“You found out that the monster power system is an experience point system?”
Adam:
“Yeah, it works a lot like that game you taught us. Humans even have levels with abilities and attribute increases every time they level. For monsters, the xp can be spent on abilities and attributes.”
Ariel:
“Did you learn how xp is gained?”
Adam:
“Other than gaining xp for being near a stronger monster, the primary method of gaining xp for monsters is by dealing damage, with the stronger the target, the more xp gained for dealing damage to them. For humans, it’s largely gained from training, and overcoming difficulties. As half-human, half-monster, us beastkin can gain xp from both methods, though we get less from each. So I think the fastest xp gain for us, is to practice fighting each other with real attacks and injuries.”
Ariel:
“I could probably make a block or pillar that regenerates for the purpose of being attacked for the dealing damage qualification. It’d not be very good for training though, as it’d not be able to dodge well.”
Adam:
“That could still be useful. A rank 3 target is worth quite a bit if it can recover quickly enough. Most monsters at rank 3, wouldn’t focus on regeneration, and it’s hard to find such powerful monsters anyway, so it’d be more useful than monster hunting as a means of gaining xp.”
Ariel:
“What about the slime’s ability to gain power from eating things?”
Adam:
“There is xp gain from eating, but it’s pretty small. The gain is affected by how common something is, so consuming something rare is better than something common, but even then it’s not enough to matter much beyond rank 2. You also cannot gain xp from eating something you make yourself.”
Ariel:
“That might still be helpful for you, is there something I could make that would improve your xp gain?”
Adam:
“For maximum gain, it’d need to be something unique, that can only be gained from you, and is only consumed by us. Monopolizing a rare or unique food is the only way to get meaningful xp beyond what’s already being gained from our need to eat.”
Ariel:
“Yet, if I make something overly delicious, Fen will demand some for himself.”
Adam:
“A good nutritious milk should work. Fen can already get milk if he wants it, so all that would be special about it, is the work you put into making it specifically for us, and the fact that it comes from a slime, which normally doesn’t make milk. In fact, this is a chance for you to define what slime milk is, since you’ll be the first slime to make milk.”
Ariel:
“I made milk before.”
Adam:
“There’s a difference between a one-time creation, and making yourself naturally generate milk.”
Ariel:
“That could have a weird impact on my doll clones, if I make myself naturally produce milk. They are copies of me, so they’ll copy that too.”
Adam:
“You haven’t made many clones though. It should still work. Besides, that solves distribution issues since all of us have a clone for ourselves. By defining slime milk, you’ll also make it easier for you to quickly make milk or milk dispensing devices whenever you want.”
Ariel:
“Oh? I hadn’t thought about that. Didn’t realize my self-modification extended to template tampering.”
Adam:
“You only get to mess with settings that don’t yet exist. Your non-standard slime form is considered an alteration of a slime default, not a new creature type. Most alterations you make will be like that. It is only because no slime has developed lactation before, that you get to define what is standard for a slime to produce when they do.”
Ariel:
“I feel like you’ve been studying the world record more than I have.”
Adam:
“That’s because I have so little knowledge to start with. Unlike you, I’m not full of existing ideas to explore, so I have to first learn from the records and from you.”
Ariel:
“Well it’s good. Do you want the first taste?”
Adam:
“I’d love to!”
---
Ariel’s View
With Adam’s suggestion, I later ended up remaking my entire system of spell casting into something integrated into my self-modification. Technically, I’m not casting spells anymore, but instead creating special abilities. Due to how weak my sorcery was, it makes a negligible difference (less than 1%) in total power to lose the ability to stack it on top of my self-modification, and greatly expands my ability to use self-modification for unusual things. I probably should’ve done this in the very beginning, but just didn’t know to. Knowledge really is a form of power in this world.
A small number of magical effects are now lost to me, however, it’s not a big deal. I can’t directly provide buffs to people during a fight, but I can toss someone a potion to drink that would provide it, and I can actually make such things stronger than my old buffs would’ve been… actually, I might be able to make a spray or a vapor for faster application. A vapor might be dangerous due to risk of affecting the wrong person.
The full change to my powers actually took more than one night, in part due to how much I had to think about it. A workaround for attack and defense boosts that only apply as needed, so that they don’t rely upon spells anymore. Methods of healing others, and a work around for not being able to shrink items. It’s a good thing I already removed the stasis effect from my internal storage as that isn’t feasible without sorcery.
Overall, I think I’m actually a little bit weaker in a fight, but I should be able to create more powerful items if I use this change in ability properly. Self-modification is far stronger and more flexible an ability than I initially realized. Feels like improving my understanding of how to use it could be more important than increasing my xp.
Unfortunately, I did have to keep a lot of the limitations applied to sorcery and apply them to my special ability creation. Main limitation being the need to create abilities in advance and inscribe them into my body in a form of code. They look like fancy patterns and glyphs. I can change which set of abilities are active at a time, but have far more inscribed abilities than I can actually have at the same time. It’s a lot like creating character builds I can switch between in a game. I always did love those games.
Adam’s View
Ariel changes her abilities often like it’s no big deal. For me or my friends, it would take a lot more time. She doesn’t realize it, but being a slime with self-modification is why she can do this. All her abilities are under the umbrella of her self-modification and she doesn’t realize it.
Another thing she doesn’t realize, is how much of her knowledge is truly out of this world. With her help, I’ve been able to build recipes for food items that didn’t previously exist in this world, and have begun design work for new machines she described that have no references in the world database. I know they should work, the rules they rely upon exist. They’ve just never been made before.
A small number of magical effects are now lost to me, however, it’s not a big deal. I can’t directly provide buffs to people during a fight, but I can toss someone a potion to drink that would provide it, and I can actually make such things stronger than my old buffs would’ve been… actually, I might be able to make a spray or a vapor for faster application. A vapor might be dangerous due to risk of affecting the wrong person.
The full change to my powers actually took more than one night, in part due to how much I had to think about it. A workaround for attack and defense boosts that only apply as needed, so that they don’t rely upon spells anymore. Methods of healing others, and a work around for not being able to shrink items. It’s a good thing I already removed the stasis effect from my internal storage as that isn’t feasible without sorcery.
Overall, I think I’m actually a little bit weaker in a fight, but I should be able to create more powerful items if I use this change in ability properly. Self-modification is far stronger and more flexible an ability than I initially realized. Feels like improving my understanding of how to use it could be more important than increasing my xp.
Unfortunately, I did have to keep a lot of the limitations applied to sorcery and apply them to my special ability creation. Main limitation being the need to create abilities in advance and inscribe them into my body in a form of code. They look like fancy patterns and glyphs. I can change which set of abilities are active at a time, but have far more inscribed abilities than I can actually have at the same time. It’s a lot like creating character builds I can switch between in a game. I always did love those games.
Adam’s View
Ariel changes her abilities often like it’s no big deal. For me or my friends, it would take a lot more time. She doesn’t realize it, but being a slime with self-modification is why she can do this. All her abilities are under the umbrella of her self-modification and she doesn’t realize it.
Another thing she doesn’t realize, is how much of her knowledge is truly out of this world. With her help, I’ve been able to build recipes for food items that didn’t previously exist in this world, and have begun design work for new machines she described that have no references in the world database. I know they should work, the rules they rely upon exist. They’ve just never been made before.
