The Breeding Ground Control Room
Teonor Academy boasted a state-of-the-art monster training ground, a facility that ground through an immense amount of manpower. Among its various sectors, the F-1 Monster Training Ground was considered the easiest post. It housed slimes—creatures so weak even an ordinary civilian could defeat them—meaning accidents rarely, if ever, occurred. Unless a freshman was so mind-bogglingly careless that they needed their IQ retested, no one ever got hurt here.
But today, the control room of the F-1 Monster Training Ground was a different story. Staff members scrambled in every direction, and the control room chief glared at the flashing lights on the main monitor. The number of blinking indicators was multiplying in real-time. His brow furrowed deeper by the second.
"A Special-grade Shadow Slime has appeared?"
An irregular monster had emerged. An unprecedented beast whose power could not be properly measured had manifested in none other than the F-1 training ground. It was a crisis of such magnitude that the entire facility had to be shut down immediately.
"How the hell did we fail to notice this until things got this fucked up?!"
The chief of the F-1 control room roared, slamming his fist onto the table. The atmosphere in the room was suffocatingly tense, as if someone might be executed on the spot. The staff shrank back, unable to utter a single word of defense. After all, the control room existed precisely to monitor and manage such anomalies.
Yet, they had a valid excuse this time. The Shadow Slime was a species possessing a near-miraculous stealth capability that defied even the academy's most advanced detection equipment. Because each individual possessed a completely different mana attribute, sensors that tracked monsters by their mana signatures were utterly useless. Even if they searched the physical grounds, these creatures resided in subdimensions beyond the shadows, making them practically impossible to spot. It was an unavoidable disaster.
Knowing that assigning blame would change nothing, the chief rubbed his face with his palms. Forcing his racing heart to calm down, he asked in a low, heavy voice,
"Whew... And you're sure it's Special-grade?"
"Yes, sir. Its current size is seven meters. Excluding the Mother of the Great Ocean, this is the largest slime specimen ever recorded."
The Mother of the Great Ocean. It was one of the few unmeasurable-class monsters in existence, a calamity possessing power on par with a Demon King. It was said that if the Mother of the Great Ocean ever mobilized, the map of the continent would have to be redrawn. Fortunately, this specimen wasn't quite at that level. Nevertheless, it was still a catastrophe.
"We are absolutely screwed. What's the danger rating?"
"It's rated at B-plus rank, equivalent to the ogres currently kept in the B-9 Breeding Ground."
"An ogre... We are so incredibly dead."
He shuddered to think of the chewing-out he would receive from the head director of operations. That man's scoldings were so legendary that his voice would ring in your ears for a week.
"How many students are currently inside the F-1 ground?"
"There are two. Kanteil, a second-year from the Swordplay Department, and Seril Lever, a second-year from the Enchantment Department."
"Wait, Seril Lever? Do you mean the eldest daughter of the Lever Marquisate? The 'Minus Hand' who breaks everything she touches?"
"Yes, sir. That is correct."
This was getting worse by the second. If it were any other student, they might have been able to hold their ground for a bit since it was still technically a slime, but Seril Lever was a different story. Her combat ability was practically non-existent; a regular civilian charging with a kitchen knife would be more threatening. Though she was plagued by various derogatory nicknames, her most famous moniker was one in particular.
The Academy's Sole Dunce. In an institution teeming with geniuses and prodigies, Seril Lever's lack of talent was so extreme it was deemed an administrative error. And of all people, she was the one caught in this chaos. This was an absolute emergency. To a student who could barely handle a goblin, let alone an orc, a B-plus rank monster was an unstoppable natural disaster. A single moment of delay would cost her life.
"What about the Disciplinary Committee?"
"Irelia, the Disciplinary Committee President, is on her way with Teams One and Three. The Student Council has also dispatched personnel. An irregular slime tends to mass-produce ordinary slimes at an alarming rate."
While a typical irregular monster acted as a lord that commanded surrounding beasts, a slime irregular mass-produced its own kind. They could spawn thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands.
"Good grief... This is a disaster. No matter how capable a second-year cadet is, facing thousands of monsters is impossible."
He had heard Professor Carmel praise the name Kanteil until his ears bled, but the boy was ultimately still just a human. He couldn't possibly have crossed into the superhuman realm of a Sword Master or an Archmage. Among the student body, only four monsters had achieved that transcendent status: the Student Council President, the Vice President, the Disciplinary Committee President—the madwoman Irelia—and the leader of the Occupation Club.
Three bright lights flashed on his monitor. He focused on Seril Lever's signal, which was dangerously close to the indicator for the Special-grade Shadow Slime. Her light flickered weakly, as if it might extinguish at any moment. Please, just hold out until reinforcements arrive... All he could do now was pray for their survival.
Inside the F-1 Monster Training Ground, Kanteil tilted his head at the faint distress signal echoing from somewhere in the distance.
Did I mishear?
This was just a slime breeding ground. As long as a normal person didn't completely let their guard down, they could clear it without breaking a sweat. In the first place, Professor Carmel hadn't assigned this to measure their strength; it was merely a warm-up exercise to shake off the rust after their break. Who could possibly be struggling so much against these weaklings that they had to call for help?
Squelch. The question in his mind dissolved at the wet, heavy sound of a slime sliding across the ground. Kanteil raised his head and beheld the source.
A massive body, previously hidden behind the dense trees, came into view. Its skin was not the typical translucent blue of a normal slime, but an ominous, pitch-black hue. Foul-smelling pus oozed from its entire form as it writhed forward, crushing the surrounding vegetation.
Crack! A tree snapped under the sheer weight of the creature and collapsed. The slime rolled over it, leaving behind nothing but flattened, unrecognizable splinters embedded in the dirt.
An irregular?
Was there any mention of an irregular monster appearing in the slime training ground in the original game? No, if such an event had occurred, Idrian Goldenroad would have definitely been dragged into it. He was a walking tempest of trouble, after all—that was the destiny of a protagonist.
Brushing that thought aside, another question surfaced.
"How on earth did they fail to detect something that massive?"
Even without activating physical reinforcement, how could anyone miss a monstrosity of that scale? He pondered the mystery for a brief second, but it quickly lost its urgency as the desperate cry for help rang out once more. This time, a girl's voice echoed clearly through the woods.
"Aaaah! Help me!!!"
In front of the unidentified irregular slime, a pink-haired girl was running for her life, screaming at the top of her lungs. Her attire and the staff clutched in her hand practically screamed, 'I'm a mage!' Chasing hot on her heels was not only the massive irregular slime but also hundreds of smaller black slimes it had spawned. Drenched in sweat and pale as a ghost, she looked ready to collapse at any moment.
That was enough thinking for now; saving her came first. Activating his physical reinforcement, Kanteil swung his sword. In an instant, the gelatinous bodies were sliced apart. The small slimes, along with several larger ones, were cleaved cleanly in half. He stepped toward the girl, who had collapsed to the ground and was on the verge of tears, and extended his hand.
"Are you alright? Can you stand?"
"Hic... Thank you so much... Wait, b-behind you!"
Behind him? Before Kanteil could react, a powerful impact sent him flying. It felt like a playful tap from a giant toy hammer against his ribs. While it didn't cause him any actual pain, the force of the blow was enough to instantly kill an average academy student. Had it been a fake sword master, their body would have burst into pieces.
"What the? A slime is this strong?"
This was easily on par with an ogre. Over the past month, Kanteil had explored various corners of the academy, including the ogre breeding grounds. He had taken a hit from an ogre back then, and this impact felt remarkably similar. To make matters worse, it was a slime, which meant it could regenerate. Unless its core was destroyed, a slime would regenerate almost indefinitely. Absorbing its severed halves back into its mass, the irregular slime swelled in size and lunged toward him. Was it trying to eliminate the biggest threat first?
Well, at least I managed to draw it away from the girl.
That optimistic thought was instantly shattered by the black wave that followed. A massive swarm of slimes, numbering in the thousands, surged forward. Moving in unison, they looked like a literal tidal wave of darkness.
Scratch that. The big one isn't the only threat here.
Should he clear out the annoyances first? Coating his blade in aura, Kanteil thrust it toward the irregular slime's core. The razor-sharp edge pierced through the gelatinous mass, heading straight for the target—only for the core to split in two, dodging the blade.
"Bullshit."
A curse slipped from his lips. A slime that could actively move its own core? And by splitting it, no less? Who did this thing think it was, the Mother of the Great Ocean? Granted, a slime barely reaching ten meters couldn't compare to that legendary calamity, but he had never heard of any other slime capable of consciously manipulating its core. Hunting it down was entirely possible if he got serious, but it would take too much time. And right now, there was a more pressing matter.
"Huh? Why are there so many Shadow Slimes all of a sudden..."
He needed to rescue the girl whose legs had turned to jelly first.
"Aaaah! What are you doing all of a sudden?!"
Scooped up by her waist, the girl tried to struggle, but she was so weak he barely felt any resistance.
"Stay still. I'm getting us out of here. And close your eyes. It's going to hurt if you keep them open."
"Th-thank you. But my eyes?"
The girl stammered, utterly bewildered by the sudden instruction. But Kanteil didn't have the luxury to explain everything. Even if her eyeballs ruptured from the speed, surviving was the priority. In an instant, the world slowed to a crawl. He dashed through the decelerated flow of time. A massive wall—no, a swarm of slimes—blocked his path. With a swift flick of his wrist, he carved a thin line through the barrier. Fortunately, the smaller slimes didn't possess the ability to split their cores. If such a trait were common, this breeding ground would have been classified as C-rank or higher, not F-rank. Shredding the wave of slimes into pieces, Kanteil broke through the encirclement.