5 Indigestion
‘Please lovely slime, be a darling and spit me the fuck out already you asshole!’
In a way, I finally achieved my goal of being able to move around the place. Unfortunately, that came at the cost of being carried against my will by some disgusting living gooey blob.
But I can’t deny that I got somewhat lucky. This gelatinous monster, which supposedly is capable of digesting everything it swallowed, didn’t seem to be able to dissolve a stone… or if it was, it was doing so at such a slow pace that I hadn’t noticed a thing yet. .
‘Ahhhhhhhhh! I really want to die… This is gross, disgusting… Seriously, won’t you get tired of holding me back?’
Begging was useless. For starters, I couldn’t even speak, and even if I did, the slime wouldn’t understand a word I said. After a while, I sort of managed to calm myself down and came to terms with the situation.
‘Alright then, it seems there is nothing I can do… Great! Let’s see if I can use my time here to achieve something useful. Sooner or later this thing will have to… “expel me”. How’s that gonna work? Does this thing even have a butt? Well, it doesn't matter… If it does not, I will simply have to find a way out myself. Let's see… What could I do in the meantime?’
The slime was slow. Really slow. It most likely wouldn’t beat a turtle in a speed contest. This probably wasn’t its top speed, but it didn’t seem like it could move much faster anyway.
Slimes are usually considered to be weak monsters. And, at least for this particular slime, it seemed to be the case. It could be easily detected, due to the stark contrast between its blue colour and the green of the field, it wasn’t fast, and it probably didn’t have great skills either. Unless someone threw oneself directly at its face.. or was a motionless stone lying on the ground… avoiding it was a piece of cake.
Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to enjoy the views. We crossed paths with many different animals, yet none of them came close to the slime. They didn’t seem to be scared, but they didn’t exactly ignore it either. Seems like they were wary of the slime and kept their distance as much as possible. This sparked my curiosity. Just what exactly were the actual capabilities of this type of monster?
‘Helpy, are slimes dangerous?’
[Slimes are the most diverse type of monsters. There are many types of slime, ranging from the most harmless to the deadliest.]
‘And what about this one?’
[Insufficient information.]
‘Yeah… Right, I better spend some time leveling you up. Ok, I will ask about everything I find on the way! Come on Helpy, get ready for some leveling. I’m going to spam the heck out of you!’
Thus began a dull day of interrogating Helpy about every single thing that entered my line of sight. Unsurprisingly, most of the information I got from Helpy was either pretty simple or downright useless. In other words, all of it was information that anyone with half a brain would be familiar with.
[Flower.]
[Spider.]
[Tree.]
[Tree.]
[Tree.]
[Animal poop. Excreted by a wild dog about three hours ago.]
‘... Really? So you haven’t given me a useful piece of information yet, but you see some dung and you know exactly which animal it belongs to and how fresh it is?!’
This was a prime example of the kind of useless answers I got from Helpy all day long. But I shouldn’t complain too much. Sometimes it gave me actual useful information… Not the poop thing though, let’s just pretend that never happened… I was confident that there should be a noticeable improvement after it reached level two.
I can’t remember how long I spent doing the same thing over and over again… but Helpy didn’t level up… Since I was still stuck in that damn meadow, there weren't many things to ask about. I began to doubt whether the way to raise the skill was to simply use it constantly or if it required inspecting different things.
‘Ehm… Please, Helpy, could you tell me how I can level you up?… That’s not asking for too much, is it?’
[Using the skill.]
‘Come on, that’s exactly what I’ve spent all day doing… Why won’t you level up already?! How many times do I have to use a skill in order to raise its level?’
[It depends on the skill.]
‘Yes, of course… but I’m asking specifically about you!’
[Insufficient information.]
‘Fuck it… Well, I guess I will have to grit my teeth and keep at it…’
I assumed that ‘Help’ was a difficult skill to level up, but then again, I didn’t know how difficult leveling any other skill would be. While I pondered whether I should go on like that or try something else, I was hit by an extrange object.
‘This damn snot has swallowed something weird again. Well, what is it this time?’
I looked closely at the strange object. It was similar to one of those completely transparent marbles, but the size of a fingertip. If it hadn’t bumped head-on into me, I would never have noticed it. It was perfectly camouflaged within the body of the slime. It was probably impossible to see it from the outside.
‘Is this… it’s core?’
[Monster core.]
‘Seems to be the case.’
[Special ability “Help” is now at level 2: It is now possible to get basic specific information.]
‘Finally! Was this a coincidence or did you do that on purpose? You really made me work for it… So, basic specific information… Ok, let’s see what that is all about.’
[Blue slime: A very common species of slime. Like all slimes, it is almost immune to physical attacks. It lacks senses and moves guided by the mana of its prey. His body is completely acidic and it slowly dissolves everything it touches.]
Status:
Name: -
Kind: Slime | Race: Blue slime
HP: 130/130 | MP: 81/81
Level: 13
————————————————
‘Oh my god, Helpy, is it really you? You have improved a lot. If you hadn’t been by my side all this time I would be having a hard time believing that you are still the same person.’
I had finally gotten some decent information. No, it was actually better than decent. Being able to know about a monster and checking some of its stats was so much more than I expected.
‘Now I understand why this mucus came straight for me and why everyone steers clear of it. Well, next is the core.’
[Monster core: Is the source of the monster’s power. In most cases, if it's destroyed or heavily damaged, the monster will die or be left in a brain-dead state. Even if the monster survives after losing its core, it’s status would be completely disabled.
Intact monster cores have a large number of uses, so their value is high. It is common to retrieve monster cores without damaging them in order for them to be sold or processed. Depending on the origin of a core, different effects can be achieved.]
‘I see, it’s almost immune to physical blows, but if I break this, it’s basically the same as killing it.’
I did not care about the value of the core, it was completely useless for me. I didn’t take my eyes off that marble, fearing that if I lost track of it, I would not be able to find it again. I needed to find a way to break it somehow, but I didn’t have many tools at my disposal, unless…
‘Helpy, is there any basic attack that I can use with just pure mana?’
[Mana cannon: Fires a concentrated mana projectile. It is weak and slow, but it can be strengthened by pouring more mana into it.]
‘Understood… You had me worried there for a moment, I thought you weren’t going to tell me…’
If my intuition was correct, it was something like concentrating your mana on one point and firing it at the target as if it were a bullet. It didn’t seem too hard to pull it off. The only issue was my mana, or rather, the lack of mana. The slime had 130 HP, so it was probably impossible to take it down with just one shot fired with a measly 20 MP. Hopefully HP and core durability wouldn't go hand in hand.
I concentrated the mana in a single spot, right in front of me, and a glowing sphere began to form. As I fueled it with more mana, it grew to the point of becoming the size of a fingernail, roughly the same size as the core.
‘Well, there goes all my mana.’
With the help of my mana control ability, I focusedall my mana and shot the core at close range with all my power. The glowing sphere sped through the slime like a missile, hitting the marble just inches away from me. The slime froze at first, and then started convulsing as half of the marble shattered into pieces. I hadn’t managed to completely destroy the core, but my Mana Cannon seemed to have dealt just enough damage to get the job done.
‘Suck on that, fucking phlegm!’
The fragments of the broken core scattered through the mucus and surrounded me. At that moment, they started shining, and so did my body.
[New ability acquired: Mana cannon (Lvl 1).]
[New title acquired: Inner aggressor.]
[New special ability acquired: Parasitize (Lvl 1).]
As expected, I learned Mana Canon… along with a shady title and special ability. However, there was more to come.
[You have been recognized as a living organism. Level concept integrated.]
[Your level has risen to 1. Due to your kind, your stats can’t go up.]
[The requirements for evolving have been met.]
[Do you want to evolve?]
‘Evolve…’
[Evolution: Upon meeting certain requirements, some monsters are able to acquire upgrades or reach a higher grade.]
‘It turns out that I am considered to be a monster…’
Well, that was a lot better than being a fucking rock. I agreed to evolving without hesitation.
‘Why not? Anything I can do to stop being a stone seems like a big win to me. Yes, I want to evolve!’
At that moment, a blinding light engulfed me, and I lost consciousness.
