Sector Open (2)
Red Slimes had claimed the far end of the alley.
These were nothing like the ordinary slimes we'd seen near the convenience store the day before. Even the air around them felt different — heavier, wrong.
"Those look pretty dangerous."
"Ugh... are those all bones?"
They had every reason to be unnerved. Piles of bones of every kind lay heaped around the Red Slimes — Goblin bones, Bugbear bones, and some that looked disturbingly human. What the hell had happened here?
As if to offer us a demonstration, a Goblin came creeping toward the slimes.
A level-1 Goblin, armed with nothing but a single dagger, thinking it could take down a level-8 Red Slime.
It edged closer, then raised the dagger to strike.
That was when it happened.
Slap.
The Red Slime latched onto the Goblin's body, and in the same instant the creature's skin began to melt.
"Kieeek!"
The Goblin thrashed, trying to tear the slime off, but it was useless. The Red Slime clung fast, refusing to let go until nothing remained but a skeleton of stripped, glistening bone.
Thud.
The Goblin collapsed, its body dissolved down to nothing. The other Red Slimes swarmed in at once, fastening themselves to what was left.
"Ugh. Are they... eating it?"
"It's just melting away completely."
They attached themselves to the Goblin's head, its legs, its arms — everywhere — dissolving the remaining flesh as if they'd sat down to a feast. In moments, only a bare skeleton remained. Finding nothing left to eat, the slimes bounced back to where they'd been waiting.
"Ssaem, this is too much. These things are on a whole different level from regular slimes."
"Wouldn't it be better to look somewhere else?"
The students were rattled. The thought of those things latching onto their own skin was enough to turn anyone's stomach.
I sent a Bugbear toward the Red Slimes.
It strode forward with imposing confidence. Next to its bulk, the Red Slimes looked like they wouldn't even make a mouthful. The Bugbear raised its axe and brought it down.
Whump!
The blow landed, but it hadn't crushed the core. In the same breath, a swarm of Red Slimes surged onto the Bugbear and stuck fast.
"GRRAAAHHH!"
The Bugbear went berserk, clawing at the slimes plastered across its body, but they wouldn't come off. Its flesh began to melt, slowly, steadily.
Boom.
The summoned Bugbear has died.
Even a creature that size hadn't fared any better than the Goblin. The Bugbear had been nothing more than another meal.
"Ssaem, this place is a lost cause."
"We still can't just give up, though..."
That was when I spotted a level-3 green slime, bouncing lazily toward the Red Slimes. I already knew how this would end. That poor thing was about to get melted down and added to the pile.
Wait.
That wasn't what happened at all.
The green slime bounced right up to the Red Slimes and threw itself at one of them.
And then—
Bubble. Bubble. Bubble.
The Red Slime's fluid was swallowed whole by the green slime's body. Its core dropped out onto the ground, and after a few seconds the Red Slime began to regenerate around it.
"What the hell was that?"
A level-3 green slime had just crushed a level-8 Red Slime. Apparently even monsters had type matchups.
Is that how it is?
I already had green slimes stored from Complete Predation. Beyond the one I'd eaten at the convenience store, they'd tasted so much like those eye-candy sweets that I'd predating every one I came across. I had a decent stock.
Ten green slimes materialized in front of me.
"Alright, kids. Wipe them out."
At my command, the slimes surged toward the Red Slimes.
Bubble. Bubble. Bubble.
They latched on and, in an instant, drank the Red Slimes dry, then spat the cores out onto the ground.
Crack!
Before the Red Slimes could regenerate, I stomped the cores underfoot.
Crack!
The sound of a core splitting clean in half. A message followed.
You have slain a Red Slime.
Reward: 25 Coins
They even dropped a decent amount of Coins, and we could farm them this easily? This was a complete goldmine.
"Whoa, Ssaem! The Red Slimes can't even touch them!"
"Yeah. Just hang on a bit. We'll be able to use the shop soon."
"Nice work, slimes!"
"Wipe them all out!"
I watched the green slimes spit out core after core — and then a thought hit me.
Wait. I need to predate these things too.
I picked up one of the expelled cores, brought it to my mouth, and bit down.
Crunch!
The Red Slime's core tasted like a sweet strawberry candy. But that alone wasn't going to count as Complete Predation. I'd need to eat the fluid as well — all of it.
But can I even eat that?
Complete Predation required eating the target alive, and that was far too dangerous. My own body would melt.
Wait. Back then — I'm sure of it.
The new skill I'd received. It had said I could transform into any monster I'd already predating. I opened the skill window, and a list of every monster I'd consumed unfurled before me. And there it was: Slime.
"Don't freak out, kids."
"Huh? Don't freak out about what?"
Transforming into a Slime.
My body began to shift, slowly taking on the same form as the green slime I'd summoned moments before. I'd wondered what would happen to my clothes, but they vanished on their own. One less thing to worry about.
"S-Ssaem?! What the hell is this?!"
"What did you just do?"
"Is that really you?"
I'd told them not to freak out, but I supposed this kind of reaction was inevitable.
Fully transformed, I gave the kids a gesture to stay calm, then bounced toward the Red Slimes.
Looks like my stats carry over. Turning into a slime hadn't wiped my attributes. If anything, the slime's base stats had been added on top of my own — not that a slime's base stats were worth much.
Alright. Time to eat.
I approached the Red Slimes regenerating from their cores, then threw myself at one of them. For a split second I wondered if my body would melt where a green slime's hadn't — but there was nothing to worry about.
The Red Slime was being absorbed straight into me.
No — this flavor—?!
The taste of the Red Slime surged through every inch of my body in a tingling rush. The ordinary green slimes had tasted like apple-flavored jelly candy, so I'd expected this one to be the strawberry version. What I was tasting now was something else entirely.
It was like gulping down glass after glass of pure, 100-percent strawberry juice pressed from organic berries. The sweetness was so intense it felt like I'd been dropped into heaven.
The predation gauge climbed steadily. Once the Red Slime had been fully absorbed into my slime body, the messages appeared.
"That is you, right, Ssaem?"
Boing. Boing. Boing.
I couldn't speak in slime form. No vocal organs, apparently. I finished predating the rest of the Red Slimes with considerable enthusiasm, and after a short while my body began to shift back.
"Whoa, Ssaem. You can even transform? How many skills do you even have?"
"Not that many, you brat."
"Aww. I want some other skills too. Don't Healers get any attack skills?"
"Don't worry about it. You'll pick some up once we start clearing quests, right?"
The other kids would receive skills too, once they met the right conditions — the same way I had. I left Jin-hwan to his whining and headed for the green circle.
The moment I stepped onto it, light flared up as if in response.
Use the Food Shop Lv. 1?
Y / N
So this has levels too.
Same as the regular shop — the Food Shop was only level 1. There wouldn't be much of a selection.
Fried chicken? Seriously?
Whatever inflation was at work here, the fried chicken was charging a frankly criminal price all by itself. A hundred Coins. That was a hundred dead Goblins.
"Ssaem, can we really get food here?"
"Yeah. Give me a second."
I bought a decent amount of water, bread, and chocolate bars. Rice was out — there was no electricity, so even if I bought it, we had no way to cook it.
That's a fair amount.
There didn't seem to be a purchase limit. The food materialized in front of me the moment I bought it.
They could at least let this stuff go in the inventory. Apparently only actual items went in. If food stacked in there, hauling it back would have been a lot easier.
"You guys want to buy some too? This already looks like a decent haul."
"We can't just let you spend all the Coins by yourself, Ssaem."
"We'll get some too."
They'd clearly been itching to try the shop. They stepped in and started buying food of their own.
That was when a familiar smell hit me.
"Hey! Who told you to buy chicken?! That thing costs a hundred Coins!"
Jin-hwan was holding a whole fried chicken. He hadn't been able to help himself.
"This one's just for us. We've been through this much — one chicken isn't too much to ask, right?"
"Well... I mean, you're not wrong."
He had a point. We were the Awakened, and we'd been sacrificing ourselves for everyone else. Nobody was going to give us grief over one chicken.
So we sat down right there, posted the Skeleton Bugbear and Daego on lookout, and started eating.
Huh?
It tasted good. It was the fried chicken I knew — crispy coating, juicy meat, nothing missing. And yet something was off. It wasn't satisfying me.
Is it because it isn't a monster?
The Harpy that had been circling overhead flashed through my mind. What would that thing taste like fried? Would it be better than this? Had I already changed so much that I couldn't be satisfied unless I was eating monsters?
Hah. I'm really losing it.
I took one bite and handed the rest to the other students. Jin-hwan looked genuinely moved. In reality, it just hadn't tasted that great.
Once the chicken was gone, we gathered up the food and headed back to the shelter. The Food Shop was real — that much was confirmed. At this rate, we could open the shelter and actually keep it running.
Alright. Time to get ready to open the shelter.