Infinite Adaptation: Starting As A Level 1 Slime-Chapter 10: Appraisal

A while later.

Luna walked through the cave passages, a small slime rested comfortably on her back, giving directions.

"Left here. Then straight until the next fork."

They had been exploring the deeper sections of the cave system for the past few days. Now that Luna was strong enough to handle most threats, they could venture further than his original safe zone.

They continued moving, passage after passage, until...

Luna stopped.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

She didn’t respond.

Instead, she lowered her body into a battle posture and began growling.

He looked at what she was growling at.

It was just a normal cave wall.

Was he missing something?

He jumped off her back and approached the wall, his small form bouncing across the stone floor.

As he got closer, he felt it.

Something strange was indeed going on here.

The mana in this area was all jumbled up.

Luna walked up behind him, still growling.

"You want to take a look?" he asked.

She just growled louder.

"Well, let’s investigate what’s going on."

He compressed his body, building pressure.

"Slime..."

He sprung forward.

"...Smash!"

He was about to make contact with the cave wall...

But then something strange happened.

Eh?

He passed right through.

The wall wasn’t solid at all. It was an illusion. A barrier of distorted mana that only looked like stone.

Before he could process what was happening, he slammed into something else on the other side.

Splat.

His body flattened against a hard surface, then slowly slid down with a wet squelch.

A moment later, Luna stepped through the illusory wall, her eyes scanning the new space.

She was still growling and seemed to be on edge.

He recomposed himself, pulling his mass back into a proper shape.

Ahem. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

That was embarrassing. He had been trying to show off in front of Luna.

But when he looked at her, he noticed she wasn’t paying attention to his graceless landing. Her eyes were fixed on something else.

It was then that he realized what he had collided into.

A barrier.

Some sort of transparent wall, shimmering faintly with magical energy. It stretched from floor to ceiling, blocking off the passage ahead completely.

And behind it...

Darkness.

Not ordinary darkness. Not the absence of light.

This was something else entirely.

A pitch-black miasma churned behind the barrier, writhing and coiling like living smoke.

He felt a chill run through his entire form.

This dark substance... it looked eerily similar to what had been seeping from the wolf’s wound.

The thing that had killed Luna’s mother.

And that wasn’t the worst part.

The barrier...

It had cracks.

Thin lines spiderwebbed across its surface, spreading outward like fractures in glass. The miasma pressed harder against these weak points, tendrils of darkness seeping through the tiniest gaps.

"What the hell is this..." he muttered.

...

Luna tore into the rabbit, her jaws making quick work of the small creature.

The slime sat on a nearby rock, watching her eat.

She had grown quite a bit now. About the size of a normal wolf - well, maybe a little on the smaller side, but that could be attributed to her being female.

"Hey. Eat properly," he said. "You’re getting blood all over your fur again."

Luna ignored him, continuing to devour her meal with enthusiasm.

He sighed.

It had been a week since they had encountered that strange barrier.

Ever since then, he had realized that this place was far more dangerous than he had initially thought. The dark miasma behind those cracks, the corruption that had killed Luna’s mother - it was all connected somehow.

And if that barrier broke...

That was why they had been exploring the cave system. Searching for an exit. A way out before whatever was sealed behind that barrier got loose.

The cave was enormous. Even with all their exploring over the past week, he had no idea how much unknown territory still remained. Passages branched into more passages. Dead ends led to hidden chambers. It felt endless.

"Luna. Time to go."

She looked up from her meal, licking the blood from her muzzle.

"We need to keep exploring."

She made a low sound of acknowledgment, abandoning what remained of the rabbit. He jumped onto her back, settling into his usual spot, and she began moving.

He let out another sigh as they traveled.

They had been encountering more and more dangerous monsters lately.

Luckily, Luna was strong so they hadn’t had any real problems so far.

But he wasn’t sure what would happen if they encountered something even stronger.

Speaking of...

He focused his attention on Luna, activating a new ability he had developed.

...

[ Appraisal ]

Subject: Luna

Race: Moonlight Fenrir (Juvenile)

Rank: D

Innate Skills:

Lunar Body - Natural affinity with moonlight energy. Physical abilities strengthen under moonlight. Passive mana regeneration at night.

Twilight Fur - Fur that exists between light and shadow. Provides resistance to both holy and dark elemental attacks.

Guardian’s Instinct - Heightened awareness of spatial distortions, barriers, and dimensional anomalies.

Corruption Resistance - Strong natural resistance to Abyssal corruption and miasma. Cannot be easily tainted or turned.

Basic Skills:

Enhanced Smell - Can track scents over long distances and detect emotional states.

Night Vision - Perfect sight in darkness.

Intimidation - Releases pressure to frighten weaker creatures.

Pack Coordination - Instinctively understands and responds to ally commands in combat.

Extra Skills:

Moonlight Cloak - Wraps body in lunar energy, increasing speed and reducing presence.

Fang of Severance - Channels mana into bite attacks. Can damage things that physical attacks normally wouldn’t affect, such as spiritual entities or mana constructs.

Intrinsic Skill:

Heir of the Eternal Moon - Growth rate dramatically accelerated. Skills evolve faster through combat experience. As strength increases, dormant abilities may awaken.

...

He looked at the details with interest.

This was a new ability he had developed - a sort of inferior form of Analysis.

He called it Appraisal.

Unlike Analysis, which required him to absorb something into his mass in order to break it down, Appraisal relied on Mana Manipulation. He could manipulate the mana around a subject, read the information it contained, and use his processing threads to quickly compile an assessment.

He had four threads now. The new one was named Thread D. For some reason, he couldn’t form more beyond that. Maybe this was the limit.

Anyway, Appraisal was quite useful. It allowed him to analyze things from a distance without having to absorb them - which would obviously destroy whatever he was trying to examine.

Looking at Luna’s information, he was surprised.

It turned out she wasn’t just a wolf.

She was a Moonlight Fenrir.