Lohan was relentless in dealing with the Kobold, even though the scene was bloody, and his enhanced vision allowed him to see everything in great detail, he forced himself to continue the battle and finally killed the monster.
"This is just a game, Lohan, an extremely realistic game, but still a game, don’t feel guilty. This is an irrational monster that wanted to kill you a few moments ago, if it weren’t for him dying now, it would be you, so don’t let yourself be shaken by the suffering he showed."
He tried to calm down and find an excuse to maintain his sanity in the face of such carnage.
Despite watching horror movies with explicit gore in the other world, the difference between watching a fictional character on TV doing this and doing it with your own hands is huge.
Lisa, watching the scene, nodded in satisfaction.
She had already killed dozens of monsters like that, to the point that she had lost much of her sensitivity to scenes like this.
That was the main reason she wanted to bring Lohan here.
There were other easier monsters she could take him to fight, but considering that what mattered most now was his growth, there was nothing better than bringing him here to gain as much experience in the game as mental experience.
But if she knew he was treating it just like a game, she would have to find a way to change his attitude.
With the information her family had about Elysium, Lisa had known for a long time that this world was much more than that.
-xXx-
Suddenly, the sound of dry branches breaking violently to Lohan’s left brought him back to reality.
The second Kobold emerged from the dense forest with a leap.
Unlike the first one, which was attracted in a mode of extreme fury, this one was a little more rational and arrived in full combat mode, probably alerted by the smell of blood and the screams of its companion.
It was slightly more robust, with darker brown scales and a club that had a rusty metal tip at the end.
Lohan mentally checked his Mana: [Mana: 4.8 / 18.1].
’Damn, the Mana recovery speed is still not enough, I need to increase my total Mana as quickly as possible... An Ice Spike now would leave me too vulnerable if I missed the vital point.’
The Kobold gave him no time to think and advanced with a sideways swing of its club. If Lohan were an ordinary Slime, he would have been crushed, but he used the elasticity of his body to flatten himself against the ground, feeling the displacement of air pass millimeters from his membrane.
’Don’t panic. Even without Mana, I still have the means to deal with this.’
Instead of trying to retreat, Lohan knew he wouldn’t have enough speed for that and propelled his body forward, sliding between the Kobold’s legs.
The monster, confused by the maneuver, tried to turn its body to find him, but the rocky terrain of that area worked against it.
Lohan noticed a rock protrusion and, in one swift motion, expanded part of his biomass to wrap around the base of the monster’s heel, creating a kind of biological "glue," using the physics of the monster’s sudden movement against it.
The Kobold stumbled, letting out a yelp of frustration.
Lohan kept moving, circling the patient enemy. He didn’t attempt a direct digestion this time; he knew this Kobold was at full strength and could tear him apart if he got stuck for too long.
Instead, he began to use his hardening ability intermittently, only on small parts of his body, to strike the Kobold’s tendons every time it tried to get up.
It was a battle of attrition.
The Kobold struggled with all its might to get up or hit this annoying Slime that wouldn’t leave it alone, while the Slime used its speed and agility to the fullest to dodge these attacks while constantly hitting the Kobold.
’5.9... 6.4... 7.2...’ The Mana count in Lohan’s mind slowly rose as he focused on the smaller Mana Stone that was about to run out, forcing his digestion to the maximum.
The Kobold was getting furious.
He struck the ground frantically, trying to hit that blue blur that seemed to read all his movements. Lohan was using the advantage of his enhanced vision and low center of gravity to exhaust the monster’s stamina.
Five minutes of deadly dancing passed. The Kobold was now panting, with shallow and deep cuts on its legs and arms heavy from swinging its club uselessly.
’Now.’
Lohan saw the Kobold rest its club on the ground for a brief second to catch its breath. It was the opening he needed. The Mana reservoir finally glowed with the number he had been waiting for: [Mana: 12.0 / 18.1].
But instead of using Ice Spike, Lohan waited another 10 seconds, enough time for the second Mana Stone to be completely digested!
-- CRACK
-- BOOOM
With a sound of something breaking and cracking, unlike the icy barrage of Ice Spike, the new skill brought a tingling electric sensation that ran through every inch of his membrane.
It was as if thousands of points of light were reorganizing beneath his surface, transforming the dense texture of his jelly into something more fluid and sensitive to ambient light, bringing an acute awareness of how the surrounding colors interacted with his body.
Lohan felt a gentle warmth emanate from his core, expanding in waves that made his vibrant blue color oscillate and dilute.
It was a strange sensation, as if he had ceased to be a solid object and become an organic mirror, capable of absorbing the brown tones of the rocks, the earth, and the green of the treetops, allowing him to blend into the scenery almost instinctively.
Meanwhile, strange memories flashed before him: a chameleon the size of a dog was crouching, its body hanging from a tree trunk, descending vertically without making a sound.
Below the large chameleon, a gazelle drank water from the river, unaware of the danger.
-- SWOOOSH
Suddenly, the chameleon pounced on the gazelle, which, despite sensing that something was wrong, did not react in time and had its neck bitten by the creature.
...
[Magic Core Lv 3 → Lv 4]
[Mana: 12.1 / 18.1 → 12.1 / 19.9]
Lohan was ecstatic to see that the [Magic Core] had leveled up, but he forced those memories out of his mind, unable to be distracted in the middle of battle, and came up with an even better idea for dealing with the Kobold.
With a mental command, he focused on his surroundings, something that his 360-degree vision helped greatly.
In a second, the vibrant blue of his membrane began to fade, replaced by a dull, uneven pattern that perfectly mimicked the rocky ground and shadows of the trees.
The Kobold, already dizzy from blood loss and the excruciating pain of digestion in his legs, widened his yellow eyes.
To the creature, it was as if the blue monster devouring him had simply become part of the ground.
Panic took hold of what remained of the Kobold’s mind, causing him to strike the air even more erratically, trying to get rid of an enemy he could now barely distinguish.
In a surge of adrenaline and agony, the Kobold did not try to flee. Instead, he roared and swung his club in a desperate horizontal arc, covering the entire area where Lohan had been seconds ago.
’Shit, he’s going to hit me!
Lohan realized too late that, even though he was camouflaged, he was still a physical object in the path of a piece of solid wood. At that distance, the impact would shatter his exoskeleton instantly.
With no time to dodge or even attack, Lohan had a bold idea and used the only thing he could think of to deal with it.
[Partial Division Lv 3]
PHUT!
A small part of Lohan’s mass violently separated from his main body, without concern for stability or the pain of forcing it out of himself so urgently, and was hurled into the path of the club.
BAM!
The sound of the impact was sharp.
Lohan’s clone was smashed against a nearby tree, exploding into a useless puddle of jelly under the Kobold’s brute force.
But the recoil from the blow made the monster’s arm vibrate, momentarily opening its guard.
Lohan, now smaller due to the loss of the clone’s mass, felt a chill run through his core. If it weren’t for the sacrifice of that small part of himself, he would be the puddle of jelly now. The sense of real danger dispelled any arrogance he might have felt.
’That was a close call...’
Taking advantage of the Kobold still recovering its balance after the heavy swing, Lohan took no more chances.
He planted himself firmly on the ground, and without the telltale blue glow of his body to give away his position, a shot came like a ghost from the shadows.
The translucent ice spike emerged from nowhere, fired from an angle the Kobold did not expect.
--SHLICK!
The projectile pierced the monster’s throat from side to side, passing from one point to another.
The Kobold let out a gurgling sound, falling to its knees as the ice began to spread through its jugular, while the glow faded from its eyes.
[Experience: +5]
Lohan deactivated his mimicry to conserve Mana, returning to his original blue as the creature’s body fell heavily to the ground, lifeless.
’Two down... but my speed and Mana are still very deficient...’
He quickly moved to the body of the first Kobold, which he was sure was dead, and began the massive absorption of biomass.
[New Digested Matter — Incessant Hunger]
[Conflict with: Efficient Digestion]
[No Evolution available.]
Looking at the notification screens, Lohan was shocked.
’I got scammed?!’