Bab 15: Change of Plans

Alaric had fed the limbs of each corpse to the slimes, leaving 10 limbless corpses sprung about the floor of the chief's abode.

"It's time everyone! Unnamed slimes, come out through the door one at a time!"

The house began creaking and shaking as the slimes came out of the house, and Alaric already had his sword in hand.

'Thankfully, mother taught me the slime core extraction method at young, when the village was on a food shortage.'

Soon, each of the 20 slimes had come out.

'I don't need 20 cores at the moment... so only 16 of these guys have to die.'

And just like that, Alaric closed the doors and began extracting cores.

"Everyone, look away from me."

Alaric's blade extracted the core of a slime with pristine technique, 'I've done this 10 times in the last week, you could call me a professional.'

As the slimes look away from him, too dumb to understand that their numbers were diminishing and that Alaric was the cause, Alaric extracted their cores quickly. Soon, he had 16 in total, enough for the evolution of 2 slimes.

"Since they're named after my parents, the slimes Pamela and Gunnar will receive this privilege. With 3 slip slimes, I'll be rather powerful!"

Alaric then shouted while opening the door to the chief's house, "Pamela, Gunnar! Come!"

The village chief's house again shook, as two slimes struggled to get out. These were Pamela and Gunnar.

Two at a time, Alaric let them absorb the cores. It took a relatively long time for every core to absorb, but each time they did, Alaric felt their mana getting stronger.

'Pamela's mana gets stronger at a higher rate than Gunnar's... and both of them are getting stronger at a lower rate than Sonic did... is this talent?' Alaric pondered.

Talent was an odd thing, and everyone had it at a different level, even slimes had it apparently. Alaric only hoped that this didn't affect the amount of cores it took to evolve.

'Slimes would indeed be too monstrous if their mana levels doubled so easily like Sonic's did... maybe Sonic is a genius?'

Soon, both slimes had begun seeing changes in their form, having eaten 5 cores.

Alaric wasn't exactly happy however, as they didn't begin growing tentacles as Sonic did. Pamela was becoming smoother, and Gunnar bigger.

"Maybe it's related to their talent, they'll definitely grow tentacles soon." Alaric said.

Soon, 6 were digested, and Pamela's originally very ragged body was becoming even smoother, with only a few creases and chunks showing. Gunnar, however, seemed to remain exactly the same... except he broke through the size limit of slimes, and almost became twice as large as originally.

At 7, no changes were observed but their mana became significantly stronger.

"I wonder why the cores being eaten sometimes don't result in physical changes... maybe it's internal? The brain inside of their own core is changing?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Alaric threw them both their 8th core. As the two slimes digested the cores, their mana levels spiked and their own cores began to glow.

After finishing their meals, at the same rate even, their bodies began glowing and generating bright light. Pamela's body was being stretched wildly, forming different shapes, growing and shrinking. Gunnar's was stretching upwards, as his body grew in size and volume.

'Definitely different from Sonic's transformation... they're probably not becoming slip slimes...'

Soon, their seizure-inducing transformations were completed. Pamela had become a... circular, and smooth? Gunnar seemed almost the exact same, except he had become, shockingly, 4x larger! Alaric could use Gunnar as a bed, a luxurious one!

They both seemed a bit shocked at their changes, their pupils had shrunk as if they were surprised. What happened next, thoroughly surprised Alaric.

Gunnar stretched his body upwards, becoming much taller, dwarfing Alaric at about 3 meters high. Pamela's body began rapidly changing size and shape, at one moment she was a large cube, at another she was a fork.

'Gunnar didn't become anything new... just a slime of giant proportions and heightened elasticity... but Pamela gained the ability to... shapeshift? That's just as useful as Sonic's mobility!'

Alaric looked at Pamela and Gunnar, asking, "Can you two communicate now?"

It would be especially useful if they gained telepathy like Sonic, so Alaric was hoping that would be a common gain among rank-2 slimes.

Gunnar soon stared at Alaric, and at the back of Alaric's mind he heard, 'Kr...a.'

Alaric thought, 'Sounds nothing like Sonic. "Kra" is it?'

Alaric expected to hear something from Pamela, but instead, Pamela who was currently a cube, transformed. When Pamela transformed, it was instant, there was no wriggling or flashes of light, her blue body simply became a blue... something else.

Pamela transformed after Alaric asked for communication, turning into... letters.

Alaric went wide-eyed, clearly, Pamela just transformed into the word "yes" and laid upon the ground, much smaller than before.

"This is a much more efficient method of communication than 'Kri' and 'Kra!' This is great! I've noticed that Sonic communicated with other slimes in the past... Pamela should be able to act as a translator!"

Alaric was too excited to wonder how a slime even became literate in the first place, but it was something he would think about later.

"Pamela... can you transform into a ring? The kind that goes around my finger."

Quickly, the slime transformed into the words "I'll try" and immediately after, became a tiny ring. Alaric bent down and picked it up, immediately noticing that it wasn't acidic.

"If you aren't acidic, how do you eat?"

Pamela transformed again, maintaining their tiny size, "Activated," the slime said.

Alaric understood that this meant that Pamela can activate her acidity. This opened up a world of possibilities, such as using Pamela to instantly draw out formation patterns! Still, that was for the future. Alaric had the slime turn back into a ring, and wrap around his finger.

"Gunnar... you're a bit too big, follow me into your own personal house for now."

Alaric thought Gunnar would be as slow as other slimes, but he was quickly proven wrong. Gunnar stretched the top of its body forward, used it to stick tot he ground, and immediately flung to the position it stretched to. Over and over, forming arcs and following Alaric very quickly.

'Pamela can be called a change slime... and Gunnar a giant slime, these two will be immensely useful to me.'

In fact, Alaric became happy that the slimes didn't transform into slip slimes! The slip slime was powerful, but variety would bring more options to the table in the future.

'This definitely changes the Ryder Village raid plans!'