34 Secretly talented slime?

[Whimsy, Mia's pet]

Race: Wind Slime

Level: 5

HP: 45

Mana: 43/80

Attack: 4

Defense: 22

Magic: 10

Resistance: 18

Skills: Armor Mastery, Oil Secretion, Raid, Savagery, Slime Armor, Toughness

Magic: Light Breeze , Detection, Drain Air, Eavesdrop, Still Air, Wind Support

Pet Bond: D rank

Upon checking Whimsy's full status window, not only had the Wind Slime managed to learn the same bandit skills as Mia, she had even managed to copy Mia's wind magic spells!

"What… just how is this possible?" Mia muttered to herself. Were all magical monsters supposed to be capable of learning human abilities? Or, was there something special about Whimsy?

Noticing that something appeared to be amiss, Colson asked if anything was the matter.

"Colson, you have some experience fighting against monsters, right? Are magical beasts supposed to be able to use human abilities as well?"

"What? Magical beasts usually have their own skillsets. I suppose it is possible for some of their skills or spells to overlap with human ones, such as the incredibly common [Fireball] spell. Why do you suddenly ask?"

"Take a look at this." Mia handed him the Status Stone so he could see for himself.

Some seconds later, Colson dropped the Status Stone, hitting himself in the foot! He yelped and hopped up and down on one foot as Mia picked up the stone.

"Milady… what is this? Your pet slime has learned so many skills and spells! I don't even recognize half of them, although I do know of [Savagery]… isn't that a classic warrior-type skill? How did your pet even learn such a skill!?"

"I think that Whimsy has been watching us as we trained," Mia explained even though she was unsure herself just what occurred. "…Maybe slimes just have the ability to copy what they see?"

Was this an ability of slimes in general, or could all magic beasts learn abilities created by humans? Mia felt that this definitely needed testing in the future. Maybe "slime bandits" would really become a thing after all?

"You need to be careful about this, Milady. I don't particularly mind it myself, as Grandpa always said to keep an open mind. However, there's some out there that will consider it heretical to be getting so close to monsters and even teaching them human skills."

"Thank you, I'll keep it in mind. What are some groups that are anti-monster?"

"Um, mostly religious groups, I believe. There's too many out there to count. But our main church in Hoplia, the Elemental Church, has a relatively neutral stance on monsters."

"Got it." Mia took the Status Stone from Colson and looked back over at Whimsy's status window once more.

There were some new categories, such as Whimsy's [Pet Bond] which showed they were at D rank. If E rank was the category that represented strangers, Mia supposed this meant they were at least on friendly terms now?

At least their Pet Bond ranking was higher than her magical ranking! Mia idly wondered if it would be possible to have Whimsy tested for magical aptitude like a human. Would it be possible to have a Slime Mage or even Slime Archmage?

That feeling when your pet was stronger than you… Actually, upon taking a second look, every single one of Whimsy's stats was higher than her own, except for Attack! She only beat out her own pet slime by 1 measly point in Attack, and they had identical Magic ratings of 10.

Sure, Whimsy was one level higher than she was, but that didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things! Was it simply a racial bonus that slimes had on humans to have so many extra base stats? Or was it simply due to her own young age?

Mia couldn't help but almost wish that she was reincarnated into a slime, instead! Well, that would only be if she could still retain her human mind.

Okay, there was also the Mana stat – Mia supposed that she had more Mana than Whimsy did. Still, this was of little consolation.

Mia was certain that Whimsy previously didn't have a Mana stat recorded. Was it because Whimsy didn't know how to cast any spells in the past?

"Whimsy, I choose you! Use [Breeze Magic]!"

However, the green slime merely blinked innocently at her. Whimsy then hopped up onto her head and proceeded to lick Mia's face with a long, slimy tongue.

Colson simply remained numb to the sight. 'Nothing should surprise me anymore when it comes to Milady and her slime,' he commented in his mind.

Mia did her best to ignore the heat rising up on her face. It was simply too irresistible an opportunity to not make a reference there!

In the end, she supposed that Whimsy was more like an NPC ally who would act with her own will. Perhaps Whimsy could infer certain things from the situation, but it appeared that the Wind Slime still couldn't be communicated with. That would need to wait for the gradual progression of their Pet Bond as well as Whimsy obtaining more levels to see if Whimsy could improve in intelligence.

One noticeable absence from Whimsy's list of spells was the [Whisper] spell that Mia could use to communicate with Colson at a distance of over ten meters. Was this simply because Whimsy was unable to verbalize anything?

But, why was it then that Whimsy apparently knew how to use the [Eavesdrop] spell to listen to others on the wind? Mia tried to imagine Whimsy spying on human conversations or other endeavors… how would that even work? Was it that the slime found humans a curiosity that were fun to observe?

There was also the issue of Whimsy's physical-based skills… [Raid] and [Savagery] were clearly from the bandit class training that she underwent with Dega yesterday. No other explanation could be possible.

Yet, nothing showed up on Whimsy's status window about a job class. There were also the [Armor Mastery] and [Toughness] skills…

[Armor Mastery] simply referred to familiarity with using armor, and it provided a +5 bonus to Defense at level 1 of the skill. [Toughness] was a standard damage reduction skill which would continue leveling up as one took damage. This skill started out at 7% damage reduction at level 1.

Yet, Mia was aware that these two skills were both basic foundational skills of the knight job class. What were they doing in Whimsy's skillset together with the bandit's [Raid] and [Savagery] skills? Was this a sign that Whimsy was capable of developing skills based on actions taken and experiences, regardless of job classes?

Mia kneeled down and removed Whimsy from her head, placing the green slime in front of her. She then looked Whimsy in the eyes… and lightly stretched the slime's squishy cheeks! Not knowing what was happening, Whimsy escaped back onto Mia's head, where she let the slime be.

"I'm so envious of you, Whimsy! You're so lucky that you get to learn so many skills! Why do human bodies have so many limitations!?" Rather than being jealous, right now she just wanted to tease the slime, just a little. It wasn't like she truly wanted a non-human body!

"Hey, Colson, after the tax collection, will you go through the basics of swordsmanship training with me one more time?" She had started to learn the sword before she met Whimsy. While it was doubtful that Whimsy could wield a sword, maybe it would still benefit the slime in some way?

And, just what if, the slime could somehow whip a sword around? Although Mia attempted to imagine it, the scene seemed too cute to her to make it work. But anyways, there would never be any harm in training her fundamentals more deeply. She knew that she had been slacking off from sword training over the past few days.

"Yes, of course, Milady! I'm always more than happy to train in the path of the sword with you, any time you wish!" Colson was quite pleased to see his master working hard at training.

What was with this last mysterious ability, though?

[Oil Secretion]: When in Slime Armor form, secretes a small amount of aromatic oil.

That was all the skill description said, leaving Mia with nothing else to go on. She definitely recalled no such skill available in the game.

Previously, she already noticed that Whimsy had been secreting oil, but never expected that it became an actual skill! Just what other daily life conveniences could actually become skills as well? The closest analogy to Whimsy's oil that Mia could think of was skincare products from her original world.

Mia almost wanted to put Barnaby and the tax collection out of her mind to learn more about Whimsy and the other creatures of this world. It was a real pity that a Pet Bond could only be established with one pet monster.

Technically, Mia supposed that she could try training additional monsters herself regardless of any limitations. However, that seemed bothersome, not to mention the fact that without a Pet Bond, it would be impossible to become very close to the pet monster in question. It was doubtful whether a second pet monster would even obey her command.

First of all, she needed to convince others to agree and try and learn how to tame a pet slime from her. Dega already tentatively agreed, but there was another excellent experimental subject, er, subordinate right here, wasn't there? Mia wondered to herself how she could convince Colson to accept having his own pet slime as well. Perhaps she should try catching a Fire Slime for him to go together with his red hair?

Mia glanced over at the still crackling fire. Just as how a sufficiently hot enough fire would be able to evaporate water, she felt that there was still yet another option available to her so that her wind magic could overcome its natural weakness to fire magic.

"Colson, back away from the fire a good distance, will you? I'd like for you to stand more than twenty meters away. The next and final experiment I have in mind with the fire could get a little dangerous."

If her magic was unable to work on fires, then she would simply use science instead.

Mia also backed away what she estimated to approximately ten meters away from the small fire. Ten meters was getting into the outer limits of how far she could control the breezes around her, and she wanted to put as much possible distance between her and the fire for what she wanted to do next.

From under her clothes, the silver-haired girl took out a sack filled with a certain fine powder that she had pilfered from the kitchen.