Chapter 2 - Toxicity, in other words poison

TN: if you (yes you the reader over there ^^) feels this is weird the t.i.tle actually says “Doku, in other words “Poison””- indra13

EN: This t.i.tle seemed to be going for a reference to the “Poison” status effect in RPGs, but we couldn’t just go oldschool and call it “PSN, in other words poison” in this day and age for obvious reasons.- Meteor

I could hear something. This was...... an announcement?

[Condition to evolve: "poison ingestion" cleared -- the time limit skill "Potential for Unknown Evolution" has been activated.

This meets the condition for the evolution of this species.

At this time, there is only 1 evolution available: Poison Slime.

Evolve?

YES

NO]

        That voice and display appeared in my head. I didn’t really understand it but I figured there couldn’t be a bad result from evolving now so I chose “YES”.

[Permission to evolve confirmed

The evolution will now begin......

New skills have been acquired due to the evolution

Skills - [Poison Resistance - Small] [Poison Spit] have now been acquired

For having fulfilled these conditions [Language - Slime Race] has now been acquired]

        The instant that announcement ended, my vision cleared.

        I opened my eyes to find I was back in my good old bed, yeah right -- nothing of that sort happened and I was still in the field with the fresh gra.s.s.

        It didn’t seem like I’d died yet again. Should I say I'm stubborn or obstinate?

        It seemed that I’d lost consciousness from ingesting all that poison by mistake, but that it hadn’t been to the point of actually putting my life in danger. Well, that poison more or less just made my tongue tingle so it shouldn’t have killed me that easily.

        However, what exactly was up with that announcement thing that flowed through my mind a while back? It wasn’t like I’d grown legs, and the rest of my body didn’t seem like it had really changed. I could tell I was still a slime from sensation alone. With how very uniquely jiggly I was feeling, there was no mistaking it.

        Suddenly, when I opened my status...

        Name: None

        Species: Poison Slime (level 1)

        Skill: [Body Hit] [Poison Spit] [Poison Resistance - Small] [Language - Slime Race] [Potential of Unknown Evolution]

        There were some ordinary changes. Species was different and there were more Skills too. And hurrying to the lake to check my appearance I found it had definitely changed as well.

        The color.

        Just a while ago it was white, but now the whole body had turned green.

        “Poison, therefore green” felt like a really simple way of going about things, but it was good for easy understanding. Normally it was white so white must be nothing then..

        Since it had come to this, it was seeming like that announcement hadn’t been a dream after all. From what it had told me I’d managed to evolve due to meeting some special condition.

        But,

(I'm still a slime after all~)

        Speaking of slimes, every game has them as the weakest weakling of them all. Calling them the king of weaklings wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

        Even if I said evolution all it meant was I got to use poison now. Now it’s not that I wasn’t happy with it but, when you talk about evolving and stuff don’t you normally mean suddenly getting much stronger? Only my appearance and color had changed and truthfully I didn’t feel like I’d gotten any stronger in the least.

        Well that was fine. Before that matter there was something else I had to think about first.

        After that announcement from before, I now understood what that something possibility skill actually did. However, it had said something that left me worried.

(Surely it said it was a time limited skill?)

        Taking that at face value, this skill would definitely have a time limit then. That would mean that after enough time pa.s.sed by this effect would just go away.

        In other words, it’d be better to think this evolution did have a time limit.

        Maybe it’d still be fine even if that time ran out but being that optimistic wouldn’t be a good thing. Thinking that naively could very easily turn into a rope around my neck -- for now I needed to get to the next evolution right away.

        But even with that said I still didn’t know the conditions to evolve. I’d managed to evolve without even raising my level, so I now knew leveling up wasn’t always an absolute requirement for it. However, I really didn’t have the slightest clue what I was supposed to do or aim for now.

        Frankly, that prior sensation of eating and then evolving so much sure wasn’t feeling real.

        Further still, trying to eat that gra.s.s like before felt exactly as horrid as ever but now that tingling in my tongue was gone. It seemed like the skill [Poison Resistance - Small] was already taking effect.

        To confirm the other skill as well, I thought about [Poison Spit] and tried spitting. The gra.s.s that spit landed on smoked a little and melted and my previous impression changed instantly; poison slimes were terrifying. It was slight but the ground too had melted and turned muddy.

        And then, from behind me I suddenly heard the sound of gra.s.sroots being pulled. I hurriedly turned around and there was...

"...... A slime?"

        A white one, meaning a normal slime, had just appeared. Even if just slightly, I felt it was a little more angular than I was. It seemed less like a sphere and more like a square that’d had its edges rounded.

        It was the appearance of the weakling enemy The Slime. I got tense and got in a defensive stance wondering if it was going to become a fight.

        If my opponent would attack then I’d have no choice but to fight back. If I didn’t then I’d end up dead. A cold sweat… was sadly no longer something I was capable of breaking out into, but I was so tense I might as well have been.

        And then the slime,

"Aaah~?...... Whoo, aare youu?"

        It just naturally started talking. The particularly laid back, or rather, broken and not too bright manner of speech was difficult to understand but it had definitely spoken, this slime. And come to think of it I’d acquired that [Language - Slime Race] skill. That skill was probably what was making communication like this possible. 

        It didn’t seem to have any intention of fighting so for now I decided to try and talk as well.

“Well who would you be first of all?”

“Aaah~, mee? I...… Whoo amm I?

“Hey, like I’d know.”

        c.r.a.p I just made that comeback without thinking. Wait, his talking is slow!

“Youu, lloostt kiid? Thenn, foollooww mee.”

        The slime didn’t answer my question and just started slowly walking (sliding really) the other way on his own. It seemed like he really didn’t have any intention of attacking.

(Well, obviously)

        I’d been carelessly thinking of myself as a human without knowing it, but the me now and these other guys were the same slimes. That there weren’t any of them that’d attack other slimes was probably a stretch, but it’d only be normal for them to generally be friendly around each other. This one even asked if I was lost, so that probability was high.

        In all honesty there were a bunch more things I wanted to try here, and I had a bunch of things to ask as well but following this guy was now my maximum priority. I’d lose sight of him otherwise.

        And so like that I decided to start going after him. At any rate though, he sure wasn’t any faster at walking, this guy.

(￣^￣)ゞ

Translation: Gust - Darksshades

Notes: First try at translations, sorry if there are not great.

Translation Checkers:

Indra (Project Lead)

maxofsteam (Guest Translation Checker)

MadDavid (Guest Translation Checker)

Editor:

Meteor