'Yes! That's what I wanted to hear! Go on, tell us! Why did you become a device-doped mage!'

Watching through the third-person stream window, Smartass was delighted that the topic he had been waiting for had finally come up. Over the past two weeks, Gracie had shown remarkable concentration while observing the slime. Seeing her like that brought a proud smile to his face—she really was his descendant. At the same time, however, it only made him more curious about why she had become a device-doped mage who relied on magical devices.

"Why I collect magical devices?"

"Yes. You seem especially fond of them, Gracie, so I was curious. If you'd rather not talk about it..."

"No! Why wouldn't I want to talk about it? It's nothing like that!"

'If talking about myself brings me closer to the Saintess, all the better!'

Gracie, who had readily embraced magical devices as a new approach to securing funding, believed in seizing opportunities when they arose. Besides, she had never had friends her own age with whom she could discuss her family or her past. She did want to become closer to the Saintess, but quite apart from that, she was inwardly thrilled to think that she, too, finally had someone to share these things with. She was nervous at the same time.

'Be careful not to stutter.'

Gracie paused the hand that had been busily taking notes as she observed the slime and began to speak.

"I've already told you that I'm a descendant of the illustrious Ventus Frail, the Mage of a Thousand Spells, haven't I?"

"Yes."

"The truth is, although I'm descended from that illustrious man... no one else in our family had any talent."

"What?"

With a sheepish smile, Gracie spoke about her family and her past: her grandmother's younger cousin; the emotional shock her grandmother had suffered after Ventus Frail, the Mage of a Thousand Spells, died in a magical accident; and how that had shaped the way she raised her children. She also spoke of her own admiration for the Mage of a Thousand Spells and her situation regarding funding from the Frail family.

"That's why I became interested in magical devices—as tools to make up for the extraordinary talent I lack compared to the Mage of a Thousand Spells."

"I see. But the others don't seem to use magical devices very much..."

Even Amelia could see that Gracie used an astonishing number of magical devices.

"Yes. Well, some people look down on me for it. But! I've shut them down with my skill at using magical devices! I may not look it, but I doubt anyone in the Mage Tower can handle them better than I can. Besides... the master of the Mage Tower encouraged me, too!"

"Oh my, did he?"

'What? That bastard encouraged my descendant?'

Smartass could only be bewildered by the unexpected mention of Brooks Besilza, the current master of the Mage Tower who had betrayed him.

"I still remember it vividly. I worked up the courage to tell the tower master that I wanted to improve my abilities by using magical devices. Honestly, I expected him to laugh at me or scold me."

Gracie paused briefly, savoring the emotion of that moment before continuing.

"But instead of scolding me, he laughed heartily and said it was an excellent idea. He even offered to help if there were any magical devices I wanted!"

"The tower master is a kind man, isn't he?"

"Yes!"

'He laughed? Offered to help if there were devices she wanted...?'

Smartass understood. As a fellow natural-magic practitioner, and someone who knew the temperament of the man who had betrayed him, he could see it for what it was. Brooks Besilza hadn't been offering encouragement. He had wanted to mock the sight of a descendant of Smartass, a member of the natural-magic camp, becoming a device-doped mage.

'Broooooks!!!'

Smartass felt the urge to storm the Mage Tower right that instant. Quite apart from how it grated on his sensibilities as a natural-magic practitioner, the way that traitor Brooks was toying with his descendant was despicable.

But doing so would endanger not only the slime, but also his older cousin and the other relatives who remained at the Mage Tower. Gracie's story had shown him how much his cousin had suffered. He struggled to suppress his anger, but then—

"So, if only to repay the tower master's encouragement, I'm going to become the best magical-device mage there is!"

"Aaaaaaargh!"

Smartass's scream rang out futilely inside his secret workshop.

+++

'Fun! Love it!'

Lately, the slime had been having the time of its life. Every day brought time to play with all sorts of magical devices, walks taken to search for people who needed a helping hand, and all kinds of things to see whenever an incident occurred. For the curious slime, these were exciting days that left no time for boredom.

'Gracie! Like her!'

It liked her so much that Gracie had earned a place on its list of good people alongside Nellin, Jessi, Godric's Party, Amelia, and Paulen.

During those happy days, a new change came over the slime: the way it used its tentacles. Ever since it had grown another tentacle from an existing one, its behavior had changed.

Take snack time, for example. When Amelia made cookies, the slime would ordinarily climb onto them and absorb them. Now, however, it could pick up cookies with its tentacles and eat them one by one. Instead of engulfing and absorbing them all at once, it had learned to savor each cookie individually.

'Yummy!'

It quivered all over!

"S-so cute!"

"Hahaha, you're putting that to good use already!"

When Amelia and Paulen first saw it, they felt as proud of the slime as if they were watching a baby take its first toddling steps.

Simply extending another tentacle and giving itself a different shape had brought it a new source of enjoyment. Wouldn't making other shapes be even more fun? Rather than just extending an ordinary tentacle, couldn't it play in more interesting ways by shaping the tentacle itself differently? Those thoughts crossed its mind.

'Want to make it different!'

The moment this new desire arose, the slime did what it always did: it tried. It worked to reshape the tentacles it had made. But...

POP!

POP!

POP!

'Not this!'

No matter how it tried to change a tentacle the way it wanted, all it managed was to grow another tentacle from it. Of course, to Amelia, Paulen, and Gracie, its efforts merely looked like a game of extending and retracting tentacles.

Growing a tentacle from another tentacle had been easy the first time, so it had tried to work this out on its own. But after several days without success, the slime decided to try another method.

▷Teach me!

It asked the chat for help.

[Free Spirit]▶? About what?

▶My weight?

▶Who gives a damn about that?

▶Your secret reverse-scale collection?

[Noblesse Fire]▶Who's collecting something that outrageous?!

▶Look at the old geezer react instantly lmaooo

[Squishy Queen]▶Silence! My kin is speaking! My kin! What would you like us to teach you? Speak!

The slime immediately typed what it wanted into the chat.

▷Tentacles! Want to change! Shape! Want to change it!

'Aha! So that is what you desire!'

At the slime's next message, the Slime Queen inwardly rejoiced that her turn had finally come. This was a subject on which the other monsters could offer neither advice nor techniques. Only she, a Slime Queen of the same kind, could give the slime an answer.

'At last! At last, I have a chance to help my kin!'

The Slime Queen had been quietly bothered by the fact that she had nothing in particular to point to as help she had given the slime.

[Squishy Queen]▶That is my specialty! I shall help you, my kin!

▷Wow!

▶Oh~ Squishy Queen's finally giving advice?

▶The slam nut's always teaching it stuff, so I thought he was the slime.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Who are you calling a slime?! I am Fenrir, I'll have you know! A professional hunter, capable of the finest slams...

[Squishy Queen]▶Silence! I must hear my kin's question!

[Noblesse Fire]▶Lmao Squishy's desperate.

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶She finally has an opportunity to give useful advice as a slime. Tsk, tsk. Can't you even pick up on that?

'All of you, be quiet!'

The Slime Queen was beside herself with worry that the chat's needless clamor might stop the slime from asking its question. Her fears were unfounded, however. The slime wasn't the sort to hesitate and hold back a question just because the chat was busy!

▷Tentacles won't change! Only pop-pop out! Nothing new comes out!

▶No pop-pop lmao.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Even the way it describes things is adorable~.

While the other viewers laughed and smiled fondly at the slime's wording, the Slime Queen put her mind to work, figuring out what it meant and coming up with a solution.

[Squishy Queen]▶I know what the problem is!

▶For real?

▶How can you tell anything from that?

[Squishy Queen]▶In other words, this is what my kin means! You wish to produce a tentacle in a new shape, but cannot—is that not so?

▷Right! Won't come out! New shape won't come out!

It quivered all over!

Delighted by the Slime Queen's answer and how she had immediately understood it, the slime trembled with joy.

'Hehe, I can recognize my kin's troubles at once!'

Pleased by the slime's reaction, the Slime Queen promptly offered a solution.

[Squishy Queen]▶My kin, first of all, your current approach is wrong.

▷Wrong?

[Squishy Queen]▶Yes. Trying to produce a tentacle in a new shape is the wrong approach.

[Squishy Queen]▶Rather than creating a newly shaped tentacle from the outset, you must think of changing the shape of a tentacle you have already extended!

Squishy Queen went on to explain. It was impossible to create a tentacle in a different shape from the outset. However, it was possible to extend a tentacle first, then use that existing tentacle as the basis for reshaping it.

[Squishy Queen]▶Of course, this is not easy. Unlike Tentacle Production, it requires a new skill called Tentacle Transformation!

▷Tentacle Transformation! How do I get it?

Tentacle Transformation was normally acquired during the evolutionary stages before a slime gained intelligence.

'But my kin already possesses intelligence, as well as a desire for new skills.'

In that case, it might be possible. This slime might be able to learn Tentacle Transformation without evolving or even waiting for the new skill to appear in the shop.

Betting on that possibility, the Slime Queen advised it not to think about extending a new tentacle, but instead to concentrate its mana and try to reshape the tentacle it had already extended.

Following her advice, the slime tried again, putting in the effort. It concentrated mana into an existing tentacle and attempted to change its shape. At first, it couldn't get a feel for it. But with each attempt, it began to understand more and more what reshaping a tentacle meant.

Around five days after it began trying—roughly seventeen days after arriving at the Mage Tower—

[Skill: Tentacle Transformation acquired.]

The system gave its stamp of approval.

The first shape the slime transformed its tentacle into was something familiar that it had seen more often than anything else, a shape it had unconsciously thought would be easy to make. The shape that even the system recognized as proof it had acquired the skill was...

'Did it! Tray!'

A round tray.