*Drip* *Drip*

It all happened in an instant, a veil of blood covered my sight and once gravity brought the red rain to an end, there was a statue in the place of the green bunny, or at least that was my first impression.

*Badump* *Badump*

“What is... going on...?”

*Pop* *Pop*

The spotted slime hopped out of the flower field and stood beside the ‘statue,’ it didn’t move for a few seconds, and then jumped up on the same spot.

*Shhhh*

As if it had become sand, that thing began to fall apart little by little starting from the top, and quickly the body of that, now covered in red, bunny fell to the ground.

My body froze in place alongside my thoughts, I couldn’t even take my time to process what I was seeing before the slime hopped on top of the lifeless body and began to dissolve it with its insides.

...I don’t know how much time has passed but the dissolution seemed to be done, seeing as there were no more traces of what used to be a quite big bunny. Except for the blood still splattered over the hill and my face, of course.

My instincts told me to get away from here, I could tell that it wouldn’t end well if I was noticed by the slime, and since it’s still noon, I can’t even count on my skill to help me recover right now, nor can I be completely sure that my ‘presence control’ won’t stop working. However, my curiosity defied my instincts, I couldn’t help but want to watch its actions until the very end.

The slime’s yellow spots suddenly begin to move around its body seemingly without purpose, and for a while, aside from the flowers ‘dancing’ behind it, that was the only movement occurring in the area.

“Haa...” I start to calm down little by little. My muscles begin to loosen up slightly and my thoughts fall back under my control, though my instincts didn’t stop sending warning signals.

“Sys-” I stop myself from talking once I notice a change in the slime.

*Blub* *Blub*

Bubbles form in its jelly body as if it’s being boiled. On a closer look, I can see those bubbles coming from the yellow spots, wait, no— Those aren’t spots, they are small spheres. And I’m sure that there is something wiggling inside those yellow balls.

“Gross,” I let my disgust slip. “System, show me their profile, again.”

I first ascertained that there was indeed a difference in stats after it consumed the animal, then I expanded on its species before reading through its skills.

“This... Isn’t this practically a treasure chest that can protect itself?” I voiced my curiosity. In my eyes the gooey creature, known as nature slime, now looked like a pot of gold meant to solve all my issues in one go.

“It’s scary how well things are going for someone with zero luck,” I try to laugh it off, but I feel a chill instead. “Hmm, I’d better not count my ducks before the eggs hatch, after all.”

At some point of my studying the slime stopped moving the spheres and settled on specific positions for each one before it hopped back into the flower field, completely out of my sight.

“Okay, before another creature baits it out of hiding, I have to get some things ready,” I slither away from the hill, getting a good distance before I speak to the system once more. “System, I want to spend my stat points now.”

[Which stat would the host like to improve?]

“First put one point in luck, then...”

 

---

 

*Swooosh* *Rustle*

As the moon slowly drifted itself towards the center of the dark blue sky, strong gusts blew across the woods. Leaves flew away. Flowers danced and braced themselves. Even insects couldn’t help but be slightly pushed off by the wind.

I stood on top of my curled body at the foot of a tree, right next to the flower field. My face, now wiped clean of the blood, felt the cold breeze that lost its intensity thanks to the surrounding trees and bushes, and I could tell that I had a very scary glare going on.

“Don’t fall asleep, me,” I remind myself for the hundredth time. “Any moment now, something is gonna bait the slime out of there. And that’s gonna be my chance.”

A long time has passed since I carefully reached this near-dangerous spot to be able to catch that thing unaware while it is fighting something else. However, not once has any animal, like the bunny, appeared since then.

“It sure feels like my luck got worse instead of better,” I say under my breath. “Hm?”

Amidst this midnight gale, I can faintly smell a sweet fragrance reaching for my tongue, if I had to compare it to a taste I’d certainly think of a guava first. With tired eyes, I turned my head to the direction of this scent, and the sight immediately snapped me fully awake.

“Finally,” I rejoiced.

From behind a thick bush of pointy leaves, the similarly pointy head of a not-so small furry creature could be seen, peeking its little pink nose out of it and inspecting the surroundings several times over.

*Rustle*

With the area seemingly safe, it lowered its guard and took a single step half-out of the bush, allowing me to catch a few more features in my sight, including its profile.

“Frootare?” I ponder, “it sure looks similar to the green bunny from earlier though, maybe it’s a parent?”

It looks bigger than the bunny, and even from this distance I could smell the fruit hanging on the side of its long ears. However, its pinkish-white prickled fur is quite different from what I can still remember about the bunny, whose fur was very smooth-looking.

“I’m gonna feel bad about this if I’m right.”

The hare-looking animal exposed itself bit by bit as time went on, and the lack of reaction from the hidden slime only gave it a bigger sense of safety. To the point that, albeit wary of the area, it proceeded to jump out of half-hiding and onto the completely open grassy space that separated the flower field from the woods. Its large hind legs touching the now dried up blood that was splattered earlier.

“Oh boy, it entered the minefield,” I say, half-jokingly, half-worriedly. “Haa, that’s my cue to get in position.”

While keeping ‘presence control’ activated with my thoughts, I sneaked towards the tree that was closest to the frootare. Even though my slither speed is still way slower than anyone’s walking speed, I didn’t take much time to reach the bottom of the tree. And, thankfully, the frootare didn’t let its guard down while investigating the traces left by the bunny, or should I say by the slime? Anyways, I had more than enough time to put my body in the perfect position to enact my plan at any given moment.

*Thud*

...And it seems that lady luck finally decided to look my way.

At the same instant that the frootare jumped out of the bloodied spot, the earth covertly moved, thanks to the strong wind covering up any sound, and gathered into a small mound, then it rapidly grew bigger until it resembled an earth-made spike that didn’t hesitate to throw itself into the poor thing’s stomach.

“Uggh,” I held back my disgust.

Unlike how it killed the bunny, there wasn’t as much blood spilled this time, however they didn’t immediately die either.

I could tell that even while feeling so much pain it was still attempting to break free from the earth spike by pushing itself away with its hind legs.

*Shhhh*

Before it could muster the strength to pull itself, though, the spike began to fall apart like sand, and its body fell flat on the ground.

It clearly didn’t have the energy to get up, but that didn’t stop it from glaring ferociously at the slime that hopped out of the flower field at that moment.

Meanwhile I... I just watched it all unfold with steady eyes, I could do nothing but focus all my attention to make sure that I missed nothing. However, this time, it wasn’t because my body froze up. No, I couldn’t even feel the cold wind anymore. I was calm, and aside from registering whatever my senses captured, I had a clear mind.

And so, I bid my time. Until the perfect opportunity presented itself, that is.

“Time. To. Go!”

At the instant that the slime began to consume the frootare’s body, I took control of my whole body. And I jumped in...

*Pop*

...

*Pop*

*Splosh!*

“Gulp.”

[The host has ingested an adequate amount of nature essence. Magic +1.31.]