As soon as he digested the third rabbit’s brain, the message he loved to read so much appeared before him.
[New Digested Matter - Explosive Steps]
[Evolution available]
Without hesitation, Lohan accepted this new evolution.
[Explosive Steps Lv 1] - 25 Bio
[By channeling Mana through the ligaments and tendons of the leg, it accumulates great kinetic force which, when released, results in a powerful explosion at the point of impact.]
The description of this evolution was quite simple; surprisingly, the ability to kick the same spot multiple times in a fraction of a second to move at high speed had been developed by the rabbits themselves.
’It’s crazy how these animals, even without a truly intelligent consciousness, can come up with such profound uses for an evolution like this!’ He thought. ’But it does make sense, after all; if they didn’t know how to use this evolution in such an innovative way, maybe they wouldn’t even reach Level 10...’
In such an aggressive and oppressive environment, the act of surviving to Level 10 was already commendable, especially with such low intelligence and without a System like the Players had.
"Wait a moment, Lisa, I want to test my new skill," Lohan said as he shifted back into the fox’s body and leaped to the ground.
Lisa also stopped running and looked at him expectantly.
She envied his ability to absorb skills from other creatures, but she didn’t dislike it either, since it was because of his versatility that they were able to face monsters that a group of 10 Players at their level would have difficulty facing.
So over time she started treating it like a game; whenever Halon acquired a new skill from a monster, she enjoyed watching him try it out and seeing if he was lucky enough to get a useful skill or not.
Often he would acquire that monster’s main skill, but most of the time he wouldn’t get anything new, or if he did, it was just something completely useless to them.
Now she wanted to know if this would be one of those times or not.
To her surprise, as soon as Halon landed on the ground, instead of rolling as he always did, he quickly formed four paws beneath him and assumed a stance very similar to that of the Level 10 rabbit’s last powerful charge.
That alone made the fox’s eyes sparkle.
If Halon was adopting this stance, it was quite possible that he had acquired the same skill as the rabbits!
With Mana flowing through the leg he had formed, Lohan felt kinetic energy accumulating there, and with a mental smile, he finally kicked the ground, preparing for the speed he would gain from it!
But instead of the explosive sound the kick would make, as the rabbits did, the sound Lohan made was that of jelly shattering, followed by a stinging pain.
--SPLASH!
Horrified, Lohan saw clearly that as soon as the Mana and kinetic energy spread out from his "leg," the power of that energy was so great that not even the Obsidian Exoskeleton could withstand it and shattered all around, flinging slime jelly everywhere.
Fortunately, the Slimes’ pain receptors were far less sensitive than a human’s; otherwise, with an explosion of a limb like that, Lohan might even have fainted.
But with his current body, he only felt the pain as if a cut were being made, and with the rapid digestion of the rabbit leg that had appeared inside him, it quickly replenished the biomass and alleviated the pain.
"Um... I don’t think that was the intended use of your skill, right?" Lisa asked in a muffled voice, finding the situation extremely cute and comical, the slime’s leg exploding and him standing completely still for a few seconds, staring at it, lost in thought.
Sure, if what had exploded instead of the shiny blue jelly had actually been real flesh and blood, the scene would have been much more grotesque and not at all scary.
But since what exploded was just the blue jelly, Lisa had to muster a lot of willpower to keep her composure and not burst out laughing right there.
Lohan looked at his companion and rolled his eyes mentally, but he also found the situation funny.
"Yeah... theoretically, this skill was supposed to let me kick and cause explosions like the rabbits did, but apparently, since I don’t have tendons or ligaments, the resulting force spreads throughout my body instead of flowing outward, blowing me up..." Lohan explained what he understood about the glitch that had occurred.
That was very disappointing... especially since he couldn’t think of how to deal with it for now, turning a skill with so much potential into something completely useless to him for the time being.
And thinking about how this skill worked, if he could create artificial tendons and ligaments inside himself, he could get rid of the limitation of using it only for kicks, and also use punches or other types of attacks with this skill!
After all, rabbits only had leg muscles developed enough to perform those kicks, but Lohan could simulate any part of his body as ’legs’ and use this skill however he wanted!
But while he was thinking about what to do, Lisa interrupted with an idea.
"Don’t you already have the most powerful ligaments we know of?" she asked with a sparkle in her eyes.
Lohan was confused by the question, so he strained to understand it, until it clicked.
"Lisa, if this works, you’re a genius!" Lohan said excitedly as he began to produce thick, sturdy webs within himself, simulating the tendons and ligaments he should have in his leg joints.
Assuming the preparation stance once more, Lohan channeled his Mana through his magical webs and felt that his control over it was far more refined and manageable.
Taking a deep breath, he braced himself for the pain a failure might bring, but fortunately, this time the sound was different!
--BOOOM!
Following the explosion, a bright blue figure flew past Lisa at high speed and continued moving forward at high speed toward a tree.
Lohan’s speed was still far below that of the rabbits, but considering that this Skill was still at Level 01, he was excited to invest a little more in it.
[NunuNote: At your suggestion, I decided to try writing without constantly mentioning the names of the Evolutions, and instead describing what the skill does in a more natural way, to try to make the reading flow better. What did you think? Do you prefer it the way it was in this Chapter, or the way I usually described it?]