Perhaps I need to lose a habit or two; back on earth, I''d often be found by a loved one or a colleague after going missing for several hours, only to be found out I was, once again, just busy doing work somewhere on something. It didn''t matter what that something was, if it was my favorite thing to do in the world or the most menial, boring task under the sun; I''d lose track of time and get the job finished or get interrupted on my way to its completion.


    And this morning, the same seems to have happened. Chriss, as I''ve recognized from yesterday and the second lady I''ve put a face and name to, is currently staring at me, on her hands and knees, with her head to the floor to see under one of the counters. I am, of course, still in a bit of a workaholic hangover and staring blankly back at her, not that she''d be able to tell.


    Snapping out of my work-mode and into my social-mode, I rolled out from under the workspace to greet her, ''Morning.''


    "Morning? It''s well after midday, and the other three dunces freaked out when you''d gone missing and two piles of "random stuff" appeared out of nowhere."


    ''Oh...''


    "Yeah, oh, but I must thank you for cleaning the floors; with everyone being sick near to death, none of the cleaners could come and tidy up in the last half year."


    ''I meant to ask about that yesterday, but Jack was reluctant to answer pretty much anything other than my first question before introducing himself and departing at a rapid pace. Anyways, he also said you''d be open to sharing and answering my questions, particularly about a note that was passed around at my changing of owner and just how long I''ve been in my tool-like slumber.''


    Shaking her head, she adjusted a few things above me out of my direct line of sight and pulled another stool from the island that stretched most of the length of the lab. As she sat, she pointed at the smaller pile that was closest. "Some of those ingredients and potions are pretty valuable, and you handled them with care. The empty vials could have been discarded though, or even eaten if you are capable of such feats. From what I know about slimes, it should definitely be possible."


    ''I cleaned them, unsure if they''d be recyclable. As far as I know, I can''t eat something as hard as glass; at the same time, I haven''t tried either, so maybe I''ll surprise myself.''


    We headed over to the pile, and she grabbed a few of the empty vials. It looked like she was inspecting my job after I mentioned my cleaning. I took a shard from one that had broken and tried to consume it. The glass vibrated inside my innards before shattering into 200 or so smaller pieces. Each of these smaller pieces, one after another, repeated the step once more, creating some very fine glass sand floating and swirling inside me.


    After observing if it would change beyond that state for a couple of minutes, she probed my progress. "Does it only get broken down into a powder?"


    ''I''m not sure. It feels like I''m in the middle of eating, so I think the process is still going. Does it look different from what you know?''


    "A bit, the time I saw a slime eat glass was on one of my team''s expeditions to hunt and kill a slime that had eaten a hole straight through a town. No one got hurt, but it just so happened to be headed in the right direction to go straight through a capital. I''d have loved to experiment on a slime that had such eating powers, but the very container I''d tried to capture it in was made of glass, and it simply postponed the slime''s progress for a few short moments before boring a small hole barely larger than its core and squeezing right on through. The team decided it was in fact a problematic situation, and the kill order that would have been accomplished via capture and instead studied by me was unfortunately fulfilled as advertised."


    ''Unfortunate.''


    "Indeed, still, that slime looked like it had melted its way through the side of my slime jar like an impossibly potent acid. You, on the other hand, have broken the shard into innumerable pieces and appear to be furthering that process." She bent down and plucked me right off the ground to get a closer look.


    ''In the world I''m from, such an acid existed. Though it wasn''t considered very strong.''


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    Her eyes widened at the mention of glass-dissolving acid. "How did you contain it then? As far as I know, nothing that can''t be held by glass can even be moved outside of mana levitation, and that''s only if the acid doesn''t eat your mana too."


    ''I can''t remember specifics but basically acids are just substances that can break apart atomic bonds of various materials; thus, we just made something with stronger bonds than glass.''


    She hummed at my words, looking a bit confused. "What does "atomic" mean? For the most part I can understand everything else you said, but this word''s concept just doesn''t make any sense. It''s like a word with a missing meaning."


    ''Perhaps because of the level of development into devices that can peer into the building blocks of almost everything is maybe a bit lacking or possibly nonexistent, you wouldn''t have the knowledge to understand what I mean. When I say atomic, its meaning in this case is of a certain scale. An atom is the smallest whole building block of any physical material or substance. I hope that tidbit helps.''


    "Well, you describe it well enough. You say these "atoms" make up everything? And on a scale... do you mean to say they are very small?"


    ''Precisely.''


    "If I wanted to see a single atom, how small would I need to be?"


    ''Uh, well, disregarding the whole impossibility of being that small or being able to see anything at all, you''d need to shrink close to the magnitude of 10 billion times smaller. At that size you''d be able to feel the active push of each individual atom along a surface.''


    "Why wouldn''t I be able to see?"


    ''Well, once you get to a certain size, light becomes too big for your eye, as strange as that may sound.''


    "I don''t get it, and I feel a little dumbfounded at what it would take to see an atom if you can''t become small enough to see them. One more question though: how does light work? More accurately, how can we see?"


    ''I''ll try my best to explain in simple terms for you. Light has a frequency; that is, it shakes back and forth along its path. That frequency would become too wide for your eye to perceive after getting below a certain size. Colors, as you know them, are actually just different frequencies of light, and when light bounces off something that we call red, it''s because the object that is red absorbed most of the light that wasn''t red. Seeing color is really just seeing visible light minus what wasn''t reflected off a surface. As for vision itself, humans have three types of detectors in their eyes. One for red, green, and blue. Each of these sensors can send their signal intensities, and your brain interprets these signals as a color. From black to white, all three sensors are saying they are at equal levels from 0 to their maximum; every color signifies that one or two of the sensors are detecting a lower or higher intensity than the remaining sensors. Make sense?''


    "Yup, it makes sense to me. Now I''m just jealous of whatever world you come from. It sounds so advanced." She confirmed while scribbling down onto a clipboard.


    ''That brings me to something else. I''ve been wondering, is there a library or other form of public information sharing establishment?''


    "Sure, there are libraries, but they are usually controlled by the mages of whatever region you''re in. And typically the only thing stored there is magic or skill related. Getting into such a place for a slime would be near impossible unless you end up capable of casting a spell, which is all the verification you need to enter such a place. From what I do know about getting inside myself is most of the information is separated into several floors, either ascending or descending, and gaining access to the next floor can be quite the hurdle. Most mages are rather petty and would likely despise a monster trying to improve its casting skill, seeing as most mages are there solely to kill monsters faster and better in the first place."


    ''Well, that throws a wrench into my plans. I was optimistic about having access to knowledge at my fingertips even if I had to move to come into reach of said knowledge.''


    "Did you not need to browse the aisles to gather more information in your old world?"


    ''We had something called a smartphone. These devices could fit comfortably in the grip of your hand and had access to all of human knowledge.''


    "How did it store so much in such a small space!? Surely they were expensive and few existed, right?"


    ''Well, to clarify, every phone would connect to an external network. Somewhere on that network there would be a database or, in analogy, a really compact library. That would then send you information based on what your search inquiry was. Uh, but I''ve just realized that we''ve gone on a really long tangent, and while I''d love to explain all the fancy intricacies of Earth technology, I still don''t know how long I was a tool and not myself, and that''s pretty important to learn sooner rather than later.''


    "My apologies, you''re just full of information, and I''m almost giddy about learning that everything is made up of super tiny parts. I just want to learn so much more! At any rate, let me grab the note, and I''ll be right back."


    ''Wait! Just take me with you; I''ve been stuck in a lab room for longer than 24 hours and need a change of scenery!''


    She pivoted right back around and ripped my apparently partially adhered self from the smooth counter. Shhrrrrp. Off we went out into the hallway and through a few more sets of doors. Somehow I hadn''t earlier put together that I was on the surface now, but the sun shone brightly over the horizon, casting a vibrant yellow-orange on the wall through the windows.


    Rapidly we arrived and entered what I presumed to be an administrative office with a manastone shining brightly and illuminating the comfortably spaced personal workspace.