The Monster with Traits
Bagan looked at the creature stretching out from the tree and smiled faintly. “So, what kind of fellow are you?”
It was too interesting to kill outright. The creature was a monster, and monsters were supposed to be exterminated on sight. But this situation was different. A talking slime was more than enough to spark his curiosity.
“Help me.”
The same words it had spoken before. It seemed those three syllables were all it could manage. There was no emotion behind them. Since the slime was made of liquid, it lacked the organs needed for proper speech. That was why its voice sounded roughly similar but never quite formed clear pronunciation.
Yet why was it asking for help? Bagan pondered the question until Sally’s voice reached him.
(This child seems to have killed a human. It’s probably just repeating the last words it heard.)
So it had killed a human. More accurately, it had devoured one. Slimes were composed of acidic fluid and dissolved everything that entered their bodies to feed. That was simply their nature as monsters.
“Absorption… How did it come to possess that ability? And intelligence, no less.”
Bagan felt a spark of delight at the prospect of new research material. He had been regretting that it was still too early to sleep, but this discovery more than made up for it.
Among monsters, slimes were notorious for killing many humans. Especially those living in forests like this one often eliminated unsuspecting intruders without a sound. Yet Bagan had never seen or heard of a slime that devoured humans and then took on a human-like form.
That was not the only proof of this slime’s uniqueness. Though its body could dissolve any substance, it had climbed the tree without melting the bark or leaves. That meant it did not indiscriminately dissolve everything for nutrients. It could select its prey and even keep its acidic fluid from remaining acidic.
Just then, a voice called out.
“B-Bagan, sir! Is everything all right?”
One of the other guards had mustered the courage to enter the forest where Bagan stood.
“Go back. It was just a false alarm.”
To them, the slime was simply another monster that needed to be dealt with. There was no need to expose it and invite questions. Of course, even if they tried to kill it, Bagan would stop them.
“Ah, understood. Then please be careful!”
The guard, well aware of Bagan’s personality and strength, hurried away, clearly unsettled at the thought of leaving him alone in the forest at night.
Once the adventurer disappeared from view, Bagan deployed a barrier. It enclosed a ten-meter radius centered on himself and the slime. Its purpose was simple.
“Now no one but me will hear you even if you shout.”
(I’m here too, you know?)
“Ah, right.”
He had not forgotten Sally’s presence, but the point stood. He nodded and turned his gaze back to the slime. The creature, intrigued that Bagan showed no fear, kept stretching and twisting its body to examine him from every angle.
“Do you have eyes? You’re studying me.”
(Indeed. It has no eyes, yet it seems to see.)
Sally, also encountering a talking monster for the first time, watched with evident curiosity.
The slime spent a long while observing Bagan before climbing back toward the top of the tree.
“It wasn’t climbing the tree. It had transformed into the tree itself.”
The sight the adventurer had described—something crawling up the tree—was not climbing at all. The creature had simply extended itself from the tree. The proof lay in how it had shifted from a tree-like shape into another form.
“Kuuuuur!”
A bear-like roar approached. It was a Hilan Bear, a creature Bagan knew well.
“So you even devoured the boss. That means you became the boss, didn’t you? By turning into a tree, you could avoid detection.”
(That makes sense.)
Even as the bear reared up on its hind legs and raised its front paws to attack, Bagan and Sally continued their leisurely conversation, showing not the slightest concern.
Perhaps that nonchalance was the final trigger. The bear swung its massive paw at Bagan, who had so thoroughly ignored it.
“Kuuuuaang!”
A Hilan Bear’s forepaw strike was powerful enough to tear through thick trees. Under normal circumstances, the blow would have left nothing but shattered bones, but Bagan was not normal.
Clang!
“Ugh, that rings.”
He had coated his body with metallic mana. It was the Iron Skin technique he had used against the Arc Wolves in Zairan Forest. Even a boss-level Hilan Bear was weaker than an Arc Wolf; the environments they inhabited were simply on different levels. Moreover, Bagan’s Iron Skin had been refined far beyond its previous state.
‘It wouldn’t hold against an Aura Sword, but this much is nothing.’
Aura Swords were a powerful technique available only to Sword Masters. Combined with a lifetime of swordsmanship, they could indeed reduce a body to nothing. Against a monster of this caliber, however, Iron Skin was more than sufficient.
“Help?”
The slime no longer even finished its sentences. It tilted its head, as though puzzled that anything had survived its paw.
“Sally, this one seems to possess a blessing. What do you think?”
(A blessing would explain everything we’re seeing.)
The moment Bagan saw the slime, one word had come to mind: Self-Awareness. It was an E-rank trait, the lowest tier, and therefore rarely used by anyone. Its effects varied greatly by race. When a human possessed it, the trait merely increased the character’s charm by making them more self-aware. But for races with lower intelligence, it granted self-understanding and greatly aided in acquiring knowledge.
A slime with no intelligence, only instinct, had obtained this trait. That alone explained its current level of development. Yet it still did not account for how the slime could absorb and manifest the traits of whatever it consumed. There had to be something else at work.
‘For example, possessing two traits.’
Divine blessings could be granted to any living being, but most creatures received only one. Only those favored by fate—saints or heroes—could obtain multiple blessings, and even then only rarely.
“What kind of blessing would maximize a slime’s consumption ability?”
(Perhaps something similar to your own ability?)
Sally knew Bagan’s Absorption trait well, so the idea was natural. But Absorption only helped with drawing things in; it did not change the nature of what was consumed. Moreover, only someone who truly understood the concepts of Absorption and Release—like Bagan—could develop the trait to its full potential. Others who received it might never grow stronger at all.
Slimes sometimes changed appearance based on their diet. Those that preferred tree bark became greenish Forest Slimes. Those that mainly consumed small stones or rocks became silvery Rock Slimes. Those that fed on poisonous plants, mushrooms, animal carcasses, or waste became purplish Poison Slimes. But these were merely changes in subspecies, not complete transformations. In other words, they offered no hint as to how the slime before them could freely mutate.
Considering all this, Bagan concluded that the creature possessed another trait.
“I just thought of a good way to figure out what blessing it has.”
(What is it?)
“The fact that it repeats the words of dead humans means it at least studied their language system on its own. Let’s give it a book.”
(You think a slime can read?)
Bagan did not expect it to read in the conventional sense. He simply recalled a certain trait. The creature already possessed human knowledge but lacked the intellectual capacity to use it. The solution was study. With that thought, he retrieved a book from his dimensional storage. Its title was The Life of a Mage, a novel he had bought to pass the time.
“Here. Devour it.”
Bagan forced his metallic-mana-coated hand into the Hilan Bear’s mouth. The hand still held the book.
The slime transformed only the bear’s mouth into its own liquid form and began dissolving the book. Page after page was torn away and melted, giving the distinct impression that it was actually reading.
“Help me!”
Though the exact mechanism remained unclear, the slime licked and dissolved the book inside its mouth with frantic enthusiasm, as though devouring knowledge itself. The only word it had learned so far was “help,” so it had been limited to that single phrase. After consuming the book, its intellectual level rose enough for clearer speech.
“Enemy? Friend? I… slime…”
The Life of a Mage featured slimes, so the creature had recognized itself as one. With that, Bagan confirmed both of its traits.
“Self-Awareness and Analysis. It looks like it might grow up to be an excellent scholar someday.”
He smiled as the slime returned to its small, original form.
“Friend. I won’t hurt you. Would you like more books?”
Bagan pulled additional books from his storage, selecting only those he had already read, and tossed them over. The moment the books hit the ground, the slime rushed forward and began devouring the knowledge within. Its curiosity seemed boundless.
Watching it, Bagan reflected on the traits.
‘Analysis is a B-rank trait, after all.’
It was an excellent ability. In games, Analysis provided additional information whenever data was acquired. Beyond that, it excelled in code decryption, weakness identification, component analysis, market price assessment, magic circle analysis, and countless other fields. The downside was that while it offered helpful data, it lacked any direct combat effect. When the system produced overly complex results, it could become quite troublesome.
“Still, it should be a good blessing for this one.”
(Look at it. It really loves books, doesn’t it? It can eat anything else, but not this?)
While the slime busily analyzed the books, Sally watched with affection yet clutched Study of Sin—the holy book Spia had granted her—protectively to her chest.
After a long while of watching the slime devour knowledge, it finally finished every book and naturally transformed into a new shape.
“Oh dear, we should cover that up.”
The form was that of a cute silver-haired girl about 160 centimeters tall. The problem was that she wore no clothes. Bagan immediately retrieved a white cloth from his storage and draped it over her. The fabric was large enough to fully envelop her body. Once she put it on, it wrapped around her like a robe.
“Thank you for giving me the books.”
Now the creature even spoke with polite formality. Bagan found her both adorable and strangely admirable, so he reached out and ruffled her silver hair.
“Well? Was it fun?”
“Yes. This appearance is from a character in the novel The Apothecary Arien.”
Bagan could not recall when he had placed that particular book in his storage. Sally, who had spent the past three months reading almost nothing but books, answered in his stead.
“Ah, so she was the protagonist of that novel! No wonder she looked familiar!”
Before long, Sally had materialized fully and was petting the girl as an added bonus.
“Hehe! Can I call you big sister?”
“Strictly speaking, I have no gender, but there’s no reason you can’t.”
Sally continued stroking the girl, feeling as though she had gained an adorable little sister.
“Then shall we call you Arien as well?”
It was Bagan who spoke. The girl, still being petted and smiling contentedly, nodded vigorously at the suggestion. Her intellectual level had clearly risen significantly.
“To think a slime could be this cute.”
Sally still showed no sign of letting Arien go. In fact, she even slipped her hands under Arien’s arms and lifted her up, swinging her around, which only reinforced the impression that Sally was simply a woman who could not resist cute things.
“It’s getting late. Shall we sleep?”
The time Arien had spent analyzing the books felt like roughly three hours had passed.
“Please take me with you too. I’m so lonely.”
Arien, nestled in Sally’s arms, pleaded in a pitiful voice, but Bagan had already intended to bring her along regardless. He dispelled the barrier and headed toward the campsite. Arien, who had shown no desire to leave Sally’s embrace at first, eventually wore a comfortable expression and fell asleep alongside the still-materialized Sally.