Chapter 16- Logic over Morality

Samantha hung her head in defeat.

These people were insane.

They were absolutely nuts.

Samantha had spent her entire life trying to please others. Everything she ever knew was about deceiving people to make them think she was some sort of angel. And yet... here she was. In the form of a demon. The humans viewed her as an abomination, and the monsters feared her and her comrades.

Not only this, but her comrades were now using this fear to their advantage, and she couldn't do anything to stop them- for it was the only thing that seemed to work.

Was she truly the only sane person in this group?

Why was everyone so quick to use fear and force to get what they wanted?

It was not that these people were simply inherently evil. She knew that much.

It was also not that they were simply blowing off steam and putting their problems on others.

No.

She knew exactly why they were doing it.

And that was the worst part.

They were doing these things that would normally be seen as 'evil' or 'villainous' because they were simply the logical thing to do.

She and Ashley had both gained the ability to [Irritate foe]. This meant that they were able to read an enemies emotions and insecurities, and use this against them to manipulate them in a certain way. This was exactly what Ashley had done by whispering into the slime mans ear.

Granted, to Ashley this man was nothing more than a filthy creature. That being said, Samantha did not care for this man, and was not displeased that her companions were scaring him. The thing she was concerned about, however, was their reputation in this world, and how these actions would effect it.

Surely nothing good would come of acting like villains. The humans would gain more reason to rally against Samantha and her party, and this would lead to their deaths. So, once more, why did her companions see their actions as fit?

Part of the reason was what Garett had explained.

In this world, because of the [Nightmare mode], it was excessively hard to successfully perform any action that required one to be charismatic- or more specifically, it was almost impossible to succeed in any action which required any form of a certain statistic to be high.

Garett seemed to have discovered an exploit in trying to perform an action that only one with a low charisma would pull off.

If the party became villains, they would not need to appeal to others through charismatic means.

This was similar to the real world though.

It is almost always easier to be the villain than to be the hero. Its almost always easier to do what is wrong than right.

Even more so than that though.

It was extremely hard to keep up a good reputation.

Even if one worked hard to do the right thing, they would often be a hated member of society. Jealousy and grudges would arise towards anyone who became loved due to their own goodwill, and some would try- and usually succeed- at tearing such people down. This gave a choice to these people. Either continue pursuing what one considered to be justice, at the expense of ones reputation, incurring the hatred of many and going against the grain- or to keep up ones reputation and give up any sense of true justice, maintaining only a superficial justice.

You cannot do both.

Samantha knew this well as someone who chose the latter.

Still, even knowing that giving up on reputation would allow them other options in this world, she couldn't accept it. It was simply too reckless. Weren't they just talking about not being reckless?

No. She knew that they had chosen to work through fear and bluffing because it posed the least risk to their party.

If they were found out they would be in big trouble, but at the end of the day this was the path with the lowest immediate risk. Right now, when they were weak, minimizing immediate risk even in exchange for a later risk was a good option.

They would obtain free food and shelter, and even potentially some treasure or items to strengthen them, and hopefully their scandal wouldn't be found out. Even if they were, hopefully it would be later when they actually were stronger and no longer had the need to deceive anyone.

Also, if they did not pretend to be some sort of fearsome monsters, the slime people might look down on them and use them for their own advantage.

That much, Samantha accepted. She did not want to be used or even worse killed off as a potential threat that needed to be nipped in the bud because the slime people did not have overwhelming fear of them.

Samantha continued walking along, following the others with the slime man at the head.

Trevor and Garett both approached the man, who seemed to be breathing hard. It was taking everything he had to even take a step forward.

But he continued on. He had to. To save his own life.

Ashley had hit him where it hurt.

At the end of the day, this man was selfish, and was willing to lead the enemy to his town if it meant saving himself.

But he was not to be blamed for this.

Anyone would do this to save themselves.

In many novels, the main character would often look down on those who tried to save themselves.

They would be looked upon as selfish. Greedy. Scum.

But isn't that what anyone would do in such a situation?

Samantha, Trevor, Ashley, Garett.

None of them were the type of person to sacrifice their own lives to save others.

However, they were now bonded by a link through this new world and this system. If one another died, they would suffer from a major loss in manpower and strength. Not only this, but it did not seem like making allies would be easy.

Especially not reliable ones.

Either way, none of the members in Garett's party viewed the man as scum for choosing to save himself.

Only some sort of self righteous asshole would think like that. Someone with the balls to call themselves a hero, while not understanding what their opponents went through.

This was why Garett had so readily embraced the title of villain.

This was why Ashley and Trevor had so quickly agreed with what Garett was doing, and even assisted him.

They didn't want to be viewed as heroes.

They didn't want to tell other people what to do, while being praised as righteous.

They simply wanted to survive on their own, without having to rely on others.

----

Trevor got on the man's right side and Garett on the left.

They both put their arms around the man's shoulders, and leaned in to speak to him.

The man froze for a second, but continued pacing forward. His breathing was completely ragged at this point, and every fiber of his being was telling him to escape. But he did not. It took everything he had to even continue walking.

"Say, buddy. Why don't you tell us a little about yourself, eh? And what about this village that you're from? I'd like to hear about it before we arrive. I sure am hungry and would like to know what types of food is waiting for me there... if it isn't to my liking, perhaps some grilled slime will do...."

Garett intimidated the man.

Garett had scanned the slime, and a status card had appeared in front of him to see.

[Intelligent Green Slime Kin] (Lvl 1)

Attack: 1-3 (Melee)

Physical Defense: 0

Magical Defense: 2

HP: 10/10

MP: 5/5

Skill: Healing Gel [5 MP, Heals 3 HP]

He was only level 1! No wonder he was so scared!

However, this actually spelled potential trouble for Garett.

This slime was unusually weak. Or perhaps the slimes they had faced in the dungeon, the wild slimes who were not "Intelligent slime kin" were simply much stronger than the ones who seemed to be able to take the form of people.

Still, they had defeated Algorithanus, the slime person who was stronger than any other slime they had met thus far. What if there were other slime people who were as strong as him, and this man was planning on going crying to these stronger slimes?

If Algorithanus was the strongest member of the slime people, that would be a lifesaver. Garett hoped that was the case, but he was not willing to take that risk of assuming such.

He had to get the information out of this slime right now.

"Alright, Scratch those questions from before. Before you give me those answers, I need you to tell me. Who is the strongest member in your village?"

"The... the strongest member of our village!? Are you perhaps looking for warriors to fight for you!? Ah! Forgive my rudeness, answering back with a question. The strongest warrior of our village would be one named Rithargus, a purple intelligent slime kin who specializes in poison attacks."

"What level is this 'Rithargus'?"

"I'm sorry? What do you mean by level?"

It seemed that the creatures of this world were unaware of the numerical information that the system provided to Garett and the party.

What a delightful discovery!

If Garett and his party were the only ones who were able to use the leveling system to their benefit, then they would be able to obtain much more knowledge on the enemy even if the enemy was intelligent.

The person who was called the Indeterminant filled Garett's heart with concern and worry, but he couldn't do anything about this person for now aside from try to avoid him. Even so, Garett had decided that making himself known among the monsters would be acceptable. After all, humans clearly did not get along with them, and would not be trying to take prisoners.

The existence of Garett and his party had been exposed to the guards of the Empire, but that was of little concern.

What guard would readily admit to losing a battle to some random monsters? Even if he has to say that the monsters ran from him, would they believe him with his armor shattered and a cut in his side? It would seem as if he got hurt and ran himself. Even if the guard swallowed his pride and told others, the others would likely not take his report seriously. There was simply no reason to spread the word, for even if it was something out of the ordinary, it would likely be written off as a false report or an overexaggeration.

Not only this, but Garett and his party had barely escaped, and posed virtually no threat to the guard captain at the time. Aside from being an odd party of monsters, they were nothing worth mentioning.

Finally, even if their existence was spread, it would become known that they are weak.

Which worked out, because they would level up significantly before anyone took them on, and being underestimated was one of the greatest tools to success.

Garett was devout on using all the dirtiest tricks in the books in order to win, whether it was pretending to be overwhelmingly strong, or pretending to be underwhelmingly weak.

The green slime continued to look confused at Garett, terrified that he would incur rage for his ignorance.

"Nevermind that question. Tell me something else. Do you know who Algorithanus is?"

"Algorithanus!? You mean the wild king of the slime kin!?"

"Sure. We'll go with that. What do you know about him?"

"Algorithanus is the strongest member of the slime species in history! Not only this, but he is a wild slime. This means that he had the personality to attack others on sight, regardless of race- monster or human, friend or foe. However, Algorithanus was odd for a wild creature. He had intelligence, but he still had the desire to kill indiscriminately. Most intelligent creatures do not have the desire to kill, such as myself, however some are born as hybrids with both wild and intelligent tendencies. He was banished to the dungeon nearby hundreds of years ago by a magician who had the ability to curse a creature and link them to a location, who was killed in a battle with the humans when the Empire was establishing the system of the border patrol, and Algorithanus has never been seen since.

Trevor seemed to be processing all this information, and grinned widely.

Algorithanus was the strongest member of the slimes in history?

This was proof that the slimes were weak. Even more so than Garett and the party were.

"Why do you ask of Algorithanus? Surely you haven't convinced him to fight for you... forgive me for my impudence but I must know why you have asked."

Trevor grinned and answered bluntly and truthfully.

"We killed him."

"WHA-!"

The slime person flared his eyes to the other three, who didn't seem phased by Trevor's statement.

It must have been true.

Nobody could be so emotionless and lie like this.

Earlier the demon girl seemed to be getting flustered over something just before, but now she seemed to not even mind the conversation.

"I- is that so? C-congratulations..."

The slimes sentence trailed off as he spoke.

He continued forcing one foot in front of the other.

He could not stop.

He had to save himself from these beings of evil who could defeat even that legendary slime.

----

Why had he been so unlucky?

He was simply trying to study nature.

The green slime's name was Iotar, He was a medic for the slime community, as a green slime. The abilities of each slime were based on their color, or rather the color of the slime reflected their abilities.

Purple was poison.

Blue was the ability to restore mana. Algorithanus was a blue slime, but his affinity with mana allowed him to discover some other spells and work with them because it was so great. It also allowed him, a wild slime, to take the form of an intelligent slime, while increasing in power as opposed to the typical trend of a decrease in power as intelligence increases.

Black was corrosion. This was similar to the acid for purple slimes, but could eat through even armor and metal. This was what Samantha got hit with when they had fought the Gorgonithals.

Green was healing.

Yellow was hastening properties.

Orange was defensive properties.

Red slimes were made of lava.

White slimes had glue-like properties, to slow others.

Pink slimes were explosive. Their gel acted as nitroglycerin.

Each slime gel could be used and mixed with other gels to form different potions and concoctions, and as a result of this, the slimes were often hunted down by the human boarder patrol and even by members of the lizard men village nearby. The lizard men would at least not kill the slimes, however, and would simply take the potions and poisons produced by the village alchemists and some provisions in exchange for protection against the humans.

However, this protection was not exactly good.

If the lizardmen happened to be there when humans attacked, they would defend the slimes, but otherwise they wouldn't lift a finger to make their way to the slime village. It was quite a distance after all, and the lizards were simply using the slimes for the free potion materials.

The slime village was known for its alchemical production due to the many different types of gels they could produce, however this also made it a center of attention for greedy thieves and powerful others who wished for an easy target.

It was a hard life as a slime, and now Iotar found himself leading yet another group to his village who wished to use them for free goods. He only prayed that it would end at that, and that no slimes would get hurt, but his hopes for that diminished as the two on his sides began threatening him.

He was so scared of every member of this group that if he had pants to shit he probably would have over and over again, but as a slime he did not produce any waste. Any food slimes ate would be transformed into gel, which then became a part of a slimes body. This was why it was acceptable for a slime to use its own body to produce potions, because they would simply need to consume food to make up for the missing fluid and restore the original mass of gel.

At any rate, the situation was bad. These demons were strong, and he knew it just by looking at them. Iotar had never met a higher demon before, but he heard stories about them being untouchable existences, far above the reaches of even the strongest members of the races that were above slimes such as lizardmen, fishmen, and even elementals.

Iotar led the demons to his village fearfully, and was questioned thoroughly by the male higher demon and the elf. He explained the entire situation to them to the best of his ability, but he could not shake his own fear.

'Please forgive me, people of my village.... I have no choice....'

-----

Claire looked around.

She was in a tribal village.

Her body was glitching out here and there, and she was unsure as to whether she really existed in this world or not.

However, she felt real. She felt her body, and even the places that were glitching out seemed to be fine.

When she looked around, there was nobody out.

Was everyone inside their homes?

Or was this an abandoned village?

Claire had to find out, so she began walking.

She was wearing a white ragged nightgown.

She had no possessions on her, and her body felt light.

She had become a beautiful woman as she aged within the computer, and she had long flowing hair and gorgeous eyes.

"Is anyone here?"

A small girl- no... it looked like a pink statue made of wax or clay... but it was moving like a human would, came out from hiding behind a box.

"Who are you, miss?"

As if prompted to say so, she responded.

"I am the Determined. I am here to save the realm of the monsters from destruction."

She knew this was her purpose and her identity. She didn't know why, but she was aware of this alone.

For one reason or another, she also knew that there was no danger in using the Determined as her identity, however revealing her real name could cause issues if the Indeterminant found out due to the quick spreading of information.

Slowly, one by one, more and more of the slime people came out from the corners and hiding places in the village.

Slimes of all colors entered the scene.

"Are you really here to help?", a young boy asked.

Claire nodded.

She looked around at all these people, struck with fear. She didn't know why they seemed to have so much fear in them, but she wanted to help them.

"What do you need help with?"

An elderly man stepped up, and explained the situation with how the lizardmen were exploiting the slimes, while at the same time not protecting them from the humans who attacked.

Claire was filled with anger towards both parties.

How could her fellow humans do something so horrible to these slime people?

But, knowing what a terrible person Oscar was, she was not too surprised.

At that moment, Claire resolved to do what she could to defend these slimes from the attackers.

When this happened, a message popped up.

[You have become determined to defend the slime kin]

[You have gained the ability to define that which is undefined currently. You are not currently able to redefine that which is already defined, however you may both lock a property as defined and define a property which is undefined]

[More information will appear when undefined properties are present]

After those messages, Claire looked at all the people.

In her previous life which was simulated, she was a computer science student, and knew exactly what all this jargon meant.

But she also was not able to tell what was already defined, and how much power she actually had to define new objects and properties.

Even so, she wanted to help these people.

"I promise that I will protect you all from whoever attacks you or tries to use you!"