Two weeks had passed since the request to exterminate the Moon Kobold was posted.

At first, many adventurers had been fired up about hunting it down. But after the first week, their enthusiasm began to fade.

The adventurers had searched tirelessly for the Moon Kobold, combing every corner of the area in the direction the roar had come from. Yet they never managed to find it.

They had found the most suspicious traces just one day into the search. A tree bearing deep claw marks had convinced them their quarry was nearby. Above all, there was even a cave right next to it!

That was why the adventurers had thoroughly investigated and searched the area. They ventured into the dark cave and even waited nearby for days, but the Moon Kobold never appeared.

Others wondered whether it had moved its lair and quickly widened their search, but they found neither hide nor hair of it.

They had hoped to make a killing by hunting a monster of a relatively manageable rank, but all their time and effort went to waste. Unaware that the slime had already killed the Moon Kobold on the night of the roar, the adventurers ended up empty-handed.

Meanwhile, Godric’s Party and the slime had each achieved something significant over those two weeks.

First, while the other adventurers were preoccupied with the Moon Kobold, Godric’s Party diligently built up its record by hunting orcs and other D-rank monsters. Though they had fought monsters directly only a few times, they had plenty of experience as mercenaries. With the slime assisting them, D-rank monsters were hardly difficult opponents.

As a result, Godric’s Party was now on the verge of taking its C-rank promotion test.

As for the slime’s great achievement...

[The shop feature has been unlocked.]

It was none other than unlocking the shop.

Besides the Moon Kobold, Smartass introduced the slime to other monsters near the city and guided it to them—specifically, monsters that could earn it coins.

Of course, these outings took place in the middle of the night. And, taking the slime’s speed into account, Smartass only chose monsters close enough for it to kill and return before the night was over.

The slime was delighted to find coin-yielding monsters so quickly.

'My knowledge really isn't outdated after all!'

Smartass, meanwhile, rejoiced in the proof that even after thirty years, he was no out-of-touch old geezer.

They were not rare monsters that awarded heaps of coins like the Moon Kobold, but the slime kept defeating monsters worth two or three coins each in the dead of night. At last, its accumulated coins reached one hundred, allowing it to open the shop.

The shop-unlock notification that appeared in the middle of the night made the slime so happy that it bounced up and down over and over.

▷Shop! I got it!

▶Ooh lolol

▶Grats grats grats!

[Noblesse Fire]▶What, you only just got it?

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶This is precisely when you should praise it. This is why socially clueless shut-in loser dragons are hopeless.

[Noblesse Fire]▶You bastard, why are you picking a fight when you've only just shown up after so long?!

[Squishy Queen]▶My kin! What! What skills can you buy?!

The viewers were curious about which skills the slime could buy from the shop, since its offerings varied from monster to monster.

The shop let monsters spend coins on possibilities they had not chosen, so to speak, or skills they had missed out on because they had failed to meet some minor requirements.

The slime opened the shop and examined the list of skills inside.

[Poison Production: 5 coins]

[Antidote Production: 5 coins]

[Devour: 10 coins]

[Bounce Jumping: 10 coins]

[Hardening: 15 coins]

[Tentacle Production: 20 coins]

[Luminescence: 5 coins]

'So many!'

It bounced excitedly. There were more skills available in the shop than it had expected.

▶What's going on? It's bouncing like crazy.

▶Looks like it got more than expected?

▶Tell us, tell us, tell us, tell us, tell us,

At the viewers’ request, the slime happily shared the list of skills in its shop, brimming with innocent delight.

▶Exactly the sort of skills a slime would get.

▶What's Hardening?

▶Hold on a moment! What is Hardening? It's a skill that makes your body tougher so attacks like Body Slam can inflict greater injuries!

▶Thanks, explanation guy.

Looking over the skill list, the slime pondered what it should get.

'Should I buy them all?'

The slime currently had eighty-five coins. Buying every skill in the shop would cost seventy in total, so it could afford them all.

But rather than immediately buying everything on impulse, it decided to ask the chat first. The viewers offering advice there would know more than it did.

▷Should I buy them all?

▶Going all in? Go go go!

▶Lmao, go big and splurge!!!

[Squishy Queen]▶What do you mean, splurge?! Shut your mouths, you fools! My kin! You must never rashly buy every skill!

▷Why?

Innocent though it was, after watching the chat all this time, the slime had learned to distinguish between people spouting nonsense for fun and people offering advice for its sake.

That was why it responded to the Slime Queen.

[Squishy Queen]▶Because you do not know how many coins your next evolution will require! You must not overspend if you are to prepare for the future!

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶That's right~ Squishy! You could pick two skills you like for now and buy the others later!

▶Nothing pisses you off more than splurging and then having to grind like hell because you're short on coins before evolving lolol.

'I see!'

Taking their advice to heart, the slime decided to choose the skills it wanted most. To do that, though, it needed to know exactly what each skill did.

Poison Production and Antidote Production were self-explanatory even to the slime, and the chat had already explained Hardening. For the others, it opened their detailed descriptions through the system.

[Devour: Increase your volume to absorb an individual larger than yourself.]

[Bounce Jumping: A jump with enhanced elasticity that consumes mana. Allows you to jump extremely high.]

[Tentacle Production: Create tentacles that you can move at will. Regenerating tentacles consumes mana. Extending tentacles beyond a certain length consumes mana.]

[Luminescence: Produce light at or above a certain intensity. You can consume mana to emit brighter light.]

The detailed descriptions helped it understand what the skills did. Having learned their effects, the slime chose the skills it wanted.

'I want this!'

+++

Now that it had acquired new skills, the urge to show them off immediately welled up inside the slime.

Not to just anyone, of course. It only wanted to show off to individuals it considered its friends.

While Godric’s Party was traveling to fulfill an orc extermination request, the slime used Sensing to make sure no humans besides the party were around, then bounced down from Def’s head.

"Hm? Bouncy, what's wrong?"

"What is it? Is a monster coming?"

Def looked puzzled when the slime suddenly hopped off his head, while Godric scanned their surroundings warily. When the slime abruptly climbed down, it often meant a monster had appeared nearby.

This time, however, it had come down not because a monster had appeared, but to show off its new skills.

The slime bounced in a circle around Godric’s Party.

"What? What's gotten into it?"

"Pfft, do you want to play?"

"Bouncy, let's play later. We're on a job right now."

Once it had confirmed that everyone in Godric’s Party was watching, the slime stopped circling and bounced in place. After three warm-up bounces...

'Bounce Jumping!'

Using mana to increase its elasticity, the slime leaped high into the air. It suddenly shot upward, easily clearing the trees and soaring far beyond them.

"Whoa?!"

"B-Bouncy!"

"What the hell is that?!"

"A flying slime..."

"Is this any time to talk nonsense, Hawein?!"

Everyone in Godric’s Party gaped in astonishment at the soaring slime. It had always been a good jumper and hurled swift Body Slams at monsters, but they had never imagined it could jump this high.

A little later, the slime landed from its towering leap, its elasticity sending it bouncing several more times in place.

'Amazing, right?'

It leaned its body back slightly, as if asking for praise. Def was the first to realize what it wanted.

"Th-that's amazing, Bouncy!"

The moment it heard Def’s praise, the slime climbed onto his shoulder and quivered.

"Hehehe, th-that tickles, Bouncy."

Normally, it would have climbed straight onto Def’s head at this point, but one compliment was not enough. It hopped down from his shoulder and climbed onto Hawein’s instead.

"Hm? Why are you on my shoulder...?"

"Hawein! I think Bouncy wants you to praise it!"

"Pfft, me too? All right. That was amazing, Bouncy."

The slime quivered enthusiastically on Hawein’s shoulder, as though confirming that Def was right. Then it moved onto Godric’s shoulder.

"Yes, yes, that was really amazing."

Having caught on, Godric stroked the slime on his shoulder as he praised it. It quivered again.

Sgol was the last one left. The slime bounced onto him.

"Do I have to do it too?"

"A compliment won't cost you anything. Get it over with, Sgol."

"Tch, fine, Boss. You're so great! Amazing, just amazing!"

The slime quivered all over.

"Ack! That tickles!"

The slime was delighted to receive praise for its new skill. But it still wasn't enough.

It had one more skill to show them.

That evening, Def hurriedly knocked on the doors to Godric’s, Hawein’s, and Sgol’s rooms.

"Boss! Hawein! Sgol! Come out here!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"Heh heh, something up?"

"Damn it! What now?!"

"C-come to my room!"

Once Def had gathered the three in his room, he pointed at the bed.

"Look at this!"

He lifted the sheet slightly where it bulged. Underneath, naturally, was the slime. The three could only look puzzled at being suddenly shown the slime beneath the covers.

"What about Bouncy?"

"Bouncy! Th-that thing you just did! Do it again!"

'Okay!'

Responding to Def, the slime began to glow.

HUMMMMM!

This was Luminescence, the skill it had chosen alongside Bounce Jumping.

"Look at this! B-Bouncy's glowing!"

Jumping high was one thing. But they had truly never expected it to emit light as well.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

Unable to wrap his head around it, Sgol cried out in shock.

"... Pfft. A glow-in-the-dark slime."

This time, even Godric couldn't object to Hawein’s remark. He merely gave his honest impression.

"I can't tell anymore whether it's a slime or some other monster."

+++

The next day.

'I showed off lots! Got lots of praise!'

Having shown off its new skills and received all that praise yesterday, the slime was in an excellent mood.

It had chosen Bounce Jumping because it wanted to leap higher and see more of the varied world for itself. As for Luminescence, it had chosen that because it remembered Jessi turning on a light and reading books to it at the Rudendion mansion.

After receiving so much praise, the slime wanted to collect even more coins. More coins meant it could buy more skills. In other words, it concluded, showing off those skills would give it even more opportunities to be praised.

The people it wanted praise from included not only Godric’s Party, but also Jessi, whom it would meet again someday.

While the slime was lost in these happy thoughts...

"Today's finally the day, boys."

"Yes, Boss!" they chorused.

"Let's make it to C-rank!"

Godric’s Party burned with enthusiasm for the C-rank promotion test.