MC PoV
It's been 3 hours since we stopped singing and I started playing with 'slimes live freely'. I am in love with this skill but it's not limitless. The skill was produced using a finite amount of energy so it isn't all powerful. I can't, for example, edit absorption to grant me flight and the ability to conjure Bruno Mars. It has to stay within the basic skill template, but in saying that the lee way it truly ridiculous. For example 'Eyes of truth' is the skill I developed by editing 'eyes of judgement'.
[[eyes of judgement- a standard Hero skill. Can provide opponents name and lv as long as they do not exceed 1.5 times your lv. Can appraise all items below legendary level. Allows for detailed examination of status and skills of user.]]
[[Eyes of truth- a more powerful descendant of 'eyes of judgement'. Can provide opponents name, species, gender and lv as long as they do not exceed 3.5 times your lv. Can appraise all items below mythology level. Allows for detailed examination of status and skills of user. Appraisals can not be detected by opponents less than 5 times your level. Allows for the passive detection of lies when physically viewing the target.]]
Obviously the skill isn't all powerful but is a good few leagues above the former. Similarly mana sense has become more powerful but hasn't been renamed because I won't let Adam call it Byakugan and he refuses to change it if he can't have his way.
[[mana sense- an evolved form of the basic slime skill. You can navigate by accurately reading the movements of mana around you. Sensory range is proportional to 10 meters per level. Note: mana sense is not perfect and opponents with stealth skill may be harder to detect within its range. Note: high level being that are sensitive to mana may detect traces of mana sense should they enter its range. Both cases require the target to be at least 2.7 times your level]]
It's evidently stronger than it was, the range cap was removed and range per level extended and while the demerits couldn't be fully removed they were greatly reduced. The others aren't currently relevant as Adam said I will be stuck in here until I can properly control my new body and adapt to mana sense.
"Well yeah. No mater how strong your skills are you wont be able to do anything when you meet an enemy besides taste them as they tear you apart."(Adam)
And he's still reading my mind apparently. Don't you have anything better to do?
"Actually no. I can't make contact with anything within the system not recognised as an anomaly and you're the first one to ever appear." (Adam)
Oh yeah you did mention something about this being your first conversation didn't you?
"Yeah, well if you don't count 'system', but she doesn't have sentience so it's really more talking at her than with her. Anyway I'll stop reading your mind when you can talk. That should give me enough time to fully extract everything I need." (Adam)
I'm sorry what?
"Well I told you I can't interact with anything in the system that includes entertainment. So I'm copying over all the things in your memories that you've ever watched or read. I took some earlier but not all of them so I'm just finishing off." (Adam)
Hey so when you say everything...
"It's cool I don't have a body so I can't really see the appeal in those videos but I understand the role hormones play in human development. Besides it's really this anime, manga and novel collection I'm interested in. It should keep me occupied for the next few years given that I can't talk to you then." (Adam)
Huh? Why not? Are you going somewhere?
"No but you need to get used to your body it's going to take a while, 26 years was my estimate but now that you upgraded 'free mind' it will probably only take 4 or 5." (Adam)
Damn that long. I guess it makes sense given the new body, skills and mana but I just hate the idea that I'll be stuck here while the rest of the transferred students can play around.
"I wouldn't worry about that too much." (Adam)
Oh?
"Sorry I can't tell you information that doesn't involve you." (Adam)
Does it involve the transfer to this world?
"I could not in good conscience confirm that to be the truth" (Adam)
Subtle. Ok then as someone involved in the transfer can you give me any details about it. Not the other students just the process of transferring across.
"Well...eh good enough for me. So here it is, should you still have had your physical body it would have taken you about 25 years to get here although you would have been in a kind of cryo sleep so you wouldn't notice. However as a soul, you just popped in straight away, that's also why i had no measures in place to deal with you besides finding the nearest vessel and plonking you in it." (Adam)
Well a 25 year head start is appealing. Even if I loose the first 5 adjusting to this body I would still have plenty of time to grow in strength. Maybe even put a few plans in place.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. Start training and we'll take it from there. I've got a little treat for you when your done."
Really? What is it?
"Hahahahaha anticipation is life's greatest seasoning."(Adam)
...Well then I'll start training. With 'free mind' I can not only patiently endure these 5 years but my concentration shouldn't so much as waver.
"TIME SKIP GOOOOOOO" (Adam)
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Whoo. It's been a few years already since I started training. I thought it would be easy given the slime instincts that have remained in this body but as I expanded the range of mana sense it took a while to adjust to that. Never mind that I had to learn how to move a purely liquid body and learn how to draw in mana from the atmosphere. Ah yes. Slimes in this world don't have cores like they do in games but upon death all of their liquid body will condense into a marble like object that can be used in medicine by sentient races or food for monsters. Though I guess I could do both. Regardless I'm fully cable of sensing my surroundings and moving accordingly so it's time to get stronger. Adam where's my treat!
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"Hahaha your already in it. You see I teleported you into a secret room in the first floor of an old abandoned dungeon."(Adam)
Really! That's awesome... But I'm a bit concerned that I'll just die as soon as I leave this room. I'm only a level one slime after all.
"It's true that you would die to any other dungeon but that's why I said it's a treat. This dungeon used to be a quarry for a mining town but was abandoned when they dug into a manna vein and the excess mana started to conceal into liquid form?"(Adam)
Wait you mean slimes.
"Yep and due to this being a quarry they are predominantly earth bases variants. Which means?"(Adam)
They will be slow. In fact at low levels earth won't be useful offensively it will only be at the level of throwing sand or mud. These are the perfect starting opponents for me. And it's all thanks to 'Slime Fiend'.
[[Slime Fiend- a powerful specialised variant of basic slime skill absorption. You passively absorb mana as sustenance and can actively absorb prey provided they are of the slime family. Absorbing prey provides xp proportional to the level disparity. Also absorbs a portion of other slimes mass. absorption will absorb all skills, resistances or other abilities. Absorption will include memories on usage of skills and battle experience.]]
This was what became of absorption after editing. I specialised it towards hunting slimes as I only receive so much leeway with the skills edit. By actively restricting the skill to slimes I was able to not only guarantee skill absorption as well as resistances but also get the memories of skill usage. This became a priority after realising how long it would take me just to adjust to mana sense and my current body. Plus there is no restriction to stacking skills. The perfect skill for growing my strength at low levels. Though I do hope I can get some other skill similar to absorption so I can target other races. Thanks to 'free mind' I don't even have qualms at the thought of eating humans. Which will probably be necessary later as I doubt there are many slimes with production skills.regardless it all starts with a single step I still still need to kill my first slime and we should be evenly matched in combat strength as I have no skills that focus on battle.
"Well you won't know till you find one. just slip through the crack in the wall and you will find yourself in the dungeon corridors" (Adam)
Wait...doesn't that mean a slime could have slipped in here a killed me at any time?
".....................nope.................................." (Adam)
Why not?
"......uhm. You know, magic reasons. Hey stop wasting time here and go eat some slimes!" (Adam)
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It appears that mana sense is the same for all slimes as none of them can locate me who has a range of 10 metres. Even the lv 5 slimes who are the strongest on this floor only have a range of 5 metres so it's fairly easy to avoid them. I've just been dodging slimes who are higher lv than me or in groups and I've finally located my first target. A brown slime (yes mana sense also detects colour) the same size as me and all on its own, possibly just spawned. My plan is basic but should still be effective.
I pounce on it from 1.1 metres away landing a surprise hit before retreating. I'm faster so it's easy to escape it's range (though only relatively speaking). Rinse and repeat. It takes 20 minutes to finally kill it due to its high defence but to the victor goes the spoils.
[[Slime Fiend activated- enemy lv disparity none. total mass increase 10%, defence boosted. Memories obtained.]]
The earth slimes memories enter my mind. They are fairly basic, I was right in thinking that it had only just spawned. The memories depict it's trouble moving and love for the soil.
"That is due to its affinity. It's very shallow as its only low level but monsters with strong affinities form a connection with their element that makes them feel comfortable when around it. That's why most elemental monsters don't leave their habitats."(Adam)
Oh then I would probably feel that way in a forest as well huh. Actually after consuming this slime I feel the same faint affection for soil that it did. Interesting, Adam why aren't auras displayed by eyes of truth?
"affinities are more spiritual so 'system' can't express them well but it's easy to find out. You will feel comfortable with any element you have affinity for and those with strong affinities radiate an aura dependant on which element they have." (Adam)
Doesn't that give away too much of your fighting strength? and you still haven't told me what they do.
"You can always train in restraining your aura but it's impossible to utilise an element you have affinity with and fully conceal it. For example a mage with fire affinity couldn't cast a fire ball without radiating a flame aura but could train to conceal it out with battle so you don't know his element until it's used. Oh and using magic to your affinity boosts cost efficiency and power." (Adam)
Interesting. That should be helpful information later on but for now let's get back to the hunt.
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It's been a 2 weeks since I killed my first slime and I've finally reached lv 7. After massacring every slime on this floor. 265 lv1, 433 lv2, 346 lv3, 189 lv4, 43 lv5. With each level having greater defence, affinity and mass than the former. Currently my size is about that of a baby elephant and my defence is equivalent to rock. I'm going to go to the next floor now. Although to be honest with my current strength I can pretty much one shot lv 20 earth slimes. But whatever I'm not in a rush, I'll take this dungeon for everything it's got.
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I'm on the 5th floor now. I'm lv36 while the highest level slimes here are lv25 but my affinity with earth is becoming much more profound although it all revolves more around feelings than science or explanation. This is probably due to how stupid slimes are by nature. Not that I'm complaining. Adam mentioned to me that slimes don't cast spells in this world as they would be expending their physical body's to do so. It makes sense given that they are made of mana. Instead they directly manipulate their element by 'becoming one with it'. Although only high level slimes can do this I don't feel I'm too far off.
More importantly is that my body resembles a greyhound. Not the dog but the bus. I've been moving in a more cylindrical shape in order to move through the corridors.
That doesn't make me strong though. If there were any here, I can say for sure that I couldn't kill any adventurers at this point. I'm simply to slow and I clearly lack stealth. Unless they thought I was a wall and decided to lean against me I would be unable to harm them. I'll need to rectify that later. Maybe wind or water slimes could help.
Ok, 5 down 5 to go.
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Due to slimes getting bigger as they level my size has been snowballing I cleared the 9th floor in 6 hours. Now I'm practically a slow landslide. I simply flood the corridors and once the slimes are surrounded I absorb them while they are still alive. Plus matter how hard they fight back they simply can't penetrate by defence. Though I have no idea how hard I am as I have nothing to compare it too it should be more than enough for the last floor. Right Andy?
"Sorry bro can't tell you too much or there's no fun." (Andy)
Well even if it's more of a challenge than I'm expecting I should be ok. To the final floor!
Once I reached the tenth floor there was only one slime to be seen. My mana sense now reaches 630 metres so I was able to find it at the far end of the floor laying atop a crack in the ground. What peaked my interest is its size. Despite clearly being a higher level it's even smaller than a lv10 earth slime. If it has a skill to decrease size that's something I need quite badly, so for the first time since I started hunting I used eyes of truth on my prey.
[[Metal slime jebeleta lv153]]
Oh just a named rare species 90 levels above me...Shit.