-| Hai Master! |- My children saluted me with determined expressions, then excitedly flew into the air around us.

Jack sighed for the upteenth time today, “Are we ready to go…?”

I nodded and stood up. ““Let’s continue.””

Dispelling the magic barrier Jack gestured for us to take the lead. Traveling through the floor my children inspected every nook and crany with feverish excitement, causing me to smile warmly. I watched a group of them suspiciously stab a tree a dozen times with the small steel spears and swords I made them. Really now… I wryly smiled at them as we continued through the forest.

-| Monster~ Spotted! |- A declaration came a few minutes later and my children instantly flew back and went into a decent battle formation. A pack of wolves ran over the roots a dozen seconds later, but before I could dash towards them a few dozen multi-colored flames shot from my children. Blue flames struck the wolves joints and eyes, causing them to howl in pain as parts of them froze. Yellowing flames struck them next, causing small bolts of lightning to singe the wolves. Green flames struck the root-covered ground and fired needles of transmuted wood. Orange flames condensed into points and fired as well, burrowing into the wolves as they yelped in pain. Black flames followed after that and seemed to ‘eat’ chunks of the wolves’ legs and keeping them from running. And lastly crimson flames lit the wolves aflame, ending their lives. *ting~

Your collective have defeated a level 87 Cinerous Forest Lupus (Adult) (Large)

Your collective have defeated a level 87 Cinerous Forest Lupus (Adult) (Medium)

Your collective have defeated a level 92 Cinerous Forest Lupus (Adult) (Large) (Alpha)

Your collective have defeated a level 85 Cinerous Forest Lupus (Adult) (Large)

Your collective have defeated a level 86 Cinerous Forest Lupus (Adult) (Large)

Your collective have defeated a level 89 Cinerous Forest Lupus (Adult) (Medium)

Your collective have defeated a level 87 Cinerous Forest Lupus (Adult) (Large)

The collective has leveled up 57 times!

The collective has gained +5 diversity!

My smiles cramped slightly as my children all cheered at a successful job well done. Well, there is no harm done… Maybe I should try to make them actual magic staves? Though their weapons actually fulfill that job rather well… Though I wonder if it is possible to view the status of the collective as a whole? *ting~

-| Unnamed Collective |-

C.Level: ( 57/350 ) Current Diversity: ( 6 )

Evolutions available: ( ∞ )

Collective Titles: ---

C.Mp: 2663952 / 2663952

Current members: 326

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Included race tags:

[ Collective Boons ] :

[Collective of Immuta, ####’s Blessed] - [Daughters of Flysa, Immuta’s Mate]

[ Collective Traits ] :

[✩Collective Heart (Legendary)] - [Spirit Fire (Epic)]

Ah, there we go. Though why does the window call it my collective instead of my children? Now that I think of it several things are strange. For one they were able to talk quickly after being born, and had knowledge of things like swords and games that… That should be from my knowledge… Unless tag somehow exists in this world and is called the same thing.

As well as marco-polo, with the same names. I didn’t think of it at the time, but yesterday when we were resting a bunch of the crafters were building with fallen twigs and sticks, and when asked they said they were building skyscrapers.

Do skyscrapers exist in this world? It is unlikely, though I suspect there might be trees as tall as them.

So they somehow have information that should be unique to me. Now that I think about it wasn’t Jack sending a confused look when they said stuff about skyscrapers? Though Reverie, Choco, Jerae and Flysa all treated it as common knowledge.

Speaking of, all four of them were originally monsters and I doubt they had knowledge of my language, much less things that shouldn’t exist in this world. So somehow they absorbed knowledge that was originally mine, and that knowledge has been passed on to my children. Though if I remember correctly Flysa didn’t know what sex was at first, so the knowledge transfer isn’t perfect. That begs the question how much information was passed down to my children…

However none of that actually answers the question of why the window doesn’t call them my children, but calls them the daughter of Flysa. They also call me master instead of mother or father, but that might be inherited from Flysa? Wait, how do slimes usually reproduce? Is it like cells that divide?

Asking Jack I got a positive answer, slimes reproduce by creating ‘buds’ out of their own bodies when they reach a large enough size. The resulting slime is influenced by what is taken in while the bud is growing, and different materials will create different slimes.

They cannot reproduce sexually, but is commonly known by researchers that slimes’ reproduction can be sped up with several different things. The first of which is by feeding tons of mana and organic materials.

Another way, that in most cases instantly causes the slime to start budding, is to feed it essence; this can be done by giving it fertilized eggs from various beings. Apparently unfertilized eggs also give essence, but it is less likely to cause the slime to bud.

I’m guessing this is do to the ‘soul’, after all everything has a soul right? Then to make the soul wouldn’t you need a material from a steady source? There is no reason that essence couldn’t be this material; that I know of at least. This makes it likely that female eggs and male sperm have high amounts, or specialized, essence. Considering how much leaked onto Flysa when me and Jerae were going at it its not really that surprising…

And since they’re not really made from my ‘flesh’, then they are not considered my children…

I shook my head, it’s all theoretical. Unfortunately I have no proof.

Another thing I learned from Jack was that slimes can only reproduce- at most- once a month. Hopefully I wouldn’t be having thousands of children anytime soon. Three hundred is more than enough for now.

We continued through the forest with my children taking down the occasional monster after a scolding for attacking without permission. As such their collective level reached 96 before the end of the day. On the other hand I reached level 99, Jerae level 97, Reverie and Choco level 94, and Flysa reached level 100.

Reverie and Choco seem to be falling behind the rest of us… not to mention their existence seems a little thin as well. Then again I created both of them on a whim, not meant to fill any specific purpose. With Jerae I wanted a companion to share my pain and vengeance from what I gleam from her abilities, Flysa on the other hand is a faithful fortress to protect me. Reverie and Choco… Are subordinates. Flimsy ideas I didn’t put thought into, just a test, nothing more and nothing less.

Still that existence is kind of sad… They don’t require attention, merely following my orders as if an extension of my will, not a companion. The question is what to do with them…

“Is something wrong master?”

Shaking my two heads I responded with slight befuddlement, Just trying to figure out what to do with Reverie and Choco. I glanced back at them, faithfully marching behind like soldiers. Completely loyal, but empty. That’s my view of them. If I ordered them they would kill themselves without hesitation. Not the kind of existence I want as a friend, after all living things flourish on conflict or all types.

We quickly set up camp with the held of my children as I pondered this.