Slime Evolution

Chapter 467 - Unlocking a Door

“All right,” he said, finally, softly. “I'll do what you asked.”

“But first,” Lohan continued, “we need to get the offspring off you. If I do it now, while they're still there, it'll be worse for you. I don't want you to feel any more pain than you have to.”

“I don't care,” the voice replied.

“I do,” Lohan retorted, with a firmness that surprised him. “Just wait a moment. It'll be quick.”

He felt Lisa turn slightly, seeking his gaze, and when she spoke, it was through the mental link, just between the two of them.

'We'll have to do this without hurting her even more,' she said. 'We can't just charge in there and kill everything. They're on top of her.'

'I know,' Lohan replied. 'Look over there, near the wall, those six. They're apart from the others, wandering by themselves, away from the chaos around her. We'll start with them.'

She looked where he indicated, and sure enough, near the chamber's left wall, six smaller creatures wandered aimlessly, with the same red, glassy eyes and little horns shining in the darkness, apparently waiting for an opening to join the frenzy in the center.

'Perfect,' Lisa agreed, an edge returning to her voice. 'Let's be quick and quiet.'

She moved first, slipping along the chamber wall with steps so light that not even the loose stones on the ground made a sound. Her spiritual fire was restrained, almost extinguished, only a thin glimmer remaining around her claws.

Lohan, on her back, extended his thin, translucent filaments along the ground, letting them spread unhurriedly, each one creeping through the shadows toward the six creatures.

The first didn't even notice what was happening. A filament wrapped around its legs, and before its body could react, Lisa appeared beside it, slicing its throat with a quick, clean sweep of her claws. There was no sound beyond a wet snap.

The creature collapsed without so much as a cry.

The first body was still falling when Lisa moved again, without any haste, yet without a single wasted motion, every step putting her exactly where she needed to be.

The second and third turned at the same time, drawn by some tiny sound, their red eyes trying to focus on that unfamiliar presence. But Lohan had already moved, directing his filaments up their bodies like a silent tide, wrapping their mouths and necks while their thin legs were already being digested.

They struggled for a second, their horns even glowing in a desperate attempt to use their mental power. Lohan felt pressure strike his mind, a weak, disorganized blow, like a whisper that was too loud.

But he managed to ignore it almost effortlessly.

Even if that was those creatures' talent, their low level, combined with being under the substance's effects and having lived for so little time, added up to such a disadvantage that a Level 17 monster like Lohan was on an entirely different level.

Lisa took care of the last two, leaping from one to the other in a fluid arc. Her white body cut through the space between them in one continuous movement, her claws leaving two clean cuts that made their bodies stop moving almost simultaneously.

Creature number six, the only one remaining, looked blankly at the corpses around it, unable to understand. Then Lohan enveloped it completely, and it too fell still.

Six creatures brought down in less than twenty seconds.

[You defeated 6 Whispers of the Abyss, Level 11]

[Experience gained: +17,320]

Lohan blinked at the notification, surprised by the size of the number.

“That's quite a lot,” Lisa remarked quietly, looking at her own notification, which probably showed something similar. “Considering how easy they were.”

“Yeah,” Lohan agreed, feeling the experience settle within him. “Now I understand why that guild guarded this place so fiercely. High experience rewards with practically zero risk are a gold mine.”

A gold mine built on a single creature's suffering. He didn't need to say it aloud.

Looking at the six bodies on the ground, a curiosity began growing within him—the same curiosity that always preceded an important digestion.

'I came here precisely because of them,' he thought. 'For the mental power they have. Regardless of everything else, I should do this.'

“Lisa, I'm going to digest them,” he said. “Can you keep watch while I do? If any of the others notice what happened, or if someone shows up…”

“Leave it to me,” she replied, already taking up position beside him, her body turned toward the chamber entrance and her golden eyes scanning their surroundings. “Do what you need to do.”

Lohan advanced over the first body, spreading his gelatinous mass across it, and digestion began.

It began with the body, and there was nothing particularly special there. Just thin muscles, light bones, decent biomass for its level, but nothing that stood out, nothing that made anything inside him react unusually.

'All right, that was expected,' he thought. 'Now the head.'

When digestion reached the head, the red eyes and small curved horns, something changed.

It was subtle at first, an almost imperceptible sensation, like a distant click, a mechanism moving somewhere inside him.

Then came a clearer wave. Something warm and strange began heating up in the center of his “forehead,” as though a door he had never realized was locked had suddenly begun to give way.

Lohan paused for an instant, his consciousness turning entirely inward.

There was something there, a structure, an empty space that had always existed within his mind, now seemingly being filled, unlocked, adjusted piece by piece.

Strangely, it was different from every sensation he had felt when acquiring a new evolution. It wasn't an immediate change with a clear notification giving a name and a description. It was more like the feeling that something which had always been out of reach was suddenly only a step away.

'This is…' he thought, his excitement rising. 'This is exactly what I was looking for.'

He continued, more slowly now, savoring every fragment, every little piece of horn and eye being processed and absorbed. The sensation kept growing, a pleasant pressure within his own consciousness and bodily mass, as though his mind were being stretched for the first time.

Beside him, Lisa remained on guard, her eyes fixed on the central platform, where the offspring continued swarming over their mother.

None of them had noticed anything. None had stopped, none had looked toward them, none even seemed to realize that six siblings had died just a few meters away.

“They don't even care,” Lisa murmured, almost to herself, with a mixture of relief and disgust. “Six died right beside them and they didn't even blink.”

“The pheromones,” Lohan replied, his consciousness still halfway divided between the conversation and digestion. “They're so caught up in it that nothing else matters. That's probably why the Legion's Players could kill so many of them without any effort.”

“It's disgusting,” Lisa said simply. “They stay here, waiting for the offspring to be born, kill a few, wait a little longer, then kill again. It's like harvesting a crop.”

“A crop that feels pain,” Lohan added quietly.

Lisa didn't reply, but her tail flicked once, a sharp gesture of anger she made no effort to hide.

“That explains everything,” she said softly. “Why they leveled up so quickly, even with such weak Bases… They didn't need strength, only patience.”

Lohan didn't answer, because the sensation within him was reaching a particularly intense point, like a musical note being held, stretched, on the verge of becoming something else.

He was almost there, almost at the point where it would all resolve, where the key would finally turn completely. For an instant, he forgot the cave, the offspring, even the creature bound in the center, all his attention concentrated on that new, utterly delicious sensation.

That was when Lisa turned abruptly.

“Halon.”

Her voice was different now, low and tense, her ears pressed completely flat against her head.

“Someone's coming.”

He heard it too, at the same instant, echoing down the stone corridor leading to the chamber, still distant but approaching: footsteps, several sets of heavy, hurried footsteps, accompanied by the metallic clink of weapons and armor.