This new waterway was slightly larger than the enclosed one before it.
TRICKLE—
The sound of running water suggested that it was connected to other places.
More nutrients and spiritual energy flowed in through those connections.
That allowed more creatures to live there.
'Reconnaissance is essential before entering a new place.'
Even in games, preliminary investigation was standard before entering a new hunting ground.
Charging in without knowing anything was the perfect way to end up dead on the floor.
He had to work his way from the weakest, easiest prey to the strongest creatures in the hunting ground.
'There aren't very many creatures in here.'
A waterway was sustained by nutrients and spiritual energy that flowed in from outside.
It could not support many creatures.
The most common creature was......
'There are Mud Slimes here too.'
Mud Slimes gathered in the underground waterway and ate soil from the floor.
They absorbed the organic matter and spiritual energy within it.
On the walls of the waterway......
[Beetle: Feeds on moss and mold in the waterway. Ability: Quick Feet.]
The description called them beetles, but......
They looked like sewer cockroaches.
They scurried rapidly across the floor and walls of the waterway.
They ate mold, moss, and organic matter.
[Poison Snail: Feeds on moss and mold in the waterway. Abilities: Hard Shell. Poison.]
The Poison Snail possessed no fewer than two abilities.
He did not know how they would manifest in a slime, but......
'Won't I become a Poison Slime if I use Devouring on one? That would be fucking sweet.'
He might be able to hunt other creatures easily with poison.
Poison was useful not only for hunting but also for defense.
Creatures did not readily attack something poisonous.
Another creature in the waterway was......
The Sewer Rat.
[Sewer Rat: Feeds on small animals and plants in the waterway. Abilities: Quick Feet. Reproduction.]
The Sewer Rat was much larger than a mouse.
It also had a vicious temperament and sometimes ate mice smaller than itself.
Fortunately......
'It doesn't seem to like eating Mud Slimes.'
Its favorite prey was insects like beetles.
Sometimes, it also ate mushroom-like growths from crevices in the waterway.
It would eat Mud Slimes, but......
It did not seem to prefer them.
It appeared to eat them only when there was truly nothing else available.
'That makes sense. The smell of mud and sewage must be overpowering.'
Mud Slimes ate ancient mud from the waterway floor.
The earthy smell was overwhelming.
Living in a sewer made the stench even worse.
Even he thought they looked unappetizing.
'Their bodily fluids are at least palatable when I suck them out.'
The Bloodsucking Mosquito Proboscises were useful.
They easily pierced the slime's tough hide.
'Now, what should I use Devouring on first?'
The easiest prey was right in front of him.
It was the cluster of Mud Slimes on the waterway floor.
He emerged from the passage and seeped onto the waterway floor.
Tentacles extended from his body.
A Bloodsucking Mosquito Proboscis was attached to the end of each one.
He stuck the proboscises into those stupid creatures and slurped up their bodily fluids.
The number of slimes on the waterway floor steadily dwindled.
'As expected, nothing beats Devouring your own kind. Ha ha.'
The demon race felt little affection for its own kind.
Even members of the same species were targets to be devoured for advancement.
Creatures without intelligence, such as slimes, were nothing more than good food.
***
'Growing isn't easy.'
He hit a wall immediately after devouring all the slimes.
The other creatures were not easy to catch.
He first tried to devour the beetles, which looked like the easiest prey.
'Those things have keen senses.'
They detected scents and movement with their antennae and spiracles.
Even the feet pressed against the floor possessed sensory organs.
They also had eyes on their heads.
Deceiving them and getting close was no easy task.
If he crept toward them, they noticed and escaped with Quick Feet.
They were difficult to catch.
The Sewer Rat and the slime avoided each other.
After all his Devouring, the slime had grown more than twice as large as the Sewer Rat.
It was too big to make comfortable prey.
From the slime's perspective, the Sewer Rat was troublesome too.
'It isn't just vicious. It's also fairly large. There's no need to take a risk right now.'
More importantly, it had Quick Feet.
It was not easy to catch either.
They watched each other warily while maintaining a certain distance.
In the end, he had to keep shoveling mud from the waterway floor into his mouth.
But eating that alone did not allow him to grow.
Digesting the mud took time.
Furthermore, mud was not rich in nutrients or spiritual energy.
As his body grew, as much leaked out as he could absorb by eating.
He needed food with a higher concentration of nutrients and spiritual energy than mud.
He tried eating moss and mold from the walls, but......
'They're only a little better than mud.'
When he considered the energy required to move across the walls, they were hardly any better at all.
'Does that leave the Poison Snails?'
Nutrient-rich flesh suffused with spiritual energy lay within their hard shells.
'The poison is a problem, though.......'
If he was lucky, he might acquire an ability related to poison.
'Then I'd have it fucking sweet. Heh heh. Fine, I'll eat one even if it kills me.'
The slime gulped down a snail whole.
Then......
'Cough, cough! What is this?'
Agony dozens of times worse than the burn of capsaicin erupted in his stomach.
[New ability registered: Poison Resistance.]
[Poison Resistance: Resistance to poison increased minutely.]
The notifications appeared in rapid succession.
'I can't do this!'
The agony was utterly unbearable.
Whether it was Poison Resistance or Poison, he had to be able to endure eating the snail.
SPIT—
He spat out the Poison Snail immediately after swallowing it.
Whenever he tried to eat a Poison Snail, he remembered that agony.
He could not bring himself to eat one again.
'Poison Snails are out.'
Raising Poison Resistance with Poison Snails was excruciating.
Digesting one to acquire Poison would be several times harder.
He was a cool webnovel loser who pursued fun.
He readily gave up on difficult and painful tasks.
'I need to find an easier way.'
Humans had brains.
There had to be a simpler, more convenient method.
'Right, traps. Heh heh. Long live humanity!'
He could hunt by laying traps.
Among animals, spiders did that.
Humans made use of tools.
'I don't have tools... but a slime has tentacles.'
First, he tried to hunt the beetles with a trap.
He spread his body thinly across the wall.
Then he placed moss and mushrooms that the beetles liked on top of himself.
The beetles would gather to eat the bait.
Then......
'Ah... this doesn't work. Those things are too sensitive.'
They sensed something was wrong through smell, their antennae, and the sensory organs in their feet.
They did not recklessly rush at the bait.
'Does that leave only that creature?'
***
The Sewer Rat was his only remaining option.
He decided to use a trap against the Sewer Rat too.
'First, I need to hide my scent.'
He had to conceal the distinctive smell of mud and slime.
'I shouldn't be easy to see either.'
The Sewer Rat was not quite as sensitive as a beetle, but......
It had sharp eyes.
He had to be able to deceive those eyes.
'And I need to fool its other senses.......'
Hearing was just as important as sight and smell.
There happened to be a place where he could deceive all of those senses.
The very bottom of the waterway.
That was where the Mud Slimes had originally lived.
The place had smelled of Mud Slimes from the beginning.
He would hide his own scent within it.
Slimes were translucent life-forms.
When they spread themselves thin, they were difficult to see underwater.
It was perfect for deceiving the Sewer Rat's eyes.
TRICKLE—
Water flowed slowly along the floor of the waterway.
It was a place filled with the sound of running water.
Detecting other noises there was difficult.
The slime spread his body thinly across the waterway floor and waited for the Sewer Rat to walk over him.
After he waited patiently for a while, an unsuspecting Sewer Rat stepped onto his body.
Despite the squishy sensation......
It was difficult to distinguish him from the mud on the waterway floor.
'Now!'
The slime wrapped around the Sewer Rat like a cloth bundling up a parcel.
SQUEAK—SQUEAK—
The Sewer Rat did not remain still.
It struggled and resisted fiercely.
It tried to tear the slime apart with its teeth and claws.
But the slime's hide was elastic and tough.
Unless something was thin and sharp like a Bloodsucking Mosquito Proboscis, it could not easily tear or puncture him.
Acid continued to flow from the slime's body.
His body completely enveloped the Sewer Rat, leaving it no room to breathe.
Its resistance gradually weakened.
Now it was time to eat.
This meal was richer and more nutritious than anything he had eaten before.
[Sewer Rat Devoured: Devouring increased very slightly.]
[Sewer Rat Devoured: Devouring increased very slightly.]
The notifications continued for a long time.
It was a satisfying meal.
After quite some time passed......
[Sewer Rat Devouring complete.]
[Acquired the Sewer Rat's Reproduction ability.]
[New ability registered: Reproduction.]
'Huh? Why wasn't Quick Feet registered as an ability?'
He had absorbed only one of the Sewer Rat's two abilities.
'Is it because I don't have feet?'
Slimes did not have feet.
He could perhaps count his tentacles as feet, but......
'The ability would be awkward even if I had it.'
How fast could he possibly walk on tentacles?
It was a case of sour grapes.
'It might just be a matter of probability. I'll hope for it next time.'
The acquisition rate might be lower for an ability involving feet because slimes had none.
He was quick to give up and accept the situation.
'But... how do I use Reproduction?'
It was an ambiguous ability for a slime.
A Sewer Rat could use Reproduction to rapidly build up its population.
'Could Reproduction be something incredible, like a Clone ability?'
Webnovels often featured characters who created clones and used them to take everything for themselves.
They led enormous legions like necromancers.
They swept up all the items and experience points in the field.
'But... how does a slime reproduce?'
He did not know.
At times like this, there was only one answer......
'Just go for it. Reproduction!'
The moment he pictured Reproduction in his mind......
A piece of his body broke away.
It became a Mud Slime.
Slimes reproduced asexually.
Reproduction was simple.
'Ah... so that's how it works.'
He first tried giving orders so he could control the clone.
'Go forward! Go backward!'
The Mud Slime did not respond to his commands at all.
It merely stuffed the surrounding mud into its mouth.
'Ah, f*ck. This game is fucking shit.'
Reproduction was nothing like a clone ability.
It merely split off part of his body to create a stupid Mud Slime.
In the end, it only wasted his nutrients and spiritual energy.
'Making something like that will only feed the Sewer Rats.'
It was a needless waste of resources.
'I'll just hunt Sewer Rats.'
After that, he devoted himself to hunting Sewer Rats.
The Sewer Rats fell for his traps surprisingly easily.
After he repeated the process several times......
The Sewer Rats vanished from the waterway.
'All I did was make the beetles multiply.'
Once their natural predator, the Sewer Rat, disappeared......
The beetles flourished.
Their numbers increased greatly.
But they were a feast he could see and never taste.
They did not fall into his traps easily.
In the end, mud was the only thing left for the slime to use Devouring on.
He could not catch the beetles, and he could not eat the Poison Snails.
'At this rate, my body and spiritual energy will shrink.......'
Eating the Sewer Rats had made his body more than twice as large.
He could not maintain that size with mud alone.
At that moment......
'Right. This is it! Humans need to use their brains.'
The slime used Reproduction.
Dozens of small slimes appeared.
They began eating the surrounding mud as soon as they were born.
Then their bodies gradually grew larger.
'Ten really are better than one.'
Several small bodies digested food more efficiently than one large body.
They extracted nutrients and spiritual energy from the mud more quickly.
'I have the Bloodsucking Mosquito Proboscises.'
He used the 14 Bloodsucking Mosquito Proboscises to make straws.
Once the Mud Slimes grew large enough, he sucked out their bodily fluids.
'If Reproduction doesn't create clones, I'll make them work like clones. I'm a genius. Heh heh.'
He had created an efficient system for harvesting experience points, nutrients, and spiritual energy.
'Can't I control them somehow?'
They could not be manipulated very well, like broken wooden puppets.
Still, he could make them move roughly in one direction.
'All right. Reproduction!'
Mud Slimes began filling the waterway.
Some of the creatures covering the floor even climbed the walls.
They did so to eat moss and mold on the walls.
As the number of Mud Slimes in the waterway increased......
The beetles' habitat shrank.
They began to be driven into a corner.
Seizing the opportunity, he moved the 14 slimes connected to his tentacles by Bloodsucking proboscises.
Like sheep herded by sheepdogs, the beetles were driven toward the boss slime.
The net he had spread thinly contracted.
All the beetles fell into the slime's stomach.
'High-protein meals really are the best. Buuurp.'
After devouring every beetle in the waterway......
He recovered the nutrients and spiritual energy he had invested in the Mud Slimes.
As he slurped out their bodily fluids through the straws, they shrank and withered.
Only a single slime and the inedible Poison Snails remained in the waterway.
'It's time to leave this place too.'
He had grown more than 6~7 times larger than when he first arrived.
He had gone from slightly larger than a Sewer Rat to the size of a small dog.
Just as he was about to leave the waterway where he had stayed for so long......
[Evolution requirements fulfilled.]
[Evolve Mud Slime?]