[Organism absorbed.]
[Bio-Mass +0.36 Units]
[Experience: +1]
Looking at the three notification screens, Lohan waited a few more seconds, hoping another one would pop up, but nothing else appeared.
"What's going on? Why haven't I absorbed any abilities or characteristics?" He wondered, confused.
When he absorbed the larva the first time, right after finishing absorbing that insect, he immediately received the evolution feedback... but after consuming this ant, nothing changed.
"Maybe I didn't meet some criteria?"
With nothing to prove his theory, Lohan decided to continue lurking and try to eat a few more ants.
After a few minutes, another scout ant left the nest, and Lohan positioned himself for another trap.
Just like the first one, this second ant was also tricked by him and completely absorbed.
[Organism absorbed.]
[Bio-Mass +0.34 Units]
[Experience: +1]
Again, no notification other than the standard one...
"I remember that the larva gave me more than 2 Biomass after I absorbed it. Could this be related to this problem? After all, ants are much weaker and don't give me much biomass..."
To prove this point, Lohan waited for the third scout ant.
And this time, perhaps sensing something was wrong, the ant that left the nest was at least 50% larger than the other scouts he had absorbed.
With its larger size, its speed would also likely be greater.
Lohan felt a rush of excitement run through his core when he saw the new target. The difference in size was striking... if the other scouts were just fast and fragile explorers, this one looked like a veteran of the colony.
Her jaws were thicker, curved like blades, and her body was darker in color, almost metallic.
"This must be a scout leader... or a light soldier," he thought, watching cautiously. Her body moved differently... without the hesitation the others showed, without pauses, analyzing the terrain much more efficiently and expertly.
Instinctively, Lohan knew that if he made a mistake, she would detect him immediately.
He remained motionless, just watching. The ant walked in an irregular pattern, stopping, turning, touching the ground with its antennae.
"She already senses that something is out of place..."
But Lohan had an advantage: he didn't emit any scent. At least, not one that these insects could identify.
Using maximum control over his slimy body, he flattened himself to the ground, expanding his contact area, almost camouflaging himself among the moss and damp earth.
The insect approached slowly. Five meters. Three. One.
The moment had come.
Lohan threw his body forward with all his strength, extending a slimy tentacle to try to capture the insect as he rolled forward. But unlike the other ants, this one reacted instantly.
With a sharp snap, its jaws closed tightly, cutting the tentacle in half.
[Alert! — Mass Integrity: -0.08]
The pain was sharp... as if a part of his body had been forcibly torn off.
'Damn! I don't think that was a good idea?!'
Lohan didn't retreat, despite his surprise, as he tried to rebuild the lost mass, his "large" body still rolling forward.
The ant, on the other hand, retreated in an aggressive stance, its jaws clacking, but it did not flee. For a second, Lohan swore she was... staring at him.
'Damn, she's smarter too...'
He needed to think fast. Her body was tough, and a direct attack wouldn't work. But if he could completely envelop her at once, just as he had done with the others, his digestive acid was his trump card.
Lohan tried to move in a zigzag pattern, his body oscillating between solid and liquid, controlling the viscosity to the limit. Each lunge was an attempt to distract the insect and find an opening. The ant responded with almost instantaneous reflexes, dodging, biting the ground, and attacking anything that moved.
"Is it predicting my movements!?"
But every second that passed cost energy, and at any moment this ant could call for reinforcements. He needed to finish quickly.
Suddenly, the ant advanced in a straight line, trying to bite him again. Lohan took advantage of the momentum... it was exactly what he wanted.
When the jaws closed in a direct blow, he partially broke its cohesion, allowing the front part of the body to dissolve into liquid. The jaws passed right through. And before the ant realized its mistake, Lohan's body closed around it like a living trap.
[Forced Absorption — Initiating...]
The ant struggled violently.
Its legs kicked, its jaws tried to cut through the gelatinous mass, but Lohan's body resisted, regenerating faster than it could destroy, consuming part of the biomass stockpile he had saved for battle.
Until, after 2 minutes, the ant's body was penetrated, and after another minute, the ant stopped resisting, and from then on, Lohan was able to absorb the insect completely.
[Organism absorbed.]
[Bio-Mass +0.64 Units]
[Experience: +1]
[New Digested Matter — Reinforced Exoskeleton]
[Evolution available.]
'Finally!' Lohan thought excitedly as he looked at the screen. 'So I really needed at least 1 Bio to be able to analyze a skill...'
He quickly opened the menu and read the new skill he had received.
[Reinforced Exoskeleton Lv 1]
[Consumes Biomass to generate a resistant Exoskeleton around the body.]
'Yes!!! It's not as good as the proportional monstrous strength that ants have, but it's still a great feature of theirs!'
It was because of this exoskeleton that the ants were still able to stay alive under Lohan's digestive acid for 1 to 2 minutes, even though they were much smaller than him.
Without thinking twice, Lohan activated the skill and felt his biomass slowly draining, flowing through his gelatinous body, passing through the core and converting into a completely new form.
Upon leaving the core, this new form hardened quickly, until when it reached the outside of his body, it was as if a thin protective film coated a small part of his body.
The process was painfully slow, taking 30 minutes just to cover his body with a thin film, and consuming 4 Bio in the process.
But the result was incredible.
Although movement was no longer as fluid, causing slight discomfort as he adapted to this layer that covered his entire body, after adapting, Lohan was able to roll through the forest much more easily, no longer cutting himself on bushes or other sharp objects along the way, and even becoming slightly faster when moving.
Surprisingly, when he wanted to consume something to absorb biomass, he could control this "exoskeleton" to become more malleable and allow whatever he wanted to consume to pass through, just as he controlled the outer membrane that held his gelatin.
This not only allowed him to choose what to absorb, but also allowed him to hold something inside himself more tightly, making it even more difficult to escape from his body while it was being corroded!
Realizing that this Skill required a lot of Biomass, Lohan moved away from the ant nest and returned to digesting plants, fruits, and other harmless things, not being foolish enough to attack the ant nest with thousands, if not millions, of those insects inside.
When the amount of biomass consumed reached 10 units, Lohan finally felt a bottleneck and realized that this was the limit of this skill at Lv 1.
Testing the strength of this exoskeleton, he felt that it was no longer as fragile as a water balloon, but now as resistant as a chicken egg.
He was still extremely fragile, but compared to other Slimes, he was now on a completely different level.
And that brought him an idea.
'Even if I'm not powerful enough to deal with other monsters, or even to fight thousands of ants, against other Slimes now I'm probably almost invincible, right?
He could continue trying to kill individual ants, but the arrival of this larger scout ant was already a sign that he might have sounded some alarm in the colony.
It's better to leave the table while you're still winning than to insist out of greed and end up losing everything.
So he didn't hesitate any longer and started rolling toward the clearing where he came from.
A few minutes later, dozens of ants larger than the last one he killed came out of the anthill and started searching for something, only to return empty-handed.