Changing Identities

Morning came. Together with the rising sun, the horde of beasts slowly moved away.

When the coast was clear, I slowly climbed down the tree and immediately went towards the stream to drink water. What? Beasts drank at the same spot? Who cares about that when you're dying of thirst?

After drinking enough water to fill my stomach and hypnotizing myself into thinking that I felt full, I started walking towards the next town. While walking, I started studying the movements of my tamed slime.

While I am walking normally, it can easily catch up. Even when I ran at full speed, it was still able to catch up easily. As a test, I asked it to run about a hundred meters back and forth and was surprised that the slime finished it in under 10 seconds. It was twice as fast as even professional sprinters! No wonder the danger level was orange!

It's a bit pathetic to think that my tamed slime was way stronger than I am, but what can I do? Although I can earn the skills of tamed monsters, I can't do anything about my lacking physique.

Through the special link between the tamer and the tamed, a message was passed. It was more of a feeling than words though, but it was automatically interpreted by the taming system.

[Won't you make me stronger?]

The slime wondered out of pure curiosity. Although beasts have lower intelligence compared to monsters, a beast still has enough intelligence to be comparable to a seven-year-old child.

Its question was a bit vague, but it was probably asking how I plan to train it.

"Well, first, let's raise the proficiency of your skills!"

I quickly responded verbally. Since we are connected through a special link, the beast will understand any form of communication from its tamer, be it verbal or telepathic.

The training method I described wasn't something I thought about on the spot, though. Based on my 18 years of memory in this world, the concept of skill proficiency was vague. The most common idea was that skills increase in proficiency through actual battles, but that wasn't the root of it.

As a person who has had the experience of playing countless games, watching countless movies, and reading countless novels, I can confidently say that skill proficiency is learned through regular use of the said skill. So, conversely, if you spam the skill even when you have no target, then you can earn easy skill proficiency!

"Listen closely; to earn skill efficiency quickly, we will chain your skills together!"

I excitedly explained my plan to the slime. First, the slime would use [Tackle] diagonally upwards and forward. Then, when falling, use the [Playing Dead] skill. After landing, use [Tackle] again and repeat.

At first, the slime failed to chain the skills. It would only be able to activate the [Playing Dead] skill after it landed. After several more tries, it managed to pull off the combo but failed to chain the next [Tackle] after the [Playing Dead] skill.

It took hundreds of trials and errors spanning several hours before the slime managed to chain the skills perfectly. The slime even learned how to change the direction of the [Tackle] as it circled me as I walked slowly.

As I was getting so hungry that my vision started blurring, I started foraging for food in the forest beside the highway. I picked berries, fruits, mushrooms, herbs, and other things that I recognized as edible or worth something when sold. Especially the herbs and fruits that can be used for concocting pills and potions.

As an orphan, differentiating poisonous food from normal food was ingrained in me. It was a byproduct of eating anything I could get my hands on when I was still young. The knowledge about herbs and such was something I learned to survive, earning what little change I could scrape together.

Since I got too engrossed in my foraging, I needed to make a temporary bag using the wide leaves of some trees. I placed the foraged food and others inside the makeshift bag and carried them on my back. Rather than a bag, it was more of a basket, though.

Soon, we reached the gates of the city. As I was passing through the gates, a guard stopped me.

"Stop! Identify yourself!"

Although I knew it was part of their procedures, his tone was something that should be directed at a criminal, not an innocent civilian. However, for my name, I got into a bit of thought. In the slums, I was given the name Cloud because they said that I always drifted away without them noticing. However, in my past life, I was named Will. For some reason, I can't remember what my last name was.

After agonizing between the two, I ended up choosing my old name, Will. This was not only to lose any pursuers looking for "Cloud" but also to mark the beginning of my new life as a tamer.

"I'm Will, and this is my tamed slime."

I introduced myself and my slime to the guard. After looking at the two of us scrutinizingly, he finally said "Enter" and allowed us inside.

I quickly went towards the market and sold what I could sell to appropriate stalls. All in all, I earned more or less 5,000 Credits selling randomly foraged goods. For reference, a single regular meal costs about 300 Credits, while a night's stay in an inn would cost at least 2,500 Credits a night.

In short, I only earned enough to stay one night and feed myself for a couple of days. I could save some living costs by sleeping on a random park bench or in a secluded alley too; however, that comes with increased risks. Looking back on it, I guess I was lucky in the past since I'm still alive and kicking up to this day. Now, however, with my previous life's memories revived, I would think twice before sleeping in a random park or alley.

For now, my primary objective would be to earn more money, and as soon as possible!