That Unique Monster Who Just Got the 'Consciousness' Passive Skill-Chapter 159: [Protean]

But anyway: I reached the deepest level.

A majestic room. Similar to how the entrance of the wild sanctuary glowed with magical wonders, crystals, and countless shiny flowers, the last room glowed with as much mana and beauty. Fireflies flew around. Cold water streamed into a carved bed. In the calm, peaceful atmosphere, slimes reigned kings. Bouncing here and about, they chewed at every kind of magical herb and flowers, absorbing them all within their fluffy, round bellies, before they were melted and eaten.

And, if I hadn't come here to massacre every low-level slime I found, I might have needed to take a break then and there and take some pics to show Cetha, but I didn't.

The most powerful monster of the sanctuary was here, sleeping on its rocky throne.

Spacious, but crowded. About hundreds of slimes. The ceiling reached high. Jumping off the elevated plateau I was on, I stepped into the slime-only private garden. How kind they were; they didn't mind my presence. I slashed one and two little fellows; they still didn't mind me. Slashing four and five other boys, some finally turned to me with question marks above their heads. After I killed a dozen, they all turned to me, and I laughed about it.

They seriously were overly numerous, in their private garden. If it weren't for the fact that I slashed about two hundred of the monsters who tried to attack me, they might have had famished population issues in a few months.

And the fight dragged on. The quarrel might have been a challenge for me if I overused my mana and ended up overwhelmed by the slimes' sheer numbers. But no. Rather than a fight, it was mostly me messing around with a calm, peaceful population of monsters who shouldn't have had anything coming their way.

Slimes weren't especially weak. One managed to grab me, at some point, and I swore I could feel it starting to melt me within its mass already.

Once the tremendously big number of the funky creatures was cut down to half its initial number, the king awoke. Some real fights happened. When I fought the low-level ones earlier, I noticed some decided to blend into one another to form a bigger, stronger slime. That tactic was mostly useless. That was so long as they just combined weak powers together.

Some still attacked, while some backed off toward their king. I waited for this moment. Today, I wanted a suitable Receptacle. Why, because the System put me up to the task. The quest "What shall I…+" was what I went about. And so, finally, a hundred little slimes combined with the big, enormous one, and then, you could say there was only one remaining slime in the room. Two enemies facing one another. Me up against the huge jelly fellow.

Today, their peaceful tribe was devastated. A powerful foe knocked on their door, and before the slimes knew it, they were all going to be massacred. The rocky walls of the cavern rumbled with apprehension as the Slime King rose. Today was the day the slimes won back their independence over the nasty monster-types of the cave. The slime tribe survived so far. Why should they end now? A fight it was.

But oh, wait? The Slime King noticed only one monster-type. Human-like. Standing ahead, in front of the jelly-jolly fellow. A sword in one hand and a grin played about his face.

From up the Slime King's throne, you could see me give the big slime an ample bow of reverence before I jumped back in a hurry. From up its throne, you could then see me gesture for the slime to come forward. From my station down below, you could then see the Slime King's nonchalant burst of rage: It jumped right down right in front of me. The canopy shook again, and I introduced myself.

"Aoi Skill. 22 year-old. Single and unmarried."

Before long, a real fight broke out. The giant slime pranced about so fast. You would think that now that it grew so big it would be slower than even the low-level mobs I slaughtered, but not at all. It was fast. And like this, it partook in the hostilities.

The way this attack went looked like a Giant threw at me an enormous boulder to squash me completely flat. The battle began. The monster-type was powerful. I was sure of that. Then again, I was still stronger. My dexterity far surpassed the Slime King. That was how, after hundreds of peaceful years in the Slime Settlement, none remained.

I quickly pranced upward, then performed a midair jump right back to where the giant slime stomped, called off the Character, and used "Dwelling" on my foe. A Receptacle was found.

❮ Receptacle "Slime King, Slime-type, level 39" — Ring! — Non-drastic overload of the Receptacle's mana core. Receptacle may not profit the Player indefinitely. You may, whether you so choose to, find another Receptacle to ensure survival. (Recommended. Not compulsory.) ❯

There you have it. Unfortunately, I still couldn't be a big enough fanboy to say that it was "that time I got reincarnated as a slime," but I at least took over one. I controlled one. Back in the restaurant, when the storyteller told my story, he narrated that the monster was a mean thing: it could climb into your skin and rob you of everything you had.

To rob a slime it was, then.

As always, taking over a Receptacle didn't feel weird. I felt right at home. Being a slime king, I jiggled my body around while having fun, jumped here and about like the slime assembly before, had some more fun for a minute or two, then remembered I came here for a reason, and it certainly wasn't just for the sake of entertainment.

Being all serious, I made an angrily-determined slime face. I nodded and decided to test "it" out. Test out, right. Tests were what followed. So I nodded again and brought a hand to my chin. I had no hand, though. So, from the enormous jelly-like mass of the slime king, I produced a hand.

❮ The new Passive Skill [Surge] has been acquired! ❯

Surge, as in, flow? I played around more with that hand, produced others, and naturally started to take on many forms and shapes at will. At first, it was hard, but I managed to form my Receptacle into a Giant-sized human. I felt a breakthrough. Playing with my state of shapelessness more, I moved around here and there, shaped my Receptacle into a dog, a rat, a spider, or even a centipede—before I knew it, [Surge] had evolved into [Active Flow], then [Protean].