Sunday Pilots 8 – Drip-fed [1/1] – An evolution story (Patreon)

What I want to write is something a bit more…slow. Let’s say the usual story of this kind is microwave pizza. Quick to make and well tasting, no problems whatsoever. However, I would like to cook some goulash here and let it simmer for a long, long time.

I guess if I had to name an inspiration for this story, it would be Re:Monster. While not an isekai story, you will see a lot of RPG-like mechanics in this story. This will be the closest thing to the Gamer I write, on a pure mechanical basis.

Anyway, I present to you Drip-fed, the story (perhaps more of a documentary about, at the early stages) of a little slime that evolves his way from one eco-system into the next. Hundreds of small achievements await it, stacking up to maybe, someday, reach the rank of humanoids. 

Drip-drop…drip-drop…drip-drop…

The sound of water falling from the tips of stalactites and into the lake was all that filled the cave. It was a completely isolated cavity inside the earth. The air was humid from a nearby magma chamber, an ample heat source, walls were covered in condensation and a pale, glowing moss that had taken hold in the soft stone. Some small patches also blossomed on the ceiling, but those were small mutations. The normal moss’s roots didn’t bury deep enough to reliably hold upside down.

Drip-drop…drip-drop…drip-drop…

That left the ceiling with ample room to grow more dripping stones. When the moss reached a stalactite, the added weight would eventually cause them to break off. That would cause organic matter to fall into the water, giving the little fish and bacteria inside lake a feast.

Drip-drop…drip-drop…drip-drop…

It was a minimal eco-system, created randomly by volcanic activity shifting earth around dozens of years ago. Moss grew. If there was too much moss, it fell into the lake. The fallen moss was eaten by the tiny organic lifeforms there, arranged in schools or swarms. They eventually died and their remains floated to the narrow shore between walls and lake, where tiny eusocial insects, nesting in the moss, then picked them apart. Their defecations and death in turn were broken down by the moss and other bacteria. It was a stable system that could have lasted forever if left alone.

Drip-drop…drip-drop…drip-drop…drip…Falling…

It was a chance that was so slightly above zero it should have been an impossibility. Maybe it was a powerful god that twisted the world a little bit. Maybe it was just a random encounter. Maybe the actions of a powerful magician somewhere had caused the magical veins of the world to shift for just a moment.

Fact was that, just one drop of water fell past crossing invisible streams of different elemental properties at exactly the right moment. A tiny spark, nothing more than a single ember raising from a campfire, flared up in the cave. Then it was gone again. In that tiny moment, the minerals carried within that miniscule bit of water changed and rearranged themselves in the shape of a hardened core, what had been water became part of another liquid, one more viscous.

With a drop, the new-born creature fell into the water. The very first confused thought crossed through the being’s mind. I had been suddenly thrown into the world at a part where there was not but sentience while having full sapience but with no idea what to do with it. It sunk to the ground, wondering. Without any language it could have known how to speak, its thought were an assembly of feelings, shapes and colours.

It was a slime, a monster known in this and other connected worlds as a common lifeform with little power that digested things smaller than itself. Simple, just the name giving, usually acidic jelly around a nucleus. Basically, nothing more than an oversized bacterium.

It settled on the bottom of the lake and just sat there. Sat there for a long time, learning how to sense. Slimes didn’t have eyes or ears or any other perceptive organs. Lesser slimes could perceive the world through vibrations only. Their larger, more powerful cousins could also sense make from the magical flow that permeated everything. At that point, it was as if they had sight, smell and hearing, but better. 

It wasn’t a lesser slime, it was something with an ability hidden deep in its nucleus that could make it one of the truly great monsters of that world.

Potentially. For now it was stuck with only sensing vibrations like the lowest of its kin.

A feeling of emptiness set in, an urgent one – hunger. Even as a lifeform primarily based on water, the tiny slime had to eat. It tried to move, extending parts of it forwards and pulling the rest behind. It was slow at first, but soon the movement became routinized, and it slugged at a steady pace. However, it still wasn’t fast, by far not fast enough to catch anything. It was only the fact that it was nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding water, that let it approach its prey.

That first meal was to be an elongated insect, judging by the feeling of the hard surface moving through the water. It was busy scratching some gunk of a nearby pebble with its pincers and getting whatever nutrition it still could. It was working quickly, with high energy and vitality. A healthy snack, that much was certain.

As slow as the slime could, trusting entirely on the innate hunting instinct it had, the slime stretched around its prey. For as long as the translucent predator remained unnoticed, it should take the opportunity to cut off as many paths of flight as possible.

The insect noticed that something was up at the last moment. The outstretched jelly rushed towards the prey and missed. Missed by such a wide margin that the slime stopped moving. Sensing for the insect that should have been there, it sat still. It found a tunnel of vibrations from something moving at an immense speed, the settling insect by the end of it. 

It seemed these little prey animsal had some sort of trick to dash from potential dangers. While frustrating, that also taught the slime that there was something else hunting in these waters. Otherwise, there was no reason for them to have that skill.

The slime sensed for an easier prey and eventually found one of those insects feeding nearby. Extremely close, to be exact, as the slime wouldn’t have been able to really sense it otherwise. Feeling the tapping of the cleaning insect’s tiny feet, the slime knew it to be missing one of its six legs. It also worked with little energy, compared to the earlier specimen. This one was either old or crippled or both. Whatever it was, this ought to be easier.

The slime bridged the little distance between them carefully. What wasn’t even a step for a wolf was a minute-long stalking path for the slime. Once it was in range, it repeated the earlier strategy and then attacked.

This weaker insect did not get away, the front half of its’ body getting immediately surrounded by the slime. The stilt-like legs of the creature tried to dig it out, but it was only treading inside water, tiring it out rather than removing it. The long behind desperately waved, but that soon ceased, completely exhausted.

The slime soon covered its entire surface and then sat there digesting. From the feel of it, this one successful hunt would feed it for quite a while, but aside from the satisfaction there was something different. As more and more flesh of the insect inside it dissolved, the slime understood how all of it worked. Even more than that, it could reconstruct parts of it that it needed.

First it grew the legs. Six healthy legs with a carapace. Those allowed for easier movement over the floor. Then it tried to grow the elongated tail, from where these insects got their ability to dash that quickly. As the slime attempted to do so, the legs disappeared again. It seemed there was only so many stolen attributes it could maintain at one time and growing them took quite some energy. It was already hungry again.

It was time to hunt for some more food and tools. The goal: drip-feeding to become this biomes apex predator, thus securing its own existence. Then? Well, the slime didn’t know. Hopefully something new would be beyond this pond.