#5. Facing Fear, Preparing to Leap.
#5. Facing Fear, Preparing to Leap.
'Observation is the golden rule in situations like this.'
There are no skill refunds, so there's no undoing the choice. Dwelling on it now won't change a thing. I hadn't really lost anything, had I? Who knows—maybe I'd lucked out again, like with evolution. No, I was actually counting on it.
[Observation (F) Lv.5 skill proficiency at maximum. Observation (F) Lv.5 → Observation (F) Lv.6]
[Digestion: Increases speed of digestion]
The ability was exactly what I'd expected. Would it be useful? I'd never had an upset stomach or constipation as a slime. But my Sixth Sense wouldn't have led me to it for nothing. I wouldn't know until I tried.
[Digestion: the process of breaking down ingested food into smaller particles or converting it via chemical substances for absorption into the body]
The dictionary definition. A sudden realization hit me like a jolt of electricity.
Slimes digest their prey inside their food vacuoles. A slime's whole metabolism is centered on digesting food. If the Digestion skill reduces digestion time, that meant I could extract more nutrients in less time. What happens when you absorb more nutrients in a shorter window?
Energy accumulation.
More stored energy naturally translates to increased activity. And if the skill, according to the definition, helps with 'breaking down into smaller particles or converting via chemical substances,' then the food vacuole's function itself might be enhanced.
In simple terms, it felt like an experience point buff.
It's not an actual buff, but the increase in efficiency is the same.
All of this, of course, only works because I have the Predation skill. If I were walking around with just a standalone Digestion skill, I'd probably just end up with a body that never needed antacids.
If my Digestion level climbs high enough in the future and the food vacuole gets significantly stronger, I might even be able to use it for combat, not just intake. It wouldn't just be the icing on the cake—it'd be giving wings to a tiger.
Whether I could use it in a fight was something I could test.
I immediately used Stealth to lure a mouse, then snapped it up into my food vacuole. Weak Regeneration would keep me safe—a mouse wasn't about to kill me. As expected, the mouse flailed with all its might, trying to escape the vacuole, but it was a futile struggle.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
Full digestion took barely over a minute. It was viable—at least for a mouse. Anything bigger would still be a stretch.
Even factoring in Hardening, I figured swallowing something alive would cap out at around the size of a red squirrel. But if I considered its intended effect rather than treating it as a weapon, calling it an XP buff wasn't an exaggeration.
The effect of an F-rank, Level 1 Digestion skill was far better than I'd imagined. It instantly dispelled every worry I'd had about whether I'd even notice a difference.
Though, a heads-up beforehand would've been nice.
Grumbling, I pulled up my Status and saw [EXP 282 / 1582]. The fact that my remaining experience was in the four digits bugged me a little, but it was nothing I couldn't fill in a day or two.
The real problem was the achievement condition—there was definitely one waiting at Level 10. Last evolution required me to consume an animal over 3kg. I was already fretting over what kind of condition would be imposed this time.
It'd naturally be harder than last time... Please, I hoped it wouldn't rush me. I wanted to grow at an easy, leisurely pace—safely, as much as possible.
For now, with eels and large fish still around, staying stuck in Baemsagol was a dead end anyway. Puffing myself up as a threat worked last time, but there was no guarantee it'd work again. I'd have to leave...?
From far off in the distance, beyond the reach of even Presence Detection and Heat Sense, something instinctual made my body tremble.
[Faint Sixth Sense (F) Lv.2 proficiency at maximum. Faint Sixth Sense (F) Lv.2 → Faint Sixth Sense (F) Lv.3]
Something was approaching at a slow, deliberate pace, and my Sixth Sense screamed a frantic alarm.
If I didn't run now, I was dead.
The Master of Baemsagol? That eel didn't even compare. This was a monster of an entirely different class. I couldn't see it, hear it, or sense it—yet I knew its presence was something that could only be called a monster. Frozen in fear, unable to move, I was jolted alert by the splash of water.
I immediately curled my body, ready to roll. The other animals still hadn't registered the creature's presence and made no move to flee.
Heat Sense, now at Level 5, picked up the bastard's position from afar. This wasn't good news at all. It meant the distance had already closed. My mind went blank as a sheet of paper. It was too late to run now.
[Available Skills]
1. Tentacle (F)
...
161. Weak Stealth (E)
[Weak Stealth (E) Lv.1 skill acquired.]
[Faint Stealth (F) Lv.7 has been merged into Weak Stealth (E) Lv.1.]
[Weak Stealth (E) Lv.1 proficiency at maximum. Weak Stealth (E) Lv.1 → Weak Stealth (E) Lv.3]
[Remaining Skill Points: 6]
A desperate flail to survive. Just as I was about to activate Weak Stealth, a System message rang out.
[Skill can be linked with Transformation (F) Lv.4. Link skills?]
I dismissed the System message without a moment's thought—
[Temporarily acquiring Mimicry (F) Lv.1 skill.]
—and something I'd never possessed seeped into me for a brief instant.
***
[Did that person come by? No, any word from— pass that on to him...]
A familiar ringtone droned in his ear.
[Team Leader. This is Woo-taek.]
"Yeah. What is it?"
The team leader answered the phone, his gaze flicking to the wall calendar and the clock beside it. Saturday, 6 a.m. Too early for a call. His reflection in the mirror showed deep, dark circles.
It wasn't that he wasn't annoyed, but the man must have called for a good reason.
[Yeah. Looks like it's definitely a Warg.]
"Didn't you just send the photos today? Already?"
[No. The observation cameras we set up caught it. I submitted the request, but the response hasn't arrived yet.]
The team leader gave a vague nod. Probably one of the cameras they'd installed around Suwon.
[I just confirmed it. Near Chilseonbong.]
"You've been working hard. You'll collapse at this rate. Get some rest while you work."
[...Yes. Understood.]
"Now that we've found it, we do have to catch it..."
A Warg wasn't a powerful monster. Any member of Dawn could take care of it. The problem was finding the damn thing. A Warg's usual speed exceeded 100 km/h.
Locating a creature that roamed at that speed across a sprawling mountain range—not some flat plain—was never easy. No, it was nearly impossible.
On top of that, capturing one was exhausting and a financial loss. Wouldn't it be better to just hand it off to another clan or the government?
[But, there's something weird about this one.]
"Weird? What?"
[It eats way too much.]
"What do you mean?"
[In the footage alone, it's already devoured prey equal to its own body mass. I think it might have the Predation skill.]
"......."
It has a skill. Meaning it's a special species. The team leader furrowed his brow at that.
What made it worse was that the skill in question was Predation.
A skill that converts Satiety—once it reaches its max—into growth fuel, not unlike experience points in a game.
It sounded like a cheat skill on paper, but the conversion rate was pitifully small, and every living creature had a physical limit on how much it could devour, no matter how much it ate. Even when hunger gnaws, the brain registers the body as having already eaten and refuses to accept more food into the mouth. Put simply, you get sick of chewing.
Even monsters eventually get sick of eating. But it was dangerous precisely because it cracked open a possibility—however faint—of transcending one's species. What if a creature accrued experience like that and achieved evolution? Nip it in the bud. You cut out the root before it sprouts into disaster.
"We're hunting it."
[Understood. Then...]
"Send me the footage. And tell the whole team to head to Cheonghak-dong."
They'd already done their due diligence, morally speaking.
Just confirming the Warg's existence gave them the bare minimum justification to pawn the extermination request off on someone else. They could say, "We did this much, so you do that much," and call it a day.
But if they didn't deal with it decisively, who knew if another monster like the Purple Black Tiger might appear. Honestly, he wouldn't be able to rest easy until he saw the Warg's throat cut with his own eyes.
The team leader opened a drawer and grabbed the keys to his beloved XT16.
***
Whether it was a synergy between Transformation and Stealth, or the derived Mimicry skill, when I threw Hardening on top of it all, I transformed completely into rock. The moment it appeared, riding a bleak, frigid wind, every animal scattered in blind panic.
"—!!"
Even the Master of Baemsagol jolted in alarm at its arrival and fled deep into the valley. Prey and predator alike, without exception, bolted in sheer terror.
The bastard snapped up a rabbit in one gulp, faster than I could. The scent of blood spreading on the chilling wind didn't just belong to that one rabbit—it belonged to far, far more animals.
"Awooooo!"
A high-pitched howl that stopped breath. A coat of pitch-black fur.
Even as morning broke, darkness seemed to cling to the creature's immediate surroundings. Its body, as massive as a bull, and its crimson eyes stained with madness declared that this presence was anything but normal—as if flaunting its difference from a common wolf.
At a glance, it could pass for a huge wolf, but the sensation it gave off screamed monster.
A true freak, leagues apart from a slime, from any animal.
After swallowing the rabbit whole, the beast sauntered to the stream and drank, as if rinsing its mouth. Its relaxed demeanor—as though it could catch the fleeing animals anytime it pleased—made the creature with the maddened eyes seem less like a wild being driven by instinct and more like a hunter moving with cold reason.
Alien. Incomprehensible. That's what made it a monster.
If I hadn't had the experience of being detected while using Observation before, I might have recklessly tried it here. Nine times out of ten, I'd have been spotted and eaten. Puffing myself up wouldn't work on this thing. A four-meter snake? Even a snake twice that size would be nothing but prey to it.
Getting a taste of the eel's beating beforehand almost felt like a blessing in comparison. I let out a sigh of relief watching the creature recede into the distance. If I'd tried to run... I don't know what would have happened. Hiding really had been the right call. Even for that monster, apparently, layering several skills to become indistinguishable from rock was enough to escape its notice.
The moment I thought that, it turned around as if it had read my mind.
No sound could have come from me, but I nearly clamped a tentacle over a mouth I didn't even have. Its gaze was fixed unmistakably on me. Its lip curled, baring its molars in a snarl.
My mind blanked white, then tangled into chaos.
Run? Can I even run? Should I just stay hidden?
My thoughts spun into a dizzy mess.
"Grrrr..."
The seething growl completely dominated my hearing. Maybe if I bolted right now, I could survive. Chunks of the rabbit it had just devoured still clung between its wide-gaping jaws. Seeing that, my already frozen body locked up entirely, refusing to budge an inch.
'I'm going to be eaten!'
It's already too late. The moment I curled up, thinking, 'I'm dead'—the beast walked right past me, and all I heard was the sound of crunching.
I stayed frozen in place, unable to move, until the sun rose fully and my detection skills confirmed beyond doubt that the creature was truly gone.
......I survived. It hadn't spotted me. But... but...
[Weak Stealth (E) Lv.3 proficiency at maximum. Weak Stealth (E) Lv.3 → Weak Stealth (E) Lv.4]
No time to celebrate the skill level-up. I turned and found a half-eaten boar left behind. As if to say, 'I'm sick of this meat.' My mind was reeling, but my starving body, desperate to fill its emptiness, moved on its own.
As I ate those scraps... I felt wretched.
Relief that I was alive, mixed with the pathetic sight of me greedily eyeing its leftovers—it was miserable.
In the novel, a creature like that wouldn't even get much page time. It'd probably be summed up in one line: 'Defeated it with a single blow.' And yet here I was, reality so shabby.
Would things have been different if I'd been reborn as a human?
'No chance.'
I know myself too well.
A coward like me wouldn't have been much different.
A resentful rage swelled at the thought of ever experiencing that kind of terror again. The image of me scavenging a corpse was pathetic. And yet, a stubborn refusal to keep trembling in fear swelled inside me just the same. A defiance that clashed with my own wretchedness.
'In the novel, you were just a mob.'
Fury boiled up that I'd felt terror in the face of a mere throwaway mob like that.
I hadn't even fought. I'd just trembled and shook and prayed for it to pass me by—begged silently not to be noticed.
'Fuck...'
I could see myself as if from above—utterly pathetic.
Ever since I became a slime, I'd run. Run and run and run some more. An endless sequence of running. But had I really needed to?
A belated wave of regret washed over me. Hadn't I been too complacent all this time? Couldn't I have grown faster? Hadn't I curled inward, chasing nothing but safety?
[Boar consumed. Experience Points and Satiety increased.]
I regretted it, just a little, now. The System's words had been a warning all along.
The Level 10 achievement condition before evolution—along with other means, the System had been trying to make me wake up.
Telling me there's no time. Telling me if I wanted to live, I had to grow faster. And yet I...
I'd been giggling to myself about growing nice and safely.
This world was a candle in the wind, fated for destruction in just a few years.
I was disgusted by my own complacency—seeking safety and slow growth after being reborn as a slime in a world clearly doomed in the near future.
Knowing it, yet never truly realizing it. Looking back, I'd had countless chances to make better choices. The awareness of my own pathetic state was unbearable.
—If I'd taken a little more risk, things might have been different.
If I'd faced it instead of hiding and shaking, maybe I could have fought... maybe.
'If... if I can risk danger to grow...'
Could I have done it? No—can I start doing it now?
......No. I had to. I absolutely had to.
I already possessed so much, but I'd paid the price for cowardice: getting scared preemptively and arbitrarily deciding I couldn't win, boxing myself into limits.
The reason the System tested me with an achievement condition—it was to jolt me awake when I couldn't come to my senses.
Fury seethed inside me.
The System had always been there, showing the right path and shoving me forward.
I hated myself for only feeling the urgency after a brush with death. I hated the pathetic self that giggled away in the wilderness, and so the fury seethed.
But it wasn't over yet. Not yet.
Because I hadn't died. I was still alive.
Maybe it noticed me and let me live on purpose. Maybe it dismissed me as an insignificant bug not worth the trouble.
......Thinking about it that way felt fucking awful.
[Satiety at maximum. Converting Satiety into Experience Points.]
[Digestion (F) Lv.1 proficiency at maximum. Digestion (F) Lv.1 → Digestion (F) Lv.2]
[Predation (F) Lv.9 proficiency at maximum. Predation (F) Lv.9 → Predation (F) Lv.10]
[Predation (F) Lv.10 has reached maximum level. Predation (F) Lv.10 → Devouring (E) Lv.1]
[Digestion (F) Lv.2 proficiency at maximum. Digestion (F) Lv.2 → Digestion (F) Lv.3]
I devoured the carcass the beast had left behind, chewing over my resentment. I carved that fury deep into my chest.
And then—
[Level 10 Achievement Condition: Defeat the 'Master of Baemsagol'.]
—As if it had been waiting all along, as if this was the answer, the System shoved me forward.