"Damn, why did a Goblin appear out of nowhere in this forest?! I’ve been looking for a week for some useful creature to kill and absorb some skills, but I haven’t found anything, and suddenly a creature like that appears out of nowhere chasing something in front of me, and focuses its attention on me?!"
Lohan was incredulous at such a coincidence.
Using his 360-degree vision, he saw the bushes in front of the Goblin continue to rustle, moving away at an even faster speed than before, perhaps taking advantage of the opportunity, and disappearing among the trees, leaving only him and that Goblin face to face.
Seeing that, Lohan became even more suspicious of this "coincidence."
’If you’ve always had this speed, why didn’t you run like this before?!’
But with no time to think further, the Goblin’s movement in front of him brought his focus back.
The Goblin let out a high-pitched squeal, a mixture of greed and scorn. To him, Lohan looked like an exotic snack, like a delicacy from a 5-star restaurant.
He clenched his empty hand, looked at his confused hand, but soon forgot about it, extending his long, dirt-stained claws forward and advancing, drooling yellowish saliva.
Lohan did not retreat.
On the contrary, he felt his [Instinctive Perception Lv 5] pulsing.
The world seemed to slow down slightly, he felt the vibration of the Goblin’s heavy footsteps on the ground running awkwardly, while he saw the sloppy trajectory of the claw strike coming down towards him.
’Lohan quickly calculated his speed as he watched the monster leap.
’Shit, at only 0.61 m/s, I won’t be able to dodge this in time... if I try to jump to the side, it will catch me in the air with its other hand!
Deciding that running away was not an option, Lohan focused on strengthening his defense and taking the impact head-on.
[Membrane Reinforcement Lv 9] [Body Density Lv 4] [Reinforced Exoskeleton Lv 4]
His body, which had previously been soft and malleable, became rigid and heavy in an instant.
When the Goblin’s claws hit the top of his membrane, the sound was not one of something tearing, but rather a dry sound of impact, as if the monster were hitting a reinforced truck tire.
But a fraction of a second before the impact, Lohan activated his new feature.
[Selective Viscosity]
-- PAH!
Both Lohan and the Goblin’s eyes widened, or rather, only the Goblin’s eyes widened and Lohan was shocked, with the Goblin feeling as if he had hit something hard for a second, only for it to disappear immediately afterwards!
With the blow hitting hard and Lohan making the ground as slippery as a skating rink, his round body was sent flying, sliding through the forest and putting distance between him and the Goblin.
The Goblin, who was applying all his strength downward to try to crush the Slime into the ground, lost his balance instantly.
"Gwaaa?!" The monster let out a sound of surprise as it slid sideways and fell heavily on its back on the damp earth.
Taking advantage of the meters of distance he gained by sliding like soap, Lohan saw the Goblin getting up awkwardly, his face covered in mud and his eyes injected with pure hatred.
The monster did not expect its "meal" to react that way.
’Okay, I have a chance now. If I let him get close again, my reinforced defenses may not be enough against his weight, but to deal with him from a distance, I guess I can only try this...’
Lohan focused all his will on the [Magic Core Lv 3].
Instantly, the blue lines on the surface of his inner stone glowed with a cold energy.
He felt Mana flowing like a river of liquid nitrogen through his gelatin, converging at the front of his body.
[Ice Spike]
The moisture in the air around Lohan condensed in a millisecond. A sharp, jagged, translucent ice spike appeared out of nowhere in front of him and shot like a dart toward the Goblin.
-- SHIIIING!
The Goblin, still getting up, had no time to react. The ice spike dug deep into the creature’s right thigh, piercing the flesh and momentarily pinning it to the ground.
"GWAAAAAAAAAA!!"
The Goblin’s scream was deafening.
Greenish blood began to flow, freezing almost instantly at the edges of the wound. But instead of fainting or fleeing, the injury seemed to trigger insanity in the monster.
With a violent movement, the Goblin tore its own leg from the ice spike, tearing the flesh even further, and began to strike the air chaotically as it staggered forward.
[Mana: 1.1 / 18.1] [Warning: Critical Mana Reserves!]
’Damn... my head feels like it’s going to explode! One shot and I’m already in the red?! This thing consumes too much energy!’
Lohan felt an overwhelming dizziness. His 360-degree vision began to waver and he felt his body lose its steadiness.
He wouldn’t have Mana for another shot, and the Goblin was now an uncontrolled hurricane of claws and teeth, advancing regardless of the pain.
’Think, Lohan... if you don’t have magic and you’re not fast, you have to be... dirty!’
The Goblin was only three meters away, moving in an erratic pattern, lashing out with its claws at nothing, destroying bushes and digging furrows in the ground in its frenzy. Lohan realized that, in its current state, the monster was no longer "hunting," it was just trying to destroy whatever was in front of it.
’I can’t make a sword shape with my body, or anything like that for very long... but I can be a trap, right?’
Lohan deactivated the [Reinforced Exoskeleton] to save Bio-Mass and focused everything on [Selective Viscosity].
As the Goblin approached for the final blow, Lohan did not slide away. He waited until the last second, and when the Goblin’s hand came down to grab him, Lohan made the surface of his own body Extremely Adherent.
-- SPLAT!
The Goblin’s claws were stuck to Lohan’s membrane as if they had been dipped in industrial tar. The monster tried to pull its hand back, but Lohan’s weight (increased by [Body Density]) and the biological superglue kept it stuck.
The small cuts his claws caused to Lohan’s membrane were quickly healed by his stored Biomass, now preventing the Goblin from releasing the Slime.
Sure, it would be stupid to use this against a human stronger than him, considering that he would be aware of grabbing Lohan with both hands and trying to tear him in half, but against a monster as foolish as the Goblin, Lohan felt confident in trying it.
If it went wrong, he could resist a little with the more resistant membrane until he deactivated the viscosity and broke free from the monster’s reach, which didn’t understand what was happening.
The Goblin panicked and tried to bite Lohan, but the Slime was faster.
Using [Structural Stability Lv 8], he didn’t try to create an arm; he simply let his body "collapse" onto the Goblin’s face, stretching his mass like a heavy, suffocating blanket.
’You want to eat, right? Then taste my [Efficient Digestion] up close!’
Lohan wrapped its entire 28 cm volume around the Goblin’s head and neck.
The monster began to struggle violently, its hands scratching its own neck trying to tear off the blue jelly, but the more it struggled, the more Lohan infiltrated.
The feeling was horrible.
The game was extremely realistic, to the point that Lohan felt the creature’s despair as if it were alive, its rapid heartbeat and the heat of its greenish blood.
But he didn’t let go.
-- Sizzle...
Lohan’s digestive acid was taking effect.
The skin on the Goblin’s face began to bubble and be converted into biomass. It was a slow, chaotic, and brutal process.
Lohan was not elegant like an elven wizard now, he was just a basic predator, a bubble of hunger consuming something bigger than himself.
After a few minutes of silent and desperate struggle, the Goblin’s movements began to cease.
The creature’s body relaxed and it fell to its knees before collapsing completely onto the forest floor.
[Biomass Being Acquired] [Experience: +7]
[New Matter Digested — Chemosensory Aptitude]
[Evolution available.]
Lohan, exhausted and with his membrane slightly scratched by the desperate claws, finally broke free from what was left of the monster’s face.
He was mentally exhausted and his jelly was cloudy.
’That... was horrible.’
This was nothing compared to previous battles against Slimes, which Lohan had easily trampled.
Looking at the Goblin’s corpse, Lohan remembered his new skill.
’Now... let’s see what you had in your head.’
[Memory Resonance Lv 1]
///NunuNote///
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