I’ve Been Reincarnated as a Tentacle Slime~ I Want to Live a Comfortable, Secure Life and Do Whatever I Want~ - Chapter 57

Returning to the dungeon, I left the training to the baby slimes and headed to the 17th floor with the five of us.

The 17th floor is also a grassy field with tall grass, just like the 16th floor. Scattered around one can see the trees of Monster Houses.

By the way, according to the experimental results on the 16th floor, burying one apple can either create a new Monster House of 10 monsters or expand an existing one.

If buried within the range of a Monster House, it will expand; if outside the range, a new one will be created.

Since apples are growing on the trees of Monster Houses, there’s no trouble with expansion. In fact, it’s easier than other areas because you just need to plant them.

Another unique aspect is that it expands by 200 square meters for every 10 monsters, which is double that of other areas. The reason is uncertain, but it could be due to flying monsters necessitating a larger area.

I use both [Sound Wave Manipulation] and [Heat Source Detection] for reconnaissance. [Water Source Detection] cannot be used on this floor because it mistakenly detects the moisture in the grass.

Instead, [Heat Source Detection] is proving highly effective. Even if monsters hide in the grass, their temperatures are significantly higher, making them fully visible.

This floor――――a wolf? I thought it was just a color variation, but it has large, impressive horns on its head. It brings back the unpleasant feeling I had on the 2nd floor…

The wind wolf becomes aware of us and charges toward us. I hurriedly try to defend by raising two shields, but――――

“What!? Did it just take out a turtle’s shield!?”

Its momentum decreased, but it still has enough speed to deal significant damage to me.

Crap—could this destroy one of my cores?

I transform my slime body into a turtle shell, like my shield, and brace myself.

“Father!!” “Father-sama!!”

Four shields slide between me and the wind wolf’s horns.

Thud!! Clang! Thunk! Crack!

Just as the fourth shield was about to be pierced, the wind wolf’s momentum finally halted…

“Thanks, everyone… I was prepared to lose a core…”

“No, we were also slow to react and could only deploy one shield… We apologize…”

“No, it was that single shield that saved me; you should be proud.”

I express my gratitude and appreciation to everyone.

“But now enemies who can easily pierce a turtle’s shell have appeared… Should I be glad they’ve acquired such weapons…?”

As I defeated and devoured the wind wolf struggling to pull its horn from the shield, I felt a strange mix of unease about my defense and excitement over the increased attack power.

“Was there any material on the previous floors that looked harder than the turtle shell?”

I crafted a tentacle spear using the wind wolf’s horn, made a turtle shield with another tentacle, confirmed that it could be easily pierced, and asked the baby slimes if they had any ideas for a solution.

“Maybe the scorpion on the 13th floor? If we shape the exoskeleton to be as thick as a turtle shell it might work.”

One of the slimes made a suggestion. Yes, it’s the eldest one—the firstborn. He’s smart. I feel like I could delegate everything to him and he’d handle it all just fine.

“Ah! That’s right, we had that. We were eating it every day and it didn’t even cross my mind. Let’s try it out right away.”

I crafted a shield from the scorpion’s shell and jabbed it with the wind wolf’s horn—

Scrraaape!!

The surface got scratched a bit, but it doesn’t look like it could be pierced at all.

“This works! But maybe it needs a little extra…”

Since I could imbue the tentacles with attributes, I should be able to do the same with shields, right? I mean, there’s shield bash and all.

No time like the present. I tried enchanting the shield with an element, just to see if it worked. And then—

“Wow! So it can be done after all!”

The scorpion shield was imbued with fire, and the wind wolf spear with wind—each glowing red and green respectively.

With the attributes active, I stabbed the spear—Clang!!

A sound like metal clashing echoed, and the spear was deflected. The shield had only a faint scratch.

“To think just having the right attribute would make such a difference, fighting wolves always teaches me something.”

This takes me back to the first time I fought a wolf on the 4th floor.

“From here on, we’ll use the scorpion shield with added resistance. Change out the spear as you devour wind wolves, and make sure the others are informed.”

“””Yes!”””

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

After that, we hunted several wind wolves and even found a black gate to the lower floor. That’s all fine, but…

“Lately, skill levels just aren’t increasing… Is level 5 the cap or something?”

I asked the slimes flying just behind me.

“It could be that we need to meet a condition to level up more.”

“Perhaps it doesn’t work if the monster’s skill level is too low.”

“Maybe we just haven’t eaten enough?”

Lots of ideas were brought up, but since my question was vague, nothing felt like the definite answer.

“The monster’s skill level, huh… I didn’t get any new skills from the wind wolf, but I think it had both rabbit and wolf skills.

I agree that the monster’s skill level matters, but I can’t believe the wind wolf and regular wolf have the same skill level.”

“How about having a newborn slime eat one? They’re probably around level 01 or 02. If they level up after eating a wind wolf, we’ll know the wolf’s skill level. Even if it’s level 03, I don’t think we’d need 40 of them to go from Lv01 to Lv02.”

The oldest slime came up with a surprisingly convincing idea.

“Okay! Let’s act quickly.”

We hunted a few wind wolves and moved to the first floor.

–

On the first floor, I had a nearby baby slime—probably Leonora’s, since it was brown and black—consume the wind wolf.

Then, five skills— [Wind Magic], [Earth Resistance], [Gale], [Piercing], and [Quadrupedal Movement] shot up to Level 3 all at once. Apparently, the first two were unlearned, and the other three were at Level 1.

“We can probably say for sure now, the wind wolf is Level 3 or higher.”

If so, is it likely that there are conditions to go above Lv05? Even with monsters with skill level 01 we could reach Lv05. One example is Sonic Manipulation. There were no other monsters that used sound waves.

“In any case, there’s definitely a condition involved. Let’s leave it for now and revisit when we have a lead.”

I was just about to close the book on this topic, but—

“Father, consuming a Wind Wolf fulfills the base consumption for both Wolves and Rabbits. That reduces the 4,000 monster meals needed to reach Level 5. So, as we go deeper, we might reduce the number of monsters we need to eat. May I experiment with other monsters too?”

“That’s right. The newborns have to consume every monster up to the 16th floor, don’t they? Alright, I’ll leave it to you.”

“Yes.”

After asking my firstborn slime to investigate how to lessen the feeding requirements, I returned to the 17th floor.

《Name》

Cruz

《Species》

Multi-Core ・ Tentacle slime

《Traits》

Heptacore: Possessing seven cores

Progenitor: Has command abilities over its kin +α

《Skills》

Lv**: Full Drain

Lv**: Transmutation (Transformation & Ecstasy)

Lv05: Bludgeon

LV05: Pierce

Lv05: Slash

Lv05: Blunt Resistance

Lv05: Piercing Resistance

Lv05: Slashing Resistance

Lv05: Fire magic

Lv05: Water Magic

Lv03: Wind Magic (↑)

Lv05: Healing Magic

Lv05: Fire Resistance

Lv05: Wind Resistance

Lv03: Earth Resistance (↑)

LV05: Flight

Lv05: Swimming

LV05: Soundwave Manipulation

Lv05: Water Source Detection

Lv05: Heat Source Detection (↑)

Lv05: Oil Generation

Lv05: Bipedal Movement

Lv05: Quadrupedal Movement

Lv05: Hardening

Lv05: Swift Wind

Lv05: Adhesion

Lv05: Paralysis

Lv05: Acid

Lv05: Poison

This time’s results:

・Replaced the shield with scorpion components and swapped the spear for one using wind wolf materials.

・Found out that enchantments could be applied to armor.

・No progress made in finding a way to go beyond Lv05 in skills.

・Apparently, consuming a monster instantly raises your skill levels up to that monster’s level.

Chapter length 3438 characters.