The adult vampire snarled, baring its impressively long fangs at the meager slime. It towered over Alexander, standing about five times Alexander's height and weighing around ten times more. The small slime shrunk back into the shadows of the trees, ineffectively hiding himself from the massive creature that was staring daggers into his slimy body. How would he be able to even fight such a thing? Its fangs were half as long as his entire body! Well, there was no time to think now. He had to defend himself. Luckily, he had played around with the last rabbit long enough to recharge part of his mana, so, the second he laid eyes on the adult rabbit, he was already beginning to cast his fire lance.
Alexander furiously wove the fire lance together, sneaking glances at the rabbit as he attempted to focus on his magic. The vampire rabbit seemed to have overcome his initial surprise at a small slime killing so many of its brethren, and now it was filled with confidence and rage. Its thick white coat puffed up, enlarging its already impressively giant physique to amazing proportions. The muscles in its tree-trunk sized hind legs flexed and rippled as it crouched low and charged. The rabbit shot like a bullet towards Alexander, leading with its fangs to pierce the soft flesh of the slimy interloper.
Although the odds were against him, Alexander would not shy away from a fight. He had worked too hard for too long to be scared of a rabbit. As the giant bunny drew quickly nearer, Alexander rooted himself in place. No more would he cower at the monsters he faced. An emperor never backs down in the face of danger. He would meet this rabbit head on with the demeanor of a matador drawing in its prey. He could only hope that the rabbit was dumb enough to fall for his scheme.
The rabbit fell for Alexander's taunt. It charged even faster as it noticed the slime rooted in place. To the rabbit, this was a sign that the prey was too scared to even move. An easy win. At the very last millisecond, Alexander used his remarkable agility (for a slime) to shoot to the side of the rabbit, narrowly missing its protruding fangs. He then plunged the fire lance into the side of the rabbit, punching easily through its thick hide and into its hard, muscular insides.
The rabbit let out a high-pitched squeal of pain and toppled over, skidding on the ground for a few feet from the excess momentum and tearing a large divot in the soft earth of the forest floor with its bulky body. Unfortunately, the rabbit was not severely wounded; it was far too big for the fire lance to do much damage.
The rabbit slowly rose from the ground and shook off the pain, eyeing Alexander with a little more wariness than before, yet still the same blind rage of its compatriots. Alexander shook his slime in disappointment. It looked like even getting older would not allow the vampire rabbits to have enough intellect to rival Alexander's. He would love to have a conversation with a species; it had been a while since he had talked to anyone, and he was starting to go a little crazy from the constant killing of monsters. On the other hand, it was fortunate that all the strong monsters he had met were all too unintelligent to make a plan (other than randomly sprinting at the enemy) because, if they had intellect, he was unsure if he could have won any of his previous fights so easily.
As was expected, the huge rabbit played the only trick in its book yet again; it charged. Alexander was ready for this, and he had a plan. He concentrated on his newly enlarged mana core and wove together a quick water magic spell and released it, landing far in front of the rabbit.
The rabbit jeered at the slime in its mind. What a weak slime! He can't even reach the rabbit with its magic, so why should the powerful rabbit be scared of him? This rabbit had seen countless fights in its life and was the leader of the forest. The small injury in its side was nothing to be worried about; it would heal in a few days.
The rabbit was almost upon the slime, when the slime yet again jumped to the side. But this time it was too early. The rabbit could still easily change direction and complete the charge, making the insignificant slime into a fang kabob.
The rabbit slammed its huge, muscular legs to the ground to push off in the direction of the slime. At that very moment, the rabbit's paws lost their purchase on the dirt of the forest floor. But the forest floor under the rabbit was not dirt! It was a slippery mud from the water spell that Alexander had launched earlier! The rabbit had no way of stopping its powerful charge and slid straight into a tree with a sickening crunch.
Alexander reveled in his plan's success. He could now rest his fully depleted mana core. The rabbit slid down the tree slowly into an injured heap of fluff. Soon however, the rabbit began to stir once again. Alexander cursed in his head. He was completely out of mana at this point, so, if the rabbit charged him again, he would surely be impaled by those fearsome fangs. There was no way to win!
Pushing itself up onto its shaky hindlegs, the rabbit began to hobble over to Alexander, leaning on the trees that it passed. Drool hung from its mouth as it stared down the small slime. This time, the rabbit was sure it could kill him.
Alexander started to panic. How would he finish off the rabbit with no mana left in the tank? There had to be some other way. Maybe a battle of strength? No way. Could he escape? No, he would just die from other monsters if he ran. Aha! Alexander just remembered that he still had 10 whole stat points left to spend from the four monsters that he had just killed and the level up!
He rushed to open his status, while the rabbit was getting closer by the second. When the status opened, he hesitated for a moment, but he made an easy decision. Of the 10 stat points, 9 would go to his intellect, maxing out his mana, and 1 would go to his strength.
[Intelligence: 16 -> 25]
[Strength: 3 -> 4]
[Intelligence stat has reached 25. Intelligence stat has reached maximum cap...]
Alexander had no time to listen to Bucephalus's wise voice right now. The rabbit was almost upon him. He felt his mana core quickly enlarging as the increased intelligence started to take effect. He reached deep within it and drew out the most mana he had ever released out of his slimy self and fashioned over twenty small rotating needles of fire. The burning fire needles shed glowing orange light on the slime, giving the impression of an emperor watching the world burn to the ground.
The rabbit noticed the display of power and released a roar of terror as it turned and attempted to flee. It was too late. The fire needles shot forward and surrounded the trembling rabbit who had seemed so majestic just moments earlier. The rabbit could do nothing in the face of real power. The glistening fire needles shot towards the rabbit, impaling it from all sides, turning its hide into a pincushion. The rabbit was dead before it hit the ground.
Bucephalus's rewards rang in Alexander's ear one after another.
Alexander rolled to the marred corpse of the rabbit triumphantly and consumed it, slimy tendrils as gluttonous as always. As he decomposed the remains of the rabbit, he read through his achievements.
[You have slain the Adult Vampire Rabbit. You have gained 100 Exp.]
[You have gained 5 stat points from the Adult Vampire Rabbit.]
[You have consumed a new specimen: +1 stat points.]
[You have leveled up. You have received 5 stat points for reaching Level 3.]
[Intelligence stat has reached 25. Intelligence stat has reached maximum capacity for current evolution.]
There it was. The rewards for reaching the maximum intelligence stat. It was a skill. Who would have known that that singular skill would change the course of Alexander's fate and the fate of the entire continent of Isedor. Alexander knew what the skill did before even reading the description. This was the moment he had been waiting for from the very second he was reborn into a slime.
[Congratulations, user 'Alexander.' You are the first system user ever to have maxed out two stat points in under a month. Taking both this and your max luck stat into account, your reward has been calculated by the system.]
[You have been granted the legendary skill: Mitosis.]
The slime empire had begun.