With dozen different types of slimes lying around, dead, the five, or as they call themselves, Pentafive found each for themselves a safe and private place to relieve themselves after filling their bellies with water.
Five of them met again at the same place with an awkward atmosphere. It was much less awkward for one to say they needed to "go into the woods"
The great Pentafive couldn't explain why it was so awkward this time.
Was it because they all knew they were going to relieve themselves at the same time?
All of them averted their minds from that shame.
"....."
But no one could break the ice as the five stood in circle face to face.
'Why are we in this formation?', the woman thought frustratingly with her darkened face, but they were stuck with that formation since they met up again.
No one could face their back on the others, it was like if they did, they will admit they were ashamed, and that would make things more awkward.
But if they continued to stay in that formation, face to face, then the more time passed, the more awkward it would get.
The Pentafive met a dilemma before the moon was about to be swallowed by shadow.
Should they "admit" they were ashamed to stop this once and for all or are they going to let it stay that way?
The former was the solution but still, none could do it.
Time passes and their darkened faces were facing one another.
Is there no slime to interrupt them? Why?
But they all sighed relief when the moon shone so little light and Gantlet was about to be submerged into total darkness again.
"Ahh!!", the man with long hair panicked, "Hanzee, the lights!"
"Huh? ah, yes!", the little man then took out a stick he picked earlier.
None could see in that total darkness until a spark of light illuminated them again, a fire appeared on top of the stick, and it showed their faces.
"Oh, sorry.", the little man felt stupid for saying sorry so he turned his back and ran to mysteriously light fires on one branch of trees.
It acted like torches that lighted underneath the trees and made shadows begone.
However, it was brighter than usual and cooler than a normal fire that the branches weren't burning fast.
And because the little man placed the fire in a mysterious way on top of the branches, it did not spread like wildfire.
That provided light and will be useful for the upcoming battle.
The lightless land gained light without the moon. So when the light from the moon arrived, brighter than before, the shadows of the trees were not an obstacle anymore.
And when the lunar eclipse was about to end, it arrived.
The old man's expression became grim, he took the others' attention by saying, "The Giganslik is here."
Everybody turned their heads around and saw in front of them, a black slime twice as big as a fist spawned.
The man with long hair didn't hesitate to shout, "Phase 1 Formation!"
.....
Renir, on the other side, was huffing as he took a bite of a recently plucked chylefruit.
He was still huffing so he took another bite again, but still not enough, so he finished a whole chylefruit in one go. That was when he felt refreshed again.
All this time, Renir was running but not to escape but to find any slimes he could.
And the result was that he was successful!
He didn't count how many but he ate all types of slimes, from water to rock slimes, he managed to eat all their cores!
The reward was massive but the process was arduous and hovers between life and death. But he found a method for each slime.
The easiest was the water slime, he would just let them go after him and he was sure to dodge then right after, after that, he only needed to forcedly pick up its core.
After eating a dozen water slimes, he felt he could move in the water without being restricted by it, but he didn't test that feeling of his.
Afterward, he ate the fire slimes' core and found resistance towards them. However, he couldn't produce fire out of his body as he wanted.
The wind slimes were quite a struggle to catch and when Renir did fail to catch one, it would bombard him.
But still not giving up after receiving beatings, he was able to catch a few at first.
Every time he swallows a wind slime's core, he felt lighter and faster. This made him more capable of dodging and catching one, so Renir caught a bunch right after and ate them.
When he encountered a wood slime, at first he was stunned at what he should do to counter it but the fire slime gave him an idea to burn the wood slime.
Due to his increased resistance to fire, he was able to bear to touch fire slimes and change their trajectory towards the wood slime.
Renir was again stunned to see the wood slime flattened as if it was not hardwood, and jumped, but that didn't change anything so he was able to defeat two slimes at the same time.
After repeating this, he doubled his resistance to fire and then felt stronger, and more flexible than ever after eating a bunch of wood slime's core.
He didn't realize the wood slime was the hardest when he finally confronted a rock slime again.
It was just hard and scatters so with Renir's new strength, he was able to eat their cores and felt his body toughened and his firepower boosted.
Each battle only lasted not more than ten seconds so, with little time, Renir was able to improve himself so much that he got tired.
Seeing that he needed to eat a whole chylefruit before being rejuvenated completely shows his large improvement.
He only stopped when the night went complete dark without the moonlight.
Renir rested and processed all his improvement so as not to either underestimate or overestimate himself.
He felt confidence rising from within him and his sour mood waning. The warmth in his chest was recovering.
The feeling of reward made him feel so much better.
If he encountered normal slimes again, he was sure he wouldn't have any problem and just pop them one by one.
But that wouldn't happen since Renir was sure the trial will just get harder and he will only experience suffering rather than dominance, and when that time comes again, he needs to be sure he could grit and persevere again.
And when the moonlight shone once again to bring the harshest challenge, Renir kept his focus sharpened and there, he saw a black slime twice as big as a fist.
"?"
Even though it was in the distance to attack, it did not.
Renir stood his ground, it looked weak but he shouldn't be deceived.
There is no way the "harshest challenge" would be so easy, so he waited for the move of this black slime.
..... But there was nothing until Renir heard from all directions the wild rustles of either bush or fallen leaves.
With his greater and sharper senses, he knew there were at least a hundred slimes approaching him at a speed of a snail, except for the rock slimes and especially, the wind slimes.
Dozen of wind slimes came flying at him.
Renir never saw so many in one pack, but he had confidence and before the other problems arrived, he should lessen the foes in front.
With decisive actions, Renir jumped as high as those wind slimes over the trees!
Truly, he improved so much.
While mid-air, he did what he wanted to do way back in the third night when he still had no way of defeating the bigger slime.
With quick arms, Renir ripped apart a wind slime after punching it twice with both hands at the same in the same motion!
It was not hard to maneuver and contract his movement mid-air when he countered his first attack with an opposite force using his second fist.
To simply say, he used the force from his first punch to create a movement that will not restrict his second punch even without a foothold.
Why did he have to jump in the first place?
From battling them before, Renir knew the strength of the wind slimes... it was acceleration.
So by closing the distance, their attacks could be compared to a normal punch without a chance of accelerating.
With his toughened body, it was easier to take in those damages even if it amounts to a hundred punches.
His toughness showed the benefits from the rock slimes that came into effect, and when he fell down, he landed smoothly with the help of wind and water slimes' cores.
Renir, in a blink of an eye, reached a level of an expert, no, maybe even higher!
In this state, if he were to come back to earth, no other human could possibly go against him with pure strength.
And if he successfully ate all these slimes that were approaching, even he himself couldn't imagine what state of being he would acquire. Maybe even the next few nights wouldn't be hard for him to survive.
However, Renir forgot about the black slime. As he fought against the wind slimes with tremendous speed and dexterity, he sensed the approaching rock slimes rolling their way towards his location.
But when he readied himself for the rock slimes, he was surprised that they were not going to his direction.
"Huh?", Renir was confused, but at the next moment, his eyes widened as fear and panic surrounded his mind to haziness.
The incoming slimes were not coming towards him.
The rock slime that changes its direction and came rolling towards the black slimes as if they were going to attack the little one.
But even with Renir's disbelief, the black slime expanded and submerged one of the rock slime into itself, until it absorbed the whole rock slime seamlessly.
The black slime turned into a rock slime at that moment.
If the black slime can only change its type of slime by eating one then it wouldn't cause Renir so much fear and panic.
But because when it already turned into a rock slime, it expanded again and ate another, making its size twice before and probably even twice as tough.
Renir felt something crept into his entirety, he wanted to puke, but he forgot all that, even the pack of wind slimes was left from behind, because he saw that the black slime expanded again with a hundred different slimes around it!