found a promising hunting ground for him.
CAW— CAW—
(Should I bring some prey over?)
Whenever the prey in the area dwindled, the crow used itself as bait to lure more in.
CAW— CAW—
(There's a decent spirit herb over there. Want to come see?)
Whenever it found a useful spirit herb or spirit tree, it guided him there.
The crow Demon Beast knew that anything the slime raised would grow into a better spirit herb.
Letting the slime raise it before eating it was far more effective than consuming it immediately.
CAW— CAW—
(Now you owe me for my trouble.)
'Clever thing.......'
The crow Demon Beast's help was not free.
It expected compensation.
If he refused to pay.......
CAW— CAW—
(Keep this up and I'm going on strike!)
It would refuse to work that day and laze around the mudfield.
It would roll around in its nest while preening its feathers.
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(You still have to pay rent.)
CAW— CAW—
(Room and board should be included when I work for you!)
WOBBLE—WOBBLE—
(Fine. Wait a little.)
In the end, he deliberately raised spirit herbs and spirit fruit for the crow.
CAW— CAW—
(The pay is too stingy. Give me more.)
The higher a Demon Beast's realm rose, the more spiritual energy it had to absorb.
It was like needing more experience to gain a level.
Advancing its realm required more spirit herbs and spirit fruit.
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(There's no more. I gave you plenty.)
CAW— CAW—
(I know you have more. Keep this up and I won't work.)
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(Fine. I'll give you more. It's not as though I'm doing this for free, even if I really am digging my business out of the ground.)
The crow Demon Beast was good at bargaining too.
The fact remained that the slime needed the crow to grow.
He provided it with the spirit herbs and spirit fruit it needed.
'I'm still coming out ahead.'
Merchants always lie when they claim they make no profit from a sale.
Alongside advancing his realm, the slime.......
Was accumulating spirit herbs, spirit fruit, spirit trees, and Demon Beast byproducts.
The slime was coming out ahead in his dealings with the crow.
While the crow merely advanced its realm.......
The slime was collecting all kinds of items.
Then, one day.......
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(Some dangerous ones are coming!)
CAW— CAW—
(What's happening?)
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(Humans. You should hide for a while too.)
The annual opening of the secret realm had come around again.
They had to lie low for fifteen days.
The demon race could always obtain cultivation resources here, but.......
The humans could remain for only fifteen days.
They tried to obtain as much as possible during that period.
Conflict was inevitable.
Even the byproducts obtained from fighting the demon race were useful resources to them.
WOBBLE—WOBBLE—
(There's no need to clash with them.)
Of course, humans were also like realm-advancing medicinal pills to the demon race.
However, with cultivation resources so abundant.......
There was little benefit in fighting humans for the slime and the crow Demon Beast.
CAW— CAW—
(Okay. I'll hide well. You be careful too.)
All he had to do was enter port and wait for the storm to pass.
Then he could go back to catching fish in the bountiful sea.
There was no need to force himself out onto storm-tossed waters.
WOBBLE— WOBBLE—
(Don't worry. I have a way.)
The slime retrieved the spirit herbs and spirit trees planted atop the mudfield.
Then he descended to the very bottom of the mudfield.
It was nearly eighty meters beneath the surface.
There.......
'Waterflow Control!'
Waterflow Control could also manipulate the water in the mudfield.
He could add water to thin it.
Or remove water to make it thick and sticky.
'Earth Attribute Enhancement!'
He activated Waterflow Control and Earth Attribute Enhancement simultaneously.
The mudfield rapidly turned into solid ground.
When the surface had become nearly indistinguishable from bare earth.......
Several streaks of light descended from the sky.
They were human cultivators riding magical artifacts.