Chapter 6 - Panty Flash Minus Panties
After spending one night in the cave, I commenced my actions early the next morning. Since all the other slimes were still sleeping peacefully, I ended up going solo.
You couldn’t help the way they woke up as a group and then waited around like statues all the way to Everybody Hunt Time if they could. That was probably considered the proper thing to do for a slime.
Sorry, but I would not be going with something as blockheaded as that. Just waking up early wouldn’t make me evolve.
As I was hopping through the forest...
『For having met the criteria, [Jump - Weak] has now been acquired.』
That announcement flowed through. Then the jumps I were already doing got easier all of a sudden. This skill seemed to be helping my jumps in one way or another. It felt like I could go pretty far like this.
It now appeared that when it came to Body Hit, this, or any other skill I might gain for something I could already do without a skill, the effect would apparently be an a.s.sistance one that would reduce stamina drain and the like.
With the announcement having stopped, I began to worry about losing the skills I"d earned as this poison slime and started wanting to change into another form right away, but at present that wish didn’t come to pa.s.s. I was certainly getting a bunch of skills and managing to get through the conditions the way things were, but I had to wonder if my current method was really any good.
I decided I’d try changing my approach then. I guessed that if I could eat poison and evolve into a poison slime, then there were possibly others who could too. Speaking of having hit on that possibility, paralysis was also a thing.
Temporarily halting my movement, I began searching for gra.s.s like that in a way that could work. Having remembered what the poisonous gra.s.s had looked like I went and gathered up every other type of gra.s.s this time. What I learned from this, was that there seemed to be chiefly three varieties that grew well around this area.
Since I knew that one of these types was poisonous, I was hoping that one of the other two would be what I was looking for.
I put one of those other types in my mouth and tried it out a bit, but I felt my strength replenish and power well up within me. These, were possibly medicinal herbs. Finding something good like this certainly didn’t leave me unhappy, but I searched on as this wasn’t what I was really wanting.
I put yet another type in my mouth and ate it and, however slightly, I started to feel my body shiver. This seemed like a winner.
I ate what else of that stuff was nearby and my body shivered before going completely immobile. Eating just this much was enough apparently.
I was only getting the shivers this time and the feeling of losing my consciousness wasn’t there. But as I waited...
『As the evolution criteria [Neurotoxin Ingestion] has been cleared, the time limit skill [Potential for Unknown Evolution] has now been activated.
Due to meeting this condition, evolving to another species has now become possible.
There are presently two possible evolutions available.
Which would you like to evolve to?
.Paralysis Slime
.Neo Slime
.Do not evolve』
T/N: It actually said [Mahi Zesshu] (or “Paralysis Ingestion” if you were to translate it directly). But as this obviously wouldn’t make sense in English (the English word “paralysis” doesn’t really refer to something you can eat, does it now?), I instead translated it as [Neurotoxin Ingestion], as paralysis-inducing substances often tend to be neurotoxins.
It was sudden, but that announcement and display appeared in my head this time as well. Apparently I’d met two conditions from the looks of things. I was worried about which to pick, but as I was going to pick something that seemed strong for now, I decided I’d try going with Neo Slime.
『Permission to evolve has been confirmed.
The evolution will begin at this moment…
New skills have been acquired alongside this evolution.
Skills - [Charge] [Expand] [Deflate] have now been acquired.
Due to the superior skill [Charge] being acquired, the inferior skill [Body Hit] has automatically been overwritten.
In addition, due to meeting conditions for more than one evolution, it is now possible to evolve at any time.
For having met the criteria, [Burgeoning Beginner’s Sharp Eyed a.n.a.lysis] has now been acquired.』
Right as that announcement was ending, my stopped world came back to life. It was now I noticed that time apparently seemed to stop whenever I was in the middle of picking an evolution. Just how the h.e.l.l did that work?
At any rate, I now went and checked up on what that announcement had mentioned.
『Name: None
Species: Neo Slime (Level 1)
Skills: [Poison Spit] [Poison Resistance - Small] [Language - Slime Race] [Potential for Unknown Evolution] [Cannibalism] [Same Race Eater] [Poison Creation - Small] [Poison Talent - Small] [Slime Murderer (Provisional)] [Same Race Murderer (Provisional)] [Jump - Weak] [Charge] [Expand] [Deflate] [Burgeoning Beginner’s Sharp Eyed a.n.a.lysis]』
Charge seemed to be exactly what the announcement had called it -- I tried it out on a tree like before and found it was clearly different in power. Though last time the branches had come only faintly close to waving, this time the branches were rocking about with a particularly loud sound; it was looking to be quite the enhancement since it had gone as far as making parts of the tree start creaking.
I was feeling like that tree would’ve broken in a few hits if I really got serious. Weak, this was not.
Expand and Deflate were easy enough. Those sounded like they’d make me bigger to some extent and then shrink me back down. But, having no real reason to use it right now, I decided I"d just keep my size as is.
And that Sharp Eyed thing at the end; that sounded like I could possibly a.n.a.lyze items with it. It was looking like I"d now be able to tell what I was looking at the next time I saw stuff like that gra.s.s from before.
Poisonous plants, paralyzing plants, and the medicinal ones besides those were all a bit typical, but I’d certainly gotten useful skills out of this. There were probably no problems if I could a.n.a.lyze items like those. And from how that last announcement had sounded, I could keep getting stronger and it’d be in a useful way from now on.
By the way, my body had now become one size larger, but had also gone from being green to being a faintly muddy white again. However, from the looks of things this form still wouldn"t have trouble spitting out poison or using all those other skills I learned, so that was a relief.
But it hadn’t all been good news here. I’d gotten new skills, but my level had gone right back to 1. It was looking like evolving would apparently cause whatever level I reached to get reset.
Oh well, I’d moved forwards even if my level had gotten reset and this body was just br.i.m.m.i.n.g throughout with a power far beyond comparison, so it was all good.
“Now then, what’ll be my next move?”
From what it had told me, I could evolve to a Paralysis Slime right here and now too. However, it"d be better I didn"t end up doing so considering evolving now would mean not getting all those Neo Slime skills I still had to earn.
Besides, there was a chance I"d only end up weaker if I went and became a Paralysis Slime. Going by the name, that Neo prefix could just possibly mean my current species was a strong one.
And really, I just wanted to maintain the status quo for now. What my next evolution would be was something I"d start thinking of after I"d gotten all the skills for this level.
And with that in mind, I decided to focus all my efforts on leveling up from here on out, but what exactly would be a good way of raising my level?
No, I already get that defeating enemies would be the best way and all but...
That"s right, an opportunity as huge as coming across a freshly slayed monster to eat simply wasn"t all that likely. I"d only just lucked out on that the last time, and I probably wasn"t going to get that opportunity so quickly this time around. If that opportunity was the last, then I guessed it was about time for me to bring down a monster on my own.
"... I can"t just keep running forever, huh?"
To tell you the truth, I"d have liked to get stronger if I could before throwing myself into battle like this. However, I had to get some more conditions cleared as soon as possible since there was no telling when the timer for this evolution would run out.
I didn"t have time to hesitate.
"... Alright! Let"s do this in one go then!"
At least I"d have an advantage if I managed to get poison on my opponents. They shouldn"t be able to tell I can spit poison with the way I look, and if I could manage to land it as a surprise attack, then there"s no way I"d lose to anything that wasn"t really strong... There couldn’t be.
Encouraging myself like that and venturing into the forest for a few minutes, I immediately ran into some enemies.
They were around the height of a young child but their faces weren"t particularly human. With the ugly faces and filthy green bodies they had, whether I could call them tiny ogres or not, was what I was left wondering. There were two of them, but they were asleep and completely open to attack.
“… Small goblins?”
I heard that announcement inside my head as I stared at them lying there on the gra.s.s. It seemed that the Burgeoning Beginner"s Sharp Eyed a.n.a.lysis thing wasn"t just limited to objects alone, but was something that"d work on monsters as well.
One of those two goblins was carrying something that looked like a stick while the other one wasn"t carrying anything as far as I could see. They didn"t have any clothes on them either, so it was unlikely that they were carrying any hidden weapons.
Since one of them was carrying a weapon, hitting them with a poison spit surprise attack and then charging at them from behind was most likely the best way to deal with them.
That was the image I had in my head but I just couldn"t find it in me to move despite that. I mean that"s normal. Even though I"d had practically zero experience in fighting up to this point, here I was suddenly risking my life on something as dangerous and even flat out unreasonable as this.
When I ate that slime before, it was only because I was in a rush, dealing with shock, and half in a trance. Having regained my composure somewhat after the night had pa.s.sed, my present self couldn"t help but wonder how I"d even managed to do something like that. I felt like I hadn"t really been myself then.
Scary. Too scary.
I could very well die if there was a single detail here that I failed to take into account. Even succeeding there, it was possible I"d end up with rotten luck anyway. Risking one"s life - It was the sort of thing that gave me fears the reality of it wouldn"t even be comparable to anything I had ever imagined it to be.
Still!
I felt like I had to act now and couldn"t just keep making excuses my whole life. Saying it"s too dangerous for one person and stuff and living life without risks - That wasn"t bad either. But, was a slime such as myself even capable of living life that way?
Even hiding away in the den didn"t mean that people wouldn"t ever come there to kill stuff; and when it came time for them to find something to eat, there was a chance that other monsters would end up setting their sights on the place as well.
Yeah, it"d never end if I kept thinking like this. As I knew next to nothing here, there was only one guideline I really needed to follow.
And that was to get stronger.
Getting killed like Slime A was my only fate if I was weak. He"d have killed the humans and would still be alive right now if he had been strong. We"d even be talking now if the tables hadn"t turned on him, and we might"ve even ended up being friends somewhere down the line. But because he had been weak, all those possibilities had now been lost forever.
Besides, I simply couldn"t turn back here if I wanted to get any stronger than this. I had a very strong feeling about that. Like then, it was the same sudden feeling as when I"d seen that girl about to fall to her death.
Not making a sound as I got myself right behind those two, I took a deep breath and prepared myself.
Three… Two… One...
I was limited in how much poison I could spit out in one go. Building up as much poison in my mouth as I possibly could...
Zero!
I leaped right at the goblins from behind.
The goblins heard the rustling of leaves and turned around, but before they could even spot me, I"d already aimed at the one with the weapon and then spat all that poison towards its face.
That foe didn"t even get a second to dodge with it having been a surprise attack from behind. The goblin that now had poison literally streaming down its face dropped the stick it had been holding, and clutched its face with its hands before falling down and writhing in pain.
One down!
It seemed it had luckily gotten into its eyes, and though I didn"t know if that was enough to kill it, it would surely keep it from moving for now.
Aiming at the stomach of the other dumbfounded one that seemed to be at a complete loss as to what had just happened, I used Charge without having lost any of the momentum from when I"d jumped out.
I ended up closing my eyes at the moment of impact so I didn"t really see what happened, but I could feel something like the breaking of bones being transmitted through to me. When I opened my eyes, I saw the goblin"s body sailing through the air.
Then it fell down from that flight, hit the ground hard, and was no longer moving afterwards. No, it was twitching a bit as it went into convulsions, but it was clearly at death"s door however you looked at it with the state it was in now.
But, I decided to spit some poison at its face (though I didn’t have much) and block off its eyes just to be extra safe. The poison landed with a splashing noise and covered its eyes completely. Well, not that it meant much since it"d soon be motionless anyway.
Breathing a sigh of relief and turning around, I saw the poisoned goblin that should"ve been writhing in pain was gone. And then...
“Guh?!”
I felt like I knew this sensation of a sudden impact followed by your body going limp that most humans would likely never experience, and I was then airborne a moment later. Based on the feeling, it seemed I"d been hit from behind with something that was long and cylindrical in shape.
It had stuck to me for a brief moment, and then immediately sent me flying. The instant that it did its considerable damage, I saw my whole life flash before my eyes the same way as when I"d been dying before.
As the body of a slime possessed a jelly-like softness and was as light as you"d expect something of its size to be, it flew through the air so well that you could pretty much call it a homerun. I fortunately hit a nearby tree soon enough, and my flight thankfully couldn"t proceed any further than that; there was no telling how far I"d have flown otherwise.
The one that had clubbed me from the side so hard like that quite obviously could not have been anyone or anything other than the goblin that had been carrying a weapon. It was wildly swinging its stick with a face that was full of rage.
Despite its face having turned red and swollen, this goblin didn"t look to have taken quite as much damage as that last goblin had. I had no idea if it"s level was high or not, or if it also possessed a resistance to poison or something, but the poison seemed to have had very little effect on it.
Not showing any intention of running, the goblin kept angrily swinging that stick as it started charging towards me. Its manner of movement could be described as being driven not by intelligence, but by sheer wild instinct alone.
Even though one would normally feel terrified upon seeing someone with bloodshot eyes come at them with killing intent, seeing that sight caused me to become calm instead for some reason.
This guy"s just swinging that stick around with rage and nothing else. A beast in every way.
In that case, the intelligence of a former human would do quite well against it. Losing to a hotheaded beast like this would just end up putting my status of former human to shame.
I quickly prepared as much poison as I possibly could, and took good aim before firing. Of course, against an opponent that was still standing even after a perfectly timed surprise attack with all the poison I could throw at it, there was no way I’d expected to do damage with the poison I"d had just a few seconds to create.
I’d aimed my poison at the goblin"s feet, or to be more precise, I’d shot a puddle of poison at the exact spot the goblin would end up stepping on next.
The goblin took one step forward while still in its rage. It was the last step it would ever take in its life.
“GWEE?!”
Letting out a big cry of surprise, the goblin flipped over like something you"d see happen in a manga. Its foot had slipped on the ground that had turned muddy with poison.
Since those flashes or whatever earlier had made me think back to the way I"d ended up dying, it hit me just how fitting this was. As a bonus, since it didn"t exactly have anything like underpants on, I was provided with a nice service shot of something I hadn"t really wanted to see. It made me pretty sick.
Without missing a beat, I jumped high above the goblin with all my strength. I ended up jumping higher than expected and wondered if it was due to having learned that jump skill. Then I brought out another skill I"d gotten earlier but hadn"t made use of yet.
“ORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”
Expanding my body to around several times its size, I let gravity do its work, and plummeted right towards the goblin.