#1. Perhaps a Slime in a Novel? (2)
#1. Perhaps a Slime in a Novel? (2)
[Heat Sense (F) Lv.1 proficiency at maximum. Heat Sense (F) Lv.1 → Heat Sense (F) Lv.2]
With Heat Sense, I gained some sense of time. When night fell, the temperature dropped, so I could at least tell day from night.
I wondered if I ought to sleep now that it was night, but slimes apparently didn't experience fatigue. A body that needed no rest. Back when I was human, that had been the dream, but as a slime the whole thing felt distinctly less appealing.
My thoughts were still happening somewhere in a brain, presumably... which was odd.
A slime ought to be a single-celled organism. There was no way it had an advanced organ like a brain. So how in the world was I thinking at all?
Sitting around pondering wouldn't give me answers. I decided to just accept it. The fact that a human had become a slime in the first place was already absurd.
Growth demanded my attention more than useless speculation.
I couldn't make any confident claims without knowing my total experience numbers, but the XP from Predation seemed to have increased as well.
The rule in every game is that higher levels require more experience—but Predation's level had also gone up, so even with a similar number of absorptions, my level still rose.
Or maybe it wasn't the skill at all but the prey. Higher-quality food might yield more experience. In moments like this, I desperately wanted a proper status screen. Numbers to measure against would make setting goals so much easier.
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.4 → Lv.5]
[Partially opening Status.]
The moment I had been waiting for had finally arrived, and a silent scream echoed inside me. Heart pounding, I called up the status screen—
[Lesser Slime Lv.5]
'......?'
[Lesser Slime Lv.5]
......
[Lesser Slime Lv.5]
Checking over and over changed nothing. It showed me my species and level and nothing else. What kind of status screen was this? And the species was Lesser.
Lesser—smaller, less important.
I'd thought I was just a normal slime, but I was an inferior subspecies. No wonder I felt so wretchedly weak.
Did that mean ordinary slimes were stronger than this?
'So they'd count as actual monsters.'
And I was just on the fringes of monsterhood. I said it loud enough for the System to hear.
[Status has been partially opened.]
Partially opened... The only thing I could take from that was basically, "Got a problem with it? That's just how it goes."
'I already know I'm a slime and Level 5. You could at least show me my experience!'
But the System stayed silent, and I let out a sigh.
'System. Do you have no conscience whatsoever?'
With no other choice, I checked the list of obtainable skills—at least I could look at what was available.
[Obtainable Skill List]
1. Tentacle (F)
...
14. Observation (F)
The list had ballooned to fourteen options, but I didn't hesitate.
[Observation (F) Lv.1 skill acquired.]
In novels and games, skills like Observation and Appraisal were always broken. Maybe I could use this to observe myself and read my own status at last. The moment I eagerly activated Observation—
'?'
Astoundingly, nothing happened.
Thinking something had gone wrong, I spammed Observation wildly, and still absolutely nothing happened.
Frustrated, I refused to give up and kept firing it off, but nothing continued to happen—as if the System were saying, "Stop wasting time and just grind your levels."
'I'm getting stronger out of sheer spite. For real.'
I clenched teeth I didn't even have. If I had been born human, I wouldn't be suffering through any of this bullshit. I sensed intense heat somewhere in the distance and activated Stealth. I didn't know what slime tasted like, but the way that mouse had charged at me so single-mindedly suggested we weren't exactly inedible.
'...Should I try eating one myself later?'
Even if it would be cannibalism.
I'd been worried about the "Faint" modifier tacked onto Stealth, but the skill seemed reliable enough. The heat signature I had been tracking gradually cooled, and soon I could tell that whatever it was had departed completely.
Judging from its larger heat signature, it had been more dangerous than the mice. No reason to take unnecessary risks. On the other hand, I actively sought out heat signatures smaller than the mice.
[Red Fire Ant ingested. Satiety and Experience Points increased.]
'Is that the ant they call the killer ant?'
...No idea. Either way, it was daily sustenance.
[Heat Sense (F) Lv.2 proficiency at maximum. Heat Sense (F) Lv.2 → Heat Sense (F) Lv.3]
[Predation (F) Lv.3 proficiency at maximum. Predation (F) Lv.3 → Predation (F) Lv.4]
Predation was growing smoothly as well. I took down one more field mouse that showed up, devoured it, and only then did I reach Level 6.
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.5 → Lv.6]
[Releasing Evolution Available list.]
Evolution, out of nowhere. I'd always assumed it was the classic Level 10 milestone, but here it was, throwing open evolution routes at Level 6. Just the word evolution made my chest swell.
Heart fluttering, I waited for the System's next words.
'......Well?'
You said you were releasing it. Any time now.
No matter how long I waited, the System said nothing. Then a thought struck me, and I kept activating Observation repeatedly.
[Observation (F) Lv.1 proficiency at maximum. Observation (F) Lv.1 → Observation (F) Lv.2]
'Ah... you've got to be kidding me.'
Only then did I understand. In all likelihood, an information window obtained through Observation was floating right in front of me, or the evolution routes the System had released were already open. And the reason I couldn't see any of it? Simple.
I was a slime. I had no eyes. No sense of sight!
The sheer frustration bubbled up inside me, and I had to actively suppress it.
Observation's proficiency had been rising steadily every time I used it, so if I didn't know about it, that could only be the reason. Now that I thought about it, the skill list had been the [Obtainable Skill List], not [Usable Skill List]. It only told me what I could acquire.
My nonexistent teeth ground together. Because there was no way a slime could ever gain sight.
On the off chance, I extended a tentacle and felt around my surroundings, but nothing happened. The interface apparently wasn't something you "pressed" like a button. I sighed and checked the obtainable skills.
[Obtainable Skill List]
1. Tentacle (F)
...
19. Faint Olfactory Sense (F)
'Smell? Not sight, but smell?'
Still, it was something to be grateful for. If I could gain a sense of smell, then surely sight would come someday. Thinking that way sparked a bit of motivation I hadn't had before. I had one spare Skill Point, but I decided to save it. Even if I took Olfactory Sense now, I had no immediate use for it. Better to hold onto it for when I truly needed it.
So, my level had gone up. Time to move around a little more.
Lesser Slime or not, at this pace, I'd grow fast. I detected a heat signature hotter than a mouse and crept toward it under Stealth. The size felt a bit larger than a mouse—
'Squirrel?'
It seemed to have taken an interest in me as I lurked there. The creature had noticed me too and started poking at me. I held out a little longer, and then I felt it climb fully onto my body as if I were a cushion.
'......!'
Slowly, so slowly the thing wouldn't notice, I wrapped my tendrils around its legs. The force was barely more than a gentle stroke, but once there were several layers, that changed. At the same time, I lifted my body.
The squirrel looked like it had been caught in a net trap. Flustered, it struggled to escape, but it was useless. Soon enough, it went still.
'Got torn up pretty good.'
I'd almost lost it, but in the end it was a clean hunt. I felt my body surface slowly restoring itself through Weak Regeneration and let out a sigh of relief.
[Red Squirrel ingested. Experience Points and Satiety increased.]
'That was a red squirrel?'
I'd assumed it was just a regular squirrel.
Whatever. The red squirrel became daily sustenance, converted into experience by Predation, and I hit Level 7. It gave far more experience than a field mouse.
'It even swapped the order of experience and satiety.'
Before, satiety had always come first, but this time experience was listed first. Probably meant I'd gained so much XP that it took priority. Brimming with anticipation, I opened the [Obtainable Skill List], but sight wasn't there either. Just taste.
I considered grabbing it, but decided against it. I was still mostly eating leaves and insects—what would be the point of a sense of taste right now?
'Once I get sight... insects might become hard to eat.'
Smell had unlocked at Level 7, so sight or hearing would unlock at Level 8. And since life never goes the way you want, hearing would show up first.
Something about that structure—the way the one thing I actually needed, sight, was clearly being pushed back—gave me a strange sense of wrongness.
I'd thought this before, but it felt like the System was deliberately goading me into growing. As if stopping was never an option.
'Nah, no way...'
***
"No, for real! This stupid mountain is killing me! Why?!"
"You've still got a long way to go if you're talking like that. Hurry up."
"Ugh, come on, senior! Let's go together!"
"Look at you. It's only been two hours since we started climbing. Are you even in our clan with that attitude?"
"Ah, geez! What does that have to do with anything?!"
"What does it have to do—are you seriously talking back now?"
"No! That's not what I meant!"
"I'm hungry~ Let's hurry up."
Spurred on by her senior, the junior scrambled up the mountain for dear life—but the gap between them only widened again.
"Oh come on! Two hours is a long time! How much farther is it?"
"When are you going to grow up?"
"I'm not even a hunter! You're the hunter, senior! I'm an office worker now. Of-fice-work-er!"
She had a point there, and he almost conceded—then his eyes narrowed.
"Office workers don't need to go out into the field?"
"Who even does fieldwork on a mountain?! You're the one who dragged me out here. Can't you just give me a piggyback ride?"
At his junior's whining, the senior let out a deep sigh.
"It was Team Leader Gu who told me to bring you, not me. Now hurry up. Okay?"
He'd figured she'd follow on her own if he waited a moment, but she showed no sign of following. Forced to climb back down, he smacked her on the head, and she clutched her forehead, yelping.
"What was that for?!"
"That's my line. You switch departments, and now you're not even going to work?"
"That's not it! Look at that!"
He glanced where his junior was pointing. A single slime was slowly oozing along.
"What about it?"
"......That slime. Doesn't it look odd to you?"
"Odd my ass. You're just trying every trick to get a break. Right?"
"No, I mean it! Will you just look?!"
As if to show him, she took a step toward it, and the slime went limp. Its color even seemed to shift.
"......?"
"See? Weird, right?"
His junior stepped back triumphantly, but this time the slime just stayed there, sagging limply and showing no sign of movement.
Flustered, she repeated the approach-and-retreat several times, but the slime didn't budge. Soon the senior snorted and ruffled her hair.
"If you'd spent this time climbing, we'd already be done."
His junior protested to the bitter end, but in the end she was hauled away by the scruff of her neck.
***
It was a searing heat, so intense I felt like I'd burn just from its presence. I'd activated Stealth purely on reflex, as if that presence alone might melt me. It drew near and then receded over and over, and in the end I even acquired Presence Detection just in case.
That something had definitely noticed me. I stayed perfectly still, half-expecting the worst, but it apparently departed into the distance. I had no idea what had happened, but I'd gotten lucky.
'......Did it let me go?'
In that short span, Stealth had jumped from Lv.1 to Lv.4. Whatever it was, Stealth hadn't seemed to work on it. What on earth had that been?
'I need to get stronger. Fast.'
A sigh leaked out. Half a day had passed since I'd caught the red squirrel, and I'd reached Lv.8, but the skill I'd gained wasn't sight—it was hearing. Just as I'd predicted, sight would only show up at Lv.9.
'Even if it's hearing...'
It was so weak it couldn't compare to when I'd been human. Almost entirely useless.
'......Oh.'
Mid-lament, Heat Sense picked something up. Smaller than a mouse—but it was fairly high up.
Insects perched on a tree, maybe? I activated Stealth, and it immediately showed interest in me.
'It's a stealth skill... so why does it function more like bait?'
My presence was definitely erased, as the skill promised. Yet for some reason, everything that saw me came over, brimming with curiosity.
As expected, this one did the same—approached and settled on top of me. The moment I wrapped my tentacles around it and closed in, just like with the red squirrel—
Bang—!
Something exploded. At the same instant, whatever it was slipped smoothly away from me. My body couldn't withstand the blast and scattered into pieces, my body surface area slashed by nearly half. I was stunned, but the thing was already long gone.
'Bombardier beetle?'
Could a bombardier beetle really blow apart a slime nearly fifty centimeters across? That shouldn't be possible.
'Then what was it?'
I had no idea.
It might have been a monster. At least I'd memorized its temperature and presence, so I could avoid it next time. If my level had been even a little lower, I might've died. The lesson hit home hard: size and strength don't always correlate.
[Weak Regeneration (F) Lv.1 proficiency at maximum. Weak Regeneration (F) Lv.1 → Weak Regeneration (F) Lv.2]
Weak Regeneration leveled up, and after another half-day, I was able to level up again.
[Experience Points at maximum. Lv.8 → Lv.9]
Thanks to that, I recovered and immediately opened the [Obtainable Skill List]—but contrary to my expectations, sight hadn't unlocked.
[Obtainable Skill List]
1. Tentacle (F)
...
28. Faint Sixth Sense (F)
Instead, a skill called Faint Sixth Sense had appeared.
'Sixth Sense, huh...'
In English: Sixth Sense.
Unlike the five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—a sixth sense meant perceiving information not through the body's physical receptors but through the mind or intuition. The kind of thing that only existed in supernatural fantasy.
'This is...'
Ambiguous. Sixth sense had never been a clearly defined concept to begin with. Whether it even truly existed was one question, but whether you could even call it a "sense" at all was equally murky.
'But I'm taking it!'
Think about it. Mind's Eye. Sixth Sense. Intuition.
In fantasy, the weirder and more ambiguous a skill sounded, the more broken it was guaranteed to be. Sixth Sense absolutely fell into that category.
'Not taking this would be a loss.'
Besides, Weak Sight was bound to unlock at Level 10 anyway. Even if I learned Sixth Sense now, the Skill Point from hitting Level 10 would leave me with two spare. Even if I grabbed Weak Sight the moment it unlocked at 10, I'd still have one left over.
'When exactly am I going to lose that "Faint" modifier for good?'
I prayed, fervently, that this time at least I hadn't been scammed.