The Talking Slime
It hadn’t been long since the creature first became aware of its own existence. At the beginning, it could see nothing. All it felt was hunger, so it simply dissolved and devoured every substance that touched its meager body. It ate everything in sight, but at some point it began to perceive flavor. That happened right after it consumed an animal for the first time. Once it could taste and smell, it stopped dissolving things like rocks and tree roots that had no flavor. It avoided them instinctively. Having moved beyond the stage of devouring every material in its path, it now actively sought out things that tasted good. Its body seemed capable of surviving long periods without nutrients, so it simply waited.
Prey.
This body had the ability to transform into whatever it had eaten. It could mimic the characteristics and forms of the creatures it consumed. So it waited. It waited until prey came close enough to touch it. It became a large boulder and waited for animals to approach. Squirrels, small birds, lizards, insects, snakes—various creatures passed nearby. But it had already eaten all of them. It needed new stimulation.
When its vision first appeared, it was startled. To be precise, it wasn’t true vision but heat detection. The ability came after it devoured a snake that had crawled over its rock form. Afterward, it transformed into a snake and hunted squirrels, small birds, lizards, and insects. Sometimes it became a squirrel and rested in the trees, or turned into a mole and dug through the earth. It still didn’t know what kind of creature it was. It only knew that it was itself.
One day, as usual, it turned into a rock and did nothing as time passed. The rock form was the most stable. There were no natural predators. Rain was troublesome because the droplets struck its entire body, but in those cases it would transform into a tree to enjoy the sensation or slip into a cave and become a single stalactite. Occasionally it would devour approaching creatures to satisfy its hunger.
At one point, it created only eyes and ears on the surface of the rock to observe the scene.
“Huff… huff…!”
A limping creature approached. It leaned against a nearby tree, whispering in pain. Red blood flowed from its wounds, releasing a metallic scent. The being moved forward with agonizing slowness. Perhaps because it was the first time seeing this kind of creature, curiosity stirred within it. The time this being had spent enduring pain and continuing to live was not long. Its wounds were so deep that its eyes had rolled back.
Thud!
Eventually it lost the strength to stand and collapsed. Even after falling, it gasped for breath, clearly longing for something. The creature transformed into a massive snake and slithered closer.
“Sss~ shhh~”
It made the hissing sound of a snake as it approached slowly. It could feel the warmth radiating from the being gradually fading. This sensation was familiar—the feeling it experienced when consuming other creatures. The slow loss of life.
That was when it happened. Realizing the snake had drawn near, the being spoke.
“H-help… me.”
It was startled, but there was only one thing it could do. Devour the creature approaching it. That was the snake’s reason for existing.
The snake’s form gradually collapsed as slime tendrils reached toward the fallen being. They wrapped around its entire body and began to dissolve it slowly.
“Gaaah! Help me!”
That was the last sound the creature could make. Its skin, muscles, bones—everything melted and was consumed. Then it tested what it could transform into.
Of course it could become the creature it had just eaten. So it changed.
“Aaaah! Help me!”
A being with a sophisticated oral structure, a tongue, a uvula, and the power to speak. It was human. It tried to speak as much as it could.
“Aaaah! Help me!”
It could only say that much for now, but what a rewarding moment it was. It had transformed from a wobbly liquid monster into a creature that stood on two legs.
“Aaaah! Help me!”
It kept repeating the same words, but their meaning changed depending on its emotions.
Swish!
It ran through the grass with powerful legs. Because it wasn’t used to the body yet, the sharp leaves of the grass cut its skin. It kept running without noticing the blood. The sensation of breath growing labored was exhilarating. Since it wore nothing, its entire body was covered in scratches. The metallic scent of red blood filled the air, yet a smile spread across its face.
It was smiling. Smiling was an emotion born from overwhelming happiness. It had never felt this way even after devouring other creatures. Its breathing grew rapid, then slowly steadied. After running wildly through the forest, when hunger struck again, it turned back into a massive boulder.
It took at least four days by carriage to reach De Marinda. That was assuming there were no ambushes along the way.
“This escort job is practically free money.”
“No monsters at all. At this rate, we’ll arrive tomorrow.”
Just as the adventurers’ conversation suggested, there had been strangely few attacks. One could say such things happened occasionally, but seven out of ten journeys usually involved ambushes. Even in areas with low monster density, at least one or two were bound to appear. In a large caravan, even a single monster could cause significant delays, yet nothing of the sort had occurred.
“This is definitely weird, right?”
(Isn’t it good if monsters don’t appear?)
“Well, yeah.”
(What kind of monsters usually show up around here?)
At Sally’s question, Bagan thought about their current location. They had traveled three days from De Meca at the speed of a cargo wagon, with one day remaining until De Marinda. That was their current position. In the game, a map would have shown the exact area, but now he could only make an educated guess.
After careful consideration, since they were close to De Marinda, this had to be the Hilan Forest highway. The forests in this region were hard to pinpoint without a map, but if his prediction was correct, it was definitely the Hilan Forest. The monsters that appeared there were…
“Mostly slimes and ordinary beast-type monsters. The strongest among them is called the Hilan Bear—a fire bear. They’re nothing compared to Arc Wolves or Overhorns.”
De Marinda was a beginner-level city even in the game, so the surrounding forests lacked powerful monsters. The Hilan Forest was the prime example of such a region.
(Then there shouldn’t be any problem. The escorts from De Meca are quite strong.)
“You’ve already figured that out?”
(It seemed that way. From the way they were talking.)
As Sally said, the level of mercenaries and adventurers in the Seiros Kingdom was highest in De Meca. Excluding the exceptional cases where Adamanthium or Titanium-rank powerhouses stayed in De Seiran, most elite fighters originated from De Meca.
“That’s right. Next would be the mercenaries from De Pruna.”
(Yes. That’s the border region, after all.)
“As expected of the Spirit King. Your analytical skills are incredible.”
(It’s nothing special.)
Bagan was passing the time in the rattling carriage by chatting. As they continued traveling, the hour that was most likely to be their final night arrived. They let the horses rest and gave the exhausted mercenaries a break as well. Just like before, the carriages lined up neatly, completely filling the wide road at perfect angles.
The escorts lit fires before stretching their tired legs, while the coachmen tended to the horses with water and feed. Bagan, as usual, got off the carriage early and looked for a suitable place to lean back.
Should I check once?
Every living thing contained mana. He had confirmed this yesterday and the day before. He spread his own mana outward, claiming the surrounding mana as his own. Although no monster near the Hilan Forest could possibly threaten him, he wanted to check if any were nearby just in case.
“It’s clean. Strangely so.”
Bagan’s detection ability had gained an enormous range after his core formed. While ordinary mages or adventurers skilled in detection could only scan about 100 meters around them, Bagan’s range currently extended all the way to De Marinda. Of course, attempting something like that would overwhelm him with too much information and give him a headache. Still, he scanned a reasonable 500-meter radius and sensed no threats.
(Hmm, there must be something going on. Or maybe they cleared the area near De Marinda not long ago?)
Sally’s comment made sense, but Bagan judged that De Marinda wouldn’t have the spare soldiers to patrol the Hilan Forest.
They have troublesome enemies to deal with.
(Huh?)
“Never mind. Anyway, it’s safe.”
(True. No harm in that, right?)
Bagan settled between the Y-shaped roots of a suitably flat tree. It was the perfect structure to lean against. A typical adventurer would prioritize claiming a good spot, but making a fire came first. While others used expensive magic tools or relied on mages to start fires, Bagan simply flicked a finger and produced one. It was the same principle as last time.
“Guess I’ll have a sandwich today.”
(A sandwich for dinner? What’s wrong with your tongue?)
Sally complained, but the sandwich Bagan took out from his subspace was far from ordinary. In truth, it was closer to a burger. He had visited every bakery in De Meca just to obtain this bread. It wasn’t the square bread normally used for sandwiches, but perfectly toasted burger buns that gave off a rich aroma. Between them were Ganesha’s stir-fried meat and fresh vegetables. Calling it a sandwich was technically correct, but it was really a burger.
(Mmm, that looks delicious.)
“Want one?”
(You have more?)
“Of course. My subspace has everything except nothing.”
“Well, I did see you put them in.”
Before he knew it, Sally had materialized and sat beside him. As expected of the Spirit King, she was curious and loved acquiring knowledge, but what she enjoyed most was tasting food. When she materialized, she could eat and experience flavor, so she always copied whatever Bagan ate.
“This is my first time trying this. I’m excited.”
Sally took the burger from Bagan and stared at it with sparkling eyes.
“Munch. Are you going to eat it with your eyes? Hurry up and finish it.”
Bagan spoke with the burger still in his mouth. Sally snapped out of her trance and took a bite.
Crunch!
The fragrant, toasted bread stimulated her salivary glands first. Then the crisp texture of fresh vegetables refreshed her mood. The highlight, however, was Ganesha’s stir-fried meat. Following Bagan’s request to use soy sauce as the base, the meat was savory and slightly sweet—the more she chewed, the richer the flavor became.
“This is amazing!”
Sally spoke after finally swallowing her first bite.
“Right? Though there’s one thing I regret.”
“What is it?”
“French fries and cola.”
“French fries and cola? There’s food like that? It wasn’t in any of the documents I read.”
Having learned about the world solely through books, she expressed curiosity because it didn’t exist in her knowledge.
“Well, it’s fried potatoes and a fizzy sugar drink, I guess?”
He took another bite of the burger.
“Hmm, you shortened those long names that much?”
Bagan stared at her in disbelief and simply said,
“Never mind. Eat up. Want another?”
“Yes, just one more.”
She had already finished one and now accepted another burger from him. After finishing their meal, the pair patted their full stomachs and gazed up at the sky.
“It really is strange.”
“Hmm? What is? The stars?”
“No. The fact that no monsters are appearing.”
Bagan voiced the suspicion he had been harboring.
“I thought maybe the road from De Meca for the first two days could be free of monsters. But this is De Marinda’s territory. Especially in the Hilan Forest, the monster density should be fairly high. Yet there isn’t a single living thing nearby.”
“You said it might not be the Hilan Forest.”
“But I’m almost certain. If my calculations are wrong, it must be the coachmen’s fault.”
Bagan was convinced this was the Hilan Forest. The vegetation, the atmosphere—it was exactly like the forest he had seen in the game. Even if graphics and reality differed, it wouldn’t make sense if this wasn’t the Hilan Forest.
“It would be nice if we could hurry, but they wouldn’t deliberately slow down. There must be something wrong with the forest.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
“It doesn’t matter to me, but I’m just curious.”
Bagan stood up from the tree he had been leaning against.
“Hup! This isn’t normal. Maybe I should…”
“Aaaah! Help me!”
At that moment, a scream echoed from somewhere. Everyone jumped to their feet and grabbed their weapons. One adventurer shouted while looking in the direction of the sound.
“If this is a joke, you’d better stop right now!”
He was probably unable to overcome his fear of the dark night and had become terrified. He tried to act tough, but to anyone watching, he looked like a frightened puppy trying to look brave.
“Aaaah! Help me!”
But the scream came again, clearly not a prank.
“Th-this…”
“Yeah, it sounds just like that story I heard before. Was it real after all?”
It was a story one of the adventurers had told on the first night of their journey. A sticky, slimy thing that crawled up a tree, stretched out, and begged for help. It seemed the ghost story hadn’t been made up after all.
Everyone moved slowly toward the source of the sound, tense and alert. The coachmen and the representative from the Arcray Company, frightened, asked several people to escort them.
“Shall we go take a look?”
Bagan was no exception. More curious than anyone, he headed toward the direction of the scream.
(I’m curious too. A ghost story, huh.)
Sally, who had returned to her spirit form, followed after him.
“Help me!”
The scream rang out again. This time it was very close. At first it had seemed to echo throughout the entire forest, but now it sounded like it was right beside them. Bagan looked around. He was searching for something.
“Help!”
Whoever it was kept repeating the same words. Bagan pinpointed the direction of the sound and finally found it.
“Found it.”
Just as the story described, a slimy liquid was clinging to a tree. When Bagan approached, it stretched out and noticed him.
“Help me!”
Bagan remained completely still as he analyzed it.
“Help… me?”
When Bagan didn’t panic and simply stared calmly, the creature expressed doubt.
“Yeah. What do you want me to help with?”
It was unmistakably a slime.