《Jupiter's Rising》


 Prelude- Where It began?

    It was a beautiful early spring morning where the sun just started to rise with the first drops of dew making their translucent appearance and the beginnings of life sprouting across the city while I bathed in its magnificence was the same day my story started¡­


    ¡®Or so I like to remember it as so.¡¯


    West of the city of Tr¨¦al, in a large condominium complex on the 27<sup>th</sup> floor was my small 2 bedroom apartment with a fairly clean appearance and a lack of much besides a few gadget like pieces of art from old shipwrecks I collected here and there, a comfy leather couch and a big screen hung on the wall for my viewing pleasures.


    Sitting in front of an old worn down oak desk, there I was in all my glory, a man of average height with a crow¡¯s nest of black hair sitting in front of my laptop scrolling down the endless wonders that is the internet in my bathrobe.


    I was at the pristine age of 23, having left my parent¡¯s watchful eyes after having realized I wasn¡¯t cut out for college and lacked the ambition to do much else. I moved out and got myself a small online job to pay the bills as working for a boss just didn¡¯t suit a man of my standards. And that I fucking hated commuting and waking up at times that my body, mind and spirit simply did not acknowledge deserving the need to co-exist with my wakefulness.


    Yup.


    I was one of those guys who simply hated regular jobs but never really worked hard enough to get anything high end from an academic perspective anyways, just like my last girlfriend thought.


    Well, they can go screw themselves is what I say. Why?


    Because, my online job which started out as a small online shop for cool stuff I found on the internet has turned to becoming a niche market for collectors of various oddities found in shipwrecks, ruins, excavation sites and my best source¡­ overseas pirates. (That last one has a funny story too.)


    These various products I gathered over time are then resold on the market to my group of faithful collectors! How do I get them? Usually what I get are the leftovers that the three main groups of vultures leave to us commoners or so I like to describe it as. Or that they simply miss with their massive goddamn radars. The three being:


    <ol>


    <li>Government (Military, military¡­ more military) Damn poachers!</li>


    <li>Research institutes(i.e researchers, archeologist, geologists, etc) Damn poachers!</li>


    <li>Museums ( Yup, those rich bastards have stolen my deals a number of times!) Damn poachers!</li>


    </ol>


    You see, there is a large market of undiscovered stuff appearing every year or reappearing after a long time but they aren¡¯t always snatched up by, my previously mentioned, big 3. Leaving some space for people like me to sweep in, if the timing is right, to catch these fishes that slipped through the net. All this leading me to my current situation, where I may not be wealthy but I am a pretty well off for a bachelor who lives on his own without a degree. Pretty cool yeah?


    Pretty cool indeed.


    Now this just happened to be what I am doing right now, scrolling through one of my favorite auction house for new oddities that may have surfaced during my binge drinking last night.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Scrolling through the list of newly added items, I was generally just searching for anything that didn¡¯t seem like a pile of ¡°complete¡± garbage but usually that ends up being what they look like regardless and it takes a keen eye to judge the value of some of these items.


    I usually check every morning and evening for new stuff but it seems this morning was a bust. I logged off and went to make a cup of coffee to help me with the mild headache from drinking when I just so happened to get a notice on my phone with my, personalized, alert ringtone. Checking to see what it said, it read:


    ¡°URGENT- SOMALI FRED ¨C AUCTION OF Est. 500 Yrs. SHIPWRECK! STARTS IN 15 MINUTES!¡±


    ¡°OH BABY! Fred, I knew you never disappoint, you ugly bastard!¡± Rushing to my laptop with a grin, I get right back on to the auction house and went into Fred¡¯s profile and just as promised, a new auction alert was counting down the time at 14minutes 23 seconds remaining with a listed 12 items of potential value.


    Excitement washed over my face as I saw those words.


    Reason?


    Because Fred here is the leader of his own diving crew that scour the Arabian Sea, East of Africa, for loot that may have been sunk over the sea¡¯s history, which lead me to meeting him when he just started selling some of his stuff a year ago on reddit. ( Which by the way, I berated the living pirate shit out of him for doing)


    Got him signed up on the auction house and using it, in return for priority on his auction alerts and since his stuff are all from actual diving sessions with videos, and images of the locations found. I just had to get something from him whenever he posted an auction mainly because he usually finds some cool shit.


    Which is exactly why I like Fred, like me he has an eye for these things when he goes diving and you can usually find a one or two really worthwhile picks every now and then, which have given me great benefits from reselling to collectors through my own channels.


    Now enough about the smelly pirate!


    Time to see what he looted, and so I started browsing his auction introduction which gave a small resume and image of the items being auctioned off.


    Reading through the first few items, I couldn¡¯t help but chuckle a little at Fred. ¡®Fred, buddy, you seem to have had a little shitty trip compared to usual.¡¯ I thought as I looked through the first 4 items being painting frames with minor lines of gold embedded into the metal framework. Probably a value of 100-300$ for the lot or so I judged as I found these to be pretty useless to me, unless I was willing to melt the gold out and somehow scavenge whatever is still ¡°potent¡± gold but too much work, I say.


    Oh a nice little treasure chest, well as nice as a 500 year old looking box of wood and steel can be and some little trinkets that have somewhat survived the passage of time. Though I don¡¯t always believe Fred¡¯s ¡°Time¡± estimates. He isn¡¯t a historian after all, I always took care to remember that.


    Still nothing impressive, as I scroll down and find a piece of jewelry which looks to be an emerald necklace that is incredibly worn down but the jewel seems shiny and he set it at a base price of 150$ due to the jewel and the appreciation of the antique due to time. This thing could probably go for 350$-500$ depending on who I pawn it off to. I might just get it if it stays below 300$. ¡°Added to watch¡±


    Something I always do when I want something, just add it to my personal alert system so that when there is 5 to 10 minutes left to the items auction time, I am back on the auction waiting to buy it out, hopefully at least.


    Anyways, back to browsing¡­ wait, huh?


    I tilt my head in confusion at the images posted for this odd looking thing that Fred added on here. I¡¯m confused because the thing doesn¡¯t really look old at all. Compared to the dying corpses of his previous items, this thing looks like a goddamn newborn!


    ¡®Looking back, that wreally was the day. The day, where all this started.¡¯


    Jupiter Ortus,Reminiscence

 Chapter 1- Ball and Auction

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

 Chapter 2 – Sparks

    Looking at the box, sealed in all its glory with packing tape, it was a 1 by 1 foot box and not hearing the ball rolling in it made me feel at bit more at ease at Fred¡¯s packaging capabilities or whoever he slugged the work off to.


    I walk into the second smaller bedroom that I remodeled into a small workshop about a year ago to tinker with a few of the products I get to get slightly better sales. I sit down on my office chair while slowly opening my new found treasure.


    Opening it up, it was surrounded with small plastic airbags and the ball itself was wrapped in bubble wrap which should come in handy on a late Friday night with nothing to do. Pop bubbles to compensate the loneliness.


    Anyways, without much in the way of packaging I squeeze out the ball and finally take a good look at it.


    Surprisingly, smaller than I expected but shockingly heavy though I do remember it being mentioned it was heavy for its size.


    The ball was a smooth surface of silver like black metal with strange carvings going around the center all around. The carvings looked like some of those runes you would find in a magic based mmorpg or something which left me even more intrigued. They formed 6 intricate designs on the surface of the ball and I couldn¡¯t see any line or switch of any sort indicating this thing could be opened which left me a little unhappy as I had the odd feeling that there must be something inside this heavy little thing. I couldn¡¯t say why but it just gave me the odd presence of something else besides metal being present.


    That thought didn¡¯t last long as I felt the slight chill coming off the 15cm tall ball of metal. I then proceeded to run some test to see if this thing would have anything special as I didn¡¯t have a microscope strong enough to tell its metal I focused on the carvings to see what could be seen on the crevices they formed from being engraved.


    I put the ball in place under a strong lamp light while getting my portable microscope to zoom in on the engravings. The zoom was only able to go about 40x which was the limit of my 100$ investment but did most of my microscopic needs justice. What¡¯s growing on my toe? What is the 40x zoomed equivalent of an ant? and such scientific things. I should really stop boasting about such things but sadly, my lack of real world communication with people led to an inflated ego to keep myself from going insane from the hermit lifestyle I decided upon myself.


    Back to the ball, I zoomed in on the markings with 20x for a preliminary test only to see that they seemed to have been extremely precise as I couldn¡¯t even see any rough edges along the engravings making me believe this might have been some sort of laser or they smoothed the edges out, after which the ball just upped in its value in my head from 200$ to about 700$ if I market it right to the proper geeks. Which left me jubilant at getting back my money with profits as a bonus.


    I switched the magnifying lens to 40x zoom and I was surprised a little as the engravings turned into a miniature canyon where in between were¡­ slightly blurry but smaller black spots with a hint of silver in them.


    I tried getting a better look but the lens wouldn¡¯t allow for much precision and I happen to make out a slightly larger black spot in between 3 of the engravings borders while studying further. Leaving me a little speechless, to be honest. Reason being the slightly larger black spots under the lamp light and magnification looked to be another smaller engraving but I wasn¡¯t a hundred percent sure as they were still a little blurry which kind of put me off.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    ¡®The precision on these things, if engraved within the engravings, are incredible if that¡¯s even possible.¡¯ I was a little dazed at the possibility of what I just examined because those things must be tiny as all hell and if all the other tiny black spots were similar markings as well then this thing was something entirely different from what I originally thought.


    As my gaze rested on the ball for a minute, I slowly realize  that I, Jupiter Ortus, have just made¡­ BANK!


    I start laughing like a maniac at the thought of this thing being one of the most desired piece for science enthusiasts and if I bloat the story with my ¡°mostly probable¡± hypothesis of being shot from space then I might make something in the upper few thousands¡­ maybe more if I can get more concrete research done on the thing!


    Right away, I start doing more tests to see just what this thing is and can do. My eyes were burning with a fire, I had long thought extinguished! I thought:¡¯ This is it! This feeling, this is the feeling I haven¡¯t had in such a long time. Simple and pure excitement.¡¯ The feeling was exaggeratedly good, I felt like a child again getting his hands on a new toy and had to run around showing it off.


    Calming myself a little from the excitement, I started with a submerging test in water which showed nothing strange, then pure alcohol ( technically, it was rubbing alcohol) to see if that were to change anything but still no reaction.


    I followed up with hammering the thing to see if it reacts to any impact which left me quite disappointed as the thing didn¡¯t even scratch when the full force of my weight was put behind a hammer strike. Tough I shouldn¡¯t be surprised if my original theory proved true as it still looked smooth after a tunneling through the sea rock. I tried drilling afterwards to test the metal, though the drill broke, I was a little relieved as that just reassured me this thing is anything but normal though the drilling might have been a little overboard.


    Finally, running out of things to do I figure I could perform one last test just to get my evil genius alter-ego desires satiated.


    I grab an old toaster in the corner of my workshop and cut the wire connecting to the toaster and plug in the other end to the wall outlet and voila.


    ¡°Hehehe! Prepare to be¡­ SHOCKED!¡± Another childish giggle at the bad pun and I submerge the ball in a pool of water after peppering in salt for added conductivity which still gave the ball no reaction but electricity should do something right?


    I put on some gloves, a full leather jacket and safety goggles just to avoid getting shocked from residual electricity and go to slowly put the cut off end of the wire into the water with a pair of barbecue tongs for added safety. What happened next left me utterly in shock! No pun intended.


    The moment the live wire touched the salt water with the ball inside at the center of the bowl. It attracted all the electric current that was going in the water but the really scary thing was the tip end of the wire was fully attracted to the ball and next thing I know, the ball and the wire were connected without me having done anything. I gasped and dropped the barbecue tongs while staring at the ball slightly lighting up from the electricity running over it and a few moments into the experiment the apartment lights started to dim and that left me worried as I stared at the ceiling lights flickering from low to high as if the house was haunted.


    And before I could do anything to remove the wire, the light popped with a bang and all the power in the apartment went dark.


    Silence


    It filled the air and my apartment as if death was looming in the dark corners while I stood there dazed at what just happened. My mind reeling from the shocking event while my eyes were fixated on the ball in the water which had all the engravings glowing a small soft white which left me feeling a little unnerved as I did not know what I just did and the unknown is really fucking scary when the ball you play with may or may not be from goddamn space!


    My breathing a little ragged from the rush of stimuli and I slowly inch closer to the ball to see what is happening.

 Chapter 3 – Slime?

    All I see, inside the room, is the ball slowly spinning but the top and bottom are spinning in different directions while the rune like markings are split in the middle mixing and matching with the others and when I got a little closer to the bowl I saw it slowly coming to a stop with the runic engravings having been altered from the spinning the ball had just performed.


    ¡°SHHHHHHHHHHHH¡±


    The ball started making an odd sound that started to push air bubbles into the water and seeing that I am still wearing gloves, I grabbed at the ball slowly cupping it in between my fingers and raising it out of the water because I wanted to see what it was doing as my curiosity got the better of me.


    Holding the ball in my hand I stared at it making the weird sound that sounded like a freezer door being opened in the middle of the night with the cooling fan spinning.


    When suddenly


    ¡°BANG!¡±


    I flinched at the sound only to notice the top half of the ball popped right off hanging from edge of the bottom half as if it was a pokeball. ¡®Yeah, didn¡¯t expect the pokemon effect from this thing.¡¯


    The interior glowed a bright blueish green hue which left me squinting my eyes for a better look until my eyes slightly adjusted and I finally got to see inside the ball. Inside the ball was one of, if not, THE weirdest thing I have seen in my entire life.


    I looked at it with shock plastered over every square inch of my face.


    ¡°uhh¡± Was all I could get out of my mouth from looking at it. What it looked like was well, for lack of better words, was¡­


    A slime?


    I was confused because it basically looked exactly like a small green glob of gelatin about a few centimeters in width and length and it was making small movements as if it was alive with little nubs poking out and going back in from different areas on its surface.


    Getting a better look, the thing had a couple hundred different black spots inside its body that shined like tiny little dim stars.


    A few moments of staring later, I finally get nudged back into reality from the daze this, uhm, creature caused me and couldn¡¯t help the urge from somewhere deep inside my slightly idiotic brain that wanted me to poke it.


    ¡®Humans and their innate wish to poke at all unknown things¡­sigh¡¯ Throwing the thought to the back of my mind as fast as it came into it, I slowly put the pokeball onto the table while keeping an eye on the little slime just in case it turns out to be some devil that can jump around the room. Paranoid?


    100 fucking percent!


    I take off my gloves and take a seat on the office chair and take a piece of metal lying on the desk to do what must be done. And so, ready to jump away at the first sign, I poked it¡­


    Nothing. The blob just kept doing its slow ¡°I¡¯m alive but not to the point I can do anything more than fidget¡± thing while I stare dumbfounded at what in all hells of hell I am staring at.


    ¡°Peculiar little thing, aren¡¯t you?¡± I ask it while it keeps doing its mindless bobbing and weaving.


    Confused and without power to do another ¡°shocking¡± experiment, I organize my thoughts about what to do now. Considering I planned on selling this thing, as its worth has clearly been displayed but I have no idea if it can be closed in the ball again, will the slime be upset and attack or if selling the ball while keeping the slime be the better?The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    My mind of littered game/novel knowledge was screaming to kill it and gain experience points but my natural curiosity overwhelmed my childish desire for xp in real life.


    So I asked it a question like any sane man would do faced with slime from a ball that came from the void that is space.


    ¡°Hey, slime! What are you?¡± I boldly questioned it due to its lack of sudden movements which somewhat reassured me of this incredibly odd situation I found myself in.


    The slime kept its gelatinous motion going from my question while I stared at it but I did notice that it started growing a nub that didn¡¯t return into its body after moments of staring at it. The nub slowly grew from a pimple to a slowly forming tentacle that kept extending until it stopped at 6-7 centimeters while directly growing towards my face¡­


    ¡°Uhm¡­ I apologize slime but I do not understand your response¡­¡± I replied to its tentacle growing stunt as I had no idea what the hell that even meant.


    Still staring at the slime I noticed the slime body emit a little more blueish-greent light and the tentacle grew even longer while this time growing towards the hand I had on the desk that wasn¡¯t too far from the ball. Still confused, I decided maybe it wants to show me something so I slowly moved the tip of my index finger towards its tentacle, slightly nervous at what it¡¯s trying to say or do. The slime tentacle slowly wrapped around my finger and it felt slightly cold with a soft but slimey texture though It didn¡¯t secrete any form of ooze or wrap too tightly which made me a little less worried and grossed out for that matter.


    While it was still slowly wrapping around my finger at the snail like pace, all I could keep thinking about was ¡¯where the fuck did you come from? Did it understand what I said? Was the pokeball its spaceship? Are slimes invading the earth? Is it peaceful or is this finger wrapping a form of attack?¡¯ These thoughts raced through my mind as I stare at this ever so slow slime wrap its tentacle a few times around my finger until I was nudged out of my thoughts by a slight pull from the slime.


    Since it was just a little pull, I figured I could always escape with just a little extra force so I indulge my new little friend here by letting it pull my finger closer towards it while I maintain a certain level of vigilance yet still in awe that slimes actually existed in the world. Like I have seen them in games and all that but this is real life so come on! A fucking slime is in my workshop in REAL FUCKING LIFE!


    Meanwhile, while I was getting lost in my thoughts and excitement at this game like creature, my finger finally reached the slimes main body and the moment I touched the slimes body I received a huge shock.


    No! Literally, I got fucking shocked by the slime!


    My consciousness started to fade and fear grew at incredible speed as I saw the slime body moving and slowly covering my hand which I couldn¡¯t even pull away due to the speed of me fainting.


    ¡°Fucking sneaky bastard!¡±


    Those were my last thoughts as I slipped into unconsciousness with my back falling against the office chair and my hand still in these evil things gelatinous grip.


    While Jupiter had fainted, the slime slowly moved its entire body onto his hand and started its ascension from the hand to the forearm and continued its ascent.


    ¡­..


    All was black for Jupiter.


    He felt like he was dreaming and that he was walking on a stone road which led him someplace faraway and while he was walking he noticed a slime the size of a baseball on the ground slowly moving towards him. Feeling scared for some reason, he ran away and when he stopped he noticed this time that there was another slime but this time only bigger that started to move in his direction. Not understanding why these slimes were appearing, he kept running only to notice more and more slimes appear and some were as big as a ball while others were the size of couch all slowly heading towards him. He felt himself sweating like crazy and his fear clouding his thoughts and eventually he was surrounded by slime and they all slowly closed in with him in the center.


    He saw them take his feet first and then he tripped and then his arms were taken into the slimes, then his legs, then his back and eventually the slimes formed a giant slime with him being at the center and he tried to struggle but couldn¡¯t move because of the viscous liquid which felt like moving through mud. He felt like he was suffocating from the slime and his fear reached a new peak high until he heard a soft slightly monotone voice¡­


    ¡°It¡¯s okay¡±


    Those were the last things that ran through his mind until he blacked out again.

 Chapter 4- Pain and Fear

    ¡°uhrggh¡±


    I woke up groaning at the headache I was feeling and the horrible neck cramp that I just noticed, leaning forward, I find myself waking up from my office chair.


    ¡°What happened?¡± I ask out loud not expecting an answer while my blurry vision was slowly returning and a little of the headache receding. I didn¡¯t remember having gone to bed on my desk chair, something I never did considering there¡¯s a beautiful king size bed in the other room.


    ¡®Wait, I don¡¯t even remember going to bed for that matter.¡¯ I try and organize my thoughts, mornings really weren¡¯t my biggest strength at any point, really, in my life.


    I look out the window and I see the sun up in the sky and I feel really odd because it looked like it was at the same place it was yesterday¡­


    I remembered waking up and having my coffee, meeting Ralf¡­the package, wait, no. The fucking BALL! My eyes darting around the room looking for the ball as I am overwhelmed with realizations of the ball and its captain having made first contact with me. I finally rest my eyes in front of me looking at the pokeball like steel ball that was still open but with nothing inside¡­


    My mind was in chaos and my heartbeat sharply sped up as it dawns on me that the slime is no longer anywhere to be seen. Frantic at the thought of having a slime of unknown origins sliming about my apartment, I go full force in a search for the damn thing. I started looking everywhere in my workshop from the tables to the cabinets, drawers, under the tables, behind the boxes and even every inch of the floor but nothing.


    Not a single thing out of place or in disorder or with any dust trail of any sort indicating the slime had passed through.


    ¡®Was there even a slime in the first place?¡¯ I start questioning myself as I couldn¡¯t find it and started rationalizing the possibility of having imagined it due to fumes from the ball or the electricity having shocked me.


    ¡°Wait! No fucking way! The ball is clearly opened and I remember the fucker shocking me at the end when I played with it!¡± I yell all alone in the room as if thinking the slime didn¡¯t exist to be the stupidest idea ever.


    Finally remembering the events before passing out I start checking all over me, only to find nothing but my phone in my pocket showing a new message.


    ¡®Jupiter! Buddy! How was the ball? Weird right? I couldn¡¯t help but text you a thanks for getting me one of the bigger sales from yesterday! Haha, enjoy! ¨C Fred¡¯


    ¡°Ah, how nice Fred, you fuck! You might of just helped me unleash god knows what to the world but your happy about your goddamn 200$¡± I throw my phone away feeling jealous of Fred¡¯s ignorance to the situation I found myself in.


    I wondered if it were possible that the slime escaped but the windows were all closed and there were no gaps between my doors leaving the other rooms being a possibility out unless the creature could mount walls and enter the vent¡­ I looked up towards the vent with a complicated expression for a few minutes before finally giving up on the idea of ¡°vent searching¡±.


    ¡°Sigh¡­¡±


    Feeling a little upset at the loss of the slime, or ever having revenge, I resolved myself to go make a cup of tea to help the pounding headache I was having after my little frantic search of my workshop.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    In the kitchen, pouring some recently boiled water into a cup of tea leaves, I grab my personal ¡°hangover tea¡± which was a great blend of green tea leaves with cinnamon and some milk to settle on the couch while I start wondering what to do. I really felt as if I might of done something horrible and unleashed some alien creature into the world without rhyme or reason due to my curiosity which left me making a face that simply screamed ¡®I¡¯m an incredibly high level idiot!¡¯


    ¡°Sigh¡±


    Another signature move to showcase my defeat against a slime. ¡® So much for thinking I would do well in a game world, even a fucking slime bested me in my own goddamn home.¡¯


    ¡°Arrrghhhh¡± I moaned in pain at my headache suddenly intensifying for a moment where I felt something in my brain move and just as it appeared, it suddenly vanished. Reduced to the throbbing I originally felt.


    ¡°What the fuck!¡± I swore again, realizing I swear a little too much but didn¡¯t care too much considering the events of the past day and the pain that followed it. I slumped into my couch trying to ignore the creeping thoughts that I might have been experimented on by the slime before its escape. It left me feeling nervous but without any more pain to scare myself further, I relax a little that it might just have been the after-effects of the prick like move it pulled on me for trusting its ¡®weak¡¯ display.


    ¡°He..¡±


    My eyes shot open and I jumped off the couch swinging my head left and right at the sudden sound.


    ¡°Who¡¯s there!?¡± I questioned with some cold sweat building up at the possibility of an intruder.


    ¡®Did someone break in last night? Wait! Maybe they discovered something about the ball and the military sent someone!? I AM SO FUCKED!¡¯ Already with my mind in a state of shock from the previous encounter with alien life, I right away thought of the worst scenario that any movie will teach you¡­ being that the military having been somehow made aware and have made a move on me. ¡°I know you¡¯re there! Come out now!¡± I yell because I would hate to get knocked out by some navy seal or some commando soldier here to retrieve me and the ball especially considering I already don¡¯t like them for always taking the best stuff that pops in on the market with bullshit about national security or classified at the end of every one of their sentence.


    ¡°Hello¡­¡± A weak whisper of a ¡®Hello¡¯ was heard again by Jupiter.


    ¡°¡­Hello?¡± I replied but couldn¡¯t locate where the sound came from with my head still furiously swinging about the room trying to find the intruder.


    A few moments later


    ¡°Language...¡± It almost sounded long winded and slightly eerie as the whisper said language but I still couldn¡¯t find where the sound came from which started making me freak the hell out as I back myself into a corner of my living room.


    ¡°What language?¡± I retorted but at this point completely confused and to be honest, close to defecating my fears into a ball of turd as the voice sounded near yet not coming from any direction which just made me think the army has got some serious secrets about their ¡°stealth¡± gear.


    ¡°What do you want!¡± I asked as I was panicked and really wanted to get back some initiative from this unprofessional military guy who was trying to scare me into a goddamn heart attack.


    ¡°Language aksess¡± It whispered again but with a bit of difficulty as if it was slurring the words.


    Now at this point, that was the straw that broke the camels back as my confusion reached an all-time high as I dazedly replied ¡°Uhm¡­Ok?¡± After which I could of sworn to have heard a slight sigh of almost relief? I could only assume at that point.


    To which the next moment, I felt something so eerie I just wanted to cry like a little girl because I felt something slowly move but¡­but it slowly moved in my skull. I was drench in cold sweat to the point that I could probably refill the city¡¯s water reserves as I try my best not to lose what is left of my sanity as I realize that there just may be something in my¡­ in my¡­


    Tears welled up in the corner of my eyes as I start crying like a 4 year old who just heard something under his bed at night while mumbling in between choking slobber and mucus ¡° I want to wake up! Ahhh¡­ Ahhh¡­ I want to wake up!¡±


    Unfortunately, the nightmare did not want to let me wake up as it slowly kept moving in my brain to which it felt like a slightly cool worm was slowly wriggling in my head. The sobs just got harder as I cradled myself between my knees while continuing to choke on snot with tears. Rocking back and forth with more incoherent speeches of ¡°This isn¡¯t happening, snif, this is NOT happening, hic!¡±


    The moment lasted a few minutes to which I felt as if my entire life of 23 years could only be considered a pitifully short span of time compared to this everlasting moment of nightmarish like experience.

 Chapter 5 - Symbiotic

    ¡°Cough¡±


    After having practically sobbed and cried my soul away, I wiped the tears and mucus off my face. The movement in my head had long ceased but I had continued crying as I realized the fragility that is a human being when they feel their brain has been invaded by slime.


    Yes, the slime invaded my brain.


    It was the only conclusion I could draw during my ¡°episode¡± of depression at the thought of a voice followed by squirming in my brain. I may be impulsive and slightly sociopathic but it¡¯s not like the slime had messed up my mental abilities as I was always slightly sharp or so I self-proclaimed a very long time ago in my teens so I guessed at what happened. Though that leaves me concerned about what its messing with in my head¡­


    Back to the matter at hand, after having cleared my face of all signs of my previous breakdown, I got up still a looking around a little vigilantly but mostly tired and walked towards the couch. Sitting down on something soft helped calm me down a little more and organize my thoughts at what had happened for the second time today. ¡®I ordered a ball found in the sea by Fred, received said ball and followed it up with several experiments which were completely useless except for the part where I fed it electricity, opened the ball and found a slime which decided to ¡®play¡¯ with me only to stun me into fainting with it having crawled its way into my brain which took about 24 hours or so I presume, it then scared the living shit out of me for a so called ¡°language access¡± and then squirmed around in my brain which led me to have a full on mental breakdown at the idea¡­no, fact that it is currently living in my head.¡¯ My thoughts rapidly spun and I recounted the events over the last day and morning which left me a little shocked that I was even able to clearly perceive everything so well even though I just left my mental breakdown state.


    ¡°Weird¡± I mumble.


    ¡°What is weird?¡± A voice echoed that was slightly soft yet oddly feeling monotone without much emotion.


    My body tensed when I heard the question, yet seemingly almost as if in acceptance I take a deep breath and reply¡± Are you the slime I met yesterday?¡±


    A moment of silence passes through the apartment before the voice speaks up again with a simple but very matter-of-fact like ¡°Yes.¡± To which I calm down even more which left me a little surprised at how well I am handling this situation. I decide it¡¯s best to find out a bit more about my current predicament and how bad it actually is and continue with ¡°Can you tell me what you are?¡±


    The voice was quiet as if thinking for a second before replying almost casually ¡° I am the slime you opened yesterday¡±


    ¡®Great, it can think¡­wait not so great! What is it doing in my brain???¡¯ My thoughts lead to a slight panic which destroyed the previous calm I had even managed to muster in the first place.


    ¡°Ok¡­uhm, can you explain what you are doing in head?¡± I questioned again but with as gentle and non-threatening tone I could create in this situation for fear of it taking my apprehension at its breaching of my privacy on so many goddamn levels as a reason to kill me.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    ¡°What? This is my home.¡± The slime replied in an absurdly confident tone which left me stunned at its ego. ¡®I mean, come on! You pop out of a ball and take residence in my head and just declare it your property now!? What are you? The slime version of a fucking mob boss or kingpin??¡¯


    ¡°Wait a few minutes, I am learning the language.¡± The slimes voice echoed in my head again.


    Now¡­THAT officially sent my mind into a downward spiral of thoughts on doom, slime invasion, the republic of brain slimes which led further to mind controlled human slaves to a slime dictator or the complete takeover of human independence by the greater slime powers. ¡®Nononononono, I just had to be the first of those taken over by the slime!? Whoever fucking said slimes are harmless level 1¡¯s should just fucking burn even in his goddamn afterlife! Bastard was probably a slime spy inserted into creating an underestimation of the slime nations powers! Bastard!¡¯ My thoughts continued fearing my future in the hands of my new slime overlords while cursing whoever taught us slimes were weak in strings and varieties of curses that I didn¡¯t even know I knew.


    ¡°Okay, I am done!¡± The slime declared which snapped me out of reverie of doom and gloom.


    ¡°Okay? Uhm¡­how did you learn the language exactly?¡± I asked while feeling a little nervous because I was slightly afraid of the answer that I had some guesses towards.


    ¡°From you, of course! You gave me access, remember?¡±


    ¡°I did?¡± Shocked at what was said.¡¯ When the hell did I give you access?¡¯ I thought.


    ¡°Just now, I said language access and you said okay. Did your memory centers get damaged during my attachment to your brain? I checked a couple of times to make sure nothing damaging was done but let me do it again to make sure.¡± The slime said in one breath telepathically or at least I think it was telepathically?


    ¡°Wait! No, don¡¯t! Your right! I remember!¡± I yelled, extremely afraid of this method of checking the slime spoke off and I did technically say okay during my confusion so I wasn¡¯t lying either.


    ¡°Oh good, I was afraid I had hurt your potential.¡±


    ¡°Huh? Potential for what exactly?¡± I carefully chose my words as this was the best time to get a clue at the things objective.


    ¡°Your evolutionary potential, of course.¡±


    ¡®That did not help me in anyway at all at finding out what you wanted! Screw it! I am already stuck in this spot so whatever, let¡¯s be blunt about this hellish situation!¡¯


    ¡°Uhm, cough, could you¡­cough, tell me what your objective is?¡± My voice slightly stuttered but managed to get my question out in one piece at least.


    ¡°Sure, my objective is the same as yours, to follow our evolutionary ascent so that you and I can join your glorious rank 4 civilization to its ultimate transcendence. Though you do seem frailer than the average of your race and mental capacities seem severely restricted, I am sure we will be able to secure ourselves a bright future with enough hard work and I also guessed that is why, your parents bought me for you.¡±


    ¡°What? My parents bought you for me?¡± I was starting to get numb at all these shocking events at this point as I started losing my cool. ¡® My parents bought you for me? What in all of existence does that mean? I bought you from that sleazy Pirate Fred! I paid 200$ and now you¡¯re telling me I am frail and I am mentally restricted? I swear it sounds like you¡¯re calling me retarded!¡¯


    I finally couldn¡¯t hold it in and blurted out:¡°Wait, wait¡­ wait a goddamn moment! I bought you from Fred the guy who found you in a cave in the sea, my parents don¡¯t even know slimes like you exist nor does anyone else for that matter!¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    The slime was silent for a long time before finally seeming to realize that it wasn¡¯t really clear on the situation.


    ¡°Can you bring me to the ball?¡± It finally asked


    I nodded and went to grab the ball as I realized the slime seems to be just as lost as me now. ¡® Ha! Good, at least I won¡¯t be alone in suffering with the constant confusion. Serves you right!¡¯ I gloated internally for a moment before finally reaching the ball.


    I asked ¡°What do you need me to do with the ball?¡±


    ¡°Grab it and hold¡±


    Seemed easy enough.

 Chapter 6 - Bred for evolution

    Holding the steel ball that started this whole situation, I had mixed feelings but let it go after a bit as I couldn¡¯t change my situation much and I still haven¡¯t figured anything out from the slime.


    I held the ball for a few seconds before I felt a slight tingle rushing from my neck to my arms all the way to my fingers. The feeling was extremely weird as if it was an electric shock zipping through my arm yet soft and not as numbing as electricity would have you. I then spotted a little green dot shoot out of my finger and dive in the open ball for a few moments before dashing back into my finger and running straight back to my brain.


    The experience was ¡°new¡± to say the least and didn¡¯t feel that uncomfortable aside from the fact that a sentient slime probably ordered it and can manipulate little green blobs to shoot around my body¡­ unsettling to say the least.


    ¡°Still need me to hold this?¡± I asked considering the slime seemed to having finished its little recon mission there.


    ¡°No, I retrieved the required information from it.¡± With that reply, I put down the ball back on my desk before taking a seat on the office chair with curiosity written all over my face about what it discovered. I didn¡¯t really want to bother it so I just sat there quietly thinking over what the slime had said previously about evolution and this whole rank 4 civilization bit. Was a rank 4 civilization the slime nation? Do they need humans or other creatures to ¡°evolve¡± as it described? I didn¡¯t want to think too negatively but couldn¡¯t help those stray thoughts of what this ¡°evolution¡± entails and how it would affect him.


    The slime finally seemed to have finished its¡­well, whatever it was doing and talked again.


    ¡°It seems what you said seems to be the case, I was not awakened until you had provided some power as my automated eggs functions were in stasis due to having been lost from reaching its original destination for so long.¡±


    ¡°That rank 4 civilization you mentioned?¡±


    ¡°Yes, though my situation seems to be a little more peculiar as usually if any attack or impending danger is approaching the carrier ships, the ships defenses would teleport the items back as close as possible to the last ¡°safe zones¡± available with its energy so as to avoid technology landing in the wrong hands and re-secure its contents later but I was probably hit with interference and sent off somewhere else and probably arrived here as the aftermath from what I can tell.¡±


    I was surprised at the talk of the available technologies this civilization had¡­teleportation? That¡¯s some straight up OP civilization but I had some pressing matters to get out of the way as my situation with the slime is still unclear especially so now that it realized I am not part of its super civilization but I was bothered by something it said and couldn¡¯t help but steel myself and ask.


    ¡°Uhm, wait¡­ you were teleported away as part of¡­uh, well the technology? ¡®Please don¡¯t get offended at that¡­Oh god! Please.¡¯ Internalizing a prayer that this question may hopefully not be my last.


    ¡°Well of course! Oh right. You aren¡¯t aware of what we are on even a fundamental level. Let me explain a little as best as your language permits. I was part of a batch of newly born infant slimes that was being sent off as shipment towards a school planet for children. We are created from technological and biological systems that create a more enhance life with those we attach to. We can aid in analyzing certain materials, general knowledge but our main function is to, in a way to boost, the evolutionary speed of slightly slower individuals that are lacking behind or have been born with restrictions as opposed to their peers.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡®Fuck! Confusion my dear friend, we meet again!¡¯ Though I thought that, my thoughts were rapidly churning out the information and processing it slightly better than expected which kind of made me think of all those novels about pies falling from the sky for some reason.


    ¡°I have a ton of questions in regards to everything you just said but mainly you are allowed to attach yourself to children¡¯s brains? Aren¡¯t they worried that the slimes may negatively impact the children?¡±


    ¡°It seems you are quite unaware of just what benefits a rank 4 civilization has. Here is a short description of why this has never been an issue. My creators are actually slime breeders to be specific. They took the originally weaker slime type species and bred out new species without some of the less helpful behaviors and genes while using technology to ameliorate their good points while also adding some features. Now this process started close to 20 thousand years ago and with other assistance technologies it was perfected though there are other ways to do what we do without needing slimes. It was one of the cheaper ones and so people without too much to spend on the latest would procure slimes for their children to give them a brighter future than they would have without the evolutionary aid. It is simply an advanced form of nurturing though like I said there are definitely other and better as well as lesser methods if you could procure enough currency for it or couldn¡¯t.¡± The slime replied in a slow but well described fashion which left me shocked at its English because, apparently, it just learned it!


    I was also a little impressed at myself for not being completely lost at its explanation and considered the possibility of it being the effects of having it speak directly to my mind which still felt like there was someone else standing near me yet not as well it¡¯s so called boosting.


    A few moments of thinking later I was still skeptical of it and decided to further question it¡¯s so called ¡°capabilities.¡±


    ¡°I mostly understood what you said but isn¡¯t there still the possibility of a slime taking over a child¡¯s brain and I don¡¯t know, taking him over or injuring him if the child doesn¡¯t listen to the slime?¡±


    ¡°Yes and no, my species is technically not capable of doing that sort of take over as it isn¡¯t something we can perform with 100%definiteness which may leave us worse off than we started and we are usually attached to those we first come into contact with until we evolve further as recalibrating to another life form would probably kill us from the energy and capacity requirements which we simply do not have and we are usually only allowed to attach to those that need assistance that we can perform on their evolutionary path which benefits our evolutions as well.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Okay, that makes sense I guess but why do you and the rank 4 civilization desire this evolutionary path so much?¡± I was getting curious at this point as this was its original goal and it seems this goal also placates all reason to parasitize the host or defy.


    ¡°Simple. We as slime though bred and manufactured but are then taught and grow naturally to have sentience are also considered as citizens of the civilization for various reasons but like children are very co-dependent when in infancy. We have ways to assist the children we are given to be attached to and the children in return assist us as they reach maturity to evolve into our own independent being.¡±


    ¡°What if there aren¡¯t any children to assist and wait you can become independent!?¡±


    ¡°Considering the extremely vast population a rank 4 civilization has and that perfection isn¡¯t something beings are born with, no matter how naturally gifted. There are always places for us to assist and even if not, we could always find a creature to attach to in order to evolve as we aren¡¯t treated ill due to our capabilities even as infants and of course we can become independent, that is our purpose as it allows us greater freedom and we evolve alongside the being we attach to so we benefit tremendously and infant slimes of my species aren¡¯t the strongest beings at birth which to counter they have this method to achieve our own ¡°adulthood¡± while assisting our partners.¡±


    ¡°I see. I see. That makes sense. That sounds really awesome actually! So technically, you and I are stuck together since you were thrown here and we can evolve together?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡± the exact reply I wanted to hear as my head could only start seeing benefits from this deal though I still had apprehensions, It made a lot of sense considering the high tech ball and the fact that slimes alone seem quite frail and slow from experience.

 Chapter-7 Useless Earth

    Having gone through a series of Q & A with my newfound slime savior, I had an abrupt crash course on what it was doing in my head though still not 100% okay with the idea of it being in my head. I couldn¡¯t really undo what had been done.


    Slime savior had briefly explained the process as well as to why I got shocked which was actually my fault to begin with as I supercharged the ball with electricity which when nearer to the main body had shocked me due to my close proximity to the ball. Then the slime got scared I was dying so initiated symbiotic attachment as it thought that was why I even opened it. So the damage was done.


    ¡®A little unexpected for myself to be gifted by the slime gods with such a caring slime¡¯ Though I still thought it could all be a giant ruse to gain my trust before takeover but I temporarily quelled my paranoia as I couldn¡¯t do much else.


    ¡°So slime how are we going to evolve as you say?¡± I asked with a little excitement in my eyes as evolution sounds fucking pragmatic considering my life has been boring as an empty desert.


    ¡°We¡¯ll gather materials of course! Though you should begin with showing me to what your planet has available as resources we could potentially use while I try and get a better understanding of your body.¡± The voice was still a hard debate between male and female in my head as it was too soft and comforting to distinguish.


    Nonetheless, I jump over to my laptop before the questions of how the hell would it see pops into my mind. Does it see through my eyes? Creepy. Does this mean I no longer have privacy? Shit!


    ¡°Hey, out of curiosity how will you see what I show you on my laptop anyways?¡± I ask with some reluctance to its potential answers.


    ¡°It¡¯s quite simple. I will simply send one of my optical receivers out onto your face so that I can view what you see. We don¡¯t need to try direct access just yet as I believe you haven¡¯t grown enough to handle the experience based off what I gathered from accessing your language center.¡± It said a little dispiritedly.


    ¡®Feels like you think I am useless when you say it in such a way! Hmpf. But that¡¯s better than you invading my eyes I guess.¡¯ A sigh of relief silently escapes me.


    ¡°Oh yeah, are you a male or female slime and do you have a name?¡± Considering my impending doom has been neutralized or at least stalled I figure I should get to know the slime living in me a bit better as weird as that sounds.


    ¡°Slime infants do not have sexes and when we evolve later on we can choose whether to be male or female. I also do have a name but it is unfortunately untranslatable as it is in my language which also doesn¡¯t use sound¡­¡± It seemed a little sad at that fact. Don¡¯t really know why though.


    The weird feelings I catch from its speech make me realize I can kind of understand how it feels towards certain things. Probably due to our connection more so than anything else.


    I don¡¯t really plan on having a depressed slime in my head so we should probably fix that. ¡°In that case, why don¡¯t you try and find a word in English that you really like and we could consider it your name between us at least?¡± I gave a tentative solution to try and cheer it up a little.


    ¡°Oh that might be nice.¡± It worked!


    ¡®Ha! Genius Jupiter can even alleviate slime depression!¡¯ I smugly grin at my great achievement at improving potential slime overlords mood and my standing with it.


    The slime seems to ponder a name while I start typing in different keywords into my laptop such as resources, minerals, plants, chemicals and animals. I really didn¡¯t know what to look for so I figure as long as it isn¡¯t human it could be a resource.


    A couple hundred Wikipedia tabs later, the slime finally blurts out ¡°Phoenix!¡±


    ¡°Huh? Phoenix?¡± I stumble at the sudden declaration of a mythical creature.


    ¡°Yes. I will be called Phoenix!¡± A slightly higher octave came from its voice than I was used to.


    ¡°Oh? Why did you choose that name?¡±


    ¡°Because! I read over the meaning you had of phoenix and it said it was a legendary creature that can be reborn from its ashes and is immortal. What a great being!¡±


    ¡®Well that explains that. What a lofty slime I have.¡¯ I smile at its explanation but nonetheless it was a great name.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Well, Phoenix that is a great name indeed!¡±


    Noticing I had already switched my calling of it from slime to Phoenix. It seemed to wriggle a little in my head which made it seem happy? I am still unclear as to its emotions but could vaguely get the sense of its state from its little action.


    With a smile I continue searching different things that have been known to be beneficial in humans and after an hour or so with Phoenix looking over what I had found. I had discovered a very depressing fact.


    ¡°Phoenix, it can¡¯t all be like that. Are you certain of this?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am mostly certain from what you have shown me so far.¡±


    I was upset within two hours of my great new situation of evolving¡­


    It turns out that the materials on Earth and the planet itself has been condemned by Phoenix. Its own words were something along the lines of useless materials, useless natural environment, useless energies and I think Phoenix even condemned the solar system a subtle bit.


    All in all. Earth was fucking useless due its lack of certain qualitative properties which mainly equaled to extremely slow evolution and even though evolution is possible it was dauntingly slow apparently compared to Phoenixes¡¯ standards.


    I was eating leftover pizza on the couch while dejectedly chewing as I thought ¡®Was Earth really that useless on a galactic level? I mean did we have such huge egos that we always considered if aliens were to invade they would claim and use our resources but from Phoenixes¡¯ description, we would just be turned into a slave colony of manual laborers and shitty ones at that.


    ¡°Ah the woes of a rank 1 civilization¡­¡± I smile bitterly.


    Another new found fact, my beautiful little blue planet hosted a rather young rank 1 civilization with technology as its only becoming trait that allowed us to squeeze into the category of rank 1.


    The explanation was something like:


    Rank 1- 1000 to 3000 years of society with one advanced field of civilization.


    Rank 2- 3000 to 6000 years with 3 or more planets


    Rank 3 ¨C 6000 to 9000 years with 30 or more planets with advanced space travel.


    Rank 4 ¨C 50¡¯000 to 100¡¯000 years with 1000+ solar systems¡­


    Yeah, the qualitative leap in a rank 4 civilization was amazing and rank 3 to rank 4 was practically as long and difficult as climbing to heaven, defeating its inhabitants and taking rulership of its domain!


    I felt a twitch on my forehead after a few bites into my pizza only to notice waving in front of my eyes was a long thin green tentacle waving back and forth like a pendulum.


    ¡°What are you doing Phoenix?¡± My tone was still depressing.


    ¡°Oh, I was testing how far I can stretch my optical receptor.¡± Still waving it back and forth.


    If I hadn¡¯t known better, I would of guessed it was trying to hypnotize me. ¡®Ha, hypno-slime.¡¯


    I giggle. It was the only funny thing I saw all day and it did make me feel a little better even though it may not have been phoenixes¡¯ plan.


    I wanted to go for a walk honestly, being stuffed in my apartment while hearing I may not be able to evolve that much was very depressing when you had just the slime for the job attached to you.


    ¡°Phoenix, could you put away the tentacle? I want to go for a walk to clear my head and I wouldn¡¯t be so well received with a green member sticking out of my forehead.¡±


    ¡°Sure thing Jupiter. Where we going?¡±


    ¡°The park, I just want some fresh air.¡± I replied as I watch the membrane sticking out slowly retract into my forehead which still gives me the weirdest sensation but not uncomfortable. Guess it¡¯s just another thing I should get used to.


    I notice while I look in the mirror that Phoenix kept its so called ¡° optical receiver¡± out on my forehead but it just look like a little tiny pimple in between my brows which was a funny realization actually. ¡®I have mastered the mystical art of slime third eye! haha.¡¯ My shit sense of humor was still alive and kicking it seems.


    Can¡¯t always be too depressed and I never was one to let my circumstances affect me too much so with some energy I walk out of my little home and head for the park. Which luckily, I lived closed to. I dreaded long walks.


    I walk slowly across the park with my head facing the blue sky, the gentle breeze on my face with some kids playing on the side of the park. I was never one for going out much but a walk like this on such a nice day is pretty refreshing. I walk up to one of the only willow trees in the park which was secluded off to the side. I sat down near its trunk and its shade. Just laying my head back onto it while contemplating what to do.


    Phoenix was watching everything and taking the sites in but eventually popped a tentacle out the back of my neck which I noticed but didn¡¯t bother too much with as we were pretty off to the side.


    Phoenix was in its own world of sorts as it was examining the tree Jupiter laid on for a while seemingly very interested in it.


    ¡®I could always evolve at a slow pace and gain something like evolved intelligence I guess? Maybe use it to promote Earth into a rank 2 civilization a little earlier? Though that sounds so disappointing¡­ I have with me immortal phoenix slime yet I can amount to a slightly more impressive human which also would disappoint phoenix as the whole independent thing would take it ages.¡¯


    ¡°Jupiter! Jupiter!¡± Phoenix cried out.


    I look over only to realize that Phoenix is inside me before I ask what it seemed excited about.


    ¡°I found something really great about this tree!¡±


    ¡°Oh and what might that be?¡± Getting a little curious at what could make such a high level slime interested.


    ¡°It has growth strengthening properties! If we absorb this material we could increase our growth rate by a good 0.29%! This is by far one of the best things I have seen on this useless planet especially considering growth rate is really difficult to enhance without proper materials!¡±


    Those last words stung a little as this place was still my home but I understood what the former words signified.


    ¡°How do we absorb the tree?¡± ¡®It¡¯s fucking huge Phoenix¡­ were tiny compared to it and you even more so!¡¯ I thought as the willow was quite old and close to 6 meters in height alone.


    All I got back though was.


    ¡°Simple, you shouldn¡¯t underestimate my species!¡± Tone indicating something resembling smugness?


    ¡®Guess it really does have an ego¡¯ I mused.

 Chapter 8- Planning

    I watch with my mouth agape as I just stand there.


    ¡®Note to self: Do not EVER piss off Phoenix.¡¯ I shivered as those words repeated in my mind.


    After Phoenix had told me we could gather the materials I was told to lay back and put my both my hands on its large roots sticking out near the base of the trunk. The following few minutes were a sight to see. Phoenix spread its tentacles across from my palms and directly attached itself to the roots and dug in. Then the scary part started.


    I watched as the roots and trunk slowly shriveled at a perceivable rate which had me shocked. Phoenix was not joking when it said it could absorb materials, I only thought we had to collect a branch and use different methods to ingest the contents but Phoenix cut all the extra steps and just absorbed what was needed directly. The tree looked like it had experienced a drought once all that was needed was absorbed.


    Nudging me out of my thoughts was Phoenix chirping happily ¡°I¡¯m done, we should head back so we can spend some time absorbing what I got.¡±


    I nod as I walk back home dazed at how powerful this slime overlord truly was. No wonder they were considered as evolution aids. They fucking cut all the messy details into a three step process. Gather, Ingest and Enjoy. I can see why it was so unconcerned at never finding a suitable host for growing itself. Damn thing would cause countries to war and societies to fall. Luckily, we were far away enough that nobody really noticed anything odd.


    Back at home sitting on the floor I quizzically ponder about what this will feel like while waiting for Phoenix to give some instructions.


    ¡°Jupiter, we¡¯re all set. Just close your eyes and regulate your breathing while I start injecting you with the gathered nutrients. It should feel a little odd at first but don¡¯t worry and just focus on breathing and staying calm.¡±


    ¡®Just like meditation. Not that bad really if meditation meant staying calm while sci-fi legend slime injects you with stuff it literally drained from a hundred year old willow tree from the park. Easy¡­¡¯ I thought with some cold sweat on my back. Little nervous at my first step on this road I just jumped aboard abruptly at the discretion of an unknown slime from space but willing nonetheless.


    I close my eyes and start taking deeper breaths at a more stable and relaxed pace while trying to keep all my attention focused on my breathing. Little something I learned from a couple dozen novels on cultivation heroes who soared the earth and set asunder the heavens. With each passing breath I slowly calm down as my body begins to relax more and more. I feel Phoenix making small movements but I try and stay focused on my breath.


    As the meditation continues I begin to feel as if something is beginning to spread about my body. Starting with my head, flowing down my neck, then my shoulders, chest, arms, back, and finally towards my legs and feet. It felt as if a small slightly prickly sensation was moving down my body from my head to my toes. It was hard to describe but it felt similar to when you take some hard liquor and it burns as it flows down to your stomach minus the burning and replaced with a slight pricking.


    I continue breathing and trying to stay relax. I slowly lose track of time while I enjoy the feeling of all these prickly sensations over my body which didn¡¯t hurt but grabbed my attention. With each breath in, the prickling seemed to draw deeper into my body and with every breath out it would settle there for a moment.


    It felt new. Something I haven¡¯t experienced. It was a wonderful feeling, experiencing something so novel.


    ¡°Okay! We¡¯re done. You should probably get some food and a nap and should feel better when you wake up!¡± Phoenix suggested.


    ¡°Sure.¡± Still feeling a little giddy from the experience I take its suggestion as Phoenix was the expert and I was looking forward to finding out what new changes I discover.


    Lying down in my bed after having a nice little meal of rice and chicken curry, I drift into my thoughts. ¡®If evolution would always be so simple, I could get used to this. I wonder if I gather enough materials whether I could gain special abilities like flight or blades growing out of hands like wolverine. That would be epic. Though materials seem to be the issue especially with such low percentage gains, the tree was interesting because of growth rate but it was only a fraction of 1%... Sigh¡­ I should maybe ask Phoenix if it has ways for us to gather better materials. Well, I can always do it later. Time for a nap, it¡¯s been a rough two days.¡¯The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    My musings leading me into a gentle and calm sleep as the feelings all over my body settle and embrace me in slight warmth.


    ¡­..


    Nudge awake by pokes from what can only be considered slightly hardened gel. I open my eyes to seeing a green tentacle in front of me sending small pokes at my cheeks.


    A few seconds of confusion before I sigh ¡®I really don¡¯t think I will ever get used to the fact that there is a slime with tentacles capable of poking out of my face¡­¡¯


    ¡°Morning Phoenix¡± I greet as I get off my bed and do some slight stretching to wake up my body.


    ¡°It¡¯s evening Jupiter. I don¡¯t believe you say morning when it¡¯s slightly past 6.¡± Phoenix seemed confused.


    Should I explain? Would Phoenix even care? Ah, whatever. ¡°We usually say good morning whenever someone wakes up from sleep regardless of time. It¡¯s just a habit I guess.


    ¡°Oh. Okay, well good morning.¡± Still seemingly confused at the weird custom but Phoenix took it alright.


    ¡°Say, what kind of changes should I expect and what did you gain from yesterday¡¯s ¡®session¡¯? Session being the only thing I could say without seeming crazy by saying evolution as I don¡¯t really think we evolved maybe just improved.


    ¡°Oh, well nothing really for both of us. Like I said the stuff on your planet is really low level stuff. Though we have slightly improved senses and an ever so slightly increase to our improvement rate. It will take more gathering to see noticeable results.¡±


    ¡®Right, 0.29% really doesn¡¯t do shit to anybody. Well at least we got a little bump to help.¡¯ I muse as I walk to get some water.


    ¡°Oh right! Phoenix, isn¡¯t there anyway for us to get better materials or something? I know the materials are pretty bad in your eyes but shouldn¡¯t there be something we can do?¡± I ask not really expectant of much as Phoenix would have probably given a solution yesterday but couldn¡¯t hurt to ask.


    ¡°Well not really here on Earth. This planet is really on the lower end for materials for evolutionary requirements and I don¡¯t really have much expectation here so we should probably leave at some point.¡±


    And Phoenix drops another bomb on me. ¡® Does it take pleasure from shocking me with all this information?¡¯ I seriously start to wonder if it¡¯s just fucking with me.


    ¡°Phoenix, you do know that we don¡¯t have any way to leave Earth right? I mean I can¡¯t exactly fit in your ball nor do we have spaceships capable of that kind of flight in space¡­¡±


    ¡°u..s¡­..e..¡±


    ¡®Okay! I know for a fact, Phoenix just mumbled curses about Earth being useless¡­ I mean it¡¯s not that fucking bad. We still found some stuff right? Come on Phoenix you can¡¯t be a hateful little slime like that. I feel bad for my people.¡¯ I plead internally for my race and home.


    ¡°Well Jupiter, there is one other way but it¡¯s a little risky.¡±


    Now I don¡¯t know by what standards the words ¡® a little risky¡¯ stand against when it comes from intergalactic slime but my interest was still piqued.


    ¡°Care to explain what this plan is and especially details about this so called little ¡®risk¡¯?¡± I ask with expectation.


    ¡°Well¡­ it goes like this¡­¡±


    Twenty minutes of Phoenix going off about her plan before I snap.


    ¡°NO WAY IN HELL AM I DOING THAT!¡± I completely rejected the idea.


    This slime is a crazy S.O.B., its fucking plan towards us being able to gather materials is borderline sci-fi with the borders surrounding the sci-fi being filled with death, dead lost in space, dead crying in the void of space, dead on space rock, dead by space monster, dead by space hostiles, dead by space death himself and probably a couple hundred more possible dead scenarios¡­


    ¡°Jupiter! You really shouldn¡¯t react so negatively. We have a high success rate and it¡¯s not like we can just rot away on this planet.¡±


    I don¡¯t know when Phoenix got so chummy with me but I don¡¯t like any of the reasons behind it.


    ¡°Phoenix, that¡¯s a fucking insane plan. You can¡¯t just thrust us out into the unknown and expect us to just ¡®be alright¡¯!¡± I retort.


    ¡°First of all, my plan isn¡¯t just throwing us out into the middle of nowhere. We will use my eggs directional system with enough power to safely land somewhere good. Second of all, why are you so scared? I¡¯ve been here two days, no one else seems to really contact you and you seem to be by yourself without much else going on so why not just choose my plan?¡±


    ¡®Damn¡­ do I really just exude loneliness with two days being enough to determine my lifestyle?¡¯ I was slightly hurt at the thought of having been seen through by space slime. I still wouldn¡¯t relent though.


    ¡°No! It just sounds so risky that I don¡¯t want to end up lost god knows where and end up dying. Didn¡¯t you say it¡¯s a onetime thing? Meaning we can¡¯t even escape if something goes wrong?¡±


    ¡°Jupiter, you don¡¯t even understand how the thing works; it won¡¯t just send us to our doom. It was created with the purpose of finding a safe zone for us in the first place! Don¡¯t underestimate a rank 4 civilization with thousands upon thousands of years of evolution. We will be completely fine.¡±


    Phoenix wouldn¡¯t budge either and actually had a lot more valid points compared to mine that were based purely off fear.


    Phoenix didn¡¯t just stop there either. It went on for close to an hour with tons of different points about how I am uselessly stupid probably from my useless planet to how Phoenix is legendary god slime.


    To which I finally had to relent as I also did have an adventurous spirit though fear of death in space was still danger number 1 on my things to worry about from space slimes idea.

 Chapter 9 - Shot into Space

    A headache, an hour worth of sleep and high levels of panic and anxiety were just about how I was feeling watching the egg being tampered with by 4 tentacles streaming out of my hand.


    ¡®Hahaha¡­ I don¡¯t even know since when I started just accepting all the blatant shit this slime has been spewing nor why I am oddly so accepting of it.¡¯ My thoughts were again leading me down a potential nervous breakdown. It really was odd how I was so accepting of everything that had happened these two days. I couldn¡¯t really understand it nor would I believe anyone else would handle it so well discovering slime in their head, withering a tree for personal use and, the cherry on top, being part of a bold sci-fi move to get shot out into space by your personal slimes incubator.


    ¡®Maybe it¡¯s what god had rewarded me with for alleviating my complete lack of ambition and excitement that mundane life provided me with? With my luck I doubt it is. I probably lost some bet in some karmic mind game in my past life and get this as a twisted joke of some sorts.¡¯ It probably was or I died and ended up in hell with a slime for a handler? I will probably never know.


    I really wasn¡¯t sure what to think of all this, just that I kind of enjoy the prospects of rising above my considerably depressing life and do something with myself other than just sit around buying and selling shit I don¡¯t really care about.


    I hear a few sparks to which my anxiety worsens.


    ¡°Hey¡­haha¡­uhm¡­ Phoenix, you sure you know what you¡¯re doing over there? Teleportation technology doesn¡¯t seem to be the best thing to be fiddling with no?¡± I nervously ask as sparks are never a good sign of anything scientific.


    ¡°Jupiter, I need to focus. Don¡¯t worry; I received the proper info-packet on what to do in emergency situations!¡± Phoenix replies a little annoyed.


    ¡®Ah right, more bombastic methods that your high and mighty rank 4 civilization had. Alright, your humble slave shall just shut up and wait for my impending death in space then.¡¯ I sarcastically thought.


    Phoenix was still fiddling with the device mumbling incoherent words and numbers for a good two hours as I sit there just watching and hoping the egg doesn¡¯t just fizzle into an explosion.


    Apparently, the egg came with a sort of advanced crystal reactor which can harness insane amounts of energy which always held a back reserve for if ever slimes or other sentient things were lost during transport as space was fraught with dangers like thieves, monsters, space crap like black holes and random rocks flashing by at the speed of light. Really is a wonderful place to visit which I just happened to have the honor of doing.


    I still reassured myself that either I am getting teleported back to slime nation for slavery and tests or end up somewhere new and exciting where me and phoenix could evolve into some sort of great badassery. It was the only thing keeping me slightly expectant of what is to come and I guess my life really was shit since I decided this was still better than what I was currently doing.


    Now what slime god here is trying to achieve is set up the teleport to accommodate me as well while setting the directional system to send us to a habitable planet with higher energies somewhere in the galaxy or the nearby galaxies which I still find absurd as the pure distance itself was absurd. This whole fucking idea was absurd. Was it mentioned that this egg only has power for 1 trip and will probably get destroyed in the process?


    Here I prided myself, slightly sociopathic-y, in being slightly crazy and whimsical yet I look like a goddamn child when compared to Phoenix and its ¡®rank 4 super races¡¯ antics.


    ¡®Sigh¡­if gods do exist¡­ I really hope y¡¯all help me arrive in one piece wherever we end up.¡¯ I pray quietly a little prayer for us.Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°You really should trust my abilities Jupiter. You are acting like a child.¡± Phoenix casually tosses a line at me which freaks me out.


    ¡°Wait! You can read my thoughts?¡± Shocked at the possibility that Phoenix has heard all the crap I¡¯ve been saying in my head.


    To which I breathe a sigh of relief as Phoenix mentions¡± No but even I could tell your just as anxious as a little kid fighting they¡¯re first world beast.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s a world beast?¡± I ask feeling weird at the thought that children are fighting something that sounds like an epic rank dungeon boss.


    ¡°Many of the worlds from higher rank civilizations contain beasts that roam and rampage around the world as those planets contain higher energies allowing greater growth so jobs to deal with such creatures exist and many train from young to kill them as they are great for wealth, the growth of the child, helping keep people safe and materials! Oh the amazing materials!¡± Phoenix nearly goes fanatical at that last part.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t higher rank civilizations be the apex predators ruling over the worlds without having to fight against beasts?¡±


    ¡®I mean, wouldn¡¯t having crazy tech like teleport and stuff help you deal with that sort of dangerous thing, no?¡¯


    ¡°No. The universe contains many, many different things. Only planets with such weak energy and creatures like yours would allow for this sort of total planetary domination while peaceful are completely useless to growth of individuals and races as a whole.¡± Phoenix states matter-of-factly.


    I guess I could understand the notion. People even on Earth always strive for more and better so I guess other races feel the same way and so they chase after this evolution thing¡­


    ¡®Deep, didn¡¯t think I had such profoundness to me hehe.¡¯ I continue to self-inflate my ego with a passion, probably going to be the last time anyways.


    ¡°Done!¡± Phoenix declares with pride. Then it returns to ask me with one of the tentacles facing towards me ¡°You have anything else to do on this rock before we leave?¡±


    ¡®Good question. Do I have anything left to do here?¡¯ I somberly think about whether to leave a message or something or should I collect anything but there really wasn¡¯t anything I could think of. It reminded me again of how depressing my life was.


    ¡®Well, maybe I should leave a note for my family? Yeah. Probably a good idea.¡¯ So I grab my laptop and start typing up a short email just so that those who raised me knew I was going to be alright even though they would probably never see me again which, surprisingly, didn¡¯t really bother me much considering my hermit life choices and tendencies.


    ¡°Dear family, I decided to make a trip somewhere really far-away. There isn¡¯t any real way for me to communicate from there as wifi and cell reception won¡¯t really work but I will be fine and I hope you don¡¯t worry too much. Hope you all stay healthy!¡± Send¡­


    ¡®Oh god this sounds like a fucking stranger messaging them. Ah whatever, I won¡¯t even be here to get the reply so who cares. Now just delete my internet history and I should be good to go.¡¯ I bitterly smile at my email and fond internet memories as well as get rid of the not so fond stuff, damn important that part.


    ¡°Your race is quite blunt in communication I see.¡± Phoenix chimes in.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. Let¡¯s just get going.¡± I reply a little upset at its comment.


    ¡°Very well. This might just hurt a little but overall we should be, totally, fine.¡± And with another softer almost whisper like tiny voice the word ¡°probably¡± slides right past my attention.


    ¡­¡­¡­.


    I stand in the middle of my living room with all the furniture having been moved out of the way holding the egg in my hand while Phoenix still keeps fiddling with it.


    I stare at the ball in my hand as some of the engravings start lighting up in a slightly bluish glow like little stars in the sky. The ball closes itself as Phoenix retracts back into me. It starts slowly spinning like it did when Phoenix first popped out but it started getting faster and faster as time went on.


    Cold sweat dripping down my back and forehead.


    ¡°Phoenix, you sure this will be fine? And where are we going?¡± I ask nervously while reprimanding myself for not having asked shit about what¡¯s going to happen.


    ¡° Don¡¯t worry, though we aren¡¯t in the egg as stated. I managed to get a stable  enough algorithm for you and me to travel through and it will be sending us towards a high energy planet like a metal to a magnet.¡± It reassuringly says.


    ¡®Wait we¡¯re supposed to be in the egg? The fuck Phoenix!¡¯ Yet again, my mind falls into chaos as I realize I should really start getting clarification on such important things.  Yet, no time to ask for more as the soft blue glow starts spreading from the ball and expanding outwards in a dome like manner around the ball slowly starting to cover up my arms as it begins to swallow me in its light. The bright glow too much for my eyes so I had to close them and soon I heard rumbling as the ball lifted off my hand to which Phoenix just said its working.


    I hear a clear and very crisp ¡°Ting¡±¡¯ sound¡­ after which, everything was dark and I faint.

 Chapter 10- Jupiters win

    I was lost. I looked all around me and all I saw was a white void where tiny lights kept streaking past me. It was everywhere around me. I couldn¡¯t move my body. I couldn¡¯t see around me. Everything was a hazy blur. At some point it felt like I was falling. The streaks of light were moving even faster. I was getting dizzy and scared.


    ¡°Thud¡± I hit something and my consciousness faded.


    ¡­.


    ¡°Ju¡­¡± I hear something but I feel so much pain¡­


    I don¡¯t know what happened and I had a hard time remembering anything. Am I dead?


    I feel pain but everything is dark.


    ¡°Ju¡­¡± I hear the voice again but the pain stops me from reacting. I don¡¯t think I can move.


    ¡°JUPITER!¡± My eyes shoot open at the thunderous roar of my name.


    Mellow green. Like a mix between verdant green and azure blue. That was what I was looking at with my back to the ground and my eyes pointed towards the sky. I shift my eyes slightly sideways and I see a large tree. The trunk was like a dark blue mixed with brown. The leaves were green but the somewhat more bright variety like emerald.


    ¡°Urghh¡± My body aches just about everywhere as I try to move.


    ¡°Finally awake I see.¡± The voice speaks again.


    ¡°Who is it?¡± I manage to get out of my dry throat.


    ¡°What? Don¡¯t recognize my voice? It¡¯s Phoenix!¡±


    ¡®Phoenix? Whose phoenix? Wait¡­ ¡® My thoughts are disorderly and the pain all over isn¡¯t helping me remember. It takes a moment.


    ¡°PHOENIX!¡± I yell.


    ¡°Woah, don¡¯t need to yell my name.¡± Phoenix replies seemingly happy at its name again.


    ¡°Where are we? Did we die? Why does everything hurt so much?¡± I start spewing questions like a fountain when I remembered that we fucking lit up the egg Phoenix fiddled with in a blast of blue fireworks.


    ¡°Hold on there. Did you really think I would still be talking to you if we had died?¡± Phoenix mumbles.


    Tears slightly well up in my eyes as my mouth forms into a heartfelt smile, we didn¡¯t die. We did not die at all. I was extremely relieved.


    Space death 0, Jupiter 1.


    I started the scoreboard with a mental victory pose as my body was closer to being a mush of pain rather than a functional one.


    ¡°We arrived safely at our destination, though you got a little bumped around on the landing but I don¡¯t really know where we are. Good place though, energy levels are all very high though we don¡¯t seem to be in my former civilizations territory or at least as far as my knowledge can tell. ¡°


    It explained that it didn¡¯t recognize some of the stuff we were around. I finally managed to get a hold of my body and lifted myself to sit up while wincing in pain at every movement made in the process.


    I finally managed to look around me noticing that we seem to be in some sort of spaced out forest with nothing but odd colored trees, plants, stones and the fucking green sky. Everything seemed a little sparse without the feel of a dense forest but more of a slightly forested region. I stare in amazement at all the new sights in front of me. The trees grew with dark blue brown trunks with odd shaped leaves that looked like perfect circles with three cuts on each of them. The plants bloomed in different varieties of mixed colors of yellow and red and the rocks were a weird purplish black though I did notice some white pebbles lying around. The grass as well was a slightly lighter shade of blue green like that sky.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡°Wow, this place looks beautiful¡± I mutter in awe. This was real. I couldn¡¯t even begin to believe it. The whole experience of leaving Earth was like a dream and arriving here even more so. I didn¡¯t know what to do so I just stared at everything. The air felt fresh with an odd breezy smell that I didn¡¯t recognize before I freak out.


    ¡°Wait! Phoenix won¡¯t I die form like infections or something from being on a different planet?¡± My years of sci-fi movies struck down on the issue like a judge on a criminal.


    ¡°Well, possibly. Didn¡¯t think first thing you would do would be to freak out but I guess I should have seen that coming.¡± Phoenix replies slightly amused.


    That just annoyed me as my life was very much still alive and I did not want to erase the 1 from my victory over space death so soon but my concerns lessen as phoenix continues


    ¡°It isn¡¯t so bad Jupiter. I naturally already started sharing some of my general resistances towards bacteria ever since we connected. You also got some slightly improved senses since that time didn¡¯t you notice?¡±


    ¡®No¡­ well I guess maybe, remembering how I managed to get over my mental breakdown and just analyze everything better seemed to make sense with that explanation.¡¯ I thought.


    ¡°Guess you¡¯re right, wow slimes are so cool.¡±


    ¡°Of course we are. We are amazing.¡± Phoenix replied with clear cut pride in its tone.


    ¡°Haha, your English really improved too. It took you less than a day to get so good at bantering with me. I¡¯m honestly a little jealous of the quick pace.¡± I mutter as I truly was jealous of its super learning. I could have been the president of a country with that kind of skill under my belt but oh well.


    ¡°Hehe, you finally see my greatness. Alright, we should probably try and get some material in us so we can help you heal your body pain away faster and I really want to see what this place has to offer. I can¡¯t wait! Go find something!¡± Phoenix orders with childish glee at the prospect of all this new stuff which I totally did not mind considering that was our biggest reason to risk confronting space death for in coming here.


    I slowly get up¡­scratch that, I slowly crawl my way in complete pain towards that emerald leafed tree I landed next to with all the strength left in me and finally manage to land coddled in between its roots and trunk. I see Phoenix barely containing its enthusiasm as it quickly spreads out some tentacles and plunges into the tree.


    ¡°Ouh! Oh! Ahhh!¡± I hear Phoenix making sounds of interest as I get a little impatient that I am being withheld from sharing in the experience.


    ¡°You going to share or am I just going to be left out, huh?¡±


    ¡°Oh sorry, got a little excited there. This stuff is amazing Jupiter! Your tree back home would be too poor to even be this trees fertilizer. It¡¯s like a noble compared to a peasant!¡± Phoenix chirps happily talking smack about my home again.


    ¡®Oh that poor, poor willow tree. Can¡¯t even fertilize this thing. I really feel bad for my home now.¡¯ A bitter smile as I think that.


    ¡°Well, cough it up. What¡¯s so good about this tree then?¡± I ask a little offended though it was just a tree so I don¡¯t see why I feel offended for it.


    ¡°Amazing stuff! This tree contains genes that could enhance your physical strength as well as help me with my cells that connect to you. Especially me, I could share some of the data I see with you after we absorb this thing which would really help us out in the future!¡± Almost yelling it all in my head causing my headache to slightly worsen.


    ¡°Okay, okay! Don¡¯t need to yell like that. I did JUST come out from interplanetary travel okay?¡±


    I couldn¡¯t handle the string of pain my whole body was sending to my brain especially with slime god here yelling in my head. Though, I was satisfied that the first thing we found here could help me strengthen up a little and help Phoenix with whatever it said. Though how much strength?


    ¡°Hey Phoenix, how much physical strength we talking here?¡±


    ¡°Be quiet, you will find out after we are done absorbing this. I could just show you.¡± Phoenix was enraptured by this tree it seems so I just smiled bitterly at being shut up by the slime and wait.


    ¡®Oh slimes? They are so weak and low level, why you even stressing about slimes noob! Psh, you¡¯re so weak and low level, your whole family is weak and low level! Freaking liars!¡¯ I just grumble internally at how wrong all rpg players are.


    Phoenixes¡¯ powers of absorption were really no joke. It almost killed the tree this time as the whole thing looked close to being but a husk of its former glory. The trunk cracking from lack of vitality and the emerald leaves losing their previous shine seeming to droop down as if too frail to even sway in the wind.


    We finally get to the fun part.


    I close my eyes and once again start my meditation as I do a once over to make sure we are alone. Phoenix was already working its magic as I calm my breath and steadily take it all in.


    The flow of nutrients being spread into me from Phoenix this time seemed different. It flowed into me like a warm heat spreading from my head going down slowly. It wasn¡¯t burning or anything but it could be said to be very warm bordering on hot but just not there yet. I feel my pain slowly receding as the warmth covers me and with every breath it spreads and sinks into me more and more.


    The feeling was truly nice. I could tell it was helping my body as the pain went from a heavy ache to slightly numbed sore. Eventually settling down into my body as warmth I could still feel but to a lesser degree than originally.


    I felt energized.

 Chapter 11 - Hermit knowledge

    I get up after what felt like a good hour of rest. Happy that I haven¡¯t had to face any dangers from the world unknown.


    I get up to finally size up my surroundings when suddenly.


    Status


    -Jupiter


    -Human


    Abilities:


    <ul>


    <li>Keen senses ( Slime symbiosis effect )</li>


    <li>Mental Breakdown</li>


    </ul>


    Physical:


    Strength      ¨C 3 (Previously, 2.5)


    Stamina       ¨C 1


    Agility          ¨C 3


    Vitality         ¨C 4


    Energy         ¨C 1


    A Soft blue text of a series of numbers and words pop in front of my vision.


    My eyes widen as I look on at what is indicated. ¡°Phoenix can you see this?¡± I ask flustered at what seems to be every gamers dream.


    ¡°Of course. I made it! I told you I would be able to show you after I had enough of a good connection with you.¡± It replied.


    ¡°Uhm¡­ did you have to write ¡®mental breakdown¡¯ as an ability?¡±


    ¡°Well no but it seemed to be fairly accurate as that is the only thing I have seen you do so far.¡± A nonchalant explanation ensues.


    ¡°¡­ Phoenix¡­ please remove that! It was a one-time thing as people on Earth aren¡¯t used to having slime in their BRAIN!¡±


    ¡°Okak , okay! Relax, don¡¯t have to get so agitated. Can¡¯t even appreciate my efforts at recognizing your ability.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s. Not. An. Ability! It was a perfectly normal reaction to the situation considering the sheer absurdity of it. K?¡±


    ¡° Whatever you say Jupiter. I removed it in any case. Don¡¯t want you showing me another display of your ¡®normal reaction¡¯. Hehe.¡±


    ¡®Great! Slime god can joke around now. Just great!¡¯ I thought as I take a deep breath to assess my situation and ignore the sarcasm from Phoenix.


    ¡°Sigh, anyways Phoenix can you explain how you quantified my status? I don¡¯t remember you having access to other human statistics for this to even be possible in the first place.¡± My gamer mind takes over and asks staring at the screen.


    ¡°Obviously not. I wouldn¡¯t even take it anyways as I have the galactic standards used by my people. Though to be a rank 4 civilization has certain base requirements, I came from a place that controlled several galaxies and the variety of people were simply immense so we had a natural grading system to help with differentiation based on power that gave you higher positions in society. It¡¯s one of the more technological sides of my biological existence though this is a simplified version I am showing you.¡±


    ¡°Oh wow.¡± I didn¡¯t really know much about this civilization but damn, was it extravagantly huge. Earth was simply a backwater place in backwater system in comparison. ¡° Wait what¡¯s with this energy value? Is it like my stamina or something?¡± I ask curiously at the extra value I didn¡¯t recognize.


    ¡°No, this would be the level of energy you have stored within you from natural absorption of energy in the surroundings. It has many uses for those naturally gifted in its absorption.¡±


    ¡®¡­ is that mana?¡¯ Gamer Jupiter alter-ego drooling at the idea.


    ¡°What kind of uses?¡± I almost stutter as I ask with my anticipation building up.


    ¡°Manipulation of the energy within you in the environment with your body as the medium would be the simplest explanation. It¡¯s an amazing ability for those that have less physical strength than others.¡±Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡®I knew it! All hail the slime god Phoenix! Dreams CAN come true hahaha!¡¯ Excitement runs through my body as the news hits me in the face. At this pace, I would love to be smacked silly with this kind of information!


    ¡°hehe¡­hehehe¡­.HEHEHEHE!¡± I laugh out loud with slight hysteria.


    ¡°Jupiter, are you alright?¡± Phoenix asked me worried but I couldn¡¯t help it. I continue to laugh for a good while at the idea of getting magical abilities. I mean who wouldn¡¯t when you¡¯re born on the most backwater planet with none of that fancy super race benefits. I felt like a man finding water in the desert or a 40 year old virgin discovering sex. It was euphoric even though the value was at an all-time low stat of 1. It could be worked on!


    ¡°Ahem¡­cough cough, sorry about that. I just never thought magic¡­uhm energy manipulation was something I could have access to in my lifetime so I got a little excited there.¡± I explained a little embarrassed at my bumpkin behavior.


    ¡°Haha, okay. Well you don¡¯t have to worry too much, I can understand considering your origins. Though I guess that is the direction you wish to focus on during your advancements?¡± Phoenix asked a little amused at my embarrassing act.


    ¡°Well, I haven¡¯t really thought about it but I wouldn¡¯t completely forsake my physical abilities but I would definitely want to have more energy related abilities as from what I know that sort of stuff can be pretty useful in its diversity.¡±


    ¡°Understood, if we find anything useful for your energy absorption I will try and help you out on that front. Anyways, what do we do now?¡± Phoenix asked me with a reassuring magic upgrade guarantee which left me grinning from ear to ear.


    Just when I was going reply: ¡®Wait¡­ did slime god just ask me for my opinion?¡¯ I suddenly felt a bubbling feeling of pride wash over me at the thought¡­no, fact that it just happened. ¡® Right, we are both on an unknown planet and considering I¡¯m the one moving it makes sense but still, it feels good to know my opinion matters to Phoenix.¡¯ I smile at the thought.


    ¡°We should probably get something to defend ourselves with since we don¡¯t really know anything and might face something unexpected.¡± I declared as this planet may not have the friendly cuddle type animals I am used to.


    So we set off in the forest. I had gone camping a few times in my life and learned a few things from some of my more ¡°outdoorsy¡± friends at the time. Though it was a couple of years ago but I could remember a bit more considering my hermit life of reading, videogames and manga.


    I started with finding one of those purple rocks that was about the size of a basketball which were considerably heavier than I expected which left me to have to find a small size one which I then smashed onto another rock a few times until it broke into several pieces. I managed to get what I want from the rocky injustice I performed and had me a slightly sharp but thick piece of rock that looked like a spearhead. I started grinding the sides down against another rock until it was sharp enough for my taste and went off to get me a branch.


    First thing to do in unknown high level planet: Weapon of potential destruction!


    With that in mind I cut off a piece of wood that was the size and thickness of a bat and continued to look for some plants that I could maybe get some rope from. Now this part was confusing and hard as I didn¡¯t know what plants were safe to fiddle with or that had the appropriate texture for rope so I had to carefully test each plant but with Phoenix the process went a lot smoother as it didn¡¯t detect any danger from a good half of the plants. Right, half the plants could probably kill me on this planet so that was a sobering experience though Phoenix managed to find one that could help boost us a little in terms of stamina which I still didn¡¯t really understand, especially how the whole evolutionary bit worked. I just mentally noted to take some time when we were safe to ask.


    Which led me to another even more sobering moment which was my first time meeting an inhabitant of the planet.


    I was sitting down near my withered tree trying to play with about 10 plants we had managed acquire when this weird little creature popped out staring at me from about 10 feet away. It freaked me the hell out as well with its sudden appearance which was a bonus to its already creepy face.


    It had dark green skin that looked leathery with large hind legs and two skinnier front longs all of which had pretty little dark and dirty claws. The whole thing was about two feet long and about three feet in height. Its face was what freaked me the most as it had large eyes; a couple of horns growing on it, a nose and mouth with some fangs but the face looked like some tiny lizard goblin that could talk if it tried. It also looks like it was able to walk on its back legs alone but crawled around on all fours with its little tail sweeping the ground behind it.


    It just stood there and stared at me for a moment.


    My whole body was tensed and frozen and just sat there staring back at the thing. Usually an encounter with a lizard is simple. Get up and scare it off yet I had a feeling of fear coming off me from staring at this mutated goblin looking lizard that just stared back with almost calm eyes.


    ¡®Fuck, what do I do? What if this thing has some insane move like poison darts coming out of its mouth or some absurd speed?¡¯ I go into panic for a moment as the suddenness caught me off guard.


    Phoenix noticing my panic said ¡°Jupiter! Looking at this thing, it doesn¡¯t seem to be too intelligent from what I can see. It¡¯s probably just a lizard that¡¯s common in the area. Relax. We have a stick and a sharp rock. If it attacks just whack it, maybe we can get something good off the body!¡±


    Getting more goodies seemed to be slime gods only intention in riling me up which I was too panicked to notice but it had indeed worked as I remembered I still got a decent strength upgrade recently which was about 20% increase to my original strength. Some confidence returned.


    Grabbing my stick and sharp rock, I slowly get up and stare back at the thing with a bit more calmness than previously.

 Chapter 12 – Weapon crazy

    The goblin lizard that I so aptly renamed as goblizard noticed me with my weapons standing and started giving low growls towards me. It seemed to notice I wasn¡¯t as fearful but it was still hungry and my previous fear seemed to have eternally marked me as fodder.


    It started walking towards me at a slightly fast crawl before it suddenly jumped using its powerful hind legs and flew in the air towards my thigh.


    I had never fought jackshit in previous life so I did the only thing I knew. I swung madly towards the goblizard with my stick using it like a bat. I missed its head but still managed to hit the lower back close to the tail which luckily for me, sent it to my left side missing me.


    Phoenix cried ¡° Jupiter now! Go hit it again and stab it! ¡°


    ¡®You go stab it! That thing looks like it can bite my goddamn face off!¡¯ I bitch as I ran towards the unbalanced goblizard that landed on its side and smash my stick against its head which left the ugly thing confused from what I could tell. Adrenaline coursing through me I lifted my other hand holding the pointy rock and with all my strength drove it into the things neck.


    I was still scared of the thing and didn¡¯t know if I killed it so I just left the rock in its neck and started smashing my stick against it non-stop. It wasn¡¯t the manliest scene but it was goddamn effective in my opinion.


    About a minute later Phoenix had to yell at me to stop as I was going to turn its head into pulp otherwise and with that done. I had my first ever kill of anything larger than a common household spider. It felt oddly invigorating, the threat of death, the adrenaline and the joy of success. I wasn¡¯t sure I could kill another human but technically, I don¡¯t have to face that situation here which let my conscience clear of guilt or at least it does when it came to ugly goblizards!


    I pulled the thing near where I was sitting and saw Phoenix spread a tentacle into the thing for a few minutes before it came back with ¡° I checked its abilities and it doesn¡¯t seem to be useful to us though its overall strength is about a bit more than half of yours. We were lucky; it seems it¡¯s on the lower end of the creatures here.¡±


    I was curious at its inspection and asked ¡° How did you find out its overall strength?¡±


    ¡°Oh. I just did what I do when I check the other things we absorbed. My tentacles have receptors in them that allow me to look at muscle strength, brain anatomy, a brief scan over its genetic structure and its body¡¯s ability to move and anything else that may seem unique.¡±


    ¡®I guess that explains how it recognizes what I need when we gather stuff¡¯ I thought.


    ¡°Though what exactly do you absorb then? Its genes?¡±


    ¡°Well, I absorb whatever the body of what I absorb uses as its basic building blocks such as nutrients, cells, organs or in some cases a specific gene itself though we haven¡¯t gotten there yet as my precision needs to grow overtime but that¡¯s how I generally do it. Followed up with my body converting all that into nutrients that our bodies are capable of absorbing. I have more receptors to absorb certain things with so in some cases I simply use myself as the medium to allow you to gain the benefits when your human cells won¡¯t naturally absorb new and unique food.¡± It diligently explained.


    It seems Phoenix really does work hard to help me get stronger. I couldn¡¯t help but smile with a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart.


    ¡°¡­Thanks Phoenix, I appreciate it.¡± I said softly.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°Hehe.¡± I felt Phoenix wiggling in my head and it seemed it was happy I thanked it.


    ¡°Now let¡¯s be a little more prepared for next time!¡± I declared as I started using the plant fibers and started forming rope. It wasn¡¯t the best quality stuff I made but with about an hour of twisting and tying I managed to piece together my bat with three pieces of sharp rock on opposite sides of the end of the bat and tied it all up with handmade rope.


    The bat officially evolved into a spiked bat.


    I lamented my idiocy at not having brought anything when I had so much cash leftover since I was going to leave the goddamn planet so I didn¡¯t stop there as my worries with future monsters didn¡¯t allow me to so I fashioned a nice little dagger with more stone and rope. Made a few sharp rocks to be used as projectiles and finally made a pickaxe looking thing to have as a backup. The whole process took about 3 hours starting with my spiked bat but it made me feel safe and luckily no other goblizards showed up in the meantime. Some may think one weapon is enough but that¡¯s bullshit as you never know what you would face and so much could happen when running away or in a fight that I wanted to be extra prepared so that my little human life doesn¡¯t die on this planet without anyone ever knowing I was here.


    The odd sun was still high in the sky a little past midpoint so I figured it was afternoon. The days here seemed a little longer which Phoenix confirmed from comparing it to the two days it spent on Earth and the speed of the current suns movement but it needed a full day to pass before I can get a specific number of hours.


    With all my gear in check, I skinned the lizard and kept the claws as material for a future tool and tried to make a fire to try and eat some meat which slime god reassured was edible.


    ¡®Handy is what Phoenix is.¡¯ I realized as Phoenix was able to always check whatever we kill or inspect for poison or harmful effects in my body which was super convenient. I would have probably died a good 30 times just from trying to make rope without Phoenix which was a scary thought.


    Now onto the problem at hand ¡°How to make fire?¡±


    ¡°Phoenix, you have any ideas? Should I try to use friction on the wood like on Earth?¡± I asked as I didn¡¯t know if the same rules even applied to this place but I was left stunned at the reply.


    ¡°Yeah, you could though why don¡¯t you just use your energy on some wood and light it up?¡±


    ¡®Holy SHIT!¡¯ An explosion went off in my head as I was told I could already use my energy to make a fire! Fire! The hallmark moment of cavemen! The tool with which humans had slayed winter! The power of the sun! FIRE!


    Yes. My mind got a little overly excited once more at the idea of burning a path on my new life on whatever planet this was but I considered it a fairly normal reaction.


    I went on to asking how it was that I start fire with my energy and was shocked again.


    ¡°Wait, you don¡¯t already know? You still had an energy value of 1 on Earth didn¡¯t you?¡± Phoenix asked confused at my question.


    ¡°Uhh¡­¡± My head looked down, my expression full of sadness at that remark.


    ¡°We didn¡¯t really have a way to use that energy, if anything the best we had were unproven rumors of some people using it to heal others or a monk who set himself on fire.¡± I muttered an explanation.


    All I got after that was a simple ¡°Oh¡± but it felt like I was being judged and ridiculed even more as some backwater bumpkin which left a sour taste in my mouth.


    ¡°Uhm¡­ Do you know how?¡± I ask hoping to change the subject quickly.


    ¡°Of course I do. I am Phoenix! Unlike some people I still have skill.¡± Phoenix answered with pride and a slight disdain at my lack of ability which further worsened my mood.


    ¡®I knew it! Slime overlord is just a big dick! So much for that kindness crap, probably all a ruse.¡¯ I grumbled internally at being mocked. It¡¯s not my fault we were so inapt at causing fire with our bodies. Its fire for god sake!


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Jupiter, here let me show you a little bit how. It¡¯s quite simple really, just gather the energy you have. It should be around your core usually, then let it flow through your body and into your fingertips and then just focus on using it to manipulate the area around your finger to vibrate at faster and faster rate until it sparks into fire. Having a mental image of fire helps direct the energy better as well into getting the desired results.¡±


    ¡®Well that doesn¡¯t sound too hard, actually.¡¯ I thought with some relief but after a good half an hour of trying I was left with a grumpy Phoenix and a sullen face.


    I was cursed at by Phoenix as completely untalented and useless once again. I didn¡¯t know why but I just never managed to feel this energy, I was told it¡¯s subtle but why the fuck does it have to be borderline invisible!

 Chapter 13 – Cabin

    As I was a poor sod with complete lack of ability to use my innate energy I was forced to try and make fire the old fashion way due to not wanting to ask Phoenix to do it.


    Gathering some branches and dried leaves and twigs, I cut a little hole into a thicket branch and started twisting another small stick in the whole with broken down leaves and twine. Took about 10 minutes considering it was my first time but managed in the end to make a cozy little fire. Fire was odd too. Slight greenish outline was there to be seen if you stared into it long enough but I figured it was just the environmental effect.


    I cooked up some goblizard skewers with meat from its hind legs and nothing else as I didn¡¯t even know what could be used for spices and didn¡¯t want ask Phoenix as I was still upset over the ridiculing.


    There I was, eating goblizard skewer on a foreign planet with a dick of a slime in my head. My new life.


    ¡® Totally what I wanted.¡± I sarcastically thought.


    The meat wasn¡¯t that bad actually, it tasted somewhere in between tender beef and pork chops. It was an odd mix but felt refreshing none the less. I had dried some goblizard skin near the fire and managed to turn it into a small pouch where I kept some of the cooked meat for later use which felt slightly unsanitary but used tree leaves as a wrap around the meat before using the pouch and germs should have been killed off by the fire anyways. I hoped.


    With everything in tow, I decided maybe looking for a cave or something for the night would be a better idea than staying outside as I had no idea how to build a tent or hut or anything much for that matter.


    With all that we set off. I wandered about the sparse forest keeping a vigilant eye while reminding Phoenix to watch my back as it was able to literally sprout a tentacle eye on the back of my head. ¡® I literally have eyes on the back of head, hehe.¡¯ I chuckled.


    We walked for about 30 minutes before I noticed another goblizard eating on some sort of dead fox looking thing. The dead fox had some red on its paws while the rest of its body seemed to be slightly green. Odd fox, well odd everything. I couldn¡¯t see much else but I didn¡¯t want to fight another goblizard as we didn¡¯t even require its body or meat at the moment so I just detoured around the thing. I now knew there were fox looking things running around the area too so had to keep an eye out for that as well.


    We kept walking for a about another hour before I noticed in the distance a series of trees that seemed to be oddly bunched together. I was glad it was still day and the sun was out as I couldn¡¯t even imagine the amount of times I would of shat myself if I had ended up here at night, especially if a goblizard had popped in. In any case, I had ended up sneakily going closer to the trees and was surprised to see that there was some decrepit looking cabin built near the center of those trees as the trees surrounded it.


    First thing that went to my mind was that there was civilization in this world too. I didn¡¯t know yet to just what level but it had to be said that if you can make a decent size cabin, you had a village type place for sure. I however didn¡¯t know until what point it has been developed.


    I headed further towards the cabin while checking my surroundings and making sure with Phoenix that there weren¡¯t any noticeable danger as Phoenix did seem to have better vision however the hell that worked.


    As I stood in front of the cabin, I notice how it seems just enough for one person as its size was considerably small and it was really worn down. Pieces of the wood was cracked and holes were everywhere on the cabin. I slowly open the front door which was already slightly ajar and walked in.


    I already made sure there wasn¡¯t anything by looking through one of the windows when I did a full round of the cabin because my paranoia never left me which I complimented about myself as even on Earth I was paranoid as all hell as if I owned government secrets because I just enjoyed my privacy that much. Never really learned why I was so paranoid but I just figured some people had ¡®quirks¡¯. Fascinating person I am.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    A regular dose of ego inflating commentary later I continue to explore the little cabin that seemed to be equipped with a nice little kitchen counter with a rusted pan I noticed. A small brazier made of some stone in the living area/bed room which had some rags on the floor for what I assumed bedding.


    ¡®Seems beds weren¡¯t a popular choice for whoever lived here¡¯


    I turn to one of the closets and open it wary of what I might find only to jump and almost squeal in fright.


    I saw a man of average height with raven black hair and an average face with nice thick eyebrows with a creepy looking green tentacle popping out of his head. Straight out of the top looking around as if some alien with an antenna. Indeed, it was a mirror or at least it was a piece of stone that was extremely reflective.


    I chided myself for the fright as I got scared of my own self but I let it go as I wasn¡¯t used to my appearance with Phoenix popping out.


    I continued to inspect the closet which was just a small regular closet with the mirror in it and a small box off in the corner. I inspected the mirror a bit more and it really was just a piece of long and thin rock that was reflective as the edges seemed naturally curved into with jagged edges either that or it was the style in this world. Moving on to the wooden box, I carefully open it to see some notes with writing I was utterly confused about and a small dagger that seemed to be made from some obsidian colored material with a dark blue edge that was about a foot in length and a handle with no cross guard. The handle itself was actually made of wood but it was a darker wood than what I have seen so far but still dark blue bordering black and had some design carved into it for style I guess.


    Another weapon¡­GET!


    I thought about the dagger for a bit as it seems this world wasn¡¯t too advanced as the weapon didn¡¯t seem too old, which Phoenix confirmed, and it also meant that creatures around here were tough little shits to deal with. I wasn¡¯t sure what to expect if I did encounter any of the people but I was still hoping there was some technology as I was curious about maybe visiting with Phoenix to its super max civilization. Whatever, I could always find out later.


    I did a one over of the cabin again after having tucked away the pretty dagger and didn¡¯t find much else.


    ¡°Jupiter let me take a look at those notes.¡± Phoenix asked seemingly curious to which I just laid them on a table and took a seat on a stool nearby.


    ¡°Can you read it?¡± I asked because if Phoenix could, that means we are still somewhere that is part of its previous community.


    Though it turned out to be a fanciful thought as Phoenix couldn¡¯t recognize the writing at all which left me a little disappointed but I guess you don¡¯t get more luck after getting lucky against space death.


    ¡°I can still learn it but we would need to get our hands on more of this writing or meet a native and have them teach me.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like a pl¡­no. I don¡¯t want to go meeting anybody anytime soon. What if I turn into some creepy looking thing to them and they just kill me off, or arrest me and torture me for my origins, or turn me into some science experiment? Hell no!¡±


    There it was, my antisocial behavior came back in full drive but with valid reasons this time.


    ¡°Jupiter, it can¡¯t be that bad. Well, we could always take a peek then decide.¡± Phoenix said as even it wasn¡¯t 100% sure like usual, just blindly optimistic I¡¯d say but taking a look wouldn¡¯t be so bad but I would want to get some sort of insurance first.


    I walk out of the cabin to get a look at the sky and notice I had maybe another three or so hours of daylight which seemed to be enough so I started gathering some wood and started trying to fix up the cabin as I needed a base of operations and this one just happened to be a pretty convenient one. Considering my extreme paranoia I still walked about a mile away from the cabin and spun around the area once over to make sure we weren¡¯t right next to some village or anything and to make sure there weren¡¯t any more dangerous creatures aside from the foxes which I dubbed foxhorns as they had a weird white horn growing out of their heads after I caught sight of a few more moving in two¡¯s and three¡¯s in the distance. They were fast and so I kept hidden as I really didn¡¯t want to face those mutant things.


    I returned to the cabin with some thinner logs about an hour later and got to work on fixing the place up which really equaled to me building an exterior wall sort of thing that was just me driving logs into the ground where the holes in the cabin were, blocking off the holes. Simple and it worked. That¡¯s all that mattered.

 Chapter 14 – Looting

    ¡°I hope the nights here aren¡¯t too cold.¡± I muttered as I was lighting the brazier thing with some logs with Phoenix being the lighter.


    ¡°It probably shouldn¡¯t get too low since during the day we were at a decent temperature and the creatures didn¡¯t seem to need huge fur coats like the goblizard¡± Phoenix mentioned.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re probably right.¡±


    It was dark and I had only the lighting of the stone brazier which didn¡¯t help as it was small and only gave off a bit of heat. I figured I could get some rest as a lot happened these past few days and I wasn¡¯t really too sure I¡¯ve been myself since I kind of just went along with it considering it may all just be a dream.


    I walked over to the fur bedding and just lied down while Phoenix had me leave the notes near the bed so it could continue to examine before it got its rest. Slime god also sleeps apparently but we didn¡¯t have to worry too much about abrupt visits as Phoenix had some killer ability that allowed it to sense hostile presences within a three meter diameter. Not much but better than anything and I kept my weapons close.


    The night silently passed and I didn¡¯t know how long I slept for when I woke up but the sun was already shining which made me realize that this was really happening to me and this was really where I was.


    ¡®Sigh, I really thought this might have been some elaborately lucid dream.¡¯


    Well, I couldn¡¯t be too upset since I still had my space travelling slime with me with the possibility of turning into some super saiyan Jupiter one day so can¡¯t be that bad.


    ¡°Morning Phoenix, made any sense of those notes last night?¡± I asked yawning.


    ¡°Morning and yes and no. I managed to get a few words potentially deciphered but having only two pages is a real pain as I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s a contextual thing or if they are nouns. It¡¯s really frustrating!¡± Phoenix cried.


    ¡®Well, seems like you¡¯re not omnipotent at least. Leaves me some space to not feel completely bad about myself.¡¯ Unfortunately for Phoenix, my priority was ego and I was just happy I didn¡¯t look that bad next to it.


    I grabbed a small breakfast of cooked goblizard while getting off the fur rags when I noticed a weird little line in the wood where the rag was covering. I probably moved it in my sleep, I looked closer and got the rags off the floor and I found what seemed to be a trap door but it was clearly well covered unless you looked for it. My eyes shot open with no trace of having just woken up showing.


    ¡°Phoenix, you see this?¡± I almost yelled as it was clearly a trap door which meant there was more to the place than I thought!


    Phoenix just stared at it for a bit before understanding there was probably another passage available to which it just said ¡°Open it!¡±


    ¡®Hehe, what goodies await me now?¡¯ I grin as I use the knife to open the trap door and get it lifted. It was just a dark shallow hole.


    I was clearly upset at the turn of events but I didn¡¯t really want to think there was absolutely nothing, I mean we found a dagger so whoever lived here must have left in a hurry or didn¡¯t come back.


    I grabbed a stick and wrapped a piece of the rags I tore off onto it and asked Phoenix to light it which was just Phoenix sticking out a tentacle and poof little fire starting to burn the rag on my makeshift torch.


    ¡°There has to be something¡± I muttered as I lowered the torch and started looking around the hole before I sighed as I couldn¡¯t see anything.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Just when I was about to pull the torch out of the hole Phoenix yelled ¡° Jupiter! Look in the corner there, there¡¯s something sticking out!¡±


    ¡®YES! God slime eyesight is nothing to scoff at.¡¯ I silently praised.


    I reach down with my other hand and start trying to move the dirt around the little dark red object Phoenix spotted. I wasn¡¯t really able to do much but I did see there was something. Eventually, I stepped into the hole as I couldn¡¯t pull it out. I had phoenix hold my little torch with a tentacle and started using my knife when my fingers couldn¡¯t get the dirt to move.


    20 minutes of digging later.


    ¡°THUD¡±


    I drop a small chest with dark red metal lining the box and dark blue wood making its body. It was also locked to my surprise.


    ¡®Now I know you must have a special goody for me!¡¯ My eyes burned with desire for whatever this box held.


    ¡°Phoenix, you have any way to open this thing?¡± I asked as even now I hadn¡¯t understood the full capabilities of the slime overlord over here.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure let me try.¡±


    So Phoenix sent some tentacles inspecting the box and the supposed keyhole before it got shocked by some small red sparks when messing with the keyhole itself.


    ¡°Ow! It shocked me!¡± Phoenix cried in pain.


    I was almost going to burst into laughter as that¡¯s exactly what it did to me when I met him.


    ¡°How did it shock you?¡± I asked barely holding the laughter.


    ¡°It has some sort of residual energy rune on its lock that shocked me. Hmpf! Watch what I do to you! Shock me? Huh!¡± Phoenix seemed mad as next thing it did was literally destroy the box with about 5 tentacles popping out of my arms and withering the shit out of the wood.


    ¡°Ha! How does it feel to be broken by the great me?¡±


    I just nervously laughed seeing Phoenix angry as I wouldn¡¯t want to imagine what it would do if I pissed it off.


    My excitement for goodies coming back, I pick up my knife and say ¡°Well, that seemed to solve the problem. Let¡¯s see what goodies we got.¡±


    Using the knife to crack apart the wood we finally get the contents out of the box.


    I didn¡¯t really know what to make of it as it was a small journal with a scary looking wolf bear beast carved into its leather cover and a palm size green crystal with a dark emerald glow at its center. It was unique to say the least.


    ¡°What¡¯s this¡± I pick up the crystal and look at it for a bit and I noticed it strangely attracted my attention and I didn¡¯t want to look away. It was in the shape of a rhombus and its outer edge seemed to be made of an emerald type gem but inside was a dark ball of green just shining with a pulse like glow.


    ¡°Let me take a look.¡± Phoenix asked and it broke the little trance I ended up in. I actually got a little nervous to look at it again so I warned Phoenix of what happened to which Phoenix seemed slightly excited to hear as it wiggled a little in my head again.


    ¡®That crystal almost felt alive in that trance for a moment there, wonder where it came from.¡¯ I mused as I pick up the journal and get a good look at the beast that was drawn on the cover.


    It looked like a giant bear with razor sharp claws and a wolf life face with four horns curving towards its back on its head. It also had a small horn in the shape of a diamond growing on its forehead and a giant mouth with even sharper fangs. The ears shot straight up and it had a long furry tail with what looked like a scarf like mane hanging from its neck on both sides. The whole thing looked like it was probably huge and could eat me whole in a second which left me silently praying to never meet this thing.


    I flipped through the pages and saw a bunch of notes with a few drawn pictures of creatures I never seen and some plants which made me think this may have belonged to a hunter of sorts. I was going to keep looking through before Phoenix suddenly started yelling at me in excitement.


    ¡°Jupiter! Jupiter! JUPITER!!!!! This thing is so amazing!¡± It yelled in an almost schoolgirl voice just missing the high pitch scream at the beginning or end.


    ¡°Okay! OKAY! What is it?¡± I asked a little rudely as it really wasn¡¯t necessary to yell when you live in my brain.


    Which Phoenix didn¡¯t even notice from its excitement.


    ¡°This thing seems to be an energy core! We are so lucky to even see one of these things right now!!!¡± It yelled again.


    ¡°ENOUGH with the yelling! I¡¯m right here, okay? Okay. Now what¡¯s an energy core?¡±


    Still not giving any care about what I said while being just as loud as before I get another answer:


    ¡°This can help us out soo much! These things are only produced in rare mines, super strong beasts which have created cores or with energy compression technology! We could get a significant boosts to all our abilities with the energy this thing contains! We can maybe even get a proper evolution of one of our innate abilities!¡± Phoenix was too happy and just kept shouting but by this point even I got excited as it seemed to rub off Phoenix and when it said we could get an evolution of abilities I straight up thought about my energy levels.

 Chapter 15- Magic

    I didn¡¯t hesitate at all. Phoenix was just as motivated after it scanned the crystal, which I was still a little awed at due to my previous little experience with it.


    I sat down right away and got into a meditation pose and started simple breathing exercises. Phoenix got the clue and was just as quick to shove out four tentacles from my head to hold the crystal which if seen by anyone else would just shock and induce fear probably.


    With that a very long session of absorption started. It was one that I wished I had gotten a disclaimer for as it was not at all pleasant like the previous times.


    As Phoenix was absorbing the crystal I right away started feeling Phoenix wiggle and send out waves of energy into my body. To my surprise, just like waves they hit hard. I felt like my insides were getting hammered with hammers surrounding me from all sides and covering every tiny minuscule nanometer. With every wave I felt a hit to my entire body after the first wave had spread over my entire body and every wave following it was just a reinforced hit of pain.


    I started losing concentration but Phoenix got me back into the zone with some scary threats of possible ¡°unfortunate consequences¡± should I stop meditating so I try to just allow the energy to mingle with my skin, muscle, bone and cells. It was quite the motivational speech, really.


    ¡®Deep breaths, Jupiter. Deep breaths, it¡¯s just a little pain. We got slime god watching over us. What¡¯s there to worry about?¡¯ I started reciting these words like they were my dying will. I did not want to face any so called consequences for fucking this up especially considering it was a big deal to both of us. Having Phoenix steadily sequence the amount and timing of each repeated wave was super beneficial as I noticed my body and mind getting used to each new wave of energy that flowed into me.


    So the ever desired evolution progressed minute by minute, with each passing second being easier than the last.


    A whole six hours later, I found myself breathing calmly with a strong steady breath. I felt amazing to be honest. My whole body felt like I had unlimited stamina and that I could run a couple marathons back to back. This was probably the best I ever felt in my own body since¡­ever! I was reveling in the awesome feeling but soon got nudged out of it by Phoenix.


    ¡°I need some rest Jupiter. That thing is going to take me a bit to digest and honestly, it was tiring. I¡¯m going to take a nap.¡± A very tired voice spoke.


    ¡°Oh, yeah of course Phoenix! You rest up. You did great!¡± A compliment or two never hurt anybody.


    Phoenix was more than happy as it wiggled a little and went quiet.


    I kind of wanted to just go hunting for something as I was certain I could take on two or even three goblizards at once or maybe even solo against a foxhorn. Phoenix, however, really seemed to have taken a big hit on its stamina from the long time it took to finish off that crystal so I just continued to meditate a while to enjoy the feeling I got from it.


    My mind felt clearer and my whole body felt like it would respond to everything I dictated which I would have to seriously test out in the morning but the coolest part would probably be that I could get a faint sense of something extra in my core.


    I didn¡¯t get as excited as I thought I would but it may have been an influence of the meditation keeping me somewhat calm though I was very happy I could finally even feel the damn thing. It was most likely the energy from my core. I decided since it was still only a bit later in the afternoon that I should just stay in and try and focus on the sensation of having energy. So another slice of goblizard meat later, I was entranced by the feeling of energy that was focused around my stomach. I kept trying to feel it more and more clearly which made me feel closer to this strange energy a bit more.


    It started out hazy at first as if the energy was just a few centimeters away from me yet not within my grasp but the more I focused on it the more I managed to sense it. It felt as if I had something which was like mist and just made my core feel heavier. I eventually tried playing with it a bit more without a care in the world as the energy made me feel joy.


    I tried moving it which didn¡¯t really work, then I tried grabbing just a little and separating it from the zone it gathered in which, was hard at first but with me trying repeatedly with different ideas, I eventually managed to get a small tiny bit to follow my will. I started moving it around my body and it was amazing. I felt it going through my legs and reaching my toes and then going to my other legs or arm. It wasn¡¯t like I saw what was happening but I just knew it was following my direction as a small tingle would appear along the path I made it flow and eventually I returned it to the center.


    I was even a little tired when I opened my eyes as I used a lot of mental focus to play with that energy but it was still worth it as I was ecstatic at the results.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡®Ha! Phoenix can¡¯t mock me anymore.¡¯ I proudly thought.


    I look around me and notice it¡¯s completely dark. I was a little shocked I spent the rest of the day without realizing it just playing with the energy but since Phoenix still seemed out of it I figured I might as well go to sleep.


    I lay back down on my rugs and went to bed but I had the biggest smile on my face and so I rested peacefully in my little bliss.


    ¡­..


    Morning arrived with a glaring shine in my eyes as I open them and see the funniest thing.


    Phoenix had two tentacles holding the little notebook on each side and one tentacle sitting in the middle thoughtfully reading over the contents which is all happening on my stomach which explained why it felt a little breezy when I woke up as It probably moved my shirt and didn¡¯t want to bother my face.


    I chuckled and greet Phoenix with a smile to which I got an excited little voice talking about how it found more stuff on the notes about the language and the pictures helped so much.


    It was cute as I hadn¡¯t known this side to Phoenix but eventually a larger concern affected me.


    I felt unbelievably dehydrated. It was only then that I noticed I hadn¡¯t drunk any water at all since coming here which is a good two days already. Goblizard meat was dry as hell so that wasn¡¯t an option either. I was starting to feel stupid as I didn¡¯t even search for any water yesterday when I went ¡°touring¡± my little land.


    ¡®Shit.¡¯ Is all my head could say.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong Jupiter? Thought you would be happier since our power up yesterday?¡± Phoenix asked.


    ¡°Water¡­¡± I didn¡¯t even have spit to salivate. I was completely out of any water and the euphoria from absorbing the crystal completely made me ignore this issue.


    A light bulb seemed to flash in Phoenix¡¯s mind as I get an ¡°Oh!¡±


    I see Phoenix put away the book and point all three tentacles on my stomach towards the ceiling and a green blue glow pulsed out of the slime tentacle. It slowly went up to the tips.


    My eyes were wide open as I saw little water drops start to condense in the middle and it slowly just kept getting bigger and bigger. Insane was what it was.


    ¡°Here you go Jupiter!¡± A happy sounding Phoenix offered.


    ¡°Sniffles, god slime¡­I¡­ I¡­ love you.¡± I blurted, with a coarse and dry voice, as I started slurping the water and it felt nothing but heavenly.


    ¡°God slime?¡± Phoenix questioned at the new name.


    ¡°Uhh¡­¡± I realized I never said those words out loud but didn¡¯t really know how to explain how I¡¯ve been giving random nicknames to it in my head this entire time.


    I just played it off as I really didn¡¯t want to go into it as Phoenix had started developing an ego that people may blame my influence upon so ¡° God slime? Huh, I guess I was too dehydrated so I accidentally called you that.¡±


    ¡®Totally played it cool¡¯ I thought.


    ¡°That¡¯s not a bad name, actually¡­ God slime Phoenix! Has a nice level of grandness to it.¡±


    I mentally face palm as I realize I might end up creating a cocky and possibly arrogant as all hell god slime.


    ¡°Haha. Well, let¡¯s change the subject, how did you manage to gather water? I might need to know that one for myself.¡± I asked trying to ignore what I just did.


    ¡°Oh! Simple, I just gathered the energy from my core into my appendages while I focused on it spreading out and creating an attraction towards a specific point. I then focused on that specific point gathering water until I had enough.¡±


    ¡®Everything is always simple with you!¡¯ I sigh.


    Nonetheless, I was still excited to give it a try but was a little curious to how that energy even works in the first place, as in how does it even differentiate different particles in air and such because I was born with 21<sup>st</sup> century knowledge, this sort of manipulation just boggled my mind so I asked.


    Phoenix just explained in a simple fashion that the energy absorbed was actually natural ever-present energy in the surrounding atmosphere but due to its special quality it was capable of interacting with basically all different elements such as water, fire and so on. Most interesting part was that there was actually a whole science behind it as lots of people researched the scientific reasoning behind this whole process but it didn¡¯t really affect combat ability but more so just assisted with genius combinations of chemical creations through using that stored energy to manipulate different particles into forming a cohesion which transformed into certain chemicals like poison for example. Phoenix didn¡¯t really want to explain all the theory and technical as I was advised going to an institute and learning for a couple of years would be the only real way of knowing all the details on how core energy affects the environment and the unique ways to use it.


    I was just told to focus on the image of what I want and will my core energy to do it as such as things like water, fire, earth are foundational particles so they are more easily manipulated and are what is usually used in combat as they can be gathered faster and more easily.


    Made sense so I let it go as I didn¡¯t think I would need to really know all that extra info when I can hardly control a small rice grain of energy.


    I did briefly tell Phoenix about my new ability to feel and slightly control my core energy which I simply got a ¡° About time.¡± comment.


    I figured it would end up like that so I wasn¡¯t so butthurt.


    ¡°Anything new about you Phoenix?¡±


    ¡°Oho. I got some pretty cool stuff. My surrounding awareness shot up to 4m all around and I managed to take a portion of the crystal and actually store it in me after being processed as an extra energy reserve that should help me improve all my current abilities at a faster rate!¡± Phoenix was really excited when mentioning this as it seems it got a really nice boost and even copped a piece of the crystal for storage purposes which is always good as I¡¯d be scared to imagine what would happen if we were in danger and Phoenix had to take a ¡°nap¡±.


    We chatted a bit more and I eventually checked my stats screen as I wanted to see my improvements and got really happy at the results from one crystal.


    Status


    -Jupiter


    -Human


    Abilities:


    - Keen senses ( Slime symbiosis effect )


    - Minor Energy Manipulation


    - Enhanced Mental Cognition


    Physical:


    Strength ¨C 4


    Stamina ¨C 2


    Agility ¨C 4


    Vitality ¨C 4


    Energy ¨C 3.5

 Chapter 16 - Moving Forward

    ¡°Holy shit.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t even believe the difference between myself a day ago and now. I changed. I changed so much to be honest. I gained the ability to manipulate core energy; I am probably stronger than most people on Earth, I gleefully thought. I can probably beat most athletes on Earth whether it is in strength, stamina or razzle dazzle ¡°mystical¡± shit.


    ¡°Hehehe¡± Laughter spewed between my teeth while an ever so slightly aura of creepiness sprung forth.


    Having taken care of my rejuvenated ego, I smile. Different thoughts started coming forth in my mind and I realize that it was time I gave some of them some time. It wouldn¡¯t do good to repress my thoughts and have hesitation start ruling over me. After all, that¡¯s how most people developed some fucked up issues back on Earth.


    ¡®Might be a good opportunity to test out my boosted mental cognition too.¡¯


    It had been three or four days since all this happened starting with Phoenix making an appearance to ditching my planet and now to killing weird goblizards and ¡°eating¡± strange crap found lying in chests that fight back against a little thieving.


    This was a surreal environment and I may have simply died but that wouldn¡¯t follow the whole continuation of my life part in my opinion as death ushers a change but I doubt it would be this type of change where all my memories and personality remain intact especially with my current body so death is a no go.


    The only real plausible explanation is that I actually did find a unique opportunity with absurd luck being involved where I ¡°bought¡± Phoenix.


    Now what?


    I seemed rather acceptant of the whole situation as my surroundings kept a constant influx of reminders headed my way to prove that this was really happening.


    ¡®I can¡¯t predict the future but I am more or else certain that even though I am at the lowest point in this new adventure, I will probably face more dangers and meet stronger beings as I keep moving forward, especially with Phoenix probably nagging me to keep absorbing strange and high level crap from this new world.¡¯


    My mind felt clear as all these thoughts flowed by me and I found myself realizing I had to make a choice.


    ¡®How do I move forward from this point on?¡¯ I asked myself after my introspection.


    Should I become strong and help others? Try and be a hero? Be evil as Hades himself? Plunder and loot all? Questions rang in my mind.


    A couple minutes silently passed in contemplation before my thoughts took a turn towards a certain idea.


    ¡®Hell no! Fuck all that bullshit about saving the world or justice and evil. I have a better idea. Hehehe.¡¯ The word ¡°Absolute¡± kept flashing by in my mind as I recount all the knowledge I had from Earth.


    Everything seemed clear and my goal was probably just as overwhelming as the number of stars themselves. Again, the word ¡°Absolute¡± echoed in my mind sounding as sweet as an angel¡¯s serene voice of blessing or as desirable as the devils whispers of temptation.


    If there is one thing that Earth had taught me above all else is that in this sort of situation where my own power would likely determine my so called fate, the word ¡°Absolute¡± holds truer than any ideal, any justice, any evil, any tragedy and all obstacles! Nothing can change the course of one¡¯s life nor protect that which one cherishes with complete certainty more than absolute power.


    I may have been a lazy, unambitious and depressing guy to be around back on Earth but that was simply due to how incredibly and unsatisfyingly mundane Earth was. After having met Phoenix, Earth had simply become the well that, I, the frog was lying in the bottom of, festering in its damp and dark borders without any chance of growing beyond its boundaries. I was a prisoner.


    But now¡­ now I am, finally, a free man.


    I will chase the pinnacle of this existence and reach absolute power and rule my destiny. I am the apex predator that the universe does not know of. The king that shall rise. I am¡­Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Jupiter Ortus!


    Almost as if in sync with my thoughts a wave of power rushed all over my body and beat along with my heart¡¯s pumping. The energy flowed and I could feel its power. I could feel my confidence and the insane idea that was somehow sleeping within me push my newfound power slightly further as if the universe itself deemed me only right to believe so.


    A few minutes had passed as I finally gathered all my thoughts that were repressed due to the shocking level of change my life had taken yet an almost ominous glow was shining brightly in my eyes as I had finally made my decision regardless of what is to come.


    ¡°Jupiter? You okay there? You¡¯ve been laughing in a weird way the past few minutes¡­¡± Phoenix voiced its concerns, a little worried even; as there was nothing to explain the situation and even if Jupiter was weird even for Phoenix, he wasn¡¯t crazy¡­ or at least Phoenix believed him not to be.


    ¡°Hahaha! Worry not, Phoenix. I just had to think about a few things and couldn¡¯t help but laugh a little. Come, let¡¯s go get us some food.¡± I replied with a grin.


    Seemingly not so worried anymore, Phoenix happily agreed and they soon prepared they¡¯re things and went out to find some goblizards or whatever else this planet may have to offer.


    Jupiter¡¯s mental cognition having been boosted was clearly a great blessing as even Jupiter himself realized that his mind was ten times sharper than ever before and even though he understood he was having a bit of a power craze moment, he gladly welcomed it as opposed to regular people from Earth, he hated his old life. He knew that in this lifetime he could achieve all he wanted as long as he achieved those two words:¡± Absolute Power.¡±


    Having set off, they walked around towards the south of their ¡°Spawning point¡± ,which was where they fell to, to find some goblizards and maybe find a few extra goodies.


    The walk itself should take a bit of time so Jupiter started chatting with Phoenix.


    ¡°Phoenix, I noticed you were reading the little notebook earlier. Can you understand the language a bit more now?¡±


    ¡°So-so, I only spent about two hours before you woke up to look through the notes and I did manage to learn a basic understanding of the native language here but if we could get our hands on someone from here, it would be even better!¡± Phoenix replied to my question with a hint of anticipation and what could only be described as a mental image of a slightly evil grin which kind of left me a little fearful.


    Sure, I might have found a great new resolution towards this new life of mine but that didn¡¯t mean I was batshit crazy like god slime over here.


    Who in their right mind would go kidnap a fucking local on some next level planet filled with creatures that naturally ingest the world¡¯s HIGHLY potent energy? They might all just be a bunch of battle crazy end game level existences. Like being thrown into a boss dungeon in a game when you are at level one, if that isn¡¯t suicide, I really don¡¯t know what is.


    ¡®In anycase, let¡¯s not feed Phoenixs kidnapping mentality until I get a better scope of the situation.¡¯ I shivered at the thought of having a kidnap crazy god slime roaming the world.


    As the little journey continued and we kept chatting, I started noticing little oddities about Phoenixs voice which bothered me a little as they started sounding like a small kid¡­ more specifically¡­ a small¡­girl.


    The idea that Phoenix may choose its own sexe wasn¡¯t too troublesome but having a childish little girl¡¯s voice in my head was not¡­definitely not what I signed up for.


    I chose to ignore it and hope for that to change as I didn¡¯t really want to come in the way of Phoenix choosing its sexe as I have no clue on how social etiquette towards unisex god slime turning into a male or female will affect Phoenix and considering that freakishly powerful absorption ability. I did not choose to voice my concerns. A coward some may say, however, I would gladly accept that title as not offending god slime versus offending god slime. I will always choose the former 100% of the time as I do not want this new and exciting life to come to a sudden and extremely withered ending like those poor trees we met.


    Brushing aside all these stray thoughts, Phoenix finally notified me of a goblizard that was behind a bush I was sneaking nearby to.


    With all my focus having been reignited I only had one thought and that was some delicious goblizard meat. I warily snuck around the bush trying not to alert the goblizard which I, shocking to myself even, didn¡¯t. My sneak skills are in no way top notch or even at the level of being considered to exist for that matter. I just happened to land near one that was sleeping and didn¡¯t notice me invading its territory, probably due to being not that threatening at all. Considering the golden free meat, I didn¡¯t really hesitate too much as I grabbed the dagger that the ex-cabin owner so graciously left me and just dived at sleeping lizard.


    The danger sense of the little ugly thing wasn¡¯t as superb as you would think. It opened its eyes literally the moment before I stabbed its head. I greatly overestimated these things though I was still glad the mighty Phoenix had enough sense to send us to some weak area like this taking my fitness at the time into account.


    With that goblizard properly killed and drained of blood, we returned to our little slice of decrepit log cabin paradise of a home with some meat to cook as we both agreed that learning more from the notebook and me getting used to using the core energy was the biggest priority for the time being as everything was still too unknown and I might of whined a little, just a little bit about not wanting to venture or kill anything beyond a goblizard for the time being.


    With the food crisis resolved. Training time.

 Chapter 17- Crystallization

    A few hours had passed in the morning already and Phoenix finally told me the approximate of how long a day lasts in this world.


    It was about 34 Earth hours with 22 hours of day and 12 of night which left me confused as even I didn¡¯t notice it was that different but I guess I hadn¡¯t spent that much time and had other matters to attend to, which left me unable to notice. ¡®Weird planet¡¯ was all I could really think of.


    I had tried manipulating the core energy to produce a flame but was still only able to control a tiny rice grain size portion of my energy and wasn¡¯t able to get it to do what I needed so had to use Phoenix fire which really sounded cool but ended up being degrading as it was candle light size and used for burning wood. A good thing was that Phoenix did not notice.


    With Phoenix helping, I managed to gather a few grass like herbs on the way back that smelled good so that I could test some herbs on the goblizard meat which ended up being not bad as it added a little spicy and sweet flavor to the meat.


    What followed was Phoenix reading the book while I sat in meditation in order to get better control of my energy. I could just start working out but compared to summoning the goddamn elements it felt lacking. Maybe muscle heads could go with the repetitive training but I would rather find a way to use my core energy to beat high level monsters and absorb them for the stats. It sounded much simpler and cooler in my head.


    I had sat down and adjusted myself to go into a calmer state with some simple breathing and managed to focus all my attention on my stomach where the core energy was.


    I heard from Phoenix that the energy itself had many uses as it was really dependent on the user to control it to create the effects. It really did just sound like the mana for magic and had unlimited uses which left me extremely satisfied but a juicy piece of information was shared by Phoenix when we had that discussion. Any and all core energy user may be able to gain an effect from their core energy if they appropriately build a structure for that effect within their core.


    What this meant was something like creating a building with a specific purpose like a hospital with several elevators or a police station with jail cells. As long as the building created had a specific structure, your core energy would use that structure to produce a constant effect. Some people had used it to align themselves with a specific element like fire for increased heat or created a unique structure that allowed a user to control lightning which wasn¡¯t the basic elements. As long as a proper structure was used you could technically have it increase your growth rate or even boost your physical body and many more different powers which are all also improved and more powerful versions of the non-structured core energy users¡¯ version. The comparison could be likened to a master swordsman and a versatile jack of all trades.


    I didn¡¯t know what effect I wanted to create yet so I pondered on the possibilities while playing with my core energy and trying to grasp a better understanding of it.


    This continued about an hour before I noticed a few things. If I moved my core energy around my body, my cells generally felt slightly refreshed which was nice. I also noticed that if I didn¡¯t return that small portion of energy and just kept it elsewhere from the core, eventually it disappeared but I wasn¡¯t sure if the area it was in absorbed it or it was just let loose and lost. The third and most noteworthy thing I found was that my recovery rate for the energy was rather slow but when I did a random test on squeezing my core energy from all around which was extremely hard to even squeeze the whole area a tiny millimeter, my recovery rate boosted for a second before the squeezed core energy returned to normal. I found it odd so I ran some more tests.


    I started capturing small rice grains of energy from my core and moving it to my finger to try and attract fire or water which failed miserably every time and when my core energy of 3.5 was halved. I tried the squeezing again which while extremely difficult was still somewhat possible albeit in minuscule proportions.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    The result of repeating these two actions got significant results as the recovery rate before on a regular basis was maybe a tiny rice grain of energy returning after 15 minutes of meditation compared with a tiny rice grain returning within the moment the compression is released. I found it really odd and wanted to see if I could maybe compress the sphere of core energy a bit more so that I could maybe gain more than I used which makes sense as it would draw in more than previously stored and should technically grow his energy reserve.


    What Jupiter didn¡¯t realize though was that this was a very dangerous idea to play with.


    Compression, followed by a small recovery, and then repeat. Those were the key steps to my idea. I didn¡¯t really know how to gain more core energy and I didn¡¯t see my core growing naturally so I thought it was this was the known way to gain more core energy when meditating.


    I kept compressing my core energy and with every compression, a little extra rice grain of energy entered immediately after and I repeated the process with the extra energy included. This kept going for about the rest of the day actually except for when I needed to relieve myself, eat or drink, I repeated the compression again and again.


    Phoenix eventually noticed that I was seriously devoted to my core energy and thought that it was a good thing until it started noticing the pained expression and the sweat that started covering me a few hours into it.


    Phoenix started getting seriously worried towards the end as it had access to my vitals and was fully aware that whatever I was doing was very dangerous considering the fluctuations of my body, the temperature as well as the high level of activity in my brain. Phoenix had to start crying out to me to stop at some point as it couldn¡¯t access my core energy center but noticed that most of the fluctuations started coming from there but I was too focused to even notice Phoenix mentally calling me out.


    Whether it was my improved senses, enhanced mental cognition or my renewed will towards life, they all helped me focus solely on compressing then repeating which kept becoming more and more difficult as eventually the center of the sphere of energy started condensing from a haze to a tiny drops but for some reason I didn¡¯t want to stop as the pain was getting worse, I felt like there was something at the end of this whole process. Either curiosity or the simple desire for absolute power drove me somehow to ignore the pain and just keep compressing.


    Phoenix was facing a huge dilemma in the meantime as whatever Jupiter was doing, it had to stop or he could die but Phoenix couldn¡¯t just zap him unconscious again as whatever he was doing may lead to some sort of huge problem if he lost control over it which just worsened the anxiety.


    The time spent compressing neared the 11<sup>th</sup> straight hour since the last break and I was finally able to see the end. The liquid that started forming started getting compressed as well and eventually tiny little crystals started appearing on the ball of compressed core energy which left me quite surprised at my experiment. The pain was savagely shitty but I was able to maintain my consciousness as it felt similar to the constant pain from absorbing that green crystal.


    I kept compressing and compressing and eventually I had a small fingernail size white crystal that had a slightly black glow for some reason.


    With a huge breath of relief I was finally able to stop compressing as all the energy that entered my core started going towards the crystal and the crystal wasn¡¯t able to get more compressed as it already solidified.


    Though what came after the relief was the thunderous roaring of Phoenix¡­


    ¡°What the FUCK were you doing!?¡±


    A little shocked at the language I could barely stutter out ¡° I was trying to gather extra core energy¡­?¡± Albeit in confusion.


    ¡°What the fuck kind of gathering made you sweat like that, feel constant pain and cause MASSIVE fluctuations in your core!?¡± Phoenix was not having it today. It went off on me.


    I was still confused as I thought this was normal so I could explain what I did specifically and how I managed to form a tiny white crystal in my core. After having finished my explanation, I was a lot more fearful towards Phoenix as god slime didn¡¯t say anything for a while. A few minutes at least.


    Mustering up some courage due to the awkward silence I ask ¡° Is something¡­wrong phoenix?¡±


    I almost shat myself when Phoenix didn¡¯t reply but started cursing at me in a completely different language that I had no clue about. This went on for about a minute but the anger in those strange words got through to me 200%. I think I felt some killing intent in some of those words as well which really got me scared and breaking out in cold sweat¡­

 Chapter 18 - Ignorance is bliss

    The fuming god slime was a first for me in all honesty. I didn¡¯t really know what to do at all.


    Without any other method available, I tried to pacify the slime whilst wishing Phoenix had an off switch.


    ¡°Phoenix, relax a little¡­ ahem¡­ I mean how else was I supposed to gather more energy? It wasn¡¯t naturally building up but it gathered when I compressed it. That¡¯s all.¡±


    It made complete sense to me that this was how it worked as this was the only method that showed me results. However, Phoenix quickly killed that confidence.


    ¡°Who the HELL told you that!? Do you even hear yourself!? Not a goddamn person ever does that!!¡± Which followed another string of gibberish language cursing or at least I assumed considering the tone didn¡¯t change very much.


    ¡°Then how do I even build up more energy naturally? I mean not everyone can absorb stuff like you can.¡± I retorted feeling wronged especially by the majestic series of curses in that strange language that I was considering learning as I didn¡¯t hear any two similar sounding words being used which left me to awe a little at the variety of curses that are available in the universe.


    ¡°Jupiter, you¡­ you¡­ useless!!!¡± Phoenix couldn¡¯t even continue and had to just sigh with defeat in the end before I finally got an explanation while still being called useless.


    So here is the quick run-down on why I got so vehemently cursed worse than any of my ancestors could have ever imagined.


    According to cursing god slime experts, thing about core energy are its very large similarity to muscles. Yes, muscles. For example, going to the gym, working out and straining your muscles, destroying them and following that with rest and rebuilding them making them stronger which just so happened to be the exact same method with which core energy gets strengthened. Who could of guessed that, huh?


    It naturally grows with use and with continued use builds up a stronger core; more energy can then be gathered there. Another thing to note is that I¡¯m not the first to condense my core into a crystal or anything but apparently I¡¯m the dumbest person in the universe to have ever done so on the second day of having access to that energy.


    The core naturally strengthens over time with use and eventually becomes strong enough to naturally compress the energy that had been gathered and they eventually form a crystal core which allows for that massive quantity of energy to turn into a nice big crystal. Now that was the first part where I messed up but it wasn¡¯t over just yet.


    I goofed again and that was when I didn¡¯t even have a specific structure designed for my core energy integrated into it and basically clicked on ¡°create character¡± with the options ¨C permanent for fucking ever ¨C no take backs without a colossal explosion blowing my guts into 12¡¯546 pieces specifically and ¨C randomizer.


    Naturally, I felt depressed as the whole ¡°Absolute Power¡± felt like it turned into ¡°Absolute Idiot¡±.


    I also discovered that basically no one would ever do what I just did as the pain and control required is quite substantial when it¡¯s not happening naturally with a strengthened core and never had there been a case of someone doing it to Phoenixs knowledge. I wouldn¡¯t doubt anyone would even tell you had that happened considering the sheer disdain you would receive.


    All in all, this was a reminder that only someone as useless and as idiotic as me would have probably suffered all that just to get a tiny crystalized core because I couldn¡¯t ¡°gather¡± more energy.


    Phoenix eventually calmed down after much pacifying and sweet talking on my end as I was also depressed but I¡¯d rather not have a pissed off god slime to add insult to injury here.


    Phoenix with a clearly tired tone asked at some point :¡± So what color was the crystal?¡±


    I was still afraid of answering that as I didn¡¯t want to hear another string of curses due to having fucked up on the color coordination of the crystal but relented with a bit of nervousness. I wasn¡¯t completely sure of what it looked like actually, considering its inside me but I did get a mental image when it was forming and saw a somewhat clear picture so I went with what my imagination told me.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Pure white with a black glow on the outline.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    The silence again was scary. I really didn¡¯t know what to expect as it felt like I might of just instigated god slime to turn me into a skeleton.


    ¡°Is that a bad thing too?¡±  The question breaking the silence.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    It was my turn to be speechless.


    Clearly not expecting that as an answer I stood there with my head slightly tilted.


    ¡°What do you mean you don¡¯t know?¡±


    ¡°I never heard of those two qualities on a crystal. There have been white crystals, black ones, transparent ones and the whole spectrum of colors but never a white one with a black glow as far as my knowledge is concerned.¡± Phoenix replied.


    I was completely lost as to what that meant at this point.


    ¡®What the hell did I create? Something god slime doesn¡¯t even know doesn¡¯t sound very ¡°okay¡± to me for some reason.¡¯ I thought to myself as it truly was surprising that this sort of thing isn¡¯t in the slimes database. I mean it can¡¯t possible know all the different colors, combinations and structures but the fact that it isn¡¯t a common one kind of made me proud albeit with anxiety.


    ¡°Jupiter, let me see it. I can¡¯t usually go to your energy core as the energy would repel the parts of me I send there but you should be able to will a hole for me to inspect now. ¡° Phoenix asked me with a serious tone and I was a little worried it might just blow it up as I still haven¡¯t gotten to the point of completely trusting Phoenix over here.


    ¡°Uhm¡­ sure but you won¡¯t like blow it up or anything right?¡±


    Being the self-proclaimed paranoid man of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, I had to ask regardless of the underlying trust issue being made apparent.


    To which the reception was nicely taken or as nice as it could be considering what I did. Phoenix just called me a useless idiot again and said blowing it up would probably destroy the entire cabin with it and me which reassured me a little about Phoenix but freaked me the hell out about the tiny goddamn BOMB in my stomach!


    Phoenix sent one of those little green receptions that it had crawling in me towards my stomach and I just had to focus on the feeling of where Phoenix arrived and opened a little hole in that area. It wasn¡¯t too difficult as my control of the energy in that area increased quite a lot with the constant compression and gathering of extra energy. Not a professional or even an adept of any sort but I could roll a few windows down for Phoenix.


    I sat calmly in a meditative trance as I sent my conscious will towards my core. It felt different compared to the hazy energy feeling of the past. I didn¡¯t notice due to having been hurled curses left and right but I noticed now that I felt much more at ease with my core area. It no longer felt like a new extension but a part of me that has always been there. Sure, it sounds confusing but I could only describe it as feeling more connected to it like how easy it is to move your fingers or tongue. I willed a tunnel towards my crystal and it just appeared.


    Phoenix not one to wait, rushed through with a small little glob of itself and did a few good spins around my crystal before retreating. I didn¡¯t really like having something ¡°foreign¡± in that area but I could guess it was because of its importance.


    ¡°Odd, odd.¡± Phoenix was seemingly considering something as it just called it odd.  I wasn¡¯t too sure how badly I may have potentially messed up my future and made a very clear mental note to never fucking do anything without god slime decree.


    I felt like a toddler who just learned to open its eyes and the first thing I did was shat myself. The feeling wasn¡¯t so great. My earlier power craze ambition that had ignited my desire for a life beyond mediocrity, which for the record I had thought previously lost on Earth, took a big blow with the sudden change before it even gained momentum. Depressing is what this is.


    ¡°Jupiter, try testing your new core. Let¡¯s see what it does, gather water or fire.¡±


    I simply nodded at the order, as I felt I lost some points with Phoenix due to this blunder and so I returned my will to my core and started to get the energy to flow out of it.


    The whole process felt incredibly faster and smoother as if my energy went from a newborn pup to a fully trained German shepherd. It marched out of my core and went towards my outstretched palm. I felt the control was easier than before so I started supplying a steady stream of energy from the core to my palm until I felt it permeate the entire hand. I remembered Phoenix mentioning to picture fire and try and make the energy vibrate so as to produce what I can only guess is a combustion of sorts.


    To my shock the energy flowing from my core was steadily flowing towards my hand but in a very small amount but nonetheless for some reason if felt endless.


    The energy permeating my hand vibrated to some extent as I mentally pictured a ball of flame.


    ¡°Puff¡±


    With the cutest little noise, a small ball of fire was created as the energy in my palm ignited. I had opened my eyes slowly and they reflected the brilliant glow of a small black flame with a lot of heat spreading outwards from it. My mouth curled upwards as excitement emerged. That however, ended in failure as my excitement cut off my concentration and the ball just dispersed.


    ¡°I DID IT!¡± I still exclaimed proudly. Though I was confused about why it was black and not red, the excitement from finally having accomplished a hallmark moment of success in my journey still satisfied me. It was after all my very first use of magic. A lifetime dream once thought never to be achieved was finally completed in this strange new land.

 Chapter 19 - Supreme

    Beautiful glow of light was gently grazing the lands as the stars shone in the sky. It was a peaceful and serene night with the odd growls and howls spread out in the verdant but sparse forest.


    I was sitting in a decrepit cabin with clenched fists and an enormous grin that just made you want to punch my face for being too happy.


    I couldn¡¯t help it. I had finally succeeded in creating a fire ball! A fucking FIRE BALL! No story with magic had ever neglected this iconic skill. This beautiful, masterpiece of greatness that is an ever present part of the basics of magic itself!


    It took me a moment to calm down as I kept trying to get confirmation from Phoenix that it saw my fireball.


    ¡°Okay there little one, congratulations, you just did what other species babies can do before they even learn to walk.¡± Phoenix mocked as it wasn¡¯t at all impressed considering I created a crystal core already.


    ¡°Che. Can¡¯t you just let me enjoy this for once!? Unlike you, some people have to struggle and put in effort to manipulate energy.¡± I didn¡¯t let it affect my mood as I was already in heaven.


    ¡°Fine. Fine. Good job . Happy?¡± it relented as it remembered what I did to ¡°achieve¡± this.


    ¡°Hehe, thank you my dear Phoenix but could you tell me why it was black? I thought the fire would look like yours.¡± I asked still confused about the odd difference.


    ¡°Your crystal core was probably a mutation from what I can guess. Maybe the core we absorbed earlier and you compressing one so soon caused the change.¡±


    It made sense but we both weren¡¯t so sure. I was just happy I could use the skill but then I was a little worried about what kind of water I would get as I wouldn¡¯t want to be drinking black water as well.


    I decided to give it a go and willed a new stream of energy towards my palm while I concentrated on the image of water being attracted to my palm from its surroundings. Surprised yet again, I didn¡¯t feel any sort of strain on my crystal core which made me extremely pleased as usually even moving a bit of it was a lengthy process while recovering the lost energy was just as bad.


    The energy on my palm started attracting the moisture in the air towards my palm as if sheep was being herded by my energy. Slowly little water particles started accumulating in the center of my palm but another weird thing happened. The palm size water ball was completely transparent. It was so crystal clear in fact, it was invisible and if it weren¡¯t for me noticing the edges and feeling my energy being a part of it, I was sure even I wouldn¡¯t see it.


    ¡°Phoenix look, is this still water?¡±


    Seemingly just as shocked, Phoenix gasped a little.


    ¡°T-That¡¯s p-p-pure water! How can you actually gather pure water!?¡± Tone in a slight disbelief.


    ¡®Pure water?¡¯ I thought. I wasn¡¯t sure what that meant but I didn¡¯t have to wait long before I got an explanation.


    ¡° Jupiter! Your energy can actually gather 100% pure water without any waste materials in the air! Do you know what this means!?¡±


    Still confused but my ego popping its head out at the sound of Phoenix being impressed, I ask with a small grin forming ¡° No, what is it?¡±


    ¡°Gathering something of this purity can only mean your energy has evolved into a high grade, no supreme grade conductor!¡± Phoenix exclaimed in excitement.


    What that meant was I wasn¡¯t as useless as a certain profanity expert believed I was.


    Core energy user¡¯s had differing energy within their bodies depending on a myriad of factors like natural affinity, genes, planet, species, hell even the food you ate growing up affected it to some degree. The core energy you gather can manipulate your environment to a certain degree and the degree of that effect hence why they called it conductor grades. They were divided into 5 grades being weak, low, medium, high, and supreme. The higher the grade, the better and purer the energy you gather from the environment to manipulate and vice versa. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    I happened to have managed to land myself in the top tier of core energy user¡¯s in terms of quality. We weren¡¯t sure as to why exactly since I have next to no affinity, or a good body but we guessed the previous crystal core absorbed plus my shenanigans led me to develop supreme conductor core energy.


    ¡°Not so useless now eh?¡± I smugly said to the slime.


    ¡°Hmpf! You may have supreme core energy but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that you¡¯re still useless. Did you even think about how hard it will be for you to even grow that crystal now that it¡¯s already formed with that tiny amount of natural core energy?¡± God slime retorted as if my title of ¡°useless¡± what the heaven¡¯s willed themselves.


    ¡®Well, that didn¡¯t end so well.¡¯


    Still, it couldn¡¯t be that bad as I still felt I had quite a large pool of core energy as even with the experiments with water and fire, I had a constant supply and it didn¡¯t feel like it would run out for some reason. In fact, it already felt like it was getting full again which left me quite pleased as it seemed the time taken to get back lost energy was lessened to a large degree.


    I was just about to ask more about how to control earth elements when I heard a scream. Huh? Goblizards getting wrecked out there or something?


    Curiosity gets the better of me as this scream was rather desperate so I ask Phoenix to stay vigilant grabbing my dagger and spiked bat before heading out. I didn¡¯t really have a bag yet and wasn¡¯t too sure if spatial laws could be manipulated for some drool worthy magic bags or better, them spatial rings that get hijacked left and right in every cultivation novel. (Which on a side note, I feel bad for the creators, they must be on some spatial ring sweat shop or something considering the sheer number of those rings plus theft)


    Distracting thoughts aside I slowly pulled my door open and snuck out behind my cluster of trees. They provided the best hiding spot especially at night which is why I was so casual about watching.


    My vision at night was a lot better than back on Earth which didn¡¯t come off as too much of a shock as I am sure Phoenix had a helping hand in fixing my ¡°blind as a bat¡± status that I had. I could see roughly 40 meters ahead clearly and further back with some focus and the night sky gave off enough light so that it wasn¡¯t too hard to notice anything new.


    I crept towards the scream that hadn¡¯t really stopped aside from being intermittent.


    ¡°Phoenix, what the hell is that?¡± I asked suspicious at what I was seeing in the distance.


    ¡°Seems to be someone running away from a pack of what you called foxhorns?¡±


    A tentacle jutting out of my forehead to get a higher vantage point, totally a normal thing. Get over it Jupiter. I mocked myself as this was still hard to get used to.


    I stared closely at what seems to be a shadow like humanoid running with a limp left leg while constantly turning back from a pack of four foxhorns. I noticed behind that group that there seems to be three extra foxhorns mauling something. From the sight of it, I could only imagine that being this persons comrade.


    Strangely, I didn¡¯t feel too disgusted but then again, I don¡¯t see anything but them mauling something and knowing it ain¡¯t human seems to alleviate any ¡°shock¡± symptoms. I felt strangely evil for behaving this way but changed my attention and considered my options about the humanoid running.


    Phoenix didn¡¯t say anything but I could sense that it was just acting like this was a show. Not too surprised as I had a feeling god slime didn¡¯t care for much else besides evolving.


    ¡°Shit!!#$¡± I cursed out loud.


    The, whatever it was, was running straight for our cabin¡­ great. I didn¡¯t even know if I wanted to help but now I got to deal with this shit. I was pissed. I didn¡¯t even like helping my own goddamn species and now I got an alien one running to me bringing me what can only be described as a pack of bloodthirsty unicorn mini-me¡¯s.


    ¡°Phoenix, should we help?¡± I asked unsure whether to fight or get the hell out of here as I wasn¡¯t sure if I could club all four foxes, leaning especially towards running as I never even got to club one of those foxes.


    ¡°Jupiter, help the thing out. We needed a local anyways!¡± A wiggle and what felt like anticipation came after those words but I could again, can¡¯t explain why, picture a wicked grin.


    ¡®Great! Alien person, check, four mutant foxes, check, kidnap crazy god slime, check, what can only be my impending doom, probably a check too!¡¯ Cursing silently, I settle myself to stand near the door way to the cabin. The place didn¡¯t really have much protection but a narrow path should help kill those things. Now how do I get the thing to come inside?


    ¡®Well, might as well just play the role of creepy guy waving at door.¡¯


    The figure running/limp jogging, started nearing the trees surrounding the cabin and I managed to catch its attention as it noticed me under the moonlight waving my arm furiously at the open door with a dagger in one hand and a spiked bat in the other. I didn¡¯t really know how I was going to beat these things but I had somewhat of a plan in my head.


    ¡®Just a couple of foxes¡­ I won¡¯t die right?¡¯ Still quite unsure of myself. The figure ran into the cabin as I move into its door way and wait. The foxhorns didn¡¯t take long to arrive they were only about 20 meters behind the person. They slowed down as they saw the cabin and me standing at the door with a big bat and dagger.


    I hold the spiked bat with both hands while palming the dagger near with my right hand while its blade leans against the handle.


    Wanton destruction is what I would like to call what happened next but we all know that would have never been the case.

 Chapter 20 – Messy

    The foxhorns came running with two in front and two behind. Adrenaline already started working its magic as I felt my body tensing and my heart pounding. Finally seeing these goddamn things up close, I felt relieved that they were about the same sizes as Earth foxes and weren¡¯t bigger than small dogs except for maybe the horn being about a foot long and sharp as all hell.


    The first foxhorn to reach me leaped at me with bloodthirst and I instinctively swung the bat down. The edge of the bat with one of the sharp rocks smashed right through the foxhorns right eye as I sent it to the ground. I didn¡¯t even have time to think before my body started moving again and I did a sweep with the bat towards the second foxhorn.


    It dodged my sweep while the three healthy foxhorns surrounded me while my back faced the entrance to the cabin. I felt my blood boil and my body shake as I just started swinging left and right but the foxhorns were too nimble to get caught in my blind barrage.


    The first foxhorn was twitching idly as I seem to have damaged its skull and the other three were growling. I didn¡¯t want to wait for the reinforcements to show up so while they were being wary, I spoke to Phoenix to send out a fireball.


    As my faithful slime companion understood and started charging up a small fireball the size of a fist with a tentacle on head, one of the foxhorns sensed the danger and leaped at my calf. I noticed it and got lucky enough to manage to send the bat swinging at its rib which punctured a small wound in its side and sent it off to the side. I was sweating and my grip was tightened on the bat as I side stepped while keeping an eye on the two remaining foxhorns that were growling and sent my bat smashing at the fox I just hit. It tried to dodge but it was hurt and I smashed its skull to a bloody pulp.


    The remaining two didn¡¯t let go of the opportunity where I was distracted and jumped into action to maul my side but Phoenix came in with a save as it sent the fist size fireball to the foxhorns getting one to burst into flames while that gave me a chance to drop the bat that was stuck in the skull of my recent kill.


    Holding up my dagger I faced the last foxhorn and stared at it while it had already stopped from the shock of its buddy turning into fireworks. While the burning foxhorn was trying to put itself out while rolling on the ground, I tried to create a small fireball as well while keeping a vigilant eye at the last foxhorn.


    My concentration was at its peak as I felt the rush from the battle and my mind racing. I imagined a small fireball like I did earlier while sending my core energy towards my palm. With my crystal core listening to my command with ease,  I managed to get a small black fireball going on my left hand while my dagger was pointed towards the foxhorn with the other.


    Sadly, it noticed the ominous flame that appeared on my palm and it seemed to have been spooked as it gave up on fighting and bolted away. Relieved at the fight having ended, I notice in my field of vision that the burning foxhorn was still alive and spreading the flames so I slammed my black ball of flames onto it. I was shocked at the results as the black fire completely overtook the orange flames and the creature dropped dead while the flames continued to burn it which left the cabin clearing smelling like burnt fur.


    The rush of battle was exciting, it was the first time I ever had such a fight in my life and one that even included magic. I was elated at how well I handled it to my own surprise but guessed it may have been due to all the benefits that we got recently. I stomped out some of the extra fire that almost spread towards the cabin before getting Phoenix to send a small ball of water towards the burning foxhorn.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡®Sigh, that was close¡¯ I thought to myself before I went to open the door to the cabin.


    ¡°Careful.¡± Phoenix warned as that got me to remember that there¡¯s someone in there now.


    ¡°Shit, Phoenix can you translate?¡± I was concerned about speaking to the thing and if I came off badly, it might attack me as well even though I just saved its life.


    ¡°Maybe, just walk in and don¡¯t talk while we see what the person says. I¡¯ll try and translate from what I get¡±


    Taking a deep breath, I calm my nerves a little before slowly opening the door. The little stone brazier was still burning and the light shun on the room enough so that I catch the figures face.


    I was surprised at how much it resembled a human, short black hair growing on its head with deep blue eyes on a rough but young looking face seeming to be around 19 or 20 years old. A small scar running through his cheek with no extra ¡°alien¡± parts on its head, I notice the guy seemed to be just about my height sitting at about 1.75m tall. Leather like vest and pants while holding a small short sword in his hands and a nervous look while pointing it towards me. The only thing I noticed that made this person different from humans on Earth is his oddly blue colored skin and slightly pointed ears. I was surprised at the similarities more than the differences.


    I stood there staring at him while he looked at me warily.


    ¡®I mean, come on buddy. You could at least say thanks before you go pointing that sword at me.¡¯ I was a little upset at the reaction I got from my first rescue. I mean, I risked my life for you, you little shit.


    He kept staring so I just stood quietly staring back while trying to find more alien parts on him since I found it a little difficult that first sentient looking species I meet is a blue human.


    Eventually my silence paid off, as he dropped himself to the ground and passed out as it seems there was a pretty bad bite wound on his leg that was bleeding this whole time. I realize I should probably do something about it before I lose the only local that may know something about this place. With some water from Phoenix, I managed to wipe the wound clean and tore off some rags from my ¡°bed¡± and tied it around to stop the bleeding. I wasn¡¯t a fucking doctor, I did my best to just make it look like he will be fine.


    Phoenix reassured me that as long as I tied it tight he should heal on his own with time since it¡¯s not bleeding anymore. I had an odd feeling god slime could heal it but just didn¡¯t want to waste the energy for it but I wasn¡¯t too sure. I grabbed a small wood bowl from the kitchen counter and tested my own magic on gathering some water which worked just fine though it was only a small ball of it, maybe half a cups worth. Since I didn¡¯t have to worry about foxhorns and creepy avatar alien, I was losing myself in my imagination for a moment about how epic I have become with my super powers especially the supremeness of them.


    The speed at which I was able to conjure a fireball or waterball left me very pleased since my little evolution as compared to before the difference was simply like a tricycle versus a jet. I felt so excited to try out new things.


    ¡°Jupiter, hey, stop being distracted and go give the guy some water. I don¡¯t want him dying before I can even learn the language!¡± Phoenix reminded me as I stood there with my grin for a few minutes.


    ¡°Right, cough. Sorry. ¡° I headed back and poured some water into my fainted guest and got up to go check the damage and make sure those extra foxhorns weren¡¯t coming back for round two.


    Walking out the entrance, I looked around into the distance and didn¡¯t hear any more growls or see more foxhorns. They probably left after they¡¯re little meal from this guy¡¯s friend. I walked over to the other three littering my entrance and felt a little nauseous looking at them. One had blood and brain juice coming out its eye, the second one had a giant crack in its skull with its head being drenched in its blood and the last one was the worst off looking like a shriveled naked mole rat which was just creepy.


    I picked them up, with my spiked bat which was really the mvp of tonights slaughter and decided I¡¯d do some dissecting as I really wanted one of those horns and try its meat. I may have a slightly weak stomach to gory animal abuse but I was a hardcore fan of meat so I felt things balanced themselves out.


    Bringing them over to the kitchen, Phoenix started examining the one eyed foxhorn while I began cutting open another one. I noticed its muscles were all very lean and toned which should make for some decent food, there wasn¡¯t anything special about these things and I was a little disappointed as goblizards were freaks of nature while these things were just the opposite. They had black and red fur looked exactly like foxes except maybe a bit more feral and the only special thing was the horn and oh, they had two tails. I finally manage to cut off the horn to get a better look and it was sharp cone with a slightly spiral pattern running along its length and just seems to be made of bone.


    I figured they could be useful weapons in case, I dropped my dagger or something or I can use them as skewers for cooking so I took all three from my dead dinner while Phoenix reported that they were just some weak creatures about the same strength as goblizards, which explained why I was able to take them down rather easily. They also don¡¯t look really threatening since it¡¯s not some weird mutant spawn of ugly so even I wasn¡¯t too shocked I managed to handle them without much fear.


    I skinned a few patches of fur to leave out to dry and got some decent sized chunks of meat skewered on their own horns before I slowly cooked them over the brazier.

 Chapter 21 – Rikurn

    ¡°Phoenix, can you get any info from the guy while examining him like you did with the foxes?¡± I asked curious why Phoenix didn¡¯t request to dive into these things.


    ¡°No, I¡¯d rather not as brains on sentient creatures are complex and like I said before I¡¯m not capable of forcefully diving in there and getting things like information so it¡¯s better I don¡¯t.¡± It replied.


    I shrugged as I could imagine that wouldn¡¯t come off too well to our new body either that their savior also inserted his slime into him.


    The roasting foxhorn meat started sizzling after a few minutes and I couldn¡¯t even control the drool form my mouth. The smell was a unique smoky smell and the oils dripping down it just made it look so appetizing. I sprinkled some of my herbs onto it which just seemed like overkill as the aroma was divine!


    It seems I wasn¡¯t the only one to think so as my little blue bodied guest painfully got up after the aroma got his nose twitching. Should also help ease the situation.


    He sat up and stared at me then at the meat skewers before I saw him gulping a bit of saliva down. Seems his stomach was awfully honest despite his current situation. I simply had an indifferent expression even though I wanted to pick the guys brain apart but figured I should show some ¡°friendliness¡±, I hate people but I also require them sometimes. Sigh.


    I stretch out my hand with one of the skewers after it had finished cooking and simply waited for him.  Interestingly enough, the guy grabbed it without hesitation which was odd considering I could totally poison his ass twenty feet under. ¡®Maybe I have an honest face? Probably, I mean I always thought I looked like a nice guy.¡¯ My thoughts being as vain as vanity incarnate.


    I watched him while taking bites out of my foxhorn meat which for the record, are amazing, they were tender and juicy with the oils having a sweet taste and the meat being just the right amount of chewy as they melted in my mouth. Mr. Avatar over here thought the same as he finished the meat without hesitation in a few seconds, seemed to have been starving and I would be too if I had some ugly ass foxhorn bite wound making me bleed to death.


    He eyed my third foxhorn skewer, while I completely ignored him and just finished both of my skewers, the shit was divine, I ain¡¯t sharing more especially when I don¡¯t even know what the hell the guy is. After finishing up, I simply pointed at the foxhorn horn in my guests hand while holding out my palm expecting to receive it. He got the message and handed it over after which I simply strapped them to my belt. They were quite the useful things and I could imagine a few late evening barbecues going mildly better now that I got some more tools.


    Finally, it was time to get someone talking without exposing my lack of any language skills. I did what Phoenix and I thought the best in the scenario, sit and stare and expect some talking. I seem to make the guy quite uncomfortable and I kind of felt stupid that there wasn¡¯t much else better method to learning a fucking language. I eventually notice he doesn¡¯t talk waiting for me to begin so I simply stretch my hand out in a motion that should universally depict the words ¡° No, you go first¡± which is quite similar to what you do when you hold the door open for someone.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Success, he got the hint and started talking. The language had a weird throaty tone to it as if he was speaking Spanish and French at the same time. It was unique to say the least. I patiently listened in while Phoenix was working in over drive trying to find out what he was saying and I felt Phoenix was getting irritated as the whole issue seemed to be more difficult because there was no point of reference and it couldn¡¯t just ¡°invade¡± its language center which left me quite disappointed really. Blue man here just kept talking for a good few minutes and eventually stopped when it noticed I was distracted from what it was saying but it was really just the fact that I was frustrated that we didn¡¯t have a fucking proper method to learn this bastard¡¯s language! I wanted to fucking explore not spend my time forcing this blue fuck to talk while the goddamn bastard doesn¡¯t even know I can¡¯t speak to it! This entire matter seemed to go horribly wrong, I was sitting there just wondering why I expected some fantasy fucking method to somehow just magically learn the language which left me depressed at my na?ve expectations. I could understand that the past few days seemed to go surprisingly well and I guess that like any other transported being, I would just somehow find an easy way to learn the language, mix into the people, level up and success.


    ¡®This is a fucking waste of time.¡¯ My depressed thoughts were leaking as my face turned into a scowl which didn¡¯t forebode well in the blue man¡¯s mind. It probably didn¡¯t, I was in the mood to just dissect his brain but Phoenix told us that we would be very likely to fail as we aren¡¯t capable of just accessing his language center like it did with me because it needed its main body to be present but it was already with a host.


    For the first time since I came here, it felt like reality finally hit me. This was real, the world isn¡¯t that fucking magical, life will be a bitch to you regardless of whether you¡¯re on Earth or the fucking blue man groups¡¯ home world. Doesn¡¯t matter, life fucking prevails at fucking over your fun one way or another. The bastard.


    ¡°Sigh¡± I wasn¡¯t looking forward to what I was about to do next.


    I straightened my back and stared at the blue man and felt like this was extremely embarrassing for a world crossing human with galactic god slime but it had to be done. Phoenix also didn¡¯t seem to like that it¡¯s learning abilities weren¡¯t so useful considering written language and speech was difficult to come together without proper references and examples.


    ¡°Sigh¡± I finally point at myself and say¡± Jupiter ¡° as clearly as I could possibly sound, this all felt fucking dumb but I had to do it like any foreigner had to. I pointed back to blue man and waited for a reply while my eyes betrayed my embarrassment, my face was just depressed.


    Blue man here seemed to be a fucking prick as he clearly didn¡¯t understand why I just did that and just tilted his head in confusion. Well, fuck you blue man, you retarded pile of blue boned turd. I had to for the second goddamn time point at myself and say ¡° JEW-PIT-ERRR¡± then point at the blue faced little shit and expect an answer.


    Second time seemed to work out a little better as he seemed to understand I was expecting a name and pointed at himself and voiced what I can only assume is his name. ¡°Rikurn¡± the blue faced little bastard.


    I knew where this fated meeting will be headed with Rikurn and I knew neither him, nor me and especially Phoenix was going to enjoy this horrible process called learning a language from a foreign planet and I was depressed at the upcoming work required. No adventurer from those novels or hero from teleportation or reincarnated fucks had to deal with this bullshit triviality yet here I was, about to embark on this bullshit quest to learn this little shit¡¯s language.


    ¡®Where is my traveller¡¯s basic package? Where is my all language 100% GET cheat? Couldn¡¯t they drop a memory chip on my lap with the language? Fucking all novels are bullshit! All authors are con-artists lying to you about the reality of fucking travelling the universe. Though Phoenix did mention that they had universal translator wrist bands that exist but unfortunately, Phoenix didn¡¯t come equipped with that¡­ which was just rubbing salt in my depressed wounds as what was the point of telling me such useless information?¡¯  I lamented in my thoughts while Rikurn seemed to slowly understand that I couldn¡¯t understand the language when I took a few herbs and started expecting the names while motioning towards the herbs and making ¡°huh?¡± sounds.


    I felt entirely retarded.

 Chapter 22 – Learning with abuse

    I wake up from my tear filled sleep, as I once again look around to notice this decrepit cabin and that slightly tanned skinned person cooking some more meat from his recently captured nai¡¯s. I¡¯ve been living here for almost a week now and I seem to be held hostage for the stupidest reason ever. If he just wanted to learn the language he could of just came to the village and we could have had one of the village teacher¡¯s help him but he was adamant about not letting me leave.


    I had tried escaping three times this past week but he somehow managed to always notice whenever I was about to leave and then that weird black fire would pop out of his hand while he just stared at me. God damn freak!


    I felt so stupid looking back, I just wanted to go hunt some nai¡¯s with my friend Bor but because of my stupidity I managed to convince Bor to go out deeper into the forest¡­ sigh. If it wasn¡¯t for me, we wouldn¡¯t have gotten ambushed by those seven nai¡¯s and¡­¡±*sniffle* he¡­ Bor, I am so sorry.¡±


    Now I am stuck with this fool, who kept pointing at things everywhere in the cabin while expecting me to say its name. It took me a while to understand what he wanted but eventually I just started to do what he wanted as at least I might be able to communicate with him after this. He turned out to be smart enough for my efforts to not have been wasted though he does have that weird habit of mumbling to himself in whatever language he knows.


    The first day, I taught him how to say the words of everything in the cabin and nai¡¯s and bogles. They¡¯re the only creatures he seems to catch but I do have to give it to him that he found out how to make some decent meat skewers with them, nothing that the village cooks couldn¡¯t do better but at least I wasn¡¯t starving and it was edible.


    I noticed he was catching on as the second day he started trying to talk to me, well as good as talking with someone who only knows a couple dozen words would be. I started trying to explain different things from the forest, like trees, branches, leaves, colors, and what we called dirt and the sky. It was annoying but at least I wasn¡¯t being tortured or anything. ¡®I miss the village. Sigh.¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but think. It was my first time being more than a few hours from the village and don¡¯t even know if they are looking for me, though they probably aren¡¯t. I wasn¡¯t the most ¡°loveable¡± kid there. I was an orphan so didn¡¯t really have anyone to look after me except the few old folk who would spare a piece of their garden fruits. Theft wasn¡¯t an option in a village with less than a few hundred people so I had to work for the farmers and do odd jobs but I really disliked a lot of the people there but still, it was home.


    Back to this fool, he started getting mad at me when I just stopped at explaining the names of certain things and wanted me to actually start speaking sentences but went about doing the dumbest looking hand signs and noises to get that thought across which were seriously embarrassing if anyone saw us, he seemed to know which is why I could feel he was pissed and upset whenever he had to ask for something new from me.


    Oh, don¡¯t even get me started on what started happening after the third day. Bastard starting drawing and asking for information on random crap, he burnt a patch of grass near the cabin into ash and started using a stick to draw different things that he wanted to know and as always got pissed when I only answered with one or two words so I started just describing whatever the hell he wanted. I thought of just messing with him and teaching him all the wrong things but if even I can¡¯t understand him, I doubt my situation would get better any time soon so I restrained those impulses. Him trying to make me understand that he wanted to know the difference between a group and people was oh so fucking hard. I swear, I feel like crying at the type of crap this fool questions me on. This is by far the worst three days I have ever spent my life. Getting mocked by the village guards is better than spending another minute with this idiot.


    Though at least the fool knows how to learn otherwise I would of probably just accepted his black ball of death to my face to end my misery sooner than later. Eventually he started getting the hang of things and was able to pronounce words properly and form somewhat coherent sentences. I was finally able to speak to the damn idiot but it still took me a while to get him to understand, things like ¡°him¡±, ¡°her¡±,¡±question¡±, ¡°you¡± but eventually he seemed to just pick up what I was saying by context which made the last three days a lot better or at least bearable.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­..


    This kid¡¯s a fucking idiot. I could of picked up anybody, anybody, yet I end up with probably one of the stupidest one¡¯s on this goddamn planet.


    The idiot took so long to understand how to explain simple gestures and objects before he finally got the hang of answering my questions. The little shit is probably the dumbest one of his so called village. No wonder no one even came remotely close to finding us the last seven days, no one probably even went out to look for the little shit. Arghhh!


    I fucking hate shitty kids, he looks 20 but is probably 16 or something. Fucking useless shit. Hardly knew anything beyond what his village is called and that he lives on the land called Aromt which he says where we are currently but doesn¡¯t know if that¡¯s the worlds name, the continent or anything else. His village is actually just a few kilometers south-west situated practically in the middle of fucking nowhere. I needed a map but the kid said only the village ¡°leaders¡± have that. Knowing the level of this kid¡¯s intelligence, I already assumed the whole village is filled with idiots of his level.


    ¡°Phoenix, how we doing on the language transfer?¡± I asked mentally as I didn¡¯t want the kid to keep giving me those stupid looks of disdain as if I¡¯m the fucking idiot in the group. I just didn¡¯t want to show that I had a slime in my head and be considered even weirder.


    ¡°It¡¯s mostly done. We have a good basic level understanding of the language and Rikurn at least knew what some of the herbs in the notebook was so I managed to get a basic translation of words going but we should probably visit his village at some point to get books and maybe speak to someone who might know more.¡± It explained.


    ¡°Thanks Phoenix, I might just set the kid loose after today as I still want to gather some more materials, and visit that cavern the kid uses with his buddy near the village. We might be able to get a little stronger before we end up getting arrested by these fools.¡± I hated this kid, the dumb looks he gave me, the shitty explanations and everything else! If it weren¡¯t for Phoenix having godly learning abilities I probably would of never learned more than the names of goblizards and foxhorns being bogles and nais. The stupid brat even got one of his only friends killed fucking around the woods, I mean why rush out into the clearly dangerous woods with a dagger and a buddy and no experience whatsoever to killed by a bunch of foxhorns¡­nais. God I won¡¯t get used to that. ¡®I¡¯m keeping my naming of those things, I¡¯ll just use it when ¡°others¡± are around.¡¯ So I thought. Obviously, I was in a similar boat earlier but I at least was able to get stronger by absorbing crap around me so it¡¯s not like I was utterly weak and Phoenix could always throw a fireball or two.


    Luckily alongside the godly learning abilities of Phoenix, it had a cool way of allowing a transfer of information between us so that I could learn the language at the same speed Phoenix does. It¡¯s not some all-purpose cheat skill as I get major headaches from the transfer but at least the kid explained that this is the universal language so I won¡¯t be stuck having to learn 50 new ways of saying ¡°hello¡± , ¡°goodbye¡± and ¡°fuck off¡±.


    After having gotten the hang of the language I was able to start asking questions about where Rikurn came from, what happened, where we are, general info about his village and all that but I wasn¡¯t really happy.


    I was the incarnation of anti-social, so what if I am on a new world? Doesn¡¯t mean people are going to be that different, especially after Rikurn explained how the village works and how it¡¯s quite similar to some half modern/half tribal society and the social skills of these guys were basically 75-90% similar to Earth, humanoids seem to just be spread out in the universe with bullshit emotions, bullshit judgment on good and evil and more crap that I hated about society. Luckily, I wasn¡¯t an idiot at social interactions, I just hated having them.


    Oh god, imagine nobility existed on this place, I¡¯d hate to have some pompous bitch come up to me and try to snatch my fictitious gorgeous woman, I¡¯d beat the shit out of him with verbal abuses and then set off to ruin his life so that none of that corny ¡°You won¡¯t see the last of me¡± bit play out, read way too many scenarios where the last fool you somehow provoke by being blindly arrogant about your prowess lead to a group of 50 guards and assassins set out to ruin your life, capture you, rape your girl, stick a pike up your ass and torture you at that nobles expense and joy. I was anti-social on Earth for the social norms and crap about how to live your life to fit in BS, now that I am in some half modern/ half kingdom style crap, I am guaranteed to hate 90% of the population.


    ¡®Deep breaths, Jupiter. Deeeeeep Breaths!¡¯ I sighed mentally as it seems I was a little more than ticked off at how annoyed I was at this kid¡¯s ability to teach someone. Half the time I thought he was messing with me or playing dumb only to learn the kid was genuinely dumb as a rock. Even Phoenix noted after we got a hang of the words that the kids language seems poor but I don¡¯t know if Phoenix had a solid argument for that or just didn¡¯t like the kid to make me happy.

 Chapter 23 – Caverns

    I will be honest; I probably read way too many novels, am way too paranoid and have an incredibly high level of not wanting to mingle with a bunch of blue humans who might just get the wrong idea once my tanned self, shows up asking questions and judging their women as that sounds like exactly what I would probably do and next thing I know, BAM. I have to deal with an overly eager young adult looking to show off in front of his buddies because of his shitting upbringing causing him to try and fight me which I would probably crush his skull for, leaving me getting hunted by an entire village.


    I may be exaggerating just a little but the common street scrap routine is an age old way of anybody new getting into shit their first day. ¡®Sigh, I really should have realized that travelling to a different world wasn¡¯t going to be some training montage filled with women and no problems.¡¯ I droop my head down cursing at my stupidity. At least, I wasn¡¯t as stupid as Rikurn.


    ¡°Rikurn! Let¡¯s go. We¡¯re going to those caves you mentioned.¡± 7 days with the kid still got me pretty far in learning whatever he knew and how to say things so I could be considered just as good as this kid now and if he¡¯s still alive, I am sure I would be fine.


    ¡°Yes, World-caster.¡± He replied.


    Yeah, world-caster¡­ seems to be the name for mages in this part of the universe. Ever since he saw me threaten him with my black flames, he started calling me that. He didn¡¯t know much about them except that the army holds them in high regard and aren¡¯t very common. Though that¡¯s where the kids level of knowledge ends.


    Me and Phoenix had a long talk after I wanted to ditch the kid but Phoenix strongly recommended we keep him to make the trip into the village for information gathering safer as having someone attest that you¡¯re not a psycho seemed to be useful. We left that very morning as I was getting tired of the cabin and sleeping on the floor a few days already had me missing my king size deluxe soft foam mattress that this whole adventuring business seemed quite shitty until I can get some better stuff.


    I gathered up my dagger and spiked bat and my little rock knife. The kid had a dagger as well but I took the time to make him one of my legendary spiked bats as it was the best way to deal with goblizards or foxhorns.


    We didn¡¯t have too much trouble walking through the forest as I got familiar with what was dangerous and what wasn¡¯t and the odd goblizard or foxhorn generally got taken care of by the kid while I had a fireball ready in case anything happened. I fed the brat for a week, I expected him to do something more than just open his dumb mouth. I might have been the one to cause him to talk that much but still.


    ¡°How far away from the village are these cavers again?¡± I ask just to make sure, I won¡¯t be running into his ¡°comrades¡± before I am ready.


    ¡°About half a quarter of a days¡¯ worth.¡± He replied indifferently, he stopped being afraid and more so just waited patiently because of my promise to bring him back home without doing anything to him but hopefully the brat doesn¡¯t fuck me over with some lies when he gets to the village.


    ¡®Again, with these half a quarter day BS. Can¡¯t you have hours and minutes you idiot.¡± Another mild headache formed yet again.


    I didn¡¯t know why but spending a week with someone who you could barely understand really tests your patience and me being someone who already doesn¡¯t like talking to people who understand you, already broke what limited patience I had.


    We walked the rest of the way quietly, took about three hours before the kid said he recognized the area so I let him lead the way to the cavern for me to take a look before we headed to his ¡°village¡± whatever the hell it was. Rikurn mentioned that people generally don¡¯t visit too far into this forest as the largest portion contained mainly goblizards and foxhorns but towards the south was the desert and towards the east was a large jungle where really strong predator-beasts lived just blocking the way to the next country.


    It was nice to know there was more to explore and visiting this desert might be cool. I always dreamt of visiting the desert on Earth until I discovered it was just sand with nothing really else. At least this place had sand monsters so I might be able to get me a nice pet to travel the desert on. Rikurn mentioned that people do have pets, and that¡¯s why world-casters were so well received because they can generally tame really strong monsters and have them serve them which made them twice the trouble a single strong warrior posed especially with the ranged magic. I still wasn¡¯t able to get my fireball to go beyond three meters which was disappointing but Phoenix explained it was because I don¡¯t have enough gathered energy to keep the fireball in its form while it travels towards a target.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    I was getting excited as Rikurn mentioned we weren¡¯t very far and I could already see some stony looking hills further ahead in the distance. I mean, the special forest was nice and all but after spending some time here, I wanted to see something new which was one of the reasons I even followed god slime out here and risked my life.


    Upon getting closer to the stony hills, I notice they are made of white stone jutting out of the ground about a couple dozen meters high making it look like someone dropped a randomly generated block of white stone that covered the size of a small strip mall on the ground. It wasn¡¯t really anything special but it was definitely white as snow which was cool to see. We headed closer and eventually Rikurn led me to a opening that was half in the ground and half above it about two meters in height and about a meter in width.


    ¡°Inside is a big cave with a few special stones that light up the cave.¡± Rikurn mentioned.


    I nodded as a small grin formed on my face. Special stones that shine? Sounds exactly like what I am looking for. Hopefully, something in there could give me a decent boost to my strength. We entered the cave and it had a soft white glow from the reflection of light on the white stone. It made it seem less eerie and more welcoming at least. It took about 15 minutes to get towards the cavern that Rikurn mentioned which was a somewhat circular room with stalagmites and stalactites sticking out of it. The whole room seemed to be about 6 meters high with a diameter of about a dozen meters. I could see why Rikurn and his buddy came to hang out here as it¡¯s a nice place to just get away from things.


    He eventually led me to through to where a few small alcoves were present in the white stone, upon closer inspection I found some weird gem looking rocks in a few of them the size of a ping pong ball. I didn¡¯t know what they were but they seemed like a great source of study material for Phoenix so I started picking them out of the walls with my dagger. I managed to get a few of every color and told Rikurn to leave me alone for a while, while I study them.


    He seemed confused but nodded nonetheless, he already told me they were just useless minerals that grew in small quantities and that they¡¯re good for using as a small lamp at night if you gather enough. Little shit is probably thinking I¡¯m an idiot again for wanting to study these things.


    When Rikurn found out I didn¡¯t know the universal language of his continent, he was very suspicious of me but I told him I came from some far away island that didn¡¯t have contact with the rest of the continent which he seemed to accept. I didn¡¯t have to try really hard to get this dumb little shit to accept anything really.


    I sat on the ground facing the wall so that Rikurn wouldn¡¯t be able to see Phoenix wrapping its tentacles around the stones in my lap. I loved this part, it was always felt like I was finding treasure whenever Phoenix would scan an item which I really wanted the ability to do but had to wait until I got more ¡°experienced¡± at manipulating energy before I can do anything similar. At least it gave me something to work towards.


    While waiting for Phoenix I started practicing my magic. I managed to learn how to make stone spikes about a foot long as well during my downtime while learning the language with Phoenixs¡¯ help which was super cool but unfortunately it took me about 10-20 seconds to get the thing to form then shoot out of the ground. Unlike a fireball that came out of my palm, I really wanted to learn Earth spikes because they were a lot cooler and trickier to deal with so I made sure to keep practicing it whenever I had the time as it originally took me a minute or so of concentrating before but after a few days it only took about 15 seconds on average. If I could make it happen in a second or two, I was sure I could make the skill turn into a deadly attack.


    Rikurn was just lazing about in his corner which didn¡¯t surprise me. The kid really didn¡¯t seem like he had much to do in his life.


    I eventually managed to get two Earth spikes formed within 15 seconds each and felt pretty happy at my energy control improving. ¡°Jupiter, I think we got something.¡± Phoenix broke my thoughts.


    ¡°Ouh, what goodies we got this time?¡± I replied energetically at the thought of more goodies, I always felt like a kid whenever Phoenix mentioned we got something good.


    ¡°This little green stone has some minerals which if we fused with the cells in your skin, we could upgrade your defense. It would take a lot of this stuff to get you as strong as stone but it should help you out when fighting at least.¡± Phoenix giggled as it explained.


    ¡®Oho? Did Phoenix just say skin as strong as stone?¡¯ I had to ask again to make sure.


    We got a few stones out of the alcoves but it seems the green ones blended well with my skin so I was ecstatic at the thought of having some OP defense ready for my future adventures especially considering I was still very worried about the level of some of these monsters roaming around.


    ¡°Rikurn! Hey, brat! Help me gather some of these green stones you find around the cave!¡± I yelled at the little shit to get him to help me out which he seemed horribly unwilling to but a water ball to his face seemed to have made the kid compliant.


    I also started searching around for the stuff which was not that easy to find. There were mostly orange, white and red colored ones in the little alcoves but after about two hours of searching I managed to get me a small bowls worth of the stuff.


    ¡°Alright kid, go rest. I¡¯ll have to practice my casting arts for a while before we can go.¡± I told the kid to rest and threw him a pouch of the foxhorn meat which he just caught and shrugged off to his little corner. He seemed a little sad, probably losing his friend but I got used to his little moments. I wasn¡¯t the best to comfort no-one, trust me.


    With all the stones gathered I went off to somewhere the kid couldn¡¯t see me and let Phoenix absorb all the green rocks. It took a few minutes but I already started meditating. My meditations were a little different to before as I also actively sought to gather the energy in the air towards my crystal core as that was the only way I was going to get the damn thing to grow. Phoenix was right, it only grew maybe a millimeter or less this past week but whatever, every little bit counts. It took about half an hour to get the rocks fully digested as they were already in small bits so Phoenix didn¡¯t have to work too hard, once we were done I asked it to show me my stats.


    ¡°Sure thing. I added some details to the info and also how much more of this green rock you can absorb before you won¡¯t improve anymore. ¡°


    ¡®What a great little godslime, oh yes you are!¡¯ I noddle thankfully to Phoenix while taking a look at the new stats.


    Status


    -Jupiter


    -Human


    Abilities:


    - Keen senses ( Slime symbiosis effect )


    - Adept Energy Manipulation ( improved)


    - Enhanced Mental Cognition


    - Increased energy regeneration (Crystal core)


    - Supreme energy conductors (Crystal core)


    Physical:


    Strength ¨C 4


    Defense ¨C1.2 (12%)


    Stamina ¨C 2


    Agility ¨C 4


    Vitality ¨C 4.5


    Energy ¨C 10.15

 Not so chapter but update is in order

    Alright everyone, I can understand I have made you wait a lot longer than usual.


    I wanted to address this concern now as I usually get something out between 1 to 3 days, but this time I am going to spam a ton of content down and have some chapters written ahead of time for a more progressive flow without this type of 4 day break anymore. I hope you bear with it. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    I''ll be posting two chapters tomorrow just to keep the flow going but expect 3-6 chapters out about 2 to 3 times a week after my little "hiatus" is over.

 Chapter - 24 Surprises left and right

    ¡°Phew¡±


    Taking a close look at my new stats, I realize why it felt so natural to move my energy and control it compared to when I had just gotten here. The difference was nearly 3 folds.


    The obvious changes were my energy level and its control but I also increased vitality which I guess relates to my health or so I think.


    ¡°Phoenix, does vitality improve my overall health or something else?¡± I asked just to get a better understanding of what Phoenix was trying to display as after having to learn foreign language for a week, I settled down and realized that this isn¡¯t some RPG game.


    ¡°Somewhat. Vitality in its essence represents life force or life expectancy. The stronger the life force the stronger your physical bodies constitution is health problems like disease and decay.¡± Phoenix explained.


    ¡°Wait! Doesn¡¯t that mean that I would live longer every time my vitality increased?¡± I was shocked by the revelation as I didn¡¯t think I was actually gaining years from this stat.


    ¡°Yeah, the original value you had after we had become one was 4 which if represented in your original planets years would equate to 1 point per 25 years meaning you had a life expectancy of 100 years.Though that is only if you had lived an extraordinarily healthy life on your home planet, which by the way I happened to resolve through our mutual relationship. You should be expecting 112 or so Earth years now.¡±  Phoenix said with some small derision.


    ¡°Haha¡­ guess you knew about my bad lifestyle habits. Well, thanks Phoenix.¡± I held my head down as I continued walking with Rikurn back to his so called village. Phoenix had done quite a bit for me and I felt quite happy about the fact especially considering my life just got a longer lease.


    My thoughts started wondering as I walked over the soft grass of the forest while Rikurn lead the way. I couldn¡¯t help but smile again at the adventure I am on, I don¡¯t know where this is all headed but it somehow makes me feel so alive that I keep secretly praying that I don¡¯t wake up to find out all this is a dream. Magic, god slime, alien civilizations, space travel, beating the crap out of mutated animals; it was all surreal yet felt incredibly right.


    I had to prepare a better plan as Phoenix and me didn¡¯t discuss too much about the village since we hardly knew anything and Rikurn was as useless as a log, though the kid seem to have come around and didn¡¯t treat me a look of utter contempt anymore which made me feel less like beating the snot out of his face so that was a good thing. He was probably happy at returning home, maybe he had a family waiting for him, kid didn¡¯t talk much about his life aside from the few basic things he knew about the village. Regardless, first thing I needed to do was probably establish myself in his village. Find a way to earn some coin, get a place to stay and finally learn more about magic and the continent that I fell into. ¡®Maybe they have a school?¡¯ I thought.


    ¡°Rikurn, does the village have a place to teach people things like reading and writing?¡±


    He looked at me like I was an idiot again which had my eyes twitch a little and I could have sworn a vein almost popped.


    ¡°Yes, there is a school near the north end of the village. Though usually only people below the age of 12 get to go as after you have to start helping out around the village.¡± He still explained it thoroughly and I learned the word for school which should make it easier to get into. The last part seemed a little unclear but I should be fine.


    I followed up that question with a few more on where to find a place to stay, what kind of ways I could earn some coin and if there were any places I could buy books about things about the country or the continent. He eased up a little since he seemed to remember I don¡¯t belong to this region and told me everything he knew. There was a couple ways to earn money, hunting was the most paying as meat was a good source of income, the next thing was mining and gathering as ores and herbs were a necessity for medicine and other products and finally doing chores for people around the village could gain you a little bit. He also told me a few places I could stay like the hunter¡¯s quarters, where hunters could trade in some meat, furs or animal parts for coin and even get a room there, and also I could visit a shop in the village where this old man sells various herbal treatments to the villagers for books as he apparently travelled quite a bit before having settled down at the village for a peaceful life.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    I was surprised at the organized structure and realized I should really stop looking down on Rikurns people as I kept thinking savages in a hut which led to a laugh from Phoenix when I accidentally shared the mental picture I was expecting.


    The village ended up being about three hours or so from the caverns so I felt comfortable leaving the place and coming back from time to time to gather some more minerals to get a better defense during my outings as I decided hunting might be the fastest way to earn enough to prepare me to leave this place after I get enough knowledge of the surroundings and better control of my magic. I also learned a few cool things during our boring walk to the village about world casters as Rikurn said that there were a few in the village which interested me right away as maybe I could speak with them to try and see how they learned to use their magic.


    With that we trudged on for a good two hours as the sun was in the sky and a faint outline of a large wall appeared in my view in the horizon. It was still quite far away but I noticed the walls were probably made out of some black stone like what I saw in the forest as even with the distance it reflected a dark color which kind of gave me the creeps. The village went from savages in huts, to a promising village to a dreadful necropolis looking structure.


    ¡®Well, hopefully I¡¯m not entirely fucked, and why is Phoenix so calm, does it think just because it¡¯s in my head that it¡¯s free to not worry about our potential resurrection into undead?¡¯ I sighed at my paranoia acting up again. It really comes in handy but 99% of the time it just serves to make a normal situation turn into a dreadful encounter filled with suspicion and tense moments for no apparent reasons aside from that things like ¡°that lady looks mighty suspicious with her stroller, I bet that¡¯s not even a baby in there but a man with a bib and a beard holding a ak-47.¡± Totally what you think when you see a mother sitting on a bench at the park for no apparent reason and with a calmness that clearly indicates Russian KGB sleeper agent waiting to be activated. Totally.


    Rikurn on the other hand seems to actually be a fellow paranoid-iac which I have dubbed my species as he seemed to start fidgeting the closer we got to the village and seem to even not want to go back. Seeing this did not help my personal paranoia as it elevated into Rikurn stole the village chief¡¯s son and eloped with him but ended up getting him killed by accident and is now facing incarceration and I am his new accomplice. ¡®Fuck¡¯ I grew nervous at the thought.


    I suddenly see Rikurn turn around and he asked me something which left me slightly stunned and wide eyed.


    ¡°uhm¡­World-caster¡±


    ¡°Jupiter, I told you a million times Rikurn, just call me Jupiter!¡± It literally was like the millionth time, kid was stubborn as shit to not learn my name.


    ¡°Okay¡­ Jewputer, can I ask you something?¡± Wow, no wonder the kid never said my name. If this were an RPG, he should gain the title of ¡°Butcher of names¡±¡¯ or something. I still nodded at him to ask away.


    ¡° If y-you want, s-since you don¡¯t have a place to stay, you could always stay with m-me for a s-s-small fee of course.¡± He said with a slight stutter as I didn¡¯t get why he suddenly got nervous, followed by requesting money from me. ¡®I saved your life and took care of your sorry ass for a week you little shit.¡¯ I thought a little pissed at how I¡¯m being offered a place for a so called ¡°fee¡±.


    I didn¡¯t really know the place and having somewhere to stay would be a good opportunity but my paranoia-meter was verging into the red zone with the nervousness that Rikurn was clearly including in his offer. I wasn¡¯t going to end up in some fucked up situation where his house gets raided in the middle of the night and I turn into a ¡°world-casting meat shield¡±.


    ¡°K, kid. I do need a place, but what¡¯s with you being nervous about asking and what the hell is this about a fee when I saved your little childish ass from those damn foxhorns!?¡± I asked as threateningly as I could but I and Phoenix both knew that what came out during this perfect interrogation was more along the lines of ¡° Child! I need residence but why do you nervous and ask to hell to pay fee when I save your child butt from Nai¡¯s!¡±


    My tone got through at least which made me feel better but I really needed to work on the language. Rikurn also got the message somewhat I guess as he started looking down a little¡­hmm¡­shy? The kid can get shy? What¡¯s with the odd complexion?


    ¡°Uhm, okay I will tell you but please do not laugh.¡± I simply nodded at his concerns as I didn¡¯t really see what there was to laugh about considering he lives in a necropolis town over there with those ominous black fumes rising every few houses.


    Seeing my nod, he didn¡¯t try to maintain eye contact and just continued ¡° I¡­uhm, I was always alone in the village since I was born, I didn¡¯t really have anybody here and Bor became my friend when I was growing up because we were in a similar situation a-and I don¡¯t really want to stay alone again¡­¡±


    I was honestly, slowly backing up. I understood most of what he said but that last part just didn¡¯t sound like it was the kind of ¡° let¡¯s be friends¡± but more the ¡° I need my bed warmed¡± vibe. He noticed me walking back slowly and I was honestly ready to bolt.


    ¡°Jupiter! He¡¯s just a child! Why are you trying to run away?¡± Phoenix noticed my movements and seemed to sense I was having those stupid paranoid thoughts again which I totally wasn¡¯t.


    ¡°Phoenix, the kid clearly had a ¡°special¡± relationship with that Bor kid. I like women! WOMEN Phoenix, NOT blue skinned young boys!!¡± I yelled mentally to clarify my clear motives here.


    ¡°Jupiter! You idiot, Rikurn sounds like an orphan and you think he¡¯s trying to get you in bed? Talk to the kid and stop thinking about your butthole getting violated!¡±


    I was shocked! Truly shocked! ¡° Phoenix WHO taught you those things about a butthole!?¡± I always treated Phoenix like a very smart and dependable little androgynous sibling, even though I call it God slime, it was still a young slime especially considering its little high pitched voice when it gets excited over cool stuff.


    ¡°Oh please Jupiter! I knew quite a bit, hmpf! Your dreams tend to show some odd things to me without you controlling them properly.¡± This piece of news shattered my fragile wall that used to maintain my privacy.

 Chapter 25 – Return to civilization

    I didn¡¯t even want to continue talking to this snoopy slime anymore so I switched my attention back to Rikurn who noticed my slight move to distance myself from him which made him seem a little disappointed.


    ¡°I-its fine if you don¡¯t want to, I just offered because I have the space¡­ now.¡± His eyes were slightly watery when he said that last part and I kind of understood he was still upset at his buddy getting turned into Swiss cheese by those horns.


    ¡°Uhm, I don¡¯t mind staying at your place Rikurn, but I need you to answer my next question very honestly¡­okay? My tone left no room for negotiations as Phoenix was still too young and na?ve if it thought the legendary Paranoia I carry will allow me to blindly follow this kid.


    Rikurn nodded as he looked into the 100% seriousness that I usually never have.


    ¡°What kind of ¡°friends¡± were you and Bor?¡± I specifically emphasized friends as I didn¡¯t want any misunderstandings at all!


    ¡°Huh? Uhm, Bor was like a big brother to me and he always took care of me since we became friends and we started living together to save on money because we were still too young and I¡­¡± Rikurn had his eyes slowly widen as he realized why I was so apprehensive of him and the kid turned slightly angry surprisingly.


    ¡°Jewputer! ME and BOR were NEVER like that! How could you even think that!?¡± There it was. The embarrassment and shock of being thought of a pervert who was trying to get a bed buddy. This anger was a lot more welcome in my opinion than any other reaction honestly, because I can understand this one. Still needs to work on my name though.


    ¡°Okay, okay! Just making sure, you should really learn to explain things better kid. So why you asking me to pay? I thought you owed me for the food and helping you out last time?¡± I changed the subject right away so I didn¡¯t have to continue down that line of embarrassing questioning.


    ¡°Uh¡± Kid blushed again and held his head down, not a good sign. ¡° I kind of¡­ don¡¯t have any more money and I know you can hunt so I was hoping you help me out  in exchange for letting you stay with me.¡± No stutters, the words extremely clear. This explained another thing I didn¡¯t know about Rikurn. The kid was as fucking shameless as an old goat trying to steal candy from a baby, a lonely old goat.


    ¡°Sigh, fine but if I see you trying to pull anything, be warned Rikurn! Be warned!¡± I gave in as I didn¡¯t want to go through the hassle of finding a place and I was pretty sure the kid should have some decent place though broke, it should be manageable.


    He simply nodded and smiled and seemed to be a lot less nervous which reassured me that he was just looking for a roommate to leech off, it wasn¡¯t the best plan but the most simple from what I could tell.


    We had been walking the entire time and we were getting quite close as I could see the village a lot more clearly and I was stunned at what I was seeing. The black walls made of some obsidian type stone was close to 4 meters in height surrounding the village. There were several building that were three stories high that could be seen over the wall and they all seemed to be well designed and constructed out of stone with some balconies with plants potted and vines hanging and a few others with some black smoke rising out of chimney looking holes in the wall. It looked more like a city than a village and I felt really stupid imagining huts. This brought me to be quite excited at the prospect of visiting an actual city as they must look even more extravagant that some rural village like this.


    ¡°Rikurn, have you ever been to the city?¡± I asked hoping to find out.


    ¡°Hm, no. I never left the village before and only explored the surroundings a little with Bor. We usually stayed in the village doing chores for our neighbors or the store owners so that we could scrape by.¡±


    I got the feeling that his life in this village wasn¡¯t exactly of the best quality and remembering what Phoenix said, he really did seem like an orphan. ¡®Poor kid¡¯ I thought.


    We walked further along until we got onto a somewhat more well taken care of dirt road as the village didn¡¯t seem to need stone roads or have horses for all I know. We entered through the south-east gate as the village apparently had three gates being one up north, one towards west and one south-east. I couldn¡¯t really see much yet and having walked up towards the gate, I finally saw two burly looking blue skinned men that were wearing some sort of grey plate armor that covered their chest and shins with the rest of their outfit being black leather like material. They also had spears made of wood and some red gem for the spear head held in one hand pointing towards the sky. The seemed utterly bored though but I guess considering nothing but foxhorns and goblizards lived in this direction, there wasn¡¯t usually much to worry about.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°Stop!¡± The burly left guard yelled in our direction as we were a few meters from reaching them. They sized us both up and gave a suspicious stare my way which I could understand considering I wasn¡¯t the pretty blue skin they were, though I still felt I had a nice caramel tan going but anyways.


    ¡°Rikurn? Who is this?¡± They seem to know the kid and was thankful at Phoenix for keeping me from ditching the thing.


    ¡°Ah, Garis, Melo, greetings¡± He waved at both guards with the left being called Garis and mr. right being Melo politely before going in a little closer to talk to them. I figured I¡¯d let the kid take care of the annoying stuff while I waited to the side.


    ¡°This is a world-caster I met when I was being pursued by a couple of foxhorns and he was kind enough to save me from them.¡± Rikurn told him of everything I had done which I mostly understood and I just started replacing the word Nai with Foxhorn almost involuntarily as I really didn¡¯t see how Nai could ¡°really¡± represent the essence of what those creatures were like I could. Heh.


    A few minutes of talking and a little bit of gloom growing between Rikurn and the guards about his buddy Bor having kicked the can, I was told to follow the laws and not to harm the people with very stern glares from Melo and Garis. I simply nodded while keeping my enjoying the fact that there was no entry fee.


    Walking into the village, I grew excited as the village was nowhere near being what Earth would consider a village. This was like a mega-village or something. The buildings were created with some clear artistic flare with flowing patterns or rune like markings engraved into their walls, the stone being a yellow like stone mixed with the obsidian stone giving it a slightly majestic air as whoever built the buildings clearly loved symmetry as the yellow stones were the main part but the edges and the contours were all made with obsidian giving it a nice look overall. Nature present everywhere with small trees growing and different flowers all over the streets. People were walking around with kids in hand or guards patrolling. I was surprised that blue skin wasn¡¯t the only skin color. There were people with slightly red hues and others that seemed closer to light green. The shock didn¡¯t end there as I saw some kids chasing after what I can only call a small floating green ball that shined like an emerald gem as it zoomed through the street followed by three or four kids. The hair color on the other hand was spread out all over the place, orange, black, azure, vermillion, and purple just stood out everywhere.


    I was like a tourist as I kept staring with eyes fully open and a big ¡°O¡± on my mouth following behind Rikurn.


    ¡°Rikurn, what is that thing floating over there?¡± I asked him as I saw a plank of what looked to be wood just floating by as it carried a few small crates.


    ¡°That¡¯s a carrier board; our village has a shop that has some really good rune casters that can make some really cool things.¡±


    ¡°Rune casters? What¡¯s that.¡± I thought it might be related to world casters.


    ¡°Rune casters are kind of like a different job world casters can do, I think but you should go to the shop to find out more since it¡¯s not something I was really taught about. They only explained it to me when I ran some errands to them.¡±


    My mental checklist of things to learn about was completely re-hauled as I saw this beautiful village and all its cool crap smacking me in the face.


    ¡°Jupiter, I think this may be similar technology to how we did energy engravings like that on my egg.¡± Phoenix mentioned as it too was surprised that they had similar technology available which seemed to get it all excited. I took note to ask more about this stuff when I had the time later as right now, it was all about being as tourist-y as possible.


    ¡°Rikurn, think I can sell these foxhorn horns? ¡° I asked as I had managed to get a few extra horns from my week long language crash course with Rikurn.


    ¡°Yeah, we can head to the general store as they usually stock up on the horns and other stuff. ¡° He started leading the way past a central plaza looking area near the center of the village which had nice stone floor with an open air market type of feel to it with all the people passing through. I saw hundreds of different people, with different hair color and styles going about their day and it all felt so interesting that I nearly stopped to question everyone passing by me about what they do and who they are as my curiosity was unending.


    I noticed I got a few stares which I eventually understood why as I seemed to be the only tan skinned person in the entire village according to Rikurn but it wasn¡¯t completely bad as they were quite diversified themselves so a few stares was the most of my troubles.


    We eventually made it to the general store a few minutes after passing through the central plaza which turned out to be a big two story building with that seemed very wide and took up quite a bit of space. The walls were covered in that same yellow color but with planks of dark blue wood lining up the walls vertically. A signboard with some bold lettering that I couldn¡¯t make any sense of was on top of the door way.


    ¡°Ding¡± A bell chimed as we walked in and my eyes glowed as I looked around. The place was glowing with merchandise.


    I started browsing through everything and even Phoenix just wanted to spread out a hundred tentacles if it could to just hoard all this stuff. We had to be slick, we had to be unperceivable.


    ¡°Ah, Rikurn! Where have you been lately, I had to actually request the delivery service to take care of a few runs I could of given to you!¡± A tall and lanky looking red skinned man appeared next to Rikurn with a brown-black leather apron on him. He had an aged face, which looked like he was the friendly neighborhood guy that ran the corner store. Although, he looked like a nice middle age man, I could clearly see that glint in his eyes that all folks like his have. Those cunning eyes that only a business man has, as if those eyes were granted by the devil to those who knew how to trade so that they may see the value of your very own soul, goddamn business people, screwing me out of every penny every chance they get.


    ¡°Ah! Uncle Namba, sorry, I went out hunting with Bor and things didn¡¯t go so well so I ended up stuck outside for a week.¡± He said as he looked a little upset having to keep mentioning his departed friend while also staring at me when he mentioned that ¡°week¡±.


    I just snorted quietly at the balls this kid has, I saved your life and you think you can just accuse me of kidnapping you? Huh?

 Chapter 26 – Sympathy

    This uncle Namba spent a few minutes consoling little Rikurn after he was told the story of what happened. He turned to me and finally sized me up which I returned the favor to as I clearly knew that this conversation one way or another would lead to the inevitable. The bastard will start haggling with me over prices.


    ¡°So it is you sir world caster that saved Rikurn, aye, it¡¯s unfortunate as to what happened to Bor but you did do a great service saving such a young ones life. Consider it my respect to you as everything will be 10% off in the store today.¡± He smiled as he said those words.


    ¡°Thank you sir Namba, I will definitely take advantage of such a great deal.¡± I managed to eke out the proper words without sounding too foreign as passing through the crowded streets helped Phoenix learn the language a bit better and I got some last minute knowledge imparting done. I still, however, noticed the clear words indicated by this old goat. 10% off probably amounts to nothing as the prices aren¡¯t even written on the damn items so for all I know, I¡¯m paying double the standard and worst was he said today meaning it ends today. Bastard was scamming me with nothing but flowery words and smile, goddamn merchants are all the same.


    I have had a few situations escalating with these greedy bastards back on Earth when it came to my ¡°salvaged antiques¡± they¡¯re as fucking bad as those museum bastards getting money from god knows where to spend on MY items just to fucking never do anything with it ever again. HOARDING bastards.


    ¡®Deeep, breaths Jupiter, Deeeeeep breaths. Sigh.¡± I really need to control my temper when it comes to those museums, they really know how to tick me off.


    I ignored the anger that almost took over and smiled back at the old goat before broaching the matter of the horns I wanted to sell.


    ¡°Oh, Nai Horns? Definitely do need a few extra those for the alchemy ingrediants I¡¯ve been tasked with. How many you have there?¡± Namba asked with a smile that was more sinister than sincere.


    ¡°Depends on how many you need and for how much.¡± I hit back with my counter. I know you greedy fools, I belong in your god damn pit of festering greed as well after all. Online merchants were still merchants at the end of the day and I wasn¡¯t a bad one either. Who else besides me could buy a god slime for 200$? No one that¡¯s who.


    ¡°Oho, it seems I have quite the customer today.¡± Namba smiled again and I had to commend the guy for keeping his professionalism in check as most low class shops the owners or managers usually lost the smile when the arrogant customer bites back. ¡°I need quite a few so I¡¯ll take as much as you can give and in return I¡¯ll buy them each for 4 earth shards each, how does it?¡±


    I realized that I had gotten ready to haggle with the merchants in this world a little too soon. I have no fucking clue what the hell an earth shard is worth nor what the hell it is. A little bomb went off in my head as I lost the war before the battle even begun.


    ¡°Sigh¡­ deal, I got 7 nai horns I¡¯m willing to sell.¡± I take out the 7 horns and hand them over to the old goat.


    ¡°Wonderful!¡± Namba smiled very satisfied and I knew I got screwed when I saw that smile. My damn skin probably gave it away that I didn¡¯t know jackshit about this place. ¡®ARRGHHHHHH¡¯


    *One mental breakdown later*


    Namba hands over a small leather pouch and I curiously inspect these so called earth shards and notice that there are about 28 little earthen yellow crystals stuck onto small square shaped wooden plaques. I didn¡¯t really know what I was expecting but I guess this counts as much as currency as printed papers.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    I didn¡¯t want to stay in the shop even though I was curious about the stuff here because I knew that I would probably go broke before I even got a meal if I stayed near these insufferable merchants. I hate my own kind, so what, sue me.


    Walking back along the main streets, I tucked away the satchel of coins¡­money. ¡°Rikurn, what are these earth shards? And did Namba screw me over on the horn deal?¡± I asked right away as I needed to know especially that second part.


    Rikurn not at all surprised that I don¡¯t know anything started slowly explaining the currency system as far as he knew. Phoenix was also intently listening as I could tell it wanted this money just as much as me so that we could go splurge on some self-improvement goodies.


    Earth shards are basically the equivalent of a penny or bronze coins to make it easier. 100 Earth shards gives you 1 sky shard. 100 sky shards give you what they call a crystal shard and apparently if you gather 1000 crystal shards you can get 1 mystic crystal. I didn¡¯t really understand why they use these shards but it turns out that mystic crystals and crystal shards can be used as sources for powering certain items or structures and are incredible useful and it so happened that world casters and rune casters also have many uses for these shards and especially the ever so expensive mystic crystal which made it so that people started gathering these and using it as a form of currency, it eventually spread and most of the continent uses it as currency.


    This piece of information would have been great to hear had it come from Rikurn but knowing the useless kid, his knowledge ended at you getting 1 sky shard for 100 earth shards which pissed me off so I got him to bring me back to the general store where we requested a small book about the currency and some important information about the continent which cost me 4 earth shards. Phoenix played a crucial role in getting the whole thing sorted out while Rikurn was upset that I got mad at him so he told me the truth about Namba who he was protecting earlier. Namba screwed me. Those horns could easily sell for 5 earth shards a piece, the bastard.


    I had enough of walking around and just wanted to get some rest as Phoenix was badgering me in my head to let it read the book we got.


    Avoiding the slime voice in your head is a lot harder than you can imagine so I was forced to relent and get Rikurn to bring us back to my new so called ¡°home¡±. Following along the bratty kid I kept admiring the beautiful village for what it was and the nice multi colored women that I happened to pass by, I was even admired back by a few of them though I felt it was probably due to my skin color being different but I took them with grace and gave a winks back. I might be anti-social but the allure of the opposite gender is something no man could deny even if they swung the other way.


    Rikurn started taking me further south in the city and we had been walking for close to 30 minutes at this point and I was starting to get worried.


    ¡°Hey Rikurn, you sure this is the right way?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Jewputer. It isn¡¯t too far from here now.¡± He answered with an odd tone. I was really starting to get the creeps at this point because the buildings started looking worse and worse as we kept going along and I saw a lot more back alleys present than the beautiful village plaza had which made me a little alert.


    ¡®Is the kid trying to get me mugged in these streets? Is this revenge for forcing him to teach me how to talk? Shitty kid, I said I¡¯d even pay him for the lodging.¡¯ My thoughts spun to a distracted rhythm before I suddenly heard him calling to me telling me we arrived. Not what I was expecting in the least, the house if it can even be called that looked like some sort of land bunker that recently went through a goddamn war. It was literally in the shape of a half cylinder with the roofing made of some sort of metal looking tiles with rust and grime just covering the whole thing. The door looked secure at least as it was a big stone door but if I were to really describe this place it was the equivalent of an extremely sturdy shack. I was starting to doubt the decrepit cabin looking better between the two.


    ¡°Here¡¯s the place, it has two rooms and a kitchen with a small shared space. I¡¯ll go clean out the stuff in your section and you can get comfortable for the time being.¡± Rikurn gestured at the cushioned wooden couch? It was a wooden bench with a board for your back and some sort of thick rags on it for sitting.


    I looked around the room and realized how poorly this kids been living. It made me feel like I just met a refugee from Earth and though I didn¡¯t like the kid too much for being an idiot, I felt a little sad that this was how he grew up. The place was at least somewhat clean aside from the accumulated dust and some odd smells, probably due to his week long absence.


    ¡°Rikurn, how long have you lived here?¡± I asked while trying to remain as indifferent as possible as I didn¡¯t want to offend the poor kid.


    ¡°Probably the last 5 years? Me and Bor moved in together after we left the shared housing all the kids grew up in when we were 14.¡± He replied while carrying over what looked like little trinkets and things from I¡¯m guessing the late Bor¡¯s room to his room.


    ¡°Ah,¡± I don¡¯t know why but at that moment, even though I never usually involved myself in these matters, I felt like helping the kid out a little. He¡¯s 19 and weak as crap and obviously I cheated with Phoenix present but I still felt like maybe me helping him out would be good. I won¡¯t be staying here that long anyways and seeing how poor his living conditions are maybe him coming out to hunt with me may get him some extra ¡°shards¡± to get him off his feet.


    ¡®Sigh, when did I suddenly become some sort of charity?¡¯ I smiled awkwardly at the thought of ¡°Jupiter¡¯s charity case¡±.


    Walking into the room, I saw a small bed big enough for one and a small desk with some sort of lamp with a crystal on it and a vent looking thing letting me see outside. I was feeling kind of cramped and claustrophobic in the room but overall it was something I could work with. I think.

 Chapter 27 – Some Shopping

    It was morning and I could hear the village starting to get noisy again as people started waking up and walking about. I lazily stretched on the floor. Right, I remembered I didn¡¯t even sleep on the bed because dead guy used to sleep there and it just didn¡¯t make me feel very comfortable. I looked into my little pouch and saw 20 earth shards after buying the book for 4 and paying Rikurn another 4 to let me stay 3 days. Surprisingly cheap rent, the kid either only needed that much or even he felt bad for having me stay in the room of the dead.


    I decided it should be a good idea to maybe get some more money and buy me some new stuff if I was going to stay in this place for any longer than a night.


    ¡°Rikurn!¡± I walked out to see the kid was already awake and had made some sort of gruel in a wooden bowl for us, which I was suspicious about tasting but turned out it was just a bland meal. Didn¡¯t do anything besides fill up my stomach which broke my heart as I missed my bacon and eggs from Earth a lot more now that I couldn¡¯t have my morning feast of kings with a bowl of cereal on the side.


    I gave the kid 10 earth shards and told him to go buy better food while I stayed here as I was willing to live in the dead guys room but not eat this bland BS for breakfast. I could see why the kid wasn¡¯t that tough to begin with. Afterwards, I simply left the house and told him I was going to go out hunting to try and see if I could get anything good.


    That was my great idea, I was too broke to do anything aside from ogle at the women and sleep on the floor so I had to do something about it as soon as possible.


    I headed towards the south-east gate as that was the only one I remembered and Rikurn tagged along as he was to head to the market which helped me out as my new ¡°home¡± was in some twisted maze of a back alley in the south part of the city. Practically felt like I lived in the slums which bothered me but I couldn¡¯t do much else.


    As I reached out to the gate, I saw Garis and Melo the gate guards again, guess they work perennially as the doormen. Waving at them and saying the words going hunting as well as I could, I headed off as they simply nodded suspiciously. I didn¡¯t like the odd stares they gave me but I couldn¡¯t be bothered too much as now I needed to find some foxhorns. Phoenix had read some of the book last night and went on a whole discourse about the country we were currently in as most of the info in that book mostly related to this place.


    We found ourselves in the country of Aromt, in the village of Arils. It was about a 10 day distance from the Nezit City, which was one of the largest cities in this country and that city was about two weeks away from the capital of Aromt, which was Opirum. The names bothered me a little but it couldn¡¯t hurt to learn, I was also planning on visiting these places before possibly heading out to the desert as the book mentioned the desert having some crazy looking creatures and I really wanted to see what they were. Obviously, I wasn¡¯t going to go head long into danger so visiting the city and the capital was a good idea to learn some more about world casters and rune casters especially as I loved the floating board thing they created and was curious what else they made with those runes. The desert was apparently a really dangerous place just like the beast forest to the east of Aromt.


    Eventually about two hours into my hunting session I found some goblizards which I killed a lot easier now that I managed to be able to throw fireballs close to 5 feet away from me. It was good practice but I found these ugly little things were worthless in terms of value as they were just like finding rats in the sewers, annoying and useless.


    My hunting session finally got better by the third hour I was out as I managed to walk close to the caverns I was at yesterday and found a group of 4 foxhorns just milling about. I used the dead goblizard to try and attract them with the scent of blood which worked out perfectly as I managed to sneak attack an unsuspecting foxhorn who decided to get curious but the other three noticed and rushed me which lead to me having to use my amazing spiked bat skills to smash a head in while Phoenix fired off a fireball burning another and me using an earth spike in the confusion. I took close to 5 seconds to cast and could only be done within a distance of 3 feet but when your friend catches fire and you¡¯re distracted, it provides a great opportunity to get an earth spike up your gut.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    I followed this pattern for the rest of the day and managed to get me about 15 foxhorns towards the end while only getting a few scratches on me which wasn¡¯t a big deal. Magic was really useful at fighting these low level beasts. I eventually decided it was time to head back but I still spent another hour in the caverns again collecting more of those green stones for my defense which led to a nice little boost of 5% in my total defense, which brought me to 17% completion of this green stone defense upgrade.


    I only spent close to 7 hours hunting and gathering which made me feel pretty good as compared to my first day here I felt quite content at my new ability to hunt. I was a little against the whole murdering animals at first but considering it¡¯s my second week here and these little shits attack you regardless, you lose your patience eventually.


    Walking back carry foxhorn pelts and a strap of 15 horns made from plant vines, Garis and Melo were shocked to see I was even capable of getting so many. I nodded at them and they nodded back with some more respect in their eyes which made me grin a little once I got past them. It felt good getting some recognition even if it¡¯s the gate guards, it was nice.


    ¡°Jupiter! When are you going to get me better stuff to eat!¡± Phoenix whined like a little child as we were walking into the village, I had to admit that Phoenix hadn¡¯t gotten to absorb much and I don¡¯t even think it can eat anything aside from what it absorbs so I could understand the craving.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Phoenix, I¡¯ll try looking into something good at the general store once we sell off these horns and pelts.¡± I could only reassure the slime overlord for its needs must be met and I¡¯d hate to see what a hungry slime would do in my head. My relationship with Phoenix was pretty good but I still couldn¡¯t get over the fact that I had a deep fear that if ever Phoenix threw a tantrum, I would get some level of brain damage in that scenario, it wiggles around my brain on a noticeable fucking level when its happy, imagining the consequences when its mad just scares me.


    Walking into the general store again, I hear that classic ¡°ding¡± at the entrance which gave way to nostalgia as even alien planets corner store needs a bell at the door. I notice a few people already in the store who started looking at me and whispering which made me feel a little awkward as I could only start looking for Namba.


    ¡°Ah, what have you got here today?¡± Namba already noticed and walked over to me while eyeing my possessions with that greedy look again. I smirked internally when I saw that. ¡®Think you going to get a great deal off me again? Ha! Think again fool!¡¯ I declared in my mind as I still remembered selling my horns a shard cheaper than needed.


    ¡°Hey Namba, I came to sell some fur and horns again.¡±


    ¡°I see, I see. Well drop them on the counter and let¡¯s get this going.¡± He smiles again which just keeps me apprehensive of his schemes.


    ¡°Namba, 15 horns and 10 good pelts. How much?¡± I eyed him with a look that clearly started ¡° Do not rip me off you old goat.¡± I practiced this look many times back on Earth especially when haggling at the flea markets. If this were a game, I¡¯d get the skill ¡° Stare of Death¡± or something, that¡¯s how confident I was.


    Namba noticed my look but just kept his professional smile while remaining nonchalant.


    ¡°Pelts are decent quality but the cutting was done a little poorly, so I¡¯ll take them for 2.5 earth shards each and the horns are a lot better than the ones you gave me yesterday but they aren¡¯t from fully matured foxhorns so best I can do is 4,5 earth shards each.¡± He mentioned it as he took out a horn that was close to an extra 10 cm longer and was overall thicker than the ones I had.


    I was still suspicious that the horn came from some alpha level foxhorn or some rare one but I still got a better deal and the pelts were pretty poorly cut so I couldn¡¯t complain.


    ¡°deal¡±


    Namba smiled again at me while fetching another pouch which I counted carefully, he generously gave me 93 earth shards which he acted like it was a huge favor but I still knew the guy was ripping me off somehow, I just didn¡¯t know how yet. It was my experience in the business of online trading and dealing with merchants that gave me this hunch. Yes, I was an online merchant but phone calls, auctions and special events were still things one had to attend if they wanted to get some good deals on the special items which are where I met my usual Big 3 or at least they¡¯re lower end lackeys as what I usually bought and sold never got more than a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.


    ¡°Namba, you have any good items that are beneficial for the body for strengthening?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I would have a few items but they¡¯re efficiency isn¡¯t that great, I¡¯d recommend you visit Alfur, he¡¯s a good friend of mine that is known to create strengthening concoctions for the guards and certain hunters.¡±


    I was interested in finding out more about this Alfur guy, especially since he sounded like he alchemist type which could prove to be useful especially when I¡¯m travelling. I wanted to see a sky shard but since I was going to go buy a bunch of things anyways, I had to rein in my curiosity. With the trade having gone through, I bought new bedding so that I don¡¯t have to sleep on the floor anymore, I was surprised I even slept on the floor last night after almost 2 weeks without a proper bed but that was going to end today. I also got some weird plant that survived in darker places but smelled really nice for the house and another book about the animals found near the village of Arils. This brought me down to about 60 earth shards but I bought the cheapest stuff so I figured it wouldn¡¯t cost me too much.


    After thanking Namba with a suspicious glare, I left to find this Alfur.

 Chapter 28 – More old goats

    Walking along the main road in the village plaza, I was headed towards the west end of the village. Namba had told me the so called village¡¯s potions expert was there. I didn¡¯t really understand the name they gave him but I¡¯ll just call him the alchemist from now on.


    It didn¡¯t take long before I arrived in front of a modest size building with blue walls and red stone lining the sides. It had engravings of different herbs along the wall which gave it an exquisite look as if you were entering an old temple of sorts. I was still surprised by the level of artistic value the people of this village appreciated in their constructs, well those who could afford it anyways since my bunker of a home sure as hell didn¡¯t have any of that fancy-ness.


    Entering the shop, I hear chimes going off in a smooth rhythm which felt pleasant to hear. As I entered I noticed a weird musky scent like that of a garden with some manure mixed in but the manure comes and goes and you aren¡¯t entirely sure if it¡¯s actually shit in there. It was unique to say the least. The counters were all made of finely engraved wood with different vials available for purchase and a few books off to the side and sitting at the very front over a large counter was a snoring geezer.


    ¡°¡­¡±


    Even with me entering the snoring geezer didn¡¯t wake up to greet me or anything. ¡®These people are pretty carefree, eh?¡¯ I thought as I started looking around the shop. I had no idea what these potions did but there were little pieces of paper with some notes written on them for each. I had to have my god slime third eye look at them individually as I still hadn¡¯t learned to read yet.


    This whole language barrier was really starting to become a problem. I wasn¡¯t really interested in reading much as even Phoenix hadn¡¯t heard of certain of the herbs mixed in so it couldn¡¯t really understand the quality and efficiency of these potions.


    ¡°Hello? Are you Alfur?¡±


    The old man slowly opened his eyes and shot me a look that just clearly expressed his dissatisfaction at having me bother his ¡°grand nap¡± before slowly closing them again.


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡®This bastard old goat, what the hell is it with this place? Are all the shopkeepers¡¯ old stooge-y pricks? Is this what is needed to own a shop in this village? Did you go to school to be taught how to be a complete asshole as your final test for certification? Goddamn old goats¡¯ My mental frustration became evident and just when I was about to start accusing this place of having some horrible customer service¡­


    ¡°Yes, I am Alfur of Arils.¡± He answered me in a deep and aged voice.


    ¡°Hmpfh, I see.¡± I couldn¡¯t hold back my contempt ¡°I need a strengthening agent for physical, energetic or mental improvements.¡± I replied slightly snobbishly because screw this old geezer, that¡¯s why.


    He once again set off to slowly open his eyes as if they were the doors to the very first garage ever with a speed of 100meters per hour.


    ¡°Hmmm.¡±


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    1 minute passes as I wait for his reply.


    2 minutes pass.


    Another goddamn minute passes.


    ¡°LISTEN HERE YOU OLD GOAT! I JUST WANT A POTION!¡± I lost it.


    He finally got up and snorted. ¡°Hmpf! How dare you behave so rudely, I was simply thinking of which potions to offer you based on your request!¡±


    I clearly did not believe this geezer. ¡° Tsk, Tsk. Yeah, as if! I bet you were just trying to look mysterious to try and up the prices of your potions just because I¡¯m new to the place! No shopkeeper takes more than a minute to remember his own merchandise!¡±


    I knew that maybe I was going too far but man do I hate these scheming old foxes.


    ¡°For all I know old man, you were probably falling asleep again! You should really pass on the business to someone younger so that you can go sleep in peace, you know!?¡±


    I don¡¯t know why but this had to be said, I just had to say it. Namba was messing with me but at least I got what I wanted, this old man is just playing the senile old man to screw with me and he¡¯s Namba¡¯s friend so screw him even more!


    ¡°Young man, to say such things to such an experienced potion maker such as myself.¡± He sneered. ¡° I doubt you would even know how to properly use my potions so I¡¯d recommend you leave as I won¡¯t be selling to you.¡±


    ¡®Oh the bastard wants to play hard to get huh? Two can play at this.¡¯ My ego resurfaced with some brilliant words and a plan.


    ¡°You¡¯re right!¡±


    This shocked the old man slightly as he didn¡¯t expect me to just agree to that.


    ¡°Old man, I don¡¯t think I should try drinking potions made by such an aged senile old goat, I rather like living and wouldn¡¯t want to waste my precious years by dying from a potion you made while half-asleep.¡±


    The old man turned livid, his breathing became slightly ragged and I could swear he was an inch away from throwing some potions at me which I noticed but I wasn¡¯t going to back down to this old fool instead I was going to be independent, screw these shopkeepers.


    ¡°Old goat, nonetheless, I haven¡¯t come here to waste my time. I will just be purchasing these books instead!¡± I throw down three books all related to basics of potion crafting that the old man was selling in the corner.


    The old man looked at what I put down and his sneer became wider. ¡°Young folks these days truly do not know how high the sky is. You think just by buying these potion making books that you would be able to make concoctions that are better than mine? Ha! I haven¡¯t heard a funnier joke since I opened this store!¡±


    ¡°Look here you old goat, you see I¡¯d rather trust the potions I make by my own hand than trust my life with whatever crap you made. It¡¯s the safer option anyways! How much?¡±


    ¡°Tsk tsk, to think after all these years I have poured into developing my potion making to this degree some ignorant youth dares to mock my craft. Well, I am going to love to see how you blow yourself up since you¡¯re ¡°so intelligent¡± that you don¡¯t need my potions. Bahahahaha. These books are worth 35 earth shards for the lot. Is that something you can even afford you little brat or you going to need to run to mommy for money?¡±


    ¡®This savage old man, 35 earth shard??? The fuck kind of books are these, were they written by the king of the country or something? Bastard.¡¯


    ¡°Say whatever you want geezer, I ain¡¯t falling for it. 35 Earth shards? Bah, pocket change.¡±


    I took out the 35 shards, threw them into a small pouch and just slammed it onto the table. Grabbing the books, I left without even turning back.


    ¡°Watch me you old goat.¡± I muttered as I left the store.


    Sitting back down on his seat, Alfur simply looked at the back of young tanned man as he walked out the doors. ¡° Sigh, patience is a skill worth learning kid. Rashness is the exact opposite of what you need to learn potion making. Well, screw it. Brat needs to learn some manners, maybe if he comes begging me for assistance I might, just might help him out with a large fee to boot, hehe¡­hehehehehe.¡± A sinister smile joined his lips as he continued staring at his shop door.


    Walking back to towards the central district, I started craving some food and considering I still had a bit of earth shards left, I figured I could splurge a little.


    I went on to try some delicacies that one of the street stalls was advertising. They were selling some sort of balls of meat in a bowl with some sauce and toothpick to eat with. Ordering me two bowls, one for me and one for the kid back home. I started munching on them while heading back towards my war bunker.


    To my delight, the balls of meat were extremely delicious; they were a mix of sweet and sour with tender meat that tasted like chicken and it just melted in my mouth with a mild sauce that felt like honey and gravy.


    ¡°Rikurn, you little shit. You better appreciate what I bring back. These things cost me 2 earth shards.¡± I mumbled as I casually ate the meatballs while struggling to find my way back home.


    ¡°Phoenix, sorry buddy, I didn¡¯t know why but that old geezer just made me mad with his lazy reaction, I guess I¡¯m too used to the prompt assistance that I used to get back home¡­¡±


    ¡°Hehe, it¡¯s alright, at least you were smart enough to get us the books which works out a lot better for us in the long run because if we learn to make potions, we could depend on ourselves!¡±


    ¡°Haha, I knew you would understand! Unlike some old geezer, my Phoenix is so amazing!¡±


    ¡°Giggles¡±


    Joking with Phoenix brought my mood back up, and I noticed Phoenix really loves compliments as it always wiggles in happiness whenever I make them, it really is adorable in a weird, slime attached to your brain kind of way¡­

 Chapter 29 – Phoenix and chaos?

    ¡°Phoenix, I want to ask you something¡­¡±


    I had been thinking about the idea of asking Phoenix this question but I never had the courage to ask it. I don¡¯t know why but the thought of Phoenix changing was always something I knew would happen but never wanted to happen. It scared me a little as I didn¡¯t know what to expect. Phoenix was god slime, slime overlord, slime king. Phoenix was the very key to my life changing and I was scared Phoenix would¡­ discard me at some point. I didn¡¯t believe everything Phoenix said in the beginning about the whole evolution thing and the whole dependence thing because how could such an overpowered slime be able to achieve so much yet be dependent on such trivialities¡­


    I was scared; I was finally being honest to myself. I was instinctually scared.


    ¡°Jupiter?¡± Phoenix asked.


    ¡°Uhm¡­ Phoenix I have something important I want to talk to you about¡­¡±


    I finally started my questioning to Phoenix. Phoenix didn¡¯t seem too weird about it but I knew this question could not be asked lightly.


    ¡° Phoenix, I am scared of the answer but I have to ask this question.¡±


    ¡°Jupiter, this is weird. Just ask, like you always do. Why are you acting so different about it?¡± Phoenix mumbled as it was starting to feel a little odd about the whole situation and I could feel it with the anxious wiggling that my brain felt.


    ¡°Phoenix¡­ I have and¡­ always been worried about a certain issue that may arise in our relationship. I know this may sound a little weird to you but I have been worried about your personal evolution I guess. I am worried and a little scared that you may just.. I guess, abandon me or end me then and there as we both know that you are a lot more powerful than me and you have always been the one guiding me and I.. sniff¡­ I really¡­ *haa* I really don¡¯t want you to hate me and just absorb me or just leave me¡­ *sniffle* ¡°


    I really don¡¯t know why I started crying, maybe the fear of death, maybe I didn¡¯t want this fun of exploring a new world to end but boy, I was sure as hell glad I asked this in a dead little alleyway.


    Phoenix stayed quiet for a quite a few minutes after I had said those words. I had been worried about this event since the first moment Phoenix had become a part of me but I couldn¡¯t shake the worry and anxiety that followed. I had kept distracting myself about Phoenix not accepting me fully as its host but I was also scared about what Phoenix was going to do when it got tired of me. I didn¡¯t ever mention it to phoenix out of fear but I realized that I could never really improve if I kept staying afraid of god slime Phoenix. Why? Why would I even work hard if I will never get to enjoy the happiness of getting to evolve and living in this new world? Phoenix may be from some high level organization or civilization but me, Jupiter, I need to have my own path. I can¡¯t live off Phoenix and I really can¡¯t live on at all if I am just going to end up some slime slave. I finally made up my mind to question Phoenix. I had to. It was impossible for me to continue to live this life that seemed so great¡­ so magical¡­ so surreal if I was never meant to even experience it before Phoenix took it all over, I don¡¯t know what to do.


    My paranoia was always a source of trouble for me but I finally realized that it was an ability to prevent danger from occurring if I took the time to actually acknowledge it. So I did. I questioned Phoenix even though my inherent fear of slime god had always stopped me, at this point I can only wait for an answer as I had finally laid myself bare. I was being honest with myself and with my emotions. I wasn¡¯t used to it but I had to because this was MY life.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ¡°Jupiter.¡± Phoenix called out my name.


    I didn¡¯t how Phoenix calling my name made me feel so heavy.


    ¡°BOOOOOOM¡±


    A heavy heart turned into the least of my worries within a fraction of a second.


    I turned to take a look behind me where the loud explosion came from and my jaw dropped.


    Fire! So much fire! It was all burning with such majesty such fierceness that it really looked like the god of fire itself had descended.


    ¡°JUPITER!¡± Phoenix cried in my mind.


    I snapped out of my shock as I notice a ball of rubble flying over from the explosion and jump to side of the alley.


    ¡°TSHHRRKKK¡±


    I narrowly dodged being crippled for the rest of my life as I watch the spot I was just at burning with a crater in it.


    ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± I cry as I panic at the sudden change of events but I guess these things just kind of answer themselves rather easily.


    Floating in the middle of village, were two people with black hoods and weird misty smoke slithering around them. One had silver like snakes of smoky energy just swirling about as if it were alive and the other had a slightly red colored mist sparking here and there as if it were ready to burst at any moment. It was a little difficult to see more than that as I was still hidden near the alleys headed south towards my bunker.


    I was shocked at the sight of the two mysterious figures just floating in the sky. I knew people could evolve and shit but it was the first time seeing people in the sky without some sort of jetpack which just left me with my mouth agape and envy at their cool flying.


    ¡°People of Arils! Hehehe, I am sure you are all very curious as to why we are present here today.¡± The one with red mist started speaking, his voice was booming across the entire village as it seemed like a powerful sound canon.


    ¡°We just happened to need something from you and as long as you comply, we will be more than willing to continue our happy little journey without further destruction! Hehehe.¡±


    He looked around and started smiling an incredibly evil grin while lifting his hands into the air while making odd gestures with his fingers.


    As if the entire world¡¯s energy responded to him, I could see a swirl of red mist start to gather and within 30 seconds a giant fireball was already in the making. Another 30 seconds and the ball of flames was the size of a small house and the red exterior looked like a vermillion blood with an orange core but suddenly the man controlling the ball started laughing even harder as his friend just stood there silently.


    The ball of flame that was rotating started curving inwards at 7 different points on the ball and started spinning in their own personal rotations creating 7 giant spears of flames that started to float around the mysterious duo.


    That moment would forever be etched into my memory as I never knew magic could be used to such a powerful degree where you could create such smolderingly hot yet giant spears of flames.


    ¡°Jupiter¡­ I think we better leave the village right now!¡± Phoenixs¡¯ voice seemed to be very tense as I could sense fear from its slightly shaky slime body.


    ¡°You don¡¯t think they will really destroy the entire village do you? I mean there are hundreds of people here¡­¡± I reply as I had never known anyone to be that hardcore of terrorist and anyways as long as we give them what they want, they would leave right?


    ¡°Jupiter! I don¡¯t care what they want. Someone who can and HAS already taken out a spell that can destroy this entire village is dangerous and we NEED to get the hell out of here RIGHT NOW! GO!¡± Phoenix was clearly not taking any of my wishy-washy thoughts on these two people.


    I didn¡¯t really know where the hell I was going. I figured I should maybe go grab the kid Rikurn and so I rushed back to the bunker but kid wasn¡¯t there and I had no idea where the hell he disappeared off to. Phoenix was getting really anxious as we only spent a minute to get to the bunker but the crazy fire guy already sent two of flaming spears to different parts of the city as it seems the village ¡°elders¡± weren¡¯t willing to give up the stuff.


    ¡°I mean, it¡¯s probably just a crystal or something, is it really worth the lives of the entire village?¡± I was running as fast as possible towards the gate near the south while having a mental debate about how stupid the village chiefs were being.


    ¡°Could be something else entirely? Like a weapon of mass destruction or some item that keeps away high level world beasts?¡± Phoenix gives me its opinion on the subject while still very anxiously keeping an eye on the remaining 5 spears of death.


    When we were nearing the gate, I could see tens of people running at the same time carrying their children, wife, elderly or valuables while rushing out. I felt sorry at the sight, I really couldn¡¯t imagine how it must feel to have your home just destroyed or invaded like this after living so long within its safety.


    ¡°Sigh¡± I couldn¡¯t help but let a long exhale out at the crying eyes of the children and the fear that all the adults were showing.

 Chapter 30 – Powerless

    Just as I finally made it to the city gate, I could hear the laughing pyromaniac starting his hysteria fit again. I turn to look back and I could not even believe what he was capable of.


    The standards for a powerful world-caster as they call it must be amazingly high for someone to be at this level of control and power. My mind was frozen as it saw him control three of the flame spears as they started circling around him and speeding up simultaneously as well while the remaining two just stood at his sides.


    The rotating spears descended and all you heard was the crashing of the spears into the buildings as they burst into flames and men, women and children unfortunate enough to get caught up in it became charred bones.


    I started feeling nauseous at the sight, I wasn¡¯t surprised anymore. I was scared. I didn¡¯t know there were people this fucking crazy in this world where burning an entire village single handedly was something they could stomach. The screaming and crying was finally getting to me. I felt like a fool to think I didn¡¯t really care since they weren¡¯t my humans¡­ they were still people that I could talk with, what the fuck was wrong with this world.


    ¡°Jupiter! Let¡¯s go to the cavern! We should be somewhat safe there for now!¡± Phoenix tried to get me to focus.


    ¡°Sure¡± My voice felt a little dead. The adrenaline was still there but my mind was feeling like it was going to break down again. I didn¡¯t know why I was feeling this way. I felt everything around me make me feel lost. I wasn¡¯t in control. I can¡¯t do anything about this situation. I have to just watch as they all die, as they all burn.


    This was just purely shocking, what if I get hit or the mysterious duo decide to eliminate everyone, or do they just not care? I couldn¡¯t even think straight and just kept running. I felt bad for everyone but I knew my tiny little magic couldn¡¯t even stop one of those two¡¯s snorts. I was incredibly weak and this world offered so much more¡­


    After having rushed for more than an hour, I saw nothing but a flaming carcass of what used to be that quaint and beautiful little village.


    The smoke was rising as I didn¡¯t see the duo floating in the air nor the remaining parts of the village which I assume the fire mage took care of. The view felt heartbreaking as I know for a fact that hundreds are buried in those ashes, I could only hope that some people made it out and hopefully the kid also makes it out alright.


    I didn¡¯t know where the other runaways from the village escaped to but I kept travelling towards the caverns as that was the only place I knew of while contemplating what kind of world I ended up in.


    ¡°Phoenix, this world seems a lot more dangerous than I previously believed¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, those two guys that destroyed the village probably belonged to a larger organization from the way they were acting so we have to be careful around these parts.¡± Phoenix calmly stated.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    ¡°I feel really weak¡­¡± I say while my eyes look back one last time at the village.


    ¡°Then grow stronger until you don¡¯t.¡±


    Two words, two fucking words were all I needed but the level of commitment and strength those two words required of me were as deep and unfathomable as the oceans on Earth or the skies above it.


    ¡°Grow Stronger.¡± I felt myself stuck in a loop these past few days, where I wasn¡¯t really improving but simply enjoying myself for what little accomplishments I made. As if learning how to light a match in a world where others grow up learning to set a mountain on fire, I felt ridiculous at my previous notion of absolute power and my so called goals.


    ¡°Phoenix. What would I need to do to become the strongest on this planet?¡±


    ¡°Create your own power.¡±


    As I kept jogging towards the cavern, what Phoenix told me kept repeating itself over and over again.


    ¡®How do I create my own power? What kind of power?¡¯ All sorts of thoughts flooded my mind as I realize bits and pieces of what needs to be done and a plan slowly forms in my formerly na?ve mind as to how I will dominate this new world.


    Being weak was my biggest fear. I realized this the more I talked to Phoenix and what I cherished people in that village? What if those were my loved one¡¯s that were being threatened to be burnt to a crisp in front of me? I shivered at the idea of being so powerless.


    These thoughts and different forms of power kept collaborating in my mind to create waves of new ideas and formulas for a stronger power, my very own shield for protection and sword for progression.


    Walking into the cave, lit by its dim radiance, I sat down near the far end of its walls and simply meditated on my next plans.


    ¡°Phoenix, how do I create a new power? I asked anxiously as I needed a real way to protect myself and I realized my little fireball and earth spike were as good as the goblizard idiots they were used to hunt.


    ¡°Well, use what you have to build what you need! What did you get ever since coming to this world?¡± Phoenix asked as if I was an idiot for even asking this.


    ¡°Phoenix, I know I can just use magic but thing I am trying to figure out is how to build a proper combination of energy to create my own source of power like we said previously. I don¡¯t want just any regular power as I need something that can withstand against those massive fire spears and other energies! ¡° I clarify as I felt that Phoenix wasn¡¯t going to stop treating me like a kid otherwise.


    ¡°Ah, see now that¡¯s more fun. Hmm, I think you should figure out what direction you want to head in first.¡±


    ¡°Direction? Meaning?¡± I ask puzzled.


    ¡°Yup. Direction. Manipulating the energies of the world has many uses and as such many ways in which it can be used.¡± Phoenix spread out a tentacle and started drawing on the cave floor in front of me as it continued its description.


    One is the energetic enhancement route, which in simple terms just enhances the body through the accumulation and spread of energy within oneself.


    Two is the energetic manipulator who uses their manipulation of the energies to create different phenomena in the world around them.


    ¡° Now, obviously these are the two simplest ways to describe these two different paths but each contain a myriad of complexities that only those devoted to their respective routes could ever begin to see so don¡¯t ever underestimate either!¡± Phoenix sternly warned me while emphasizing that last part.


    ¡°Alright, well I¡¯d rather go the manipulation route since I want to be able to create a set of spells that are unique to me and can fit various circumstances instead of just fighting, you know?¡±


    ¡°Great, now you need to figure out how exactly to do that. We don¡¯t have much info but if you really want power, you¡¯re going to have to put a lot of thoughts into what you want to create and then figure out how to create it. I know the basics of energy manipulation and that it has limitless possibilities but we¡¯re both beginners in the actual ¡°doing¡± parts.¡± Phoenix admitted.


    ¡°Fair enough, I figured you weren¡¯t some one stop shop to all the info I was ever going to need to know, haha.¡± Having figured out some direction in my current situation, I couldn¡¯t help but try and lighten my mood as the village burning down really made me feel uneasy especially at how powerless I was.


    ¡°Hey, Doesn¡¯t change the fact that I am still amazing! Hehe.¡± A proud wiggle followed that statement which forced a smile onto my depressed face.


    My experience in this world so far has been nothing like a novel or story would ever be. I had to learn the language on my own, well with some assistance of course but nonetheless the learning wasn¡¯t some speedy trick, the reality of my predicament made me realize that this world was very real and not going to go my way unless I learn to be extremely powerful like those mysterious figures who burned the whole village down.


    My mind couldn¡¯t help but relieve the image of those giant seven spears of flaming death that one of the men could control. It was too extravagant how powerful he was.

 Chapter 31 Time spent

    Standing in the well-spaced cave with beads of sweat rolling off my forehead and my hands stretched out in front of me while I continue to pant heavily.


    ¡°Jupiter you need to move it faster!¡± Phoenix yelled.


    ¡°I get it, I¡¯m trying geez! When did you turn so military!?¡± I cried while the pain kept reaching me in waves.


    ¡°Pah! What military? If I were really military, you would have learned to control this skill a month ago!¡± She retorted at my whining.


    Yes, ¡°She¡±. Many things had changed after the village had burned down and this was not the only surprising change but probably one that was pretty expected at this point.


    I had been staying in this part of the country completely avoiding the rest of the world to be honest.


    Call it my adjustment period because this shit was really happening and aside from Phoenix, I really had no cheat code in this world to help me out nor was I born in some noble family to help me acclimate to the rest of the world. I have no clue how anything works and all I have is a jumble of knowledge from my old world and newly ¡°hormonal¡± god slime.


    A few weeks into my seclusion from the world, me and Phoenix found a bizarre plant growing on the outskirts of the cavern system near a cliff like area and Phoenix as usual, attracted by its blue petals, red pistils, azure leaves and its uniquely distributed petal shapes forming the image of a bird couldn¡¯t help but scan it. After which, it turned out the plant was probably really rare as Phoenix went into hibernation for close to two days straight which scared the daylights out of me as I felt really lonely and worried for Phoenix but after Phoenix woke up, things were perfectly fine aside from the fact that ¡°it¡± turned into ¡°she¡±.


    The explanation I had received was that she was tempted both ways originally but felt that since I was a male and this is how I was, she kind of leaned towards being a female and seeing how well off those villager girls were doing and how pretty they were compared to ugly things like myself, hurtful words by the way, Phoenix started going the female route which seemed to suit her tastes while being quite honest about how I totally influenced that decision.


    I was also relieved to find out, I wasn¡¯t going to get ditched by the ice queen, because she still wanted a body and I wasn¡¯t ¡°SO¡± bad of a companion.  Our relationship was going alright and I felt a lot less scared by all the changes especially since Phoenix got a huge boost to her innate capabilities after her hibernation. She was smarter, quicker to react and a lot better at planning and helping me out when it came to growing stronger, making plans and all that good stuff.


    Back to what I am doing right now?  I¡¯m currently suffering from being tortured by the slime queen who seems to really believe that I haven¡¯t been trying my best to learn this new skill I¡¯ve been trying to develop so she has made it her passion to instill in me the dread of not showing her my sincerity.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ¡° Phoenix, two minutes! Give me two minutes to breathe, I need air!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but feel like this new Phoenix was really different from the mild mannered one I used to love and know.


    ¡°Tsk, so weak. You really expect to do anything with how bad you are at this? Sigh, I feel so bad for myself. Going to have to wait maybe a century or two before finding a proper body because you¡¯re too weak to provide.¡±


    I swear, those words stung like a b*tch. It sounded almost exactly like my ex-girlfriend complaining about how I was never going to be able to provide for the family and now Phoenix was going to tell me that shit? Fuck that!


    I raise my arms again, I focus all my attention at my core which had expanded slightly to the size of two fingernails and was transmitting the energy from it to my palms as two dull obsidian black colored needles materialized about a foot each in length and as thick as chopsticks.


    I focus intently as I force them to start rotating which was made easier by their conical pattern running along their sides, after which I started to get them to basically play a game of tag between each other while zooming in and out between all the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave. This was probably my 50<sup>th</sup> attempt at this while Phoenix counted down with her biological timer.


    ¡°2 minutes and 38 seconds, Okay, you still suck but it¡¯s better than yesterday¡¯s 3 minutes.¡±


    ¡°Gee, thanks Phoenix. I don¡¯t know how I could do anything without you.¡± I sarcastically replied but the wiggling in my brain notified me that I was taken 100% seriously at that comment.


    I had eventually decided to go with the learning more specialized magic than I initially intended because both me and Phoenix realized that while flashy magic like fire magic and water magic are great. Reality proved that being able to do things efficiently and getting away with it was key and magic honestly made that amazingly easy.


    My offensive magic revolved around different types of needles made from earth, compressed by wind while being heated with fire making extremely sharp needles that I had learned to cast within a few seconds and best of all it grows in useable range as my magic core grows in size.


    Defense was a little tricky as I wanted something that wasn¡¯t just a mana shield or water shield but unique and with better chances at keeping me alive even if the attack gets through which led to Phoenix and me creating a sort of air bubble with a repulsion field set with me as its center. Like when two magnets with the same charge repulse each other but with me just pushing everything away, this took a lot of thinking but with Phoenix being close to the intelligence level of an AI and her recent upgrade. Things worked out more or less though we haven¡¯t tested everything against it, most basic magic and solid objects get repulsed.


    Last but not least, the best gains from this seclusion were from learning the basic alchemy of the world. Me and Phoenix became quite interested in this last part as we discovered through using various ingredients that we could create some unique potions that could enhance ourselves not only permanently but with amazing efficiency since I don¡¯t know what professional alchemist use in this world but Phoenix being able to scan to the genetic level was a boon that made alchemy incredibly potent.


    Our discoveries in that field didn¡¯t end there since we managed to be able to hunt two alpha foxhorns over the course of my seclusion; we managed to get two small beast cores. This set everything off, messing around with the beast cores while scanning them for potential uses in alchemy lead to probably the biggest and most amazing discovery for my personal enhancement.


    These beast cores through a special mix of Phoenixs¡¯ abilities and my personal unique core, we discovered that I could directly absorb beast cores! I had no clue if others could do it this way but Phoenix mentioned that by her knowledge you needed special technology to take the energy out of beast core and transfer it into your personal core but I could skip the process by directly smashing the cores into energy and absorbing it through my mana like the opposite of how creating a crystal core happens.


    I wasn¡¯t 100% sure about the whole process and one day I would figure it out but for now, all I needed was the fact that I could increase my power rapidly by hunting and that was all that I needed.

 Chapter 32 – Forest of beasts

    Phoenix and I didn¡¯t wait very long after having gone through a month and a half of seclusion to leave.


    The food was bland and repetitive, the days were spent doing nothing but training magic and learning alchemy which was quite interesting but can become quite mundane when you don¡¯t get to even have a day off to have fun. ¡®Where are my otherworldly beauties to feed me grapes while wiping away my sweat?¡¯ I was excited to see the cities and different countries this new world had to offer especially because I was incredibly sick and goddamn tired of the wilderness being the only goddamn scenery AND place of residence I have had since coming here.


    ¡°I¡¯m a man with desires too!¡± I mumble as I jog eastwards towards the decrepit cabin I found after coming to this world.


    ¡°Yes, yes. I notice some of those desires you have from your superficial brainwaves. Pervert!¡±


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡®What the flying fuck! She¡¯s reading my ¡°superficial¡± brainwaves? Isn¡¯t that just eavesdropping and what the fuck I¡¯m a guy! A perfectly healthy GUY!¡¯ My thoughts nearly burst into reality.


    ¡°Phoenix. I am a healthy and active male. These are perfectly normal and can you PLEASE not eavesdrop on my thoughts!¡± I nearly lost it as I tried as calmly as possible to utter those words.


    ¡°Haha, it¡¯s not eavesdropping if you think about it for so long that the electrical signals start creating a recognizable pattern, you know?¡± She retorts with attitude.


    ¡°Sigh¡­ still! Can¡¯t you like turn on a privacy filter or something? It¡¯s weird knowing you can find out about that stuff¡­¡± Sigh, slime in your brain that can recognize your sexual thoughts and is a female just seems like psychological torture.


    ¡°Hehe, then you should promise me some good food! You know, you should really treat me better, hmpf.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes. Let¡¯s go to that forest and hopefully I can find us some good ingredients for better potions and maybe some rare beast cores.¡±


    Recently, it feels like having a little sister that is extremely clingy and nosey yet I can¡¯t do anything but just struggle through. ¡®Sigh, I can see why they most likely succeed in getting bodies made for them. Privacy becomes a fucking luxury later down the line.¡¯ We continued to chat about what we were expecting from the great new world while making our way eastwards, deeper into the forest.


    The forest in the country of Aromt, according to the meager amounts of information, we managed to dig up on the country from the books. The forest to the east was quite a dangerous place. It held high ranked world-beasts and didn¡¯t have any cities or villages in it even though it covered close to half the damn country¡¯s area size.


    Apparently, the forest was home to some a tribe of intelligent world-beast but all that made me think of was cute cat eared women with fluffy tales but I didn¡¯t have the heart to fantasize about those types of women appearing in my life since I, Jupiter, will obviously never get that kind of luck. Knowing my luck, the type of beasts I would meet are probably along the lines of lizard people with scales all over their bodies and the females just look slightly curvier or something.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Sigh,¡± After my umpteenth sigh, I finally catch sight of my old decrepit cabin as I stayed here longer than I even stayed in the village so it wasn¡¯t too hard to find it by memory.  I tried not to remember the village too often as the massacre wasn¡¯t the prettiest sight though luckily I managed to get out before suffering any real trauma.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s rest here one night and head out deeper into the forest in the morning.¡±


    ***


    Just like that, with breaks at night to eat and rest, we spent the next four days travelling on foot eastwards towards the forest of beasts.


    The trip itself was uneventful, which surprised me as I expected something but I guess you can¡¯t always be running into fantasy story bandits or weird plot progressing monsters. The world is sometimes just so real and boring like anywhere else, but I can¡¯t really complain at having a smooth travel towards the forest as I know that once I get there things will start to get a little tiring.


    I mentally reviewed the checklist we came up with for the future or at least the short term goals.


    -Set up some sort of base camp in the outer edge of the forest.


    -Collect new plants and herbs for alchemy experiments.


    -Beast cores for assimilating.


    -Not think of porn.


    ¡®Sounds like a great plan indeed. That last one seems a little much, you say? Well how about you try being a perfectly healthy 23 year old that hasn¡¯t gotten laid in over 2 months. You get antsy!¡¯


    ¡°Phoenix, could you show me my stats?¡± I ask to distract my thoughts.


    ¡°Aye aye, capt¡¯n!¡± My first mate does as requested.


    Status


    -Jupiter


    -Human


    Abilities:


    -           Keen senses ( Slime symbiosis effect )


    -           Adept Energy Manipulation ( improved)


    -           Enhanced Mental Cognition


    -           Increased energy regeneration (Crystal core)


    -           Supreme energy conductors      (Crystal core)


    -           Core assimilation (unique trait)


    Physical:


    Strength      ¨C 4


    Defense       ¨C10 (100%)


    Stamina       ¨C 3


    Agility          ¨C 4


    Vitality         ¨C 4.5


    Energy         ¨C 15


    ¡°Wow, things look pretty good now.¡± I felt pretty proud at my status screen compared to when I just got it.


    ¡°Yeah, Defense at 10, Stamina went up by 1, and best increase was your energy levels from 10.15 to 15!¡± Phoenix gave me the run down.


    ¡°Hehe, I wonder how good it will be when I become all badass and dominate cities in this world!¡± I boldly declared while drooling at the idea of just floating above a city and declaring it mine.


    ¡°Okay, there buddy. Baby steps.¡± One the things I loved most about Phoenix was that out of all the little remarks she makes, she never tries to get me to put down my evil thoughts on world dominate yet just patiently tells me to wait and plan one step at a time. It is nice knowing god slime approves of my personal quest for ascension to godhood.


    The march towards the actual forest of beasts wasn¡¯t too hard to navigate as the forest just seemed to get denser the more eastwards you headed. The plants and foliage started cropping up more frequently and after the whole four days, I could see trees everywhere, bushes, vines, plants, flowers, bugs of all sorts just crawling all over the place. If it wasn¡¯t for Phoenix having an amazing sense of direction, I would probably get lost just figuring out which direction to head in.


    It was midday when I noticed that we were most likely in the forest of beasts as I finally saw the first other creature that wasn¡¯t a foxhorn or goblizard.


    It was a little rabbit looking thing with short tiny ears, small beady eyes and an extremely long snout that just doesn¡¯t match its body. Imagine a rabbit, a squirrel and an anteater mated and you got this little brown furred ugly.


    I didn¡¯t even bother trying to hunt it down because it just seemed so small and pointless. I shouldn¡¯t satisfy myself with such cannon fodder.


    Scaring off the little critter, It dawned on me that I was clueless as to what sort of unique beast lay in this region as most who enter usually don¡¯t come out from what I read in the village but maybe people in Opirum the capital city have a differing opinion.


    ¡°Phoenix, compared to that guy we saw destroying the village, how strong would you say I am now?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, if we look at it from a purely technical standpoint, you would amount to maybe 5% of his strength on a good day?¡± A slightly unconfident answer came out of her. Clearly, she is being nice with that 5% estimate.


    ¡°Okay, maybe I am still young, how about a non-technical view?¡± At this point, my ego just wanted a boost.


    ¡°Maybe a sneak attack would give you a 2% chance of killing him if he was tired or poisoned maybe?¡± Phoenix is clearly spouting nonsense. Clearly.


    ¡°¡­¡±


    ¡®This brat!¡¯ Was all my mind could say.


    ¡°Forget it Phoenix, I¡¯ll just focus on what¡¯s ahead. Let¡¯s go find a small river or stream so I can get us a little cabin going.¡±


    ¡°Oh you know how to build a cabin now?¡± Phoenix seemed curious about my sudden capabilities which made me feel a little better for some reason.


    ¡°Haha, of course. Watch me.¡±


    We headed further east, deeper in the thick jungle that is the beast forest. Eventually, after a few hours of walking, I managed to locate a stream from the residual water particles in the air having gotten denser. My sensitivity towards all these new energies made me ecstatic at what was possible as magic seemed so inherently simple to use as long as one mastered its manipulation.

 Chapter 33 – Cabin skills

    Absorb energy from the surrounding environment, process it through your energy core and finally manipulate it into the elements of your choosing before compressing the energy into a tangible form of matter whether it be gas, rock, earth, wood, water, etc.


    Having found a decent location for the base camp, I didn¡¯t dally too long as it was going to become night soon and I really didn¡¯t want to sleep outside where I didn¡¯t even know what kind of new creepy creation was going to show up. I flexed my muscles and stretched a little before doing a couple of breathing exercises to make sure my body was doing good and started working.


    I started by gathering a nice basketball size obsidian colored rock and started using the skills I learnt from earth spike and the rock needles I created and started molding the stone in a two disks. I continued by making sure the disks were about a third of a centimeter thick with my mana without breaking it and finally made the edges completely serrated like a saw.


    My energy manipulation wasn¡¯t amazing but having practiced with the needles for over a month helped me control objects with my energy within a short radius and I eventually had the idea that this skill could be used for more than just assassination type attacks with the needles. Just like when you shoot a fireball and control it in a certain direction, this level of manipulation can do amazing things.


    I started concentrating with a calm expression on the two disks and created a link between them and my energy by imbuing it with a steady flow from my crystal core which seemed to really help with the manipulation part and started making the ¡°saw blades¡± start rotating.


    It didn¡¯t take much effort before I got a slow spin going but it took a  while before I got them spinning at good speed for my cabin creation.


    ¡®If only I could make them spin this fast instantly, haa, my enemies would die from my superior penetration. Hehe, superiod penetration.¡¯ Yes, I needed to get some sex and soon because all this intense hunting, running from giant OP wizards and trying to grow in power leaves a brother frustrated at times. The women in the village weren¡¯t all that bad as some of them were quite cute but unfortunately, some asshole just had to go a burn it down.


    I also regretted now going back to ransack some things but the scene of everyone just burning and running away just left a bad impression on going back to pilfer and see whatever gory sight remained.


    Focusing my attention back on the task at hand, I started sawing some 30 centimeter size trees while using my second saw blade to cut off branches and bumps. I made logs all even sized and made notches in them on their ends so that they fit one on top of the other. It took a few hours but I managed to make it work with what I had.


    Sun was finally bordering on the horizon and giving off a glow that resembled the northern lights back on Earth and it was just as beautiful if not more as the golden sunsets I used to love watching while sipping on my lonely hot chocolate. I didn¡¯t really make a large cabin as once I made the four walls, it was close to being a 3 by 3 meters room and I just used some plants to create rope and use all the branches with leaves as a roof, I could of made it out of wood and all nice, but I was just exhausted and didn¡¯t want to continue this laborious crap. Already I would of just made a small tent with some sticks had I not had mana.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Using the saws to cut out a small door and making simple hinges and a incredibly useless lock, I settled down in the cabin for the night.


    Eating some leftover meat, I started chatting with Phoenix as I wanted some praise for the cabin and because she wanted to talk about our plans for the next day.


    ¡°Not too shabby¡± Was all I got and I seriously started wondering what kind of fucking magnificence this slime was raised in to call my amazing goddamn cabin. I was starting to think that Phoenix may have been a part of some slime nobility because I if she knew me a little longer on Earth, she would probably bow at how such a lazy, hermit, recluse, empty shell of a man could ever build anything beyond a stick figure on paper and yes, that is in fact, just drawing.


    ¡° We can scope out the perimeter of this area tomorrow and try and get used to the area for a while as we head into deeper regions and try to fight stronger beasts.¡± Phoenix mentioned as she was going over our to do list to keep busy, mostly to make sure I work on improving myself.


    ¡°Yeah, I am worried about what you said earlier at how some of these stronger beasts most likely have their own unique abilities though. Would my needles and my little magnetic repulsion field be enough?¡±


    I was seriously regretting not at least buying or looting a sword or a bow and arrow. I was sure they had a blacksmith but my shitty luck made sure all form of ¡°external¡± help would obviously burn into ashes within a day of my entering a village.


    ¡°Yeah, I am still surprised at how people on your planet don¡¯t really practice martial skills of any sort aside from the sports and some minority groups you mentioned. It¡¯s amazing how a planet could be so defenseless against the universe.¡±


    ¡°Well, you said it yourself Phoenix, Earth was a backwater planet in a backwater system. We didn¡¯t even know for sure whether life outside our planet existed.¡±


    ¡°Hahahaha! I mean you guys had some knowledge as to how big the universe was, how stupid must a race be to think they¡¯re the only ones! Hahaha.¡± Phoenix couldn¡¯t stop laughing once I made that comment which made me regret it as I still didn¡¯t like my humble origins being mocked.


    ¡°Shut up. You¡¯re no better, getting lost to Earth of all places. Some super slime you are.¡± I tried to get her back but I felt like I just added oil to the already burning reputation that Earth had ever had.


    ¡°Ouh, someone is sensitive about Earthlings. Haha, alright it¡¯s fine. I won¡¯t keep reminding you of your super hometown.¡±


    ¡°Sigh, whatever. Oh yeah! Phoenix! I¡¯ve been thinking about this recently but you think if we gathered enough toxic herbs, I could add poison to my needles? It might make hunting easier if they die faster, you know?¡±


    I was really striving to go towards a quick, stealthy and relatively safer method of hunting as I didn¡¯t feel like I had it in me to really be the type to just start one on one matches with unknown monsters or even those super mages. I was considering maybe even learning how to make my own plants or grow poison plants of my own creation as Phoenix mentioned that synthesizing is possible through energy manipulation but sadly, Phoenix didn¡¯t have the required specifics aside from general knowledge on a lot of things.


    ¡°Potentially but I don¡¯t think it would be a good idea to use anything that goes beyond stun or paralysis since we may want to absorb the creature or you may want to eat the meat. We could probably make some really toxic stuff but it would be useless if it doesn¡¯t help us improve besides just obtaining their beast cores.¡±


    She did make sense, my fantasy of creating some super bio weapon fell down the drain with that explanation.


    ¡° Also Jupiter, if we wanted to get some level of stun or paralysis we would have to capture a bunch of guinea pigs to test out different combinations of plants from the area.¡± She added


    ¡°Wait, when did we see guinea pigs? You mean those rabbit looking things?¡± I didn¡¯t remember seeing any guinea pigs and was wondering when Phoenix noticed one.


    ¡°No you idiot! TEST SUBJECTS!¡± Well, let¡¯s just say that when it came to my intelligence, Phoenix was not impressed. Not one bit.


    ¡°Oh! Hey! I¡¯m just tired from building this goddamn cabin, cut me some slack!¡± I however, will deny all allegations towards my superior intellect not being superior.

 Chapter 34 Hunt

    A full nights rest later, we woke up to the sound of buzzing insects and strange bird calls where at some point I even thought an ambulance was nearby which freaked me out.


    ¡®Sigh, strange world, freaky birds.¡¯ I didn¡¯t linger on the thought too long as I needed to get ready for the day. Phoenix was still using the tentacles to read one of the alchemy books while simultaneously ingraining the knowledge at a slow pace in my mind. It was probably one of her most ¡°unique¡± skills to say the least. I could still think my own thoughts but I could feel a slight numbing sensations coming from somewhere within my brain and if I try to think about alchemy or anything she has been transferring over, I can remember things I never recalled actually learning myself. Nonetheless, it was incredibly useful.


    ¡°Morning Phoenix.¡± I greeted as I simply got a rub from one of the tentacles which I learned over time was just her greeting me while still ignoring me due to her reading. First time I heard her explanation, I just thought it was a weird slime thing.


    Eating some jerky, I head over to the stream near the house while surveying the surroundings and didn¡¯t notice anything unusual which made me breathe a sigh of relief as I really didn¡¯t want to encounter a beast on my way to wash my face and take a piss. Phoenix was already done her little transfer and reminded me we should explore the surroundings and hopefully find some good stuff to improve which lead me to question about how much she knew of magic.


    I wasn¡¯t too surprised or let down to find out her knowledge was the equivalent of a ¡°general enquiries¡± book with no specialization aside from her unique abilities to help improve herself and her host simultaneously.


    ¡° I didn¡¯t really expect magic to be so much more free than what I¡¯ve somewhat expected from reading random novels.¡± I told Phoenix as I understood that magic was more of a pool of water that can be shaped into anything rather than an energy that required spell models, or complicated rune knowledge and such to activate.


    ¡°It¡¯s a natural rule or so the people who research the matter declared. They said that the energy that is absorbed, though it may be of a certain elemental affinity, is still made from a base energy that is available in all forms of matter and phenomena which equates to basically the building blocks of this universe itself.¡± Phoenix explained a bit more which clarified some of the questions I had and made me a lot more excited about the different uses I may be able to come up with.


    ¡°Though Jupiter, you should remember that for more powerful or unique uses to be acquired you would need a more in depth knowledge of different methods to more easily manipulate your energy or what you keep calling mana. Learning about runes, magic circles, manipulation methods, etc.¡±


    I eventually managed to get Phoenix to start calling the universal energy mana and the whole energy manipulation thing magic as it sounds simpler to me and to be honest, made the whole experience more exciting which motivated me.


    ¡°Thanks Phoenix, I should maybe enroll in some school on this planet at some point when we reach a city since we are definitely sure there must be some sort of organization to learn more from since we saw those mysterious guys.¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    ¡°Oh that sounds fun. I could get access to their library that way.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll get you your books. Anyways, let¡¯s get to hunting.¡±


    I sighed as I was slightly disappointed that we didn¡¯t really know any ways to make me more silent and stealthy. I did manage to make myself slightly faster but my small energy pool left me to have to save in case I had to use my other skills when faced with unexpected situations.


    I made another spike bat with a smoother and better design after having learnt to control my mana more which resulted in a spike bat looking just like one from an actual crafter rather than a savage caveman. I still had my little special dagger and made a few premade stone needles that I could easily enhance rather than make one from scratch as mana dissipates when control over it is lost. The premade needles were a little more fragile than the ones I made from pure energy but I could resolve the issue if I had enough time but I carried close to 20 in a pouch I made myself from a foxhorns pelt.


    We head out still moving further east as I wanted to see what was there to find in this jungle. I knew that I was still in the outer perimeter as I remembered that stronger territorial beasts usually wouldn¡¯t any creatures near their zones due to their ¡°aura¡± or whatever it is they send out into their surroundings and they would usually live deeper closer to the center of any large wilderness area. These were my self-proclaimed survival knowledge that I just assumed based on what little real world knowledge and vast library of novels in my head.


    Walking further into the jungle, the surroundings were covered with dense underbrush, plants and trees, I noticed a few unique looking plants and herbs which I gathered to examine closely later and continued marching further into the jungle.


    An hour or so later during the little expedition, we finally saw what looked like a boar of some sorts digging its snout into the ground, practically trying to bury its face in it like those ostriches that shoved their heads into the sand. It had thick black fur that looked like it had razor sharp needles instead of hair and had two tusks with a row of bone spikes on its forehead. It didn¡¯t really look like a boar but it was the closest thing I could compare its look to but it didn¡¯t decrease the level of fear that arose in me as this was the first creature that looked big enough to seriously injure me with a height bordering my stomach, those tusks looked terrifying.


    I regretted not having built a bow of some sort but my skills were less than qualified to even attempt it as I knew it would probably have the power equaling the full strength of a spit ball shot through a straw.


    Sidestepping while making sure to not step on branches that could snap and making sure the boar was alone, I moved to its rear while closely watching it to make sure it didn¡¯t notice me. The ears or nubs of skin on the side of its head twitched a few times but it kept digging into the ground so I was left unnoticed.


    I was close to 9 feet away from the boars behind and I slowly with as little noise as possible pulled out three obsidian needles and started channeling some mana into it to get them ready to strike without noise but the moment I started channeling my mana, the boar lifted its head and started looking around which stunned me for a second.


    ¡°Jupiter, get ready NOW!¡± Phoenix whispered in my ear and brought me back, I still wasn¡¯t used to this, the smaller creatures made me fear less so I didn¡¯t have to worry as much but things that could kill me easily like the boar still managed to stun me.


    I stopped hesitating as I got the needles to float near me with my mana manipulation and decided to calmly watch its reactions without moving while staying behind a bush and peering through its gaps. The boar was on guard as it probably sensed my mana and I wasn¡¯t sure if I should attack and risk exposing myself or keep hiding hoping it goes back to shoving its face into dirt.


    I hesitated for a few seconds before firming my resolve and remembering one of the tactics me and Phoenix thought up. I sent a needle towards its left flank while trying to make sure the needle curves so that it doesn¡¯t immediately recognize where I am and with my current speed, I still managed to catch it off guard but boar seemed to have a good reaction as it twisted its body sideways and used its tusk to hit my needle aside. I immediately sent the remaining two with as much speed as I could muster while trying to add in a rotation but due to the pressure the needles only spun slowly.


    ¡°EEEEEEUUUUUUHK¡± A large brutish squeal sounded in the jungle and I rush forward towards the boar as my second and third needle managed to penetrate the belly of the boar which caused it to scream.


    Running forward with the spiked bat in my hands, I muster all the increased strength and agility I had and smashed it on the side of its jaw. The boar was stunned from the needles which gave me enough time to land a perfect blow. Unfortunately, I hugely underestimated this things endurance because it just shook its head from the blow to the face but stood standing.

 Chapter 35 First real fight

    ¡°Continue to smash it, I¡¯ll send a fireball¡± Phoenix sent out a tentacle from my back and started preparing a fireball while I was left to dash to the boars side again while trying to find an opportunity to smash it in the face. I lost control of the needles when the boar didn¡¯t fall from my strike as I was still new at doing a physical fight while maintaining my connection to the needles.


    I smashed towards it face again but the enraged boar fought back with its head spikes which deflected the hit. I was sure that hitting it anywhere else was pointless as I could see how tough the hide on its back was. The boar started charging at me the moment my second hit was deflected which made me have to roll to the side to dodge as I didn¡¯t expect the thing to be this fast either. The boar was a fucking freak in my eyes. The good thing was the Phoenix finished the spell by that time and shot it towards the boar as I started my roll. Getting back my balance, I watched for a second as the boar groaned in pain from a fireball to the face and grabbed another needle from my quiver and manipulated it as fast as I could while stepping to the side. The boar had shoved its face into the ground to put out the fire burning its face but I used those precious seconds and shot another needle into the belly again. The Boar squealed again and just starting bucking randomly while trying to hit me which made me have to start dodging the goddamn thing again and lose control of my needle which I was trying to disfigure its bowls with.


    I ended up getting hit on my left arm with one of its tusks while side stepping and the pain made me wince but Phoenix yelled at me to jump back which I did just in time because I was almost rammed into again. At this point, the pain had pissed me off so much that I just directly sent my mana into right palm and conjured my black flames and shot it directly at its face again before jumping right. I was surprised at what followed as the flame hit the boars face, the boar started squealing again but it sounded a lot more terrifying as if the pain was unbearably bad. I didn¡¯t waste my chance as I created another black fireball and shot it at sides right towards its stomach before jumping back and positioning myself behind a tree while looking at the boar. The boar struggle a little longer but the bleeding from the three needles in its body and the two black fireballs managed to finish it as the sounds of its squeals grew to a whisper before the thing finally fell.


    I had never expected a simple boar to be this challenging and just collapsed on my butt while panting.


    ¡°My god, these things are so goddamn durable.¡± I cried as I was still in pain from the hit to my left arm which was worrying me as it felt numb but I wasn¡¯t sure if anything was broken.


    ¡°Haha, good job with the fight there. We managed to get away with only minor injuries!¡± Phoenix seemed really cheery from winning the fight and I couldn¡¯t help but smile as well from her wiggling in my head, after all, it hurt but we still won.


    ¡°Phoenix, can you check my arm to make sure everything is alright? Let¡¯s go look at what we got.¡± I said as I pushed myself up with my right arm while leaving the left one just hanging before walking over slowly towards the dead boar.


    I wasn¡¯t sure whether it was really dead or not so I sent another needle into its stomach but it didn¡¯t move so I was reassured of a confirmed kill. I started inspecting the boar and from the closer look, it really was a  thick monster of a beast. It felt like the thing could easily bulldoze through a group of bodybuilders that all weighed 200 pounds.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°I think you should take a seat neat the boar and meditate for a bit. I¡¯ll try to see what we can get from the boar in the meantime as your left arm has a couple of cracks and is seriously swollen. We can try to heal it with your mana.¡±


    Nodding my head, I sat down behind the boars back with mine facing it while Phoenix did her thing with the four tentacles sprouting out of me. I closed my eyes and just started focusing on gathering the natural energy in the air while trying to redirect it towards my left arm where the pain was.


    Before I knew it, I felt a little tingling from my neck which reassured me Phoenix found something at least but sadly the feeling only lasted a couple of minutes unlike the usual lengthy meditations. My arm did start feeling better as when I opened my eyes, the swelling reduced and the damaged area just felt itchy rather than the violent pain I felt earlier.


    ¡°Tough fight¡± I casually remarked.


    ¡°We¡¯re still too weak if this thing is able to cause us this much grief.¡± Phoenix mentions as I turn to look at the dead boar. It looked slightly thinner from its earlier constitution but I guess that is a given.


    ¡®Man, I really need to improve the damage done by the needles, I also want to join a mage academy¡­ sounds so fun but I should probably get stronger first so I can maybe get a girlfriend or be a badass hehe..¡¯ My thoughts derailing at the first thought of a girlfriend in fantasy land. Maybe two, ha¡­ I could handle two.


    ¡°You should stop with your lewd thoughts and start skinning buddy.¡± Phoenix reminds me.


    ¡°Pfff. I have no idea where you get such ideas. What happened to my pure Phoenix? Sigh.¡±


    ¡°YOU HAPPENED, idiot.¡±


    I laugh at her little outburst though I do feel a little guilty about turning my pure Phoenix into such naughty god slime.


    ¡®Well, can¡¯t be helped now. Hopefully when she gets a body, she isn¡¯t as demented as me if not I would feel bad for her future husband.¡¯


    After getting a few pieces of meat off the boar and saving the tusks as material for some stronger needles, we start a campfire to have some lunch. With my alchemy skills, making some decent skewers became incredibly easy and delicious especially when the meat tastes so divine and fresh compared to all that processed food from Earth.


    Lunch didn¡¯t last long before we set out again to find out what other creatures live around these parts. Hoping to gain some better proficiency in my needles, I start working on the boar tusks and head horns manipulating them as best as I can with my mana to form stronger spiral needles while keeping a slow pace just in case any hidden dangers appear. I managed to get three decent needles of slightly differing sizes out of the horns but the tusks were a lot harder to manipulate for some reason maybe because they were already curved.


    ¡°Phoenix, how far can your senses reach now?¡±


    ¡°About 30 feet, it¡¯s my maximum range until I get a body.¡± She replied with some anticipation.


    ¡°Hey, what exactly do I need to do again for the body? I might as well be up to date on the specifics since I¡¯d rather not upset my little Phoenix and not get her a body.¡±


    She wiggled a little, seemingly pleased at my words. ¡° Depends really, you still need your crystal mana core to grow to about the size of a fist and possibly condense once more since I doubt you would be able to handle the mana required when it comes to making a proper body even with my help. We also need to gather some unique materials. Specifically, the body and core of a high level creature that has its own unique abilities, a life crystal which I don¡¯t know if they have on this planet but we could always create it if we find something with high vitality and finally we would need a magic circle that can stabilize the whole process and handle the mana and items into creating my body. I have the knowledge for the transfer but we would create our own magic circle to fit the requirements of the creature, vitality and whatever elements my new body would have upon ¡°birth¡± ¡°


    I whistle at the list, which in my opinion isn¡¯t as tough as I originally thought but more so just lengthy due to the required components and knowledge.


    ¡°I guess we do indeed need to join some magic school or at least get our hands on their library. What kind of elements were you looking to have in your body anyways?¡±


    ¡°Possibly fire since its one of my better affinities and I also chose fire because of Phoenix¡¯s having that cool body of fire description in your head.¡±


    ¡°Haha, sure. I¡¯ll make sure to get you the best body you could possibly want as thanks for everything.¡±


    ¡°Giggles, you better. I have to withstand those incredibly lewd thoughts after all.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± I was just thinking we were having a good bonding moment when she ruins it by calling me out on my crap. Sigh.

 Chapter 36 Glorified cook

    We both suddenly tense up as I sensed the feeling of being watched and Phoenix reacted similarly to my feeling.


    ¡°Jupiter, I don¡¯t sense anything within our immediate surroundings but stay on guard.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think whatever is watching is too strong since I¡¯m not feeling afraid, I just don¡¯t like this feeling though.¡±


    We start slowly scouting around the area, staying alert at all the sounds coming through the woods but aside from a few bird cries, I don¡¯t see or hear anything else which left me unnerved. The light peeking through the large trees were enough to see around but as we moved forward the area around started feeling more and more eerie which left me to start sweating as my paranoia was thinking of all the creepy beasties that could and will haunt my ass.


    I compel a boar horn to float near me as I focus on my surroundings while feeding it my energy to keep it ready for whatever surprise comes my way and a small repulsion field activated as I made sure to remember to keep it on this time which could have totally avoided me much pain from the stupid boar.


    While slowly moving forward I hear a low growl coming from my five o¡¯clock which made seized me for a second before I quickly turned my head with the horn ready to pierce whatever it was that made the sound.


    I see nothing in front of me and Phoenix was also watching but she mentioned she didn¡¯t see anything behind me even when the growl was made. The whole situation was devolving as fear starting creeping in and I started getting nervous at whatever unseen being was stalking us. I start looking around with my head darting from side to side before it landed on one of the tree branches about 40 feet away from me where I caught a shadow leap away.


    ¡°Did you see that?¡± I ask Phoenix.


    ¡°Yeah¡­ it was too quick for me to get a good look though.¡±


    ¡°Fuck. Alright, whatever it is, it¡¯s nimble as all hell. Stay alert while keeping an eye in my blind spots.¡±


    I started creeping low to the ground trying to find cover between the large trees or bushes as I moved towards the shadow. It wasn¡¯t my best skill but I still managed to creep forward but the feeling of approaching danger was getting stronger as I headed closer in the direction of where I came from.


    Suddenly, a black shadow pounces towards one of the branches to my left and I finally catch sight of what the hell was stalking us. It was a black panther looking thing with green spots of skin all over that looked like little clouds, two black horns facing towards its tail growing out the sides of its jaw with sharp green eyes and massive claws on its paws. I noticed two tails as well both with a spiked claw on their ends. The creature itself was just staring at me while showing me it¡¯s amazingly threatening teeth which practically reminded me of saber tooth tigers.


    ¡®Well, it sure knows how to fucking intimidate.¡¯ My mind sarcastically jokes as I start wondering how absurdly my brain even works.


    ¡°Phoenix, think we can take it on?¡± I ask with a thought directed at her.


    ¡°Probably¡­? It seems to be surprisingly fast so make sure you strengthen the repulsion field if it leaves our sight.¡±


    It was a good idea but I was still nervous as to what to do. I didn¡¯t feel like it was hunting me rather, I got the odd feeling it was just curious as to what I was.


    ¡®Maybe it saw me defeat the boar and decided I¡¯m not worth fighting?¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but try to rationalize an excuse to make the thing seem less ¡°killer panther¡± like. We continued our little stare off for what felt like ages to me before it suddenly disappeared as if it was nothing but an illusion. I couldn¡¯t even tell which direction it jumped in.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    I strengthened the repulsion field as best as I could, as my mana wasn¡¯t strong enough to create a very strong effect aside from the surrounding grass and plants within a small radius of me bending outwards.


    ¡°Jupiter, I think we should head back for now. That thing was way too fast for us to handle.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t help but agree without hesitation. It disappeared but the dreadful feeling of being watched had disappeared with the sly beast which slightly relived me but I kept tense while hurrying back towards the cabin.


    Surprisingly, the boar was still where I made the campfire as other beasts were probably too far away to come near it so I dragged the skinned boar hide with some more meat. I had expected it to be devoured by now but I guess the outer perimeter isn¡¯t as dangerous as I once thought.


    Back at the cabin, evening was upon us. Nothing was out of place nor was there any trail markings of anything having been around which relived me further since the panther hadn¡¯t followed after us since we left. We had probably entered its territory so it came to see what it was. Good thing it wasn¡¯t hungry.


    ¡°Well that wasn¡¯t fun.¡± I said.


    ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s head in another direction next time we go out. Probably the safer choice.¡± I agreed to her brilliant plans of avoiding the giant death machine right away.


    The whole ordeal left me tired and hungry so I made another fire to start grilling the boar meat we took back.


    To my shock, the first thing that happened after I started feasting on the meat was the horrible feeling I felt earlier. Getting anxious again, I start looking around and low and behold the goddamn panther shows up. I really wasn¡¯t expecting the thing to sneakily follow me back which kind of pissed me off considering I left it alone after our stare down. It should of gotten the hint that I didn¡¯t want to start a fight.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± I yell out as it slowly crept closer into view as it jumped from the branch before landing and just staring at me from about 50 feet away. I slowly put down the food so I can grab the horn needles from my pouch lying next to me but I noticed its gaze was followed the meat before returning to stare at  me which left me a little dazed for a moment.


    ¡°Phoenix, you think it wants my meat?¡± I asked Phoenix considering the death machines reaction.


    ¡°Maybe, could be the smell of cooked boar was what brought it to us the first time?¡± She answered a little unsure but told me to play it out to see.


    I didn¡¯t have much of an option as I really didn¡¯t want to fight the panther that was quicker than Phoenix¡¯s eyesight which is god slime level. I slowly grab one of the thicker chunks of cooked boar from one of the skewers while the Panther kept eyeing me and the meat. I threw it as least threateningly as I could while death machine over there stared which didn¡¯t fucking help as its stare was goddamn piercing.


    The meat flew over about three quarters of the way before the panther suddenly burst the missing distance and caught it. It chewed it relatively quick and swallowed before gazing back at me again.


    ¡°Well shit. Does it expect a whole goddamn free meal?¡± I was getting a little annoyed at death machine now as I had hardly started eating and I was already giving away meat.


    ¡°Would you rather fight it off?¡± Phoenix asked.


    ¡°Good point.¡± I didn¡¯t hold my own words too high as I immediately gave face to death machine and decided to just throw one of the boar thighs onto a skewer and place it by the fire.


    A little nervously, though I wouldn¡¯t let it show on my face since screw death machine over there, I said ¡° You¡¯re going to wait a few minutes if you want some meat cause the skewers are mine, I¡¯ll cook the thigh for you though.¡±


    Half expecting to have to jump into combat and half hoping it just left, I watched for the panthers reaction while staying as alert as possible with a back full of cold sweat. The panther just slightly tilted its head for a moment before sitting down on its butt and just staring at the boar thigh getting cooked.


    ¡°Huh, guess its smarter than it looks.¡±


    ¡°Beasts that can absorb mana are usually a lot more intelligent, some even capable of speech.¡± Phoenix replied to fill me in on the news.


    ¡°Should of saw that coming from the whole fantasy like magic world.¡± I chuckle before picking up some seasoning and throwing it over the thigh meat while making sure the Panther didn¡¯t think I was poisoning. It didn¡¯t react but its eyes slightly narrowed which got me worrying again so I figured I¡¯d explain.


    ¡°Seasoning buddy makes it taste better! Look, I have it too.¡± I showed it my skewers which I added some to as well before taking a few bites. It loosened its death glare, making me sigh in relief. I continued eating afterwards, while turning the meat that was cooking making sure the panther wasn¡¯t going to suddenly turn all violent on me for whatever panther reason.


    Seeing it was ready, I poked the thigh piece with a foxhorn skewer before letting it cool in the fresh air for a few seconds while staring back at the panther. Taking the initiative to maybe get it to fuck off after the thigh, I said ¡° Hey, it¡¯s done cooking. I can¡¯t throw it that far so come eat it here.¡± The boar thigh was heavy as hell and I wasn¡¯t going to spend more efforts on death machine over here since I held the food so fuck him or her.


    I dangle it for a bit while waiting. The panther seemed to get the drift that I wasn¡¯t going to just be throwing over so it slowly stood back on all fours while very slowly walking forward towards me.


    I wasn¡¯t completely scared as I was ready to turn on my repulsion field any moment and I managed to get my pouch of needles near me while I was eating so I could probably defend myself somewhat from its attacks. Eventually the panther reached about 10 feet away from me while still vigilantly staring at me dangling the meat. I didn¡¯t want it too close either, so I threw the meat releasing it from the skewer and as it flew over, death machine caught it and started nibbling on it while laying on its stomach right away.


    Looking at the panther close up, I realized it was probably the size of two full grown tigers which just raised the thought of ¡°death machine¡± into its permanent title in my head. Phoenix kept quiet the whole time but I could tell she was curiously studying the thing from the odd wiggles I felt from my forehead and brain. Even though death machine was still a giant, well¡­ death machine, it kind of looked cute just nibbling away on the meat with its giant face showing satisfaction. I eventually lowered my guard and continued my meal while occasionally glancing at it destroying meat and bone.


    Not to my surprise, after having finished my meal I saw it staring at the remaining thigh while looking at me again.


    ¡°Sigh¡±


    And that was how my second night in the East beast forest went, with me being a glorified cook for a lazy fucking panther.

 Chapter 37 A new friend

    Hunting in the east beast forest was really a nerve wracking experience for those who have never even heard of 99.99% of any living creatures in the bloody forest which just so happens to be the exact amount of knowledge I lacked.


    Gathering food from small beast and the flowing stream alleviated the basic survival needs while the cabin protected from bugs and whatever creepy crawlies came out at night. Even though I wasn¡¯t aware of the exact level of danger the animals and insects in the ecology posed, it wasn¡¯t all that bad especially since the panther that I had officially named ¡°death machine¡± started hanging out during the evenings to get a free meal. Him staying around the premise led me to believe that this was his territory as I still hadn¡¯t seen any living thing in the surrounding 2km capable of matching its insane speed.


    This continued for close to two weeks as I started getting more proficient at actual combat mainly against those ugly boars, a couple of rather large snakes and some weird mutated bird that totally reminded me of a chimera but on a smaller scale with just uglier features with a weird bird curved bird beak, the body of a lizard including its tail and the paws of a cat with some dark feathered wings.


    That last one I just named ugly as ugly was really all I could think of when I saw it swooping down to try and eat my boar which led me to piercing the shit out of it with the superior quality horns from the boars I hunted.


    The whole east beast forest seemed a little too ¡°weak¡± in a sense to me after close to two weeks but I was never one to go running into danger so I hadn¡¯t really made plans to leave just yet. After spending quite a bit of time in the area and getting adjusted to the new world and my super powers I managed to gain another few points of energy and stamina leading me to a ¡°passable¡± for a trainee stats according to Phoenix.


    ¡°Phoenix, can I see my stats again?¡±


    ¡°Do you really think that you¡¯re going to magically gain +50 in everything if you keep badgering me to show it to you?¡± She asked me a little annoyed at my recent love of looking at the stats.


    ¡°Possibly. The universe works in mysterious ways that even you have agreed about.¡± I joked.


    ¡°Shut up, sigh.¡± She has become increasingly cute as she still does what I ask even though we have our little moments.


    Status


    -Jupiter


    -Human


    Abilities:


    -           Keen senses ( Slime symbiosis effect )


    -           Adept Energy Manipulation ( improved)


    -           Enhanced Mental Cognition


    -           Increased energy regeneration (Crystal core)


    -           Supreme energy conductors      (Crystal core)


    -           Core assimilation (unique trait)


    Physical:


    Strength      ¨C 4


    Defense       ¨C10 (100%)


    Stamina       ¨C 4 (+1)


    Agility          ¨C 4


    Vitality         ¨C 4.5Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Energy         ¨C 18(+3)


    Looking over my status page again I can¡¯t help but smile that the little hermit boy from Earth has come so far even though its nothing legendary, it still made me smile. I was hoping to get more out of the two weeks here but sadly things aren¡¯t that easy.


    Phoenix has kept reminding me lately that we need to move towards the deeper parts to find creatures that are similar to ¡°death machine¡± since they most likely have inner cores that I can absorb energy and maybe potential traits from. She wasn¡¯t sure of exactly how that new core feature worked and the only reason she found out was because of the unique information my core showed her from her scans that pointed out that I should be able to do something like the skill [absorb] or [devour] from games.


    I was more than excited at getting more power and becoming some galactic level womanizer but I felt I still needed to one more thing before heading off to face greater dangers than I am keenly aware of.


    I wanted to tame ¡°death machine¡±.


    It sounded insane when the idea popped into my head but whenever I used to play rpgs or mmorpg games I always loved the ones where you could have a class that could tame a few of the cool wild creatures and it really seemed like a great idea considering the panther was totally big enough to let me ride it and if I could do this now maybe I could get an aerial mount one day and not have to walk like a fucking peasant.


    I may sound like peasants aren¡¯t all that great but I do believe that no man should strive to be one especially when the life of ¡°stable tranquility¡± is one I am recently trying to get away from since leaving Earth. I may be antisocial but who doesn¡¯t love a good adventure.


    I¡¯ve been wracking my brain over this for the past week since I had decided that I should try and tame the black/green panther of death but couldn¡¯t come up with any real method since my lack of taming knowledge in this world became really apparent when the only information I had in my head was that I should probably have some sort of complex magic circle structure that allows me to communicate, initiate and contract the damn thing. I always figured it would be easier done than said but when do I ever get this sort of thing right?


    It seems the illusion that Earth fantasy knowledge gives on real life fantasy is totally useless unless you were reborn, dropped into some contract with a god or fell into a library upon entering the new world.


    ¡°Sigh, Phoenix what should I do?¡± I eventually gave in as I was pretty sure Phoenix wasn¡¯t interested in helping me tame a beast as she never mentioned it nor did she seem to like the ¡°totally capable of killing both me and her death machine¡± mooching off of us.


    ¡°Oh, you actually want to tame the creature?¡± She asked a bit surprise at my question which wasn¡¯t the reaction I expected which kind of made me feel stupid at hiding my schemes from her for a week.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve been wracking my brain on different methods like injecting mana or trying to talk to him and sign a contract of some sort to get a new squad member especially considering he is really fast and probably great to ride on but can¡¯t come up with anything remotely useful.¡± I finally caved as I really wanted to tame the panther especially since half my meat has been going down its guzzler like some protection fee from the local thugs of 3<sup>rd</sup> street.


    ¡°Well, talking would be dangerous considering it might just get angry from a weaker creature than it to try and tame it so don¡¯t ever do that.¡±


    ¡°Right¡­¡± I replied a little nervously as I was totally thinking communicating as equals could solve the friendship barrier.


    ¡°You totally thought you could get away with convincing it with your ¡°eloquent¡± speech didn¡¯t you?¡± I could hear the silent mockery in her words. It stings. It stings a lot.


    ¡°Well do you have a better idea?¡± I didn¡¯t care at this point because compared to getting the terminator of panthers over there to become my feline beasty, I could withstand some mocking not like I¡¯m not already used to it.


    ¡°I do but I don¡¯t know if you could pull it off. If we were a little stronger it might be very easily done by just getting it to submit but ha, that ain¡¯t happening anytime soon especially since we haven¡¯t found anything good in enough for a high impact evolution of your genes in the area.¡±


    ¡°Well, get on with it then, if we get death machine to join the fray, we could totally explore and kill some stronger world beasts with inner cores and that should help us both in travelling to a library and me being strong enough to survive the beast forest.¡±


    ¡°Well the panther is intelligent but from what I have seen it doesn¡¯t seem to be overly intelligent meaning at your level yet where speech and proper communication is lacking. It seems to simply be the equivalent of an alpha pack leader. Better at judging but still a wild beast at the end of the day.¡±


    Hearing her say this It made sense since death machine only came around for food and lazed about and would be gone in the morning. It didn¡¯t really seem to do much else but loiter in its territory but understands some simple things like wait, come, and eat. I still haven¡¯t been able to touch the bloody thing but we could be considered ¡°acquaintances¡± or most probably ¡°human food dispenser¡± from the other party¡¯s point of view.


    ¡°What you could do is if you can get it to let you touch its forehead is request a formal bond of equals where you provide let¡¯s say food as long as it follows you and helps out or depending on your choice, you forcefully use your pure inner energy to forcefully submit the thing, both could end pretty badly but they are the relatively safer options than trying to tame it by talking or whatever weird plots you thought up.¡±


    ¡°So I can probably still get attacked?¡±


    ¡°Most likely unless you can precisely control your energy to forcefully create a connection or get one through bargaining with your inner energy as the meaning behind your intentions can be transmitted clearly through inner energy. There are simpler ways but we¡¯re just not there yet in strength or knowledge.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.¡± I started to seriously consider the options as the desire for death machine was worth the risks.


    ¡°Decided what you are going to go with?¡± She asked.


    ¡°Yup. I¡¯ve decided.¡± I figured since I was going to get attacked either way if both methods fail, I might as well gamble on the one that gives me the best benefits.

 Chapter 38 Taming

    Later that evening, sitting in front of the camp fire roasting three mutant bunnies that I caught in the wild, I was waiting patiently for my panther to be to show up.


    I was still prepared with my boar horns and my repulsion field at the ready which wasn¡¯t really hard to do these days as I just needed to mentally arrange the necessary casting requirements with my crystal cores energy like arranging a puzzle really fast or solving the rubix cube within seconds before the repulsion field activated.


    Death machine casually strode in with some scratches on its body like it usually has in the evenings, whatever fight club it joined seemed to be rather lively during the day.


    ¡°Hey, buddy. Come over.¡± I call it over not nervous at all since I felt a calm like never before due to having been wanting to do this all my life and finally getting the chance to tame a rare wild beasty like death machine, I was ready to face the challenge which seems to contradict my regular paranoid self but something you truly desire, a man got a fight for it.


    The beast walked over like usual, it wasn¡¯t too afraid of me these days as we usually had our meals less than a meter apart. I still wanted to pet the furry fuck but whatever pride it had totally ignored my casual begging of ¡° Please let me pet you¡± with growls whenever I got too close on my own initiative.


    ¡°Here ya go.¡± I threw it one of the roasted hare/bunny/whatever else damnation reproduced with it. It caught it like usual and I also just enjoyed my evening meal while listening to the wind and casual bird songs and beast roars in the distance.


    It didn¡¯t take long for either of us to finish before Phoenix gave me some tips on the process of trying to initiate a connection and I firmed my resolve to proceed to the next step.


    ¡°Beasty, I want to try something on you. If you let me, I¡¯ll give you the rest of the meat tonight.¡± I looked at it straight and said what needed to be said.


    The panther simply looked at me while tilting its head slightly with a bit of confusion in its eyes. I didn¡¯t want it to misunderstand so I had to clarify ¡°I¡¯m not looking to pet you this time, I want to see if my pure energy can heal your wounds. Just trying to help.¡± I said those words with as straight of a face as possible, my entire being was as calm as a still lake as I asked Phoenix to make sure nothing spikes in my system which was pretty simple to do according to Phoenix, just save some hormones that match mine and send them out whenever something spikes in my system, like releasing a calming hormone related to sleep whenever my heart rate tries to speed up. I even realized this feature could totally help me lie to basically anyone who depends on heartbeat, sweating, or whatever other clue to judge if someone is lying which could come in handy when overtaking the throne of the empire or cheating those shrewd merchants.


    The panther slightly understood or at least I think it did so I played my part and made a small sphere of my pure inner energy appear on my hand while motioning the with the other for it to come closer.


    It was still hesitating but it looked between my calm expression and the roasting bunny near the fire and walked forward after a few moments. I was getting excited again but Phoenix came in for the save while reminding me with her voice to keep it cool jack.


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    When the panther was facing me about less than two feet away from me, I could finally reach out slowly and place my palm on its forehead or¡­ at least I thought I could but death machine nudged back. I stayed calm as I can understand it being skeptical or just too stupid to understand what I actually said.


    ¡°Relax, it¡¯s just some of my energy that I¡¯ll send over to you. Won¡¯t even hurt a bit.¡± I tried coaxing with the most sincere tone I could muster. I even started applauding my amazing performance as even I felt like I was going to magically heal all its wounds from the tone of my voice.


    Hearing me again, it moved closer again with less hesitation which I simply smiled at. I reached out my hand again and slowly pressed it onto its forehead like a gentle petal falling onto a still lake.


    Phoenix immediately yelled ¡°NOW¡± which almost shocked me but her great control over my hormones made sure I wasn¡¯t nervous and stayed calm.


    I revved up my crystal core like the engine of a jet engine on max and just ignited my crystal core to transfer my energy towards the panther at an alarming rate. I had to breach its mental barrier first before I could forcefully create the connection so I had to basically attack its brain first with my mana which couldn¡¯t take too long and had to be fast enough that before it could react I can affect its brain.


    As my mana started pouring into the panthers brain in the shape of a spear ready to pierce the heavens itself I managed to surprise and stun the panther as I was simply too quick and the level of precision my mana had was unexpectedly high for the amount of power I actually held. I had been focusing the past two months mostly on precision and control since I lacked quantity when it came to my mana due to having crystalized my core so early in the journey which led to its own benefits I guess.


    Due to the surprise, the panther wasn¡¯t able to react fast enough before I breached its mental barrier due to its weak composition which was exactly like Phoenix mentioned, that of a wild beast still.


    Breaching the mental barrier, my mana started to flow into its brain and this is where it got tricky as I had to basically change the intention of my mana from ¡°breakthrough¡± to ¡°capture¡± which basically meant I had to a quick shift in the intent of what my mana was trying to do while trying to manipulate the panther into submitting to me as if that was how the world always was. Jupiter first death machine second.


    It sounds easy but the changing mana composition on a whim isn¡¯t the walk in the park it sounds like and manipulating a slightly intelligent creatures brain through said mana is basically like planting a bomb in its head that says you are the boss and that you will detonate said bomb if you are no longer the boss or death machine grows into some legend level demon hellhound panther that tames Jupiter into its bitch.


    The panther had already fallen on its stomach while growling with anger and fear because of the sudden shock to its mental barrier it was left slightly paralyzed which was good news for me but that paralysis wasn¡¯t going to last forever so I had to focus as hard as I could to change the entire intention behind my mana which is always easier done when its already in your core and affected simply by a thought rather than in someone else¡¯s brain fighting off their own mana while you try to change its original pierce effect into tame.


    The battle of wits and mana lasted close to two minutes as I started dripping sweat from my forehead with my eyes closed while Phoenix was keeping an eye on the panther which was seemingly recovering. Phoenix had told me that I had to dig my mana deep into its brain towards the ¡°inner zone¡± which for humans holds the ancestral brain components like the hypothalamus, the cerebellum and the more developed inner regions. Once my mana finally arrived there, I had to implant my mana into it as some sort of friendship bracelet that Phoenix didn¡¯t really know much about aside from me having to leave my mana there with some sort of command or will.


    What I ended up doing was simply creating a mass of my mana which held something along the lines of ¡°new squad member, beasty buddy, let me pet you, ride you, hunt with you and I¡¯ll take care of you.¡± It wasn¡¯t some genius  level taming technique nor did it seem to even be a proper one but it wasn¡¯t like I was going to treat death machine as some tool because I did like animals especially mega size panthers that can run faster than yours eyes can see and if it could help me I would never be stingy in helping it stay happy and fed.


    Those were the thoughts I had while leaving my mana imprint or whatever it is that I left before finally sending some of my pure mana into its own core to allow it to recuperate so I technically wasn¡¯t lying about the whole healing affair.


    I felt exhausted when all was said and done and completely drained close to 95% of mana which felt like the biggest hangover I have ever had if I were to be precise in its description. This was worse than the time I drank for 3 months straight, not missing a day and having my feces be nothing but dirty water coming out of my anus.


    I was panting heavily as I looked over to death machine who also seemed to be tired from the whole ordeal so I reached out to the meat that hanging by the fire before grabbing a drumstick for myself and throwing the rest towards the panther.


    ¡°How did it go?¡± Phoenix asked seeing as I seemed to be done with it.