[Efficient Digestion Lv 2 → Lv 3 – 1.56 Bio]
Increases digestion speed and efficiency in converting matter. (+10% per level — exponential)
Now that he had basic methods to protect himself, Lohan decided to invest more in Efficient Digestion, which was currently the best cost-effective skill for him, after leaving just over 1 Biomass in reserve for moments of danger.
With the upgrade to [Efficient Digestion Lv 3], his Biomass gain rose from 2.38/h to 2.61/h.
'So the upgrade to [Efficient Digestion] really does increase biomass generation in [Passive Digestion]!!' He thought excitedly.
It wasn't a very significant increase, but considering that it only took 1.95 more biomass to raise this skill to Lv 4, after 45 minutes he was able to buy another upgrade!
Now his gain was 2.87/h!
In another 51 minutes, he had already gathered enough biomass to evolve this skill to Lv 5, increasing his gain to 3.16/h!
At this point, looking at the cost to raise the level of this skill, which rose to 3.05 Biomass, and looking at the cost of [Passive Digestion Lv 1 -> Lv 2 - 4 Bio], he realized that it would be better to diversify his investments, so the Biomass gained in the next hour and a half was allocated to evolve [Passive Digestion].
Curious to feel the increase, Lohan was excited to notice that the passive amount he was earning had doubled, from the 0.287/h he was earning before (10% of the 2.87 he was earning per hour), the value now rose to 20% of that base, totaling 0.574/h!
Adding to the base of 2.87, Lohan was now earning 3.44 Biomass per hour!
And thinking about how much he would earn AFK after disconnecting from the game, he became even more excited.
'Will I be able to evolve [Passive Digestion] to the point where I earn more passively than actively?!'
Excited by this possibility, Lohan quickly opened the skill screen again and looked to see if this was possible, while still rolling through the forest digesting grass.
But the number he saw shocked him.
[Passive Digestion Lv 2 -> Lv 3 - 8 Bio]
'Damn, the price is doubling... and since the skill doesn't say anything about exponential growth, it's possible that the yield will only increase by 10% per level, even if the price doubles... there go my plans to generate 1,000% biomass passively...'
He was a little discouraged, but remembering how much [Efficient Digestion] was generating for him and how much it could increase his yield, the dream of a 1,000% passive yield was not impossible, it would just take time.
'And unfortunately, time is something I don't have right now...' He remembered the debt he had to pay for the Neural Helmet in less than a month and sighed.
Even without seeing any way to earn Gold in the game as a slime lost in the forest, it didn't discourage Lohan, it only encouraged him even more, causing the little blue Slime to roll desperately through the forest.
After 53 minutes, he gathered 3.05 Biomass and raised his Efficient Digestion level to Lv 6.
This increased his yield from 3.44/h to 3.78/h!
The problem was that the time to level up increased again, finally crossing the threshold where the price became higher than the hourly yield.
Before, he could still farm more than the price to evolve the skill in an hour, but after evolving to Lv 7, the price rose significantly.
[Efficient Digestion Lv 6 → Lv 7 - 4.76 Bio]
Although the skill increased the amount of Bio-mass he gained by 10% exponentially per level, the price also increased by 25% exponentially per level, meaning that if he only invested in that, in a few more levels he would reach the point where he would need to grind for days to level it up again.
'Right, just investing in this single skill may not be the best choice... what other skills do I have available that can help me accelerate this growth? He thought confusedly, still absorbing grass, as he opened his Skills window again.
Among the long list of available skills, there were some that Lohan considered practically useless for him at the moment, such as [Stable Metabolism Lv 0 → Lv 1 – 3.00 Bio], a very useful skill for the evolution of normal slimes, as it helped regulate their biomass digestion.
But since Lohan had a conscious and intelligent human mind, this process was easily done by him, minimizing the usefulness of this skill, at least at this point.
So he looked at something even more interesting.
[Mass Expansion Lv 0 → Lv 1 – 2.50 Bio] and [Partial Division Lv 0 → Lv 1 – 5.00 Bio].
Two skills that could increase the contact area he had with the absorbed matter, potentially speeding up his digestion.
But while one skill simply allowed him to store more Biomass, and consequently increase his own size without the risk of falling apart, the other skill opened a whole new door with the possibility of replication and cloning.
As a Naruto fan, Lohan knew how OP it was to be able to clone himself to progress several times faster than others.
The problem was that he wasn't sure how this skill would accomplish that, what the cost would be, and how useful it would be at the end of the day.
The description was very vague, just "Consumes biomass to create a small extension to collect nearby matter."
With that, he could guess what this skill did, but he had no details on how it would be done and how useful it would be to him.
And considering that he was already taking a big risk just by being in this forest with such a weak body, Lohan decided to play it safe for now and buy the simplest and cheapest skill, leaving cloning for the next few days.
So with a few more minutes of grinding, digesting everything he could see, and constantly failing to absorb common insects, Lohan gathered enough Bio-mass and learned the new skill.
[Mass Expansion Lv 1]
Increases maximum Bio-Mass capacity and body volume proportionally.
Despite spending 2.5 Bio to purchase this skill, he still had a small reserve of 1 Bio stored in himself for safety, which only slightly increased his size, but nothing too noticeable.
The difference came when Lohan continued to digest everything around him, while his body grew nonstop!
Without concrete data to analyze, he couldn't calculate his own size and volume, but he could feel how much he was growing.
Surprisingly, by storing 3 Bio in himself, his body increased by about 15% of its original diameter.
That 15% diameter seems small visually, but Lohan realized the magic of geometry: that small increase in diameter resulted in an increase of more than 30% in his contact area with the ground.
He didn't know his exact size, but if before he was a small 10 cm Slime, now he was just over 13 cm.
Now, just by standing still, he already covered 30% more grass than before, increasing his biomass digestion per hour by an incredible 30%!
This extra size came with the disadvantage of becoming slightly slower, but compared to the 30% increase in active digestion speed, this was negligible.
With this upgrade, his base biomass absorption increased from 3.15 Bio/h to 4.09 Bio/h. Unfortunately, this did not affect his gain with [Passive Digestion], so adding this new value to the 20% gain per hour based on the base gain, Lohan was now making 4.72 Biomass per hour!
In just one day of play, he managed to more than double his growth rate!