- Slime –

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Boooooooooring!

Yes, nothing to do.

Every day is the same.

Even if something does happen I openly question if there was any reason for it to happen in the first place.

Now you could say it shouldn’t be boring if something is happening, but that simply isn’t enough for me!

For example, why should a fight to the death be important to me if I don’t know if there even is a reason to be alive in the first place?

It's not like such battles are too common for me, but the same logic can be applied to most other things.

Yes, I get it that those are rather dark and deep thoughts, which I’d probably be better off not wondering about, but that’s just how I am.

Huh?

Yes, I’m a slime, so what?!

Did anyone tell you that I’m not allowed to have deep thoughts?

Well, it could have something to do with the fact that I’m already ten years old.

What’s strange about that?

Well, most slimes do not survive their first year.

Trust me, I speak from experience.

If I would need to give a reason for my feat of considerable longevity besides my skill, smarts, and intellect?

Okay, it might have something to do with the fact that my color is a light green and even though my core shines in a violet color, it’s dull enough to not get noticed.

If I’m being honest with myself, there’s been more than a few occasions where a group of humans more than able to put an end to my existence, who I later learned are called “adventurers”, just overlooked me in the greenery of grass, moss, or trees.

That last one only started happening after I found that climbing up trees might give me a better chance of survival than just staying still in front of them.

Don’t judge me.

Survival strategies require at least a sense of self-awareness and I think coming so far in my second year was an achievement.

It ends up coming down to a few questions.

If I’m self-aware should I not be more concerned about all the others that didn’t make it?

Or if I’m bored should I not try to talk to them?

Well, it’s not like I didn’t try, but the main problem is, that the other slimes aren’t self-aware.

While verbal communication is obviously a difficult task, it’s possible to communicate between minds when the cores are connected by our bodies.

To be precise, that's when we merge our slime together.

Well, the only response I got after countless tries of communicating was, “Move, search, devour, forward.”

Over and over.

From all of them!

Can anyone really blame me for eventually giving up?

Maybe I could have tried to keep one alive.

Long enough for them to start getting some semblance of consciousness.

However, from what I know actual experience is necessary for becoming self-aware, so locking them up won’t work.

Also, I’m not really sure if it even works like that.

And I’m not too keen on investing time, resources, and risk so much only for it to end in failure because my species is simply not made for self-awareness.

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Sometimes I wonder if we even are the same species.

Forgive that thought, but it’s hard to believe I have anything in common with those idiotic, repetitive, gluttonous things that only showed interest in devouring stuff.

This leads to one of the life-altering decisions I made.

As I was sentient, the creatures that are naturally most interesting to me are other sentient beings.

Unfortunately, the most interesting ones were also the ones most determined to kill me; “Humans”.

Nevertheless, that didn’t hold me back from learning more.

Well, maybe it did a little bit since I’d already developed risk management skills.

So I started by hiding in the greenery close to villages, closing the distance more and more.

A very advantageous trait for these kinds of things is being able to see in all directions, and luckily slimes are able to do just that.

Eavesdropping on the people I gradually developed a sense of speech.

I have to point out that even though I don’t have ears I can hear just fine by subconsciously analyzing the vibration of frequencies with my body.

I eventually realized that giving words to your thoughts helps a great deal in developing your way of thinking.

Also, it’s just helpful to get information on the people who want to kill you.

All in all, I would say that I’ve gained quite a bit from those excursions.

Over the years I noticed not just how my thinking had developed, but also that there were physical changes.

The biggest change might’ve been my core growing from the size of a marble to the size of a very small child’s fist.

On its own that would have been bad since having a bigger weak point is something that would be targeted by a certain species that is after me.

However, it also allowed me to control more mass if I was able to get enough nutrients to make it.

I assume it went like this:

My enhanced thinking forced the core, my center of consciousness, to expand in order to keep up, but since that is also the thing that controls the liquid that makes up my body, that increased as well.

Unfortunately, I came to realize that my larger body, which could reach over two meters in height when fully extended, prevented me from being able to go on more excursions.

Well, if it’s necessary I can just throw mass away and shrink to a suitable size.

However, to be honest, I don’t want to do that.

As you might have guessed, my color can only do so much to hide me if adventurers spot something as big as me.

What saved me was that they didn’t have anything that could reach my vulnerable core with what they were carrying.

They were forced to give up and I could also escape any search parties sent after me later.

I knew humans tend to be especially hostile to oddities, as the hunt on my species proves, which seems to be very new, as I found out.

And I need to admit that I am an oddity, no way around that.

With that, I realized my new body was my lifeline.

Because I needed sustenance I developed hunting strategies like creating pitfalls by dissolving earth, learning about ambushes from above, or taunting hostile creatures to attack me.

By the way, dirt contains almost no nutrients for me.

Even if I don’t have a sense of taste, knowing that I’d be wasting my time dissolving it compared to eating animals didn’t sit well with me.

Plants are another option, but the mass I'm gaining from them feels less responsive like it isn’t the right kind of thing to eat.

There were some plants and some plant parts that worked better for me.

Still, overall it’s only something for emergency sustenance because mass without the necessary energy to control it gets left behind.

In the end, it comes down to the fact that flesh is the best source to sustain me.

At the same time, I also tried to figure out other ways to use my body, and I would say that I did that quite successfully.

I even am able now to take out entire groups of adventurers on my own instead of just scaring them off.

That might be merciless, but they would attack first and I think retaliating in accordance is fine.

One time I even made a second core, but the resulting yellow slime with orange core was very disappointing so I abandoned it.

All in all, I’ve made huge progress in what I can do.

Aside from the ability to move quickly by forcefully pulling all my mass in one direction, being able to throw mass at distant targets, and keep the slime’s dissolving property, my greatest achievement was being able to control the state of the matter I consist of.

I can alter the liquidity and make it as sticky as tar, if not more so, but more importantly, I can control the density of my body.

I ended up being able to shrink down to a fifth of my maximum volume while maintaining the same mass.

That’s still a lot bigger than normal slimes, but it helps a lot in terms of stealth, surprising opponents, and enhancing the capabilities of my body.

This state allows me to create more pressure in my body, attacking with more impact by applying more mass on less space, and concentrating the unique effects of my slime.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware I’m not invincible.

However, I’m sure that if I’m careful I can hold my own and keep myself alive indefinitely.

Now excuse me, but I need to do something about this soul-crushing boredom.