- Shari -

We return back home, shortly before the sun rises.

While Gareth got the guard away from our heels, he can't do so all day.

At some point, people need to see guard presence on the streets.

He'll probably use the somewhat corrupt guards for this measure.

Meanwhile, he indicated that he'll use the loyal guards to fortify his own position.

Particularly, as a security force to protect him from upset employees, like those we visited tonight, as well as a task force to take down the most problematic individuals.

Quite a lot depends on whether or not the enemy will manage to not only get informed about those actions but also draw the right conclusions and react in a controlled manner.

Baron Moreau's loss of documents should disrupt their organization a bit, but it's still a gamble.

Well, at least this night is over now, and we can finally take a rest.

So I step into my shop... only to hear some commotion in the backroom.

"Yes! One more step, one more step! I know you can do it!" (Okin)

"Not so loud. I need to concentrate. This is really hard." (Nia)

Of course, I run directly to this place, where this juvenile slime should absolutely not be at the moment.

Seriously, we had enough problematic visits recently, and it would really be just my luck if Captain Gareth would right now step in to discover that the slimes are multiplying via slum children.

Which means I really have to sort this out.

Once I open the door, I find that things are, by the slightest modicum, less dire than I initially assumed.

If only because Nia is currently fully enclosed.

Apparently, the two are practicing to have her walk around in that getup.

"What is going on here?" (Shari)

"Didn't you say I could go out with you today? I'm practicing! Down there, everything is full of slime, so that place wouldn't work well to train not to leak any more of it!" (Nia)

Right, I did say something along this line.

Yet I probably should've added something like "not after I had a very troublesome night".

But, I gave my word and by now my course of action in that regard should be rather obvious.

"Sigh. Okay. Why would a slime need a break? But you're first going to continue this until you can move without drawing any gazes on you. If you wobble as much as you do now, this isn't going to work." (Shari)

"I planned to!" (Nia)

At least no one can say she isn't putting in effort.

With constant pressure, she's trying to get her walking form right while wearing a cloak and a full set of clothes.

While I did start out with all-around farther developed abilities than her, even I had to get used to walking in clothes while being on the road with Liqu.

However, as much as this girl is practicing, she should improve a lot faster than she does.

"Is something wrong, Shari?" (Liqu)

Of course, Liqu would notice.

"It's the girl. I kinda feel bad for her. She's trying so hard, but it doesn't seem to pay off. Just why isn't she improving?" (Shari)

"Why do you think that? To me, she appears to be doing rather well, considering she's putting up with that handicap." (Liqi)

Handicap!?

What does Liqu mean?

It's not like the girl is some warrior going through his forms with... extra... weights...

I'm so stupid!

"Hey, Nia! Stop a moment?" (Shari)

"Grah! What is it? I'm doing it wrong again, aren't I!?" (Nia)

She's clearly agitated at her lack of progress.

"Uh, well, kinda, but that wasn't what I wanted to address." (Shari)

"What is it then?" (Nia)

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I only wanted to ask, when did you the last time... urgh, release yourself?" (Shari)

"What do you mean?" (Nia)

Okay, this is hard.

"Ehm, I mean, when did you relieve your body of, you know, the end product of your sustenance?" (Shari)

"Are you asking me when I had my last shit?! Excuse me, but I'm rather sure I'm now lacking the needed parts for this." (Nia)

Oh dear, Liqu knew it.

This girl doesn't know how to properly leave dead mass behind.

If it's like this, she might dissolve as much meat as she likes, yet she'll always at most be half full, as she just sticks with her literal dead weight.

She couldn't have known better.

While it might be so that slimes feel a certain kind of hunger that tells them they aren't full, I can't really tell how aware Nia is of that limit.

She might've simply accepted this feeling like she did so much else in her life.

To her, being constantly hungry is merely the normal state.

Aaaand, I feel bad for her again.

"Okay. First, get out of the clothes. It seems I forgot to teach you something rather elemental." (Shari)

Though, no one can hold against me that "excretion" wasn't my first subject on the list.

"Wait, what!?" (Nia)

"Just do so. It's not like there'd be any point to assume ulterior reasons for this request." (Shari)

"Fine, but just saying, it was a big hassle to get into this stuff." (Nia)

"She's gotten much better!" (Okin)

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure about that. Nonetheless, it's required for what I apparently have to teach you. Speaking of which, we better go back to the cellar for this." (Shari)

"Damn. But I just got out of there. It was quite difficult to get up all the stairs." (Nia)

"Fine, then we'll just stay at the upper steps of the stairs. That should do as well. However, it's a rather delicate topic for me, so would you mind leaving the room for the time being, Okin?" (Shari)

"Why always me?!" (Okin)

"Because you're the only non-slime here. So consider yourself lucky to still have a body and go." (Shari)

He sulks, but with some heavy encouragement from Liqu, he can be convinced to leave.

"Alright, now get out of your cloak. You need to make yourself free for this." (Shari)

Although a bit clumsy, the girl manages to escape her clothes.

Yet sadly they're now rather slimy.

"Okay, what did you mean before by 'relieving' myself?" (Nia)

"She meant you're not properly dropping your spent slime." (Liqu)

Well, can't hurt to have the expert come to speak here.

"Spent slime? What even is that?" (Nia)

"Slime is not just slime. There's energetic and not as energetic." (Liqu)

Maybe I should help with a more familiar analogy.

"You know, when you eat, errh, or now 'dissolve' something, then you gain energy. You need this for all kinds of basic processes. Dissolving, thinking, yet the most crucial for you might be moving. In this sense, you gain so to say 'good' slime. Or energetic matter. Yet just gaining energetic slime doesn't mean you're losing the matter you deprived of its energy with the aforementioned processes." (Shari)

"That is to say, you're not losing out on energy. You only use double the mass with the same strength. For this reason, it's better to let go of a part of your matter and only keep what you can control really well." (Liqu)

It's a bit of an embarrassing talk, so I'm glad to have Liqu doing a part of it.

"So this is really a thing for me? Then how do I do this and why do other slimes have no issue with that?" (Nia)

"Because Shari is an oddball that insists on walking on legs!" (Liqu)

"Hey!" (Shari)

"But it's the truth!" (Liqu)

Doesn't matter!

"Ehm, explanation please?" (Nia)

"Sigh. Usually, slimes in their blob form leave a trail behind while crawling. Since I taught you to maintain your shape, your way of movement isn’t to crawl like a natural slime. However, there's a workaround for still expelling slime properly." (Shari)

"Fine, then tell me already!" (Nia)

"Okay, okay. It's fairly simple. You gather the slime at the place where you want to expel it, usually the arm or another place where it won't directly flow in again, and then you pull it so that only the energetic slime flows through the center of your arm back to the rest of your body, while adding new mass over the outer layers. You're forming a continuous process this way, where you simply drop off the energyless slime." (Shari)

While explaining, I present to her the way I do it.

It might be embarrassing, but I think visualization is important, and I surely won't link for something like this.

She looks interested, although slightly confused.

"How can I tell which slime can be sucked back inside?" (Nia)

"That's easy! The one that is most responsive is the good slime. The rest that doesn't want to follow quite as eagerly back inside is bad and can stay where it is. Though, you shouldn't be too picky. It's part of the filter process to repeat it till it works well. Don't drop everything right away." (Liqu)

She has a point.

Even from low-energy slime, you can make it so that you only get the rich parts out.

Now Nia starts.

At first, I worried if she could even get the right movement going, but after some correcting tips, she apparently has it figured out.

After a short while, dead slime starts to gather below her.

"You're doing a good job at this." (Shari)

"You think so? I guess I’m starting to feel less tired, but it's also as if I'm kinda lacking a bit." (Nia)

"We have some provisions here in case it gets critical, but as long as you have enough left to maintain your body, you should be fine." (Shari)

"And this is going to help me?" (Nia)

"I think so. Let's see." (Shari)

After a while, I think it's enough.

Best to stop before she starts getting rid of good slime as well.

"Great. Now get your cloak back on and just repeat the same practice lessons as before." (Shari)

She does so, and I think I was right.

It really works better.

"I-it works! Hell, it works!" (Nia)

"Seems like we found the issue." (Shari)

"Wait! Does that mean that I could've dealt with all those lessons much better than I did?!" (Nia)

"No, because you're also a bit slow." (Liqu)

Liqu!

"Ahem, to a degree, some of the things you practiced should go easier in that state, but concerning those practices that gave you a hard time for this reason, you can basically say that you simply trained with a handicap. Therefore, you still reap the training results." (Shari)

At least I hope she'll see it that way and not blame my negligence.

"If you say so. I'm just glad that things for once work out my way." (Nia)

It's a good thing that this girl can be so mature.

"Well, then let's go out now! I can't wait to have a stroll with my Shari!" (Liqu)

While others might never change in that regard.