It was just another day in the dungeon called Newb. Quiet for the most part. The temperature was decent enough - not too cold, nor too warm. The dim light that peeked in from the entrance disappeared a few meters into the cave. Given that the cave was maybe half of a square kilometer, and, with a little help from a light source, it wouldn’t take too long to find your way to the five dead ends that sometimes hold a treasure chest.

Even finding the Boss Room isn’t too hard. Just look for the three meter tall door straight down from the entrance. It looks quite plain compared to other Boss doors, being an unadorned brown. But considering that it was the only door in the dungeon, it served its purpose well enough.

It would usually take most adventurers twenty minutes to reach the end of Newb. And the denizens were dispatched easily enough. In fact, it is because of these two points that the dungeon is even called Newb in the first place. It is the perfect beginner dungeon for all who seek a couple Levels in their respective arts.

Each day, the events in the cave are practically the same. Morning comes along, and the first group of newbies find their way in, clearing the dungeon out in about the same amount of time that it would take for a morning jog. Two hours later, another group would do the same. Then another. And so on.

It wasn’t until about an hour or so after sunset that the groups would stop arriving. Peace would return to the cave for the night. And the following morning, it would start all over again.

One might think that clearing out the dungeon with such frequency would leave it barren and without anything for any of the following groups, but they would be wrong. Dungeons are self-replenishing. Treasure chests that are looted populate a new item, usually a low-tier potion or some useless junk. The Boss would also respawn, with the same amount of strength it had before it perished the time before. And finally, and quite possibly the most important, the Monsters would reappear so that the next group could have an equal chance to grow stronger.

After the fourth time reappearing of the day, a small grey slime sat in its corner of the dungeon, the second pathway on the right from the entrance, and pondered its current state-of-affairs. Each and every day, those adventurers would come in, slay it and all its fellows for sport, and walk away with all their belongings. Sometimes even stronger ones would arrive, intent on “clearing the dungeon as fast as possible”. These ‘speed-runners’, as it had heard one such individual call them, were very troublesome. The slime wouldn’t even stand a chance.

Being as what it was, it would sense enemies approaching, attempt to fight, but ultimately perish. Each and every time. Usually by some kind of magic attack to the… face? Side? Blob? Body. The magic would strike its body, bypassing its rather impressive defenses, to diminish its Life to a whopping Zero. And then it would die.

While waiting the estimated two hours to respawn in a place that it had called “the dark, unfeeling place”, the slime would attempt to cling to its memories of what happened, but most of it would always fade away. This had been its repetitive life for the last month or so.

This loss of memories is the source of what is holding it back, in its own highly valued opinion to itself. Without it, the slime reasoned that it could have already become a veteran Monster, and lived its life out on its own terms.

So then, if it could somehow avoid dying ever again, then it would finally become strong. And when I become strong, it thought, I can finally be free of this place. Thinking this, it decided to try something a little different, right after it got blasted away by the adventurers coming straight for it…

--- Respawn will occur in: 5 minutes.

The slime had been watching this counter slowly make its way down to zero. Just as expected, that last group of Adventurers took it down with relative ease. They had called out something like, “Look, a rare slime spawn! Just like the rumo…” It never caught the last part. It was already a vaporizing puddle by the time that they reached that part.

Though rather than fret about what had happened, the monster decided it would be best to use the time it had in the “dark, unfeeling place” to work out its plan in detail. While its memories of when it was alive always seem to fade away, its thoughts here were much clearer to it. Though it never knew why.

--- Respawn will occur in: 2 minutes.

Just a little more, the slime mused, then on to the plan “get stronger so that I can be left in peace” will commence. It was a 4-step plan -

Leave its corner of the dungeon Attempt to slay its fellow monsters before the adventurers arrive Hide from said Party Rinse and repeat

While the exact success of said plan was yet to be seen, it did know that there were no Monsters found in its home that had magic at their disposal. After all, it wouldn’t do to have monsters using magic against the newbie adventurers in their first dungeon. And so, it would rely upon the aforementioned defenses to hopefully overcome them and grow stronger. All it had to do was wait just a bit longer…

--- Prepare yourself. Respawn in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Good luck.

Luck. The slime didn’t like that word, mostly because it never seemed to help.

--- Respawn successful. Congratulations! You are now a Level 1 Slime.

The monster only acknowledged this message for the briefest of moments before it called up its internal Stats.

**

Name:

Species: Slime, Grey

Age: 1 month

Power Level: 1 (0%)

Life: 7/7

Mana: 3/3

Physical:

- Might: 2

- Vigor: 1

Mental:

- Intelligence: 3

Abilities:

Slime Body

Increased Potential

Skills:

**

Just like it always was… Wait. Was that “Increased Potential” always there? The slime couldn’t remember. Oh well. No sense in worrying about something it can’t remember, right? Because right now, it has to move if it wants to do anything before those adventurers show up. Right. Now is not the time. And so, the slime began to slither on towards its future…

Sliding into the main passageway of the little dungeon, the slime took stock of its surroundings. While it may not perceive in the way that a human would, it could still “see” in a way. Its perception was based on the movement of the energy around it. Another way to say this was that the energy would be shifted around from the movement of either itself or other creatures around it, causing these reverberations to bounce off the surfaces around it.

This created an effect similar to echolocation, though not as sophisticated as such. The images it received were more like generic shapes. Ones that moved quickly would be enemies of one sort or another, while the ones that stood still were generally obstacles.

Its hearing functioned much the same way, the vibrations caused by voices and sounds giving it a general idea of what things are saying or doing. Both of these perceptions are extremely limited. Rogues can bypass its hearing altogether if they are quiet enough; and slow moving objects don’t always register in time for the monster to do anything about it. Then there was its limited distance. The slime could reasonably detect things out to about five meters.

Alas, its primitive senses allowed it to recognize that there were several directions it could take. If it turned right, it would head deeper into the dungeon, finding the Boss Door if it went all the way back. It could just make out a path on the left side of the passage near the end of its “sight”.

It could also turn left, heading toward the entrance, and out of the dungeon, but that wouldn’t do. After all, could it even survive if it left in its current state? Most likely not. Besides, it thought, I won’t know what I will run into out there. I should stay in the cave for the time being, and power up before I leave, that way I can survive a little better.

With its mind made up, it decided to head a little deeper into the cave first. This decision had nothing to do with the possibility of running into those dreaded adventurers out there. Nope, none whatsoever.

--- Your Intelligence has increased by +1.

See? Even this message agreed that it had made a smart move. It slowly slid down the passage as quickly as it could, while also attempting to remain as quiet as possible. A tricky thing under normal circumstances, but considering that it didn’t have any legs, it just made a series of squelches and slurps as it reached the passage on the left side.

Its ‘sight’ could not reach the end of the passage. There was, however, a slight tremor of movement just at the edge of its vision. The slime cursed its memory loss that clearly created its shortcomings. If only it could see around the corner like some of those pesky adventurers do when they are attempting not to be seen.

It shook itself in an attempt to clear its thoughts and focused them on its goal: obtaining its first taste of victory. The slime slithered forward at a snail’s pace as it turned the corner. The slime was just about a meter in, when something burst into its perception.

It stood slightly taller than the slime at about half a meter at the shoulders, but was just over a meter long. Its sharp incisors jutting from its mouth snapped loudly as the beast charged, its tail lashing out behind it. It looked like an oblong cylinder on legs and those teeth standing out sharply from the rest of it. A giant rat.

One may also think that Monsters don’t attack each other, but they would be wrong. Especially when those monsters are of a different species. Or at least that had been its experience from when one of those beasts came wandering into the passage that the slime usually occupied. The rat had attempted to bite it as it was cornered, while the slime was more concerned about the party of six adventurers following said rat.

This time, the slime attempted to launch itself into the air to slam into the rat, but, it seems that it was not quick enough.

--- You have been hit for 1 Life.

The rat bit down on the slime instead, causing mild annoyance, and a small amount of damage. The slime was really grateful at that moment for its Slime Body ability.

Slime Body

“Wibbly, wobbly, splish, sploosh!”

Because you are a slime, you can mold your body at will.

Your body also is highly resilient to all forms of physical attack.

All incoming physical damage is reduced by an amount of 3 times your Vigor.

Magic will bypass all defense granted by this ability.

It would really benefit from this someday, if it could only improve its vitality. Enough dreaming, let’s focus here! The aspiring monster reminded itself.

Now that it was caught in the rat’s mouth, there was only one option left. Focusing on its malleable body, the slime began to wrap its body around the snout of the beast it was facing. Sensing that something was amiss, the rat responded by attempting to spit the goo from its own maw, but it was too late.

The slime wrapped itself around the snout from where the beady eyes rested to the tip of its nose. The slime’s body melded together in a kind of muzzle, only this muzzle was not fitted to allow whatever it was attached to breath. The rat immediately noticed this fact and began to scratch with all its might to remove this sticky creature it had run into. What followed was several messages populating the slime’s mind.

--- You have resisted a strike.

--- You have resisted a strike.

--- You have resisted a strike.

--- You have….

The slime gritted its nonexistent teeth not from the pain, because there was none, but from the barrage of mental messages. If the mental assault was intentional, the rat probably would have been a much fiercer opponent. All in all, about fifty of these notifications popped up before the rat ceased its struggles. It seemed that the claws of the rat could not overcome the slime’s defenses. It’s strength lay in its jaws, which were all but bound shut.

And, from this encounter the slime learned a couple things. First, it appeared that it had done something to prevent the creature from functioning normally, though it was unsure exactly what. The monster did not require oxygen itself, after all. Second, its body can be molded. It sort of always knew that, but never realized that it could be used to such an extent. This opened up a whole new meaning for it in the future of it’s continued survival.

Overall, that encounter did take quite a lot of time. Apparently, suffocation takes a while. Maybe two to two and a half minutes. Maybe three. And that was possibly three minutes that the slime didn’t have to find another monster to fight. Why does it take so long to kill things, anyway?

Just as the slime was pondering this, it felt a warm sensation spread throughout its body, followed by several blinking notifications in its mind.

--- Congratulations, you are the victor! You have gained the following:

- You have created the following Attributes: Physical - Agility, Grit; Bonus - Luck. +1 to all newly created Attributes.

- You have gained the following skills: Body Manipulation, Iron Will, Stealth, Toughness.

- Congratulations! You are now a Level 2 Slime: Might +1, Vigor +2, Intelligence +1.

- The following Attributes have been boosted by Increased Potential: Grit +2, Luck +2.

The unnamed victor of that short skirmish lay frozen as the first step in its plan for growing stronger had just been realized. Maybe it wasn’t a day just like every other after all...