ã€ŠLirgaid&#x27;s Adventureã€‹


 Prologue

    Hello! My name is¡­ well, that doesn¡¯t matter right now. The thing is I died, and reincarnated¡­ as a slime. You may think that is bad, but it gets worse. As you could probably guess by my lack of name I have no memories.

    How did I die? I have no idea. Why am I a slime? I¡¯d love to know. What¡¯s my favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate, thank you for asking. Now, ¡°how do I know what chocolate is?¡± is a question that I¡¯ve made myself already, and since being a slime is hopping/rolling/sliding around all day eating plants and insects, I have a lot of time to think about stuff. More time than I want¡­

    The conclusion I came with is that I lost my memories but not my knowledge. For example, I know what chocolate is, but I don¡¯t remember eating it, ever. Why do I keep rambling about chocolate? Well, as a slime I don¡¯t seem to have the sense of taste like a human would, and I¡¯ve been a slime for a good week now. I think you can understand.

    When I first¡­ appeared?... here I was very disoriented. It was like suddenly realizing I was doing something. Well, I suddenly realize that I was existing, imagine how confused I was. The place I appeared at was the middle of a forest clearing. There were a few other slimes around, of various sizes and shades of light blue, eating plants and insects. I learned that this clearing was an eating place of sorts after a few days of living here.

    At first I just kept staring at the sky. The unchanging scene made me think I was looking at a picture, but then, the wind blew, and the leaves shifted, making me come out of that trance. My first thought when looking around was ¡°what a nice clearing¡±, my second thought was ¡°what are those giant water balloons?¡±. So, I decided to get closer and investigate them. While getting closer to them I had my third thought, ¡°What happened to my arms and legs?¡±. I was sliding in the ground and when I tried to look at them I saw nothing.

    Bewildered at my weird condition, I moved to a nearby stream. I jumped on to a flat rock, that was at the riverside and looked down into the water. There I could see my body in its full slimy magnificence, a light blue, soft skin, two beady eyes and the appearance of a round squishy ball. Maybe it was because I had no memories, but my appearance didn¡¯t startle me, and then I had my fourth thought, ¡°Should I have legs and arms? Why did I thought they were missing?¡±. But as I was thinking that I fell into the water. Surprisingly my body doesn¡¯t have much friction. The water was very shallow, so it wasn¡¯t really a problem.

    After that I became hungry, and for some reason I wanted to eat plants and insects, it must¡¯ve been my slime instincts acting because I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d be good. Well, as I said before, I don¡¯t have taste, so it wasn¡¯t disgusting. I also need to drink, not much, hardly a cup per day, but I still need it.

    In the nights, I¡¯d go to a small cave, or under something, to be safe. The other slimes did it as well so, there must be something that eats slimes, I don¡¯t want to meet that thing. What would eat a slime? I guess it¡¯s filled with nutrients from the plants and insects, which makes it a good meal, but I can¡¯t picture a creature that would eat one. I don¡¯t even know if the animals that I know of exist here.

    One day, while exploring the forest, I had my first encounter with another creature from this world. It resembled a boar, but is mouth was wider and its nose was flatter, like a bulldog, so I guess I¡¯ll call it a bullboar for now. I was following the river upstream, to not get lost, when I found it in the distance, drinking water. I think the correct choice here was to avoided. But, my curiosity got the best of me. Hey, I¡¯ve been so bored this past few days, doing nothing but eating and waiting, you can¡¯t blame me.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Of course, I tried to be as sneaky as possible, and for once, having a slime body was useful. I only wanted to watch it, as entertainment. Also, sneaking around was pretty fun, too. I hid inside of a bush, and observed him for a few minutes. Nothing really interesting happened, but it was refreshing in a way. After a moment, he just left, and I was debating whether to follow him, or to go back to the clearing. Guess what I choose. It was kinda funny, he would walk seemingly undisturbed, and I would slide from tree to tree, behind him. From an outside perspective, it should be quite a humorous scene. Thinking about random stuff like that made me a bit careless, and I ended up making a sound when I hid inside a bush. The bullboar turned to look at my direction, and I froze in a panic inside the bush, it walked closer to me but after finding nothing he continued on, being able to hide through the branches sure it¡¯s convenient. Eventually the bullboar entered a small hole, probably it¡¯s shelter. I decided that it was good enough for today, since going in was going to be very dangerous.

    I headed back to the clearing. I got lost in the process but once I found the river I just followed it downstream and had no more problems. I ate some more, and the day ended. Nothing important happened for the rest of the days, just me trying to kill boredom one way or another.

    Today however I was testing the limits of my body, if I¡¯m going to be in the wild, I want to know what I can do. I already know I can be sneaky, but that¡¯s not enough. First I tested how fast could I go. I could roll pretty fast if I gained enough momentum, hopping could very fast as well, bus sliding not much, unsurprisingly. I tried jumping but couldn¡¯t get very high, a meter or so, but I guess that¡¯s enough to avoid the bullboar if it comes charging. As I was trying to get higher, I suddenly thought of a basketball, and then I stopped to think. A basketball bounces high because the pressure of the air keeps it from losing its shape, so, if I can my body more rigid, I should be able to jump higher, in theory.

    Up until now I¡¯ve move my body unconsciously, never tried to actually control it, I¡¯ve been too busy complaining about stuff. It wasn¡¯t very difficult, in a way, it felt natural. I attempted a few things: hardening the outside didn¡¯t quite work, it was like a deflated basketball; The I tried filling myself with air, but the pressure wasn¡¯t enough; What did work however was compressing myself, it worked surprisingly well and if I added force to the bounce I could get even higher. I could almost touch the leaves of a tall tree, it should be around five meters, give or take. It also helps while hopping, it was faster than rolling now.

    I tried taking a more elongated shape. The idea was to tried to climb a tree, but it wasn¡¯t long enough, the longest I could get was a meter and a half, but I did manage to climb it by coiling around it, it was very slow though. Next I wanted to check how hard could I hit, but the results were disappointing, at best I could break a twig. Another idea that occurred to me was spitting water, so I got to the river and shaped myself like a balloon. Taking a big swig of water, I aimed at a tree and compressed myself as hard as I can to shot the water through a ¡°mouth¡± I made, the result was¡­ average, maybe, it wasn¡¯t great but, is was a good punch, and if I practice, it should improve.

    A few days were spent practicing these things, not much improvement was made, but given time it should show results. Every so often I¡¯d do silly things like spinning around to get dizzy, annoy the other slimes to see their reaction or I¡¯d just spent some time thinking while gazing at the clouds, just to kill some time.

    That¡¯s how days passed for a while before I decided it was time to leave this place. I¡¯ll explore, have an adventure, maybe, hopefully, not die, anything would be better than staying here and die of boredom.

 Chapter 1- Starting the journey

    Today I leave the clearing. I¡¯ve been practicing my techniques for almost a week now, I managed to break two twigs with one tackle, yeah, I know, I¡¯m too op. I''m also getting better at controlling my body, I managed to stretch myself up to 2 meters, and I feel that I can be more precise with it now. Anyway, I decided to travel downstream, to maintain direction, and so I can drink whenever I want, also, I can always use the water to attack from a distance, well ¡°attack¡±. I hope I can improve that at some point.

    I followed the river for a few hours now, it¡¯s about noon. I was beginning to get hungry so I stopped to eat some plants and insects, hah, I miss taste a lot. I wonder if there¡¯s anything I can do about it, probably not.

    As I was eating I hear something moving in the bushes on my side of the river. I quickly turn around to look and what I found was not something pleasant, not even in the slightness. There, standing over two meters tall, was something resembling a gorilla, but its arms were longer, and thicker, and its teeth were a lot more sharper and scarier.

    My first thought when looking at it was ¡°fuck¡±, as it turns its head to look at me, I had my second thought, ¡°fuck¡±, and as it roared in a menacing way, I had my third thought, ¡°fuck¡­¡±.

    The first thing I did was jump into the water, and absorb as much water as I can as fast as I can. Once I¡¯m as full as possible, I shoot it all at the charging tusk gorilla, and, as any sane person would, I ran for my life. Trying to tackle it seemed like a terrible idea.

    The water made it stop for a second, to cover its face, and I used that moment to run to the forest in an attempt to lose it and hide in a bush. Before leaving the river, I filled myself up once more. The tusk gorilla chased right after me through the woods, while I had to be careful not to get caught in any branches, that massive beast just broke them like nothing. From time to time, I¡¯d tried to use some of the water to distract it, I¡¯d jump and shoot at it, most of the time I¡¯d miss, but one time I hit right in its eyes, which made it closed them for a second and then it crashed into a tree.

    I took that chance and hid in a bush while it was dizzy. I waited for a couple of minutes while it searched for me. It was sniffing around, trying to catch my scent, but as a slime I think I don¡¯t have scent. I don¡¯t sweat, so I don¡¯t know how could it track me. It eventually gave up and left.

    I waited for a while, until I was sure it wasn¡¯t around me, to leave my hiding spot. I took that moment to symbolically take a breath. I was safe, but I was lost. I changed direction so many times to lose it, that I have no idea where I came from, and the canopy from the trees doesn¡¯t let me see the sun to orient myself. Well, it¡¯s around noon so it wouldn¡¯t be that helpful. Regardless, it¡¯s not like I have an objective or anything, so I just started hopping in the opposite direction that I knew the gorilla left to, and kept walking for a while. I ate some things on the way, since my lunch was rudely interrupted before.

    I don¡¯t know how much time passed, but easily a few hours. I didn¡¯t find the river I was following before, but I did find another one, well for all I knew It could¡¯ve been same just higher or lower. I followed that one for a few hours, until the sun started setting. I found a hollow tree, where I could spend the night. I practiced my techniques until night arrived and then went to sleep. Having run for my life got me quite exhausted.

    The next day I kept following the river downstream, after having some breakfast, it goes without saying what it was. A part of me is desperate to find something that stimulates other senses, you never know how much you¡¯d miss the scent of air and the taste of water until you actually lose it. Thinking about stuff like that, I heard a rustling in the bushes. Oh, no, not again. But what came out wasn¡¯t a tusk gorilla, it was a bullboar. It¡¯s not great new but it¡¯s better that horrible news. However, its eyes were bloodshot, and it was behaving kinda erratically. I got so startled by the noise, thinking it was a tusk gorilla that I forgot to hide, and the bull boar noticed me. Oh, well, let¡¯s see if I can do something this time. The bull boar seemed hungry, because when it looked at me, it started to charge right away.

    I shoot some water at it to distract it and then jump to the right, to avoid the charge. As it passes by me, I tackle it, aiming for its ribs. It grunts in pain, but it doesn¡¯t seem very affected by it. The force causes it to stumble a little bit, but its immediately back to charging at me. This repeats a few times, I repeatedly aim for the same spot, trying to break a rib, until I finally feel something cracking when I hit it. Wailing in pain, and furious it kept charging at me, and I kept attacking. I was hoping it would run away, but if it¡¯s still trying to kill me, then I¡¯ll keep attacking.

    Eventually it died, maybe through internal bleeding. Regardless, it was dead. I didn¡¯t want to leave the body just like that, might as well eat it. The only problem was that it was really big, I¡¯m not sure if I can eat it all, can I even eat meat? Well, just one way to find out.

    Eating as a slime is quite interesting. When I was eating plants and bugs I didn¡¯t notice, because I just absorbed it and digested it while doing other things. But now that I¡¯m sitting here for a while, trying to eat the bullboar, I noticed a few things. At first glance it looks like I¡¯m exuding some acid to dissolve it and then I eat it. But in reality, it¡¯s like I¡¯m biting tiny bits of it through every cell. It¡¯s also faster than it sounds, after five minutes I ate half of it, and I can now just carry it inside me while moving.

    I kept to my path downstream, I didn¡¯t felt any hunger for the rest of the day, and found a small hole to spend the night. It was big enough for me and was well hidden. I practiced until night arrived and went to sleep.

    When I woke up something was strange, I remember the hole I was in to be bigger than myself, but as I awoke I felt cramped. It¡¯d be better to say that the feeling of being constrained woke me up. I thought for a second that I was in some cage, and that I got cough during the night or something, which is why I almost jumped before realizing I was still in the small hole.

    As I struggled to exit the cave, I realized that my body had grown during the night. I''m not sure the reason why I grew, but if I had to guess, I¡¯d said it was the bullboar. It¡¯s eating meat the key to growing, or is it eating a lot? Maybe both, or maybe it was just natural. Whatever the case is an interesting finding. If I¡¯m bigger then I can take care of bigger threats, maybe not a tusk gorilla yet, but everything in due time.

    To test it out, I filled myself with as much plants as I could carry. It was a lot, all the bushes around me were completely naked, and I wasn¡¯t even half full, so I started hopping and ate every bush and every plant that I came across until I was full. The forest behind me now looks a bit less dense.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    After a week of traveling I can confirm that the more I eat, the more I grow. After the buffet of plants, I grew a little bit more, and after eating just enough, like before, I didn¡¯t grow at all. Also, the type of food doesn¡¯t matter, but it¡¯s a lot faster to eat an animal than plants, though, it¡¯s harder to hunt them, and I still don¡¯t have an efficient method for killing. A problem presented together with this, I was now too big, around the size of a small bullboar. The size itself isn¡¯t the problem, but now I lost some of the advantage of being small and sneaky. Maybe I¡¯ll find a solution later.

    Nothing important passed for the last few days, but today I crossed paths with another creature. It was like a rabbit, with a long tail, always standing on its hind legs, and with round big ears, instead of the pointy ones. I''m not sure what to name it this time, kangaroo rabbit? Kangabit? Rangaroo? Mmh, I¡¯ll think about it. It was kinda cute, but this one, like the bullboar I killed the other day, was acting erratically, even more so than the bullboar. Its eyes were bloodshot, it had a small tick every now and then, and before it noticed me it was already making a growling noise. As soon as it saw me, it began running at me, and attempted slash with its claws. I shot some water at it and, given its small size, was enough to knock it down.

    With it on the ground for a second I started my attack. It got on its feet and tried to attack me again, it was really fast and managed to slash at my body, but to my surprise, those sharp looking claws didn¡¯t do anything. Seeing that the claws didn¡¯t work, it bit me while I was surprised at this, but it didn¡¯t work again. I was relieved, knowing that my skin wasn¡¯t that vulnerable. After that it didn¡¯t take as long as with the boar, luckily, after seven strikes it was already dead.

    I swallowed its body to eat it while I kept moving forward. Throughout the week I found more animals; an armadillo, whose body was covered in spikes like that of a horned lizard, a bird almost a meter in size, with a red plumage and a few others more. All of them had the same symptoms as before, erratic behavior, bloodshot eyes, hostile on sight, one time I found two armadillos fighting each other, and some of them had weird, glowing, red lines on their bodies. I decided that it was a bad idea to continue eating them, and stuck eating plants.

    As I kept walking forward I encountered animals more often, all of them with the symptoms and getting worse, I had to be very sneaky, because if I attracted the attention of one, in a minute I had ten following me and fighting each other. To lose them I had to lead them into another one, preferably a big one, that would attack and stop them, but that plan didn¡¯t always go well and I ended up with another blood thirsty beast at my nonexciting toe.

    After a few hours of painfully moving at a snail¡¯s pace, I found an old ruin. After what felt like a life time, I finally get a sign of civilization. Well, it was a life time to me at least. The ruin was a massive building, overrunning with vines, and various bits of it were collapsed. The building resembled an old-style manor, and at the front there was an elegant garden, but, the plants had taken over long ago, and some pillars that were decorating, lay broken on the ground.

    No animals were in sight, which surprised me, taking in count all the ones I saw before. I thought that maybe they were scared of this place, which could be a bad thing. What could all those bloodthirsty animals possibly fear? I knew it could be a bad idea, but I wanted to see for myself. My curiosity got the better of me and I entered through a collapsed wall.

    It was the main hall of the manor. A long stair lead to the second floor, half of it had broken down, and the other half would soon follow. The floor was covered in wood planks, rotten by the years, there was a big hole in the middle of the hall, maybe it leads to a basement. The second floor had some holes here and there as well. Some doors were completely broken; others were blocked by the debris. The floor was covered in rocks and bits of woods here and there and vines were creeping all over.

    I walked over to one of the rooms that were open, avoiding rocks and planks from the debris, and entered. It was a kitchen, numerous cooking utensils were hung on the walls, or littering the floor. There was a closed door to one side, and at the other a pile of rubble covering the wall. The ovens had a very old style, fitting the manor, like the ones that use coal as fuel. There wasn¡¯t anything really interesting, and I was planning to go through that door, but then I had an idea and looked through the things in the floor. There were many things, rotten wooden spoons, old rusty pots, and bowls, but what really mattered was a kitchen knife. Well, there were a few, and they were rusty to different degrees, but I took the one that was less rusty. I¡¯m not sure what material it was made, maybe even from one I don¡¯t know of, but it doesn¡¯t matter, it¡¯s sharp and pointy.

    After around a month of practicing with my body I was able to shape it to some extent, at least it was enough to grab the knife by the handle. I grabbed it like swallowing it with the end of a boneless arm, like the hook of a pirate, maybe. I¡¯ll might take the other knifes once I finish looking around the place, but for now they¡¯ll just get in the way.

    Crossing the door, I arrived at a dining room. There was a long wooden table, covered with a cloth, and a giant boulder, breaking it in half. There were a few chairs as well, but nothing really stood out, so I left. Exiting back at the main hall I kept exploring the rest of the building. At the first floor, there was a living room and a small library, I would¡¯ve love to read some of them but the language was completely foreign. The rest of the doors were blocked so I couldn¡¯t go through them. On the second floor, it was mostly bedrooms, and an office. The bedrooms were really big, and each had its own bathroom. The office had a long desk, papers were scattered on the ground, and a spinning chair, how do I know it was a pinning chair? I made sure to thoroughly test that theory for about twenty minutes after finding it.

    Moving on the last thing to check on the manor was that big hole at the main hall. As I approached the border to looked down, the creaking of the wood made me think it was going to fall apart any second, so I stood back, and simply stretched a head a little bit. I couldn¡¯t see much, but I could see that at the bottom the floor was tiled with bricks. So I decided to look for the stairs that lead down before jumping recklessly.

    I found them quite easily, it was at one of the sides of the stair leading upstairs. As I went down the stone steps I wondered what could be down here. A dungeon filled with bodies? The location of an old cult? A giant treasure? Maybe a secret laboratory filled with ancient technology? I then passed bellow the hole in the upper floor. Passing through another door, what I found was kinda surprising. There was a big, glowing red crystal on top of a pillar with very intricate markings, surrounding it were ten poles with a small red crystal on top.

    In the rest of the room there was a desk filled with various books, rolls of papers, and dried up ink bottles. Looking at some of these papers I could see designs similar to the ones in the pillar. There were also some chalkboards in the room, but they were very rotten. Huh, would you look at that, it was a laboratory with ancient technology after all.

    I looked around for a while, but didn¡¯t found anything that could be useful. The books, I couldn¡¯t read, the crystal in the middle gave me the feeling of ¡°in case you try to destroy the world, touch the crystal¡±, so I didn¡¯t. For now, I can¡¯t do anything here, I¡¯ll come back when I learn the language. Then I¡¯ll be able to decide what to do with the crystal.

    I went back up to the first floor, and picked up the other knifes that were in the kitchen. Then I made my way outside. Getting back in track I started walking once again, and for a while there were no animals in sight, but as soon as I got around two hundred meters away from the manor I started seeing many of them, all with the symptoms. Maybe the crystal keeps them at bay? Or, maybe it¡¯s the cause of the weird symptoms, or both. I don¡¯t know and I can¡¯t know yet, so I¡¯ll have to come back in the future.

 Chapter 2 - Unexpected encounter

    Soon after I left the mansion I encountered an animal, it¡¯s body was like a deer, slender, with a long neck and it had a head with horns like a goat. The fight ended quickly, I dodge as it charged at me and then stabbed it with the knife. After it dropped to the ground I finished it with a stab in the head, so that it died quickly. That¡¯s a big burden off shoulders. But while I was distracted with that a few other animals appeared, and I ended up running around trying to lose them, just like before.

    Two days later, as I was following the river, I heard the distance sound of something clashing with something like metal, followed by a shout and a roar. I was about to head in the opposite direction but then I thought, ¡°wait, that sounded like metal, and that shout was very human like¡­¡±. That was enough for my curiosity to take over and I headed straight for the sound. It wasn¡¯t too far, I walked through the forest for around fifty meters until I found the source of the sound.

    Hiding in some bushes I stared at the fight between a tusk gorilla, with its body covered in glowing red marks, and a group of humans. A big, burly dude, wearing a very thick metal armor over something similar to a dark green coat, I think it may be padded armor. He was holding a tower shield in front of him, defending against the incessant attacks coming from the tusk gorilla. But even though the gorilla was bigger than him, its attacks didn¡¯t even move him.

    A man with orange, spiky hair, wearing a dark green bandana on his head, was to the left of the tusk gorilla. He had less armor than the big guy, only covering his arms and legs with metal over a dark red padded armor. He was holding his sword ready, waiting for the tusk gorilla to attack.

    On the right was a woman, with long dark hair. She was, as well, wearing padded armor, this time black in color, accompanied by some metal gauntlets. Those three seemed to be the warriors of the group, since they were the only ones with swords.

    Away from them there was another man, an archer by the drawn bow in his hand, with a brown cloak over him. I couldn¡¯t see what else he was wearing, but if I had to take a guess, I¡¯d say the same as the others.

    Lastly, there was another woman with short, chestnut hair. She was the one that picked my interest the most. She wasn¡¯t wearing a weapon like the others, she was carrying a wooden staff, carved with some intricate lines, and decorated with a gemstone, slightly smaller than a fist, in one end of it. All my knowledge told me one thing, she was a mage. But, different from what one would expect, she wasn¡¯t wearing robes or anything like that, but similar to the rest, some padded armor and armored gloves.

    The warriors waited for the tusk gorilla to attack one of them before they took the chance and slashed at it. For some reason, it always attacked the big dude, almost ignoring the rest. The battle ended when the archer shot an arrow and the gorilla fell flat on the ground. The arrow didn¡¯t strike in any vital place, but it brought it down anyway, it must¡¯ve been coated in a poison or something.

    Afterwards something incredible happened. The girl with chestnut hair approached the gorilla and placed her hands on it. Then her hands began glowing and the red marks that covered its body began fading away, all the injuries banished as well. After that was done the group pick up their stuff and left the gorilla sleeping, and went on their way.

    I stayed there for a moment, amazed at what just happened. That was definitely magic, and that girl was definitely a mage. The crystal from the mansion got me thinking about it, that magic was a reality in this world, and it was just confirmed. That got me very excited, could I use magic? I hope the answer is yes.

    I noticed that they were gone so I quickly followed the direction they left to. Normally I would¡¯ve stop for a moment to decide if I followed them or not, but my curiosity and excitement took over almost immediately. I kept a good distance from them, I didn¡¯t want to get caught and ruin my chance to see another display of magic, also, I didn¡¯t want to die. As I followed them, they began talking among themselves, it was a language I didn¡¯t recognize at all, so I couldn¡¯t understand them.

    I followed them for a while, they easily dealt with all the animals that they encountered and every time the mage would heal them from what was making them all enraged, it made me wonder if they were here for that reason. Thanks to that they advance a lot faster than I did. They kept walking for a while and I noticed that whenever the number of animals would drop, they¡¯d change directions and soon enough found more. This confirmed my previous idea, this guys are probably trying to deal with the source of the enraged animals. Should I lead them to the crystal? I¡¯m not sure how they¡¯d react to me.

    Eventually we reached a small open space in the forest, the canopy was still dense, but the trees were a little more spread. When the group reached the place, the dark hair girl suddenly stopped and dropped herself on her back, all in a very tired and dramatic manner.

    - Jegir lela ors vileet oiblikk!.

    Then she spoke those words. By the context and her actions, I could guess she said something along the lines of ¡°I¡¯m tired¡±, ¡°let¡¯s take a rest¡± or maybe ¡°I¡¯m hungry¡±. Then the guy with orange hair approached her and said something else.

    -velm, deter for biidag. La osr haluns.

    This was a little harder, but maybe he either said ¡°get your ass up, we rested five minutes ago¡± or ¡°sure, why not? Let¡¯s have lunch¡±. It¡¯s a hard choice, let¡¯s see what happens. The rest of the group either agreed or disagreed with his comment and then began setting up some things. The burly man took a wood board from his backpack as well as a knife and begun cutting some vegetables. The orange hair dude set up the campfire and the girl with chestnut hair, the mage, used her magic to lit it up. I wonder how big it¡¯s the range of her magic, because she can heal and use fire as well, it¡¯s that impressive or common? Another question to add to the pile.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    After setting everything they started eating, they talked among themselves but without any context I couldn¡¯t guess what they were talking about. Since I couldn¡¯t understand them, I began making up their conversation myself. It started normal, and slowly became weird and amusing, then it became awkward and stopped making sense.

    After a while it became very difficult to come up with things, so I started thinking about different things. Should I guide them to the mansion? They do seem to be here to deal with the animals, and they seem like good people, they¡¯ve healed the animals after all, they could¡¯ve easily just killed them. I turned to look at them and they were playing something like rock paper scissors, it didn¡¯t seem important so I ignored it.

    The next question was, what¡¯s the best way to approach them?

    Wait¡­ The dark haired girl just turned to look my way, then got up and started approaching. Does she know I¡¯m here? As she got close she slowed down and creeped her hands up, preparing to catch me. As soon as I saw this I started running the opposite direction, the girl shouted something as she jumps to catch me but I avoided her. She then started following behind me and before I knew it she was landing in front of me. She was about to catch me but suddenly jumped backwards, I used that chance to go back the other way. I wondered why she backed away and then remembered that I¡¯m carrying a knife with me, she must¡¯ve avoided that. She shouted some things as she chased me and moments later the rest of the group was after me. I tried my best to avoid them but I ended up surrounded, no way out.

    They talked among themselves, there was some surprise in their voices so I figure they were talking about my knife. While they were doing that, I was thinking of anything that I could do to stay alive, but before I could come up with anything, the mage raised her staff and began chanting a spell. It¡¯s this how it ends for me? Killed by magic in the middle of nowhere before achieving anything? I close my eyes as she casted the spell, waiting for it¡­

    After waiting a little too long, I opened them again, I was still alive, the mage was still standing there and nothing seemed to happen. Am I impervious to magic? Nah, probably not, maybe she tried to heal me or¡­

    -Eh, hello?

    What? A voice? No way, did I finally became insane and I¡¯m hearing voices in my head? The month of solitude has finally taken its toll on me? Where there even people here, or was everything just a hallucination?

    -Eh¡­ are you¡­ ok? What are you?

    Well, I¡¯m as good as any insane person.

    -Ehm, you are not insane, we are real.

    I was about to say how that was exactly what a hallucination would say when the dark haired girl spoke to the mage.

    -Is everything alright, Bri?

    -Yeah, just¡­ something unexpected. Can you guys give me a moment?

    -Eh, sure.

    To my surprise, I was able to understand them. Was it the spell that she cast? All but the mage went back to the campfire, and when I thought about magic, her expression turned a little surprised.

    -Mmh, you know what magic is?

    Eh, kind of. Wait, it this spell some sort of telepathy? Are you the girl in front of me?

    -Yeah.

    Wait, so you can heal, cure the animals, use fire and now you have a telepathic spell as well?! Are you a prodigy or is that normal?

    -Well, most mages can use basic elemental spells, and this telepathic spell it¡¯s used to heal the mind. I¡¯d say I¡¯m good, but not a prodigy. By the way, what are you? You¡¯re smarter than any other slime, even any other animal, I¡¯d say almost human.

    Why, thank you. That¡¯s a very nice thing to say.

    -¡­

    ¡­

    -So?

    So, what?

    -What are you?

    What? Can¡¯t you see? I clearly a giant, winged, red dragon.

    -Umm¡­

    It was a joke. When you¡¯ve been an entire month, bored out of your mind, and being chased by blood thirsty monsters, you can¡¯t let go the chance to have some fun.

    -You are very interesting, very smart for a slime.

    Yeah, I tend to have that effect on people.

    -Have you meet other people?

    Eh, no, it was just a joke.

    - Well, that¡¯s quite an odd behavior, tell me why are you carrying around knifes?

    Oh, well, because they are pointy, and pointy things are useful for stabbing other things.

    -Where did you got them?

    Before I answer that, why are you guys here?

    -We came to take care of the animals, I think you saw us fighting some of them, right?

    Wait, you guys knew I was following you? Aw, and here I thought I was being really sneaky. Anyway, in that case I think I could help you out.

    -How so?

    Before I meet you guys, I was exploring the forest, and came across this big old mansion. Surrounding the mansion there are no animals, but, going out a little bit farther and you can¡¯t walk a minute before you find some.

    -That does sound very suspicious.

    I can guide you there if you want.

    -You¡¯d do that? That¡¯ll be great. We¡¯ve been on this forest for almost a week looking for the source.

    Yeah, my pleasure. It¡¯d be nice to have some company, that way I can avoid becoming insane. Now, can you tell me how this spell work? Does it send an idea so we can both understand it or something like that?

    -Yeah, that¡¯s the basic concept. You keep surprising me.

    So, that means I can do¡­ This! And then I thought of the creepiest looking spider that my mind could conceive. That was followed by some high-pitched screams. That¡¯s the best idea I had in a long time. I was laughing internally so much, that I didn¡¯t notice when the rest of the group surrounded me, all prepared to attack. I¡¯ll admit it wasn¡¯t that great of an idea, still worth it, though.

    Then they started talking. The big burly guy, said something to the mage. I couldn¡¯t understand them anymore, probably my prank broke the spell or something. Guessing by the tone he was asking her something, probably ¡°What happened?¡±. Then the mage started talking, probably explaining everything. By the end of it, she was slightly embarrassed, and when she finished, everyone let out a laugh, relaxing their swords.

    Following that, the orange haired dude made a comment. I don¡¯t know why, but I have the feeling that it was something rude. Then the dark haired girl crouched down to look at me, and said something as she turned to look at the mage again. I wasn¡¯t sure what was going on, what a novelty, but then she extended her hand to me. I may not know what they say but this was a language I could understand. I made an extension, formed a hand at the end and we shook hands.

 Chapter 3 - Backtracking

    We are currently in our way to the old mansion, I¡¯m walking at the front of the group, trying to remember all the turns I¡¯ve taken since I left it to orient myself. Let me tell you, that¡¯s a lot of turns. Because I¡¯ve just lived for about a month, it¡¯s very easy to remember simple details like that, or so I think it¡¯s the reason.

    I think I left quite an impression on them. After I shook hands with that girl the expression on their faces were surprised to say the least. I have to say that I did it intentionally, since there seemed to be some doubts in the air about my intelligence. The surprise on their faces tells me that I at least stablished that I¡¯m not a normal slime.

    But, right now, there¡¯s another problem. I think the mage is mad at me. I''m not sure what could be the reason, the only thing I did was show her the mental image of a spider, with numerous creepy legs, filled with hairs, many blood thirsty, red eyes in various places, and a mouth filled with creepy teeth dripping something disgusting and probably poisonous. That¡¯s certainly not something she would be mad at, right? Jokes aside, I can¡¯t actually apologize to her, unless she uses that spell again. And I can¡¯t ask for help to the rest of the group. I tried, but all attempts at communication ended in utter failure. I guess I¡¯ll have to wait until we take a rest or something.

    On our path we¡¯ve come across various wild animals, almost all of them were inflicted with this maddening disease. The few that were not were heavily injured, most likely by the rest of them. The mage healed them and afterwards we released them in the opposite direction. The rest of them we¡¯ve had to fight, and when I say we I mean they. It¡¯s not like I didn¡¯t want to help, and definitely not because I lacked skill or anything like that, but with my limited means of communication and my none existing teamwork, I¡¯d probably be a burden, get me or someone else killed and have a bad time.

    So, I just stayed away from the battles and watch it unfold. Just like before, they had no troubles taking care of the animals that appeared. They barely got to struggle with a group of three that were fighting themselves, and that¡¯s because they were trying to stop them from killing each other. That¡¯s another reason for why I didn¡¯t help them fight, they were fine without my intervention.

    Their teamwork was fantastic. While the burly dude entertained whatever they were fighting against, the other two warriors would attack from the sides and back and quickly retreat, then he would get its attention back. They¡¯d always leave the back of the animal clear so that the archer would have a clear shot. The mage didn¡¯t have that much involvement in the battles, but would always heal them when they got hit, and I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she were using protection magic or something similar.

    That reminds me, I didn¡¯t ask for their names, not that I had the chance. I think the mage¡¯s name was Bri, that¡¯s probably short for something, or it¡¯s just a short name. I¡¯ll ask her if I manage to get her to talk to me.

    Later in the day, around six or seven hours after I joined them, the sky started to turn dark. If we were out in the open we¡¯d probably keep going for an hour or two, but the canopy of the forest made it hard to see already at this hour, so we decided to look for a place to camp. We found a good place, it had enough space and some trees and rocks helped to make a natural wall. They immediately separated and started doing various things. The big guy was preparing food, like before. I guess he¡¯s the best of the group. The rest were setting up the tents and doing other stuff. The mage was lighting the campfire with her magic, and afterwards went over and started setting up her tent.

    This was my chance, I needed to get the mage to talk to me or I won¡¯t be able to apologize and things will just grow worse. But now that she is setting her she can¡¯t run away from me and I just realize how bad that sounds. Anyway, as she was setting her tent I approached her.

    -hmm?

    She made that questioning sound as she turned her head to look at me. I stared at her, not having a way to tell her to talk to me, I just hoped she got the message quickly. Didn¡¯t took her more than a few seconds to grab her wand and cast the spell. That was easier than I thought.

    -What do you want?

    Sorry, for scaring you like that. I shouldn¡¯t have done it.

    -Ah that, don¡¯t worry about it.

    Wait, what? You act like you don¡¯t care.

    -Yeah, I don¡¯t care anymore, it was just a joke after all, right? Everyone thought it was funny, and after thinking about it, it really was a clever joke.

    Well after thinking about how the spell worked I suddenly had the idea. I promise I won¡¯t do it again.

    -Well, if you promise it, I guess I¡¯ll take your word for it.

    That¡¯s a weight off my slimy shoulders. I¡¯m glad everything is okay. Well then, I¡¯ll go to a bush or something. See you tomorrow.

    -Do slimes eat plants?

    Well, I think I can eat anything, I¡¯m not sure about something poisonous, but I don¡¯t want to go hunt something now.

    -Don¡¯t you want to eat with us?

    No thanks, I can¡¯t taste, so it¡¯d be a waste.

    -Mmh, well if you say so.

    She cut the spell and went to finish setting up her tent. I did as I said and went over to a bush and started eating. Having so much free time, I started thinking about various things. Some of them were thoughts about the things that happened recently, but mainly I began thinking about the future, what would I do after we reach the mansion and take care of this problem.

    Whether I keep traveling with them or no, one thing is for sure, I should learn the language. If I keep traveling with them then I certainly want to know what they talk about, else the whole point of company becomes kind of irrelevant. If I were to go on my own I¡¯d still want to know the language, next time I doubt I¡¯ll be lucky enough to find someone capable of using that telepathy magic. Thinking about it, maybe I could ask her to teach me that magic. That would solve all my problems, but it¡¯s probably not going to be that easy, maybe I can¡¯t use magic, maybe I can but my mana is not enough to use the spell for more than a minute per day or something like that.

    All those thoughts ran through my head as I was trying to decide on the best plan. Before I realized, the bush I was eating was gone, not even the branches were left, all that was left was a little stump on the ground. I didn¡¯t know I could also eat wood, that makes me wonder what else I can add to my diet. I¡¯ll resist the urge to eat everything I see though.

    I turned to leave, and go find a place to sleep, but suddenly I heard in the distance a very familiar sound. I spent a whole day trying to avoid that sound, so I was certain on it. I went to the camp with the group, I was going to warn them, but it seemed they were already preparing for that.

    The sound was getting louder, one could easily hear the rustling of bushes, the breaking of twigs and the steps. There were also growls and roars of pain every so often, I¡¯d say it was injured, not that it would be surprising given the circumstances, but that wasn¡¯t the case exactly. When it finally appeared, it wasn¡¯t an it, there were two. One of them resembled a bear, with arms reaching to the ground, and the other one was one of those spiky armadillos, it was a very big one, it could probably reach the waist of a regular person.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    As one could expect, the injured one was the long armed bear. It was bleeding from various places, cuts in the arms, punctures in the belly and chest. If I had to guess, I say that most of those were the result of the bear attacking the armadillo, and getting hurt in the process.

    While I was thinking about that, the group was already moving. I¡¯m guessing they were planning to help the two animals. The burly dude went ahead and¡­ I completely forgot to ask the mage for their names¡­ How could I forget? I have, literally, one month of memories¡­ I¡¯ll ask latter, I guess.

    As I was saying the burly dude went ahead and tried to get the attention of the armadillo. To do so, he tried making noise knocking his shield with the pommel of the sword. Sadly, the armadillo was to focused on the bear to care about its surroundings. Seeing this he must¡¯ve decided to be more forceful, since he charged at the armadillo and bashed his shield on its side, almost toppling over and pushing it a meter or so.

    Meanwhile, the rest of the group focused on catching the attention of the bear like creature. Its injuries probably made it a very difficult job, since they had to be careful with it. Its movements were noticeably sluggish, but it was still thrashing around with its arms. They were mostly waiting for it to tire itself out so that the mage could use her magic.

    I, like always, just stood somewhere that wouldn¡¯t get in the way. I don¡¯t like just standing here and letting them fight, but there¡¯s little I can do. I watched as the battle unfolded¡­ well calling it a battle isn¡¯t that accurate. On one hand, we have the burly guy entertaining the armadillo so that it doesn¡¯t kill the bear, and on the other we have the rest of the group, tiring out the creature, and since it¡¯s so injured, they can only dodge its attacks, while they keep taunting it.

    It didn¡¯t take long for things to take a bad turn. While the bear kept attacking furiously, the burly guy had to keep the armadillo in check, and, after blocking its attacks for a while, he was getting tired. It wasn¡¯t a surprise, taking in count that they¡¯ve been fighting throughout the whole day, anyone would be very tired. But contrary to him, the armadillo was not giving in at all. Seeing as how his team mates where taking some time, he decided to take the offensive, however the thick shell of the animal didn¡¯t yield hat easily. Eventually, all the factors, the weariness, the low lights that made it hard to see, and the constant assault of the creature, lead to the inevitable, a mistake.

    When he blocked the next tackle, he was thrown out of balance for a moment. This alone wouldn¡¯t have led to anything if it wasn¡¯t for the small rock behind his feet. Thanks to the low light, he didn¡¯t saw the it, thanks to the fatigue he wasn¡¯t alert, and thanks to the armadillo pressing on him, he wasn¡¯t focused on it. So, he couldn¡¯t avoid to stagger for a second after losing his balance. It may have been just a second but once the beast saw the opening, it started charging at him mercilessly.

    But, even if he didn¡¯t saw the rock, I did, and because of that I was already on my way. If you were to ask me why I moved, why I stepped in the line for a strange man I met a few hours ago, I could only answer, ¡°I''m not sure¡±. Sometimes we just do things by instinct. Some of those instincts told me that maybe I wouldn¡¯t be affected by the attack, much. But still, is a strange man who I''m trying to help regardless of the danger. Even if the consequences that could come from him being injured or dead, could be bad, those definitely where not part of my thoughts. However, I still moved to help him, and I¡¯m still not sure why. If would¡¯ve think calmly, I¡¯d probably realized that just one hit from that creature, as enraged as it was, wouldn¡¯t have been that dangerous.

    But, at the moment I didn¡¯t thought about that. I didn¡¯t think at all, I just acted on impulse. It wasn¡¯t after getting in between the two that I started thinking again. I stretched my body to cover how the area that the armadillo was going to hit and then I compressed my body to take the hit. When the beast connected with us, my body softened the impact with the big guy. I think he might, also, have been surprised by my sudden appearance. The spikes on the armadillo, pierced into my body, however the only thing I felt was the contact.

    I think this may have been the first time that I was thankful for this body, I didn¡¯t realize it until now but, I feel no pain. It¡¯s not like I have no sense of touch, but it doesn¡¯t go beyond that. After the attack, the big guy was thrown back a meter, landing with his back on the ground. I was still grabbing onto the creature¡¯s face, when it suddenly started flailing its head around, probably trying to get me off. That gave me a good idea, If I stay on top of its head I can blind it¡­ well, maybe good isn¡¯t exactly the best word to describe it.

    Staying on top wasn¡¯t that hard, until it began charging recklessly in random directions. I tried my best to not fall off, but the sudden turns and stops, and the occasional thrashing were making it very hard. I had to constantly shift my weight around to compensate for the movement. It all came to an end when, after running around blindly for a minute it took a bad turn. The armadillo was headed directly for a tree. It took me a second to realize that after repositioning myself, and had barely enough time to bail out before it crashed against the hard trunk, head first. It didn¡¯t even had enough time to react once it recovered its vision.

    The poor creature crashed into the tree with a loud thump, making some leaves fall off of it as it collapsed to the ground. Both me and the big guy, waited there for a few seconds. We had to make sure it was unconscious, and sure enough it didn¡¯t even flinch. We relaxed a little after that, the burly dude went over to its body and examined it. He mumbled something and got up, leaving the body behind, glad expression on his face. I assumed that meant it was unconscious. Then he shifted his gaze, I followed it and found that the others seemed to have finished as well, the bear was sprawled on the ground, it was very bloodied, most likely thanks to the armadillo.

    We approached them, but then I noticed something was off. They didn¡¯t look that pleased, but maybe it was just because they were tired? As we reached them the burly dude started talking, through their faces and body language I could kind of see how the conversation was going.

    First the big guy spoke normally. Then the dark-haired girl, who was seated on the ground, responded rather gloomily, followed by a sigh, then she continues talking, her tone seemed slightly negative. The burly dude¡¯s expression changed to somewhat disappointed and somewhat sad. Next, the orange haired dude spoke a short sentence directed to the burly dude and followed by that everyone turn their heads to the big guy. I¡¯d say by that, that it was a question, since it looked like they wanted to hear the answer. This time the big guy had a faint smile, as he answered whatever he was asked, following that he picked me up for some reason...

    Wait, what? Why is he picking me up? I quickly turned to look at him, and then at the others, they had curious and questioning stares. Then, after a long comment they started snorting and laughing. I wasn¡¯t sure the reason for that, but my interpretation would be that the big guy explained how I rode the armadillo to a tree. After picturing It, I see how comical that was. However, I wasn¡¯t sure what was the gloomy mood from before, though I did have an idea. After that the mage went to the sleeping armadillo and cured it from the weird sickness. After she was finished I approached her, I wanted to clear my doubts and had no other way to do so.

    -Good job here, its unconscious.

    Well, it run straight for the tree on its own. I was just trying not to fall off. So, what happened with that other one?

    -It died. Probably from blood loss.

    So, it was that. You couldn¡¯t heal it?

    -Not while it was in that state. If it sees me as an enemy, then I can course my mana through it. That''s why we have them unconscious first.

    Ah, I see. Tomorrow we should be reaching the mansion, but just before it, the concentration is significantly larger. This is probably going to happen more often. I''m not sure if you¡¯ll have time to heal them.

    -I¡¯ll keep that in mind.

    What are you going to do with the body?

    -We¡¯ll probably have to bury it, if we let it be, it¡¯s most likely going to attract more animals.

    Do you mind if I eat it?

    -Well¡­ wait, eat it? Can you eat something that big? Wait, you can eat meat?

    I told you I could eat anything, remember?

    -Yeah, but I thought you meant any plant. Anyway, I think there won¡¯t be a problem if you want to eat it. Ehm, suit yourself then.

    Good night, then.

    -Good night.

    She cut the spell and I went over to the body. Meanwhile she went to the camp where the rest were, and as they were coming this way with shovels and tired faces, she must¡¯ve explained to them, because they looked this way with curiosity and walked back to the camp.

    The reason why I wanted to eat the body was because I suddenly got an idea that would surely help tomorrow. Before I was cautious about eating these animals, but I did eat that boar and that rabbit before, and nothing happened. And if I can eat it all and digest it by tomorrow it would be a great help.

    I stretched my body over the large bear, to try and cover as much as possible and started eating. Hmm, I wonder if I can eat while sleeping¡­

 Chapter 4 - Getting to know them

    It was the morning of the next day. Bellow me, the creature that I began eating yesterday was gone, and just as I suspected, I had grown to be around the size of it. In fact, what awoke me was the sudden gasp of surprise, and the commotion that one of them made.

    A minute later they had all gathered around me. They looked so tiny, if I could giggle I would, but I could just silently make the motion. The hunter didn¡¯t look as surprised as the rest, but no one could match the expression on the orange haired dude. His mouth was wide open, just like his eyes, and it was amusing how, as he was trying to articulate words, his face slowly went from surprise to uncertainty. After the group exchanged a few words the mage came to talk to me.

    -Ehm, how did you¡­ grow so big?

    Oh, easy, with a balanced diet of meat and greens.

    -Could you answer seriously once in a while?

    I did! Look, it¡¯s simple, I eat a lot and I grow a lot.

    -Oh, did you really ate the whole thing?!

    Yeah, do you see it anywhere?

    -I guess that¡¯s true. I didn¡¯t know slimes could grow so big if they ate so much, it¡¯s kinda scary.

    I didn¡¯t know either, which is probably why is a rare sight. Anyway, when are we leaving?

    -We¡¯re almost ready, we got interrupted by¡­ this. But, can you even move like that?

    Well, I¡­didn¡¯t thought about it, ehm¡­ let me try.

    The first thing I did was attempt to jump like I normally did. And when it didn¡¯t work was when I started panicking. My head started racing, trying to find a solution to this mess I got myself into.

    -Is that a no?

    Em¡­Uh, give me¡­ give me a moment, I¡¯ll think of something.

    -Alright¡­

    She left, talking with everybody. I heard the big guy laugh heartedly, and the dark hair girl looked back for a second. But I ignored all that because I was focused on finding solving this. Jumping didn¡¯t work, but rolling did. That gave me a little bit of relief, but it wasn¡¯t fast enough. I stopped for a second to calm down, breath in, breath out, then I remembered I have no lungs and stopped doing that. Ehm, whatever I do with air, in and out?

    After goofing for a moment, I managed to calm down, and started thinking again. By the time the mage had come back I had come with something, basically, instead of jumping, I raise my body and let it fall forwards. The only problem, is loud, however stealth wasn¡¯t an option anymore. As I was practicing that the mage came back, and the first thing she told me was shocking.

    -You¡¯re not cute anymore.

    It wasn¡¯t so much what she said, just that we never had a conversation like that.

    -Sorry, I just couldn¡¯t help but think that as I saw you, eh¡­ moving like that.

    That¡¯s alright, I¡¯ll get smaller over time. Are we ready to go?

    -Yes, we are counting on you to guide us there, are you ready?

    Yeah, no problem.

    Five minutes later we were on our way through the forest. When I was thinking up solutions, I didn¡¯t account for all the trees. I kinda forgot of the forest at that moment. But I solved it by slithering between them when there was little space.

    After an hour of traveling the number of animals that started attacking us reached the level that I remember. We managed to knock out some of them but every time we brought one down two more appeared. So, we decided that out running them was the best way. I pointed the way to them and stayed in the back, since even if they did something my body was so massive that I didn¡¯t felt a thing, thought I could see little pieces of me on the ground every so often.

    We kept running through the forest for about an hour. All the animals that came my way were squashed, while the others dealt with the rest their own way, the fighters would fend them off, the archer would stay behind them, and the mage casted healing and protective spell, and every so often she would trap them in the ground or make pools of mud that would harden once they¡¯d fall into them.

    Eventually, we reached the outside of the mansion. The transition we very brisk, suddenly all the monsters stopped paying us any attention and left, they kept fighting among themselves as they ran away from here, though. With all the animals gone, I heard the collective sigh of relief coming from everybody. I was happy, too, that we managed to get through them so fast, and all thanks to my size. Which, by the way, had gone down in almost half.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    While we walked towards the mansion I approached the mage once again. Without the threat of the animals I could ask her for everyone¡¯s name, finally. I totally didn¡¯t forgot before, just that the time wasn¡¯t right.

    -What is it? Is there something ahead?

    No, is just that, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask for your names.

    -Our names? Eh, sure. I¡¯m Gabriel, but people just call me Bri.

    She seemed to be confused about something but I¡¯m not sure what.

    Ok, who¡¯s the big guy? I asked her while looking for him, but I couldn¡¯t see him, he was probably behind me.

    -His name¡¯s Stern. He can look intimidating, but is very kind actually, and a great cook.

    Yeah, I noticed that he¡¯s the one always cooking, and the dark haired girl? I looked at my right and there she was, her expression was very rigid. It seemed that even though we were out of danger her guard was still up.

    -She¡¯s Razel, our leader. She actually joined us just a few months ago, with Aaron, so I don¡¯t know much about her, but I can tell you that, even though she is quite strict, she likes enjoying things.

    And who¡¯s Aaron? The archer?

    -Yeah, that¡¯s him. I think I heard them say that they were brothers or cousins, or something like that.

    Ah, I see. It¡¯s hard to say, because he¡¯s always wearing a hood, apparently. And the orange haired dude?

    -That¡¯s Lance. He¡¯s the one that got us all together.

    Really? That¡¯s interesting. So, is he the leader, then?

    -He was, kind of, before Razel joined us. We don¡¯t really have an official leader, we used to discuss our plans before deciding on anything, no one had more power than the rest.

    I see, but why did you change that system?

    -It¡¯s not like we changed it, it¡¯s just that She¡¯s very skilled when it comes to planning and strategizing that no one usually has any complaints.

    Except Lance.

    -Except Lance, he can be quite impatient some times, and doesn¡¯t think things through.

    While we were talking, I could hear the conversation that the rest were having, thought strangely enough, sometimes it would go back to being a completely foreign language. I think it had something to do with the mage¡­ eh, Gabriel, paying attention. The most talkative was the orange¡­ Lance.

    -So, there¡¯s supposed to be a mansion up ahead, right?

    I have to say that he was very calm after being chased around by an insane amount of insane creatures.

    -Yes, according to the little guy.

    The one to answer was¡­ Stern. His voice had an accent, which I find weird, since it¡¯s not like I have a reference for that, so I guess it was once again, thanks to how the spell worked. For Gabriel, he must have an accent. I suppose I¡¯m the little guy.

    -You think there¡¯s something valuable?

    -Well, since no map ever showed anything in this part of the forest, it must be very old.

    -He¡¯s right.

    This time it was Razel who spoke.

    -This part of the forest has been empty for centuries. People have settled all around, but curiously, never close to here. And I think it has something to do with this predicament. We¡¯ll find out.

    Her voice had a sense of class in it, though it came and went from time to time. This is when Gabriel started telling about Lance and how Razel became the leader, so their conversation turned incomprehensible for me.

    Also, I wanted to ask something¡­

    -Well, what is it?

    Mm, Could you¡­ Teach me your language? When I ask her this she clearly reacted in surprise. And I think the others reacted a little bit about it.

    -Ehm, you want me to¡­ teach you?

    I know it¡¯s too much to ask, but at least the basics would be enough.

    -I don¡¯t have a problem teaching you but, I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m the best to do that.

    How hard could it be? And it¡¯s not like there¡¯s anybody else I could ask this from.

    -Ehm, alright¡­ I¡¯ll try my best. It¡¯s the least I could do for guiding us to the source of this disease. If we were on our own, who know how much it would¡¯ve taken us to find it.

    Just as she said that, I could see the mansion between the trees. We were almost there. Five minutes after, we left the forest area that surrounded it. I heard the sigh of relief from the whole group as they picked up the pace, almost running towards it.

    I could understand how they feel. They¡¯ve been looking for this place for a week or so, I¡¯d be running like that too. I quickly followed behind them once I realized I was completely alone. I found them just before the entrance. Razel was in front of everyone, carefully inspecting the mansion. By the way she looked at it, and how the rest looked at her, I assumed she though that the building was unsafe. Something I could agree with, and looking back, I¡¯m glad nothing happened then. Apparently, the mage, eh, Gabriel, was still maintaining the spell.

    -Alright, we¡¯ll take a break for now. But the mansion is off limits!

    Razel said, as she turned around. Her gaze was very strict, her eyes almost said, ¡°If you enter, the roof falling on your head will be the least of your worries¡±. However, there was someone who didn¡¯t seem to mind it very much.

    -What!? Why can¡¯t we stay inside, we¡¯ve been out in the woods for a whole week now!

    -Can¡¯t you see that it could collapse without a warning?

    -It¡¯s been here for who knows how long, why would it give way now?

    They kept arguing for a moment, while the rest of the group didn¡¯t seem to mind very much. Ehm, Gabriel, is this something common between those two?

    -Huh?... Ah the spell¡¯s still going, you startled me. Yeah, it tends to happen. Those two tend to fight sometimes, Lance lives too much in the moment, while Razel likes to have things follow an order.

    Wait, you didn''t know the spell was still active? How does that work?

    -Um, well, after practicing magic for a long time, some things become easy, to the point that you don¡¯t notice them.

    Ah, like muscle memory.

    -Yeah, I wasn¡¯t sure if I should use that term, giving that you have no muscles.

    Are you calling me fat?! For your information, my body is all slime, no fat.

    Suddenly she smirked as she covered her mouth, attracting the attention of the two fighting, they were actually the only two here, the other two were already preparing a late lunch.

    -What are you laughing at?

    Razel put her hands on her hips as she asked that, her expression quickly changing from strict to one of curiosity. The sudden question towards her, seemed to have startled her, since the spell suddenly broke, and their words went back to being that unknown language. She hastily answered something and after some weird looks, they went back to arguing. The call of the big guy, Stern, I think it was, gave her, and in turn me, a good excuse to leave. After Gabriel lighted the campfire, she proposed to give me the first lesson, so we spent the time before food was ready with that. Or at least I wish it went like that¡­

 Chapter 5 - A failed attempt

    After a few attempts at learning a new language we found out something very important, it wasn¡¯t going to work that easily. You¡¯d think that having the help of a telepath would be ideal for learning a language, but apparently, it just makes things worse.

    If the spell is on, I understand everything she says, and if it¡¯s off I don¡¯t. At first, when Gabriel tried to teach a simple word, I didn''t hear it in her language. After a few more tries, she tried activating and deactivating the spell almost every other word. I still don¡¯t know how magic works here, but after the results I¡¯d say that¡¯s a bad idea.

    On the 10<sup>th</sup> word she started feeling light headed, on the 15<sup>th</sup> she looked pale, and after that I could see the nausea on her face. I tried to stop her many times, but she¡¯s quite stubborn. I had Stern, the big guy, help her out, He made her take a break and after a late lunch she took a nap.

    I didn''t need to eat yet; my body was still quite large. So, I spend some time practicing my control over my body. I went around a corner of the mansion and left all my knifes next to a tree. I started stretching myself as long and thin as I could. Even with my big size, I was able to stretch quite a lot, however the longer and thinner, the more time it took to stretch more.

    I kept stretching for a while, until I got a feeling I¡¯ve never got before. It was very hard to describe, a weird combination of unease and¡­ vulnerability? It felt kind of similar to being in the cold without a jacket. I stopped stretching and when I got a bit wider the feeling stopped, and when I stretched again, I got the feeling once again. Just to confirm it, I tried it a few more times, and every time I stretched past a certain pint I got that feeling once again. I guessed that it must¡¯ve been part of my instincts as a slime, so I finished stretching and went over the rest of the abilities I thought off, except for the water shot, I didn''t have that much water left, and I <u>didn¡¯t</u> remember where the river was.

    Just as I was finishing practicing, I heard some footsteps. I turned around to see no one, but I continued to hear them. It wasn¡¯t the sound grass or dirt being stepped on, however, it was wood. I thought that it might¡¯ve that guy Lance, breaking that other girl¡¯s rule, though I find it unlikely. My curiosity got the better of me, and I was already trying to pinpoint the source. I found the nearest broken wall, and peeked my head to the side.

    Inside the mansion, walking very carefully, was Razel. I wonder what she¡¯s up to as I keep silent, not like I can make much noise. She was watching every step she took as she looked around, kind of in a hurry. Considering the reason why they are here, I can only assume that she was looking for the bathroom. Well, that, or the crystal at the basement that¡¯s causing this whole situation, nah, definitively the bathroom.

    I should go show her where the stairs to the basement are, they weren¡¯t hidden or anything, but they weren¡¯t that obvious either. But a small part of me thought that she would get angry if I broke the rule she put. Another part of me wondered if I¡¯d even manage to get her to follow me, with the language barrier and all that.

    I wouldn¡¯t know if I didn¡¯t try. Using that to resolve myself, I made my way towards her. As the wood creaks bellow me, she turns in my direction, startled, but as soon as she sees me, she goes back to her previous conduct. She said something as she let her breath out, a bit of relief in her tone.

    I kept approaching, ignoring her voice, until I was between her and the stairs to the basement. Then I turned to look at her, her face was slightly puzzled, not getting what I was doing. I thought for a second and came up with a simple idea that should¡¯ve been obvious. I just made a hand shape with my body, it looked somewhat weir and crooked, but it was the best I could do, and waved it at her to come closer. Now, hopefully signs and body language are not different as well or I¡¯ll just give up on everything.

    But lucky for me she understood me and started following me. She still talked a little in a hushes tone, probably to herself. Once she noticed the stairs, she looked at me and asked a question, probably unconsciously, I just tilted my head. I could try to guess, but I feared I got it wrong. She sighed to herself while turning her head down the stairs.

    It was slightly dark with the light coming from the hole in the middle of the room. She seemed reluctant to go down, fearing everything would collapse the minute she stepped in. Can¡¯t blame her, though. I started descending, slithering my way down the stairs. She soon followed, watching her step on the most unlit areas. I guided her to the end of the passage up to the door that led to the room with the crystal formation.

    She stopped in front of me, looked at me, to which I just nodded, and she opened the door. Some of the light that the crystals emanated covered her as she did, and she stepped right trough. She stood a few meters away from the formation, inspecting it very carefully. I¡¯m not sure what she was able to get from it, but after a minute or so she came back out, closed the door behind her, and told me something in the same strict tone she used outside. I quickly nodded and left with her.

    We climbed the stairs and left the basement, but as she headed for the nearest exit I turned to the stairs to the upper floor. There was one thing up there that I really wanted. As I was climbing the stairs, the girl suddenly yelled at me. I can why she would, but I still wanted to go up. I turned to look at her for a moment, she yelled again and pointed a finger to the floor, clearly conveying her intentions. I had no way of telling her what I wanted, and even if I could, there was no way that it would convince her.

    I made a hand and pointed a finger up, her eyes open wide at that, clearly getting angry, but I still made my way up, avoiding the loose and rotten steps. Giving my new size and the idea in my head that things my fall apart I stretched my body over the floor to distribute my weight around as much as possible, looking like a puddle. As I reached the end of the stairs, I noted how Razel started climbing them as well, thought very slowly, and watching every step.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    A part of me thought that I should wait for her, but another didn¡¯t find the idea of her dragging me down very tempting. There was also the part that thought that I should just get what I came here for and leave. Two to one, I headed towards the door that, if I remember correctly, lead to an old office. I came out of it carrying the old spinning chair with me, grabbing it with small protrusions from my body. She managed to reach the end of the stairs just as I came back, looking at me three parts angry, and one puzzled. Nope, make that one and one. She must¡¯ve realized what I was carrying then.

    As I headed down she kept looking at me. I didn''t care, though, as soon as I got down and outside, I placed the chair down and started spinning, and spinning, and spinning¡­mi vision changed from the old mansion to the forest, then to the mansion as Razel came out of it, the to the forest again. Then to the mansion once again, but she wasn''t there now. A few more loops, and Razel came back with Gabriel. In the seconds that I could look at her, I could see she was looking much better, and forest again. They approached me as Razel asked her something.

    She looked angry, probably because I, forest, went upstairs. They talked some more, but eventually Razel left, shortly followed by, forest, Gabriel. With not even the slightest clue as to what that was all about, I kept spinning in my chair.

    A mental sight that I didn''t know I was holding suddenly left me. Spinning like this it¡¯s quite relaxing, the shifting sight of the green forest, suddenly contrasting with the man-made building, abandoned for so many years that nature had come to take back, and the pass of time giving a helping hand. Added to the motion of spinning, lets my mind wonder aimlessly, without anything to focus on.

    I didn''t realize until now all the stress that I had built up. But looking back I can understand it. In this last, and really only month that I¡¯ve lived, many things have happened. Waking up in that clearing and leaving it out of simply boredom, running for my life from so many deadly things, just to find an old mansion, and running again once again. Then finding this group, that was definitely a life saver, living surrounded by things that want to kill you can¡¯t be good for the mind. And then coming back here, after having to go through mobs of those enraged creatures. It may not be that much to someone else, but funny enough that¡¯s my whole life. Until I get my memories back, if I even can.

    I¡¯m not sure how much time I spent spinning my thoughts away, but it must¡¯ve been quite a while. I may even have dozed off a bit. They sky was turning an orange red, giving the clouds a beautiful pink shade. I think this was the first time I saw the sky like this, it¡¯s not a sight you can see under the canopy of the forest, after all.

    I watched for a moment before deciding to go back to the group, not that I have much to do or say, but maybe I can catch a few words here and there. Maybe tomorrow Gabriel and I can come up with something, but for now it¡¯s all I got.

    They were gathered around the campfire, talking. I¡¯d say they were simply chatting, but by their mood and the flow of the dialog, it felt more like they were discussing their next steps. Some spare me a few glances when I arrived but they kept going. But, just as I begun listening¡­

    -¡­an old crystal array.

    Gabriel casted the spell, I was just about to tell her to undo it, but picking up on what Razel was talking about, I decided otherwise.

    -Let me guess, some parts are broken, right?

    Gabriel asked her, almost certain of the answer

    -Yes.

    -I thought that¡¯d be the case when you mention that this part of the forest was ignored for so many years.

    -It was something that¡¯s been bothering all this time. I couldn¡¯t find a single map of the area.

    -I believe this barrier was created many years ago, with the purpose of simply keeping wild creatures away from this place. But, something happened and some of the crystals broke. Provoking an unexpected behavior, probably causing even people to be affected, which would explain why it¡¯s been abandoned for so long.

    I was surprised at this voice, but up to this time the archer didn''t spoke that much, what was his name again? Aaron, I think. Just like Razel his voice carried a hint of refinement. These crystals seem to be very complex, if every part changed the end result so vastly. I¡¯d also be very surprised that he¡¯s so informed on them, if I knew anything about their society.

    -I agree, then it broke again, and it cause all the animals to be affected in this way.

    -I suppose we can¡¯t just break the crystal, right?

    Lance asked the obvious question. How often does breaking something, makes it work better? Razel quickly replied to him.

    -Of course not. If we remove the barrier, then nothing will stop all the animals affected by this spell from swarming us.

    -And if we don¡¯t do it properly, the spell could take another form as it¡¯s has¡­ done¡­ wait¡­

    Suddenly, Gabriel moved a hand over her lips and my head was swarmed by the girl¡¯s thoughts as started thinking rapidly.

    -I¡¯d need to analyze the structure of the crystal array and see if I can adapt it to work with an outside catalyst, then I can define a spell to calm down all the beast that come close to the barrier. I¡¯llneedsomethingstomakeapropercatalyst, maybe... lab¡­ useful¡­keep¡­ power source¡­ trough¡­ catalyst¡­

    She was thinking too fast for me. My head started hurting like crazy and I could barely keep up with her. By the end of it I didn''t even register what she was saying. I ended up turning into a puddle of my own body, but didn''t even realized until she stopped with her mental rambling, probably because she noticed my condition.

    -Uh, sorry.

    -Uhm, what happened?

    I think the one that asked was Stern, I think, my mind was still a bit fuzzy. Gabriel went on to explain while I literally put myself together, and then explained what her idea was, clarifying that she¡¯s needed to see the crystal array, as she called it, to be sure.

    -Well, it¡¯s the best plan that we got so far. Look into it tomorrow, Bri. I don¡¯t want you to spend the whole night down there, especially after you had your mana depleted.

    -I¡¯m fine!... but alright.

    She quickly changes her position with a glare of Her. If I could blush I¡¯d do it out of embarrassment, it was kind of my fault that it happened.

    -We don¡¯t need to make watch since all the animals are behind the barrier, so I¡¯ll see you in the morning.

    With that she got up and headed for one of the tents that were set up around. Minus her brother, that disappeared at some point, the rest of the group stayed at the campfire talking for a while. Since they seemed to just be chatting I asked the mage to deactivate the spell to try and practice for a while. Tomorrow we¡¯ll hopefully put an end to the problems this barrier has caused.