As soon as he climbed onto land.
He approached one of the nearby Centipedes.
Centipedes were the most common creatures in the area.
They were relatively large and possessed hard, tough carapaces.
Their vitality was so tenacious that they did not die easily even after losing more than half their bodies.
They also had fairly powerful poison and jaws.
That made them well suited to both offense and defense.
Thanks to those traits, many of them evolved into Demon Beasts.
Later on, however, those advantages became disadvantages.
They had no outstanding specialty of their own.
Centipede Demons became increasingly rare above the Demon realm.
In that sense, a creature with Devouring as its basic ability.......
Choosing the Mud Monster—the slime—could offer a tremendous advantage.
It struggled at first, but it would only grow stronger as it advanced.
SHSHSH—
The Centipede displayed its wariness as the Medium Slime approached.
He advanced without hesitation anyway.
GULP—
He swallowed it in one bite.
The Centipede resisted fiercely inside the slime's stomach.
'Ow, my stomach burns.'
It felt like the heartburn from a night when he had downed several bottles of soju and collapsed in a heap.
The Centipede raked the slime's inner lining with its sharp claws and jaws.
[Regeneration: Your ability to regenerate has increased slightly.]
The Centipede drove its venomous stinger into the slime's stomach.
[Poison Resistance: Your ability to resist poison has increased slightly.]
'Ha ha. Fucking sweet!'
If heartburn made his abilities rise, he would gladly drink several bottles of soju.
'This is surprisingly decent.'
Once the creature fell still, Devouring proceeded.
Rich nutrients and spiritual energy, incomparable to those of a fish, flowed into him.
'I think my body's gotten a little bigger.......'
His growth had stagnated for a while.
There was a limit to what miscellaneous food and thin spiritual energy could provide.
The Centipede was not a Demon Beast, but.......
For an ordinary monster, it possessed a respectable amount of spiritual energy.
That was because it had devoured many other monsters.
***
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth permeated water, air, and soil.
It gradually accumulated through living creatures.
A plant that lived for an extremely long time slowly gathered spiritual energy until it became a Demon Beast.
Among animals, apex predators were more likely to become Demon Beasts.
A tiger was far more likely than a rabbit to become a Demon Beast.
Insects such as venomous bugs were numerous.
They gathered spiritual energy through a battle royale of eating and being eaten until they became Demon Beasts.
Another path was to be born with a silver spoon.
A creature born in an excellent place could easily gather spiritual energy.......
Then evolve through the Demon Beast realm and into a Demon.
It was just like being born rich among humans.
Like the human race, the demon race also fought over desirable territory.
They competed to claim spirit veins and spiritual lands.
***
'I am still hungry.'
No matter how much spiritual energy it possessed, a Centipede was still an insect.
It had accumulated less spiritual energy than he expected.
Moreover, this was the tutorial area.
It was a place with scarce spiritual energy that handed out experience stingily.
He could not expect major growth from one Centipede.
'Then I'll eat, eat, and eat some more.'
That was how the demon race survived.
Fortunately, slimes specialized in eating.
If he did it properly, he could grow faster than the rest of the demon race.
'But... Centipedes have nothing worth taking.'
Centipedes did not possess many abilities.
Even their traits were.......
[Poison Production. Powerful Jaws. Hard and Tough Skin.......]
Those were the kinds of traits they possessed.
They overlapped substantially with the Medium Slime's existing abilities.
The only difference was Powerful Jaws, but.......
The conditions did not seem right for a slime to acquire it.
The other creatures living here included spiders, venomous snakes, mantises, poisonous toads, poisonous lizards, and poisonous frogs.
'Most of them are venomous. Raising Poison Resistance was definitely the right choice.'
Fortunately, none of them possessed poison deadly enough to kill him outright.
'Let's just eat everything I see. Heh heh.'
After the Centipede came a spider.
The spider attacked the slime with its web and venomous fangs.
'This is fucking sweet.'
A slime did not stick easily to a spiderweb.
Even if it did, that did not matter.
He wound the spiderweb around a tentacle and removed it.
Spiders and slimes were natural counters.
The slime drew close and swallowed the spider in one gulp.
The spider thrashed inside his body, but.......
[Regeneration: Your ability to regenerate has increased slightly.]
[Poison Resistance: Your ability to resist poison has increased slightly.]
The spider's poison became nothing more than a tool for raising his abilities.
The Medium Slime was becoming the absolute predator of this region.
'It still won't give me those abilities.'
They were Web Production and Web Shooting.
'A slime using webs would look awesome.'
He imagined himself flinging webs everywhere like Spider-Man.
'That would wreck the game's balance too badly.'
Even a luck-based shitshow had a line it would not cross.
It was only a luck-based shitshow from the players' perspective.
The developers believed they had made an exceptionally well-balanced game.
Leaving his disappointment about the webs behind, he approached another creature.
It was a mantis.
***
'Why is this mantis so strong?!'
Contrary to appearances, a mantis was not a weak animal.
It had carved out a place for itself in this region dominated by venomous insects and creatures.
Its eyes could see in every direction without a blind spot, and its scythe-like forelegs had an excellent range of motion.
It also possessed powerful jaws.
With two sets of jaws, one large and one small, it chewed up and swallowed its prey.
Mantises hunted venomous snakes, frogs, and even birds.
Underestimating a mantis because it was an insect was a grave mistake.
'Good grief. Retreat!'
Its powerful scythes and jaws had reduced the Medium Slime to a rag.
He had paid dearly for letting his guard down.
'I should've swallowed it whole from the start.'
Once inside his stomach, its movements would be restricted.
It could bite chunks out of him with its jaws.
He only had to endure that with Regeneration.
Then he could slowly kill the mantis with poison and acid.
Instead, he had charged in boldly.
It had cut and bitten him savagely.
The slime retreated to the waterway again.
There, he slowly recovered his stamina and healed his wounds.
'It's a shame this isn't Super Regeneration.'
Regeneration was not all-powerful.
It merely made wounds heal faster.
Slimes naturally recovered quickly from injuries, which made Regeneration more effective for them.
'A base really helps at times like this. People need a home after all.'
Even a cramped studio apartment made a huge difference if it was your own home.
It kept intruders out and gave you somewhere comfortable to rest.
'It even has a pantry like this.'
He had kept the Mud Slimes alive.
While he was away, they had multiplied and grown plump.
He plunged in a straw and slurped away as if drinking a beverage.
'I've even got snacks. Home really is the best!'
The occasional passing fish was not much help... but it made a nice delicacy.
His body recovered while he rested at home.
'It's comfortable here, but I can't stay home forever.'
He had to work at least a part-time job if he wanted to relax at home.
Once he ran out of money, he had to go earn more.
'Isn't there some way to make money while doing nothing?'
In webnovels, a single zap could earn someone trillions.
'Still, what could beat steady rental income?'
It was not enough to live on, but.......
He did have income that arrived consistently.
It was the Mud Slime ranch inside the waterway.
'Is this why people are always going on about landlords?'
It felt like owning a shop that paid 500,000 won in rent every month.
'Still, a man should gamble on one big score. Let's go!'
To chase that one big score.
He climbed onto land again.
It was time for round two with the mantis.
***
The mantis effectively had no blind spots.
Its senses were sharp as well, making it difficult to deceive.
If he clumsily extended a tentacle, it would be cut off and chewed up.
'Then I'll break through head-on.'
Strategy meant using your strength to target the opponent's weakness.
'I'm bigger.'
The mantis here was no ordinary specimen.
It was larger than a Sewer Rat but smaller than a small dog.
The Medium Slime, however, had grown even larger through all his Devouring.
He was now the size of a medium-sized dog.
He was 2–3 times larger and had 6–9 times the mass.
'Weight class is king. Body Transformation!'
He swelled his body enormously.
The slime became an enormous, tenacious wrapping cloth.
Then he swallowed the mantis whole.
'Devouring really is a slime's greatest strength!'
Eyes that could see in every direction.
Scythes with an excellent range of motion.
Even powerful jaws were useless.
In rock-paper-scissors, scissors defeated paper.......
That was true. It was a natural counter.
But it meant nothing when the scissors were inside the paper.
Scissors that could not be used were merely food for the paper.
The mantis held the advantage over the slime in their natural matchup.
That did not mean it was guaranteed to win.
'It can't do anything when I wrap it up and eat it like this.'
The mantis thrashed inside his stomach.
[Regeneration: Your ability to regenerate has increased slightly.]
It was difficult for the mantis to inflict a severe wound while wrapped in slime.
Regeneration could heal injuries like those.
Its air and spiritual energy were cut off... then poison and acid began dissolving its body.
The mantis's resistance did not last long.
'Swallowing them really is the best!'
A snake's fangs served to inject poison or prevent swallowed prey from escaping.
A snake had no need to tear its prey apart.
Prey inside a python's stomach died without putting up much resistance.
That kind of Devouring was a slime's greatest strength.
Even an army could not display its full power once surrounded.
A slime that could wrap up and devour its enemies was a more formidable predator than it seemed.
'Low intelligence is the flaw... but that has nothing to do with me.'
An intelligent slime was terrifying.
'Then my next target is.......'
It was a poisonous toad.
He gulped it down whole.
'Ptoo, ptoo— Toads aren't fit to eat.'
Its skin secreted an extremely irritating poison.
[Poison Resistance: Your ability to resist poison has increased slightly.]
Even with his Poison Resistance.......
His insides felt as though they were on fire.
'It's still more manageable than a Poison Snail.'
Perhaps because his Poison Resistance had risen, it did not hurt as much as a Poison Snail.
'Good. Again!'
He swallowed the poisonous toad.
'Ptoo, ptoo— Toads really aren't fit to eat.'
[Poison Resistance: Your ability to resist poison has increased slightly.]
'Still, raising the ability makes it worth eating.'
He endured the pain and swallowed it again.
'Ptoo, ptoo— Toads really aren't fit to eat.'
[Poison Resistance: Your ability to resist poison has increased slightly.]
After he repeated the process several times.
The toad's skin stopped secreting poison.
In a way, the slime had sucked out the toad's poison and spat it away.
Poison glands were not inexhaustible.
'It's crude... but this method isn't bad either.'
The poisonous toad, now out of poison, dissolved inside the slime's stomach.
It provided a surprisingly large amount of nutrients and spiritual energy.
Toads lived a long time.
Their predator-deterring poison had allowed them to survive for years.
'Next.......'
A large frog was swallowing a lizard.
The lizard, already halfway inside the frog's stomach, struggled wildly.
Devouring prey whole was powerful.
The lizard could not mount a proper resistance against the frog.
'Time to reap the spoils! I'd better hurry and eat them.'
When it came to Devouring, nothing beat a slime.
He rushed over and swallowed both creatures whole.
The creatures resisting inside the slime's stomach soon fell still.
Digestion began shortly afterward.
'Burp. That hit the spot.'
He was happily patting his stomach when.......
[New ability, Camouflage, has been registered.]
'Huh? One of them had Camouflage?'
It was not the stomach used for eating.
It was camouflage—the ability to hide from sight.
One of the two creatures seemed able to blend the color of its skin with its surroundings.
'Could anything be this fucking sweet?'
He had reaped the spoils, killed two birds with one stone, and gained a decent ability.
'Camouflage arts really are perfect for a slime.'
No member of the demon race could make better use of camouflage arts than a slime.
Using Body Transformation together with camouflage arts would make him almost impossible to distinguish from his surroundings.
Enemies would have difficulty noticing him.
Of course, even a Demon Beast could sense spiritual energy.
With spiritual perception alone, it could sense an approaching enemy to some degree.
Once a creature became a Demon, it developed divine sense.
Divine sense could detect an opponent's spiritual energy and realm from a considerable distance.
It was impossible to sneak up on anything at or above the Demon Beast realm using camouflage arts.
'Camouflage arts are extremely useful here, though.'
This was the tutorial area.
No Demon Beasts appeared here.
They would only show up once he entered the main game.
Body Transformation and camouflage arts allowed him to approach prey with ease.
For fast creatures, he could bind their legs with his tentacles first.
For slow creatures, he could sneak close and swallow them in one.......
SCREECH—?
GULP—
'Ahh. That hit the spot. Fucking sweet.'
He had swallowed one of the Centipedes, the most numerous creatures in the area, whole.
It had not even realized the slime was approaching.
Only when it was being swallowed did it notice something was wrong.
By then, it was already too late.
It was destined to be digested inside the slime's stomach.
'I'm going to sweep this whole region clean! Krahaha.'
The slime began Devouring the nearby creatures one after another.
Then, in the midst of his hunt.......
'Why are you here?!'
An unexpected being appeared before him.