Chapter 4: Quality or Quantity?
Meanwhile...
After covering the slime field with thick mist, Kaelen realized there was a problem; as much as the wolves’ visibility was down to a few metres around them, he too couldn’t see much and was as much a frog in a well as the wolves were.
But with 50,000 Evolution Points practically begging to be spent, Kaelen pulled up his System panel and scrolled through the evolution attributes.
It didn’t take long for him to find a suitable evolution attribute to purchase.
[Sharp Senses: Detect everything within a 10-metre radius through vibrations.] [Cost: 1000 EP]
He didn’t hesitate to click the purchase button and spent 10,000 Evolution Points upgrading it to Level 25 on the spot.
His senses immediately exploded with colour, and it was like he could smell everything within a certain radius in the forest.
He couldn’t actually smell, and it was only a trick of the mind after his sixth sense was awakened. But Kaelen could easily tell the position of every beast within his radar, their postures, and their breathing patterns.
He could see the wolf pack disbanding without even realizing it, while thinking they were moving closer to each other after losing their sense of direction. And as a slime, they couldn’t sniff out his position either.
But Kaelen realized another problem. Aside from hopping around and trapping targets inside him, he had no other abilities such as offensive or defensive attacks. Not even a single tendril.
He scrolled through the evolution tree once more, scanning for useful attributes, and after spotting a few useful ones, he purchased all three right away.
[Tensile Tendrils: Allows the slime to shoot out sticky, whip-like tentacles to grab prey or swing across terrain.]
[Blade Whip: Upgrades pseudopods into highly compressed, hardened tendrils that can extend rapidly, mimicking whips, spears, or scythes.]
[Thunder Propulsion: Allows the slime to compress its internal fluid and violently blast it backward to launch itself like a cannonball.]
He dumped almost 40,000 Evolution Points into upgrading them to Level 25, leaving him with less than 10,000 Evolution Points in his reserve.
But with the 10,000× Reward Multiplier System, he could make it all back tenfold after the wolf battle.
Without wasting any more time, his tendrils shot into the white mist like homing missiles. He stood at a safe distance as he fought the wolves individually, overpowering them with countless Blade Whips that stacked the bleeding effect on them before he finished them off.
He wrapped his tendrils around the ankles of some and dragged them across the mist, straight into his belly for digestion, and within a few seconds, only the alpha was left standing.
He sent a Blade Whip to end him in one swift attack, but surprisingly, the wolf managed to deflect the attack, though it paid the price with its paw. And while the wolf was terrified, Kaelen sent multiple Blade Whips to wrap themselves around the wolf until it was shredded and suffocated before dragging it into his belly with the others.
[You have slain the offspring of Cerberus, the Guardian of Hell.]
"Huh?"
[10,000× Reward Multiplier Triggered...]
[You have received 250,000 Evolution Points.]
[You have received (5) Loot Bundles.]
[Quality or Quantity?]
"Quality!"
[You have received a 10,000× Quality-Amplified Loot Bundle:]
[Crown of the Alpha Sovereign (Legendary) ×1, Fenrir Bloodline Crystal (Legendary) ×1, World Beast Core (Legendary) ×3, Howl of Extinction Skill Book (Legendary) ×2, Heart of the Moon God Wolf (Starlight) ×1, Astral Wolf Soul Contract (Starlight) ×1, Celestial Predator Cloak (Starlight) ×1, Lunar Genesis Orb (Starlight) ×3, Moonfang Twin Blades (Epic) ×5, Direwolf Commander Armor (Epic) ×5, Wolf King’s War Horn (Epic) ×4, Pack Hunter Skill Book (Epic) ×5]
Kaelen was petrified on the spot as the unbelievable loot bundle stretched before his vision. In Evolution Online, items were classified into eight ranks: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Starlight, Legendary, Mythic, and Divine.
There wasn’t a single trash item in the loot bundle, filling Kaelen with excitement.
It was a shame he couldn’t use them as a slime. But the thought of being financially free after selling them made his heart swell with joy.
That was because the in-game currency had an attractive conversion rate to real-world dollars.
He had the strong urge to quickly list the items, log out, and convert the money, when he remembered the reason he had entered the game in the first place.
Money was one of the reasons, but what he was truly after was strength.
There was a rumour that unawakened players who reached Tier 5 awakened a percentage of their in-game strength. For awakened players, it was Tier 3, making their lives easier, though it still took anywhere from a few months to a few years to achieve, depending on the player’s potential.
To test that theory, Kaelen was aiming to reach Tier 5 before he logged out. That was his only key to entering the Stronghold in hopes of a better life and a chance to learn more about his enemies—the ones who had killed his parents.
With his eyes burning with determination, Kaelen activated [Thunder Propulsion] and shot forward like a cannon, disappearing into the forest.
He could not only sense everything ahead of his path, but everything in the forest. And with that knowledge, Blade Whips shot out from his body and into the thickets of the trees. Everything that crossed their path didn’t live long enough to fight back.
He literally became the king of that jungle and didn’t spare a single target. It didn’t matter whether it was a player or an NPC; as long as it could generate Evolution Points, it became his meal. And Kaelen was one hungry slime.
The only difficulty he had wasn’t hunting so many animals. It was moving around to absorb them, which greatly slowed him down. So he scrolled through the Slime evolution tree once more and made a few more purchases that instantly boosted his hunting speed.
[Phagocytic Speed: Upgrades how fast the membrane wraps around an enemy to trap and suffocate them.]
[Glutton Slime: Drastically increases digestion speed and inventory capacity, allowing the slime to trap entire groups of enemies inside its body to suffocate and dissolve them simultaneously.]
[Genetic Extraction: Increases the percentage chance to successfully steal a trait, stat, or skill from a digested target.]