"Hand it over! I will dispose of it!"

"Granny, what's gotten into you? What did this slime ever do?"

"It understands speech!"

"So what!"

Nellin couldn't understand why the elder was suddenly shouting and trying to get rid of the slime.

Seeing her continue to protest without understanding, the elder slapped her forehead.

"You are a great hero, and you don't even know that?"

"What does being a great hero have to do with this?"

"It has intelligence! A monster! Surely you know better than I do how dangerous an intelligent monster can be!"

People had long said that exceptionally powerful monsters possessed intelligence. Indeed, among the monsters Nellin had encountered, those that had inflicted devastating losses on the elves had acted with emotion and seemed to think strategically in battle.

That was why, to the elder, a slime that understood Nellin's words looked dangerous. It was still young and posed no immediate threat, but left alone, it might one day become a threat to the elves.

"That calamity you and your companions defeated—the black dragon was said to possess intelligence too, was it not? And now a slime that already has intelligence! How can you possibly say it isn't dangerous?"

▶Who's the black dragon?

▶Wouldn't the old geezer know?

[Noblesse Fire]▶Isn't that the idiot who went around making a fuss about streaming a hooman massacre, only to get killed himself?

▶Yeah, I remember him too.

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Didn't he die declaring, "Even at the end, I have not a single regret in my life!"?

▶What the hell was that about? lmao

▶Every now and then, some guy who's lost his marbles turns up.

▶There's even one who rants about being a hooman himself lol

"Seriously, are that black dragon and this little thing the same? It's a slime. What's dangerous about it?"

[Squishy Queen]▶You elf! How dare you belittle my kin!

"Don't you know that such complacency leads to great calamity later on? Even a slime might grow powerful enough to rival a calamity!"

[Squishy Queen]▶Yes, well said!

At the elder's words, Nellin hugged the slime tighter.

'Soft!'

As Nellin held it tightly, the slime quivered with delight at the new sensation.

She had hugged it instinctively, but no matter how she thought about it, this soft, squishy slime didn't look threatening. After staring at it, Nellin looked at the elder and asked,

"This little thing?"

Her voice held genuine doubt. The viewers burst out laughing.

▶LMAO

▶It is hard to believe lol

▶Secondeddddd.

[Squishy Queen]▶How dare you underestimate my kin! Such insolence!

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶It really is hard to picture cute little Squishy getting strong~.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Don't worry! Master Body Slam and you can become the best!

▶Are you forgetting the difference between species?

Nellin shifted the slime from her arms onto one hand and stroked it with the other.

"Granny, I'm stronger than you and I've fought more battles, you know? As far as I can tell, this little thing isn't any threat to me. You're worrying over nothing. Don't you trust my instincts?"

The elder found it difficult to argue with that. She could nag Nellin endlessly, but when Nellin brought up her combat experience, even that became difficult. She feared that arguing might amount to challenging Nellin's dignity as a great hero.

"Sigh... Even if that slime isn't threatening, we cannot keep a monster in the village!"

"It's not dangerous at all. Can't I just raise it? If it gets dangerous, I'll deal with it myself..."

"Lady Nellin!"

"All right, all right. I'll take it out of the village. Happy?"

Nellin decided there was no overcoming the elder's stubbornness.

+++

Nellin headed out of the village with the slime in her arms.

"Ugh, sorry. Once Granny gets like that, she won't listen to anyone."

She considered hiding it and raising it in secret, but the elder would obviously throw a fit if she found out later. If Nellin had to choose between this fascinating slime that understood speech and the elder she had lived alongside for so many years, she had no choice but to choose the latter.

Still, she didn't feel comfortable simply sending the slime outside.

Before saying goodbye to the slime, Nellin stopped by the butcher's again and bought more jerky. Soon afterward, she passed through the village's main gate and entered the forest. She set the slime down, then laid out all the jerky she had bought.

"You liked the jerky, didn't you? Eat as much as you want."

'Jerky!'

Delighted at the sight of the jerky, the slime absorbed the pieces in front of it one by one. It quivered at the flavor it never tired of, no matter how many times it tasted it.

"You're nothing but cute. Granny worries too much."

She rested her hand on top of the quivering slime and stroked it.

She wasn't certain it would survive if she sent it into the wild like this. Even if it was intelligent enough to understand speech, a slime was still the weakest of all monsters.

But...

"If fate brings us together, let's meet again. I'll give you something even tastier then."

'Even tastier!'

The slime reacted to the promise of something even tastier by jumping in place.

"See? You really do understand me."

Nellin rose from her crouch and spoke to the slime.

"Take care."

With a casual wave, Nellin turned and headed back to the village. Having finished all the jerky, the slime watched her retreating back.

'Elf!'

The slime had heard Nellin's farewell, but its grasp of language was still too limited to understand it properly. It bounced up, intending to follow her.

Just then—

▶[Free Spirit has donated 5 coins]

▶[Message: Squishy! Don't follow her!]

Free Spirit, who had remained silent ever since the slime entered the village, had made a donation to stop it. This viewer was also known as the Smartass.

▷Why?

[Free Spirit]▶It's dangerous. Don't go to the elf village!

[Noblesse Fire]▶Too busy eating jerky to listen, eh.

▶I almost said, "Can't it just go?" ~.

[Squishy Queen]▶My kin! If you go back, you could die! Would you be happy never seeing anything new again?

'Can't see new things?'

▷Can't see! Don't like!

[Squishy Queen]▶Yes! Of course you wouldn't! So go somewhere else!

The advice was meant for it. The slime felt disappointed at having to part with the elf who had given it tasty food. But it clearly remembered what Nellin had said: if fate brought them together, they would meet again, and she would give it something even tastier then.

It vaguely understood that this didn't mean it would never see the elf again.

'New things!'

Rather than dwelling on its disappointment, the slime decided to turn its attention elsewhere—to exploring this world still full of unknown things. Its curiosity flared anew.

Bounce, bounce!

Perhaps because it had eaten so much jerky, the slime bounced even more energetically as it headed into the forest.

+++

'Nellin... To think Squishy was in a cave near the elf village.'

A robed skeleton watched the stream of the slime bouncing merrily along. The place around him looked like a library, lined with drawers and shelves holding various books. Yet the robed skeleton was its sole occupant.

This skeleton was the lich whose username was Free Spirit, also known as the Smartass.

Ever since the slime had left the cave, the Smartass had been inwardly smiling as he thought about what further advice to give it. Neither before nor after becoming a lich had he ever seen anything like this slime.

Betrayed by humans and nearly killed, the Smartass had barely escaped, become a lich, and encountered the concept of the system for the first time.

Perhaps that was why, as he browsed other monsters' streams through the system and gradually grew interested, he became more absorbed in exploring the streams of intelligent monsters than in drowning in rage and taking revenge on humans.

There were monsters whose intelligence was no different from humans', and streams so bizarre they were absurd by human standards. There were even streams by countless monsters powerful enough to be called calamities, the likes of which could never be seen on the Dersia continent.

Even the appearance of the black dragon he had encountered as a human had been part of a stream themed around a hooman massacre show.

Exploring these streams had soothed his rage and his desire to personally slaughter every human. But it hadn't erased the hatred of humans born of that betrayal.

That was why the Smartass had spent thirty years shut away in his secret workshop, never venturing outside, browsing monsters' streams.

And today, through the slime's stream, he had seen the face of his former companion Nellin for the first time in thirty years.

Surprise, joy, longing, and an uneasiness he couldn't put into words.

In the end, the Smartass hadn't been able to type a single chat message during the slime's entire stay in the elf village.

'You haven't changed, Nellin...'

Despite being an elf, she had been easygoing, always lifting the mood whenever things grew tense among their companions. After they defeated the black dragon, she had parted from him with a smile and a promise to meet again someday—but they had never met again.

Seeing her after so long, as easygoing as she had been thirty years ago, yet so carefree that she was careless, the Smartass felt the corners of his nonexistent mouth lift.

He recalled what Nellin had told the slime.

'Yes, I won't be able to see you again anyway, but...'

This time, he wanted to make sure her promise to reunite with the slime came true.

+++

Three days had passed since they parted at the elf village. The slime bounced here and there, satisfying its curiosity by looking at all sorts of plants and animals.

Then, while absorbing some green grass, it suddenly thought that it wanted to eat something new and tasty. But there was no jerky anywhere it looked. Even if it wanted to drink an animal's blood as it had the deer's, it didn't know how.

'Tasty food...'

The slime grew dejected. Just then, it spotted some purple grass growing from the ground.

'Something new!'

Seeing grass in a color it had never encountered before, the slime expected a new grassy flavor and absorbed the purple grass.

'It hurts...!'

The instant it absorbed it, pain flared inside its body.

▷Hurts!

[Squishy Queen]▶My kin! What's wrong!

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Oh my! Squishy! Why are you hurting?

▶It started doing that after eating that purple grass.

▶Isn't that poisonous?

▶Poison works on slimes? lmao

[Squishy Queen]▶Poison!? My kin! Hurry and eat some other grass! Hurry!

Following that advice, the slime ate its usual grass rather than the purple kind. Only after an hour did the pain subside. Taking in nutrients had allowed it to digest the poison inside it.

▷Purple grass! Don't like!

That was the day the slime first found something it disliked. But whenever someone expressed such feelings, there was always a troll eager to mess with them.

▶[Anonymous 678 has donated 1 coin.]

▶[Message: Bet it won't hurt if you eat it again?]

'Won't hurt?'

[Squishy Queen]▶Don't listen to that nonsense, my kin!

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Why are you trying to torment cute little Squishy!

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶We can't stop them if Squishy won't kick them.

Messages urging it not to do so appeared immediately after the donation. But the slime's gaze was already fixed on the purple grass that had hurt it.

'Didn't taste it!'

Thinking the pain had kept it from properly tasting the purple grass, the slime absorbed some once again.

And then...

▷Hurts!

▶LMAOOO

▶It actually ate it lol

The slime felt the pain of the poisonous grass again. But this time was different.

[Skill acquired: Detoxification.]

'...? Doesn't hurt!'

▷Doesn't hurt!

▶??

▶It doesn't hurt?

▷Detoxification! Got it!

▶Did it get the Detoxification skill?

▶It actually got that??

Realizing that eating the poisonous grass no longer hurt, the slime absorbed the purple grass once more.

▷Tasty!

Delighted by the new flavor, the slime bounced into the air.