The silence of the S-Rank Book Dungeon was no longer an enemy; it was a canvas. Akira moved through the damp, echoing corridors of the first floor with a predatory grace that would have been unrecognizable to the boy who carried school bags only weeks ago. He had spent days in the "Slime Zone," turning every translucent predator he encountered into a lesson.
Using his High-Jump, Akira would launch himself toward the jagged obsidian ceiling, clinging to the shadows like a bat. He would secrete Strong Mucus from his fingertips, snagging heavy boulders from the floor and swinging them with bone-crushing momentum. He wasn't just killing; he was practicing.
[Book Evolution: Slime Generation — Level 5]
[New Skills Unlocked: Slime Inventory, Slime Dash, Point Shot]
By the time he reached the far end of the floor, Akira's blue Grimoire was thick with ink. He had integrated ten distinct slime skills into his soul. His body felt different—more elastic, faster, capable of bursts of speed that blurred his vision. But as he stood before the massive stone threshold leading deeper into the earth, the temperature dropped. The air no longer smelled of wet parchment; it smelled of sulfur, old blood, and something distinctly... alive.
He descended the staircase into the second floor. The architecture changed here. The smooth obsidian gave way to jagged, hand-carved stone. He had barely stepped off the final stair when a shadow detached itself from a pillar.
Akira reacted by instinct. He jumped, his muscles coiling with slime-enhanced power, and swung a mucus-covered rock at the figure. In the first floor, this was a death sentence for any monster. But here, the "rules" changed.
CLANG!
A jagged bone club swung upward, parrying the rock with enough force to send vibrations through Akira's arms. Akira landed in a crouch, his heart hammering against his ribs. Standing ten feet away was a Goblin. It wasn't the mindless, hungry blob he was used to. This creature had yellow, slit-pupil eyes filled with a cruel, flickering intelligence. It wore scraps of cured leather and gripped its bone club with calloused green hands.
Akira fired a Water Slash, a pressurized blade of liquid meant to bisect the beast. The goblin didn't just stand there; it rolled behind a stone pillar, snarling a gutteral curse.
"They're smarter," Akira hissed, retreating back toward the safety of the stairwell. "They have tactics. They have weapons."
He retreated to the narrow transition zone between floors to strategize. He realized that the brute-force methods of the first floor would get him killed here. He opened his mind, scanning the ten skills in his Slime Grimoire. His eyes locked onto Point Shot.
He spent an hour practicing the form. He held his hand out, thumb up and index finger pointed like a pistol. He channeled his mana, forcing the slime mucus to condense at the very tip of his finger. He didn't want a splash; he wanted a needle. He squeezed the mana until the mucus turned from a liquid into a spinning, diamond-hard bead.
He descended again, moving like a ghost. Using his Slime Dash, he moved between pillars in total silence. He spotted a lone goblin guard standing near a pile of bones, picking its teeth with a dagger. Akira didn't jump this time. He stayed in the deep shadows, steadying his breath. He aimed his finger at the goblin's temple.
"Slime Shot: Condense," he whispered.
The air around his finger distorted from the pressure. He felt the recoil before he even fired. "Release!"
THWIP! The projectile moved faster than a crossbow bolt. There was no splash, only a clean thud as the hardened mucus pierced through the goblin's skull and embedded itself in the stone wall behind it. The creature dropped instantly, dead before it hit the ground. Akira stepped forward, his heart cold. He felt no guilt—only a clinical curiosity.
"Learn."
The golden vacuum erupted from his chest. The familiar sensation of pulling an essence into a book began, but this time, the blue Slime Grimoire stayed closed. Instead, a second, dark-green book materialized in the air, its cover textured like rough leather.
[New Grimoire Unlocked: The Goblin Generation]
[Character Level Up: Level 6]
[Rank: SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS — Detecting New Data...]
As the green book absorbed the goblin's soul, Akira felt a violent surge of information hit his brain. His eyes burned, and his muscles twitched as they were re-engineered by the system.
[Skills Acquired: Goblin Eyesight, Adaptability, Goblin Rage]
Suddenly, the pitch-black dungeon transformed. Goblin Eyesight allowed him to see heat signatures and movement in total darkness; the room turned a soft, infrared gray. Adaptability shifted his center of gravity, making the uneven, rocky floor feel as flat as a sidewalk. But it was the third skill that made a dark, jagged smile spread across his face.
Goblin Rage. It wasn't a physical attack. It was a psychic taunt. By activating it, he could emit a pulse of pure, irritating mana that would drive every goblin in a fifty-yard radius into a mindless, murderous frenzy. They would stop guarding, stop hiding, and rush blindly toward him.
"I don't have to hunt them one by one anymore," Akira whispered, watching the two books—the blue and the green—circle his head like twin moons. "I can just call them to their deaths."
He was Level 6 now. He looked at the rusted dagger the King had given him. It was still a piece of junk, but with his Strong Mucus skill, he could now coat the blade in a layer of hardened slime, making it sharper than any royal sword.
He thought of Mitsuki, Kaiju, and Sakura. He imagined them in the palace, being praised as "Saviors," learning how to use their holy swords and magic staves. They were probably being pampered, thinking their "parasite" friend was already a pile of bones.
"Let them feast," Akira said, his voice echoing through the second floor. "Let them get comfortable. Every floor I descend is a new shelf in my library. Every monster I kill is a new page of power."
He activated Goblin Rage. A low, red hum vibrated out of his body, spreading through the cracks in the stone. From the darkness ahead, he heard the sounds of screeching and heavy footsteps. A dozen goblins were coming for him, driven mad by the skill.
Akira didn't run. He raised his mucus-hardened blade and prepared his Point Shot.