My legs~! My arms~! The pain~~~! My arms and legs feel like they are going to fall off!
Well I guess I should explain what happened. A few hours ago Megumi took me walking around in the grasslands where the newbies were hunting.
Yep, just a walk, nothing more, for her at least. On the other hand I was told to directly command my slimes to hunt some rabbits to train them and to get a form they could mimic.
First though, I tested out their strength and speed. They have 40 agility so I wanted to see exactly how good it was.
We sat down about 100 meters from the road leading into the woods. There was the main road where the cars were moving and then a paved walking trail. We were near the latter.
I told both the slimes to bounce as fast as they could to the pavement then return.
Well let's put it this way. In the old world the record time for an athlete running a 200 meter run is around 20 seconds.
The slimes, when putting their squishy bodies behind it, could jump 7 meters in one hop. The stats of both show 40 agility but it was clear that their bounce skill made a huge difference. They covered the 100 meters to and from the road in 13 seconds. That was much more than I could ask really. With this in mind I could very well say slimes and rabbits were easy pickings if they got in by surprise. Fox would only fall if they were still young.
So because of that I had them hunt a bit. The problem you noticed at the beginning starts now though. Their target was rabbits. As you can guess they would run from attackers and try to group up or hide.
So I tried to set up a trap. The Blue slime, which I have formally named Glop, would be the main damage dealer since he was the current stronger one. The pink one, I named Peach, has similar stats but hers are 3 points less in all stats.
With that I stay about 10 meters away and guide the slimes. Though they have 40 intelligence each that is in proportions to a slime. Compared to humans, someone with 10 intelligence is still smarter than a slime with 100. The reason is their lack of wisdom. Wisdom can be thought of as a thinking process. The higher the wisdom the easier it is to think of something and process what is going on.
If the slimes gained wisdom then for sure a slime with 100 INT would be smarter than a human with 10.
Anyway the first attack I have Peach charge the rabbit from the left and surprisingly the rabbit reacts by jumping to the right. I would have thought that at least that attack would hit but it wasn’t like I thought it would work completely. Still it was planned for and because it was Glop jumped out as well slamming right into the right flank of the rabbit and being knocked down and grabbed by the slime.
Very quickly he started to spread himself over the rabbit and quickly covered its head cutting its air supply. It hopped, jumped and rolled trying to get rid of the slime but eventually it succumbed to the lack of air and fell over dead. At the same time the body was quickly eaten by Glop.
“Wha! He ate it so fast.” Megumi exclaimed.
“Didn’t we come here for this? You know he gets the form so they can fight better.” I said.
“I know but I was surprised at the speed. Normal slimes take at least ten minutes to digest a full rabbit. His processing speed must be huge.” Megumi said.
“Must be because he is rare and needs to grow fast.” I said.
She nods agreeing. Moments later a window appears.
The slime Glop has successfully absorbed a Wild Rabbit. By eating the complete corpse it has learned all it needs to take the form.
Slimes can only memorize one form at a time, note if the form has greater stats than the slimes original body, the original stats will grow to match the new form. Of the forms he owns the highest stats will always be shown on the stats window.
Current mimic form: ‘Slime rabbit’
“Hey did you know mimics could only have one form?” I asked.
“Yep, it’s well known but since this is a newbie area it doesn’t really matter if we change them a few times to test the water with some basic monster forms. Oh and I think with it having a new form we can fight a fox now. Did they gain any levels?” Megumi asked.
I checked the stats and Peach did level up once.
“Peach did, she is level 2 now.” I said.
“Good, they can definitely fight an adolescent fox if they fight right. We need to be careful that it doesn't run away or calls out to grownups. I can fight them but it's a pain having them swarm us. They live as packs so having to fight and protect at the same time is kind of a hassle.” Megumi said.
I agree but none the less we go. She takes me near the edge of the forest and looks around a bit.
We spot several burrows being used as nests but all guarded.
We looked more until we spotted something rather sad. Walking around while whining was a small baby fox. Though it was an easy target I would never attack it and I stared daggers at Megumi just as she was about to suggest it.
Instead I pulled out some food and walked over. The pup looked at me in fear and feebly tried to run but I picked it up easily. The other fox mothers were watching with narrowed eyes and were growling but when I put the foxes snout to the provisions which were sandwiches that I took apart and fed the meat. It devoured it quickly before looking up. Its eyes clearly showed it was begging for more so I pulled out another sandwich and held the meat to it. After I put the open sandwich close and let it sniff. It pulled the lettuce and other greens chewing on it.
After it was full it just curled up in my arms and the window showing I tamed it popped up.
I looked at Megumi and she sighed knowing what happened.
I stood up with the baby fox and we left the area. The other fox ignored us and the tamed fox.
The stats were all set but there was a reduction from being a baby.
Status
Name
None
Race
Fox
Level
1
Health
130/130
Mana
0/0
Stamina
100/100
Strength
25
Agility
32
Dexterity
17
Vitality
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
15
Intelligence
60
Luck
10
Wisdom
20
Status Condition
Starved
(Heals with 3 more meal), weakened (-30% stats), Infant (-60% stats until adolescents)
The stats are set to what they are as an adolescent but with starving and weakened it gets lowered even more. I bet that was the result of player hunting.
Looking at the burrows of many foxes you could see them filled with many more babies than normal.
It was actually very irritating seeing this. Guess the real world humans won't change much.
“Hey, how do the players act in this world? I heard one of them talking about more worlds?” I asked.
“Oh that, well the gods have already told us that this world exists in the virtual plane but that doesn't change our lives. As for how they act, well I would guess like in any of the other worlds, an apocalypse waiting to happen.” Megumi said.
I sigh when I hear that. In the real world two factions rose up after the incidents of VR games coming to life. The first faction are fanatics who believe new gods are descending and in the form of AI and those who can obtain the god race in games.
They are extremist and in both the games and real life. As they get more powerful in games they get cocky thinking their power will come to this world.
The other faction are religious factions. As you can already guess. Using the AI to work for us they create new worlds and life which in turn made several churches try and destroy game companies but to no avail because as soon as a new game is complete. The game is uploaded to the internet and the AI that made the game watches over ONLY the one it created.
Still this group causes huge problems because they commit mass murders and bombings around the world. Thankfully they are small in number and are constantly being caught and made to suffer a punishment they would hate the most.
It's been called the VR death. You are hooked up to the internet and you are forced to choose a game. If you don't it chooses the worse one and spawns you in the middle of war.
If you choose, you are spawned as a rare breed of some weak monster to be hunted by the players and NPC.
To make it worse, they even found a way to sever the mind from the body so the mind lives on in the game, always monitored by the AI who keeps a short leash on them.
Still, with all this and after nearly 80 years, the ruler of Aurora online, the first VR game, there is little progress in the attempt to make real world humans see the virtual worlds as nothing more than a game.
I would say make all schools be in the vr world from a young age that way the kids grow up with the npcs.
Still I can't do anything about it now.
Oops I got distracted. Well still, looking at the baby fox, it did irritate me. But it didn't stop me from slowly and painfully carrying the fox while we looked for a target.
We find one after some time and attack.
This time though, Glop attacks first hitting the right flank and distracting the fox and Peach jumps up high and lands on the foxes back which startled it leaving an opening for Glop in his rabbit form to attack with his new small buck teeth.
While the fox struggled, Peach climbed up the back until finally it was close enough to encase the head of the fox. After that it was over. It struggled but quickly Glop turned back into a slime and grabbed its legs on my orders and sealed its movements.
After that it took only another minute for the fox to die. Like Glop, Peach spread itself over the entire fox and quickly ate it.
Like before a window appeared and showed that she could turn into a slime fox. Oh and yes they are slimes in the shape of animals and not a magical mimic that has fur and skin but if you touch them you can feel as if you are touching something furry but squishy at the same time.
One thing surprising was the Peach developed wisdom in this form and she stays in her fox form. First off she leveled up 2 times while Glop gained 1 level and both of them were at level 4
“Hey, is it ok that my tamed monsters are higher level than me?” I asked.
“No problem really, as long as your tamed creatures like you, it won’t be aggressive and run away unless you treat it poorly.” Megumi explained.
I understood and walked over to the fox slime.
It was the same shape as a full grown fox, about a half a meter long with all the shapes and muscles drawn out. Looking close as it lay down sideways I saw that there were female parts. So does that mean Peach was officially female. I tried identifying which didn’t work and then checked the stats and found it. The female sign was right at the top next to the race. The body itself was still a semi transparent pink color.
At that moment the little baby fox woke up and Peach sat up and sniffed the fox. It did the same and it tilted its head towards Peach. Then it squirmed around wanting to get down so I put it down and it stumbled around while trying to walk over to Peach.
When it got to her legs it rubbed up against her. She in turn looked at the baby a bit before opening a pair of jaws with slime fangs there. She grabbed the baby and took it into the shade of a nearby tree and it laid down before letting the little baby down on her belly.
The baby looked around a bit and finally found the mimicked breast and started to bite at it.
Megumi and I just looked with our jaws dropped. What was happening was far more than anyone could expect but Megumi started to laugh.
“Is there something funny?” I asked.
“Oh sorry. There was talk that Mimic slimes copied habits of the creature they are copying but I never thought it went this far.” She said.
“Is it safe to let it breastfeed from a slime.” I asked.
“We will see in a bit. Let it drink and then we can extract some of the milk to examine it.”
I nod and watch the strange yet strangely cute scene before me. Soon the baby finished and it curled up to sleep but I picked it up and let it curl up in my arms.
Megumi pulls out a small glass vial and I order Peach to make the milk which is then extracted. This is what came out.
Slime Fox Milk
A mimic slimes milk after taking the form of a fox. This unique slime mixture mimics a real foxes milk but is greatly more nutritious than a normal foxes milk. The mineral content is enough to reinvigorate even a starved baby faster and make it grow stronger than normal
My jaw dropped instantly. Seriously, this is like a supplementary drink for athletes. Did it appear because it's a pink slime or because it's a mimic slime?
Megumi quickly saw what I wanted to do just by watching my trembling hand. She took the baby fox before looking at me.
“You can try it. You want to get stronger right?” She said.
She smiled and I nodded before downing the full vial of slime fox milk.
When I finished I waited for something but nothing happened. Nothing appears, no window or anything.
“Maybe it works only for foxes!” I said.
Almost instantly, I grab my stomach and Megumi calls my name worried.
You drank Fox Slime milk. Effects to humans, Increases metabolism for 1 hour, bursts of energy for 1 hour, speed at which strength and agility rises has grown for undetermined time.
At that moment I started laughing and twirling like a free willed kid.
“Kuroko! Are you ok?!” Megumi asked
“I’m GREAT! I WANT TO PLAY SO MUCH!” I shouted
Without a second thought I ran off without a care for the world. If someone saw me I would look like a free willed kid but then again after I ran a few meters I covered my body with mana and ran at least five times faster.
And that is what happened for me to be crying out in pain.
As soon as the side effects of the slime milk ran out, all the fatigue my, all too fragile, body built up hit me… HARD!
So at this moment I was on the tamer guilds headmaster's office laying down on his sofa unable to move. The elf maid was performing several series of healing spells on my body to repair the muscle damage I suffered from the backlash.
Megumi had just finished explaining what had happened. Then I told him the effects I saw pop up for me. Besides the metabolism and burst of energy what was most interesting was the physical stats growth increase.
“There are few things that can increase a person’s physical growth. Still considering the side effects I would think that if you will use this slime milk I would use it in small drops to the point of almost being medicine. I will have some alchemists examine this thoroughly. If you want to sell us the way to create mimic slimes it would help advance many things.” Dalton said.
“URG! Sell it?” I ask through sharp waves of pain.
“If anyone figures out the conditions to a certain evolution of a monster then the guild buys it depending what the form is. Because Mimic slime is a race that is searched world wide because of its convenience. These conditions would cost the guild easily 500 gold coins or more. Considering you also know how to make variant colors, the price can go as high as 2000 gold coins since we can make large numbers of pink mimic slimes now.” Megumi explained.
Even hearing those numbers the old man's eyes were fixed and determined.
I flinched as I tried to move, “Ouch! If you will still sponsor me for school, but at 2000 coins and one other thing I will accept.” I said.
“Sure but what is condition three?” Dalton asked.
“Adopt me. I want to be in the same family as Megumi even if I don’t use the same last name.” I said.
She looks shocked as does the old man and the maid but soon they smile.
“That can be easily taken care of. Rio, please take care of preparations once you are done with her treatment.” Dalton said to the maid.
“Yes sir. It would be my utmost pleasure to gain a new mistress to serve.” Rio said.
She smiled warmly like a gentle mother. Like my old mother. The thought of her made tears appear in my eyes.
Everyone looked worried at me.
“Miss, why are you crying?” Rio asked, surprised and worried.
“I *hic* just remembered *hic* my mom's face. I *hic* loved her but *hic* I can’t see her now.” Megumi said.
No one could say anything but Rio stood up and sat me up even through the pain and hugged me.
It was warm and gentle like a mother's. A hug that I was denied for so long. It felt like when I was a little kid again. In my mom's arms I slowly fell asleep and breathed gently to the warm hug and the very quiet humming of a lullaby.
My childhood, the one I never had, I was given again by god. I wish I could thank him but I guess living is one way of doing that. Living with my new family. That sounds nice.