I was labeled as a failed slime experiment.

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.