shlp... shlp... shlp...
The noise was very low, as if whoever was approaching was deliberately trying to be quiet.
Without eyes or ears, Lohan realized that 'seeing' now was completely different from what he remembered as a human.
Instead of hearing a sound directly, he felt the air vibrating the gelatin of his body subtly like human eardrums, while his core translated that sensation into sounds.
Similarly, he gradually realized the difference between his vision and human vision... apparently his core translated the lights reflected in the gelatin of his body as vision.
"Seeing" and "hearing" this sound trying to be sneaky was scarier than if it were an open sound, since just by this attitude, he was sure that whoever was making this sound was not a Slime, after all, their intelligence would not allow them to do something like that.
To be on the safe side, now that the wound was closed, the first thing he did was to stop the gelatin recovery of the body so as not to waste biomass.
Using his 360-degree vision, Lohan analyzed what he could sense around him, looking for any movement that could indicate the position of whoever was making that sound, until he noticed a slight movement in a leafy bush near him.
Rolling gently around, Lohan remained focused on looking in that direction, searching for another angle to find his target, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see anything from the distance he was at.
'Is this enemy some kind of small insect?
The grass around him was green and bright, illuminated by the light passing through the leaves of the trees above him, but casting dark shadows where the light did not fully reach, which made observation more difficult.
'Should I run away or try to get closer?'
Theoretically, as a Slime, the best alternative would be to turn around, run away, and continue farming biomass to become stronger, but there was something inside him urging him to investigate it further...
'Maybe it was something like this that encouraged the other Slimes to rush to the core of the dead Slime?
If he just followed that intuition, it was quite possible that he would find something worth absorbing, but the question was, would he be able to absorb it? Or would he die like those Slimes?
Ignoring the instincts that screamed at him to go in that direction, Lohan rolled around, making a 1-meter radius where the bushes had been moving a few seconds ago.
The bushes stopped moving... whatever was there now knew that he was also watching.
Lohan continued rolling around, looking for an angle where he could see better.
After 15 seconds, having rolled almost 5 meters around that point, Lohan finally saw what was there.
Among the bushes, a larva slightly smaller than Lohan, with a semi-transparent body and slimy skin, was hidden under leaves.
The larva's head was shaking around, pointing in all directions in curiosity, until it pointed at Lohan and made direct "visual" contact with him, but like him, that insect also had no eyes.
The two stood still for a few seconds staring at each other, until, realizing that Lohan was motionless, the larva seized the opportunity and slowly began to move toward him again.
Lohan looked at it with curiosity, but also with suspicion.
Having seen only carnage since he started playing this game, he imagined that this insect could also harm him.
Fortunately, he was bigger than the larva, which gave him some security, but when the larva's wet tip touched his gelatinous surface... at that very moment, Lohan felt a strange pressure.
A vibration ran through his entire body, as if something was pulling the energy out of him. That feeling of warmth and life that the Bio-Mass brought began to dissipate, draining toward the point of contact.
Then, a window flashed red before his mind, accompanied by a sharp, pulsating sound:
[ALERT — Drainage Detected]
[Bio-Mass being consumed by external agent!]
[Loss rate: 0.01 Units / second]
The gelatin around the point of contact began to darken, forming subtle swirls that spun toward the larva.
Frightened, Lohan tried to move, but the more he tried to pull away, the more that thing clung to him, pulling even harder.
So he tried to control the gelatin to release this larva, throwing it away, but his movement was so clumsy that the ripple he caused was useless.
The pain of consumption spread. The larva stuck to him sucked voraciously, every second becoming more relentless and draining more and more vital energy.
[Bio-Mass: 0.87... 0.86... 0.85...]
[Loss Rate: 0.01 Units / second]
The feeling was suffocating... as if every drop of energy drained took a piece of his consciousness away.
With each passing second, the glow of Lohan's core grew weaker, and the inner light flickered within his translucent body.
'Is it... digesting me?!'
Frightened, he tried to move, but his body already felt lighter, and not in a good way.
The larva sucked so fast that the volume of the slime visibly decreased. His gelatinous structure began to give way, his body contracting as his density plummeted.
[Bio-Mass: 0.62... 0.54... 0.41...]
[Alert: Critical Bio-Mass Reserve!]
The terror grew.
Lohan realized that if the drainage continued for another minute, he would die!
But then... something flashed inside the core.
'No... I'm not going to die to a larva!
He concentrated everything he had left, forcing the core to spin at high speed.
The vibration spread through the gelatin, creating internal microwaves that reversed the flow of energy. His body began to shake... but so did the larva!
At first, he was still losing, the larva's rate was superior.
But as the reversal stabilized, something began to change.
The larva's body, unprepared for this reverse pressure, began to react...
[Forced Absorption — Initiating...]
[Hostile Organic Matter Detected]
[Efficiency: +10% due to Efficient Digestion Lv1]
Lohan felt the Bio-Mass flow back.
At first it was slow, competing against the larva's suction, but he realized that the more he focused, the faster it got, like an exponential cycle.
[Absorption Rate: 0.0007 Units/second]
[Loss Rate: 0.01 Units/second]
[Energy Flow Reversing...]
He pushed harder. The drained energy condensed again inside the core and was expelled in rhythmic waves, as if each beat returned the pain he had received.
The wet sound filled the air.
Even though his absorption rate was lower than that of the larva, forcing the process of removing Biomass from it caused the larva's body, which was not made for it, to react.
The larva began to tremble and shrink, its translucent skin darkening as air bubbles formed inside its body.
Lohan remained focused, using an invisible force to pull the creature's essence directly into his core.
The wet sound returned, but this time it was the larva dissolving.
The creature's flesh dissolved in waves, transforming into heat that spread through his body, burning and feeding his core.
[Organism absorbed.]
[Bio-Mass +2.8 Units]
[Experience: +1]
[New Matter Detected — Hemolymphatic Tissue]
[Analysis available at next evolution.]
[Efficient Digestion Lv 1 -> Lv 2]
Lohan would have gasped if he still had lungs, but all he could do was pulse with relief.
His body had shrunk by almost a third, but now it was beginning to expand again as the newly absorbed Bio-Mass was consumed and rebuilt his structure.
With each passing second, the gelatinous form regained volume, and the glow of the core returned to normal.
Looking at the various screens that appeared in front of him, Lohan was shocked.
Not only did he get much more Biomass from digesting the larva than he would have gotten from digesting grass, but he also unlocked another path to evolution and even raised the level of [Efficient Digestion]!
'No wonder so many Slimes rushed to that fallen core... absorbing the core of another monster must be very valuable for our evolution!
[Name: Alohn
Race: Slime (Mythical)
Class: Devourer (Mythical)
Level: 01
Experience: 1 / 100
Bio-Mass: 2.27]
Evolutions:
[Efficient Digestion Lv 2 - 1.25 Bio]
Increases the speed at which organic matter is dissolved. +10% digestion rate.]
[Viscous Flow Lv 3 - 2.34 Bio] - 0.33 m/s
Increases agility in controlling one's own body by 10% per level.]
Looking at the Status screen, if Lohan had a mouth, he would now be smiling broadly with satisfaction.
And surprisingly, looking at the evolution screen, there really was a new evolution that he could spend biomass to acquire!
[Hemolymphatic Tissue - 1.75 Bio]
[Pulsating channels adapted from the larva react to pain and stress stimuli.
During combat or under active damage, the conversion of absorbed matter into vital energy is accelerated by +20%.]
'So that's why that larva's biomass absorption was so powerful... because it had an ability like that!
Thinking about how advantageous it was to absorb that insect, this would be a great ability for him, especially considering that "absorbing" was the only form of attack he had... if he could increase the speed of biomass absorption in combat by 20%, he would be directly increasing his attack damage by 20%!
Without thinking twice, he spent 1.75 Biomass and purchased this ability, feeling even safer in this dangerous forest.