Infinite Adaptation: Starting As A Level 1 Slime-Chapter 9: Luna

He looked around.

That voice again.

It seemed to be appearing directly inside his head.

Maybe it was some sort of world system that monitored progress.

His form deflated slightly.

Things were beginning to get more and more complicated.

Well, on the bright side - no pun intended - he could see now.

Now that he thought about it, his sight was quite strange. He didn’t have a neck or eyes to adjust his view, yet he could see in all directions simultaneously. A full 360-degree field of perception with no blind spots.

It made sense, considering he was seeing through mana sense. The particles surrounded him completely, so his awareness extended in every direction at once.

What surprised him was that the omnidirectional view didn’t make him nauseous. By all rights, perceiving everything at once should have been overwhelming.

Maybe it was because he was running two other threads. Or perhaps the Thought Acceleration helped him process the expanded input without strain.

Wait.

Thought Acceleration?

He paused.

He remembered now. Before the wolf encounter, he had been desperately searching for food to maintain his mass. The threads were still running. The accelerated processing was still active.

He panicked.

No way - he had let his guard down. Since he hadn’t turned off the abilities yet, he was still burning mass at an extreme rate. He should be shrinking rapidly. He should be...

He paused again.

Hmmm. That’s weird.

His mass wasn’t going down anymore.

He wondered what was happening.

He focused inward on his body, examining the flow of energy within him.

Ah. I get it now.

Just like food could sustain his mass, the same applied to mana. Now that he was actively absorbing mana from the environment, his body was consuming that instead of burning through his physical form.

What he found surprising was that mana didn’t increase his mass as much as food did. It wasn’t as efficient for growth. But it functioned at a higher quality - cleaner, more efficient for powering his abilities.

Well, this was to be expected. It was pure energy, after all.

Phew.

He could finally relax.

Then he realized something.

Ah.

He was now using Mana Manipulation to see. Constantly emitting his own mana to illuminate his surroundings. He didn’t know how quickly that was draining his reserves, so it was best he found more mana before he went blind again - and started consuming his mass once more.

A mana source...

He remembered the massive wolf. It had been radiating so much mana that the entire area had been bathed in its energy. Maybe he could go back and absorb the residual mana concentrated there.

He sighed.

Speaking of Mana Manipulation...

Could he use it to speak now?

He concentrated on the mana around and within him. Slowly, carefully, he tried to vibrate the particles in a controlled pattern.

SCREEEEEEECH.

A horrible, piercing sound reverberated across the cave.

Hmmm... yeah, that’s not going to work.

At that moment, the wolf cub began stirring.

It seemed his loud noise had woken it up.

He jumped apart from the cub, creating some distance between them.

It looked at him with bleary, half-open eyes.

Thank goodness it wasn’t a human baby. Otherwise, he couldn’t handle the crying.

The cub moved closer to him.

He wondered if it wanted something.

No way. It couldn’t have thought of him as food, right?

It reached him...

And bit into him.

Nothing happened.

The cub’s tiny jaws clamped onto his membrane, but it didn’t have any teeth. At least, not competent ones. The gums just pressed harmlessly against his surface.

He sighed.

Then a thought occurred to him.

That reminded him, since he brought it here, he needed to find food for it. There was no way it could survive off of just grass and rocks like him.

There goes his carefree life.

He detached gently from the cub and hopped forward.

It followed him.

He hopped again.

It followed again, stumbling slightly on its small legs.

This way, he guided it along, one bounce at a time.

Let’s go find some food for you...

...

HISSSS

The massive serpent lunged forward, its fangs glistening with venom.

The wolf cub dodged to the side, her white fur bristling as she circled the creature. The snake was easily five times her size, its scales dark and mottled, eyes gleaming with killing intent.

"It’s going to sweep left, dodge right!"

The wolf cub reacted instantly, leaping to the right just as the serpent’s tail whipped through the space where she had been standing.

"Now! Go for the neck!"

She launched herself forward, jaws wide open.

From the side, a small slime watched the battle unfold.

It had been two weeks since he encountered the dying wolf and picked up this little one.

He had decided to name her Luna. The name felt appropriate given her bright white fur that so closely resembled her mother’s - like moonlight given form.

Yes, she was female. He had figured that out eventually.

Over those two weeks, quite a bit had changed.

For one, he had finally learned to control mana at just the right vibration to produce intelligible speech. It had taken days of practice - and countless ear-splitting screeches - but he could now communicate properly.

Luna, as it turned out, was quite intelligent. She understood his commands and followed them without hesitation. Whether that was natural wolf instinct or something unique to this world’s creatures, he didn’t know. But it made coordinating hunts far easier.

CRUNCH.

Luna’s jaws clamped down on the serpent’s neck.

With a violent twist of her head, she tore it clean off.

The snake’s body convulsed once, twice, then went still. The severed head rolled across the stone floor, coming to rest right before the slime.

He stared at it.

And quite strong too...

She really was just like her mother. In just two weeks, she had grown significantly - both in size and ferocity. At this rate, even he was starting to get a little scared of her.

At that moment, Luna padded over to him, her kill forgotten.

She lowered her head and began rubbing herself against his membrane, a low rumble emanating from her chest. It was almost like purring, if wolves could purr.

His body stretched, forming a tiny limb-like appendage that reached up and patted her snout. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Luckily, she seemed to think of him as her parent. So he didn’t have to worry about her turning on him.

At least, he hoped not.

"Good work," he said. "Take the food back to camp. Then we’ll continue our exploration."

Luna made a soft sound of acknowledgment, grabbed the snake’s body in her jaws, and bounded off.