Still enveloped in the residual mist of corrupted Mana from the recently slain Boss’s corpse, the little blue Slime and its dozens of clones were processing the remains of that ancient wood, extracting every drop of biomass the body could yield.
’A Boss’s body is something else...’ Lohan thought excitedly, feeling the rich, dense biomass flood into his body.
Ever since he had enhanced his digestion through dozens of evolutions in various areas to increase the speed at which he digested biomass, Lohan hadn’t felt this sensation.
It was as if he had gone back to when he was a small Slime rolling through the forest, spending dozens of minutes, or nearly an hour, just to digest a single target.
Even with so many clones, Lohan felt that the biomass from this corpse was almost endless!
However, there was something even better than the biomass from the monster’s corpse.
Amid the ashes and wood, a purple Mana Stone pulsed, almost hypnotizing Lohan.
Excited, Lohan approached the stone and stared at it in fascination.
The stone was enormous, three times larger than the stones from the Elite monsters he had devoured previously, and unlike other Mana stones, this one possessed a deep purple color that seemed to contain a nebula of constantly shifting energy within it.
The density of the mana there was so high that the air around the stone almost seemed murky.
Lohan felt an instinctive pull, a hunger that came not from his stomach, but from his very mythical core, which craved that energy charge.
This was the first time he’d had the opportunity to digest a mana stone from an authentic Level 15 Boss.
He imagined the developments that might arise from it... perhaps control over the wood element or a definitive amplification of his aura.
’Will this finally let me be like Hashirama? Hahahaha!’ He thought excitedly about the possibility, imagining himself creating a gigantic wooden Buddha to crush the monsters in his upcoming battles.
Lohan’s fascination was evident in the way his membrane fluttered, expanding slightly to swallow the stone and claim the prize from his most difficult battle yet.
"Halon, stop right now!" Lisa’s voice echoed urgently in his mind.
Lohan froze, his tentacles mere millimeters from touching the icy surface of the gem.
He vibrated his membrane in a sign of confusion, turning to "look" again at the white fox who now sat exhausted beside him.
"Why, Lisa? This thing is incredibly rich in biomass... if I digest it now, I can recover everything I’ve expended and maybe gain a skill that’ll help us get out of here safely." Lohan said, his excitement even forming a big, toothy grin on his "face."
Lisa snorted, rolling her eyes. "Do you have a short memory, Halon? Have you forgotten what happened when you first tried to digest high-level stones without being prepared? You almost lost control of your consciousness with the Weaver Spider and nearly had your core collapse with the Guardian of Light in the Yrneha tower, do you want something like that to happen to you again?!"
She took a step forward, pointing her snout at the fading glow of the now-dark stellar halo above his head. "We’re still under the Star Cry debuff. All your stats, including your mental resistance, are reduced by 15%. Trying to absorb the memory and energy of a Level 15 Boss in this state is simply suicide."
Lohan looked again at the bright, tempting mana stone and let out a sigh.
He knew she was right. His devourer’s greed had almost made him ignore the safety protocol they’d established. "You’re right... it would be stupid to risk something like this right now. I’ll wait to process this at the guild base, where I’ll be 100% safe and have everyone’s full support in case something goes wrong..."
He formed a small, bluish hand and carefully picked up the heavy gem, stowing it in the guild’s Astral Chest. The gem disappeared into the dimensional inventory, leaving the chamber a little darker, but the tense atmosphere finally began to dissipate.
"Maybe it’s better to wait until I level up again before touching this thing... just to make sure nothing bad happens," Lohan remarked, trying to hide his disappointment at not being able to "devour" the prize immediately.
"I’m glad you still have a little common sense left," Lisa teased, though her tone still carried traces of exhaustion, and she even rolled her eyes at him.
Suddenly, the silence in the room was broken by an excited shout coming from one of the side corridors that Dylan was exploring.
"Darlings!! Bella! Halon! Alice! Come here right now, you won’t believe what this wonderful Pretty Boy has found!" Dylan’s voice echoed, sounding in his most theatrical tone, which drew an involuntary laugh from Alice, who was sitting nearby; she stood up to see what it was.
Lohan and Lisa approached the spot where Dylan was frantically pointing with the tip of his spear.
Deep within a niche that had previously been hidden by corrupted roots, a pulsating red gem, much larger than anything else in the cave, floated gently.
"Is that... a dungeon core?!" Lohan exclaimed in surprise, sensing the same energy signature they’d felt in the Mythlorien tree.
They recalled the core they had at their base, the engine that kept the fossilized tree alive and made the guild’s existence possible. Then an idea popped into Lohan and Lisa’s minds simultaneously.
"We could set up another guild headquarters here..." Dylan suggested, though he grimaced in disgust as he looked at the green slime and the rotten wooden walls all around. "But, to be honest, this place is dreadful. The aesthetic doesn’t fit Astralis at all..."
Lohan agreed wholeheartedly. The environment was uninviting and unpleasant for a long-term base. "What if we take this core to our tree? If we can fuse it or use it to upgrade the Mythlorien base, it would be much more advantageous than trying to maintain two separate headquarters right now, we don’t even have enough people to staff our current headquarters; there’s no reason to set up another one for now."
The idea of strengthening their home in Mythlorien got everyone excited. Lisa, as president, touched the core, and the system acknowledged the achievement.
At that very moment, a cascade of golden notifications appeared in the vision of all the guild’s players, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of stellar harps.