The forest deepened.
Sunlight poured in wide shafts through the trees, golden dust floating like motes of forgotten magic. I'd followed the moss trail, guided by scent, silk trailing behind me in a lazy line.
Then I smelled it.
Mana.
Raw. Thick. Sweet.
Like sugar soaked in ozone.
Like licking a magic crystal after a thunderstorm.
I crept forward, antennae twitching—
—and found them.
The clearing opened around a pond.
Shallow. Warm. A mirror of the canopy above.
But it wasn't the water that stunned me.
It was the creatures dancing over it.
They pulsed in slow harmony — seven of them — round, jelly-bodied, elemental slimes.
Each with a different glow:
One flickered with embers, hissing softly.
Another rolled like a tiny wave, water forming ripples as it moved.
A third hovered just above the ground, air swirling inside.
Beside it, a rock-like one jiggled slowly, crust forming on its sides.
Near the far edge, a slime of frost, delicate and translucent, left ice wherever it bounced.
One was green, pulsing with vines and pollen.
And the last…
It crackled. With faint arcs of lightning.
I stopped in awe.
In absolute, otaku reverence.
"No way…"
"This—this is a spawn field."
"A full elemental slime shrine—undisturbed?!"
I stared like a pilgrim gazing upon Mount Fuji for the first time.
I lowered myself gently, quietly, to the moss at the clearing's edge.
"Arigatou… gozaimasu…"
"Rimuru-sama…"
And I bowed.
There, on the forest floor.
With all my little larval heart.
Then I picked the weakest one.
The wind slime.
Tiny. Flickering. Barely floating.
"Gomen…"
I struck fast.
Mandibles pierced the gelatinous body with a soft pop.
[Foreign Entity Consumed: Wind Slime – Lesser Elemental]
[Element Sampled: Air – Trace Mana Signature]
[Trait Acquired: Mana Conduction (Lv.1)]
[Spell Fragment Absorbed: Gust – Unlocked (Rank F)]
[New Evolution Possibility: Whispered Swarm Larva (0.2%)]
[Skill Slot Expansion – +1]
[Magic Trait: Wind-Aligned Digestion (Locked)]
The world hummed.
A faint breeze curled around my shell.I flexed instinctively, and something inside me moved — not muscle. Not silk.
But air.
"...I have magic."
"Syrri," I whispered.
"I have magic."
She didn't answer right away.
Then…
"You really bowed, didn't you?"
"Of course I did."
"You're going to bow again, aren't you?"
"Absolutely."
And so I did.
Beneath the sun. Before the pond of jellies.
A scarfed larva, once-human, barely a threadling, now gifted with wind magic,pressed his tiny face to the moss—
—and whispered,
"Thank you, Rimuru-sama…"
The wind still danced in me.
I felt it beneath my shell——not wind as I knew it, but something deeper.
A pulse. A tension.
Like silk stretched before a snap.
I curled beneath the roots and exhaled.
Gust was real.
Magic was real.
"I cast my first spell…" I murmured.
"Barely," Syrri muttered. "You sneezed on a flower."
"Still counts."
I smiled, or whatever counted as a smile in a larval form.
For once, the world didn't seem cruel.
It felt like a game again.
Then the water shifted.
Ripples spread across the surface.Not from wind.
From movement.
I rose slightly, antennae twitching.
The Water Slime had shifted.
Its jiggling form rippled tighter—sharper.
The Fire Slime beside it began to glow.
Not soft. Not gentle.
Their pulses quickened.
Not in play.
In warning.
"Syrri…?"
"You ate their sibling."
"I said thank you—"
"And then you devoured it."
"Cultural exchange?"
"You're about to die."
A sharp crack split the stillness——a thin lash of water slapped the moss beside me, spraying droplets across my face.
Cold.
Sharp.
I blinked.
The Water Slime advanced.
Behind it, the Fire Slime pulsed again—its core glowing brighter, surface bubbling like a coaled ember.
Then it bounced—fast.
Too fast.
I twisted.
The Fire Slime struck the moss where I had been, and steam hissed up in a furious puff.
The grass blackened.
I backed off, body aching from the dodge.The scent of burnt silk clung to my side.
"They're… trying to kill me?"
"They're defending the shrine," Syrri said calmly. "This isn't malice. It's instinct."
I scanned them. Counted.
Too fast to take all of them.
Too dangerous to take the Fire or Water slimes directly.
But the Earth Slime—
There.
It rolled slow and heavy, dragging its grainy, crusted body over the moss.
Cracks lined its outer shell—calcified sediment wrapped around a trembling core of brown mana.
It didn't leap.
It didn't lash.
It lumbered.
I moved.
Coiled low.
Then struck.
My mandibles punched through its crust, right at the softened seam where mana pulsed.
Crunch.
There was no scream.
Just a slow collapse—as if the stone gave up its burden.
I bit again. Swallowed the warmth of iron-laced loam.
Something thrummed in my chest.
Deep.
Solid.
Unmoving.
[Foreign Entity Consumed: Earth Slime – Lesser Elemental]
[Element Sampled: Terra – Trace Mana Signature]
[Trait Acquired: Structural Fortification (Lv.1)]
[Spell Fragment Absorbed: Stone Shell – Unlocked (Rank F)]
[Skill Slot Expansion – +1]
[Magic Trait: Earth-Aligned Stamina Regen (Locked)]
[Warning: Elemental Hostility Intensifying]
I rolled away from the collapsing shell just in time——the Fire Slime landed where I had been, bursting in a hiss of sparks and smoke.
My silk was scorched. My side burned.
But I was still standing.
Still breathing.
Something new settled inside me.
A second spell.
I slid behind a root and took shelter in the shadows.
Stone Shell.
I could feel it now. A technique of defense.It whispered of soil-hard skin, mana-forged armor, endurance.
I grinned to myself.
"One slime at a time."
"You're insane," Syrri muttered.
"I'm winning."
The forest pulsed with heat from the Fire Slime's strike.Ash floated in thin threads through the golden shafts of sunlight.
But even in that warmth—
I felt cold.
Something crept along the moss.
Not footsteps. Not sound.
But stillness.
Like the moment before snowfall.
I shifted beneath the roots, stone magic humming beneath my shell.
The new spell—Stone Shell—waited. Heavy. Quiet.
Not like Gust, which fluttered with movement.
This one rooted me.
Told me to stand. To brace. To endure.
But my instincts screamed something else.
"Run," they hissed.
"Freeze," Syrri warned.
"Why—?"
"Ice."
The pond had gone quiet.
The Fire Slime watched me now, not charging. The Water Slime circled but didn't strike.
And at the farthest edge—coiled in a bed of snowdrop petals—
It moved.
The Ice Slime.
Clear as glass, tinted faint blue.
Inside it swirled flecks of frost, like a tiny blizzard trapped in a bell.
Where it passed, the moss stiffened.
Petals browned.
A root cracked.
It pulsed once.
And then—
The temperature around me dropped.
Not enough to kill.
Enough to whisper:You do not belong here.
I stepped out. Slowly.
"One slime at a time," I said again."Just one."
"This one is different," Syrri said, voice low."I know."
"It waited."
"It watched."
I could feel it.
The Ice Slime had been still while the others attacked.
Not passive.
Calculating.
And now, it advanced.
The first breath of its magic slid across my shell like dew——but it bit.
Cold needles sank into the gaps of my chitin.
I twitched. Couldn't move as fast.
"Debuff effect," I muttered."Mana frost. You'll lose mobility."
"Perfect."
I coiled, drew on my new spell—Stone Shell surged outward.
Mana wrapped around me like a second skin—rough, layered, dense.
The cold slowed, but could not crack it.
The Ice Slime struck.
Not with force.
But with presence.
A ripple of winter spread from its core—like a heartbeat of frost.
My outer shell misted.
My scarf froze mid-flutter.
"Now!"
I lunged.
The cold dulled my movements, but not my bite.
Mandibles plunged into the slime's side——it shrieked.
Not in sound.
But in magic.
Like winter rebuking flame.
I crunched down hard.
Then—
Stillness.
[Foreign Entity Consumed: Ice Slime – Lesser Elemental]
[Element Sampled: Frost – Trace Mana Signature]
[Trait Acquired: Thermal Resistance (Lv.1)]
[Spell Fragment Absorbed: Ice Pin – Unlocked (Rank F)]
[Skill Slot Expansion – +1]
[Magic Trait: Cryo-Aligned Recovery Delay (Nullified by Hunger)]
[Notice: Three Elemental Spell Fragments Acquired – New Evolution Options Available]
[Warning: Remaining Slimes Entering Guard Phase – Territory Memory Active]
I staggered back, breath cold in my throat.
Stone Shell flickered away, leaving me exposed.
But the Ice Slime's body melted across the moss.
I had won.
Barely.
I sat down.
Hard.
A larva with a scarf and three spells.
Scorched. Numb.
But victorious.
And in that soft, frozen silence—
"Thank you… Rimuru-sama…"
I bowed once more.
The fire hadn't left.
It lingered in the moss, in the smoke curling from where the Fire Slime last struck. The others had retreated to silence, but this one——this one still wanted to fight.
It bounced gently now, as if unsure.
A slow orbit around the edges of the pond, body pulsing like an ember with a heartbeat.
I watched it.
It watched me.
"You've already taken three," Syrri said warily."So why not four?"
"Because this one can burn through your shell."
"Then I'll grow a new one."
"…Idiot."
I stepped forward.
My legs were still numb from ice.
My jaw still ached from stone.
But the flame...
The flame tempted me.
Not just its strength.
Its arrogance.
The Fire Slime didn't leap this time.
It rolled in a tight arc, trailing steam, waiting for me to get close.
A trap.
I didn't care.
I surged.
Mandibles out.
The slime flared.
Flames licked over my face, down my scarf, curling beneath my shell.
It hurt.
But I bit.
Fire hissed against the silk of my scarf—and then came the taste.
Hot. Bright. Spiced metal and smoke.
I tore through its form, swallowing the molten heart of it whole.
The slime burst into steam, hissing into the air.
And then—
[Foreign Entity Consumed: Fire Slime – Lesser Elemental]
[Element Sampled: Flame – Trace Mana Signature]
[Trait Acquired: Thermal Absorption (Lv.1)]
[Spell Fragment Absorbed: Ember Snap – Unlocked (Rank F)]
[Skill Slot Expansion – +1]
[Magic Trait: Pyro-Aligned Surge Effect (Dormant)]
[System Remark: Elemental Tetra-Consumption Achieved – Core Complexity Increasing]
[Warning: Magical Recoil Detected – Minor Internal Scorching]
[Mana Pulse Emission Risk – High]
I collapsed backward into the moss, steaming.
Not from exhaustion—but from internal backlash.
The magic coursed through me like magma through a wooden pipe.
It wasn't meant to be held.
Not yet.
I felt something tear.
Then stitch.
Then glow.
"You're glowing," Syrri said.
"Am I dying?"
"No. You're cooking."
"...Great."
I exhaled, charred air rising from my mandibles.And yet, somewhere deep inside—
A spark caught.
Fire was mine now.
And I'd earned it.