To hunt the mouse, System's original pn had been to first use [Corrosive Mucus] to sneak attack its eyes. After the mouse lost its vision, he'd harass it by throwing dead branches and gravel. Once it was exhausted, he'd kill it using his mandibles.

  However, after System had tested his flying strength and found that he could use his tentacles to pick up a half-meter-long wooden stick and haul it into the air, he changed his approach.

  He'd first carry the mouse to a high altitude, then drop it to its death.

  However, although the mouse had weighed slightly less than the stick, a struggling mouse was obviously much more difficult to deal with, which had made lifting it high into the air significantly harder.

  Fortunately, his previously envisioned pn had basically worked out, and the mouse had been successfully dropped from a high altitude.

  ...

  Perhaps because of all the fallen leaves and dead branches on the forest floor, the mouse hadn't died immediately upon hitting the ground. However, its body was constantly twitching, and it had already lost its ability to move.

  Some blood flowed from the corner of the mouse's mouth. When it saw System coming, its only remaining eye looked over in fear.

  'Huh? You're so seriously injured, but you haven't lost consciousness yet?'

  System opened his mandibles, wanting to put an end to the mouse, but he soon stopped.

  He remembered the way the mouse had torn off and eaten Shava's limbs before. System dipped his three remaining tentacles into the blood flowing from the mouse's mouth, then tasted the blood while staring the mouse straight in the eye.

  The blood's fvor was simir to the bird blood System had eaten a long time ago. After the initial milky taste, there was a tea-like fvor that lingered in his mouth.

  However, after tasting the blood on his three tentacles in succession, System noticed that the blood on one tentacle tasted different. That blood had a very strong coffee fvor.

  When System tasted the coffee-fvored blood, his stomach twinged with a slight tingling pain, but he also felt an inexplicable sense of comfort.

  The experience he gained from the blood on that tentacle was four times as much as the other blood.

  'Why did the blood on this tentacle taste different?'

  System again dipped his tentacles into the mouse's blood, then put them into his mouth one by one to taste them.

  He found that the blood still tasted different on the tentacle that gave higher experience st time. However, while it still tasted like coffee, the coffee fvor was much weaker this time than before.

  As System stared into the mouse's eyes as they gradually lost their light, he suddenly realized why he could taste the coffee.

  His body trembled slightly. Although he'd decided to treat it with caution, he'd still ended up accidentally consuming venom from the spider's venom gnd by accidentally mixing it with the mouse's blood.

  He even had a feeling that he'd eaten rat poison by mistake and was about to die.

  Fortunately, based on his current physical state, it was clear that there wouldn't be any problems no matter how much of this bck and gray spider's venom he swallowed. It would even greatly benefit his body in various ways. It was hard to say whether consuming the venom of a more venomous spider would also be safe, though.

  ...

  After the mouse stop twitching, System grabbed its body and began the return trip to his temporary nest.

  If he had to choose someone who was the most suitable to eat the mouse, it would definitely be Shava.

  However, by the time System managed to drive away the patrolling worker ants near the nest and stuff the mouse inside with great effort, Shava still hadn't woken up from her deep sleep. It appeared that he'd consumed a lot of her energy with his tentacles during the day, so she needed to rest for a while.

  System moved the mouse's body to an empty chamber, checked on Shava's physical condition, then left the nest again.

  He spread his wings and flew toward the swamp he remembered seeing during his trip to the clouds. He was interested in finding the two slimes he'd seen at that time.

  When he'd been clearing out the fluorescent mushrooms from the nest, System had thought of an idea. Since he could now sense the emotions of mushrooms, could he also sense the emotions of slimes?

  Slimes could split into several individuals, and each individual seemed to possess an independent consciousness.

  System felt that slimes were essentially a collection of organisms simir to fungi or bacteria. Theoretically, his [Mental Transmission] would be able to sense their emotions.

  Perhaps they could also communicate.

  He flew quickly, and as he drew nearer to the swamp, he found a slime right away. It seemed to be quietly resting.

  This slime's body was dark green, and it seemed a little different from the brown slime that System had previously dealt with.

  He continued to search the surroundings, but couldn't find the second slime that he'd seen earlier. he had no idea where it had gone. After searching in vain for a while, he gave up and returned to the first slime.

  After grabbing a branch from the ground, System flew directly above the slime and dropped the branch down onto its body. He wanted to see how this slime would react.

  Its getinous body trembled violently and swallowed the stick. As the slime absorbed the branch into its body, System felt the slime's positive emotions from consuming food.

  It seemed like he could truly feel the slime's emotions by using his abilities [Mental Transmission] and [Mental Connection].

  The emotions produced by the slime appeared to be from many weak consciousnesses influencing each other until they eventually combined to form a collective emotion.

  It was clear that the slime was a life form simir to fungi, bacteria, or microorganisms.

  Compared to mushrooms, the emotional fluctuations of the slime were stronger and more concentrated. Its emotions were integrated by countless weak consciousnesses, unlike the fungi in mushrooms, which had no overall consciousness.

  System threw several more branches at the slime to test its response. He found that the reactions of the slime seemed to be even simpler than he'd imagined.

  When swallowing a branch, the slime clearly expressed its excitement, which sted for about three seconds before disappearing.

  After a few more seconds, the slime would feel that there was a foreign object in its body. After a period of time, it would expel the undigestible branch.

  System found that the intelligence of creatures like slimes was even lower than that of insects, and they would only act according to their body's instincts.

  After continuing his tests for a while, System attempted to communicate with the slime.

  "Bounce!"

  System transmitted an order using a mental message. Two seconds ter, the slime actually jumped.

  This slime was a complete replica of Foolish. When System sent out mental instructions, the slime would always respond to them without question.

  But unlike Foolish who had blindly trusted him when they'd first met, this slime only obeyed System's orders due to its instinctive reactions.

  The slime's body was simir to a collection of many tiny living consciousnesses. When System used [Mental Connection] to transmit information to the slime, as long as one of the many consciousnesses within its body responded, that consciousness would affect others, and a chain reaction would occur that resulted in them obeying System's command.

  That was the reason System could use [Mental Transmission] to control the slime. However, using this method to control it wasn't exactly ideal.

  A simple life form like the slime couldn't understand any overly complex commands. He could only make it move and jump.

  Moreover, the slime seemed to have a memory that sted only a few seconds. Even if it was ordered to move in one direction, after roughly three to five seconds, the slime would stop moving on its own because it had already forgotten the command...