#3. A Showdown with the Chicken!
#3. A Showdown with the Chicken!
It didn't hurt as much as I'd expected.
Think about it: I have an E-rank skill. There's no way I can't handle one measly chicken. Later in this godforsaken World arc, real monsters are going to make this look like nothing...
Not that this thing was easy prey right now.
I steadied my nerves. If I couldn't run, I had to fight.
"Cluck-cluck-cluck!"
The chicken must have realized I wasn't a pushover, because it kept its distance and refused to rush in blindly.
I couldn't beat it in speed. I had to snare its legs the moment it lunged. That meant preparation. I carefully extended a tentacle around its rear, keeping it out of sight.
Only the one who prepares first survives. The chicken jabbed with its sharp talons, testing me, but I didn't even see it coming—never saw the strike until it landed. With my Weak Eyesight, the attacks were invisible, impossible to dodge.
'I can take it.'
Physical Damage Reduction and the upgraded Weak Regeneration at E-rank quickly repaired my torn body. Realizing that a hit or two wouldn't bring me down, the chicken dropped its stance and shifted its weight forward.
But the tentacle I'd readied was already in position to loop around its ankle like a lasso. All I had to do now was pull. At that moment,
"Cluck-cluck-cluck!"
The bastard took to the air as if mocking me.
It landed casually a good distance away. That a chicken could fly had never entered my calculations. Actually, now that I thought about it, wild chickens could manage a little flight. My failure to foresee it was the problem.
Worse, the bird had known all along that I was trailing a tentacle. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you'll win a hundred battles. I immediately used Observation.
[Cheonggye (Korean Native Chicken) 724g — A chicken's field of vision is nearly 360 degrees.]
Three hundred sixty degrees meant it could see everywhere at once. A surprise attack was pointless.
Ambushes impossible. Speed insufficient.
The chicken's wild, startling reflexes dampened my confidence, but I quickly came up with a new plan.
I reshaped my tentacle into a wide scoop like a spoon and dug into the earth. Once it was loaded with a good amount of soil, I hurled it straight at the chicken.
If it wanted to fly, I'd become a catapult!
The scattered dirt struck like a shotgun blast. The chicken couldn't hide its shock, finally realizing that keeping its distance was working against it. Even so, it didn't seem to be thinking about running away. Its feathers bristled, and it puffed itself up with a mane that made it look like it was imitating a lion.
'Is this a chicken or a lion?'
To me, at least, it looked like a lion. No matter how hard it focused on dodging, there was no way it could avoid every clump of flying dirt. Thoroughly enraged, it beat its wings again and came at me.
Keeping my distance might have been advantageous, but if the chicken was faster than me, I had no way to stop it from closing in. In the end, it came down to a head-on clash. My Tentacle had gained proficiency and reached Lv.4, but it was still weak. No matter how much dirt I threw, it was only a nuisance—real damage didn't accumulate. And my body surface area was too small to smother it.
I needed a different kind of weapon.
What came to mind was a blackjack.
The type of blunt weapon 19th-century Western police and watchmen used to keep order.
'I'll make one.'
I extended a tentacle and rounded the tip into a ball. But I couldn't stop there. As it was, it was nothing more than a soft slime lump. Far too inadequate to hurt the chicken.
So,
[List of Obtainable Skills]
1. Tentacle (F)
...
6. Weak Hardening (F)
I acquired Hardening. I applied Hardening to the rounded club. The shape locked into place, and it became rigid.
"Cluck?"
[Tentacle (F) Lv.4 proficiency has reached its maximum. Tentacle (F) Lv.4 → Tentacle (F) Lv.5]
My Tentacle leveled up at the best possible moment. It grew harder and carried more force. I spun my entire body as if hula-hooping, and naturally, the club jutting up above my head whirled with a menacing sound. Centrifugal force would make up for my lack of raw strength.
Seeing myself transformed into something like a character from a certain game's slime boss, I watched the chicken's eyes turn vicious.
"Cluck-cluck...!"
This was just a chicken, but it was staring me down with the eyes of a raptor, choosing its moment to strike. The instant the distance closed, it leaped. Fluttering its wings, it jumped a good fifty centimeters straight up, trying to spike me from above.
I wasn't about to take that quietly.
My club ripped through the air with a chilling sound as it aimed for the chicken. The bird tried desperately to dodge, but changing direction in midair isn't easy. The club hit it square, and the chicken was slammed straight into the ground.
I let out a triumphant shout. The blow had landed far more effectively than I'd imagined.
In some fighting manga, it's said that destructive power equals speed × weight × grip strength. On top of that, the chicken was hit with a counter using its own downward momentum, so the damage must have been beyond belief.
I would have loved it if the bird never got up, but like a tenacious fighter, it twisted on its broken wings and struggled to rise. I didn't wait. Maintaining my spin, I closed in.
One more hit. Just one more hit.
That would finish it. The chicken squeezed out the last of its strength to dodge the attack, but that truly was the last. I still had more.
It panted, gasping for breath. No reserves remained. Animal instinct drove it to throw the fight away and flutter into the air to try again another day, but its drained stamina hobbled its legs, and the clumped dirt stuck all over its feathers crippled its wings.
I had no intention of letting it go. I snared its foot with an extended tentacle and yanked it back down. The chicken crashed.
It was too late even to run.
"Cluck..."
I swung the spinning club like a morning star, driven by centrifugal force. I'd gotten the hang of it now, and the club whirled with an increasingly threatening howl.
Had the chicken lost its nerve? Had it been gripped by fear? It threw itself at me in reckless despair. But a blind, straight-line charge had no chance of succeeding against me when I'd been prepared all along.
The bird's drained head met the heavy club with a loud crack.
"Cluck-cluck-cluck-cluuuck...!"
At last, the Cheonggye collapsed.
It had been a strong opponent, but it hadn't been cautious enough. If it hadn't leapt so recklessly at the start, this would have been a much harder fight. I offered a faint nod of respect, then mercilessly beat the chicken while it cried its final "cluck, cluck."
Beaten meat is chewier and tastier, after all.
I physically tenderized it, then slowly swallowed the chicken as it breathed its last with an aggrieved look in its eyes.
[Ingesting Cheonggye... 12%]
Like a snake swallowing large prey, the Cheonggye gradually dissolved inside my food vacuole.
***
"Damn it. Mountain climbing at a time like this..."
"It's all part of the job."
Woo-taek reprimanded the grumbling team members. Last time it had been just the two of them, but this time the Team Leader had assigned him a full sixteen people—close to half of Search Team 3—to come to Jirisan. Woo-taek clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention. They'd climbed high enough, and now it was time to split into teams. There was no way they could search the vast mountain all together.
'Even splitting up won't be enough.'
Still, dividing into smaller groups had to be a marginal improvement over sixteen people stumbling around in one blob.
"Alright. Starting now, we'll form teams of two."
"Woo-taek."
"Hm? What is it?"
A team member who had subtly raised his hand prompted Woo-taek to tilt his head.
"I was out on a field assignment and still haven't heard what we're looking for."
"Ah. My apologies. I'll brief again. ...But before that."
Woo-taek crouched down next to Eun-ha, who was glaring at the ground as if searching for something, and delivered a light knock to her head. Did she really think she could find that slime again in this huge mountain? A special-species slime... he'd never even heard of such a thing. What on earth was going on inside her head? If he got the chance, he'd love to pop the lid open and take a look.
"Are you really not going to focus?"
"Noooo! It's a real special-species slime..."
"Special-species my ass. ...Sigh. When are you going to grow up? When?"
"Just wait until I find that slime!"
"For God's sake, look for the Warg, not that damn slime. The Warg! If you find the Warg, I'll never call you that again. Okay?"
"Really? You mean it?! Deal! Deal!"
Leaving the delighted Eun-ha behind, Woo-taek resumed the briefing.
"Alright, alright. As I just said, the search target is the Warg. Teams of two—eliminate it the moment you find it. No need to take it alive."
"Warg? That black wolf?"
Woo-taek nodded at the team member's question.
"Yes. The Warg. There's been a sighting report."
"Isn't it another hoax? Last time they were saying they saw a Yeti on Seoraksan or something..."
"No. It seems the Gowon Clan let this one slip out."
"Ugh, the Gowon Clan? With the Deputy Team Leader gone, you're stuck taking all the heat in the middle, Woo-taek."
At his team members' pitying words, Woo-taek gave a bitter smile.
"Anyway, it's the Warg we're after. Report in the instant you find one."
Even as he spoke, Woo-taek had no real expectations. Jirisan wasn't someone's backyard, and the area was far too vast to cover in a few days. Even if the Warg really did exist, trying to find it with only sixteen people was absurd on its face. Once the teams had split up and scattered in every direction, Eun-ha burst out in protest.
"Noooo! Why do I have to be paired with you, senior?!"
"Because I'd worry about you if you were with someone else. I'd worry!"
"Ah! Could it be you like me, senior?!"
Woo-taek fixed her with flat, dead-fish eyes as she coyly covered her mouth.
"Would I like you? I got stuck with you because you'd be a pain in the ass to the others! Pain in the ass!"
"Fine, guess not. Why are you getting mad? So where are we heading?"
"The place we went last time. Do not start freaking out because you think you saw that slime. Got it?"
"Tch. Senior's always picking on me."
***
[Cheonggye ingested. Experience Points and Satiety increase.]
[Satiety has reached maximum. Satiety is converted into Experience Points via Predation (F) Lv.6.]
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.1 → Lv.2]
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.2 → Lv.3]
As I ate the chicken, Satiety was converted into Experience Points several times, and my level shot up by two at once. That alone proved how strong an opponent it had been, though the fight had been one-sided after I started using the club. A slime's blackjack... The combination of science and the wild sometimes breeds terrifying monsters.
'Does this put me solidly in the mid-tier of the ecosystem?'
No more messing with pathetic amphibians like frogs and toads or low-ranked mammals like mice. They wouldn't be a match for me anymore.
First, I checked my Experience Points.
[Amorphous Mucus Body Lv.3] [EXP 133/561]
At Level 1, the required EXP had been 324. Now that I was Level 3, it was 561, so I figured Level 2 must have demanded roughly around 440. That seemed reasonable.
'324 + 440 + 133 = 897.'
So I'd gained about 900 EXP from a single chicken.
Doing the math myself, it felt like an awful lot—but after some thought, it made sense. You could only earn that 900 EXP by killing and completely ingesting the chicken. In truth, capturing a chicken was nearly impossible unless it underestimated me and kept fighting to the bitter end like this one had. Otherwise, just running away would be enough to escape me.
[Weak Eyesight (F) Lv.2 proficiency has reached its maximum. Weak Eyesight (F) Lv.2 → Weak Eyesight (F) Lv.3]
The difference was minor enough that I'd probably forget it soon, but my vision had improved ever so slightly. In human terms... end-stage colorblindness?
If I had to compare, it was like having three bottles of bleach splashed into my eyes.
I could make out shapes, but all the colors were hazy and washed out, so Heat Detection was still the more comfortable option. As usual, I opened the [List of Obtainable Skills], but nothing I urgently needed appeared.
I considered investing Skill Points into my vision to raise its proficiency, but a small bump in proficiency didn't seem like it would create a dramatic change.
There were no edible animals nearby, so I had to move. Unfortunately, even though I'd grown stronger, my speed was truly sluggish. That seemed to be the only real downside of evolving.
When I was a Lesser Slime, I'd gained close to five centimeters per level-up, but now as an Amorphous Mucus Body I was approaching ten centimeters of growth per level. My weight was increasing proportionally. A bigger body was mostly a good thing, of course.
Wondering if there was a way to move faster, I considered curling my body and rolling—but I'd grown too mucus-like to roll properly. I was about to give up in frustration when a better idea struck.
First, I elongated my body and bit my tail to form a loop—like an ouroboros if I wanted to be fancy, but really it was just a donut. Keeping that shape, I used Hardening to make my body rigid.
'If I exert force like this, I might roll...'
I extended a Hardened tentacle and powerfully shoved against the ground. My body rolled forward with a rumbling tumble. I lost balance and tipped over after only a short distance, but I didn't give up. After a few more attempts, I got the hang of it. Everything wobbled violently and my view spun wildly, but I could just deactivate my eyesight. With no semicircular canals or brain, I had nothing to get dizzy from.
[Transformation (F) Lv.1 skill acquired.]
A new skill acquired right in the middle of all that—I cheered inside.
Because of my Adhesion, I had to use a tentacle to push off again about once every ten seconds, but even so, the speed was plenty fast. The downside was that I couldn't use it on an uphill slope, but on flat ground I could match something close to my running speed back when I was human. I started to look forward to how fast I'd go downhill using this method.
I kept at it—pushing off the ground with a Hardened tentacle and rolling, over and over. The feeling of speed after so long lifted my spirits. I was giddy at my own creative breakthrough, happily rolling along for a good while—until, bam, I froze.
An eerie chill crept over me, and I rubbed goosebumps that had no right to exist on a body like mine.
"Awoooooooooo!"
Because I heard a wolf howl.