The massive, moss-covered boulder was completely silent now. The vast, misty valley that had been carpeted by an undulating sea of blue just an hour ago was entirely empty.

Only Ayla remained in the area. Her little translucent slime body was noticeably bigger now, its diameter expanding until she was roughly the size of a large human torso.

The thousands of wild slimes that had previously crowded the basin, bubbling with their desperate, submissive desire to be integrated into her core, had vanished into her membrane.

Nearly all of those common creatures had possessed variations of minor Acid-type traits.

As Ayla systematically exercised her absolute authority, she did not merely digest their mass; she forced their identical biological parameters to compress, fold, and collapse into each other inside her shifting fluid.

The repetitive, low-grade biological components resisted at first, but her primary core forced the identical properties to align.

Inside the bottomless void of her Mimic biology, a unique systemic reaction triggered. The identical acidic properties fused completely, refining the garbage-tier skills until the liquid within her membrane turned into a concentrated, highly volatile substance that hissed faintly against the mossy rock.

A soft notification materialized directly within her vision, confirming the birth of an upgraded, high-quality parameter.

[Multiple traits of identical properties have been successfully synthesized.]

[New Trait Acquired: Corrosive Abyssal Fluid (Rank: A)]

Ayla vibrated her dense membrane, testing the viscosity of the new liquid. A tiny droplet of her gel slid off her side and touched the granite surface of the boulder.

The stone immediately groaned, dissolving into a sizzling puddle of black foam within a fraction of a second without emitting any smoke. She opened her internal status interface to log her current evolutionary progression.

The complex, multi-layered interfaces she had possessed back in the Crusade were entirely absent, heavily restricted by the local parameters of the Spire Event. Only a single, sparse metric remained visible to track her current vessel.

[Current Status]

Identity: Mimic Slime (Matriarch Faction)

Role: [Bystander]

Rank: Bronze (3%)

Active Traits: Perfect Assimilation, Corrosive Abyssal Fluid (Common-A)

Although the system didn’t show her other data, there wasn’t any restriction preventing her from using her other traits or shapeshifting into other forms.

That meant even the Spire Event couldn’t see her full status. Ayla stared at the single percentage indicator for a moment, her golden eyes unblinking.

Three percent. The consumption of an entire valley of her own submissive subordinates had barely moved the evolutionary needle.

The baseline energy density of those common slimes was simply too tattered to provide any substantial fuel for a Celestial Vessel.

However, the experiment had yielded a critical piece of operational data. She now understood that she could systematically merge individual traits together to forge entirely new, higher-ranked traits.

The only strict condition was that the traits used in the synthesis must possess the exact same fundamental elements or properties.

Her attention turned toward the distant, floating perimeter of the human city where Kenji’s weak signature was currently located. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

She analyzed the data for three seconds before dismissing the trajectory entirely. Going directly into the city slums right now was an inefficient use of her time.

The human sectors were heavily monitored by the academy’s defensive arrays, meaning she would have to maintain her human disguise to avoid triggering alarms.

In public, she wouldn’t be able to eat anything substantial without drawing immediate attention from the high-tier Crusaders or the native Beast Masters. To fix her hunger and accelerate her rank, she required non-stop biomass.

Ayla turned away from the city walls and focused her visual sensors on the ancient, dark forest that bordered the base of the mountain range.

The canopy was thick, suffocating the sunlight and harboring thousands of highly aggressive, native monsters that the academy students usually hunted for sport.

To her, that forest was not a dangerous wilderness. It was a massive, open-air kitchen. It was time to hunt.

Her blue gelatinous body began to shift violently, the translucent liquid churning as she recalled the precise genetic blueprint of the apex predator she had thoroughly harvested back in the trial tunnel.

There was an experiment she had been planning for days, after she had seen the Emotion Weaver take its forms. Could he shapeshift into her forms without biomass?

The blue color faded, replaced by a deep, midnight black. The fluid hardened, sprouting eight long, jointed legs tipped with razor-sharp chitinous barbs.

Her rounded mass compressed into a segmented, armored abdomen, and multiple clusters of ruby-red eyes burst along her front carapace.

Within seconds, the small blue slime had completely vanished. In its place stood a pristine, terrifying Blood Net Spider.

Ayla tested the tension of her new legs, clicking her mandibles together in absolute silence. It was a success. But the form wasn’t perfect like her trait made. However, she didn’t care about the appearance now. It was not a fashion show.

The weight of the spider form was perfectly balanced, allowing her to move across the rugged stone without making a single sound.

She launched herself off the top of the massive boulder, her silk-producing glands humming as she glided down into the shadows of the tree line.

The interior of the ancient forest was damp and smelled heavily of decaying vegetation and wild beast musk. Huge, twisted roots burst through the soil like gnarled knuckles, and the thick mist from the valley hung low between the massive trunks.

Ayla moved through the undergrowth like a fleeting shadow, her red eyes mapping the thermal signatures of the local fauna. It did not take long for her hungry senses to locate her first target.

A massive, iron-furred boar was currently rooting through the mud near a hollow log. The beast was easily three times the size of a standard human vehicle, its curved tusks glowing with a faint green mana that signified an Earth-type reinforcement trait.

According to her passive appraisal, its physical density was roughly equivalent to a middle-tier Bronze monster.

Ayla did not hesitate. She scaled the trunk of a nearby oak tree, her eight legs anchoring her firmly to the bark as she positioned herself directly above the feeding beast. Her abdomen pulsed. With a sudden, silent flex of her internal muscles, she launched a massive web of crimson thread downward.

The Blood Net split wide in the air, the sticky, mana-infused fibers expanding until they covered a twenty-foot radius. The fibers weren’t blood like ordinary Blood Net spiders; rather, they contained her slime acids.

The iron-furred boar didn’t even have time to raise its head before the heavy crimson web slammed into its back, pinning its massive bulk directly into the mud. The beast let out a startled, deafening squeal, its muscles bulging as it tried to thrash against the bindings.

Its green earth mana erupted, attempting to harden its fur to tear through the threads. Before the boar could gather its energy for a burst, Ayla dropped from the branch, landing heavily on the center of its thrashing neck.

Her mandibles opened wide, her newly synthesized Corrosive Abyssal Fluid rushing into her venom glands. She plunged her fangs deep into the beast’s thick hide.

The effect was instantaneous. The A-grade corrosive fluid did not just poison the target; it literally melted the boar’s internal anatomy from the inside out.

The beast’s frantic squeals cut off into a wet, gurgling wheeze as its iron fur dissolved into a black sludge.

The potent acid liquefied its flesh, muscles, and bones within a matter of seconds, turning the massive monster into a dense, high-energy soup trapped inside its own tattered hide.

Ayla did not waste a single drop. Her abdomen expanded as she began to systematically ingest the liquefied remains, her Perfect Assimilation talent actively filtering the pure biomass and trait directly into her core.

The system didn’t show the trait as it didn’t understand she could copy it. But, Ayla could feel the trait of the boar inside her. With it, she could control the earth around her a bit. The trait wasn’t that powerful for the outcome to be anything special.

But she wasn’t disappointed. She could find more earth-type monsters and use their traits to upgrade this one. A pleasant warmth spread through her translucent interior as the system interface flickered once more.

[System Message: You have successfully consumed an Iron-Furred Boar (Bronze-3%).]

[Exp Obtained. Progress: Bronze (3.1%)]

Ayla pulled her fangs out of the empty, deflated hide and wiped her mandibles with her front leg. Point one percent for a massive wild beast. It was still remarkably slow, but it was infinitely more satisfying than eating the flavorless, watery slimes from the valley.

Her golden eyes shone with a cold, predatory light in the dim forest. There were thousands of these beasts roaming the deeper sectors of the woods.

If she ate all of them, she could easily upgrade the Earth-type trait she obtained now. Leaving the empty skin behind to rot in the mud, the black spider melted back into the deep fog, her eight legs carrying her deeper into the dark woods to continue her private feast.