บท 36: Side Story: Adventures of a Wind Slime
Whimsy POV
Slimes were a type of creature that possessed average intelligence. They were an incredibly common magical monster which could be found just about everywhere: in forests, open plains, caves, your backyard, grandma's pie, and so on… okay, the last part was just a joke.
Slimes themselves came in a wide variety as well and were almost always color coded. They ranged from the lowest level of slime with no abilities whatsoever, to Elemental Slimes, or Terrain (Cave, Wood, Mountain, and so on) Slimes that were simply recolored palettes of other slimes.
There were all sorts of Metal Slimes of different metals, which were quite rare due to the fact that their bodies were highly prized as excellent magical crafting material for high-tier equipment, thus leading to them being hunted to almost extinction. Even rarer were Gem Slimes, as the capture of just a single one meant more riches than one would be able to spend in their entire life – if they were able to protect such wealth, that was.
According to legend, there were even slimes that had mastered some of the highest-level concepts, such as so-called Time Slimes. Still, nobody knew if such Time Slimes really even existed, as their very existence was impossible to verify.
Regardless, this is simply the story of one particular Wind Slime known only as #17 in slime language.
While all the different types of slimes had different food sources, Elemental Slimes in particular loved to feed on their corresponding elemental mana. The low-level slimes may have been famous for acting non-aggressively toward humans, but this was simply because they didn't view humans as a food source.
Wind Slime #17 was a young, newly-born Wind Slime of indeterminate gender, not much different from any other slime in Clearlight Forest. Well, it could be said that #17 was just a little bit stronger and just a little bit smarter than the others, which resulted in slightly higher than average base stats than other Wind Slimes.
Typically, #17 spent its days hunting the Humongous Bees in the forest for the wind element crystals, the essence of wind mana, within the bees' bodies. Clearlight Forest was a nice and safe location for the slimes, as all the monsters here were very low level and the slimes possessed no natural enemies here. Of course, this also meant that it was impossible for any slime to ever achieve a very high power level here as there was nothing but low level opponents for them.
One day, the young #17 came across a pair of two-legged monsters the likes of which it had never seen before in its young life. For some mysterious reason, although it could tell that these two two-legged monsters (henceforth referred to as humans) were of the same species, one appeared much taller than the other, and they didn't physically resemble each other at all. The bigger one had really red hair… it knew that Fire Slimes were red, so did this mean he was a Fire Human?
But, #17 was unconcerned with the identity of what it presumed to be a Fire Human. It sensed that swirling all around the silver-haired girl was a high density of its favorite meal, wind mana!
#17 acted on its instincts and jumped immediately to where the wind element was the densest – around the little girl's head. It then relaxed itself and claimed its spot there, soaking in the breeze that evidently originated from this little girl.
This was like heaven! Was this the true meaning of ambrosia? #17 had never managed to taste pure wind element mana before. To think that it had only ever known how to absorb wind element crystals before! The difference was as great as if someone who had only obtained their nutrition their entire life through vitamin pills had just eaten a real meal for the first time in their life.
The Wind Slime only needed to sit on the Wind Girl's head and absorb the wind element through its porous skin. Unlike humans that could only get stronger through combat and experience, slimes were able to grow stronger simply through the action of consuming – or in some instances, devouring, for species such as Undead Slimes.
#17 was elated at this wonderful new source of food. It didn't even have to work hard to obtain the wind element mana, as it surrounded this little girl!
After satiating itself, #17 hopped off the Wind Girl creature that had an expression it recognized as surprise. There were no traces of hostility and feralness that were always present in the Humongous Bees and Wild Boars of the forest. #17 decided to observe this new food source.
Since there was no hostility emanating from the girl, #17 allowed her to press what appeared to be some strange stone against itself. Although it sensed a magic power within the stone that activated on contact with itself, the spell didn't seem to be harmful in any way, so #17 ignored it.
#17 started spending its time on observing this curious new food source. One meal for it would last for more than a day at a time, so it now had plenty of free time now that it no longer needed to hunt Humongous Bees. The Wind Girl and Fire Boy came by to the forest to visit it almost every day. #17 was quite pleased with this turn of events. Was the Wind Girl making offerings to it?
The Wind Slime could sense that the Wind Girl was quite weak, even weaker than itself, along with the fact that Fire Boy seemed to be much stronger. However, it was evident from the humans' interactions, that the Fire Boy was the subservient one, a fact that the Wind Slime didn't quite understand. Monsters always lived by the law of the jungle, where the strongest were the rulers. But if the Wind Girl was accepting it as her ruler, then didn't that make it the strongest?
#17 simply had a more adventurous spirit than other slimes. Veteran slimes knew that humans were dangerous to be around and avoided the pair of humans that came back to the forest every day. Other slimes were scared or hesitant of the unknown. #17 was one of the few who even constantly approached the Wind Girl for more of that heavenly breeze that always seemed to swirl around her.
As time passed, #17 noted that this girl appeared to only have two hobbies – pressing that magic stone object on the slimes, along with swinging some sort of wooden stick around every day. For the first time in its life, #17 experienced the emotion known as pity – it pitied the girl for what it viewed as having such a boring life. For slimes as well as most other monsters of either below-average or only average monster-level intelligence, eating and becoming stronger were the only interesting things in life.
One day, the Wind Slime noticed that its food source was being chased towards its direction by a group of Wild Boars. This was no good! The slime knew that the Wind Girl was relatively weak and probably not a match for the boars. But, how dare those boars touch its food source! That was something it absolutely couldn't forgive!
Since the Wind Girl was kind enough to bring it offerings of wind mana on a daily basis, #17 decided to take her in as its subordinate. Wasn't it the responsibility of a ruler to defend their subordinates?
#17 had at least some combat experience from fighting a few Wild Boars and hunting the Humongous Bees in the forest. It understood that its slime skin was highly durable and would barely feel a thing from these other low-level monsters' attacks. Although its own attacks were quite weak as well, the slime could simply whittle other monsters slowly to death.
The slime made use of its stretchy, elastic body and plastered itself all over the Wind Girl, covering all of the fleshy creature with itself. Why was it that these human creatures were so soft and easily injured?
Unfortunately, #17 was unable to attack in such a form. Even it instinctively understood that only defense and not offense was no way to win a battle. It was quite nervous as it waited to see what the Wind Girl would do.
To its pleasant surprise, now that #17 was protecting the girl, she was able to beat the Wild Boars simply by waving that little wooden stick around. In fact, the slime counted the number of hits it took to defeat each boar and discovered that the weak Wind Girl was able to defeat them much quicker than it itself could have with its tendril slaps.
Maybe this Wind Girl wasn't so weak after all? #17 was somewhat confused. It possessed, like all monsters did, an innate ability to roughly estimate other creatures' power levels. While it understood that it wasn't exactly strong, far from it, its senses clearly told her that the silver-haired girl was even weaker than itself. Had something gone wrong with its senses?
Seeing this helped #17 to realize that there was still much about the world that it still didn't understand. For the first time in its life, #17 made a conscious decision rather than an instinctive one. It wanted to continually improve itself and learn more about the world around it. Curiosity was a trait that was present in more than just humans.
And, most importantly of all, if it kept allowing its food source to run amok as she pleased, who knew what dangers this Wind Girl would find herself in? #17 considered it unacceptable that anything should happen to its subordinate that treated it so well.
And so, #17, who would in the future later be known as Whimsy, began its travels together with Mia Hart, allowing the silver-haired girl to carry it around everywhere, and even beginning to imitate some of her actions.
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