I was labeled as a failed slime experiment.by DocBlackPChaptersI was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 1. Back to sleep.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 2. This is no longer just a story.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 3. This isn't so bad.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 1. Back to sleep.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 1. Back to sleep. The scene shows a coffee house nestled between a barber shop and a dog grooming business that just so happened to be located on a busy city Street. A trolley quickly passed by the front of the coffee house window as groups of people could be seen walking back and forth along the sidewalk. Inside and sitting at a window booth. were two regular people sitting on opposite sides of a table, while one person was wearing a hoodie that was nearly all the way pulled down. This revealed it to be a very thin male that was most likely in their late thirties. From just over the backside of the seat. Anyone going by could make out the upper half of a logo that resembled a nuclear atom. His skin was pasty White as his messy hair was a stark contrast of jet black. Without even looking up from his phone and tapping away with his thumb at such a great speed, that it would make one think that the man was born with it in his hands. He started to talk even more to the one that was sitting across from him. The other person turned out to be a heavy-set man in his late twenties. He was wearing a pair of light brown slacks and a black T-shirt. Over that was a blue jacket. His dark brown hair was cut short and partly going towards the left near the front. The heavier man just sat there with his head lowered while looking straight at a stack of papers that had been triple hole punched and set into a clear see-through binder. The voice of a concerned person could be heard from the thinner man after a couple of seconds of long silence between the two and sparked up a conversation. “Come on. There's no use in crying over it. Yeah-yeah, I know. I'm probably sounding really heartless and all, but listen up. So what if your story idea got rejected again? Just make more alterations and bring it to another editor. and try again. Not like it’s the end of the world.” The heavier man responded in a dejected tone after hearing the encouragement. “Who am I kidding? *Sigh.* This one already makes nine... Nine you hear me? Maybe I should just give up on this one and come up with some other idea for a book topic.” “Are you really just going to give up after all that work? Listen up. As your friend, I can say that you're a... Um, ah... semi-decent writer. Sure, not the best, but not the worst either. And yes, your theme has been used quite often in these recent years. All I'm saying is that you need to try and stick to your guns.” “These guns as you call them aren't good for much else than to type away at a keyboard between odd jobs.” “Why not try putting some of your works online? Who knows. You just might end up with some patrons? Then you could use that money to ease up on those part-time jobs and get into your writing even more. Improve those skills and resubmit those books.” “I did, I really did. But it's nowhere near enough to pay the bills. Getting my story published by an editor would fix so many of my problems and I could even go straight into writing full-time. After so long of reading those Fanfictions of My Little Pony, I've been meaning to write one of my own and possibly be made into a real book. Even the names of characters and places were changed so that it would be seen as an original work when compared to my original draft." “Ah that's right, it's a story about a dream you keep having, right? Who would have thought a guy like you would get hooked on that TV series. If it was me, then I'd have already moved on to something else." The thinner gentleman paused for a second to look closely at his phone and produced a big grin. "Huh? Did this? Oh sweet, it sold! How much? YES! I was wondering how long that would stay on the market. Ca-ching baby! Oops sorry, you're saying?" The one complaining practically sank into his seat. “I'm not some guru like you that could buy and sell just about anything under the sun to make some extra cash. Ok, what was it this time anyhow? Found a key to a treasure vault or was it another rusted up World War relic? Wait wait, I know. Some old lady was going to throw out some costume jewelry and you found that they were real." “It's strictly skill man, nothing but skill. It was just some old knick-knack box. No one knows just what they got and sell the thing for dirt cheap without taking the time to do any research.” “Yeah, OK. You've always been that way ever since back in our school days. First it was trading toys and then lunches. Now you're collecting antiques at dirt cheap prices and selling them at a way higher bid to those that are always searching for them. I swear you make more than I do in a month in just a couple of hours when you’re on that phone.” The thin man who was still on his phone, began to reach into a pocket and soon pulled out a small keychain and placed it on to the center of the table. When the hand was removed. It showed a bronze link of chain connected to a loop on one end. The other had a marble with something placed at the center of the material. The man then said the next bit as he resumed his work on his phone. “Oh, I nearly forgot. I was just going to wait till next week, but I thought that now would be a good time as I need to give you your birthday gift anyways. Your always too busy and the days we can get together and talk are way too rare.” The heavy-set man picked up the keychain and began to examine it. On inspection once it was brought closer to his right eye. It was soon discovered that a carving of a generic style slime was in the center of a green marble thanks to laser carving technology. He then spoke with clear shock evident in his voice. “This is so awesome! It looks just like my character. Where did this even-.” “Ha! Don't sweat it man. I just happen to have someone who knows a guy, that knows another guy, that just so happens to be an acquaintance to another person who knows another person that goes to a laundromat who owes me a couple of favors and asked if they could whip this up. Just think of it as a good luck charm.” “Really?! Wow! I’ve got no idea why it is you even stick around me.” “Dude! Is that really how you say thanks? If it's going to be like that, then I'll just-.” He was just about to make the motion to reach back and take it when he was interrupted. “Whoa, no! That's not what I meant! It's just... you could be going out and can do just anything you want and I'm just a loser that has nothing going for him.” “Okay don't get all mushy on me now... yuck! Honestly, I don't care what you do with your reputation, but I don't want the ladies thinking that I’m into dudes.” “Oh we're on that again, huh?” “Geez, just take it easy already. I'm just worried that you're not going to get around that much and start looking for a girlfriend. There’s been some rumors going around that you’re not interested in girls because of that.” “For crying out loud... Ok, look here! Sure I'm still attracted to girls, but I'm just not comfortable enough to feel safe with 'em, that's all. Just look at me. I'm fat, I got no stable job. My looks aren't really all that great even on my best days. I'm living in a rundown apartment with no car to get around and barely any savings. No way any of that is going to help my chances with the ladies. Besides... we both know how modern women are these days. I'm better off being by myself. And I'm sure you don't want me to go into another rant about all the negative pitfalls of being in a relationship or getting married to any of ‘em Heck, the marriage paper if a contract they can break at their digression and run away with you money. Remember when I tried to help some lady that dropped a can in the parking lot?" "Yeah?" “Just finished up doing some grocery shopping and was crossing the parking lot so I can get to a bus stop to head on home. Some lady somewhere around her mid-twenties I think with an infant child was putting groceries away. The asphalt had this slight slant and a can of soup fell out and started to roll away and right up to me. I must have been more than six or seven cars away in the row when I picked it up and politely called to let her know that she dropped something. Next thing I know she’s turned around sharply to look at me for just a second and begins to scream at the top of her lungs that I needed to stay away from her and not approach women in the parking lot. I couldn't believe that something I saw on YouTube was actually happening to me. It ended up with me putting the can down and practically walking around the whole parking lot to stay clear from the lady." “Okay fine I get it. Must have been watching a lot of those videos again about why it's so bad to marry or just date a girl in our country. Even a couple of buddies that I've known for years have turned into Passport Bros so I can kind of understand. Still... giving up on them completely might not be a good idea. Anyhow, let's change the subject back. What's your plans tonight?” “Oh uh, I think I'll probably go to sleep early.” “I see. You're hoping to get more ideas again, huh?” “Ha-ha! Yep, easy to see that you’ve got me figured out. Going to check my emails and then probably watch this week's new set of anime’s that were released earlier today for around an hour and then head to bed for an early morning." “Yeah, I understand. You been working around sixty hours this week on top of using a lot of your free time on that story. If you were me then I wouldn't even be here. My face would be very intimate with the pillow on my own bed and lost in Dreamland." The large man glanced over at the round clock near the door leading outside. “Well, I think I'll be going now. Had no idea on how it happened, but it’s starting to get really late. Tell your mom I said hi. Oh, and thanks for letting me take home some of the extra lasagna the other day. Just promise me that you will look away from that phone while you're walking home, OK?” The thin man blew a quick raspberry as he responded to that quip. “I can walk home just fine, thank you very much! And besides it wasn’t even that close, still had a good half a foot before I got clipped by that cab last week." This ended their conversation as the heavier man got up and started to walk away from the table and towards the exit. Upon being greeted with the outside world filled with rushing cars and even more rushing groups of people going back and forth along the streets. The heavy-set man walked through the busy city with both hands tucked into his pockets. When he had left the coffee shop. The sky was just barely turning into a shade of orange as it was approaching night time. More than once the man witnessed one act of cruelty after another. Fender benders and arguments leading up to fist fights and muggings on practically every street corner. Even the common sight of seeing what he thought to be a husband getting kicked out of his own apartment and having his things thrown out of a window four flights up barely phased him. Another scene showed a woman slapping a man repeatedly while surrounded by a group of other females cheering the girl on. All the while he was just thinking that the guy had to deal with it and not retaliate. Especially since everyone seems to believe a woman's testimony far more than a man's. Heck, even the same crime gets a far less punishment for the opposite sex. Even with it being called self-defense, the guy would get thrown into jail without a moment's notice and all the girls around him knew it. This only caused him to have a sour expression with the knowledge of how one-sided the laws were in favor of that group going against that one man and knew that he could do nothing about it to help the guy's situation and just continued walking away before he was dragged in for one reason or another. A thought flashed through his head about using his old flip phone to take a video and hopes that it might aid later on. Unfortunately, it dawned on him that it was half broken and the camera was not working. Even still, felt a strong sense of self-loathing at his cowardice and walked away. Afterwards he stopped in front of a cheap apartment building. The sun had long since vanished and many of the street lamps were already turned on. Walls filled with various types of overlapping graffiti could be seen all around as the nightlife sounds took over when the last of the still functioning lamps flickered to life. Many of the windows in nearby building soon followed with how they randomly switched on their own lights in response to the fading sun. And as if on cue, the sound of ceramic and glass shattering could be heard just before a girl's voice screamed in pure anger with a language that he did not know. All the while thinking, there they go again and how sorry he felt for the poor guy who chose to married her. Soon the argument was overshadowed thanks to screeching cars and distant yelling that could be heard in the distance. There were even a few distinctive sounds that presumably came from shots being fired by guns less than a couple of miles away. Once inside the lobby. The heavy-set man released a sigh of relief after entering a relatively safe area when compared to the outside world. The entrance was small and allowed enough space for a few people to stand in front of a one-person desk facing the door. Said desk had a reinforced glass protection in front and only allowed a small area at the bottom to allow paperwork and small handheld items to be passed through. On the dirty and absurdly smudged window, where a number of notices that were put on for the residents to read as they were coming and going through the lobby. One of which was made using a thick red marker to remind the tenants that they had to pay by the first of the month. The man just slumped his shoulders as he gazed upon the notice with an almost dead look within his eyes. Afterwards, he turned to the right to try and use the elevator but found that it was out of order. There was even a big sign that was taped onto the faded and obviously not cleaned for quite some time sliding doors. Without much of a choice. He went to use the stairway and climb them to the third floor. Once out of the stairwell, the man walked halfway down the hallway and stopped at a door with yet another piece of paper that was identical to the one on the first floor. This one however was placed right over the peephole. Well, aside from the doors that he knew only had a woman living behind it. This brought up thoughts on the landlady who changed after her late husband died just a little over a year back. Even with the building being as old as it was. The old landlord always kept on its upkeep and made sure that everything worked. Times were tough and money was being set aside to do a number of renovations. Believe it or not, but he passed away and the money ended up being put towards his family and friends from what his wife mentioned. This led to the dire situation of most of the facilities crumbling apart. Only those that were on her good side were placed high up on her list and got better treatment. It took almost no time at all to see just where her priorities laid when she only helped the rooms that did not have a man inside. To make matters worse the number of couples dropped drastically as the girls kicked their boyfriends and husbands out for one ridiculous reason after another. One tenant made an attempt to expose the land lady’s unfair treatment towards the opposite gender but ended up getting injured and moving away due to a unforeseen accident. Since then, nobody’s made any actions out of fear that they would end up in the same state. Even if it was not official, there were some talks among the guys that they were getting charged more for rent and this led to even more guys leaving the apartment building over time. Once a man was taken out of his apartment by some police officers after his wife called the cops and said that he was beating her after she found out he was cheating. Even with not being present at the time. It was a rumor that felt more of a fact amongst the guys that the whole thing was set up because the girl he was supposedly cheating with was on the same floor and both girls were friends with one another. What made it more obvious was how only the guy was sued while the girls kept in touch and pretended nothing ever happened. After taking it down to read. The man slumped forward and pressed his head against the door as he absent-mindedly pulled out his keys and entered after unlocking the two sets of deadbolts. Once inside and the door was secured thanks to the normal lock, deadbolts and the chain even higher than that. He turned around and began to go towards the kitchen in his one-bedroom apartment that felt a little too cramped for his body size. Especially since he could easily take a running jump from the door and almost reach the other end of his apartment in just one go. This was only due to the weird way the building was constructed so that one side had much smaller apartments so that single tenants could use them, while larger ones were given to couples and families on the other side of the hall. The place was almost spartan as only a few pieces of furniture could be glimpsed as he went from the door to the small kitchen area. The carpeted floor saw better days as dirty spots could be seen even after a number of attempts were done to remove the stains from the previous tenants on his part. The walls themselves were in desperate need of a new coat of paint as hairline cracks could be seen in the dry wall where the building was creaking from the many small tremors being created by the nearby subway system that ran directly underneath the building. There was just a single armchair that had seen better days. A tiny table with a television set that he had gotten from some old couple during their yard sale. A DVD player that was easily on its last leg as the lights would barely turn on for the buttons. Even a stack of maybe seven or eight DVD’s. As for the dining table. It was barely big enough for two people to use. However, this was not much of a problem as only a single chair was nearby. No posters or even a single picture frame was put up anywhere to be seen. Although, in the corner and covered with just was a black rectangular case and shaped vaguely into a coffin with a single black handle on one side. Next to even that was a vinyl record of two with a saxophone on the cover. The only window even afforded for the apartment, was barely big enough for him to even fit through and it was near the kitchen as it faced a brick wall from the next building over. Although there was a small potted plant that could really use some more sunlight as it was already sagging. If one was to stick their head outside. They would be met with the other building that was easily within arm’s reach. The only time any real sunlight would even make it to the kitchen was at high noon. And that would only last for less than fifteen minutes. After getting into the kitchen. The man pulled out what little leftovers of the lasagna his friend's mother let him have and warmed it up inside of a microwave that made more than a few questionable sounds, along with a zap or two of lights that were not meant to occur. Once it was sufficiently warmed up. He went over to the dining table and began to slowly eat. Next to his plate was his story and a clipboard with what appeared to be a schedule written down. While absent-mindedly putting a small fork of food into his mouth and carefully savoring the taste of something that was not instantly made. The heavy-set man soon began to talk to himself as his other hand held onto a pencil and tapped on to the clipboard in a rhythmic pattern. “*Sigh* Let's see... tomorrow's Thursday. So, I'm on duty in the morning for trash pickup. Then I'll need to get my fat ass to the other side of town for my shift at the movers. Well, I guess I'm not getting too much sleep tomorrow. The day after that, I got seven in the morning at The Hobby Shop to help with reorganizing the back. Then one in the afternoon for Gibbs Burger Hut until nine at night. That's barely going to give me enough time to catch the train. Maybe I could talk with Jim or Molly about switching our schedules. Jim might do it but I doubt she will. Probably has another concert to go to again. She's been on that high horse of hers ever since she started to sleep with the boss who turned out to be a lesbian.” He released another heavy sigh as he started to roll his neck around before continuing. "Getting free food at the end of the day is keeping me alive, but it's not doing any favors for my weight. I hate having so many part-time jobs... it's another job on its own just to keep everything straight. Long hours aren't bad either, it's just going back and forth is the problem. Why did I have to be so stubborn? We got to meet up after a while. Should have just asked if his offer to help was still on the table.” He then released a very long yawn and decided to finish up his food and rinse it out in the sink so that it could be washed later on. Once that was finished and he double checked his schedule for the following day. The bedroom was the next destination. Inside, was a short desk with a tower computer system that must have used components that have clearly been jerry-rigged together thanks to a number of them being spliced from one piece to the next along the connectors. There was even a single mattress laying on the floor with some coverings and a couple of pillows next to an itchy looking blanket. Upon turning the system on and logging on to the internet. Which was only possible thanks to his next-door neighbor and allowing him some Wi-Fi access for a couple of dollars a month. The only problem with that was how stingy the person could get and would always turn it off when it got late. That was when he took a moment to take the keychain out of his pocket to look at it a little more before placing it onto the table where he was sure to find it again when he got up for work in the morning. With the soft light given off by the computer monitor. The marble gave off a strangely alluring green reflection as it was twirled between his fingers to cause it to slowly rotate. He was never much of a material possession person and did not like the notion of getting money as a birthday gift. Expensive items were clearly off the table and he and his friend both had a mutual understanding with just giving each other small things that they thought seemed cool once in a while. Soon E-mails were checked, which showed nothing to come in to his inbox except for past rejection letters. He then went on to a site that allowed him to watch some uploaded cartoon and anime shows and spent the next half hour watching the newest episode being aired for one of the anime’s shown for that season's lineup and then taking several minutes to watch a random 'how to' video. Afterwards, he just climbed straight into bed while muttering that he would change into his other clothes after showering in the morning and fell straight to sleep as he was still wearing his clothes from that very day. Although this was not going to be too much of a problem as his uniform from the waste disposal company was hanged up near the door to be snatched up at a moment’s notice. As the man was sleeping and falling into the deeper recesses of his mind after a tiring day. There was the familiar sensation of a bright light creeping past his closed eyelids as his senses return from a muddled state. While attempting to roll over and get away from the light source. He could feel that his body was not normal as the motion continued and carried on to where he was not stopping. Without any warning, a hard and flat surface collided with his face. This was also accompanied by a single thud and a weak wet splattering sound. This drew a muffled grunt from the man as he was now going in the opposite direction, yet came to a stop at less than half of what he was rolling with before. While letting out a defeated groan of annoyance. He angrily spoke out as his eyelids began to open to take in his surroundings. “Uuh... Did I leave the lights on again? Err, that's just great. There goes a chunk of my savings on the electricity again. Huh-what?! T-This isn't my room!” There was a stretch of silence before he spoke again in a tone that just said that he was beginning to understand and was just resigning himself. "Oh okay. I'm having another dream and I'm stuck in that place again. How many times do I have to go through this part? Can't my subconscious be even a little more creative than this? At least show some new content. Hmm, I may as well see what's going on now.” From his point of view. The world was behind a layer of glass that was only a few inches away from his face. Beyond that was a stone lined room filled with many objects on bulky wooden tables. There are even a couple of wide shelves filled with thick books and knick-knacks that looked ordinary, while others give off a strange glow. These would comprise of small figurines and bobbles that were obviously handmade by some eccentric artists due to their strange designs. A majority of them took on figures of different creatures found in fantasy board games, but with a great deal more effort on the part of making them appear almost lifelike. Aside from the creature figurines. They were glass orbs that would give off a neon green or pink glow as the glassy surface was coiled around with either metal talons or tentacles. The books themselves would be worn out and held barely any coloring to them. As a result, most were brown or black. The titles printed onto the bindings were barely legible as the markings took on strange symbols. With half being squiggles, the others took rudimentary shapes that vaguely resembled common objects such as trees, houses, mountains, fire, water and the such. The tables however were covered with not only tall stacks of books that threatened to fall over with how badly they were placed on top of one another, but many strange objects that resembled the medieval doctor tools were visible. Even vials and tubes were thrown in to create an overly complicated network of distilling equipment. Most were empty. While in larger glass containers equipped with nozzle controls all held onto the viscous fluids that would range from almost clearly see through gray and all the way to a murky green substance. These could easily be confused for sludge from someone's clogged up bathroom sink after drinking way too much and having no choice but to puke. No windows of any sort lined any of the four walls. From the wooden ceiling hung a number of lanterns that were giving off a faint glow from the tiny candles housed within. After taking a good look around to notice all of this and not see anyone else nearby. His attention was brought to the door. Sure, it may have looked like any old wooden door that could be found with a metal latch to keep it shut. Yet there were a number of carvings etched into the framework that popped out as being of the similar wording system like those on the books in the shelves. After giving it another once-over. The man's eyes shifted to look down at where he was. First came the bottom of the piece of glass less than a few inches away. Then a stone line surface could be seen from a flat piece of rock that was just barely wide enough to be one of those stones meant to cook pizzas on. Off to either side were also other random pieces of assorted rocks and foliage that comprised of plants and green moss. From a rough estimation, it was a glass container that took on a rectangular shape on its side and could easily hold close to fifteen or twenty gallons of water. This was undoubtedly an aquarium meant for a small animal to live in. When he was done with assessing his current position. His attention was brought to himself. Instead of seeing his large body clothed in the outfit he was wearing while going to sleep. All that could be seen was a green mass with a couple of suspended bubbles that was almost see through. After taking a better look at the glass to use the reflection. He was able to change his perspective to show just what he was inside of a container. Indeed, it was a reptile themed environment and the only occupant held within was a lime green colored slime. His body lacked absolutely anything as not even a set of eyes were visible. In fact, there were no visible distinguishing marks aside from it being a gelatinous mass that was roughly around thirty ounces in total. This was followed with him giving out a girly shriek. “Kheeeyaaaah!!! Shit! *Huff.* N-Nearly gave myself a heart attack! Phew. Nothing to worry over. Wow... this is way more realistic.” He got a little closer to the glass to focus the reflection. Almost in the same way a person would turn their head to get a good look at their own reflection in the bathroom, the slime was twisting itself just a little bit to the left and eventually to the right. As he was doing this, he began to think of how often he would always give himself a jump scare whenever this dream occurred. Soon he calmed down and started to think more rationally. "Hmm. With this much detail I'm really interested now as to what I'm going to get tonight." And starting from that point, he waited patiently in the tank and kept a lookout for any movement to memorize intently for extra details he might have missed to add onto his newest edit. I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 2. This is no longer just a story.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 2. This is no longer just a story. There was an awkward amount of silence as he remained motionless upon all sinking in. But soon, activity was through the roof as the slime rolled with a surprising amount of difficulty from one end of the container to the next with the speed of a sick tortoise. After what seemed to be almost an hour of utter boredom, the slime started to scream in frustration. “Why hasn’t anything happened yet? Ghah! Can't this story move on! So far this is a big letdown. All I'm doing is just sitting here. Yeah, it gets boring from here and there, but at least there's something! Let there be an explosion or even music in the background. I'll settle for the stereotypical person walking through-." His rant was cut off before it could really grow right as the door to the room was thrown open. It was even done so that a loud bang came as a result as it hit the stone wall from the amount of force being delivered by a kick. This brought on a sense of relief from seeing the new activity. “Ha-ha! finally! We can get this plot moving! Can't waste this opportunity now that I'm lucid. Think-think. I’m at the start again, so maybe I’m trying to tell myself that I need to re-evaluate the biggening of my story and change a few parts here and there." "Definitely hope I can remember all of my notes when I wake up. Okay-okay. Uh… the door is still intact and I don't see any scorch marks on the walls. This is indeed the very beginning. Hm, wonder if I need to make any alterations to this guy." To show that the one coming in was paying absolutely no mind to the slime’s words. The guy rushed in while holding onto a precariously stacked amount of equipment in both hands in front of their body. Aside from what was being held. The white lab coat of the person was fluttering about as each step was made in an odd fashion to give the impression that he was having a hard time with deciding which way to walk. Checkered yellow and brown pants came into view as the right foot was in a yellow-colored rain boot. The other was a casual leather shoe that would most likely be meant for a fancy suit. However, the bottom of the shoe had this sizable hole to expose the sock inside with heart like patterns put into the stitching. When the boxes were finally put on to a table with sufficient space being cleared by sliding the contents and creating a bunch of noise from the glass containers clattering against one another. One of which on the far end did end up falling as a result and was about to hit the floor when the snapping of fingers rang out. Just as it was about to make contact with the stone line floor. The glass container vanished after being shrouded in a white flash. It was then discovered to be right back on the table as if nothing had even happened and the one in the lab coat released a relieved sigh. The slime was waiting for the next set of lines that he himself has heard on more than one occasion. Yet he was only surprised as even though the man was speaking with an obvious Englishman accent with a whimsical tone thrown in. The words were unrecognizable. The slime could do nothing but to tilt its metaphorical head as he was not sure as to why this reoccurring dream was altered for this time around to prevent him from understanding what was being said by this character. “Huh? Now that's a twist. He should be saying, ‘Hooray, yahoo! Today's the day.’ And then something about overnight delivery being too slow." The parcel is here, the parcel is finally here!” The slightly tanned skinned man in the lab coat turned around after extracting the items from the many boxes. This revealed a scientist if one was to go off of the lab coat, along with the obvious Steve Urkel bow-tie. The outfit was not just randomly mesh together from different styles. But one could easily see the stitches from one part to the next being taken away after being cut from its original whole piece. Even though the pants were of a checkered design. The right knee had an obvious patch with black and white question marks embroidered onto the brown fabric. The right side of the undershirt was of a fine brown suit. The opposite took a red Hawaiian jacket and white T-shirt Style. The bow tie itself was of a bright blue with green polka dots. The hand with the suit side was wearing a fingerless glove meant for riding motorcycles. Whereas the other sported a goat sock puppet. The only thing that made it match on that side, was due to the Hawaiian skirt that was tied around the wrist to make it look as though it was dancing from time to time when his arm was raised. He had some slicked back black and gray lined hair that became spiky towards the back. One large golden tooth could be seen just barely poking out as he had a broad smile. The left eye was a normal blue as the other was yellow with a red slitted center. Over those, were an odd taped together set of opposing glasses. These were of a very thick rimmed version and a half cut which would normally be meant for those that like to do small amounts of reading while looking down. It was due to this very odd way of dressing, that the man who is now a slime wished that he had a hand to cover his non-existent face as a headache was beginning to form. The slime was practically pleading. “Seriously! No matter how many times I see the guy I can never seem to get down his appearance well enough to convey just how nutty he is! Just looking at him makes my head hurt!” What he was referring to, was that this was one of the characters that he wrote in his story. For the better part of the last seven years, he was having short dreams that would strangely go in a seamlessly unbroken timeline with only they're being gaps for where there should be nothing but time skips. Having only finished with putting together the final edited draft and began to submit it to a number of editors to be published. The only real problem was that he was not getting the required number of positive reviews. On occasion, he would even get dismissed as soon as he gave his name when going to a new place. This made it painfully obvious that his reputation was proceeding him and there was one who wanted to be a part of his work. After so many it nearly broke him a handful of times if it was not for his one friend giving some form of encouragement. Of course, there were occasions that he would end up going back to revisit some bits. This meant that the story was more or less learned by heart. Normally, he would see it all from a third persons perspective. The plot was of a slime that gained the ability to become sentient after repeatedly being subjected to this Discord character. Odd concoctions, situational manipulations, even infusions of magic to where it would just be under the threshold of destroying the monster was a near daily activity for both the scientist and the captured slime. Basically, the rundown of the story was of a slime monster that would go on to have adventures. The world was set in a magical land filled with human’s, monsters, demons, ghosts and whatever else one could think of when imagining a medieval stage. Most of the population being Humans in place of ponies. Magic was released through parts of a person’s body such as eyes or hands. Superior strength had no visible indicators. The ones that could fly would manifest ethereal wings. Eventually the main character would run into companions and come across one quest after another. It was even modeled so that there was a video game system which allowed those within the story to become stronger as their level and stats increased. Unique abilities were bestowed to a handful of people upon birth, while others could be learned through activities along with trial and error. After going off of his memory. This was obviously the start of chapter one as the main protagonist would be introduced as the weakest monster on record. The one that was on the other side of the room and going giddy over a small wooden jewelry case was called Discord. A legally authorized mad scientist that worked under the Royal Family and held almost as much power as the rulers themselves when it came to what he was allowed to do. Of course, mad scientist was a loose term as the world was mostly focused on the aspects of the arcane arts so much so, that technology was limited to levers and pulley systems being seen as the high end of the spectrum. Everything else was made using magic formulas, runes, artifacts of insignificant and great power. No one was a master of everything, yet there was a nearly endless list of spells in the world. Even the whole notion of Heroes and Demon Lords was a thing here. Whenever one was slain or forced to retire, another would eventually take its place sooner or later and the cycle would continue with no end in sight. The land he was on now just so happens to be called Equestria and is ruled by a set of princesses after their parents stepped down from the throne and relinquished their authority after many years of running the kingdom. The eldest was named Celestia. She was a natural born diplomat and spoke with her people more often than her younger sister. The second went by the name of Luna and came off more of a hands-on type of person, as she would run off to join a battle whenever word came in about a scuffle between armies or monsters that seem to be stronger than normal. In a short version. One was a talker, as the other could be labeled as a battle nut. If things were to go as they would in the reoccurring dream. Then this would be the part where Discord begins his intrusive examinations and rolls right onto the experimentation. This only caused the slimes gelatinous mass to have a quick quiver. And of course, Discord is right on cue and is approaching with a bag of goodies. With a small thud on a short table near the tank. The scientist pulls out some measuring tape and a pencil. The eraser was pointed towards the slime and began to poke at the membrane with just enough pressure to show the elasticity before going too far and causing the pencil to sink in. The slime began to giggle and scream like mad as the eraser came from one direction after another. “Hahaha! Hahaha! Hohoho hehehe! Why is it so ticklish! Hahaha stop it already! Please! I can't take it anymore! Why is this happening? My dream never felt this real! Stop stop, you're going to make me poop! If I had hands right now, I'd rip that thing out of your grip and toss it clear across the room! Hahaha, stop it already! I can't breathe, I can't breathe! All right, all right, I'll tell you where the rebel base is! Look on Alderaan!!! Hahaha hahaha! Not enough, f-fine! The secret ingredient is... that there is no secret ingredient! You happy now! Are you getting some kind of sick twisted pleasure out of this!!!” There were many attempts to move away on his end, but this turned out to be a fruitless attempt as his body moved way too slow. This went on for nearly a minute before Discord moved onto using a roll of measuring tape and started to grab on to two ends of the slime's body and stretch it. From what he knew. This was a very difficult process as objects normally passed right through a slimes body. But all that poking earlier was a test to see just how much pressure was required to grab on for this test. The man clearly tried to protest but nothing was getting through. “HEY! I'm not Flubber, quit it already! Oh, this feels weird! What I wouldn't give for a mouth right now! I'd go all feral Chihuahua on ya!" He even proceeds to make a number of growling and gnawing sounds. The sensation was fairly close to how one would get their cheeks lightly pinched on both sides and pulled apart. Discord soon released after recording the length of which the slime could be stretched before the grip became too unstable. Having expected to just snap back. It came a bit of a disappointment when the man realized that he was simply molding himself back into a solid piece. But his relief was short-lived when the next item was brought out. This being a very… very long thermometer and it was already approaching his gelatinous form. Sweat would have been visible if glands were present. He then frantically shouted, “WHOA WHOA WHOA! HOLD IT RIGHT THERE MISTER! I DID NOT CONCENT TO THAT! I THINK I NEED A LEGAL GUARDIAN TO SIGN OFF ON SOME WAVER AT THE VERY LEAST! D-Do you-you even know where t-that goes in?! I think I want another opinion! Noooooo, Nooooo! Hey get that-. Don't you dare-. We can talk about-. OH HELLOOOOO!!! FUCK! YOU REALLY DID IT! AAAAAAAAAAAH! Help help, I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed!” Pathetic and over the top whimpers came out as his eyes were shut tight. Well, the odd sense of sight anyway since he clearly did not have any eyeballs to begin with. Discord had already pressed the long thermometer until it was just a little past the halfway point and the tip was resting at his core. If he had a real body then he would be curled up in the fetal position while crying that he was just violated. The mad scientist could be heard saying a bunch of things again before pulling the tool free and taking out of a small plastic bag with the use of some long metal tongs a dead rat. The slime then said while cringing on the inside, “Uh-oh. I wish this was not a thing, but oh really?! If the tickling was like this, then I don't even wanna know how this will taste. There's absolutely no way I'm going-. Noooooooooo! Hay-whoa there!” His words came to a startling halt and became a scream of despair when his gelatinous form slowly approached the dead rat against his will. He screamed and hollered, yet it was obvious that no words or sounds were being made as Discord watched from the other side of the glass while writing down some notes. What made it worse, was that he was even drinking out of a mug with a crazy straw and showed no disgust. The slime body was running off of pure instinct and was not being dissuaded whatsoever by the higher brain functions of the human inside as it slowly pulled its form over and smothered the carcass. As the rat was now floating inside of the green substance that comprised his form. Some bubbles began to be produced from the foreign object and only grew over time. The fur came undone and dissolved first. Then came the flesh. The insides broke apart and floated aimlessly to where the slime may as well have been some really disgusting Jell-O mold with chunks of meat floating in place until those too were gone. Eventually all that was left, was the skeletal form of a rat with only a few bones broken from what was most likely its capture. This entire process took so long in fact that Discord left the lab and returned after nearly an hour went by when the last remnants were digested. The slime then screamed hysterically at Discord as loudly as he could while sounding frantic. “I hate this body for not listening to me and I hate you for doing this and I hate how this thing tastes like fried chicken and it's actually good! This is one seriously realistic and fucked up dream! I wanna wake up NOW!” By this point, the slime body was jiggling as though a strong earthquake was hitting the structure. The experiments progressed onto Discord moving to documenting his weight and taking small tissue samples, which stung quite a bit. When the instruments were put away. He could do nothing but let out a disgruntled sigh of relief that the poking, prodding and other demeaning activities were finally finished. When he heard Discord coming back with a crate that was just big enough to hold a basketball. A cold chill ran throughout the slimes entire body as he recalled what was next in the story. The container was held at the far end of the tank and poured over so that another slime would plop right into the glass container along with him. He then screamed again and moved towards the opposite direction so much that a good portion of his mass was now pressing sternly against the glass. “Oh No-No-No-No-No-No, OH HELL NO! Oh fuck no! Just look up the word no in every possible language and make a list and use that! I am not taking part in this bit! This is going to hurt! I just know it! And... For crying out loud! Now you're playing music...? Great, I can truly say that my humiliation is complete.” That last bit was due to how Discord snapped his fingers and created an old-style record player. Said instrument then started up and played some smooth jazz to set a certain mood. There were even a couple of candles floating above the tank on either end to add to the atmosphere. A low growl came from the slime as Discord even changed his clothing to that of a black suit that a waiter would wear when working at a fancy restaurant. Out of frustration. The slime then said with a panic tone while attempting to press even firmer against the glass so much that he was nearly reaching up to the top. “Are you kidding me?! Don't you even know that this is not how slimes procreate? We don't go around and make out. It's all about growing in size and dividing you numbskull!” It was at that moment that there was a little sizzling sound to mark the contact between him and the newest occupant when Discord started to make some very obnoxious kissing sounds. All the while, a floating notepad was busy with jotting down notes. Obviously, the mad scientist had no idea what was being conveyed by the slime as it found itself in agonizing pain. To him, every cell is being ruthlessly dissolved and absorbed by the other unwanted slime. After a couple of minutes passed by. Discord had a raised eyebrow as he leaned his head over to the top of the tank to take in what was happening. There was this disgusted scowl on his face that soon turned to worry before his eyes shifted from left to right. His eyes rested away from the tank and gave off a very off-tune whistle as he snapped his fingers from behind his back and created a small stick out of nothing to whack the second slime. This had the effect of killing it in one blow and making it dissolve within seconds. Obviously being dissatisfied with the outcome. A few checks were made on the notepad before he went and teleporting away and having left yet another dead rodent within the tank. The only thing that was left of the green slime was roughly around a third of its original size as there was still a portion that was bubbling due to the conflicting acidic properties from the digestion process. Comical black wavy lines were seen as he was mumbling the following in a very weak and tired voice. “I-I was nearly a-. No, I was victim of c-cannibalism... I c-could have died!!! The main character is supposed to be super weak. Even back then he was no match for any of his own kind." Discord took that time to place another dead rat into the aquarium. "And here we go again. Why does it always have to be rats? Fine! Hugh… Whatever, just go for it.” After giving up, his form slowly started to consume the newest dead rat and barely managed to cover a third from the tail and up to the legs. The process had barely even begun and his mind was already beginning to slip as a heavy amount of fatigue struck. His non-existent eyelids became so heavy that he ended up closing them after much struggle was made to keep them open. After falling asleep for who knows how long and regaining his consciousness yet again. He found that he had not woken up from the oddly realistic dream. He was still in the body of his slime character. The skeletal remains of the second rat were nearby and his body was now back to its original state after taking in enough matter to regenerate the previously missing portions. Already, the mad scientist was within the weird lab and working on something on the far side of the room with his back turned. A flat set of non-existent eyes were boring holes into the backside of Discord's head from the slime as it wobbled around the tank. Seeing as he had nothing else to do. The slime began to stretch and see what he was capable of. After getting a little more used to his body movements by testing his speed and seeing just how fast he could travel and how far this form could extend parts of its body. It was discovered that it was not all that great. After some time passed and he could think more rationally. The green slime attempted to bring up the display menu which was commonly used in this world through mental commands. However, when that failed, he resorted to verbal ones, which got nothing at all. In this world. The backstory goes to say that all were under the thumb of ruthless monsters and Demons. The race’s not of the Demons that could think and talk were nearly wiped out. If it was not for the previous queen Faust for weaving a powerful and unknown spell with the help of the king and hundreds of mages. Then all would have been lost. A magical network was set in place to give others the power to grow past their normal limitations. A person that had no combat experience at all would be around a certain threshold like level 1 and up to 10. Whereas those who are seen as strong are around level 50 and up. Of course, there are those with far higher numbers. For example, Discord was said to be above level 200 without the true extent of his ever really being shown. Getting indignant at the whole situation. He called out as loud as he possibly could. “Where the bloody hell is that stupid menu?! Yeah, I already know I should be level one from what I wrote, but it would be nice to see it!” He took a couple of seconds to calm down before he continued. “Maybe it can't be used due to my lack of understanding their language? Let's see, let's see. Ah! that's right! It should be at some point that a big earthquake strikes the lab and causes that bookcase next to me to fall over. It will destroy the tank and it will be my chance to escape. Books will be spread all over the place and I could use this character’s special feature that was not discovered until later on.” What was being referred to was how the story went with some catastrophe occurring with three supervillains running amok just like at the end of the original My Little Pony series. The book case would end up falling into the side of the would-be prison. The slime would then use this opportunity to escape after reassembling itself after nearly being squished by all the books. It would not be found out until afterwards that his body had the innate ability to literally eat the words off of the papers and learn what was on them almost instantly. The only real issue is that I still don't know their language yet to be able to process it. Not only that, but some very useful facts and figures would come into play as he went on to his adventures. But seeing as this is all from Discord, then there's no way I'm letting this chance pass by. He even recalled that he would escape through the drains and arrive outside of a large castle on the side of a tall mountain. But he became gloomy on the next part when he ends up falling victim to being attacked by a crow and ends up going right off of a cliff and falling into a river that would sweep him away and into a dangerous forest towards the south and nearly die on the trip. The slime lamented on that whole escapade and wondered if it was possible to change the outcome to a more favorable one. That was when he recalled that further in the timeline, he would end up coming across an item within the forest that was dropped by a previously destroyed carriage by some creatures that were long gone. The said item was held within a small wooden jewelry case. It would be the size of a marble and endowed with the ability to summon monsters at regular intervals. As it turned out, this very same artifact was really the item that Discord was waiting for when the story began and this explained where that second slime originated from. While writing the story, he dubbed them Monster Houses. They would come in various sizes and shapes and depending on how big they were, would end up reflecting the strength and type of monster that would come out. Although, when the monster is first born. It is at its weakest state with barely any health at all. The creature would require several hours to climatize itself to the new environment after exiting the Monster House and gain its power, along with the fully restored health. Now that he had this information ahead of time. All the slime needed to do was to wait for that event to occur and make sure that he got his hands on that stone before leaving the lab. If he had a pair of hands, he would be rubbing them together as a maniacal grin crossed his nonexistent face when saying the next bit to himself. “With that I'll be able to skip so much time and level my character a hella of a lot faster. All I need is to eat that thing up and dissolve it so that it's a part of me. As long as it's not being suppressed by that box then it will start to sprout a new slime every minute. This world has an experience scaling method and I'll be taking full advantage of it. Not to mention the chain killing bonus that will stack up. Every time a new one comes out it will be immediately dissolved and I'll get the experience points. Hehehe~.” If he had a body, he would be holding both of his palms pointed straight up while imagining coins falling from the sky. There would also be a number of plus two notifications popping up all around as he continued. “One of the biggest perks to being the author of a story and knowing all the shortcuts! So what if it'll change how things go? As long as I keep the key events in mind and plan accordingly, then I could come out on top.” His self-induced delusions of grandeur and making his character even stronger than what was previously written on paper was interrupted by Discord coming back once he was done with his current work on the other side of the room. A foreboding feeling ran through the slimes core as he thought further on about how long it would take until said catastrophe was to take place and his escape attempts would come into play. He then said in a resigned tone as the shadow of the scientist holding utensils in both hands loomed over the tank. “Uh... I really... Really, wish there was a skip cutscene button right here. It would be so useful right now if the story was to cut into a time skip. And why does it seem menacing for that sock puppet to be holding a soup spoon? For crying out loud, did he really have to dress it up in a nurse outfit? It's even got lipstick on.” The scene then shows the slime cowering as far back as possible as Discord came closer and closer. The last thing that could be said from the guy before anything could happen was, “The very least you could do is give me a lollipop.” The scene then shows as time went by. While being under the strangely crazed watchful eye of Discord the magic scientist. The hours turn into days and days turned into weeks. Being poked and prodded on a regular basis was becoming a daily routine. For the most part, he was left alone after needing to recuperate whenever another slime was introduced to the tank to test his combat abilities once Discord realized that coupling between them turned out to be a fruitless endeavor. Although it did take him a number of tries with different venues in the background before he finally gave up. Once the mad scientist even resorted to putting a backdrop against the wall of a french café and painted both slimes black with a white stripe going down the middle. Which obviously clicked that he was attempting to pull a, Pepé Le Pew moment. Of course, this was only after doing the whole tuxedo and dinner dress idea on an earlier day. The man now slime commented at one point or another that this must have been how tiny dogs felt when owned by a person with way too much time and money on their hands. All he needed was a set of teeth and the ability to actually produce a growling sound and the ensemble would be complete. There would be long stretches of time where he would be left alone in the tank whenever Discord decided to leave and do whatever he does on the outside. But of course, the door was always locked after the strange symbols on the wood would flash after being closed. It did not take long until he realized that this was no longer just any old dream. There was not one time that he could remember that it would last nearly this long. In fact, the only reason why his book took so long to make was that he would only get enough material to write a page or two before waking up in the morning and finding himself in his bed. At first, he thought he was going to go a little crazy and wondered if something had happened to his own body. Perhaps this was a scenario where the main character died and came back to life in another world. There was also the possibility that he was summoned for some unknown purpose. Then again, maybe all of those dreams were really just a glimpse into his future. He did right that this was just a slime that became sentient after a twist of fate. Then he began to wonder if his human life was really the dream and this turned out to be his reality. This went on until the faithful day finally came up. Discord had just finished with his examinations for what felt like the hundredth time. The small case containing the very important stone was about to be opened to allow yet another of his cousins to come out. Yet the mad scientist was interrupted after a sudden boom occurred from outside of the stone walls. Discord could be heard saying something in a panic while quickly stumbling to get outside. There were even more noises which coincided with a near constant rumbling that caused everything to shutter uncontrollably. Even waves were sent along his gelatinous form with such a frequency that it would be close to how one would feel when in one of those vibrating massaging chairs. With his voice oscillating thanks to the way his body was reacting. He said the following while intently watching as a number of small doodads made their way off of their shelves and tables to crash onto the floor. “There we go! Just a little more~. Come on, come on already! Fall... fall... FALL! Yes! About time! Woohoo freedom! Oh no, I forgot about this part! AAAAAH!” His slime body was in the middle of some spasms from watching the bookcase as it tumbled down and crashed into the tank in such a way that it was crushed along with the table that supported it. With a loud bang of wood and shattering glass ringing out. He soon found himself wedged partially between a couple of the pieces of flat stone for his environment. Luckily the Rocks inside were shifted so that it would make a makeshift tent shape that would protect his squishy and extremely vulnerable body from being killed by a literal mountain of books and broken glass. From underneath all of it, he screamed in a muffled voice while attempting to sift his body through the scattered pages and half open books for freedom. “Hooray! Now I just gotta get out of here and get my things! *Cough-Cough.* Geez, does he ever dust?” Page after page of written word was slowly being stripped right off of the paper. The ink that comprised them soon were dissolved at an alarming rate as is slimy form was squished over a dozen books at once. There must have been close to eighty or ninety on that shelf alone and it was taking a great deal of time to sift through each and every one of them. There were books about basic history, the current mathematics, beginner and intermediate spells, along with incantation manuals which were obviously meant for reference guides. There was even a personal log written by Discord that he could now read as the lettering became as familiar as the English language. All the while, he was babbling to himself almost incoherently as the rush of knowledge was literally coming at him all at once. If he was a normal human, then having all of this knowledge getting stuffed into his head would have most likely sent him into a comatose state. He was now speaking in tongues in a mixture of loud lulling sounds and wide gum flapping as he could feel his mind going into a frenzied and uncontrollable whirlwind. They were even knowledge within those books that not even he knew about when writing the story. Maps and general knowledge were greatly appreciated as he was no longer going to follow the exact script of the world. Once he was finally out of the pile and reassembled himself into his normal shape with some difficulty. The green slime was practically bubbling as steam wafted off the top of its form. A mixture of drunken slurs and baby noises were even coming from him as his slimy brain was processing and reorganizing all of the data. Most of which came out so garbled that he may as well have had a swelled-up tongue while attempting to speak. From his perspective, the world was spinning as lines of written words were zooming around his head in the same way one would see ghosts flying about to haunt a person. It did not take long until he got all dizzy and muttered “Goo-Goo-kachoo!” Before shaking himself back to a reasonably sound mind. This led to the bubbling coming to a stop and the steam to cease along with it after a couple of seconds. He then continued with, “Wowie zowie! Now that's what I call a cram session. Okay... uh-oh, I feel like I'm going to throw up.” This was proceeded with a large bubble forming and exiting the front to release a large belch that nearly threw him back. When he was done, he could have sworn he literally saw vapors that took on the shape of punctuation points and other such icons meant for writing Afterwards it took him a couple of seconds of blinking before adding, “It's good I don't got any teeth, If I did then I'd be wondering if I got some letters stuck in them. Just imagine the pain of biting down on an X. Now that would really hurt.” There was still some rumbling from outside, but that had died down to only a fraction of what it once was. Another item falling from a table caused him to remember what he was after and went right to looking around for it. It was soon spotted on the very corner edge of the table that he last saw it sitting on. Whether it was from either being lucky or unlucky, but it was halfway dangling over the edge and only needed a small nudge to come down to him. With a war cry, he rolled as fast as he could into the leg of the table and to give off a pathetic “Ouch” when a light squelch and bump noise was created. It was a good thing that he had been practicing while Discord was out of the room to increase his overall speed and impact from that of a snail's pace to nearly the speed of a baby that was crawling quickly. At least this was enough to make the box to fall and break open. Thereby causing the contents to roll out and into the middle of the room with a clatter. With a loud “Yes!” He rolled his squishy body over to get a good look at it. He could have been seen with a scrunched-up face, that is if he even had a face to begin with on what he saw. Right there, was the very same glass marble that his best friend gave to him for his birthday. Sure, there was no chain. But the engraving of a slime was still set in the center of the glass orb. With a painful tone, he said the next bit while approaching it even closer with the intent on absorbing it. “This is just so cruel. I'm really really sorry buddy. You must have gone through a lot to get it... but if we ever meet again. Then I'll let you know how much it really helped.” And with that, he slurped it right up and watched as the material was strangely digested a lot quicker when compared to the rats. The see-through stone crumbled easily and the small pieces broke down even more after a few small bubbles escaped the object. If he was not sure that it really was a stone that resembled a marble. Then he might have confused it for a chunk of sugar. Either way this was better otherwise it would be floating around in him for a long time before being fully absorbed. What came unexpectedly to him. Was the way it tasted so much along the lines of a cross between a lemon drop and a hint of kiwi. When the last of the fragments dissolved into nothing. The slime made its way over to a drain on the far corner of the room that was just barely big enough for a person's hand to reach inside of. After carefully squeezing himself past a couple of the bars and reassembling into a single mass on the other side. His form fell straight down for what felt to be a little over half a dozen meters before plopping on to a slick yet spongy like material when the pipe started to curve. It took everything he had to ignore the fact that he was now sliding along who knows what while surfing the pipe ways. Without any kind of nose to be an issue. The obvious smell was no problem as he just closed his eyes and hope that he was not going to need to look at anything until he was on the outside. What he expected to be a smooth ride, soon became rather annoying as the pipe would change course so much that he felt himself slamming into the metal surface over a dozen times before coming out on the far end. There was practically no doubt in his mind that he was causing a huge uproar with the sewage system constantly banging throughout the castle walls by doing this. When he was getting near the end of the pipe. There was obvious displacement of air and an odd noise that would be produced when an object exited from a pressurized hose. Instead of just falling out. He was instead shot no differently than a canon and flew through the air. He screamed indignantly as his eyes bulged out from the unexpected flight. “Whaaaaa! This didn't happen in the boooooook!!!” As he was in motion. The bird from the story that would attack him, was currently flying in his path and unawares to his approach thanks to the way its head was turned in the opposite direction and at some food sticking out of a nearby garbage can. The resulting set of events happened within a few meager seconds. The slime collided with the bird. The bird was sent over one of the nearby fences and into a back alley. Said bird release a number of loud squawks right as a couple of hissing cat sounds could be heard in its vicinity. The slime itself had its trajectory change and landed comfortably on top of a garbage bag that cushioned its fall with a noticeable *Pumph* noise. After figuring out what just happened. He began to sing out while attempting to dance in place with two small appendages to signify his arms waving. “Oh yeah, oh yeah, who's the slime! I'm the slime! Who's the stupid bird, you're the stupid bird! Haha~. That's what you get for making me fall off the mountain!” He then took a second or two to calm down and looked around. “Phew! That's way more than enough excitement for one day. Now let's get on to business. I really hope this works. Okay, hmm, let's try the word, Status!” Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, which greatly diminished his mood. But soon there was a static noise right as a bluish see-through screen popped into existence. There was a large circle and a red X going through the middle. Even the icon of a lock was shown overlaying that. Soon the lock icon began to glitch out for but a second and open up and the X disappeared right after. This was followed up by a set of texts that would quickly be typed in. There were also some digital effects of fireworks. *Attention, anomaly detected. Adjusting for unknown required text language... changes complete. Loading parameters for new species to be gaining access. Error. Unable to implement default settings. Advanced settings chosen... new parameters successfully installed. Basic information uploading. New race registered as Slime. Classification set to Monster. Congratulations for being the first Slime to be registered, a special bonus package has been added. Please select the icon below the information screen to accept the special bonus package.* He then said the following and doing a week imitation of a fist bump with what he had on hand. “Sweet! I get to skip all that hardship in the forest and get this thing a full year and a half in advance. No way was I going to be running around that place like a headless chicken trying to stay alive without making some progress. Besides, I already know what goes on in there and I don't need to handle that right now. Ok, time to take a look at what my stats are.” *Status Window.* Name: Slime. Race: Slime Monster. Class: Common. Level: 1. Health: 3 points. Magic: 27 points. Strength: 1 point. Dexterity: 2 points. Constitution: 1 point. Intelligence: 9 points. Wisdom: 8 points. Charisma: 1 point. Luck: 50 points. Battle power: 0.4 *Current special skills.* Weak Acid level 1. A weak acid that is used to digest flesh and other organic substances. Long periods of exposure are required to break down weaker non-organic substances and have little to no effect on stronger matter such as metal or stone. Oddly enough bones are always left in a pristine bleached white condition. *List of titles.* *Gluttony of written text* *Explanation: By displaying your insatiable hunger for the literal written texts in many books under a short amount of time. Even the most hardcore of scholars could not bring themselves to be called bookworms when compared to your greed. I do advise you to go out and into the sun once in a while. Also, to lay off the big words and focus on the action nouns here and there.* *Effects: You are capable of absorbing written words off of paper and other such objects aside from stone. What is absorbed is permanently memorized and instantly understood if the relevant information is stored in the text or already in the user.* *Home on the road.* *Explanation: You carry a piece of your home with you wherever you go. No, literally. You are caring a piece of your house inside of yourself. I am not kidding. It might be a good idea to see a doctor if you start spitting up doorknobs.* *Effects: Once every minute a new slime is produced inside of your body. One of two following options can be done. First is to release the slime into the world. The second option is to allow it to be dissolved. If the second option is to be used, then the experience points from its destruction will be allocated to the user.* *Top of the slime pyramid.* *Explanation: You are at the pinnacle of slime society. Even King Slime must bow down to your ability for being the first of your kind to gain access to the leveling system. May want to watch out for Queen and Princess Slimes as they will be on the hunt. Although, you may want to just go with it. Not like you will have many other options anyway, right?* *Effects: if your stats are high enough, then the direct mental manipulation of weaker slimes is possible. Depending on their strength when compared to you, the number can vary on just how many will be under perfect control. In addition, the sharing of abilities and skills are possible. * Now being bemused, he squinted at the screen with an intense gaze. “Hmm. Well, it all seems to be in order. Even the points are as they should be. That is aside from intelligence, wisdom and this insane amount on this here luck. Could have sworn that it should be about half of that from consuming those books. And luck should only be around five at the most. As for these titles and effects. I could already come up with some ideas that my character didn't get around to implementing. Let's see just what's in the bonus package. Can’t say I care for the remarks on my single status though.” While out stretching the nub of what should be his right hand towards the blinking rectangular button on the screen after making sure to swipe all the way down. There was a casino jackpot sound just as a new window popped up and the following. *Congratulations on your special bonus package. You can now have access to one special bonus skill. In addition to having a high level of luck. A second bonus skill can also be unlocked.* The first part was expected, yet the extra one due to having a high amount of luck was literally a jackpot and worthy of the noises that were being made earlier. He then went in and looked up a list of skills that he could pick from. But oddly enough. None of them had any descriptions as to what their effects were. Instead, all he got was a simple, yet short list of some straight forward skills and a few that he would need some time to think over more carefully. *List of skills.* Applied coating. Appraisal. Experience multiplier. Magic manipulator. Material shift. His voice then changed to that of being mischievous in nature as he looked over the short list and coming up with possibilities as to what their functions were. “Oh~. I think I could possibly have a few uses for any of these. What skill will I choose? Hmm... Experience multiplier seems to be the best choice in the long run to grab early. But I'm having some difficulty with what the second one should be. This would be a real good time to have a second opinion.” With already making up his mind on what was on the center of the list. The first skill was obtained. This produced a new prompt that overlaid the first as it displayed even more texts. *Due to the acquiring of experience multiplier, along with having 50 points in luck while the user is still at level 1. The amount of experience the user will obtain has been increased by 50 times from normal. This can stack with any other item or ability with similar effects after other boosts have already taken effect. The experience multiplier will drop down drastically once the user has reached level 2.* This only got him to break down into a maniacal laughter that could have been heard from all over the four corners of the castle if he was actually able to speak out loud. Sure, he was aiming to improve his stats earlier on but this was more of an explosion of experience which would be on the scale of the volcano that destroyed Pompeii. “That’s what I need. I'm going to milk this level one bonus for as long as I possibly can. If it goes the way I think it will. Then this is going to be a huge payoff. Now I just need to figure out how not to be killed until I decide to spam that level up button.” When those words were spoken. two notification windows made itself known. The first informed him that he activated the experience chain bonus which comes into effect whenever a monster was slain and the experience gained from it was absorbed within two minutes of each other. This meant that he was going to get a two hundred percent increase. And of course, thanks to the Monster House constantly giving him freebie kills on a regular basis. Then there was no way that this chain was going to end. And the other window asked if he wanted to level up. There was even a very large gold flashing rectangular button for him to press. But instead, he just closed the window and giggled to himself while hopping down from the garbage bag and started to make his way through an alley that would lead him deeper into the city of Canterlot. Just up ahead at the end of the narrow space between the buildings. He could just barely make out that there were some colorful banners and ribbons with different shades of purple hanged up along the busy streets. “Ah, I see the coronation of the new ruler is still happening. Hmm, maybe I should think about taking a quick peek at this Twilight Sparkle when I get the chance.” Then his mood turned somber. "At the very least there won't be very many human names that I'd have to hear anymore where the naming conventions are all twisted for most of the population." This only lasted for a second before returning to his excitable self. I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 3. This isn't so bad.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 3. This isn't so bad. A few hours had already passed by after making his escape from that laboratory to hide on the streets of Canterlot. From what he could tell, most of the buildings gave off an old victorian impression from a cursory glance. Not to mention the nearly endless painted eggshell white ones that made an Identically neat row down to the ends. Doors were primarily made of bright colors such as blue, green, yellow and bright red. Although a few were completely white and he wondered how the owners would feel if even a speck of dirt or mud was to land on their dwelling with how easily messed up it could be with that kind of a color scheme. The streets with businesses were lined with a number of colorful eye-catching stalls parked right outside of their respective shop's so that customers would go inside to see what else the merchant had to offer once they became interested in the wares on display. The roads seemed to be made with fairly well used and worn cobblestone with some noticeable wagon wheel indentations from constant use. Fortunately enough, there were drainage systems and garbage receptacles to help with keeping the place relatively clean. Which in turn was a great improvement upon medieval times where filth was just left piled around to attract rats and cause a number of different illnesses. Many people going back and forth had the generic skin tones of a human, but the flashy and colored spectrum of hair and eye color that those from my Little Pony would have. Most of the characters around dressed themselves in simple outfits that were closely resembling that of ancient times where kings and queens typically stood at the top for the law of the land. This feeling was only compounded even further by a couple of guards stationed at a few corners with the emblem of a six-pointed purple star with five white smaller ones surrounding it to show that they were under Princess Twilight’s command. Some fancier dressed people were also mixed in as they had an attendee to help with carrying the goods that were purchased on their apparent shopping spree. Out of a few of these were dressed a little better, while others were at a similar state to what he thought would be the commoners thanks to a lackluster of bright colors, along with some visible patches and stitch works for the arms or pants. He even kept out a metaphorical ear to hear the rhythmic tune of a menstrual if there should happen to be one nearby. Although, several long moments came and went as he suffered a huge disappointment when it was nothing but the background noises from what he assumed to be customers who were in the middle of haggling with many shop owners. While trying to keep to the shadows and quickly shifting between items that were resting on the sidewalk. The green slime was carefully navigating around the crowds and observing their habits whenever he did not have to quickly duck to escape being detected. And of course, he had ample time with getting lost on a number of occasions thanks to being so small that he was unable to get a good view of markers to help in keeping his bearings. From what he could gather from what was around him, as well as the still unrecognizable chatter. The new ruler of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle must have just been crowned. There was more than one occasion that he grumbled to himself about his inability to understand even a single word that was being uttered around him and only had to go off of his memories to understand the current events. There was even one time that he nearly got run over by the wheels of a carriage carrying some goods while in the middle of crossing the street when no one was looking and almost rolled into the sewer system after the scare. This was all because he ended up grabbing on to one of the spokes and held on long enough to be thrown several feet to the edge of the street after letting out a long whale of help during his impromptu carriage ride. From guessing alone, the crowning ceremony concluded just a little over an hour ago with the way everyone was chatting amongst themselves and already heavily drinking. This meant that there was a good chance of the important guests were up in the castle for the after party. As he was going around yet another garbage can to avoid the detection from a set of armored guards that were walking together and going in the opposite direction of the castle. He then thought to himself about how easy it would be to sneak in right under their noses. With this being such an important event, they would undoubtedly be busy with party crashers and a pitiful slime like himself would not even get a second glance. It would have only taken close to half an hour for him to get to the castle if he were to simply go straight there by walking right down the road with his current size and speed when he finally got to one of the main streets. Yet avoiding random animals such as cats, dogs, the dreaded birds that sent his body into a quivering mess and the occasional foot of a random passerby was his top priority due to his size and the pitiful amount of health points. So, it took quite a bit longer than was previously expected and lost what he thought was precious time. With only three to work with, he would find it understandable that a simple adult stepping right on him would be enough to take his life as he would be reduced to an oversized glob of chewing gum in their eyes. As a result. It took him just over another two hours to just get as far as the castle wall. This was also contributed by how far away the tubes had brought him from the huge structure itself during the escape. It also did not help that it was an uphill run and the best he could do was to roll himself for a portion of it with a great amount of difficulty. If it was not for him being without lungs, then some of the passerby’s would have heard gasping air from below their feet and become quickly alerted of his presence. He even grumbled to himself about how much faster it would have been if he was not so low on the attribute points. This and a pair of legs would have been a great help. Just a measly two in dexterity amounted to very little and he wondered if he'd be able to get away from a one-legged dog if you were to be chased by such an animal. After some searching, a hole was found to allow water to flow out of the inner wall and towards the outside nearly a quarter of the way around the outer perimeter and hidden by a couple of overgrown weeds. After sifting through the opening and finding himself on the outer courtyard. His vision was covered by a new notification window. This one stated the following as a brass-colored crown could be seen near the top of the text as it bounced from left to right. *Congratulations! You have earned a new title! *Slime Hunter, Rank 1.* *Explanation: You have killed over 200 slimes and achieve the title of Slime Hunter. Wow, you must not have much of a life. That or you're getting your rocks off on beating up the most useless creature in existence. Way-da-go buddy. Your parents must be so proud.* *Effect: All stats gain a mild boost when encountering a slime type monster in combat. In addition, experience gained is increased by 50 percent.* He quickly grumbled after reading the message. “Yeah I'm happy that I got that title... but can it really knock it off with these weird comments on the explanations? Their getting way too personal. Huh? I already killed 200? Mmm… Okay, so if I'm going off of one per minute then it's already been over three hours and twenty minutes since I swallowed up that Monster House. Hmm. If I remember correctly. Then I should reach the next rank every time the total is doubled and the maximum I can go for is Rank 5. Oh booyah! That's right system! Keep on tossing in those free experience points right into the bank! I wanna see my investment grow baby! Too bad real banks don't give this much interest.” His ramblings were cut off when he heard an unexpected voice from right above where he sat. It came off as feminine and held onto an odd accent that he had a very hard time to pin down aside from it being oddly seductive. Yet also so very mischievous at the same time. Without a doubt it was of a mature woman. After a second, he would even say that it made him think of someone from Egypt. His gaze slowly drew upwards and his slime instincts instantly took hold of his mind with a wild vengeance. On a tree close to the stone wall was a very large bird with bright colored red, orange and amber feathers for a flame pattern. Bright jade-colored eyes where piercings straight into his very being. "My my~. Quite the noisy one, aren’t we? You're very, *Giggle.* Very bold for being so young~. Yes yes you are~.” “AAAAAAAH BIIIIRRD! NOOOOOOOO! I DON'T WANNA DIE!!” The smooth surface of his body was literally turning into pine needles during the screaming and immediately rushed for the exit and right through the hole that he had just come in from a moment prior. However, when he was more than halfway out on the other side. The same voice came from above yet again after there was a noticeable flapping of wings. “Oh oh~. Your very funny~. Leaving the party so soon? Why not stay?” This was only followed by him attempting to go back yet again after releasing a bone chilling inner scream. But to run into the same voice a third time on the other end was enough to feel as if he could have had a heart attack if there even was such an organ within his green body. This series of events kick started a seemingly endless routine of the slime coming and going nearly a dozen times over to where he was not even fully out of the hole when he had to turn around with how fast the bird was able to fly over the wall. Along with screaming at the top of his non-existent lungs before being completely exhausted on the inner part of the wall where it all began to mumble to himself as he finally lost the will to go on and was about ready to accept what was happening. “I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die... My ass is so grass! Please don't make me suffer, j-just end it all quickly!” His entire form was quivering so much at the very notion of a bird having him in its sights, that he found himself unable to open his eyes. There was the sound of flapping wings to signify an avian taking to the air. This triggered his imagination to go into overdrive as he envisioned the large bird getting in position for a dive bomb run to attack with its outstretched talons. Thereby piercing his weak membrane and snatching away the few precious health points between life and death. He braced himself for a world of instant pain when the sound of something landing on the grass nearby could be heard by a small thud. There was also another set of flapping that came instantly after, along with the bird's voice that came off as a little hesitant when compared to just a few seconds ago. “No no. I could not bring myself to cause any harm~. More so after you have already done me a great deed. Please please, take a look.” Even though every cell in his new body was compelling him to just close his eyes and accept death. They soon creeped open at an agonizingly slow pace. First came the grass. Then his vision went higher and higher. After a little bit. He came face-to-face with the severed head of a large black crow with its beak slightly open. The tongue was hanging as one of its eyes was clearly gouged out. This earned a terrified shriek and twitch from him in the form of, “AAAAAAAAAH!!! GERK! GAH! Uuuuh... ... ...” And lastly, he fell back and turned into a puddle that quickly started to spread out to nearly two feet in diameter and just barely high enough to allow a few stray tall blades of grass to poke through. If it was a cartoon. Then is entire green coloring would have turned a shade of gray along with a small ghost attempting to fly away as it was tethered down to his body. There would have also have been a small funeral bell ringing to inform that someone had just passed away. Suffice to say, he was passed out and utterly detached from the whole world as everything instantly went black. When he finally began to feel his murky consciousness coming back. The sensation of a soft and warm object was there to greet him. This caused the guy to believe that he was back in his own body. His own human body. Also wrapped up in a very soft blanket that beckoned him to just go back to sleep. Even if it meant being late to work, which he was not a fan of to begin with. That's when he realized something and began to feel even more confused as he did not own a blanket that was anywhere close to being this comfortable. Soon he opened his eyes to find that they were being covered. After a little bit of wiggling around was done. The upper part of his body poked out of a tiny opening and was assaulted by an unexpected bright light. For some reason he was now within a very lavished room that was decorated from the floor all the way to the ceiling with bright colors which mostly consisted of white, pink, light green and blue. Murals of the sun in different depictions were painted on the walls for a consistent pattern, as well as some of the furniture. When his attention was brought back down to himself. The form of the green slime was discovered. Having already been accustomed to this sight by now, it was not too much of a shock. But what did come as a big surprise, was the fact that he was inside of a large golden cage suspended by a tall stand with the front door being left wide open. What quickly drew his attention next was that he was now being cradled in the wings of the bird that he saw before as both he and it rested at the bottom of the cage. While resisting the strong urge to choose between fainting or just screaming his head off. He shooked those thoughts away and attempted to slowly wiggle himself free from going one way to the next once there was enough sufficient control to override his body's natural instincts. Meanwhile cursing the primal and mindless aspect of the slime for its debilitating weakness towards flying creatures. But what came from doing this caused him to look up slowly as a cold sweat was now forming on his elastic membrane. There was a small cooing sound from the bird as it was staring straight down at him with its head turned to the right and showing one unblinking eye. If he was able to poop himself right now, then there may have been so much that it could have easily have filled the entire bottom of the birdcage and gone clear over the edge with how terrified he felt right then and there. Not only was he in its nest. But the beast quite literally had him in its clutches. Surprisingly, after shivering from fear, the bird started to do more of its cooing as the wings gently hugged his quivering mass that almost made him freeze. This was followed with the bird speaking again in a calming tone. “Now now~. No need to fret. This is a safe place and no harm will come~.” His body still wanted to get out of there so badly that his rational thoughts were yet again being overwritten. But the bird’s words were beginning to get to him after a couple of seconds had passed. He then thought to himself that he needed to take control of his body and not let the mindless part be in charge. He knew that if this bird really wanted to harm him, then he would have already been long dead. After a while of sitting there and allowing the bird to do what it wanted, some courage was mustered up to push himself to say the handful of burning questions on his mind, yet still quivering while doing so. “W-Why haven't you killed me? H-How d-did I get here? And what did you mean by earlier?” In response, he was startled when the bird released him and flew out of the cage in one swift motion. After she landed on a nearby writing desk. The bird began to fiddle with the objects on the table as a translucent red and orange field began to cover her feet that was already in the motion of picking up a quill along the feather section without so much as bending a single strand of the plumage and turned her gaze to him. “Questions questions, so many questions~. Hmm. I very much like that, yes I do. Such an inquisitive young slime. Very well, I shall answer in order. Your life was spared for two simple reasons. One is that my curiosity is peaked. For all my years I have not once encountered any others of your kind with the power of speech. Most, if not all are mindless. I believe it would be entertaining to witness just how far you can go. As for how I was able to relocate your unconscious body. A subtle application of magic allows me to grasp quite easily onto that which one normally could not.” With the quill in her possession. She used the pointed tip to indicate towards the cage before placing it back in its holder. “Only one other is allowed near my cage and of course, that would make it the safest place to hide until... Well, you know what I mean. Who knows what would have been your fate if left out in the open for just anyone to find. Now the third question is very straightforward. It has to do with that annoying oversized Raven that you just so chanced to dispatch in a back alleyway.” As if the bird was able to sense his confusion on that topic. She clarified before he even got the chance to say anything in response and slowly shook her head with some frustration. “It has been months with him preparing an attempt to take claim of my territory. It would have been a simple matter if I was not soon to move. You see my young slime. My companion to which I have watched over for many long years will be leaving this castle in a few short weeks and I will be accompanying her. With this being a long coming decision on her part, I regretfully feel the one that will be taking my place is not quite ready. I very well cannot allow Owlowiscious to be exposed to that sort of pressure before being settled in. Oh and by the way, he is an Owl if the name was not a giveaway.” He started to think about the names for a couple of seconds. This was also in time with the explanations that she had given to him. Now having a moment to straighten out his thoughts. The slime realized who this must have been, but wanted to play the part of not knowing anything. Otherwise he would run the risk of her being suspicious of a slime knowing so much. “And just who might you be?” All the while hoping that she would not catch on to his bluff. This got a mysterious chuckle from the bird as she raised her wings up and briefly ignited her body in a quick display of flames and putting them out just as effortlessly as they began. She then ruffled her feathers a little to fix them and started to speak again in a joking tone as one wing was brought up to partly cover herself up to allow only her blinking eyes to be exposed. “How rude, oh how impossibly rude of me~. Old age must be catching up. I am none other than Philomena. Philomena the Phoenix. Close and longtime companion of Princess Celestia” His brain was going on overdrive as he mentally brought up what he knew about Philomena. Aside from one episode in the show there was barely any more mention of the bird. On top of that, he barely even wrote anything about her in his book and realized that he now met a character that he had no idea of their personality. The main character was never meant to meet this one and already knew that he was way off track so early with an unknown character who obviously has some connections. Affiliation, temperament, combat ability, nothing came to mind with helping him to come up with a way to act around this particular bird. While being so lost in his thoughts. He failed to notice that Philomena was already back in the cage and looking at him with a slightly tilted head. If a hand was available, then a facepalm would have occurred as he knew that she was waiting for his own name to be given. Out of reflex he was just about to give his own, but the words stopped midway as he was having some difficulty with recalling what he went by as a human. Whenever a memory was brought up when his name should have been mentioned. All that would come out of it was a moment of silence and the memory was back to normal again. Even trying to envision it written down only got him a blurry line. A few seconds went by without any progress. His main character never had a real name aside from being called, The Slime. His green gelatinous form began to flatten out a little bit as the depression was physically expressed. This only caused him to feel embarrassed and he tried to come up with something to say. But failed in the end as he turned to the bird. “I... I uh, don't have a name.” Philomena gave a small cooing sound and leaned closer. “Yes yes, a problem that will be. Are there any other names that come to your mind?” He thought about it long and hard as a few options ran through his head. He thought about the iconic blob from that one movie about monsters fighting aliens who went by Bob. Yet that was dismissed as being way too plane and lacking of any real imagination on his end. He even recalled a certain game his friend talked about on occasion called League of something with a green humanoid slime hero. Perhaps using some scientific names for slimes would be a good fit. Although all he could come up with was the term biofilm, and he was not all that great with mixing letters around to make it sound even remotely usable. There was no way he was going to end up calling himself by some other characters name. The name Muk popped in his head from Pokémon. He then thought about some other related words and started to come up with a combination. With him being the color green, on top of a similar word to slime. That was when he finally gave a response. “I think I'll just put together the word green and another word for slime to call myself Gremire.” Philomena chuckle to that. “I like I like~. If one was not thought up on your own, then I would have called you Little Lime. Tehee~. With those pleasantries now put to rest. Let us move onto the other topic.” This made Gremire feel some apprehension as Philomena straightened herself up. “As you have relieved me of some worry when it comes to my soon to be departure. I will do a favor for you for as long as I am still a resident within this castle in return.” This caused him to slightly stand up with his form and ever so slightly bend to one side to signify that he was not understanding just where she was going with this. She came closer and took her right wing and carefully padded the top of his metaphorical head before she explained further. According to Philomena. She was only going to be around for maybe another month, so she was going to do everything she could to help him in terms of survival. Philomena would teach him what she could and give some pointers on how the lay out of the castle was put together in hopes that he could move around freely without getting caught. It was during the discussion that he only noticed that nearly fifteen minutes had gone by and that his body was no longer acting as though it was about to piss itself at Philomena’s close proximity. Of course by her words, this was all in hopes of seeing him yet again whenever she had an opportunity to visit the castle in the future. Owlowiscious would of course be notified of him being here and to not attack him on site when she next saw him that evening. Which he greatly appreciated the gesture. Just knowing that there was another one flying around was beginning to make him feel more nervous. From there, time pretty much flew by as the minutes turned into hours of Philomena and him talking to one another. He got to learn about the secret tunnels that honeycomb the inner walls. Even some of the mannerisms of the many guards and staff were brought up by the bird. Eventually she would get so into telling him everything that she would slip in a small story about Celestia when it had anything to do with the subject she was on. If anything, it was making him see her as a parent who could not help but do bring up their child out of reflex so that they could praise what they did. But deep down this only caused a sense of uneasiness that needed to be pushed away. Bit by bit Gremire was feeling as though the very notion of her even being a bird could easily slip his grasp. And in turn the nearly irresistible urge to run was fading from his mindless counterpart. Eventually, the sun went down to bring the oncoming night before he even realized that the pair were so engrossed in their talks long enough for the event to come up and only noticed when it got darker in the room. Surprisingly enough. Gremire only started to feel tired once the rays of the sun were no longer peeking through the windows and sank over the horizon. That was when he recalled that his character was most active during the daytime with how it naturally drew energy through a form of photosynthesis to regulate its minimal energy requirements. This even explained how he was always blacking out while inside of Discord's laboratory. While in there, without any windows and kept within an obviously magically reinforced room. He was forced to go into a hibernation state to slowly recharge whenever his body was out of juice so to speak. The dead rats that the guy would bring to him were used in regenerating himself after some sort of experiment was done. Even then, a small bit of the leftover portion was still not needed for this act and it was used as a form of energy to keep him active for a while longer. In a way it kind of reminded him of a game called Subnautica and he was a living bio-reactor that had creatures thrown in to act as a fuel source. Without even realizing it. He allowed the following to slip from his nonexistent lips as everything was getting a little hazy on his side. “Being solar powered has… its downsides... D-Darn my small charge capacity.” The last thing he was able to pick up on, was the way the door to the room was just being opened and a blurred-out figure wearing white stepped in just as his consciousness was taken by the power of sleep. When is eyes finally opened again. He saw that he was by himself in the cage as Philomena was nowhere within the room. While still in a slightly dazed state. He opened his information window and found that his magic was at 5 out of 36 points and in the middle of slowly filling back up again. He then began to mumble to himself as his body was being pulled back together from its flattened state. “Oh yeah… that's right. Until I level up, that's going to keep on happening. From the book, the main character would instinctively find a place that would be safe just before the sun would go down. It must have snuck up on me because I was fighting back and suppressing those instincts. As I am right now, I'll be out like a light within thirty seconds once that sun goes over the mountain.” Out of curiosity. He brought up his information again and found that his Slime Hunter had gone up to the second rank. Now the boosted experience from that was up to 100 percent. Meaning that the original set of 2 points for killing a slime was now 4 and adding on the 50 times multiplier would boost each slime that dissolved in his body to produce 200 points of experience. In other words, all he had to do was just simply exist and he would get as much work done as a common adventurer who was killing himself to work all day long at taking on slimes non-stop in just one minute. Now this was what he thought to be the pinnacle of the phrase, "Work smarter, not harder." Although it was difficult for him to gauge how much experience was required per leveling up as there was no display to show how much he needed to reach. If anything, he guessed the requirements should consistently double. There was even another notification that stated he had one thousand consecutive victories. This one also came with an additional reward of one voucher that would allow him to pick another skill from the previous list that was displayed yesterday. Now that he was free to pick up to two. He felt as though he should go ahead and use one of them. Especially as how he had some leeway and he could still hold onto another one for a later time as insurance for an emergency. After bringing up the bonus skill list, the one labeled appraisal was immediately selected without a second thought. This brought up another window that gave him some detailed information. *Appraisal level 1: This is an active skill that allows information on certain objects or other living creatures to be displayed. As this is considered as Common rank at the moment. Therefore, the displayed information will be limited. Oh well, you pretty much got it right there. Too bad for you that looking through clothing is not one of the features. Better luck next time perv.* He could have had this flat look on his face right now if his human form was sitting right there. After releasing a slightly disgruntled sigh of resignation to yet another unnecessary addition to the end of a skills explanation. He immediately started to use it on a number of objects in the room. Right next to it was a floating blue screen attached by a line that would lead to the object in question. On them it would display the words such as, full length mirror, cabinet, drawers, writing table, quill, bed, window, bird cage, door, rug and chair. All this got out of him was a very unamused grunt as it was pretty much pointless thanks to it being so weak. Given that there was a mirror. Gremire moved closer to the open door to the cage and hopped right out. Much to his dismay, it had escaped his notice as to how high he was when compared to his relatively small body and went splat on the floor and sent a rush of pain, along with a loud “OUTCH” to escape. It took him a few seconds to get up again after pulling himself together. Although he did happen to catch something that only caused a non-existent frown. That just so happened to be a red floating icon that was slowly hovering upwards within his vision. That being the depiction of a red negative symbol and the number one immediately following next to it. The top of his body went up and started to shake from left to right to give the impression that he was shaking his head in disbelief over the very notion that he was injured so much that a third of his life was taken away from such a small tumble. Although that was not too much of an issue after a couple of seconds went by and he saw that on his character window as his health regenerated by the time he got to the mirror. This even coincided with some magic point deductions as a clear indication that he was using it for self-regeneration. Once his reflection was on display. He got to see his name and level in full view. Of course he expected this with him only being at level one. As he was identifying himself. He had a momentary glimpse of his name turning from that of Slime to the new name of Gremire. He took another look at his character window and was astonished that his magic points were steadily dropping even further after the healing was already finished. Aside from the appraisal being constantly put into use, he could not think of anything else that would be draining those points. So he stopped it immediately and saw how the numbers stabilized and started to go back up again at an agonizingly slow pace. If this was not caught in time, then he was sure there was a good chance that he may have inadvertently caused himself to pass out once his magic points closely reached zero. Gremire with nothing else to do until Philomena came back. Began to mentally review a few footnotes around this time frame in the book. If he was forced to fall off the mountain and find himself in the forest down below after fighting for his life in the rushing waters. Then a number of trials would have awaited him. Much to his delight, he did not have to go through that sort of grueling physical and mental torture to learn those valuable lessons for the agonizing coming years. First was learning of how weak he was compared to pretty much every single thing out and about. Of course, this also counted the aversion to certain weather phenomenon and the time in which the sun was up. Not only were his kind only typically active during the daylight hours. But they did not do so well when it came to water in large quantities. If sinking was not a big issue to be on top of the list in that subject. Then it was the way they would get dissolved when exposed to enough of the substance and just break down. Getting a little wet was not too much, but falling into a pond or getting doused with a torrent from a high-pressure water attack would undoubtedly be his end in a matter of seconds. Especially with his current stats. The same could be said with heat as it would make him shrink and then shatter like glass if it got hot enough after all the moisture evaporated. He would have seen other wild slimes being taken out by simply getting stepped on by almost any monster or animal. Even with the knowledge that was taken from those books inside of Discord's laboratory were no help in giving him the ability to actually use magic spells that would affect those around. Well, not in the normal sense anyhow. The main character would remain magicless until later on when he was brought a revelation that he could condense his own magic inside of himself and detach a piece that would be used for various reasons. The most common of which would be to launch an explosive projectile in the form of a deadly loogie. Another option was to use other skills and magic that would directly affect only him. For the moment, he knew that there were some key facts that he still required from additional sources related to monsters to gain access to his own magic reserves. There was also the issue with understanding what was already downloaded into his head after consuming all of those tomes that fell from that one bookshelf. If it wasn’t for that, then there was a very good likelihood that he be spewing spells left and right by now. When it came to the environment. Just about every day would have been a fight for his life. Okay, not a fight for his life, but more of a runaway and hide for his life scenario. Things would not turn around until he would eventually come across a wreckage and get the Monster House from the scattered containers from the original plot. These would mostly be objects from Discord's lab that were being moved to another location after moving out and into a new place after the coronation was completed and dealing with whoever caused the series of earthquakes destroyed a good portion of it. It was a good thing that he did leave during that earthquake as he was actually scheduled for disposal on the following day. This was all because he was putting out some poor results and the mad scientist was finally at his breaking point when it came to his patience. Obviously, this would be another piece of info that would not be learned until further on. Now that Gremire thought on it further. The only reason he was around this long to begin with was because Discord would always get distracted and move on to something else so his attention was not completely on his monster project. With that guy in mind, the mad scientist was working on a secret project where he would do an experiment on a potentially safe monster such as himself. The notion was to discover whether or not improvements could be made and control being a viable outcome to create future monsters that would be under their influence for the defense against those of the demon races and the ones that they had under their command for a way to level the playing field. In other words, he was just a guinea pig and all of those tests were done to determine if his combat abilities could be strengthened past their normal limits. On top of which was the option of being able to mass produce the finished project. And after the many botched attempts, there was a serious doubt of the guy being able to get even that much right. In short, Gremire was labeled as a failed slime experiment. The only huge difference right now apart from his mind being in this body. Was that he was in a safe location for the time being and he was not going to squander the opportunity to cash in on this free mountain of experience points to level up his character. The original slime ended up using his points after saving up for just a few days once the system was unlocked. He on the other hand was going to milk it for as long as possible. At least until he was sure that he was more than ready for what he needed to do before the next major event was to be triggered for the plot that involved the next generation of hero versus demon lord. By coincidence there was a particular monster and a few useful items resting deep within the forest that the story would have the main character getting to at later chapters. But his plan was to gain enough strength to get those much sooner. One was the skeletal remains of a human that was half dragon. Another was some old set of armor from within a castle that was long forgotten by even the two princesses that ruled over the continent for a thousand years. And of course, he needed to defeat a powerful creature to gain a very particularly useful skill. Of course, these items would be nearly impossible to get under any circumstances until he finally came across those that he would call companions in the future. He glanced over to his current overall point system and wondered if it was possible to raise their base stats while still remaining at level 1. Especially as how things are just not following this script as well as he had originally thought. For all he knew it was a possibility. There was that whole thing with his luck suddenly being at 50 points right off the bat. Now that he thought about it more. His dexterity should have only 1 point on it when it showed, yet it had gone up. Perhaps this was done from his secret training from within the container by running from one end to the next whenever he was bored and Discord was nowhere to be seen. His mind was racing so much that he was no longer able to tell what was going on around his current vicinity. That was until Philomena appeared right next to him while lightly poking his gelatinous form with one of her wing feathers to get his attention. This nearly caused Gremire to be frightened so much that his body became rigid as he screamed. The Phoenix just laughed at that for a bit while almost rolling on her back and pointing a wing towards the mirror. As she was still in the midst of laughing her feathers off. He turned his attention to what she was pointing at and saw that his green form was now slightly red and exhibiting a couple of percolating bubbles that were steadily rising within. This was yet another aspect that he had completely disregarded. Whenever his main character was deep in thought to where he was almost at his limit. The body would literally start to overheat as a sign. Even with no defining features to express his feelings. Gremire was surprisingly able to convey his current status to others and immediately promised himself that he would keep those sorts of things under control as to not go around and tip off anyone as to what he was up to. He was just about to ask as to where she was when a decorated white creamed cupcake was dropped on the floor between the two of them so it sat neatly on the wrapper. But before he could even ask her about it. Philomena was already munching away at another one that was held in her grasp and mumble between bites that she got it from Princess Celestia. She even reiterated that the girl had more than enough and missing a few would be no problem. Philomena continued to say that she thought that the princess needed to cut back a little and this was a good way to help out. His non-existent mouth was practically salivating at the site of actual food for once since waking up in this world. With a surprising amount of lift after jumping into the air by nearly a foot and a half. He landed directly on top of the cupcake, which remarkably kept its shape as it went right into his body without him giving any resistance and inviting it into his depths with a squelch when landing on the carpet. It was then slowly lifted up so that it was now beginning to float aimlessly within his form in a comical fashion after a couple of seconds went by. This got a strange mixture of low growling, moaning and gurgling to come from him upon savoring the taste that exploded on his nonexistent taste buds. Which only made Philomena to roll around like a log as she was laughing more at his overly enthusiastic appreciation for the sugary treat. Even the surface of his gelatinous form was giving off constant ripples in time with the sounds. If anything, any person who would have been walking near the closed door might interpret the sound to being that of a purring cat. He was so enraptured that the entire world may not have even existed until the last remnants were finally digested along with the paper that was used to wrap up the confection. When he was eventually brought back to reality. He saw that Philomena was already sitting in her cage. She apparently noticed that he was done with his orgasmic experience and flew out to join him on the floor. But before she landed. Gremire used his appraisal on her and was astounded. It displayed her name as Philomena and her current level was saying 100, along with a plus symbol right after to show that she was beyond his ability to accurately assess her full capabilities. Inside, he had this imagery going on of him in a fight with Philomena. His slime body was nothing but a speck of sand as the bird was towering over him in the same way Godzilla would right before unleashing a mega breath attack at point blank into his face to disintegrate him. In this world, others considered a strong normal fighter around level 40 to 60. When thinking about the Hero. Theirs were supposed to be set around 400 or even higher and the strongest on record reaching 600. Of course, the same could be said about the Demon Lords. This meant that Philomena most likely had the strength to take on a small battalion of guards all by herself at the very least. Especially if she's as strong as he was guessing. As a Phoenix, she has already lived a very long time with a cycle of death and rebirth. Pairing that with retaining her stats before turning to ashes and coming back as a hatchling was a recipe for creating the most powerful creature if given enough time. Eventually the topic was changed when Philomena reignited their previous conversation that was so rudely interrupted by his bodies need to go into hibernation. From there, they pressed on until it was close to lunch time. It was then that he got to meet the one called Owlowiscious as he came looking for Philomena. Yet there was just one small issue. And that was how he could not understand a word that the owl was attempting to say as all he got were simple animal noises such as hoots and who’s. After it was getting to where he could no longer hold back the question that had been nagging at him in regards to her understanding him. This was when Philomena revealed that she knew a number of languages and with the use of some passive magic, she was able to communicate with even a slime like him. Of course, this was completely useless when used on others of his species due to their lack of actual thinking abilities that made her feel as if she was literally talking to a Jell-O mold that had just been taken out. Moreover, was when time moved on and Gremire was able to hear a couple of guards talking as they were passing the door. Both aggravation and disappointment ran through his mind as the very thought of being unable to understand anything the people around them were saying was only going to get worse. Yes, he had all the letters memorized, but he had no way of knowing their meaning and how to put them together aside from the obvious pictures. When he discussed this with the Phoenix and the Owl. The two agreed to help him out in any way they could over the course of the following weeks. He, along with Philomena would quietly watch either the castle staff or a couple of random guards that talked and she would attempt to translate bits and pieces. Especially on frequently used words and phrases that she found to be more useful to know as quickly as possible. During this, once or twice he made the mistake of getting a little too close and was nearly caught. There was one notable instance where he got himself into a real mess when inside one of the closed off gardens that would be used for having some tea for either the princesses or their guests. While sitting on the floor of the hallway with just the railing to divide itself from the grass. Gremire fully relaxed and lowered his guard so much that he almost did not hear a set of approaching people walking by until it was nearly too late. Due to the sudden shock when realizing this fact once they got within a couple of feet. He tried to squeeze himself through the stone railing for the fence and ran across a loose Stone that gave way under his weight and slid into the garden with him still clinging on top. Thinking that it was only going to land on the grass made him feel that there was no need to worry. But that was completely not true and failed to register that the pond was in the stones path and he ended up falling into the water. Within seconds, he was aimlessly floating towards the bottom of the surprisingly deep man-made pond and was already beginning to feel how his body was slowly getting saturated and dissolving from the outside going in. What crossed his mind was that he was so stupid to be killed in such a pathetic manner. But before he was to lose consciousness. Philomena came out of nowhere after diving into the water and snatching him up with her glowing talons to fly out almost an instant later. This would immediately be followed with her checking him at all angles and using her feathers to lift him up while asking if he had gotten hurt once they were back in her room. Even as she did this. The fiery bird paid no mind to drying herself off with damp feathers dripping everywhere. Which turned out to be a little confusing and embarrassing with the way she was acting now and then. Typically, the Phoenix would be cool, collected and always on point with being immaculate in her appearance. But never before did he hear the bird displays such worry in her voice that made him want to look away after feeling a painful twinge of guilt swelling up. On other occasions Owlowiscious would bring books up from the library now and then and Philomena would attempt to get Celestia to read a few of them out loud while laying in bed with her as a form of bedtime story before the sun sank. Apparently in the past, the two would do such an activity and reviving this old and nearly forgotten routine was somehow bringing the woman some semblance of nostalgic pleasure if her innocent smile was a giveaway. It was during these times that he got somewhat better at controlling his body and was capable of climbing some of the furniture. This was when he would position himself so that a piece of his body was stretched and hanging up and onto the top of the headboard to look down at the book so that he could read along and hear the right pronunciation’s. Of course, he would be lying if he was to tell anyone that he did not get a glimpse of the former ruler of Equestria while she was in the midst of changing into her nighttime attire. Still, even if she was visually stimulating. There was no real urge to drive him into putting the moves on the princess. Well… it's not as if he had any way of doing anything in his current state anyhow. If falling just by a few feet was able to bring him so close to death. Then attempting to put the moves or anything else would most certainly lead to his untimely demise within the time it took for him to scream. But there were a few occasions that he fantasized about what it would be like if he was that monster on some of those hentai anime's back on Earth. Once in a while he would even have the opportunity to get a glimpse of Luna and Twilight whenever he was making his way through the castle to explore during their daily scheduled activities or passing in the hallways as he hid himself around a corner or a nearby potted plant. It also helps that he further developed his control on the third week. Thanks to this, he was now capable of scaling from the walls and hang off from the ceiling for short durations before needing to come down. This even led him to practice with his elasticity by allowing parts of himself to hang down with the use of gravity. This particular practice came in handy whenever he and Philomena would join their combined efforts to play a few practical jokes on those within the castle. Of course, it was a given that they needed to keep a low profile when around Celestia seeing as Philomena respected her the most out of everyone else. Whether it was to mock the guards into chasing her. Causing them all to think that she had gotten incredibly sick as she pretended to sneeze in such a way that Gremire would play the role of a gigantic snot-wad to come flying out of her nostrils with the way they were positioning themselves and using the shadows from the sun around corners. Although, this got a strong reaction from Princess Celestia finding out from a running guard when the prank was first used and Philomena was dragged off to see a doctor with a worried Princess holding her cage to fly down the hallway fast enough to knock over a couple of paintings with the air pressure she exerted when zooming by. He had no idea if it was Philomena’s instructions and being careful while going around the castle. Or possibly the addition of such a high amount of luck. But he always succeeded to escape at the last possible second whenever he was about to be found out by either the princesses or anyone else within these walls. However, there was one small hiccup when it came to his body’s natural Instincts. Which came in the form of him hunting down the rodents that would hide in the hard-to-reach places. This of course made him feel like he was a replacement for the resident cat. By which point he was not too grossed out as he had eaten close to a hundred by then and seemed as natural as eating a hamburger. And by all means it was trickier than he imagined at first. Those little rodents could do a number on him and required setting up an ambush point. The trick was to get them so that they had no chance to use those powerful teeth to gnaw away it his life points. Sometimes he would even do a sneak attack and shoot a glob of himself into their mouth to choke them and do some damage with some of the low-grade acid he was able to use. It was all really surprising with how well he could kill something just by getting into their lungs and destroying them from the inside out, that it even scared him a little. As the days turned into weeks with the transitioning of rulers already being on the way with all their duties. Gremire, Philomena and Owlowiscious spent quite a bit of time with one another when other matters did not come up. But most of which was between the Slime and the Phoenix as they would talk about what happened during the day and even come up with some new pranks to play on guards. And of course this also counted Owlowiscious. During down times the bird would regale him with a bunch of stories about the world. While alone, trips were made here and there to go into the library to try his hand at children’s picture books with getting a small grasp on their writing. Even with all of this going on. Thoughts of why he ended up here would spontaneously pop up when he was left with practically nothing to do. The concept of precognition and a weird dream about another world full of humans and Technology was not a concept held here so that ruled out that it was all a part of his imagination. And again there was the high likelihood of him being a human that was transported into another body became more apparent. Thinking that he might have been a displaced and now had the ability to be a part of a unique community peaked his interest. This prompted Gremire to take a small portion of himself and roll it into a ball. He then added a quick phrase. "To any that want to have a chatting buddy or need a hand in reaching into a very narrow space give me a call. Just say to yourself 'slimes are the best' and I'll be there as quick as I can." The small glob was then hurled towards the wall with the expectations of falling into a rift of time and space before impact. But much too is dismay, all that resulted was a splatter of goo that slowly trail down the wall and eventually pull itself towards the main body that it originally came from to leave no traces behind. This only proved that he was not one of those displaced characters and lamented that he had no one that he could openly talk with. This only lasted for a couple of seconds until he shrugged It off since he was not that much of a social type to begin with and just went on with his day. Every now and then there would be some small arguments on where he should sleep when night was coming close to starting, but Philomena would always insist greatly that he should sleep next to her. Normally this would be an issue for him. But her cage was pretty large and he did not have to feel afraid of her possibly letting any droppings fall on him as there was more than enough room for the extravagantly large cage that only seemed even bigger on the inside. Which he thought was just a trick on the mind. Yet still he pondered on whether it was that, or another form of magic placed there by the princess to make Philomena more comfortable. Sometimes he would even wake up and find that she had gotten off of the perch that ran through at the midway point just to lay on the ground next to him with her wings acting as a protective barrier and cooing softly in her sleep. This would constantly bring up a thought every now and then that this was not too bad of a life to live when compared to how his human counterpart in California would have to deal with the day-by-day grind and was perfectly fine with letting this continue. But what made it all the sweeter, was that now he was able to get away from all of the daily reminders of his past leading up to living in that rundown apartment and ending up here. Above all else. There were no more reminders of a certain handful of people that he was more than ready to have fade from his memories.
I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 1. Back to sleep.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 1. Back to sleep. The scene shows a coffee house nestled between a barber shop and a dog grooming business that just so happened to be located on a busy city Street. A trolley quickly passed by the front of the coffee house window as groups of people could be seen walking back and forth along the sidewalk. Inside and sitting at a window booth. were two regular people sitting on opposite sides of a table, while one person was wearing a hoodie that was nearly all the way pulled down. This revealed it to be a very thin male that was most likely in their late thirties. From just over the backside of the seat. Anyone going by could make out the upper half of a logo that resembled a nuclear atom. His skin was pasty White as his messy hair was a stark contrast of jet black. Without even looking up from his phone and tapping away with his thumb at such a great speed, that it would make one think that the man was born with it in his hands. He started to talk even more to the one that was sitting across from him. The other person turned out to be a heavy-set man in his late twenties. He was wearing a pair of light brown slacks and a black T-shirt. Over that was a blue jacket. His dark brown hair was cut short and partly going towards the left near the front. The heavier man just sat there with his head lowered while looking straight at a stack of papers that had been triple hole punched and set into a clear see-through binder. The voice of a concerned person could be heard from the thinner man after a couple of seconds of long silence between the two and sparked up a conversation. “Come on. There's no use in crying over it. Yeah-yeah, I know. I'm probably sounding really heartless and all, but listen up. So what if your story idea got rejected again? Just make more alterations and bring it to another editor. and try again. Not like it’s the end of the world.” The heavier man responded in a dejected tone after hearing the encouragement. “Who am I kidding? *Sigh.* This one already makes nine... Nine you hear me? Maybe I should just give up on this one and come up with some other idea for a book topic.” “Are you really just going to give up after all that work? Listen up. As your friend, I can say that you're a... Um, ah... semi-decent writer. Sure, not the best, but not the worst either. And yes, your theme has been used quite often in these recent years. All I'm saying is that you need to try and stick to your guns.” “These guns as you call them aren't good for much else than to type away at a keyboard between odd jobs.” “Why not try putting some of your works online? Who knows. You just might end up with some patrons? Then you could use that money to ease up on those part-time jobs and get into your writing even more. Improve those skills and resubmit those books.” “I did, I really did. But it's nowhere near enough to pay the bills. Getting my story published by an editor would fix so many of my problems and I could even go straight into writing full-time. After so long of reading those Fanfictions of My Little Pony, I've been meaning to write one of my own and possibly be made into a real book. Even the names of characters and places were changed so that it would be seen as an original work when compared to my original draft." “Ah that's right, it's a story about a dream you keep having, right? Who would have thought a guy like you would get hooked on that TV series. If it was me, then I'd have already moved on to something else." The thinner gentleman paused for a second to look closely at his phone and produced a big grin. "Huh? Did this? Oh sweet, it sold! How much? YES! I was wondering how long that would stay on the market. Ca-ching baby! Oops sorry, you're saying?" The one complaining practically sank into his seat. “I'm not some guru like you that could buy and sell just about anything under the sun to make some extra cash. Ok, what was it this time anyhow? Found a key to a treasure vault or was it another rusted up World War relic? Wait wait, I know. Some old lady was going to throw out some costume jewelry and you found that they were real." “It's strictly skill man, nothing but skill. It was just some old knick-knack box. No one knows just what they got and sell the thing for dirt cheap without taking the time to do any research.” “Yeah, OK. You've always been that way ever since back in our school days. First it was trading toys and then lunches. Now you're collecting antiques at dirt cheap prices and selling them at a way higher bid to those that are always searching for them. I swear you make more than I do in a month in just a couple of hours when you’re on that phone.” The thin man who was still on his phone, began to reach into a pocket and soon pulled out a small keychain and placed it on to the center of the table. When the hand was removed. It showed a bronze link of chain connected to a loop on one end. The other had a marble with something placed at the center of the material. The man then said the next bit as he resumed his work on his phone. “Oh, I nearly forgot. I was just going to wait till next week, but I thought that now would be a good time as I need to give you your birthday gift anyways. Your always too busy and the days we can get together and talk are way too rare.” The heavy-set man picked up the keychain and began to examine it. On inspection once it was brought closer to his right eye. It was soon discovered that a carving of a generic style slime was in the center of a green marble thanks to laser carving technology. He then spoke with clear shock evident in his voice. “This is so awesome! It looks just like my character. Where did this even-.” “Ha! Don't sweat it man. I just happen to have someone who knows a guy, that knows another guy, that just so happens to be an acquaintance to another person who knows another person that goes to a laundromat who owes me a couple of favors and asked if they could whip this up. Just think of it as a good luck charm.” “Really?! Wow! I’ve got no idea why it is you even stick around me.” “Dude! Is that really how you say thanks? If it's going to be like that, then I'll just-.” He was just about to make the motion to reach back and take it when he was interrupted. “Whoa, no! That's not what I meant! It's just... you could be going out and can do just anything you want and I'm just a loser that has nothing going for him.” “Okay don't get all mushy on me now... yuck! Honestly, I don't care what you do with your reputation, but I don't want the ladies thinking that I’m into dudes.” “Oh we're on that again, huh?” “Geez, just take it easy already. I'm just worried that you're not going to get around that much and start looking for a girlfriend. There’s been some rumors going around that you’re not interested in girls because of that.” “For crying out loud... Ok, look here! Sure I'm still attracted to girls, but I'm just not comfortable enough to feel safe with 'em, that's all. Just look at me. I'm fat, I got no stable job. My looks aren't really all that great even on my best days. I'm living in a rundown apartment with no car to get around and barely any savings. No way any of that is going to help my chances with the ladies. Besides... we both know how modern women are these days. I'm better off being by myself. And I'm sure you don't want me to go into another rant about all the negative pitfalls of being in a relationship or getting married to any of ‘em Heck, the marriage paper if a contract they can break at their digression and run away with you money. Remember when I tried to help some lady that dropped a can in the parking lot?" "Yeah?" “Just finished up doing some grocery shopping and was crossing the parking lot so I can get to a bus stop to head on home. Some lady somewhere around her mid-twenties I think with an infant child was putting groceries away. The asphalt had this slight slant and a can of soup fell out and started to roll away and right up to me. I must have been more than six or seven cars away in the row when I picked it up and politely called to let her know that she dropped something. Next thing I know she’s turned around sharply to look at me for just a second and begins to scream at the top of her lungs that I needed to stay away from her and not approach women in the parking lot. I couldn't believe that something I saw on YouTube was actually happening to me. It ended up with me putting the can down and practically walking around the whole parking lot to stay clear from the lady." “Okay fine I get it. Must have been watching a lot of those videos again about why it's so bad to marry or just date a girl in our country. Even a couple of buddies that I've known for years have turned into Passport Bros so I can kind of understand. Still... giving up on them completely might not be a good idea. Anyhow, let's change the subject back. What's your plans tonight?” “Oh uh, I think I'll probably go to sleep early.” “I see. You're hoping to get more ideas again, huh?” “Ha-ha! Yep, easy to see that you’ve got me figured out. Going to check my emails and then probably watch this week's new set of anime’s that were released earlier today for around an hour and then head to bed for an early morning." “Yeah, I understand. You been working around sixty hours this week on top of using a lot of your free time on that story. If you were me then I wouldn't even be here. My face would be very intimate with the pillow on my own bed and lost in Dreamland." The large man glanced over at the round clock near the door leading outside. “Well, I think I'll be going now. Had no idea on how it happened, but it’s starting to get really late. Tell your mom I said hi. Oh, and thanks for letting me take home some of the extra lasagna the other day. Just promise me that you will look away from that phone while you're walking home, OK?” The thin man blew a quick raspberry as he responded to that quip. “I can walk home just fine, thank you very much! And besides it wasn’t even that close, still had a good half a foot before I got clipped by that cab last week." This ended their conversation as the heavier man got up and started to walk away from the table and towards the exit. Upon being greeted with the outside world filled with rushing cars and even more rushing groups of people going back and forth along the streets. The heavy-set man walked through the busy city with both hands tucked into his pockets. When he had left the coffee shop. The sky was just barely turning into a shade of orange as it was approaching night time. More than once the man witnessed one act of cruelty after another. Fender benders and arguments leading up to fist fights and muggings on practically every street corner. Even the common sight of seeing what he thought to be a husband getting kicked out of his own apartment and having his things thrown out of a window four flights up barely phased him. Another scene showed a woman slapping a man repeatedly while surrounded by a group of other females cheering the girl on. All the while he was just thinking that the guy had to deal with it and not retaliate. Especially since everyone seems to believe a woman's testimony far more than a man's. Heck, even the same crime gets a far less punishment for the opposite sex. Even with it being called self-defense, the guy would get thrown into jail without a moment's notice and all the girls around him knew it. This only caused him to have a sour expression with the knowledge of how one-sided the laws were in favor of that group going against that one man and knew that he could do nothing about it to help the guy's situation and just continued walking away before he was dragged in for one reason or another. A thought flashed through his head about using his old flip phone to take a video and hopes that it might aid later on. Unfortunately, it dawned on him that it was half broken and the camera was not working. Even still, felt a strong sense of self-loathing at his cowardice and walked away. Afterwards he stopped in front of a cheap apartment building. The sun had long since vanished and many of the street lamps were already turned on. Walls filled with various types of overlapping graffiti could be seen all around as the nightlife sounds took over when the last of the still functioning lamps flickered to life. Many of the windows in nearby building soon followed with how they randomly switched on their own lights in response to the fading sun. And as if on cue, the sound of ceramic and glass shattering could be heard just before a girl's voice screamed in pure anger with a language that he did not know. All the while thinking, there they go again and how sorry he felt for the poor guy who chose to married her. Soon the argument was overshadowed thanks to screeching cars and distant yelling that could be heard in the distance. There were even a few distinctive sounds that presumably came from shots being fired by guns less than a couple of miles away. Once inside the lobby. The heavy-set man released a sigh of relief after entering a relatively safe area when compared to the outside world. The entrance was small and allowed enough space for a few people to stand in front of a one-person desk facing the door. Said desk had a reinforced glass protection in front and only allowed a small area at the bottom to allow paperwork and small handheld items to be passed through. On the dirty and absurdly smudged window, where a number of notices that were put on for the residents to read as they were coming and going through the lobby. One of which was made using a thick red marker to remind the tenants that they had to pay by the first of the month. The man just slumped his shoulders as he gazed upon the notice with an almost dead look within his eyes. Afterwards, he turned to the right to try and use the elevator but found that it was out of order. There was even a big sign that was taped onto the faded and obviously not cleaned for quite some time sliding doors. Without much of a choice. He went to use the stairway and climb them to the third floor. Once out of the stairwell, the man walked halfway down the hallway and stopped at a door with yet another piece of paper that was identical to the one on the first floor. This one however was placed right over the peephole. Well, aside from the doors that he knew only had a woman living behind it. This brought up thoughts on the landlady who changed after her late husband died just a little over a year back. Even with the building being as old as it was. The old landlord always kept on its upkeep and made sure that everything worked. Times were tough and money was being set aside to do a number of renovations. Believe it or not, but he passed away and the money ended up being put towards his family and friends from what his wife mentioned. This led to the dire situation of most of the facilities crumbling apart. Only those that were on her good side were placed high up on her list and got better treatment. It took almost no time at all to see just where her priorities laid when she only helped the rooms that did not have a man inside. To make matters worse the number of couples dropped drastically as the girls kicked their boyfriends and husbands out for one ridiculous reason after another. One tenant made an attempt to expose the land lady’s unfair treatment towards the opposite gender but ended up getting injured and moving away due to a unforeseen accident. Since then, nobody’s made any actions out of fear that they would end up in the same state. Even if it was not official, there were some talks among the guys that they were getting charged more for rent and this led to even more guys leaving the apartment building over time. Once a man was taken out of his apartment by some police officers after his wife called the cops and said that he was beating her after she found out he was cheating. Even with not being present at the time. It was a rumor that felt more of a fact amongst the guys that the whole thing was set up because the girl he was supposedly cheating with was on the same floor and both girls were friends with one another. What made it more obvious was how only the guy was sued while the girls kept in touch and pretended nothing ever happened. After taking it down to read. The man slumped forward and pressed his head against the door as he absent-mindedly pulled out his keys and entered after unlocking the two sets of deadbolts. Once inside and the door was secured thanks to the normal lock, deadbolts and the chain even higher than that. He turned around and began to go towards the kitchen in his one-bedroom apartment that felt a little too cramped for his body size. Especially since he could easily take a running jump from the door and almost reach the other end of his apartment in just one go. This was only due to the weird way the building was constructed so that one side had much smaller apartments so that single tenants could use them, while larger ones were given to couples and families on the other side of the hall. The place was almost spartan as only a few pieces of furniture could be glimpsed as he went from the door to the small kitchen area. The carpeted floor saw better days as dirty spots could be seen even after a number of attempts were done to remove the stains from the previous tenants on his part. The walls themselves were in desperate need of a new coat of paint as hairline cracks could be seen in the dry wall where the building was creaking from the many small tremors being created by the nearby subway system that ran directly underneath the building. There was just a single armchair that had seen better days. A tiny table with a television set that he had gotten from some old couple during their yard sale. A DVD player that was easily on its last leg as the lights would barely turn on for the buttons. Even a stack of maybe seven or eight DVD’s. As for the dining table. It was barely big enough for two people to use. However, this was not much of a problem as only a single chair was nearby. No posters or even a single picture frame was put up anywhere to be seen. Although, in the corner and covered with just was a black rectangular case and shaped vaguely into a coffin with a single black handle on one side. Next to even that was a vinyl record of two with a saxophone on the cover. The only window even afforded for the apartment, was barely big enough for him to even fit through and it was near the kitchen as it faced a brick wall from the next building over. Although there was a small potted plant that could really use some more sunlight as it was already sagging. If one was to stick their head outside. They would be met with the other building that was easily within arm’s reach. The only time any real sunlight would even make it to the kitchen was at high noon. And that would only last for less than fifteen minutes. After getting into the kitchen. The man pulled out what little leftovers of the lasagna his friend's mother let him have and warmed it up inside of a microwave that made more than a few questionable sounds, along with a zap or two of lights that were not meant to occur. Once it was sufficiently warmed up. He went over to the dining table and began to slowly eat. Next to his plate was his story and a clipboard with what appeared to be a schedule written down. While absent-mindedly putting a small fork of food into his mouth and carefully savoring the taste of something that was not instantly made. The heavy-set man soon began to talk to himself as his other hand held onto a pencil and tapped on to the clipboard in a rhythmic pattern. “*Sigh* Let's see... tomorrow's Thursday. So, I'm on duty in the morning for trash pickup. Then I'll need to get my fat ass to the other side of town for my shift at the movers. Well, I guess I'm not getting too much sleep tomorrow. The day after that, I got seven in the morning at The Hobby Shop to help with reorganizing the back. Then one in the afternoon for Gibbs Burger Hut until nine at night. That's barely going to give me enough time to catch the train. Maybe I could talk with Jim or Molly about switching our schedules. Jim might do it but I doubt she will. Probably has another concert to go to again. She's been on that high horse of hers ever since she started to sleep with the boss who turned out to be a lesbian.” He released another heavy sigh as he started to roll his neck around before continuing. "Getting free food at the end of the day is keeping me alive, but it's not doing any favors for my weight. I hate having so many part-time jobs... it's another job on its own just to keep everything straight. Long hours aren't bad either, it's just going back and forth is the problem. Why did I have to be so stubborn? We got to meet up after a while. Should have just asked if his offer to help was still on the table.” He then released a very long yawn and decided to finish up his food and rinse it out in the sink so that it could be washed later on. Once that was finished and he double checked his schedule for the following day. The bedroom was the next destination. Inside, was a short desk with a tower computer system that must have used components that have clearly been jerry-rigged together thanks to a number of them being spliced from one piece to the next along the connectors. There was even a single mattress laying on the floor with some coverings and a couple of pillows next to an itchy looking blanket. Upon turning the system on and logging on to the internet. Which was only possible thanks to his next-door neighbor and allowing him some Wi-Fi access for a couple of dollars a month. The only problem with that was how stingy the person could get and would always turn it off when it got late. That was when he took a moment to take the keychain out of his pocket to look at it a little more before placing it onto the table where he was sure to find it again when he got up for work in the morning. With the soft light given off by the computer monitor. The marble gave off a strangely alluring green reflection as it was twirled between his fingers to cause it to slowly rotate. He was never much of a material possession person and did not like the notion of getting money as a birthday gift. Expensive items were clearly off the table and he and his friend both had a mutual understanding with just giving each other small things that they thought seemed cool once in a while. Soon E-mails were checked, which showed nothing to come in to his inbox except for past rejection letters. He then went on to a site that allowed him to watch some uploaded cartoon and anime shows and spent the next half hour watching the newest episode being aired for one of the anime’s shown for that season's lineup and then taking several minutes to watch a random 'how to' video. Afterwards, he just climbed straight into bed while muttering that he would change into his other clothes after showering in the morning and fell straight to sleep as he was still wearing his clothes from that very day. Although this was not going to be too much of a problem as his uniform from the waste disposal company was hanged up near the door to be snatched up at a moment’s notice. As the man was sleeping and falling into the deeper recesses of his mind after a tiring day. There was the familiar sensation of a bright light creeping past his closed eyelids as his senses return from a muddled state. While attempting to roll over and get away from the light source. He could feel that his body was not normal as the motion continued and carried on to where he was not stopping. Without any warning, a hard and flat surface collided with his face. This was also accompanied by a single thud and a weak wet splattering sound. This drew a muffled grunt from the man as he was now going in the opposite direction, yet came to a stop at less than half of what he was rolling with before. While letting out a defeated groan of annoyance. He angrily spoke out as his eyelids began to open to take in his surroundings. “Uuh... Did I leave the lights on again? Err, that's just great. There goes a chunk of my savings on the electricity again. Huh-what?! T-This isn't my room!” There was a stretch of silence before he spoke again in a tone that just said that he was beginning to understand and was just resigning himself. "Oh okay. I'm having another dream and I'm stuck in that place again. How many times do I have to go through this part? Can't my subconscious be even a little more creative than this? At least show some new content. Hmm, I may as well see what's going on now.” From his point of view. The world was behind a layer of glass that was only a few inches away from his face. Beyond that was a stone lined room filled with many objects on bulky wooden tables. There are even a couple of wide shelves filled with thick books and knick-knacks that looked ordinary, while others give off a strange glow. These would comprise of small figurines and bobbles that were obviously handmade by some eccentric artists due to their strange designs. A majority of them took on figures of different creatures found in fantasy board games, but with a great deal more effort on the part of making them appear almost lifelike. Aside from the creature figurines. They were glass orbs that would give off a neon green or pink glow as the glassy surface was coiled around with either metal talons or tentacles. The books themselves would be worn out and held barely any coloring to them. As a result, most were brown or black. The titles printed onto the bindings were barely legible as the markings took on strange symbols. With half being squiggles, the others took rudimentary shapes that vaguely resembled common objects such as trees, houses, mountains, fire, water and the such. The tables however were covered with not only tall stacks of books that threatened to fall over with how badly they were placed on top of one another, but many strange objects that resembled the medieval doctor tools were visible. Even vials and tubes were thrown in to create an overly complicated network of distilling equipment. Most were empty. While in larger glass containers equipped with nozzle controls all held onto the viscous fluids that would range from almost clearly see through gray and all the way to a murky green substance. These could easily be confused for sludge from someone's clogged up bathroom sink after drinking way too much and having no choice but to puke. No windows of any sort lined any of the four walls. From the wooden ceiling hung a number of lanterns that were giving off a faint glow from the tiny candles housed within. After taking a good look around to notice all of this and not see anyone else nearby. His attention was brought to the door. Sure, it may have looked like any old wooden door that could be found with a metal latch to keep it shut. Yet there were a number of carvings etched into the framework that popped out as being of the similar wording system like those on the books in the shelves. After giving it another once-over. The man's eyes shifted to look down at where he was. First came the bottom of the piece of glass less than a few inches away. Then a stone line surface could be seen from a flat piece of rock that was just barely wide enough to be one of those stones meant to cook pizzas on. Off to either side were also other random pieces of assorted rocks and foliage that comprised of plants and green moss. From a rough estimation, it was a glass container that took on a rectangular shape on its side and could easily hold close to fifteen or twenty gallons of water. This was undoubtedly an aquarium meant for a small animal to live in. When he was done with assessing his current position. His attention was brought to himself. Instead of seeing his large body clothed in the outfit he was wearing while going to sleep. All that could be seen was a green mass with a couple of suspended bubbles that was almost see through. After taking a better look at the glass to use the reflection. He was able to change his perspective to show just what he was inside of a container. Indeed, it was a reptile themed environment and the only occupant held within was a lime green colored slime. His body lacked absolutely anything as not even a set of eyes were visible. In fact, there were no visible distinguishing marks aside from it being a gelatinous mass that was roughly around thirty ounces in total. This was followed with him giving out a girly shriek. “Kheeeyaaaah!!! Shit! *Huff.* N-Nearly gave myself a heart attack! Phew. Nothing to worry over. Wow... this is way more realistic.” He got a little closer to the glass to focus the reflection. Almost in the same way a person would turn their head to get a good look at their own reflection in the bathroom, the slime was twisting itself just a little bit to the left and eventually to the right. As he was doing this, he began to think of how often he would always give himself a jump scare whenever this dream occurred. Soon he calmed down and started to think more rationally. "Hmm. With this much detail I'm really interested now as to what I'm going to get tonight." And starting from that point, he waited patiently in the tank and kept a lookout for any movement to memorize intently for extra details he might have missed to add onto his newest edit.
I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 2. This is no longer just a story.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 2. This is no longer just a story. There was an awkward amount of silence as he remained motionless upon all sinking in. But soon, activity was through the roof as the slime rolled with a surprising amount of difficulty from one end of the container to the next with the speed of a sick tortoise. After what seemed to be almost an hour of utter boredom, the slime started to scream in frustration. “Why hasn’t anything happened yet? Ghah! Can't this story move on! So far this is a big letdown. All I'm doing is just sitting here. Yeah, it gets boring from here and there, but at least there's something! Let there be an explosion or even music in the background. I'll settle for the stereotypical person walking through-." His rant was cut off before it could really grow right as the door to the room was thrown open. It was even done so that a loud bang came as a result as it hit the stone wall from the amount of force being delivered by a kick. This brought on a sense of relief from seeing the new activity. “Ha-ha! finally! We can get this plot moving! Can't waste this opportunity now that I'm lucid. Think-think. I’m at the start again, so maybe I’m trying to tell myself that I need to re-evaluate the biggening of my story and change a few parts here and there." "Definitely hope I can remember all of my notes when I wake up. Okay-okay. Uh… the door is still intact and I don't see any scorch marks on the walls. This is indeed the very beginning. Hm, wonder if I need to make any alterations to this guy." To show that the one coming in was paying absolutely no mind to the slime’s words. The guy rushed in while holding onto a precariously stacked amount of equipment in both hands in front of their body. Aside from what was being held. The white lab coat of the person was fluttering about as each step was made in an odd fashion to give the impression that he was having a hard time with deciding which way to walk. Checkered yellow and brown pants came into view as the right foot was in a yellow-colored rain boot. The other was a casual leather shoe that would most likely be meant for a fancy suit. However, the bottom of the shoe had this sizable hole to expose the sock inside with heart like patterns put into the stitching. When the boxes were finally put on to a table with sufficient space being cleared by sliding the contents and creating a bunch of noise from the glass containers clattering against one another. One of which on the far end did end up falling as a result and was about to hit the floor when the snapping of fingers rang out. Just as it was about to make contact with the stone line floor. The glass container vanished after being shrouded in a white flash. It was then discovered to be right back on the table as if nothing had even happened and the one in the lab coat released a relieved sigh. The slime was waiting for the next set of lines that he himself has heard on more than one occasion. Yet he was only surprised as even though the man was speaking with an obvious Englishman accent with a whimsical tone thrown in. The words were unrecognizable. The slime could do nothing but to tilt its metaphorical head as he was not sure as to why this reoccurring dream was altered for this time around to prevent him from understanding what was being said by this character. “Huh? Now that's a twist. He should be saying, ‘Hooray, yahoo! Today's the day.’ And then something about overnight delivery being too slow." The parcel is here, the parcel is finally here!” The slightly tanned skinned man in the lab coat turned around after extracting the items from the many boxes. This revealed a scientist if one was to go off of the lab coat, along with the obvious Steve Urkel bow-tie. The outfit was not just randomly mesh together from different styles. But one could easily see the stitches from one part to the next being taken away after being cut from its original whole piece. Even though the pants were of a checkered design. The right knee had an obvious patch with black and white question marks embroidered onto the brown fabric. The right side of the undershirt was of a fine brown suit. The opposite took a red Hawaiian jacket and white T-shirt Style. The bow tie itself was of a bright blue with green polka dots. The hand with the suit side was wearing a fingerless glove meant for riding motorcycles. Whereas the other sported a goat sock puppet. The only thing that made it match on that side, was due to the Hawaiian skirt that was tied around the wrist to make it look as though it was dancing from time to time when his arm was raised. He had some slicked back black and gray lined hair that became spiky towards the back. One large golden tooth could be seen just barely poking out as he had a broad smile. The left eye was a normal blue as the other was yellow with a red slitted center. Over those, were an odd taped together set of opposing glasses. These were of a very thick rimmed version and a half cut which would normally be meant for those that like to do small amounts of reading while looking down. It was due to this very odd way of dressing, that the man who is now a slime wished that he had a hand to cover his non-existent face as a headache was beginning to form. The slime was practically pleading. “Seriously! No matter how many times I see the guy I can never seem to get down his appearance well enough to convey just how nutty he is! Just looking at him makes my head hurt!” What he was referring to, was that this was one of the characters that he wrote in his story. For the better part of the last seven years, he was having short dreams that would strangely go in a seamlessly unbroken timeline with only they're being gaps for where there should be nothing but time skips. Having only finished with putting together the final edited draft and began to submit it to a number of editors to be published. The only real problem was that he was not getting the required number of positive reviews. On occasion, he would even get dismissed as soon as he gave his name when going to a new place. This made it painfully obvious that his reputation was proceeding him and there was one who wanted to be a part of his work. After so many it nearly broke him a handful of times if it was not for his one friend giving some form of encouragement. Of course, there were occasions that he would end up going back to revisit some bits. This meant that the story was more or less learned by heart. Normally, he would see it all from a third persons perspective. The plot was of a slime that gained the ability to become sentient after repeatedly being subjected to this Discord character. Odd concoctions, situational manipulations, even infusions of magic to where it would just be under the threshold of destroying the monster was a near daily activity for both the scientist and the captured slime. Basically, the rundown of the story was of a slime monster that would go on to have adventures. The world was set in a magical land filled with human’s, monsters, demons, ghosts and whatever else one could think of when imagining a medieval stage. Most of the population being Humans in place of ponies. Magic was released through parts of a person’s body such as eyes or hands. Superior strength had no visible indicators. The ones that could fly would manifest ethereal wings. Eventually the main character would run into companions and come across one quest after another. It was even modeled so that there was a video game system which allowed those within the story to become stronger as their level and stats increased. Unique abilities were bestowed to a handful of people upon birth, while others could be learned through activities along with trial and error. After going off of his memory. This was obviously the start of chapter one as the main protagonist would be introduced as the weakest monster on record. The one that was on the other side of the room and going giddy over a small wooden jewelry case was called Discord. A legally authorized mad scientist that worked under the Royal Family and held almost as much power as the rulers themselves when it came to what he was allowed to do. Of course, mad scientist was a loose term as the world was mostly focused on the aspects of the arcane arts so much so, that technology was limited to levers and pulley systems being seen as the high end of the spectrum. Everything else was made using magic formulas, runes, artifacts of insignificant and great power. No one was a master of everything, yet there was a nearly endless list of spells in the world. Even the whole notion of Heroes and Demon Lords was a thing here. Whenever one was slain or forced to retire, another would eventually take its place sooner or later and the cycle would continue with no end in sight. The land he was on now just so happens to be called Equestria and is ruled by a set of princesses after their parents stepped down from the throne and relinquished their authority after many years of running the kingdom. The eldest was named Celestia. She was a natural born diplomat and spoke with her people more often than her younger sister. The second went by the name of Luna and came off more of a hands-on type of person, as she would run off to join a battle whenever word came in about a scuffle between armies or monsters that seem to be stronger than normal. In a short version. One was a talker, as the other could be labeled as a battle nut. If things were to go as they would in the reoccurring dream. Then this would be the part where Discord begins his intrusive examinations and rolls right onto the experimentation. This only caused the slimes gelatinous mass to have a quick quiver. And of course, Discord is right on cue and is approaching with a bag of goodies. With a small thud on a short table near the tank. The scientist pulls out some measuring tape and a pencil. The eraser was pointed towards the slime and began to poke at the membrane with just enough pressure to show the elasticity before going too far and causing the pencil to sink in. The slime began to giggle and scream like mad as the eraser came from one direction after another. “Hahaha! Hahaha! Hohoho hehehe! Why is it so ticklish! Hahaha stop it already! Please! I can't take it anymore! Why is this happening? My dream never felt this real! Stop stop, you're going to make me poop! If I had hands right now, I'd rip that thing out of your grip and toss it clear across the room! Hahaha, stop it already! I can't breathe, I can't breathe! All right, all right, I'll tell you where the rebel base is! Look on Alderaan!!! Hahaha hahaha! Not enough, f-fine! The secret ingredient is... that there is no secret ingredient! You happy now! Are you getting some kind of sick twisted pleasure out of this!!!” There were many attempts to move away on his end, but this turned out to be a fruitless attempt as his body moved way too slow. This went on for nearly a minute before Discord moved onto using a roll of measuring tape and started to grab on to two ends of the slime's body and stretch it. From what he knew. This was a very difficult process as objects normally passed right through a slimes body. But all that poking earlier was a test to see just how much pressure was required to grab on for this test. The man clearly tried to protest but nothing was getting through. “HEY! I'm not Flubber, quit it already! Oh, this feels weird! What I wouldn't give for a mouth right now! I'd go all feral Chihuahua on ya!" He even proceeds to make a number of growling and gnawing sounds. The sensation was fairly close to how one would get their cheeks lightly pinched on both sides and pulled apart. Discord soon released after recording the length of which the slime could be stretched before the grip became too unstable. Having expected to just snap back. It came a bit of a disappointment when the man realized that he was simply molding himself back into a solid piece. But his relief was short-lived when the next item was brought out. This being a very… very long thermometer and it was already approaching his gelatinous form. Sweat would have been visible if glands were present. He then frantically shouted, “WHOA WHOA WHOA! HOLD IT RIGHT THERE MISTER! I DID NOT CONCENT TO THAT! I THINK I NEED A LEGAL GUARDIAN TO SIGN OFF ON SOME WAVER AT THE VERY LEAST! D-Do you-you even know where t-that goes in?! I think I want another opinion! Noooooo, Nooooo! Hey get that-. Don't you dare-. We can talk about-. OH HELLOOOOO!!! FUCK! YOU REALLY DID IT! AAAAAAAAAAAH! Help help, I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed!” Pathetic and over the top whimpers came out as his eyes were shut tight. Well, the odd sense of sight anyway since he clearly did not have any eyeballs to begin with. Discord had already pressed the long thermometer until it was just a little past the halfway point and the tip was resting at his core. If he had a real body then he would be curled up in the fetal position while crying that he was just violated. The mad scientist could be heard saying a bunch of things again before pulling the tool free and taking out of a small plastic bag with the use of some long metal tongs a dead rat. The slime then said while cringing on the inside, “Uh-oh. I wish this was not a thing, but oh really?! If the tickling was like this, then I don't even wanna know how this will taste. There's absolutely no way I'm going-. Noooooooooo! Hay-whoa there!” His words came to a startling halt and became a scream of despair when his gelatinous form slowly approached the dead rat against his will. He screamed and hollered, yet it was obvious that no words or sounds were being made as Discord watched from the other side of the glass while writing down some notes. What made it worse, was that he was even drinking out of a mug with a crazy straw and showed no disgust. The slime body was running off of pure instinct and was not being dissuaded whatsoever by the higher brain functions of the human inside as it slowly pulled its form over and smothered the carcass. As the rat was now floating inside of the green substance that comprised his form. Some bubbles began to be produced from the foreign object and only grew over time. The fur came undone and dissolved first. Then came the flesh. The insides broke apart and floated aimlessly to where the slime may as well have been some really disgusting Jell-O mold with chunks of meat floating in place until those too were gone. Eventually all that was left, was the skeletal form of a rat with only a few bones broken from what was most likely its capture. This entire process took so long in fact that Discord left the lab and returned after nearly an hour went by when the last remnants were digested. The slime then screamed hysterically at Discord as loudly as he could while sounding frantic. “I hate this body for not listening to me and I hate you for doing this and I hate how this thing tastes like fried chicken and it's actually good! This is one seriously realistic and fucked up dream! I wanna wake up NOW!” By this point, the slime body was jiggling as though a strong earthquake was hitting the structure. The experiments progressed onto Discord moving to documenting his weight and taking small tissue samples, which stung quite a bit. When the instruments were put away. He could do nothing but let out a disgruntled sigh of relief that the poking, prodding and other demeaning activities were finally finished. When he heard Discord coming back with a crate that was just big enough to hold a basketball. A cold chill ran throughout the slimes entire body as he recalled what was next in the story. The container was held at the far end of the tank and poured over so that another slime would plop right into the glass container along with him. He then screamed again and moved towards the opposite direction so much that a good portion of his mass was now pressing sternly against the glass. “Oh No-No-No-No-No-No, OH HELL NO! Oh fuck no! Just look up the word no in every possible language and make a list and use that! I am not taking part in this bit! This is going to hurt! I just know it! And... For crying out loud! Now you're playing music...? Great, I can truly say that my humiliation is complete.” That last bit was due to how Discord snapped his fingers and created an old-style record player. Said instrument then started up and played some smooth jazz to set a certain mood. There were even a couple of candles floating above the tank on either end to add to the atmosphere. A low growl came from the slime as Discord even changed his clothing to that of a black suit that a waiter would wear when working at a fancy restaurant. Out of frustration. The slime then said with a panic tone while attempting to press even firmer against the glass so much that he was nearly reaching up to the top. “Are you kidding me?! Don't you even know that this is not how slimes procreate? We don't go around and make out. It's all about growing in size and dividing you numbskull!” It was at that moment that there was a little sizzling sound to mark the contact between him and the newest occupant when Discord started to make some very obnoxious kissing sounds. All the while, a floating notepad was busy with jotting down notes. Obviously, the mad scientist had no idea what was being conveyed by the slime as it found itself in agonizing pain. To him, every cell is being ruthlessly dissolved and absorbed by the other unwanted slime. After a couple of minutes passed by. Discord had a raised eyebrow as he leaned his head over to the top of the tank to take in what was happening. There was this disgusted scowl on his face that soon turned to worry before his eyes shifted from left to right. His eyes rested away from the tank and gave off a very off-tune whistle as he snapped his fingers from behind his back and created a small stick out of nothing to whack the second slime. This had the effect of killing it in one blow and making it dissolve within seconds. Obviously being dissatisfied with the outcome. A few checks were made on the notepad before he went and teleporting away and having left yet another dead rodent within the tank. The only thing that was left of the green slime was roughly around a third of its original size as there was still a portion that was bubbling due to the conflicting acidic properties from the digestion process. Comical black wavy lines were seen as he was mumbling the following in a very weak and tired voice. “I-I was nearly a-. No, I was victim of c-cannibalism... I c-could have died!!! The main character is supposed to be super weak. Even back then he was no match for any of his own kind." Discord took that time to place another dead rat into the aquarium. "And here we go again. Why does it always have to be rats? Fine! Hugh… Whatever, just go for it.” After giving up, his form slowly started to consume the newest dead rat and barely managed to cover a third from the tail and up to the legs. The process had barely even begun and his mind was already beginning to slip as a heavy amount of fatigue struck. His non-existent eyelids became so heavy that he ended up closing them after much struggle was made to keep them open. After falling asleep for who knows how long and regaining his consciousness yet again. He found that he had not woken up from the oddly realistic dream. He was still in the body of his slime character. The skeletal remains of the second rat were nearby and his body was now back to its original state after taking in enough matter to regenerate the previously missing portions. Already, the mad scientist was within the weird lab and working on something on the far side of the room with his back turned. A flat set of non-existent eyes were boring holes into the backside of Discord's head from the slime as it wobbled around the tank. Seeing as he had nothing else to do. The slime began to stretch and see what he was capable of. After getting a little more used to his body movements by testing his speed and seeing just how fast he could travel and how far this form could extend parts of its body. It was discovered that it was not all that great. After some time passed and he could think more rationally. The green slime attempted to bring up the display menu which was commonly used in this world through mental commands. However, when that failed, he resorted to verbal ones, which got nothing at all. In this world. The backstory goes to say that all were under the thumb of ruthless monsters and Demons. The race’s not of the Demons that could think and talk were nearly wiped out. If it was not for the previous queen Faust for weaving a powerful and unknown spell with the help of the king and hundreds of mages. Then all would have been lost. A magical network was set in place to give others the power to grow past their normal limitations. A person that had no combat experience at all would be around a certain threshold like level 1 and up to 10. Whereas those who are seen as strong are around level 50 and up. Of course, there are those with far higher numbers. For example, Discord was said to be above level 200 without the true extent of his ever really being shown. Getting indignant at the whole situation. He called out as loud as he possibly could. “Where the bloody hell is that stupid menu?! Yeah, I already know I should be level one from what I wrote, but it would be nice to see it!” He took a couple of seconds to calm down before he continued. “Maybe it can't be used due to my lack of understanding their language? Let's see, let's see. Ah! that's right! It should be at some point that a big earthquake strikes the lab and causes that bookcase next to me to fall over. It will destroy the tank and it will be my chance to escape. Books will be spread all over the place and I could use this character’s special feature that was not discovered until later on.” What was being referred to was how the story went with some catastrophe occurring with three supervillains running amok just like at the end of the original My Little Pony series. The book case would end up falling into the side of the would-be prison. The slime would then use this opportunity to escape after reassembling itself after nearly being squished by all the books. It would not be found out until afterwards that his body had the innate ability to literally eat the words off of the papers and learn what was on them almost instantly. The only real issue is that I still don't know their language yet to be able to process it. Not only that, but some very useful facts and figures would come into play as he went on to his adventures. But seeing as this is all from Discord, then there's no way I'm letting this chance pass by. He even recalled that he would escape through the drains and arrive outside of a large castle on the side of a tall mountain. But he became gloomy on the next part when he ends up falling victim to being attacked by a crow and ends up going right off of a cliff and falling into a river that would sweep him away and into a dangerous forest towards the south and nearly die on the trip. The slime lamented on that whole escapade and wondered if it was possible to change the outcome to a more favorable one. That was when he recalled that further in the timeline, he would end up coming across an item within the forest that was dropped by a previously destroyed carriage by some creatures that were long gone. The said item was held within a small wooden jewelry case. It would be the size of a marble and endowed with the ability to summon monsters at regular intervals. As it turned out, this very same artifact was really the item that Discord was waiting for when the story began and this explained where that second slime originated from. While writing the story, he dubbed them Monster Houses. They would come in various sizes and shapes and depending on how big they were, would end up reflecting the strength and type of monster that would come out. Although, when the monster is first born. It is at its weakest state with barely any health at all. The creature would require several hours to climatize itself to the new environment after exiting the Monster House and gain its power, along with the fully restored health. Now that he had this information ahead of time. All the slime needed to do was to wait for that event to occur and make sure that he got his hands on that stone before leaving the lab. If he had a pair of hands, he would be rubbing them together as a maniacal grin crossed his nonexistent face when saying the next bit to himself. “With that I'll be able to skip so much time and level my character a hella of a lot faster. All I need is to eat that thing up and dissolve it so that it's a part of me. As long as it's not being suppressed by that box then it will start to sprout a new slime every minute. This world has an experience scaling method and I'll be taking full advantage of it. Not to mention the chain killing bonus that will stack up. Every time a new one comes out it will be immediately dissolved and I'll get the experience points. Hehehe~.” If he had a body, he would be holding both of his palms pointed straight up while imagining coins falling from the sky. There would also be a number of plus two notifications popping up all around as he continued. “One of the biggest perks to being the author of a story and knowing all the shortcuts! So what if it'll change how things go? As long as I keep the key events in mind and plan accordingly, then I could come out on top.” His self-induced delusions of grandeur and making his character even stronger than what was previously written on paper was interrupted by Discord coming back once he was done with his current work on the other side of the room. A foreboding feeling ran through the slimes core as he thought further on about how long it would take until said catastrophe was to take place and his escape attempts would come into play. He then said in a resigned tone as the shadow of the scientist holding utensils in both hands loomed over the tank. “Uh... I really... Really, wish there was a skip cutscene button right here. It would be so useful right now if the story was to cut into a time skip. And why does it seem menacing for that sock puppet to be holding a soup spoon? For crying out loud, did he really have to dress it up in a nurse outfit? It's even got lipstick on.” The scene then shows the slime cowering as far back as possible as Discord came closer and closer. The last thing that could be said from the guy before anything could happen was, “The very least you could do is give me a lollipop.” The scene then shows as time went by. While being under the strangely crazed watchful eye of Discord the magic scientist. The hours turn into days and days turned into weeks. Being poked and prodded on a regular basis was becoming a daily routine. For the most part, he was left alone after needing to recuperate whenever another slime was introduced to the tank to test his combat abilities once Discord realized that coupling between them turned out to be a fruitless endeavor. Although it did take him a number of tries with different venues in the background before he finally gave up. Once the mad scientist even resorted to putting a backdrop against the wall of a french café and painted both slimes black with a white stripe going down the middle. Which obviously clicked that he was attempting to pull a, Pepé Le Pew moment. Of course, this was only after doing the whole tuxedo and dinner dress idea on an earlier day. The man now slime commented at one point or another that this must have been how tiny dogs felt when owned by a person with way too much time and money on their hands. All he needed was a set of teeth and the ability to actually produce a growling sound and the ensemble would be complete. There would be long stretches of time where he would be left alone in the tank whenever Discord decided to leave and do whatever he does on the outside. But of course, the door was always locked after the strange symbols on the wood would flash after being closed. It did not take long until he realized that this was no longer just any old dream. There was not one time that he could remember that it would last nearly this long. In fact, the only reason why his book took so long to make was that he would only get enough material to write a page or two before waking up in the morning and finding himself in his bed. At first, he thought he was going to go a little crazy and wondered if something had happened to his own body. Perhaps this was a scenario where the main character died and came back to life in another world. There was also the possibility that he was summoned for some unknown purpose. Then again, maybe all of those dreams were really just a glimpse into his future. He did right that this was just a slime that became sentient after a twist of fate. Then he began to wonder if his human life was really the dream and this turned out to be his reality. This went on until the faithful day finally came up. Discord had just finished with his examinations for what felt like the hundredth time. The small case containing the very important stone was about to be opened to allow yet another of his cousins to come out. Yet the mad scientist was interrupted after a sudden boom occurred from outside of the stone walls. Discord could be heard saying something in a panic while quickly stumbling to get outside. There were even more noises which coincided with a near constant rumbling that caused everything to shutter uncontrollably. Even waves were sent along his gelatinous form with such a frequency that it would be close to how one would feel when in one of those vibrating massaging chairs. With his voice oscillating thanks to the way his body was reacting. He said the following while intently watching as a number of small doodads made their way off of their shelves and tables to crash onto the floor. “There we go! Just a little more~. Come on, come on already! Fall... fall... FALL! Yes! About time! Woohoo freedom! Oh no, I forgot about this part! AAAAAH!” His slime body was in the middle of some spasms from watching the bookcase as it tumbled down and crashed into the tank in such a way that it was crushed along with the table that supported it. With a loud bang of wood and shattering glass ringing out. He soon found himself wedged partially between a couple of the pieces of flat stone for his environment. Luckily the Rocks inside were shifted so that it would make a makeshift tent shape that would protect his squishy and extremely vulnerable body from being killed by a literal mountain of books and broken glass. From underneath all of it, he screamed in a muffled voice while attempting to sift his body through the scattered pages and half open books for freedom. “Hooray! Now I just gotta get out of here and get my things! *Cough-Cough.* Geez, does he ever dust?” Page after page of written word was slowly being stripped right off of the paper. The ink that comprised them soon were dissolved at an alarming rate as is slimy form was squished over a dozen books at once. There must have been close to eighty or ninety on that shelf alone and it was taking a great deal of time to sift through each and every one of them. There were books about basic history, the current mathematics, beginner and intermediate spells, along with incantation manuals which were obviously meant for reference guides. There was even a personal log written by Discord that he could now read as the lettering became as familiar as the English language. All the while, he was babbling to himself almost incoherently as the rush of knowledge was literally coming at him all at once. If he was a normal human, then having all of this knowledge getting stuffed into his head would have most likely sent him into a comatose state. He was now speaking in tongues in a mixture of loud lulling sounds and wide gum flapping as he could feel his mind going into a frenzied and uncontrollable whirlwind. They were even knowledge within those books that not even he knew about when writing the story. Maps and general knowledge were greatly appreciated as he was no longer going to follow the exact script of the world. Once he was finally out of the pile and reassembled himself into his normal shape with some difficulty. The green slime was practically bubbling as steam wafted off the top of its form. A mixture of drunken slurs and baby noises were even coming from him as his slimy brain was processing and reorganizing all of the data. Most of which came out so garbled that he may as well have had a swelled-up tongue while attempting to speak. From his perspective, the world was spinning as lines of written words were zooming around his head in the same way one would see ghosts flying about to haunt a person. It did not take long until he got all dizzy and muttered “Goo-Goo-kachoo!” Before shaking himself back to a reasonably sound mind. This led to the bubbling coming to a stop and the steam to cease along with it after a couple of seconds. He then continued with, “Wowie zowie! Now that's what I call a cram session. Okay... uh-oh, I feel like I'm going to throw up.” This was proceeded with a large bubble forming and exiting the front to release a large belch that nearly threw him back. When he was done, he could have sworn he literally saw vapors that took on the shape of punctuation points and other such icons meant for writing Afterwards it took him a couple of seconds of blinking before adding, “It's good I don't got any teeth, If I did then I'd be wondering if I got some letters stuck in them. Just imagine the pain of biting down on an X. Now that would really hurt.” There was still some rumbling from outside, but that had died down to only a fraction of what it once was. Another item falling from a table caused him to remember what he was after and went right to looking around for it. It was soon spotted on the very corner edge of the table that he last saw it sitting on. Whether it was from either being lucky or unlucky, but it was halfway dangling over the edge and only needed a small nudge to come down to him. With a war cry, he rolled as fast as he could into the leg of the table and to give off a pathetic “Ouch” when a light squelch and bump noise was created. It was a good thing that he had been practicing while Discord was out of the room to increase his overall speed and impact from that of a snail's pace to nearly the speed of a baby that was crawling quickly. At least this was enough to make the box to fall and break open. Thereby causing the contents to roll out and into the middle of the room with a clatter. With a loud “Yes!” He rolled his squishy body over to get a good look at it. He could have been seen with a scrunched-up face, that is if he even had a face to begin with on what he saw. Right there, was the very same glass marble that his best friend gave to him for his birthday. Sure, there was no chain. But the engraving of a slime was still set in the center of the glass orb. With a painful tone, he said the next bit while approaching it even closer with the intent on absorbing it. “This is just so cruel. I'm really really sorry buddy. You must have gone through a lot to get it... but if we ever meet again. Then I'll let you know how much it really helped.” And with that, he slurped it right up and watched as the material was strangely digested a lot quicker when compared to the rats. The see-through stone crumbled easily and the small pieces broke down even more after a few small bubbles escaped the object. If he was not sure that it really was a stone that resembled a marble. Then he might have confused it for a chunk of sugar. Either way this was better otherwise it would be floating around in him for a long time before being fully absorbed. What came unexpectedly to him. Was the way it tasted so much along the lines of a cross between a lemon drop and a hint of kiwi. When the last of the fragments dissolved into nothing. The slime made its way over to a drain on the far corner of the room that was just barely big enough for a person's hand to reach inside of. After carefully squeezing himself past a couple of the bars and reassembling into a single mass on the other side. His form fell straight down for what felt to be a little over half a dozen meters before plopping on to a slick yet spongy like material when the pipe started to curve. It took everything he had to ignore the fact that he was now sliding along who knows what while surfing the pipe ways. Without any kind of nose to be an issue. The obvious smell was no problem as he just closed his eyes and hope that he was not going to need to look at anything until he was on the outside. What he expected to be a smooth ride, soon became rather annoying as the pipe would change course so much that he felt himself slamming into the metal surface over a dozen times before coming out on the far end. There was practically no doubt in his mind that he was causing a huge uproar with the sewage system constantly banging throughout the castle walls by doing this. When he was getting near the end of the pipe. There was obvious displacement of air and an odd noise that would be produced when an object exited from a pressurized hose. Instead of just falling out. He was instead shot no differently than a canon and flew through the air. He screamed indignantly as his eyes bulged out from the unexpected flight. “Whaaaaa! This didn't happen in the boooooook!!!” As he was in motion. The bird from the story that would attack him, was currently flying in his path and unawares to his approach thanks to the way its head was turned in the opposite direction and at some food sticking out of a nearby garbage can. The resulting set of events happened within a few meager seconds. The slime collided with the bird. The bird was sent over one of the nearby fences and into a back alley. Said bird release a number of loud squawks right as a couple of hissing cat sounds could be heard in its vicinity. The slime itself had its trajectory change and landed comfortably on top of a garbage bag that cushioned its fall with a noticeable *Pumph* noise. After figuring out what just happened. He began to sing out while attempting to dance in place with two small appendages to signify his arms waving. “Oh yeah, oh yeah, who's the slime! I'm the slime! Who's the stupid bird, you're the stupid bird! Haha~. That's what you get for making me fall off the mountain!” He then took a second or two to calm down and looked around. “Phew! That's way more than enough excitement for one day. Now let's get on to business. I really hope this works. Okay, hmm, let's try the word, Status!” Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, which greatly diminished his mood. But soon there was a static noise right as a bluish see-through screen popped into existence. There was a large circle and a red X going through the middle. Even the icon of a lock was shown overlaying that. Soon the lock icon began to glitch out for but a second and open up and the X disappeared right after. This was followed up by a set of texts that would quickly be typed in. There were also some digital effects of fireworks. *Attention, anomaly detected. Adjusting for unknown required text language... changes complete. Loading parameters for new species to be gaining access. Error. Unable to implement default settings. Advanced settings chosen... new parameters successfully installed. Basic information uploading. New race registered as Slime. Classification set to Monster. Congratulations for being the first Slime to be registered, a special bonus package has been added. Please select the icon below the information screen to accept the special bonus package.* He then said the following and doing a week imitation of a fist bump with what he had on hand. “Sweet! I get to skip all that hardship in the forest and get this thing a full year and a half in advance. No way was I going to be running around that place like a headless chicken trying to stay alive without making some progress. Besides, I already know what goes on in there and I don't need to handle that right now. Ok, time to take a look at what my stats are.” *Status Window.* Name: Slime. Race: Slime Monster. Class: Common. Level: 1. Health: 3 points. Magic: 27 points. Strength: 1 point. Dexterity: 2 points. Constitution: 1 point. Intelligence: 9 points. Wisdom: 8 points. Charisma: 1 point. Luck: 50 points. Battle power: 0.4 *Current special skills.* Weak Acid level 1. A weak acid that is used to digest flesh and other organic substances. Long periods of exposure are required to break down weaker non-organic substances and have little to no effect on stronger matter such as metal or stone. Oddly enough bones are always left in a pristine bleached white condition. *List of titles.* *Gluttony of written text* *Explanation: By displaying your insatiable hunger for the literal written texts in many books under a short amount of time. Even the most hardcore of scholars could not bring themselves to be called bookworms when compared to your greed. I do advise you to go out and into the sun once in a while. Also, to lay off the big words and focus on the action nouns here and there.* *Effects: You are capable of absorbing written words off of paper and other such objects aside from stone. What is absorbed is permanently memorized and instantly understood if the relevant information is stored in the text or already in the user.* *Home on the road.* *Explanation: You carry a piece of your home with you wherever you go. No, literally. You are caring a piece of your house inside of yourself. I am not kidding. It might be a good idea to see a doctor if you start spitting up doorknobs.* *Effects: Once every minute a new slime is produced inside of your body. One of two following options can be done. First is to release the slime into the world. The second option is to allow it to be dissolved. If the second option is to be used, then the experience points from its destruction will be allocated to the user.* *Top of the slime pyramid.* *Explanation: You are at the pinnacle of slime society. Even King Slime must bow down to your ability for being the first of your kind to gain access to the leveling system. May want to watch out for Queen and Princess Slimes as they will be on the hunt. Although, you may want to just go with it. Not like you will have many other options anyway, right?* *Effects: if your stats are high enough, then the direct mental manipulation of weaker slimes is possible. Depending on their strength when compared to you, the number can vary on just how many will be under perfect control. In addition, the sharing of abilities and skills are possible. * Now being bemused, he squinted at the screen with an intense gaze. “Hmm. Well, it all seems to be in order. Even the points are as they should be. That is aside from intelligence, wisdom and this insane amount on this here luck. Could have sworn that it should be about half of that from consuming those books. And luck should only be around five at the most. As for these titles and effects. I could already come up with some ideas that my character didn't get around to implementing. Let's see just what's in the bonus package. Can’t say I care for the remarks on my single status though.” While out stretching the nub of what should be his right hand towards the blinking rectangular button on the screen after making sure to swipe all the way down. There was a casino jackpot sound just as a new window popped up and the following. *Congratulations on your special bonus package. You can now have access to one special bonus skill. In addition to having a high level of luck. A second bonus skill can also be unlocked.* The first part was expected, yet the extra one due to having a high amount of luck was literally a jackpot and worthy of the noises that were being made earlier. He then went in and looked up a list of skills that he could pick from. But oddly enough. None of them had any descriptions as to what their effects were. Instead, all he got was a simple, yet short list of some straight forward skills and a few that he would need some time to think over more carefully. *List of skills.* Applied coating. Appraisal. Experience multiplier. Magic manipulator. Material shift. His voice then changed to that of being mischievous in nature as he looked over the short list and coming up with possibilities as to what their functions were. “Oh~. I think I could possibly have a few uses for any of these. What skill will I choose? Hmm... Experience multiplier seems to be the best choice in the long run to grab early. But I'm having some difficulty with what the second one should be. This would be a real good time to have a second opinion.” With already making up his mind on what was on the center of the list. The first skill was obtained. This produced a new prompt that overlaid the first as it displayed even more texts. *Due to the acquiring of experience multiplier, along with having 50 points in luck while the user is still at level 1. The amount of experience the user will obtain has been increased by 50 times from normal. This can stack with any other item or ability with similar effects after other boosts have already taken effect. The experience multiplier will drop down drastically once the user has reached level 2.* This only got him to break down into a maniacal laughter that could have been heard from all over the four corners of the castle if he was actually able to speak out loud. Sure, he was aiming to improve his stats earlier on but this was more of an explosion of experience which would be on the scale of the volcano that destroyed Pompeii. “That’s what I need. I'm going to milk this level one bonus for as long as I possibly can. If it goes the way I think it will. Then this is going to be a huge payoff. Now I just need to figure out how not to be killed until I decide to spam that level up button.” When those words were spoken. two notification windows made itself known. The first informed him that he activated the experience chain bonus which comes into effect whenever a monster was slain and the experience gained from it was absorbed within two minutes of each other. This meant that he was going to get a two hundred percent increase. And of course, thanks to the Monster House constantly giving him freebie kills on a regular basis. Then there was no way that this chain was going to end. And the other window asked if he wanted to level up. There was even a very large gold flashing rectangular button for him to press. But instead, he just closed the window and giggled to himself while hopping down from the garbage bag and started to make his way through an alley that would lead him deeper into the city of Canterlot. Just up ahead at the end of the narrow space between the buildings. He could just barely make out that there were some colorful banners and ribbons with different shades of purple hanged up along the busy streets. “Ah, I see the coronation of the new ruler is still happening. Hmm, maybe I should think about taking a quick peek at this Twilight Sparkle when I get the chance.” Then his mood turned somber. "At the very least there won't be very many human names that I'd have to hear anymore where the naming conventions are all twisted for most of the population." This only lasted for a second before returning to his excitable self.
I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 3. This isn't so bad.I was labeled as a failed slime experiment. Chapter: 3. This isn't so bad. A few hours had already passed by after making his escape from that laboratory to hide on the streets of Canterlot. From what he could tell, most of the buildings gave off an old victorian impression from a cursory glance. Not to mention the nearly endless painted eggshell white ones that made an Identically neat row down to the ends. Doors were primarily made of bright colors such as blue, green, yellow and bright red. Although a few were completely white and he wondered how the owners would feel if even a speck of dirt or mud was to land on their dwelling with how easily messed up it could be with that kind of a color scheme. The streets with businesses were lined with a number of colorful eye-catching stalls parked right outside of their respective shop's so that customers would go inside to see what else the merchant had to offer once they became interested in the wares on display. The roads seemed to be made with fairly well used and worn cobblestone with some noticeable wagon wheel indentations from constant use. Fortunately enough, there were drainage systems and garbage receptacles to help with keeping the place relatively clean. Which in turn was a great improvement upon medieval times where filth was just left piled around to attract rats and cause a number of different illnesses. Many people going back and forth had the generic skin tones of a human, but the flashy and colored spectrum of hair and eye color that those from my Little Pony would have. Most of the characters around dressed themselves in simple outfits that were closely resembling that of ancient times where kings and queens typically stood at the top for the law of the land. This feeling was only compounded even further by a couple of guards stationed at a few corners with the emblem of a six-pointed purple star with five white smaller ones surrounding it to show that they were under Princess Twilight’s command. Some fancier dressed people were also mixed in as they had an attendee to help with carrying the goods that were purchased on their apparent shopping spree. Out of a few of these were dressed a little better, while others were at a similar state to what he thought would be the commoners thanks to a lackluster of bright colors, along with some visible patches and stitch works for the arms or pants. He even kept out a metaphorical ear to hear the rhythmic tune of a menstrual if there should happen to be one nearby. Although, several long moments came and went as he suffered a huge disappointment when it was nothing but the background noises from what he assumed to be customers who were in the middle of haggling with many shop owners. While trying to keep to the shadows and quickly shifting between items that were resting on the sidewalk. The green slime was carefully navigating around the crowds and observing their habits whenever he did not have to quickly duck to escape being detected. And of course, he had ample time with getting lost on a number of occasions thanks to being so small that he was unable to get a good view of markers to help in keeping his bearings. From what he could gather from what was around him, as well as the still unrecognizable chatter. The new ruler of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle must have just been crowned. There was more than one occasion that he grumbled to himself about his inability to understand even a single word that was being uttered around him and only had to go off of his memories to understand the current events. There was even one time that he nearly got run over by the wheels of a carriage carrying some goods while in the middle of crossing the street when no one was looking and almost rolled into the sewer system after the scare. This was all because he ended up grabbing on to one of the spokes and held on long enough to be thrown several feet to the edge of the street after letting out a long whale of help during his impromptu carriage ride. From guessing alone, the crowning ceremony concluded just a little over an hour ago with the way everyone was chatting amongst themselves and already heavily drinking. This meant that there was a good chance of the important guests were up in the castle for the after party. As he was going around yet another garbage can to avoid the detection from a set of armored guards that were walking together and going in the opposite direction of the castle. He then thought to himself about how easy it would be to sneak in right under their noses. With this being such an important event, they would undoubtedly be busy with party crashers and a pitiful slime like himself would not even get a second glance. It would have only taken close to half an hour for him to get to the castle if he were to simply go straight there by walking right down the road with his current size and speed when he finally got to one of the main streets. Yet avoiding random animals such as cats, dogs, the dreaded birds that sent his body into a quivering mess and the occasional foot of a random passerby was his top priority due to his size and the pitiful amount of health points. So, it took quite a bit longer than was previously expected and lost what he thought was precious time. With only three to work with, he would find it understandable that a simple adult stepping right on him would be enough to take his life as he would be reduced to an oversized glob of chewing gum in their eyes. As a result. It took him just over another two hours to just get as far as the castle wall. This was also contributed by how far away the tubes had brought him from the huge structure itself during the escape. It also did not help that it was an uphill run and the best he could do was to roll himself for a portion of it with a great amount of difficulty. If it was not for him being without lungs, then some of the passerby’s would have heard gasping air from below their feet and become quickly alerted of his presence. He even grumbled to himself about how much faster it would have been if he was not so low on the attribute points. This and a pair of legs would have been a great help. Just a measly two in dexterity amounted to very little and he wondered if he'd be able to get away from a one-legged dog if you were to be chased by such an animal. After some searching, a hole was found to allow water to flow out of the inner wall and towards the outside nearly a quarter of the way around the outer perimeter and hidden by a couple of overgrown weeds. After sifting through the opening and finding himself on the outer courtyard. His vision was covered by a new notification window. This one stated the following as a brass-colored crown could be seen near the top of the text as it bounced from left to right. *Congratulations! You have earned a new title! *Slime Hunter, Rank 1.* *Explanation: You have killed over 200 slimes and achieve the title of Slime Hunter. Wow, you must not have much of a life. That or you're getting your rocks off on beating up the most useless creature in existence. Way-da-go buddy. Your parents must be so proud.* *Effect: All stats gain a mild boost when encountering a slime type monster in combat. In addition, experience gained is increased by 50 percent.* He quickly grumbled after reading the message. “Yeah I'm happy that I got that title... but can it really knock it off with these weird comments on the explanations? Their getting way too personal. Huh? I already killed 200? Mmm… Okay, so if I'm going off of one per minute then it's already been over three hours and twenty minutes since I swallowed up that Monster House. Hmm. If I remember correctly. Then I should reach the next rank every time the total is doubled and the maximum I can go for is Rank 5. Oh booyah! That's right system! Keep on tossing in those free experience points right into the bank! I wanna see my investment grow baby! Too bad real banks don't give this much interest.” His ramblings were cut off when he heard an unexpected voice from right above where he sat. It came off as feminine and held onto an odd accent that he had a very hard time to pin down aside from it being oddly seductive. Yet also so very mischievous at the same time. Without a doubt it was of a mature woman. After a second, he would even say that it made him think of someone from Egypt. His gaze slowly drew upwards and his slime instincts instantly took hold of his mind with a wild vengeance. On a tree close to the stone wall was a very large bird with bright colored red, orange and amber feathers for a flame pattern. Bright jade-colored eyes where piercings straight into his very being. "My my~. Quite the noisy one, aren’t we? You're very, *Giggle.* Very bold for being so young~. Yes yes you are~.” “AAAAAAAH BIIIIRRD! NOOOOOOOO! I DON'T WANNA DIE!!” The smooth surface of his body was literally turning into pine needles during the screaming and immediately rushed for the exit and right through the hole that he had just come in from a moment prior. However, when he was more than halfway out on the other side. The same voice came from above yet again after there was a noticeable flapping of wings. “Oh oh~. Your very funny~. Leaving the party so soon? Why not stay?” This was only followed by him attempting to go back yet again after releasing a bone chilling inner scream. But to run into the same voice a third time on the other end was enough to feel as if he could have had a heart attack if there even was such an organ within his green body. This series of events kick started a seemingly endless routine of the slime coming and going nearly a dozen times over to where he was not even fully out of the hole when he had to turn around with how fast the bird was able to fly over the wall. Along with screaming at the top of his non-existent lungs before being completely exhausted on the inner part of the wall where it all began to mumble to himself as he finally lost the will to go on and was about ready to accept what was happening. “I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die... My ass is so grass! Please don't make me suffer, j-just end it all quickly!” His entire form was quivering so much at the very notion of a bird having him in its sights, that he found himself unable to open his eyes. There was the sound of flapping wings to signify an avian taking to the air. This triggered his imagination to go into overdrive as he envisioned the large bird getting in position for a dive bomb run to attack with its outstretched talons. Thereby piercing his weak membrane and snatching away the few precious health points between life and death. He braced himself for a world of instant pain when the sound of something landing on the grass nearby could be heard by a small thud. There was also another set of flapping that came instantly after, along with the bird's voice that came off as a little hesitant when compared to just a few seconds ago. “No no. I could not bring myself to cause any harm~. More so after you have already done me a great deed. Please please, take a look.” Even though every cell in his new body was compelling him to just close his eyes and accept death. They soon creeped open at an agonizingly slow pace. First came the grass. Then his vision went higher and higher. After a little bit. He came face-to-face with the severed head of a large black crow with its beak slightly open. The tongue was hanging as one of its eyes was clearly gouged out. This earned a terrified shriek and twitch from him in the form of, “AAAAAAAAAH!!! GERK! GAH! Uuuuh... ... ...” And lastly, he fell back and turned into a puddle that quickly started to spread out to nearly two feet in diameter and just barely high enough to allow a few stray tall blades of grass to poke through. If it was a cartoon. Then is entire green coloring would have turned a shade of gray along with a small ghost attempting to fly away as it was tethered down to his body. There would have also have been a small funeral bell ringing to inform that someone had just passed away. Suffice to say, he was passed out and utterly detached from the whole world as everything instantly went black. When he finally began to feel his murky consciousness coming back. The sensation of a soft and warm object was there to greet him. This caused the guy to believe that he was back in his own body. His own human body. Also wrapped up in a very soft blanket that beckoned him to just go back to sleep. Even if it meant being late to work, which he was not a fan of to begin with. That's when he realized something and began to feel even more confused as he did not own a blanket that was anywhere close to being this comfortable. Soon he opened his eyes to find that they were being covered. After a little bit of wiggling around was done. The upper part of his body poked out of a tiny opening and was assaulted by an unexpected bright light. For some reason he was now within a very lavished room that was decorated from the floor all the way to the ceiling with bright colors which mostly consisted of white, pink, light green and blue. Murals of the sun in different depictions were painted on the walls for a consistent pattern, as well as some of the furniture. When his attention was brought back down to himself. The form of the green slime was discovered. Having already been accustomed to this sight by now, it was not too much of a shock. But what did come as a big surprise, was the fact that he was inside of a large golden cage suspended by a tall stand with the front door being left wide open. What quickly drew his attention next was that he was now being cradled in the wings of the bird that he saw before as both he and it rested at the bottom of the cage. While resisting the strong urge to choose between fainting or just screaming his head off. He shooked those thoughts away and attempted to slowly wiggle himself free from going one way to the next once there was enough sufficient control to override his body's natural instincts. Meanwhile cursing the primal and mindless aspect of the slime for its debilitating weakness towards flying creatures. But what came from doing this caused him to look up slowly as a cold sweat was now forming on his elastic membrane. There was a small cooing sound from the bird as it was staring straight down at him with its head turned to the right and showing one unblinking eye. If he was able to poop himself right now, then there may have been so much that it could have easily have filled the entire bottom of the birdcage and gone clear over the edge with how terrified he felt right then and there. Not only was he in its nest. But the beast quite literally had him in its clutches. Surprisingly, after shivering from fear, the bird started to do more of its cooing as the wings gently hugged his quivering mass that almost made him freeze. This was followed with the bird speaking again in a calming tone. “Now now~. No need to fret. This is a safe place and no harm will come~.” His body still wanted to get out of there so badly that his rational thoughts were yet again being overwritten. But the bird’s words were beginning to get to him after a couple of seconds had passed. He then thought to himself that he needed to take control of his body and not let the mindless part be in charge. He knew that if this bird really wanted to harm him, then he would have already been long dead. After a while of sitting there and allowing the bird to do what it wanted, some courage was mustered up to push himself to say the handful of burning questions on his mind, yet still quivering while doing so. “W-Why haven't you killed me? H-How d-did I get here? And what did you mean by earlier?” In response, he was startled when the bird released him and flew out of the cage in one swift motion. After she landed on a nearby writing desk. The bird began to fiddle with the objects on the table as a translucent red and orange field began to cover her feet that was already in the motion of picking up a quill along the feather section without so much as bending a single strand of the plumage and turned her gaze to him. “Questions questions, so many questions~. Hmm. I very much like that, yes I do. Such an inquisitive young slime. Very well, I shall answer in order. Your life was spared for two simple reasons. One is that my curiosity is peaked. For all my years I have not once encountered any others of your kind with the power of speech. Most, if not all are mindless. I believe it would be entertaining to witness just how far you can go. As for how I was able to relocate your unconscious body. A subtle application of magic allows me to grasp quite easily onto that which one normally could not.” With the quill in her possession. She used the pointed tip to indicate towards the cage before placing it back in its holder. “Only one other is allowed near my cage and of course, that would make it the safest place to hide until... Well, you know what I mean. Who knows what would have been your fate if left out in the open for just anyone to find. Now the third question is very straightforward. It has to do with that annoying oversized Raven that you just so chanced to dispatch in a back alleyway.” As if the bird was able to sense his confusion on that topic. She clarified before he even got the chance to say anything in response and slowly shook her head with some frustration. “It has been months with him preparing an attempt to take claim of my territory. It would have been a simple matter if I was not soon to move. You see my young slime. My companion to which I have watched over for many long years will be leaving this castle in a few short weeks and I will be accompanying her. With this being a long coming decision on her part, I regretfully feel the one that will be taking my place is not quite ready. I very well cannot allow Owlowiscious to be exposed to that sort of pressure before being settled in. Oh and by the way, he is an Owl if the name was not a giveaway.” He started to think about the names for a couple of seconds. This was also in time with the explanations that she had given to him. Now having a moment to straighten out his thoughts. The slime realized who this must have been, but wanted to play the part of not knowing anything. Otherwise he would run the risk of her being suspicious of a slime knowing so much. “And just who might you be?” All the while hoping that she would not catch on to his bluff. This got a mysterious chuckle from the bird as she raised her wings up and briefly ignited her body in a quick display of flames and putting them out just as effortlessly as they began. She then ruffled her feathers a little to fix them and started to speak again in a joking tone as one wing was brought up to partly cover herself up to allow only her blinking eyes to be exposed. “How rude, oh how impossibly rude of me~. Old age must be catching up. I am none other than Philomena. Philomena the Phoenix. Close and longtime companion of Princess Celestia” His brain was going on overdrive as he mentally brought up what he knew about Philomena. Aside from one episode in the show there was barely any more mention of the bird. On top of that, he barely even wrote anything about her in his book and realized that he now met a character that he had no idea of their personality. The main character was never meant to meet this one and already knew that he was way off track so early with an unknown character who obviously has some connections. Affiliation, temperament, combat ability, nothing came to mind with helping him to come up with a way to act around this particular bird. While being so lost in his thoughts. He failed to notice that Philomena was already back in the cage and looking at him with a slightly tilted head. If a hand was available, then a facepalm would have occurred as he knew that she was waiting for his own name to be given. Out of reflex he was just about to give his own, but the words stopped midway as he was having some difficulty with recalling what he went by as a human. Whenever a memory was brought up when his name should have been mentioned. All that would come out of it was a moment of silence and the memory was back to normal again. Even trying to envision it written down only got him a blurry line. A few seconds went by without any progress. His main character never had a real name aside from being called, The Slime. His green gelatinous form began to flatten out a little bit as the depression was physically expressed. This only caused him to feel embarrassed and he tried to come up with something to say. But failed in the end as he turned to the bird. “I... I uh, don't have a name.” Philomena gave a small cooing sound and leaned closer. “Yes yes, a problem that will be. Are there any other names that come to your mind?” He thought about it long and hard as a few options ran through his head. He thought about the iconic blob from that one movie about monsters fighting aliens who went by Bob. Yet that was dismissed as being way too plane and lacking of any real imagination on his end. He even recalled a certain game his friend talked about on occasion called League of something with a green humanoid slime hero. Perhaps using some scientific names for slimes would be a good fit. Although all he could come up with was the term biofilm, and he was not all that great with mixing letters around to make it sound even remotely usable. There was no way he was going to end up calling himself by some other characters name. The name Muk popped in his head from Pokémon. He then thought about some other related words and started to come up with a combination. With him being the color green, on top of a similar word to slime. That was when he finally gave a response. “I think I'll just put together the word green and another word for slime to call myself Gremire.” Philomena chuckle to that. “I like I like~. If one was not thought up on your own, then I would have called you Little Lime. Tehee~. With those pleasantries now put to rest. Let us move onto the other topic.” This made Gremire feel some apprehension as Philomena straightened herself up. “As you have relieved me of some worry when it comes to my soon to be departure. I will do a favor for you for as long as I am still a resident within this castle in return.” This caused him to slightly stand up with his form and ever so slightly bend to one side to signify that he was not understanding just where she was going with this. She came closer and took her right wing and carefully padded the top of his metaphorical head before she explained further. According to Philomena. She was only going to be around for maybe another month, so she was going to do everything she could to help him in terms of survival. Philomena would teach him what she could and give some pointers on how the lay out of the castle was put together in hopes that he could move around freely without getting caught. It was during the discussion that he only noticed that nearly fifteen minutes had gone by and that his body was no longer acting as though it was about to piss itself at Philomena’s close proximity. Of course by her words, this was all in hopes of seeing him yet again whenever she had an opportunity to visit the castle in the future. Owlowiscious would of course be notified of him being here and to not attack him on site when she next saw him that evening. Which he greatly appreciated the gesture. Just knowing that there was another one flying around was beginning to make him feel more nervous. From there, time pretty much flew by as the minutes turned into hours of Philomena and him talking to one another. He got to learn about the secret tunnels that honeycomb the inner walls. Even some of the mannerisms of the many guards and staff were brought up by the bird. Eventually she would get so into telling him everything that she would slip in a small story about Celestia when it had anything to do with the subject she was on. If anything, it was making him see her as a parent who could not help but do bring up their child out of reflex so that they could praise what they did. But deep down this only caused a sense of uneasiness that needed to be pushed away. Bit by bit Gremire was feeling as though the very notion of her even being a bird could easily slip his grasp. And in turn the nearly irresistible urge to run was fading from his mindless counterpart. Eventually, the sun went down to bring the oncoming night before he even realized that the pair were so engrossed in their talks long enough for the event to come up and only noticed when it got darker in the room. Surprisingly enough. Gremire only started to feel tired once the rays of the sun were no longer peeking through the windows and sank over the horizon. That was when he recalled that his character was most active during the daytime with how it naturally drew energy through a form of photosynthesis to regulate its minimal energy requirements. This even explained how he was always blacking out while inside of Discord's laboratory. While in there, without any windows and kept within an obviously magically reinforced room. He was forced to go into a hibernation state to slowly recharge whenever his body was out of juice so to speak. The dead rats that the guy would bring to him were used in regenerating himself after some sort of experiment was done. Even then, a small bit of the leftover portion was still not needed for this act and it was used as a form of energy to keep him active for a while longer. In a way it kind of reminded him of a game called Subnautica and he was a living bio-reactor that had creatures thrown in to act as a fuel source. Without even realizing it. He allowed the following to slip from his nonexistent lips as everything was getting a little hazy on his side. “Being solar powered has… its downsides... D-Darn my small charge capacity.” The last thing he was able to pick up on, was the way the door to the room was just being opened and a blurred-out figure wearing white stepped in just as his consciousness was taken by the power of sleep. When is eyes finally opened again. He saw that he was by himself in the cage as Philomena was nowhere within the room. While still in a slightly dazed state. He opened his information window and found that his magic was at 5 out of 36 points and in the middle of slowly filling back up again. He then began to mumble to himself as his body was being pulled back together from its flattened state. “Oh yeah… that's right. Until I level up, that's going to keep on happening. From the book, the main character would instinctively find a place that would be safe just before the sun would go down. It must have snuck up on me because I was fighting back and suppressing those instincts. As I am right now, I'll be out like a light within thirty seconds once that sun goes over the mountain.” Out of curiosity. He brought up his information again and found that his Slime Hunter had gone up to the second rank. Now the boosted experience from that was up to 100 percent. Meaning that the original set of 2 points for killing a slime was now 4 and adding on the 50 times multiplier would boost each slime that dissolved in his body to produce 200 points of experience. In other words, all he had to do was just simply exist and he would get as much work done as a common adventurer who was killing himself to work all day long at taking on slimes non-stop in just one minute. Now this was what he thought to be the pinnacle of the phrase, "Work smarter, not harder." Although it was difficult for him to gauge how much experience was required per leveling up as there was no display to show how much he needed to reach. If anything, he guessed the requirements should consistently double. There was even another notification that stated he had one thousand consecutive victories. This one also came with an additional reward of one voucher that would allow him to pick another skill from the previous list that was displayed yesterday. Now that he was free to pick up to two. He felt as though he should go ahead and use one of them. Especially as how he had some leeway and he could still hold onto another one for a later time as insurance for an emergency. After bringing up the bonus skill list, the one labeled appraisal was immediately selected without a second thought. This brought up another window that gave him some detailed information. *Appraisal level 1: This is an active skill that allows information on certain objects or other living creatures to be displayed. As this is considered as Common rank at the moment. Therefore, the displayed information will be limited. Oh well, you pretty much got it right there. Too bad for you that looking through clothing is not one of the features. Better luck next time perv.* He could have had this flat look on his face right now if his human form was sitting right there. After releasing a slightly disgruntled sigh of resignation to yet another unnecessary addition to the end of a skills explanation. He immediately started to use it on a number of objects in the room. Right next to it was a floating blue screen attached by a line that would lead to the object in question. On them it would display the words such as, full length mirror, cabinet, drawers, writing table, quill, bed, window, bird cage, door, rug and chair. All this got out of him was a very unamused grunt as it was pretty much pointless thanks to it being so weak. Given that there was a mirror. Gremire moved closer to the open door to the cage and hopped right out. Much to his dismay, it had escaped his notice as to how high he was when compared to his relatively small body and went splat on the floor and sent a rush of pain, along with a loud “OUTCH” to escape. It took him a few seconds to get up again after pulling himself together. Although he did happen to catch something that only caused a non-existent frown. That just so happened to be a red floating icon that was slowly hovering upwards within his vision. That being the depiction of a red negative symbol and the number one immediately following next to it. The top of his body went up and started to shake from left to right to give the impression that he was shaking his head in disbelief over the very notion that he was injured so much that a third of his life was taken away from such a small tumble. Although that was not too much of an issue after a couple of seconds went by and he saw that on his character window as his health regenerated by the time he got to the mirror. This even coincided with some magic point deductions as a clear indication that he was using it for self-regeneration. Once his reflection was on display. He got to see his name and level in full view. Of course he expected this with him only being at level one. As he was identifying himself. He had a momentary glimpse of his name turning from that of Slime to the new name of Gremire. He took another look at his character window and was astonished that his magic points were steadily dropping even further after the healing was already finished. Aside from the appraisal being constantly put into use, he could not think of anything else that would be draining those points. So he stopped it immediately and saw how the numbers stabilized and started to go back up again at an agonizingly slow pace. If this was not caught in time, then he was sure there was a good chance that he may have inadvertently caused himself to pass out once his magic points closely reached zero. Gremire with nothing else to do until Philomena came back. Began to mentally review a few footnotes around this time frame in the book. If he was forced to fall off the mountain and find himself in the forest down below after fighting for his life in the rushing waters. Then a number of trials would have awaited him. Much to his delight, he did not have to go through that sort of grueling physical and mental torture to learn those valuable lessons for the agonizing coming years. First was learning of how weak he was compared to pretty much every single thing out and about. Of course, this also counted the aversion to certain weather phenomenon and the time in which the sun was up. Not only were his kind only typically active during the daylight hours. But they did not do so well when it came to water in large quantities. If sinking was not a big issue to be on top of the list in that subject. Then it was the way they would get dissolved when exposed to enough of the substance and just break down. Getting a little wet was not too much, but falling into a pond or getting doused with a torrent from a high-pressure water attack would undoubtedly be his end in a matter of seconds. Especially with his current stats. The same could be said with heat as it would make him shrink and then shatter like glass if it got hot enough after all the moisture evaporated. He would have seen other wild slimes being taken out by simply getting stepped on by almost any monster or animal. Even with the knowledge that was taken from those books inside of Discord's laboratory were no help in giving him the ability to actually use magic spells that would affect those around. Well, not in the normal sense anyhow. The main character would remain magicless until later on when he was brought a revelation that he could condense his own magic inside of himself and detach a piece that would be used for various reasons. The most common of which would be to launch an explosive projectile in the form of a deadly loogie. Another option was to use other skills and magic that would directly affect only him. For the moment, he knew that there were some key facts that he still required from additional sources related to monsters to gain access to his own magic reserves. There was also the issue with understanding what was already downloaded into his head after consuming all of those tomes that fell from that one bookshelf. If it wasn’t for that, then there was a very good likelihood that he be spewing spells left and right by now. When it came to the environment. Just about every day would have been a fight for his life. Okay, not a fight for his life, but more of a runaway and hide for his life scenario. Things would not turn around until he would eventually come across a wreckage and get the Monster House from the scattered containers from the original plot. These would mostly be objects from Discord's lab that were being moved to another location after moving out and into a new place after the coronation was completed and dealing with whoever caused the series of earthquakes destroyed a good portion of it. It was a good thing that he did leave during that earthquake as he was actually scheduled for disposal on the following day. This was all because he was putting out some poor results and the mad scientist was finally at his breaking point when it came to his patience. Obviously, this would be another piece of info that would not be learned until further on. Now that Gremire thought on it further. The only reason he was around this long to begin with was because Discord would always get distracted and move on to something else so his attention was not completely on his monster project. With that guy in mind, the mad scientist was working on a secret project where he would do an experiment on a potentially safe monster such as himself. The notion was to discover whether or not improvements could be made and control being a viable outcome to create future monsters that would be under their influence for the defense against those of the demon races and the ones that they had under their command for a way to level the playing field. In other words, he was just a guinea pig and all of those tests were done to determine if his combat abilities could be strengthened past their normal limits. On top of which was the option of being able to mass produce the finished project. And after the many botched attempts, there was a serious doubt of the guy being able to get even that much right. In short, Gremire was labeled as a failed slime experiment. The only huge difference right now apart from his mind being in this body. Was that he was in a safe location for the time being and he was not going to squander the opportunity to cash in on this free mountain of experience points to level up his character. The original slime ended up using his points after saving up for just a few days once the system was unlocked. He on the other hand was going to milk it for as long as possible. At least until he was sure that he was more than ready for what he needed to do before the next major event was to be triggered for the plot that involved the next generation of hero versus demon lord. By coincidence there was a particular monster and a few useful items resting deep within the forest that the story would have the main character getting to at later chapters. But his plan was to gain enough strength to get those much sooner. One was the skeletal remains of a human that was half dragon. Another was some old set of armor from within a castle that was long forgotten by even the two princesses that ruled over the continent for a thousand years. And of course, he needed to defeat a powerful creature to gain a very particularly useful skill. Of course, these items would be nearly impossible to get under any circumstances until he finally came across those that he would call companions in the future. He glanced over to his current overall point system and wondered if it was possible to raise their base stats while still remaining at level 1. Especially as how things are just not following this script as well as he had originally thought. For all he knew it was a possibility. There was that whole thing with his luck suddenly being at 50 points right off the bat. Now that he thought about it more. His dexterity should have only 1 point on it when it showed, yet it had gone up. Perhaps this was done from his secret training from within the container by running from one end to the next whenever he was bored and Discord was nowhere to be seen. His mind was racing so much that he was no longer able to tell what was going on around his current vicinity. That was until Philomena appeared right next to him while lightly poking his gelatinous form with one of her wing feathers to get his attention. This nearly caused Gremire to be frightened so much that his body became rigid as he screamed. The Phoenix just laughed at that for a bit while almost rolling on her back and pointing a wing towards the mirror. As she was still in the midst of laughing her feathers off. He turned his attention to what she was pointing at and saw that his green form was now slightly red and exhibiting a couple of percolating bubbles that were steadily rising within. This was yet another aspect that he had completely disregarded. Whenever his main character was deep in thought to where he was almost at his limit. The body would literally start to overheat as a sign. Even with no defining features to express his feelings. Gremire was surprisingly able to convey his current status to others and immediately promised himself that he would keep those sorts of things under control as to not go around and tip off anyone as to what he was up to. He was just about to ask as to where she was when a decorated white creamed cupcake was dropped on the floor between the two of them so it sat neatly on the wrapper. But before he could even ask her about it. Philomena was already munching away at another one that was held in her grasp and mumble between bites that she got it from Princess Celestia. She even reiterated that the girl had more than enough and missing a few would be no problem. Philomena continued to say that she thought that the princess needed to cut back a little and this was a good way to help out. His non-existent mouth was practically salivating at the site of actual food for once since waking up in this world. With a surprising amount of lift after jumping into the air by nearly a foot and a half. He landed directly on top of the cupcake, which remarkably kept its shape as it went right into his body without him giving any resistance and inviting it into his depths with a squelch when landing on the carpet. It was then slowly lifted up so that it was now beginning to float aimlessly within his form in a comical fashion after a couple of seconds went by. This got a strange mixture of low growling, moaning and gurgling to come from him upon savoring the taste that exploded on his nonexistent taste buds. Which only made Philomena to roll around like a log as she was laughing more at his overly enthusiastic appreciation for the sugary treat. Even the surface of his gelatinous form was giving off constant ripples in time with the sounds. If anything, any person who would have been walking near the closed door might interpret the sound to being that of a purring cat. He was so enraptured that the entire world may not have even existed until the last remnants were finally digested along with the paper that was used to wrap up the confection. When he was eventually brought back to reality. He saw that Philomena was already sitting in her cage. She apparently noticed that he was done with his orgasmic experience and flew out to join him on the floor. But before she landed. Gremire used his appraisal on her and was astounded. It displayed her name as Philomena and her current level was saying 100, along with a plus symbol right after to show that she was beyond his ability to accurately assess her full capabilities. Inside, he had this imagery going on of him in a fight with Philomena. His slime body was nothing but a speck of sand as the bird was towering over him in the same way Godzilla would right before unleashing a mega breath attack at point blank into his face to disintegrate him. In this world, others considered a strong normal fighter around level 40 to 60. When thinking about the Hero. Theirs were supposed to be set around 400 or even higher and the strongest on record reaching 600. Of course, the same could be said about the Demon Lords. This meant that Philomena most likely had the strength to take on a small battalion of guards all by herself at the very least. Especially if she's as strong as he was guessing. As a Phoenix, she has already lived a very long time with a cycle of death and rebirth. Pairing that with retaining her stats before turning to ashes and coming back as a hatchling was a recipe for creating the most powerful creature if given enough time. Eventually the topic was changed when Philomena reignited their previous conversation that was so rudely interrupted by his bodies need to go into hibernation. From there, they pressed on until it was close to lunch time. It was then that he got to meet the one called Owlowiscious as he came looking for Philomena. Yet there was just one small issue. And that was how he could not understand a word that the owl was attempting to say as all he got were simple animal noises such as hoots and who’s. After it was getting to where he could no longer hold back the question that had been nagging at him in regards to her understanding him. This was when Philomena revealed that she knew a number of languages and with the use of some passive magic, she was able to communicate with even a slime like him. Of course, this was completely useless when used on others of his species due to their lack of actual thinking abilities that made her feel as if she was literally talking to a Jell-O mold that had just been taken out. Moreover, was when time moved on and Gremire was able to hear a couple of guards talking as they were passing the door. Both aggravation and disappointment ran through his mind as the very thought of being unable to understand anything the people around them were saying was only going to get worse. Yes, he had all the letters memorized, but he had no way of knowing their meaning and how to put them together aside from the obvious pictures. When he discussed this with the Phoenix and the Owl. The two agreed to help him out in any way they could over the course of the following weeks. He, along with Philomena would quietly watch either the castle staff or a couple of random guards that talked and she would attempt to translate bits and pieces. Especially on frequently used words and phrases that she found to be more useful to know as quickly as possible. During this, once or twice he made the mistake of getting a little too close and was nearly caught. There was one notable instance where he got himself into a real mess when inside one of the closed off gardens that would be used for having some tea for either the princesses or their guests. While sitting on the floor of the hallway with just the railing to divide itself from the grass. Gremire fully relaxed and lowered his guard so much that he almost did not hear a set of approaching people walking by until it was nearly too late. Due to the sudden shock when realizing this fact once they got within a couple of feet. He tried to squeeze himself through the stone railing for the fence and ran across a loose Stone that gave way under his weight and slid into the garden with him still clinging on top. Thinking that it was only going to land on the grass made him feel that there was no need to worry. But that was completely not true and failed to register that the pond was in the stones path and he ended up falling into the water. Within seconds, he was aimlessly floating towards the bottom of the surprisingly deep man-made pond and was already beginning to feel how his body was slowly getting saturated and dissolving from the outside going in. What crossed his mind was that he was so stupid to be killed in such a pathetic manner. But before he was to lose consciousness. Philomena came out of nowhere after diving into the water and snatching him up with her glowing talons to fly out almost an instant later. This would immediately be followed with her checking him at all angles and using her feathers to lift him up while asking if he had gotten hurt once they were back in her room. Even as she did this. The fiery bird paid no mind to drying herself off with damp feathers dripping everywhere. Which turned out to be a little confusing and embarrassing with the way she was acting now and then. Typically, the Phoenix would be cool, collected and always on point with being immaculate in her appearance. But never before did he hear the bird displays such worry in her voice that made him want to look away after feeling a painful twinge of guilt swelling up. On other occasions Owlowiscious would bring books up from the library now and then and Philomena would attempt to get Celestia to read a few of them out loud while laying in bed with her as a form of bedtime story before the sun sank. Apparently in the past, the two would do such an activity and reviving this old and nearly forgotten routine was somehow bringing the woman some semblance of nostalgic pleasure if her innocent smile was a giveaway. It was during these times that he got somewhat better at controlling his body and was capable of climbing some of the furniture. This was when he would position himself so that a piece of his body was stretched and hanging up and onto the top of the headboard to look down at the book so that he could read along and hear the right pronunciation’s. Of course, he would be lying if he was to tell anyone that he did not get a glimpse of the former ruler of Equestria while she was in the midst of changing into her nighttime attire. Still, even if she was visually stimulating. There was no real urge to drive him into putting the moves on the princess. Well… it's not as if he had any way of doing anything in his current state anyhow. If falling just by a few feet was able to bring him so close to death. Then attempting to put the moves or anything else would most certainly lead to his untimely demise within the time it took for him to scream. But there were a few occasions that he fantasized about what it would be like if he was that monster on some of those hentai anime's back on Earth. Once in a while he would even have the opportunity to get a glimpse of Luna and Twilight whenever he was making his way through the castle to explore during their daily scheduled activities or passing in the hallways as he hid himself around a corner or a nearby potted plant. It also helps that he further developed his control on the third week. Thanks to this, he was now capable of scaling from the walls and hang off from the ceiling for short durations before needing to come down. This even led him to practice with his elasticity by allowing parts of himself to hang down with the use of gravity. This particular practice came in handy whenever he and Philomena would join their combined efforts to play a few practical jokes on those within the castle. Of course, it was a given that they needed to keep a low profile when around Celestia seeing as Philomena respected her the most out of everyone else. Whether it was to mock the guards into chasing her. Causing them all to think that she had gotten incredibly sick as she pretended to sneeze in such a way that Gremire would play the role of a gigantic snot-wad to come flying out of her nostrils with the way they were positioning themselves and using the shadows from the sun around corners. Although, this got a strong reaction from Princess Celestia finding out from a running guard when the prank was first used and Philomena was dragged off to see a doctor with a worried Princess holding her cage to fly down the hallway fast enough to knock over a couple of paintings with the air pressure she exerted when zooming by. He had no idea if it was Philomena’s instructions and being careful while going around the castle. Or possibly the addition of such a high amount of luck. But he always succeeded to escape at the last possible second whenever he was about to be found out by either the princesses or anyone else within these walls. However, there was one small hiccup when it came to his body’s natural Instincts. Which came in the form of him hunting down the rodents that would hide in the hard-to-reach places. This of course made him feel like he was a replacement for the resident cat. By which point he was not too grossed out as he had eaten close to a hundred by then and seemed as natural as eating a hamburger. And by all means it was trickier than he imagined at first. Those little rodents could do a number on him and required setting up an ambush point. The trick was to get them so that they had no chance to use those powerful teeth to gnaw away it his life points. Sometimes he would even do a sneak attack and shoot a glob of himself into their mouth to choke them and do some damage with some of the low-grade acid he was able to use. It was all really surprising with how well he could kill something just by getting into their lungs and destroying them from the inside out, that it even scared him a little. As the days turned into weeks with the transitioning of rulers already being on the way with all their duties. Gremire, Philomena and Owlowiscious spent quite a bit of time with one another when other matters did not come up. But most of which was between the Slime and the Phoenix as they would talk about what happened during the day and even come up with some new pranks to play on guards. And of course this also counted Owlowiscious. During down times the bird would regale him with a bunch of stories about the world. While alone, trips were made here and there to go into the library to try his hand at children’s picture books with getting a small grasp on their writing. Even with all of this going on. Thoughts of why he ended up here would spontaneously pop up when he was left with practically nothing to do. The concept of precognition and a weird dream about another world full of humans and Technology was not a concept held here so that ruled out that it was all a part of his imagination. And again there was the high likelihood of him being a human that was transported into another body became more apparent. Thinking that he might have been a displaced and now had the ability to be a part of a unique community peaked his interest. This prompted Gremire to take a small portion of himself and roll it into a ball. He then added a quick phrase. "To any that want to have a chatting buddy or need a hand in reaching into a very narrow space give me a call. Just say to yourself 'slimes are the best' and I'll be there as quick as I can." The small glob was then hurled towards the wall with the expectations of falling into a rift of time and space before impact. But much too is dismay, all that resulted was a splatter of goo that slowly trail down the wall and eventually pull itself towards the main body that it originally came from to leave no traces behind. This only proved that he was not one of those displaced characters and lamented that he had no one that he could openly talk with. This only lasted for a couple of seconds until he shrugged It off since he was not that much of a social type to begin with and just went on with his day. Every now and then there would be some small arguments on where he should sleep when night was coming close to starting, but Philomena would always insist greatly that he should sleep next to her. Normally this would be an issue for him. But her cage was pretty large and he did not have to feel afraid of her possibly letting any droppings fall on him as there was more than enough room for the extravagantly large cage that only seemed even bigger on the inside. Which he thought was just a trick on the mind. Yet still he pondered on whether it was that, or another form of magic placed there by the princess to make Philomena more comfortable. Sometimes he would even wake up and find that she had gotten off of the perch that ran through at the midway point just to lay on the ground next to him with her wings acting as a protective barrier and cooing softly in her sleep. This would constantly bring up a thought every now and then that this was not too bad of a life to live when compared to how his human counterpart in California would have to deal with the day-by-day grind and was perfectly fine with letting this continue. But what made it all the sweeter, was that now he was able to get away from all of the daily reminders of his past leading up to living in that rundown apartment and ending up here. Above all else. There were no more reminders of a certain handful of people that he was more than ready to have fade from his memories.
