[Mission Complete: You have Killed the rhinoboar.
You have leveled up. You have received 5 stat points and +5 luck as a reward for reaching Lv. 1.
Unlocked 'Skill Store' due to 15 luck upon level up.
Unlocked 'Special Skill Store' due to 20 luck upon level up.]
Alexander almost cried out with joy. He finally leveled up! He had also been hoping that something special would happen when he had killed the rhinoboar, but he had not imagined unlocking the elusive skill store, not to mention whatever the special skill store was! He had not even been sure something like that existed, but he was anxious to explore it.
[Dig has increased to Lv. 2.
Roll has increased to Lv. 2.]
Nice. He had leveled up his skills as well. It seemed as though he could level up his skills by both grinding and killing monsters. He had leveled up mana sense by using it, but he had also leveled up dig and roll to level two very quickly by using them to kill a monster. This suggests that one gains more skill experience if one uses the skills to complete a mission or kill a monster, yet one could still level up a skill by just using it. Alexander decided that he would look deeper into leveling his skills later; right now, he had a skill store to explore.
"Bucephalus, open the skill store," Alexander commanded.
A blue, holographic window popped up in the air in front of Alexander titled 'Skill Store' in large print. Beneath that, there was a bulleted list showcasing a plethora of different skills. Each skill cost a certain number of stat points to obtain.
There were the common skills at the top, such as dash, resilience to physical attacks, resistance to magical attacks, stealth, and slash. These skills all cost 1 stat point. Stealth caught his eye because he had always thought assassins to be extremely cool. Unfortunately, his body was definitely not suited for high agility. Below the common skills were elemental-based skills. He saw water, fire, air, and earth affinities as he scrolled down, but he was not interested in any of those. Alexander decided that a route that specified just one affinity was weak, since if he met a monster that his affinity was weak to, such as fire with water, he would be easily overpowered. He scrolled quickly through the elemental skills, catching glimpses of 'water cannon' and 'fire slash.' Finally, he came to what he was really looking for: the special skill store.
There were only a few special skills at the bottom of the list, the lowest costing Alexander an extravagant 5 stat points. He would have to use all of his available stat points to buy a single skill! Alexander didn't dare to look at the more costly options because, if one were to catch his eye, he would waste all of his future stat points on it.
There only were four special skills that could be obtained by 5 stat points. The first was the tamer skill. Alexander liked this one a lot. How amazing would it be to have an army of beasts at your beck and call? Pretty awesome. Unfortunately, He didn't like the idea of leading a bunch of mindless beasts; he wanted his companions to be at least capable of intellectual conversation. In addition, his pets would steal all of his mana and food! Moving on… the second was diamond skin. Sounded fancy, but he wasn't really going on the tank route. The penultimate skill was the highly sought after and the forever hope of any isekai monster: the shape shifting skill. The skill that, if trained, may yield the homosapien physique. In other words, you can turn into a human.
"Nah," said Alexander thoughtfully. "I need a break from humans, that is, if they even exist in this world. All they did back in my world was lie, cheat, and betray. Also, I've grown somewhat fond of my slimy body!"
He looked to the final skill. Yes! This is the one he had been looking for! The words printed on the blue panel read 'Elemental Affinity (Special).' He had decided very early on, since he had discovered his mana sense, that his only chance of surviving in this world was to focus on his strengths, and, at this point, his strength was his human intelligence and his wisdom from his two lives. He would become a mage! This was the only logical choice because he had almost zero physical ability, but his intelligence and wisdom were much higher, making it easier and more efficient to practice magic.
He surveyed the elemental affinity skill just to make sure it was what he had envisioned. Yup! This was exactly what he needed to become a mage. He clicked the buy button to the right of the skill, and instantly the information flooded into his brain like a gust of stormy wind rushing into an open window. This skill was not a single random elemental affinity, it was the elemental affinity. This skill allowed access to all of the basic elements: air, fire, water, and earth. Since he has all elements to train, it may be hard to level up the skill in the beginning, but, once Alexander reaches a high level, his magical skill will have no weaknesses! He can choose which element is strong against his opponent, and therefore have a greater advantage in combat.
Finally done in the skill store, Alexander turned towards his prize. The massive body of the rhinoboar lay on the ground, still completely skewered by the sharp stick. While Alexander was browsing the skill store, the rhinoboar's body had slid down the stick and the point was now sticking out of its back. He knew that the forest was a dog-eat-dog area, judging by the rhinoboar's fierce charge, so he would have to claim his meal before any other animals or monsters decided to steal his hard-earned prey.
Alexander rolled over to the rhinoboar and realized that he had no way to eat the rhinoboar since he didn't have a mouth. Would he absorb it? Cut it and eat the pieces one by one? He touched the rhinoboar with a small slimy protrusion of his body, reminiscent of an arm. The second his slime arm came into contact with the rhinoboar, Bucephalus's wise voice sounded in his mind.
[Gluttony skill activated.
Increased Energy Absorption skill activated.]
After Bucephalus said this, Alexander's body began to expand. He cried out in surprise, although no sound came out since he had no vocal cords. Small tendrils of slime emerged from Alexander's body, snaking across the rhinoboar's body until the entire monster was covered in the tendrils. The small snakes of slime merged and eventually became one, completely enveloping the rhinoboar in Alexander's slime. Before his very eyes, the rhinoboar started to decompose. The skin was first, making way for fat, muscle, bone, fat, and finally organ. Nothing could escape the ravenous slime. The scene resembled a children's anatomy textbook where, every page, a layer is taken off of the body until you get to the brain and then everything is gone.
Alexander did not even know how he could taste, but he knew that the rhinoboar tasted terrible. The entire scene was gruesome, and, adding on the atrocious taste of the rhinoboar, it was not a pleasant experience to say the least. It did come with its benefits though. As Alexander was 'eating' he could feel his core rapidly expanding. He guessed that this was due to the increased mana absorption skill. He assumed that his other skill, gluttony, greatly increased his stomach capacity. Alexander had started to feel slightly hungry as he was preparing his trap for the rhinoboar, but now it seemed that he had enough nutrients to last him for a long time.
As evening neared, the sun's light started to dim, leaving streaks of orange hovering in the sky and casting ominous shadows upon the clearing. Alexander could sense that night was closing in, although he didn't have eyes, he could detect that the mana in the plants around him was slowly starting to dim. He concluded that this must be due to the sun getting dimmer as it neared the horizon. This allowed him to come to an interesting hypothesis: the mana in the ecosystem must begin from the sun! These plants must be using a process similar to photosynthesis to draw in the mana energy. Maybe earth plants are unable to undergo this process, explaining why earth does not have mages and monsters!
He would need to continue thinking about this later, it could be the key to succeeding on this planet, but, right now, he needed to find shelter. Alexander was not curious to find out what lurked in the night on this strange planet.
He decided that his best bet would be to dig into the hill and wait out the night under the shelter of many layers of dirt. The hill would be the easiest place to make a small cave because there would be less rocks in the way of his digging. He started at the base of the hill, making quick headway due to his newly upgraded dig skill. He went through dirt like a madman, taking in earth and shooting it out the other end, similar to how worms dig on earth. When he reached about two feet into the hill, something strange happened. He hit a surface of tightly packed dirt that was very hard to chew through. He struggled for a few minutes and finally broke his way about five inches into the packed dirt. Suddenly, as Alexander tore off a large chunk of dirt, a small hole opened in front of him through which a small stream of light permeated through. He was taken aback at first, but his curiosity overpowered him. He widened the hole, the light now fully illuminating Alexander's slimy figure, and looked through the opening. He jumped back in surprise. Somebody already lives in this hill.