The slime's body grew larger, and its spiritual energy increased greatly.
To the bloodsucking mosquitoes, that meant a delicious new meal had appeared.
BUZZ—
BUZZ—
BUZZ—
Several mosquitoes flew around the slime, watching for an opportunity to use Bloodsucking.
He transformed part of his body into the shape of a flyswatter.
He now had one in each hand.
'These little bastards are surprisingly clever.'
The mosquitoes did not attack easily.
They had sensed danger in their own way.
The bloodsucking mosquitoes were smarter than slimes.
'They're still just mosquitoes.'
They could not bring themselves to leave such a tempting meal.
Eventually, one of them lost patience and landed on the slime's body.
SMACK—
The flyswatter flattened the mosquito.
The slime pulled it into his body and used Devouring.
[Mud Slime Bloodsucking Mosquito Devoured: Devouring increased minutely.]
[Acid Production: The ability to secrete acid increased minutely.]
[Bloodsucking: The ability to absorb bodily fluids increased minutely.]
Pleasant notifications rang out.
'Easy. This is easy. Ha ha.'
In the meantime, however, several mosquitoes had sucked out some of his bodily fluids and escaped.
Some of his spiritual energy vanished along with those fluids.
The one that had attacked was bait.
'Fucking mosquitoes. Let's see who wins.'
BUZZ— BUZZ— BUZZ—
The mosquitoes gathered around the tempting meal once again.
SMACK—SMACK—
The slime used Devouring on the mosquitoes he caught.
He lost bodily fluids and spiritual energy, but......
He also gained something in return.
[Mud Slime Bloodsucking Mosquito Devoured: Devouring increased minutely.]
[Acid Production: The ability to secrete acid increased minutely.]
[Bloodsucking: The ability to absorb bodily fluids increased minutely.]
He lost bodily fluids and spiritual energy equal to the abilities he gained.
But this battle favored the slime.
There was a finite number of bloodsucking mosquitoes in the narrow waterway.
Their numbers dwindled each time the slime devoured one.
Bloodsucking mosquitoes could grow only by feeding on a slime's bodily fluids.
The slime, on the other hand, was not limited to bloodsucking mosquitoes.
He could eat mud and absorb nutrients and spiritual energy from it.
As time passed, the slime gained the advantage.
He had already eliminated the other slimes and monopolized the mud pool.
Although it was not much, Mud Devouring allowed him to keep gaining a small amount of nutrients and spiritual energy.
'It's not the strong who survive. Those who survive become strong. Ha ha.'
The bloodsucking mosquitoes had a favorable matchup against the slime.
They were stronger.
But he could endure longer.
The slime would ultimately emerge victorious.
BUZZ— BUZZ— BUZZ—
SMACK— SMACK—
[Mud Slime Bloodsucking Mosquito Devoured: Devouring increased minutely.]
[Acid Production: The ability to secrete acid increased minutely.]
[Bloodsucking: The ability to absorb bodily fluids increased minutely.]
The more mosquitoes the slime devoured, the fewer dared to attack him.
At last, he used Devouring on the final bloodsucking mosquito.
Only one slime remained in the narrow waterway.
'Then shall I take a look at the abilities I have?'
It was time to review his abilities.
***
[Devouring. Acid Production. Acid Resistance. Body Transformation. Bloodsucking.]
The slime now had five abilities.
'Not bad.'
The slime's current state had not even reached the Demon Beast stage within the demon race.
Compared to the human race......
He was the lowest serf among ordinary mortals.
'Serfs of the human race have no abilities.'
Even among useless freeloaders, he was far better off.
Serfs had no special abilities.
The slime, on the other hand, had five.
This was also one reason why the demon race grew more easily than the human race in the early stages.
Members of the demon race were born with abilities suited to their species.
They also had a low chance of gaining abilities while devouring other members of the demon race.
The slime's Devouring increased that probability.
'Fucking sweet. I knew Devouring was a hidden ability.'
[Devouring: The more you eat, the stronger you become.]
The phrase about growing stronger by eating had concealed such a secret.
Turning off his brain and choosing it had been the right answer.
'When in doubt, always go for it.'
No amount of weighing and calculating could defeat luck.
'The world is ninety percent luck and ten percent skill.'
Luck was especially important for the demon race.
The demon race's balance was a luck-based shitshow.
Something that looked weak might be strong, while something that looked strong might be weak.
Matchups were such a mess that......
A predator could end up being eaten by its prey.
Praying mantises ate frogs and snakes.
Frogs could eat snakes too.
Even if snakes looked like the superior predator, that was not necessarily true.
'The slime really was the best choice.'
A Mud Monster, or slime, from the very bottom of the demon race might be better than other demons.
'This is what makes gacha so addictive. Ha ha.'
When you had no idea what you might get, the occasional jackpot made gacha impossible to quit.
'More importantly, how am I supposed to get out of here?'
There were only slimes and bloodsucking mosquitoes here.
There were no other creatures because it was an extremely small, enclosed space.
The slimes had devoured every living thing inside it.
'Still, the fact that there are slimes and bloodsucking mosquitoes means there must be a way in.'
Even with his stupid brain, he could work that much out.
If the place had been completely sealed, neither slimes nor bloodsucking mosquitoes could have lived there.
He roamed around the narrow waterway, searching for a gap or hole.
His search revealed a small passage near the waterway's ceiling.
One slime had probably flowed through that passage by chance.
Afterward, it had multiplied in the mud pool in the absence of any natural predators.
'The problem is, how do I get all the way up there......?'
***
The wall was not very high, but climbing it was difficult for a slime.
Bloodsucking mosquitoes had wings, so they could have easily flown in and out.
A slime's bodily fluids, however, were rather heavy.
Its adhesive strength, on the other hand, was not particularly strong.
Whenever he tried to climb the wall......
SLIP—
SPLAT—
He could not get far before falling to the floor.
'Ah, f*ck. Shouldn't a slime at least be able to climb walls?'
In games and webnovels, slimes climbed walls.
Sometimes they even attacked adventurers from the ceiling.
Then they melted their clothes.
Or did other strange things.
'Of course this damn luck-based shitshow doesn't even have that.'
Anger welled up inside him, but......
He decided to think positively.
'Won't I gain a Wall Crawling ability if I keep trying? Ha ha.'
There was only one way to find out.
Without giving it any thought, the slime repeatedly tried to climb the wall.
SPLAT—
SPLAT—
SPLAT—
After falling from the wall roughly 100 times......
He realized he could not continue like this.
'Right. Humans are thinking animals. I've been too stupid.'
At this rate, he would remain trapped inside the narrow waterway.
According to the System, he would have to keep doing this here forever.
If a human endlessly repeated the same thing, they would go insane and die.
A slime could not even go insane and die.
Even in such circumstances, hunger drove it to instinctively shovel mud into its mouth.
Slimes faithfully obeyed their instincts.
No. The webnovel loser had surrendered to his instincts.
After countless failures, an idea occurred to him.
'Ah, idiot. I have abilities.'
The slime had gained several abilities.
One of them ought to be useful in his current situation.
Abilities existed to be used.
He had been far too stupid until now.
[Devouring]
[Acid Production]
'If I use these two.......'
By combining Devouring and Acid Production to dissolve the solid wall, he could gradually make a hole and move forward.
'The problem is that I don't know how thick this wall and whatever lies beyond it are.'
With an infinite amount of time......
He would eventually break through the wall and emerge on the other side if he kept at it.
But it would clearly require a tremendous amount of effort and time.
He did not want to do it.
Such a brutish strategy should be used only when there was no other choice.
He considered his other abilities.
Acid Resistance and Bloodsucking were completely useless in this situation.
That left only Body Transformation.
'Wouldn't I stick better if I flattened my body against the wall?'
He did not know the scientific principle behind it, but......
He had a feeling it would work.
He imagined a slime flattening itself against the wall and climbing upward.
It seemed as though slimes had climbed that way in games and webnovels.
'I'll try it. If it doesn't work, I'll think of something else.'
Using Body Transformation, he flattened his body as much as possible.
He pressed himself against the wall in that state.
He extended his tentacles upward and slowly pulled his body along.
'Oh. It's working. It works.'
His body clung to the wall and inched upward.
His wide contact area......
Kept his tentacles from slipping easily against the wall.
'Ahaha! I'm a genius.'
Increasing the contact area increased his grip.
Meanwhile, his center of gravity was distributed across the entire surface of the wall.
That kept him from falling off easily.
He slowly crawled up the wall that way.
The ceiling was the difficult part.
He flattened his tentacles and body across an even wider area.
He did not fall easily even while hanging upside down.
In that manner, he reached the passage in the ceiling.
At that moment......
[New ability registered: Wall Crawling.]
'Aha. So abilities aren't generated randomly.'
He felt as though he had uncovered one of the game's secrets.
Even this chink-made luck-based shitshow seemed to have rules of its own.
Abilities did not seem to appear merely because he did something at random.
He could gain an ability only by eating another member of the demon race that possessed it.
Abilities gained that way had a low acquisition rate.
Devouring was a skill that increased that probability.
The other way to gain an ability was to perform a related action.
Even then, the action had to meet the appropriate conditions.
Simply climbing the wall had not generated an ability.
He had to act in a way suited to climbing walls.
'Even so, the demon race has it fucking sweet compared to the human race.'
It was much harder for the human race than the demon race to acquire such abilities.
They had to train and cultivate for years.
Or learn a related cultivation method.
Or create tools and magical artifacts to use.
But... slimes were different.
'I don't have hands... but I can store things.'
Apart from the digestive sac, there was plenty of space inside a slime's body.
There was no acid there, so objects did not dissolve easily.
He had stored the proboscises obtained from the bloodsucking mosquitoes in that space.
He had acquired an item.
[Bloodsucking Mosquito Proboscis: 14]
'It'll come in handy someday. Ha ha.'
The slime entered the opening that would let him escape the narrow waterway.
He used Body Transformation to lengthen himself like an earthworm.
He wriggled forward while shaping his body to fit the small hole.
After crawling for a long time, he reached the end of the passage.
There was another underground waterway there.
He did not know how large or extensive the waterways in this place were, but...
It seemed he would have to travel through underground waterways like these for some time.
'Well, this isn't bad.'
It looked larger and wider than the waterway where he had started.
The first waterway had contained nothing but slimes and bloodsucking mosquitoes.
This one, however, contained more varied forms of life.
'Right. Until now, this hasn't felt like a chink-made luck-based shitshow.'
Rapid early growth was supposed to be the game's main appeal.
He had suffered only because rotten luck had dropped him in a strange place.
He could grow much more quickly here.
'Ha ha. Shall I devour everything over there?'
He looked forward to discovering what abilities he would gain here.