The effect of levels on the newer generation was completely different from that of slime apostle 1, and it was easy to see what the difference.
Slime apostle 1, when they stood at the pinnacle of their non-elder slime days they had held a weave different from how he had created it. From the
But these leveled slime apostle 2 candidates were just as they always were, no change to the weave, it didn't gain the ability to passively take in more mana for the next evolution, no nothing except it jumping faster and further.
He couldn't understand it, why were levels just free
But it didn't, and he really didn't need a faster slime. That wouldn't make a difference, not in the slightest. Why would it? It was just a slime, no matter how fast it was it would never reach the level of a proper threat through the miniscule amounts of speed it was offered. Of course, if not accounting for the twirl legacy included in all of the newer generation slime apostle candidates. Though it wasn't as if they were making the most of it as a firing squad they were currently.
But they were 'Slime apostle candidates', not 'Slime herald candidates' or whatever he might call the imaginary supreme sentient-slayer slime.
However strong they may be with levels, that wasn't their role. Slimes would never be able to overcome essence generators just by being a bit stronger... Maybe they could, but the core knew better than to expect anything even close to that.
Slime apostle 1 had lead to a true revolution of slime manufacturing, bringing forth knowledge about levels and elder slimes for him to parse.
What made a somewhat stronger slime worthy of apostle-hood? Nothing that he could think of, except being better at killing sentients. Which was great- Obviously- but when he could just invest more in order to make slime water and slime weaves to get basically the same effect, it wasn't exactly worth much.
He was looking for something more than just a bit of power, but these slime apostle candidates just weren't up to standard. His standards weren't even that overbearing, considering all he wanted from them was something more interesting than them just having
Speaking of said skill, after a quick look at his mental repository it cost but a mere 57 essence. A pittance, truly. But even a most minuscule of margins were indeed margins, to waste such a large amount of essence on such an inefficient skill left a bad taste in his non-existent mouth.
But it cost an astronomical 1288 essence, considering the pathetic amount he saw on his status... He wasn't even close to affording it.
Around 400 essence could've been considered a monumental amount in the past, but to be totally honest those two groups of sentients had provided a good portion of that amount with their lives as payment. With it he could also say confidently that a good few skills that had caught his eye would be purchasable, such as
Even if he wouldn't buy them because he didn't have the aspect needed to provide the proper affinity to any would be host of any of those skills.
If he had to say, if there were skills for wind-earth affinities those would probably be pretty good. Though he didn't really feel like trying to reason out its actual name right now, he wasn't looking to go on a shopping spree when he had only 417.291 essence. I might've looked like a lot, but it was next to nothing compared to the real skills he was looking to buy.
But... Why did the levels for the newer generation nor work the same way as the former generation? Was it a difference between elder slimes and slimes? He was honestly interested in what levels would do all the new stuff he had made, and it was just disappointing to say the least.
It was even confusing why they leveled up so quickly considering the regular slimes that didn't level up with a single kill... Maybe it had something to with 'Transcenders'? But he had no clue what those even were! Falc had already taken a few moments to wonder about it before, but he couldn't easily come to any conclusions on the spot.
He had acquired at least one double transcender or five transcenders, so there had to at least be one thing for him to examine. But he remembered no such thing being created, he directly went into his own little archive for anything that went through something twice or only once for any clue.
But he couldn't find anything of note, except for slime apostle 1. Having reached level 2 before seemingly falling into disgrace, it was obvious it had leveled at least twice. But the slime apostle 2 candidates had leveled up as well, so that would mean there was a difference between a leveled and a transcender.
And... There was absolutely a difference. The lack of everything that truly defined slime apostle 1 as an apostle, the lack of intelligence and of change, the mere presence of extra strength- That was what defined a regular level up.
But if that were what a level was normally like, which it probably was considering the large majority of those that have leveled being regular leveled instead of a transcender like slime apostle 1. Was slime apostle 1 just built different from other slimes, in a way he couldn't possible conceive?
Or was it just that a regular slime leveling would bring about the effects that deemed something a 'Transcender' while elder slimes did not?
Well, it wouldn't be that difficult to find out actually. An elder slime wasn't even stronger than a regular slime outside of being a bit more intelligent from what he could see, and he could even make up for a regular slimes idiocy by merely letting his own mind make the plans for them.
But if it was to test it, he would absolutely need to make sure they weren't a waste of good levels. Every sentient life taken would both give him a large amount of essence and risk a strong sentient arriving and proving his slime apostle 2 investment plan was moot by purging all his candidates.
But first order of business? Hide the evidence, it wasn't exactly hard to since all he had to do was lead them to the wall of the slime plains. This time deciding the wall from which the entrance came, at the middle of the right half as defined by said entrance. He obviously hollowed it out for his near 60 slime apostle 2 candidates, creating a little room with a buffer of 2 meters of stone between it and the slime plains.
He made it 8 meters long and 3 meters wide, giving the slimes a nice 3 meters in height as well, forcing him to hollow out a total of 72 cubic meters of rock. Luckily however, with the wonder of an extra 5% affinity and control with his second pick of focusless, he could smoothly create the little hiding place without any real trouble.
Then he just made a little tunnel from said room, giving it a generous 2 meters of diameter. Feeling that such extravagance was reasonable considering the large amount of slimes, though it felt a little too much considering the little tunnel he had offered slime apostle 1- Long may he reign- Originally.
After leading them all through and into their new residence, he filled in the tunnel with rock. Completely obscuring the entrance, as if it had never existed. Just as he intended it to look, he couldn't be sure how well sentients were in seeing and comprehending small details, but not just making sure there weren't any risks when he didn't even have to put in any effort to do so.
Now it was time to gather mana while formulating the form of the 'Transcender prototype slime', while also looking around for any good targets for safe transcender production.
To be totally honest he could totally just make another slime apostle 2 candidate but without an elder slime nuclei, but... If he was going to be making a new slime variant he was at least going to formulate the most optimal design for experimentation.
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If he considered that the slime apostle 2 candidates were minimally a D-4x20-Windx5-Acid(5)x2, and at best D-4x20-Slime(2)-Windx5-Acid(5)x2, the current project would have to have a good bit of investment. Though he wasn't exactly interested in working with D-7 or higher in fear of wasting too much mana on it, having a few more
He obviously needed one or two full weave D-5
Wind-earth mana, would obviously be the crowning jewel of the transcendence prototype slime. But... he was not yet sure how to put the partial skill weaves into his standardized naming system... He decided to bear with it for now, this was going to be more of a one-off anyways.
If a regular level required only a singular kill then it wouldn't take too long to make sure, though having it evolve like slime apostle 1 would probably be less that pleasing if it turned it into just another regular elder slime as it did the other evolved slime.
But, honestly, the twenty D-4 weaves were a bit overkill honestly, they weren't needed. So he decided to shrink that to a mere 10 weaves, then every second weave except the top weave of those ten D-4 weaves he put in D-4 wind-earth
Actually, every regular slime weave could bear an extra 50%
After putting the dust mana there, he then also connected those skill weaves with the weaves above and below to make sure it didn't destroy itself somehow.
And there was actually something interesting to note, the intensity of the wind-earth mana's struggling had actually increased even while the difficulty of keeping it around had decreased overall. Though, the amount of him that he needed to use to keep up the D-4 wind-earth mana was actually only 5% less than what he needed for regular wind-earth mana.
But even if it would basically always ask so much of him, in comparison to the amount of mana he had to put in, it would almost certainly worth it.
Then he added in 2 D-4 wind weaves just to make sure its mobility wasn't trash, even if it was a slight pain to compress it, it wasn't anything too troublesome.
Now, all he had to do was pretty simple, all the free space was filled in with D-4 slime weaves. He wasn't exactly sure what it would do honestly, but it seemed interesting enough on his end to put in the effort to compress four weaves of the stuff.
Then he also added in the musculature, feeling that adding a few more muscles wouldn't hurt. And of course, so that he could actually use the thing, he added in a standard slime nucleous to the centre. With that done, he finally gave the transcender prototype life.
Now all that was left was to lead it to a victim of his choosing, and he had already chosen, a group of three. All three of the trio what one would generally consider 'Weak' among sentients. While they did indeed have means to survive the regular acid slimes that hopped around, the grey shells they wore would not help them against the grand transcender prototype.
At least he really hoped they wouldn't, who knew if the recent fellings had encouraged even greater protective measures. But, of course, he could not test that first.
The first thing to do was to snuff out the main reason he had gone with the three sentients, their torch. A single shot of D-5 acid directly went through the flame and rapidly corroded whatever the torch was made of in mere moments, diminishing the fire to all but nothing.
Then came the next order of business which was set into motion the moment the acid hit its mark, actually dealing with the three victims. From what he could see none of them had a barrier or anything like it, so it would be easy to bring them down.
In rapid succession three bursts of acid dust were sprayed out of the transcender prototype, each pushing it back insignificantly. And though the acidic dust landed on the three sentients in a dispersed manner, not concentrated at any point at impact like normal acid.
But that didn't stop the immense power of wind-earth mana from doing its thing, bewildering him to the highest degree from the mere sight of what had worried him so much being corroded in mere moments. The spray of dust had gone through the grey shells on the sentients near instantly, as if it were nothing at all.
It brought a tear to his eye, in an emotional sense only. To think he had never taken full advantage of wind-earth mana, to think it was so powerful!
...But why hadn't the slime leveled up yet? That was three sentients dead, that was enough for three leveled slime apostle 2 candidates.
...
He directed the slime towards a group of five sentients, all of them being stronger than that little triplet of weaklings. Deciding to make them the next and final sacrifice before he pulled an aspect conundrum moment and bailed on the transcender prototype slime, though only after he let all the
And as one could expect, their protective coatings were easily broken through and their red insides were even more vulnerable. Though he did first test whether one of the sentients' grey parts were faulty with a regular shot of D-5 acid, and while it was indeed not able to stop the acid he found that it wasn't that the 'Armour' had become weaker.
Though honestly, the effect that the D-4 acidic dust was showing shouldn't have brought about such an exaggerated effect on the grey parts when compared to regular acid.
Well, anyways. That's one, that's two down, now three have bitten the dust and... Finally the fourth has met their end.
And it happened, it actually happened. Its weaves twisted and contorted to a different form, the muscles both multiplied and swayed from their original place. It had gotten stronger, it had cost seven sentients, but honestly this was far more valuable than merely seven slightly stronger slimes.
Not even noting the death of the fifth sentient, he took the time to first copy over the entire new template created by transcender prototype into the mental repository right next to slime apostle 1's contributions. It was really interesting actually, it had done something he would've never considered; it had directly connected all the separate weaves together.
While Falc could easily see more room for more, the ten strings connecting the weaves at each layer were already interesting. Especially the ones that connected the aspected weaves to other weaves, it seemed that while they started out as the same aspect as the weave where they connected a weave, it gradually lost its aspect until it was without any aspect at the middle before changing to the aspect of the aspect at the other side.
It was a gradient of aspects, and though he didn't know how to make a 'Gradient string' it was most certainly interesting to say the least. Though whether its effect was worthy of investment was still in question, but the gradient string technology was just an appetizer to the seemingly upgraded elder slime weaves and wind-earth and regular
He couldn't understand for what reason the weaves had changed just by looking at how the strings that made them up were arrayed, so it was natural to see the consequences of what he assumed to be 'Transcendence' in action!
It was going to be great! He already had another group of sentients chosen, there weren't any barrier sentients in the group and none of them were essence generators either so it would probably be fine. Maybe another hunting incident would occur, but if he was scared he could just throw transcendence prototype into a little hole somewhere like its predecessor.
...He did kind of wonder whether to give it the title of 'Slime apostle 2', but he finally came to the decision not to for one simple reason.
Slime apostle 2 was supposed to bring him up to [Rare].
Maybe it could be that 'Slime herald' he had thought about instead?
But disregarding that, he pointed the transcender towards its next few marks.
And the results truly brought the purest joy he had ever felt, it wasn't that different from the other times. But just seeing it so easily take down so many sentients... Was just so satisfying.
Though sadly, one of the sentients had a magical light source so that one had to be targeted first. Letting the sentients get a grasp of what was happening before all of them were targeted, but luckily the shield sentient's provoking abilities were all for naught in the face of the slime's creator power.
He started to look for even more victims to see how many kills were needed for level 2, taking a proper look to see if there were any sentients coming for... Prototype, yes, prototype- That would be its name for now- It would be troublesome if such a deep investment, and great sentient exterminator, was brought down like any regular slime.
And he did find something troublesome, it was that group of sentients that had killed the first few iterations of the slime apostle 2 candidate line. Though they had an extra set of hands with them, sentient B.
They weren't in any hurry, and it seemed they were all in one group of five. While they weren't communicating much, sentient B and one of their companions were 'Speaking' to each other.
...
Falc decided not to risk it, while there were still three dozen sentients ready to be harvested. If prototype died, it would be a waste, at least he felt it would. He could always reintegrate it back into the slime plains, so it wouldn't be that much of a problem to just lead it into a little hollow pocket in the stone a good bit away from the dungeon.
So that was what he did, with two such actions under his belt already he did so with greater speed than before, already leading prototype to the entrance towards where he decided to house it for now.
At the wall on the opposite side from the entrance, one third the way from the right corned it entered a small little tunnel that continued to expand forwards a dozen meters. And as it moved through the tunnel it closed behind it, at the end a room formed. One with a 2 meter high ceiling, with walls 2 meters in length leading to a total volume of 8 meters cubed.
All the while he had let a part of himself set that up, his main self was keeping an eye of the group of essence generators. Just waiting while all the unused mana was being stockpiled, though that was only after the prototype elder slime core tax had been applied. Said taxed mana being funneled through the slimes sixteen weaves, all of which joyfully taking it in at a rate above what would normally be possible- Giving rise to the possibility that the changed weaves had an enhanced mana gathering ability.
The quintet of essence generators easily crushed the few B, AB and C slimes that only existed out of what could be considered habit as he expected they would 'I should probably just stop wasting mana on the initial part of the subterranean whirlpool.'
He looked on as they entered the badly hidden tunnel towards the slime plains, all of them except the second smallest of them- The one that afforded them their light-blue light source- Got through it with what seemed to be ease.
Them not knowing that Falc already created three D-1x3 that had a 150% sized wind-earth
Such as the killer of six slime apostle candidates having weird grey-orange shells at their waist.
Luckily though, it seemed they weren't going towards prototype, instead climbing up towards the tunnels.
Or sadly, two of the sentients jumped up directly while the others were brought up by the deranged serial murderer.
And the other sentient who had jumped up- The slightly familiar sentient B- Took out some kind of implement from the thing on its back, a weird straight thing with hooks coming out far end towards two opposite directions; a 'Pickaxe'
Sentient B stood before the entrance of the tunnels, their head swaying about for whatever reason before they raised their implement and bashed a sharp end against the rock.
Once, twice and then thrice. No pause in sight, the sentient kept at it with respectable consistency.
But something was wrong, everything was silent.
His instincts had gone mute.
Huh.
Cheater.
Oh.
He looked at the sentients and and at the rapidly growing entrance to the tunnels, then at the tunnels itself.
...
Oh shit.
Falc's sight kept focused on the ever expanding tunnel created by a single sentient, ignoring the tunnels.
CHEATER.
Falc really didn't like the sound of any of this.
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