The tiny creature began to tremble, its body pulsing as if it were struggling to contain the energy funneling into it. Unlike last ti, the process seed to take longer, almost like the sli was resisting the change or its mutation was far more complex.
Suddenly, a bright flash of erald light erupted from the center of the sli. The pulsing intensified, and then with a squelching snap, the creature's form expanded and solidified.
What stood in its place was a new kind of sli, bigger, denser, its body a translucent green laced with glowing veins of dark green.
[Ding! Mutation Successful!]
[Ding! Sli has mutated into Verdant Core Sli (Rare Variant)]
[Ding! Abilities gained: Regenerative Aura (heals allies slightly in range), Regenerative Pulse (can heal itself with a healing wave), Resistant mbrane (high resistance to poison and acid-based attacks)]
Ethan blinked. "A healer?" he muttered in disbelief, then chuckled. "Alright, I did not see that coming."
The sli jiggled proudly.
Ethan smiled. Two attempts, two different evolutions, both rare and useful in completely different ways. "Okay," he said, a little more to himself than to the sli. "Slis it is then." Since two attempts had gone successfully, he decided to mutate all of his slis first before moving on to his next set of minions.
Shadow owed in agreent, staring at the jiggling sli. She walked closer to it and placed her paw on the jelly surface. The sli jiggled away, but she gave an annoyed ow. She liked the warmth the sli was radiating. Why was the damn thing bouncing away?
Soon, the small interaction turned into a full blown fight and eventually Shadown ended up plopping her whole damn body on the poor little sli.
Ethan sighed. "If you both don't cut it out, I will dismiss everyone." Shadow sheepishly walked away from the green sli. However, she did not look happy about it.
Ignoring the two, Ethan focused on his next skill. Convergence. This was the next one he was interested in the most.
He opened his status screen again, eyes locking onto the glowing icon. [Convergence: Temporarily rge with any of your minions, absorbing their abilities, strengths, and traits.] The description alone was enough to make his heart race.
Before, he did not have a clear choice for this skill, as all his minions would at most give him strength or speed buffs. However, that had changed since yesterday.
Ethan summoned the azure sli and glanced between the green sli and the azure sli back and forth. He had never tried healing before, so he decided to check out the azure sli first.
He couldn't wait anymore and hurriedly activated the skill. He was dying to know just how the hell could a damn sli simply cast a water bullet without speaking any words of power or hand signs.
Ethan was a newbie to this world but even he could see that there were differences between skills and spells. System spells, most commonly referred to as skills, could be insta cast but at the sa ti, the whole thing was kind of like a black box.
He just activated it with little to no control in the process.
But the mage spells that were developed in this world were more liberal. Sure, it took ti to cast them and use them, but he could tamper with the spells a lot.
He did not really think a lot about all of this until yesterday when he saw the big blob cast water bullets left and right without any kind of structure or chant. That got his mind spinning. If the sli could do that, could he do it too, by rging with it?
More importantly, could he learn how to do it even when not using the Convergence skill?
Ethan hoped he could. "Here goes nothing." He activated the skill, and the next mont, he felt his body shift in an unfamiliar way. It wasn't painful, just… weird.
Like his limbs lost their edges and his skin turned fluid. His senses dulled and heightened all at once, hearing muted while his awareness of pressure, movent, and moisture increased tenfold.
He blinked or tried to. Sli didn't have eyelids, and right now, neither did he.
"Oh… wow," he gurgled. His voice was distorted, bubbling as it escaped his not-quite-human form. "Okay. This is… deeply unsettling. And kinda fun."
He flexed or whatever the sli equivalent of flexing was and felt his body ripple. Water magic churned inside him, familiar yet instinctual. He didn't need to think about it; it was just there, waiting to be used.
Without a single chant or gesture, he fired off a [Water Bullet], and the spell shot out like a slingshot, striking a nearby rock and splashing with surprising force.
"Holy hell," he gasped, sloshing back in awe. "So that's how it feels…"
The casting was smooth, almost addictive. There was no lag, no wind-up, no mana channels to adjust. Just intention, and bam, spell. He fired another. Then another. Each ti, the sli's instincts did the heavy lifting while his consciousness rode the wave.
After a couple of seconds, the rge began to weaken. His form began to split again, flesh reknitting over muscle and bone as his human body returned. The sli appeared beside him, slightly winded but unhard.
Ethan collapsed back, catching his breath. "Alright. That was a mind fuck but I am loving it." He imdiately pulled up his status screen only to see that he wouldn't be able to use the skill again for another 24 hours.
By now, he already expected this. He could also guess the reason. Both the skills with the cool down were S-rank skills. Either his mind or his body was unable to handle S-rank skills in the current condition. He was positive that this would change if he gained a few more levels.
But until then, he had to be satisfied with just this.
Ethan did not care. He was in the zone at the mont, and he did not want to lose it. He imdiately focused and started conjuring water bullets by tampering with his magic spell.
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