Chapter 44. Slime (3)
“……You want to take that thing with us?”
“Yes! I don’t know much about the Demon King, but it seems to be reacting to your power, Jeonghyeon……”
“This is what happens when you let it slide……”
Or is it?
Thinking it over, if it could really work, wouldn’t that be great? Jeonghyeon wasn’t even a dragon awakener anyway—he was ready to do anything to take down the Demon King.
Right now, he was lost in hollow grief toward the Demon King, unable to forget his former lover. But grief like that easily turned to rage and obsession later on.
She’d try to use that to get to the Demon King, and since she came from the Demon King’s castle, she’d know the lay of the land too.
“Hey. You little shit, how are you this clever?”
Having such a brilliant idea pop into his head, Jeonghyeon immediately patted Philip’s head like he was smacking it, then turned back to the slime, who was still moping pitifully.
“Hey. Slime.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Oh. Right, sorry. Ethereal Slime cherished by the Demon King.”
“I have a name given to me by my master! You stupid human bastard!”
Good thing the slime had turned its back right there.
Jeonghyeon had instantly gathered the Demon King’s mana into his sword, ready to swing, but Philip barely managed to stop him.
“Hold it in! Hold it in!”
Jeonghyeon had nearly lost it, on the verge of decapitating something that didn’t even have a neck, but he finally regained his composure and was about to calmly address the slime again.
“This is my specialty. I know all about the pain of being discarded!”
……And suddenly Philip’s tragic backstory spilled out.
“Hey. What’s your name, anyway?”
“Nus……”
“Huh? Nus?”
“Endelionus Iscariot Cthulatlac Rominus IV. That’s my name.”
“Got it, Nus!”
“No, not Nus! Endelionus Iscari……”
“Yeah! Nus!”
This guy’s just pretending to be friendly, but he’s no different from me……
But Philip’s stickiness seemed to work on the slime too—it let out a deep sigh of resignation.
“Fine. Call me whatever you want, you bastard.”
“Nus. Must be tough, huh?”
“Like a lowly human like you could understand my pain? Don’t pretend to relate just ‘cause you’re in the same league. Crawl off and get your head chopped off so you can go to your precious master.”
How the hell had the Demon King raised this thing to talk like that? Jeonghyeon was blunt himself, but even he didn’t go that far.
“I’ve been through something similar, Nus.”
Philip plopped down next to Nus.
“The dragon who awakened me is named Uldran. Stubborn, upright, doesn’t like showing himself to people much.”
“……”
“So he rarely appeared to humans. People didn’t know much about Lord Uldran, which made his value drop too.”
“What’s that supposed to mean all of a sudden?”
Nus sounded annoyed, but he seemed intrigued by Philip’s earnest words.
“People treat awakeners like heroes who’ll save the world, no matter who it is. But the moment you say you got Uldran’s blessing? Instant cold shoulder.”
“You look the part.”
Nus couldn’t say anything nice. It was like he’d die if a kind word ever left his mouth.
“But a party reached out to me. We hunted together, made friends, and—embarrassing as it is—I even fell for someone.”
“Oh? And?”
People’s love lives were always intriguing. Even Jeonghyeon perked up—what slime could resist?
“We ended up in a dungeon way too dangerous for us. We were in deep shit in seconds.”
“……”
“I’d endured all the discrimination and crap silently up to then, but in that moment? Nothing could beat wanting to protect the girl I liked.”
“Then why didn’t you just die for her?”
“I begged him—how could he awaken me and not even show a way out? Give me something. Hell, it was more like a curse.”
Two guys who only said what they wanted. Jeonghyeon almost found the scene funny.
“So?”
“That’s when Lord Uldran gave me one skill. Dungeon Eye—lets you map a dungeon’s layout.”
“Hmph. Any ethereal slime can sense that with mana detection. So?”
After sniping back, the slime tacked on a “so?”—clearly hooked on the rest of the story.
“I carried two dying people over my shoulders, one on my back, and held another in front. Barely crawled out of there.”
“Oh?”
“Oh.”
Even Jeonghyeon was getting drawn in now. He hadn’t activated his Demon King’s Eye, but if he’d pushed Attribute Domination hard enough, Uldran might’ve tuned in too.
“Saved everyone. Guess what happened next?”
“What?”
“That girl said, ‘Why didn’t you use that great skill sooner? You put us all in danger, then expect us to call you a lifesaver?’”
The weight of Philip’s sincere words silenced the air. Even the slime, who sniped at every little thing, went quiet.
“After that, I got labeled a shady hunter who nearly wrecked the party with dirty tricks…… Nah, not even that. Just some forgettable E-rank nobody.”
“……Must’ve been rough.”
Ethereal slimes were mana-based at their core. Just high-utility slime #1, forgotten by all. Nus must’ve felt the same, cherished by the Demon King or not.
“It hurt at first, but later I got it. I’d have done the same.”
Philip placed a hand on Nus first this time. Slap. It stuck right on.
“……You soft idiot. Hey, don’t touch this body so casually, you flea.”
But slimes could reshape their bodies freely. If he really hated it, he could’ve flowed away like water or burned Philip’s hand with the Demon King’s power Jeonghyeon had given him. The fact he didn’t meant Philip’s story had cracked his shell a bit.
“That’s how it is. Everyone’s got their side, misunderstandings happen. Maybe the Demon King who ‘abandoned’ you had reasons too.”
A faint hope that the Demon King might be desperately searching for Nus. Blind, trampled trust for his master, buried in one corner of Nus’s heart.
“Hmph. Hopeful, unrealistic crap like that suits humans.”
“No. Someone saved me when I was about to fade away. Pulled me from despair and helplessness, dragged me here. And he’s the boss who’ll push me forward.”
Sharp Nus instantly guessed it was Jeonghyeon who’d saved Philip.
“We’ll take you to the Demon King. Clear up the misunderstanding. It’d be a waste for Nus to just off yourself here—not as the Demon King’s slime, but as you.”
Jeonghyeon wanted to call it bullshit, but coming from Philip’s own experience, both he and Nus could only stay silent.
“But I’m a slime. Bound by mana. I can’t leave……”
Thud.
A mana stone dropped right on the slime’s head.
Philip had flipped the heartstrings; now it was Jeonghyeon’s turn for the practical fix. He nodded at the stone he’d tossed Nus.
“Eat it.”
“What?”
“Eat it, I said.”
Nus glanced between the stone on the floor and Jeonghyeon looming over him, then yelled.
“Who the hell do you think you’re……!”
Thud.
Another stone straight into his open mouth mid-rant. Nus swallowed it without thinking.
“Treating me like a…… pet…… Mmm. Tastes good.”
Pride said starve to death, but the mana’s flavor after so long? Irresistible. He scarfed the one on the ground too.
Jeonghyeon tossed more, luring him closer like bait, one by one.
“Mmm…… more.”
“Mmm~! Delicious. More!”
“Good!”
Thud.
Finally, as Nus reached Jeonghyeon’s feet, gobbling at the ground, Jeonghyeon squatted down and asked.
“You really wanna see the Demon King?”
“……”
“We’ll take you. Follow us.”
Jeonghyeon opened his inventory—the porter’s hallmark gear, optimized for max efficiency.
“I-Inventory……?”
While Philip gawked, Jeonghyeon silently flung the entrance wide. Thick mana from tower mana stones leaked out.
“How could you bring mana stones from the tower to the real world?”
“But isn’t Nus a monster?”
“Nus. There’s a reason you’re such a proud slime, right?”
“Indeed. My body and mind are pure mana. Not some fallen flesh-bag lifeform.”
“Slime. Not a lifeform.”
Mesmerized, Nus slowly inched toward the inventory.
“Yeah, this isn’t just a tower gate. For you, discarded and all, it’s the start of a new journey, an escape from your powerless, defeat-filled life……”
“So tasty……!”
“Damn it.”
Jeonghyeon’s lofty words to win him over fell flat as Nus dove straight in, greedy for the pile of dozens of stones.
***
“Whoa. It actually worked.”
“This is wild.”
“You philistines hate this omniscient newborn POV crap, so let me out already?”
Jeonghyeon and Philip peered into the open inventory entrance, chatting about the intact Nus inside.
Nus bristled, clearly unhappy, demanding release.
“Wanna get out? Go ahead.”
Jeonghyeon tilted the inventory like opening a wild animal cage to free an injured tiger.
“Hmph! As if I couldn’t gaaaaaaah!!”
The instant a bit of Nus’s body touched Philip’s apartment floor, his surface sizzled like acid, smoking.
Nus yanked back and dove into the inventory.
“Dude. Mana density here’s way lower than the tower. This air’s like hydrochloric gas to a mana body like you.”
“You could’ve said that sooner! You son of a……”
Jeonghyeon snapped the inventory shut before Nus finished.
In a low-mana spot like this, Nus couldn’t venture out easily.
But in high-mana Afraksas or dungeons, he’d have more freedom.
For now, he’d bunk in Jeonghyeon’s inventory. Ignoring Nus’s furious yells, Philip asked awkwardly.
“Like you said, Jeonghyeon, with Nus gone, the tower trial cleared…… What now?”
“What else? Go to the one who told me about inventory.”
“Who’s that?”
Jeonghyeon recalled the Wakin sisters’ words. Inventory had trace mana now, absorbing it from stored stones—must have its own abilities.
“The Wakin sisters. Ask them how to make use of this.”