Ryouma Takebayashi isolated himself within the Forest of Gana, training in the arts of both magic and close combat. Three years later, it was time to—

—Eat.

Leaving the forest was the last thing in his mind.

“Today’s breakfast is really delicious…” [Ryouma]

Ryouma’s once shabby cave was now bigger and safer. By using earth magic, he was able to make more s.p.a.ce within the cave, and by setting up a barrier by the entrance, Ryouma was able to make the cave much safer. The cave was also now furnished with furniture made from earth magic.

As for food, Ryouma got it from the forest. Thanks to the knowledge the G.o.ds had given him and the neutral magic, ‘Identify’, Ryouma could easily pick out what was edible and what was not.

Yet despite living such an uncomfortable lifestyle out here in the middle of nowhere, where one had to hunt or forage to procure food and none of the convenience of a functioning society was present, Ryouma had never once thought of leaving the forest; instead, he spent his days doing hobbies that he had no time for back in his previous life.

One particular hobby Ryouma had grown fond of was ‘Slime’ research.

At first, Ryouma just wanted to try out the branch of magic known as Familiar Magic, so he caught a slime from the forest. For half a year, he raised it as a pet, then suddenly, on one fine morning, he woke up to see that the slime had changed colors. At first, he thought it was sick, but after using ‘Monster Identify’, one of the spells under the branch of Familiar Magic, he found out that the slime had evolved into a sticky slime.

From then on, Ryouma became deeply interested in why the slime evolved, so he spent his days observing the slimes. The first thing Ryouma understood was that the wild slimes were at the bottom of the food chain.

The slimes had no power to prey on other creatures, so they had no choice but to live like a pauper and get by what little they had. Ryouma’s own slime, however, lived like a king, as he would feed it green caterpillars everyday, ensuring that it was always full.

Incidentally, the green caterpillars themselves had the ability to spit out sticky threads made from their own bodily fluids. Because of that Ryouma hypothesized that a green caterpillar diet might have caused the evolution. To test his hypothesis, Ryouma caught a new batch of slimes and fed them green caterpillars everyday.

2 months later, the slimes all evolved into sticky slimes; however, it still wasn’t clear whether it was simple nourishment or the green caterpillar diet that caused the sticky slime evolution, so to clarify things, Ryouma caught a new batch of slimes and fed them something different. In the end, the second batch of slimes all evolved into a different slime.

From here on, Ryouma’s interest in the slimes grew deeper and deeper, until eventually, Ryouma had a staggering number of slimes. After catching and trying out various diets on the slimes, Ryouma’s current ooze of slimes had turned into this:

Slime x13

A monster that can be found anywhere. It is considered the weakest monster. It is omnivorous and its body has an average diameter of 20 centimeters. Its jelly-like body houses a nucleus, which when destroyed, kills the slime. Upon death, the slime’s body vanishes into nothingness. it is a mysterious creature, to say the least.

Skills:

Digest Lv2

Absorb Lv3

Split Lv1

Sticky Slime x153

Physically, the sticky slime is no bigger than a normal slime, but it is able to produce a highly adhesive liquid within its body. It can spit out this liquid or use it to trap other beasts to prey on them.

Skills:

Sticky Liquid Lv4

Hardening Liquid Lv1

String Shot Lv1

Digest Lv3

Absorb Lv3

Split Lv3

At fist, sticky slime only knew Sticky Liquid, Digest, Absorb, and Split. It wasn’t until later that it learned Hardening Liquid and Jump. Because of that Ryouma learned that monsters were able to acquire skills through maturity or training.

As for String Shot, when Ryouma found out through his experiments that he could mix hardening liquid and sticky liquid together, he had the slimes mix them within their body. When they succeeded, they learned the skill, String Shot.

Acid Slime x100

An evolution resulting from the need to digest food that is difficult to digest, such as the bones of beasts. This slime variation has a powerful digestive system. Their current numbers are a byproduct of Ryouma’s research and reproduction through Split.

Skills:

Produce Acid Lv3

Acid Resistance Lv3

Jump Lv1

Digest Lv4

Absorb Lv3

Split Lv2

Poison Slime x188

An evolution resulting from the constant consumption of poisonous herbs. A lot of slimes die during the process, but those that survive, evolve to become poison slimes. Their current numbers are a result of Split.

Skills:

Produce Poison Lv3

Poison Resistance Lv3

Produce Paralyzing Agent Lv3

Jump Lv1

Digest Lv3

Absorb Lv3

Split Lv3

Cleaner Slime x11

Slimes frequently drink water, but there are some who prefer to drink the water from Ryouma’s bath. Thinking it wouldn’t harm them, Ryouma allowed these slimes to drink as they pleased. In the end, they evolved into cleaner slimes.

Skills:

Clean Lv4

Deodorize Lv6

Deodorizing Liquid Lv4

Disease Resistance Lv5

Poison Resistance Lv5

Jump Lv1

Digest Lv3

Absorb Lv3

Split Lv1

Scavenger Slimes x457

Ryouma wasn’t happy with the fumes coming out from the toilet and the garbage inside the cave, so when he remembered how some slimes showed interest toward rotting corpses, he caught a new batch of slimes and threw them at the toilet and the garbage. As a result, the slimes evolved into scavenger slimes. These slimes eat garbage and turn them into fertilizer. A special trait of this variation is that they are able to reproduce more rapidly compared to other variants.

Skills:

Disease Resistance Lv5

Poison Resistance Lv5

Lead Belly Lv5

Clean Lv6

Deodorize Lv6

Deodorizing Liquid Lv4

Stench Lv4

Produce Fertilizer Lv3

Jump Lv1

Digest Lv6

Absorb Lv3

Split Lv6

As Ryouma was getting into his slime research, he decided to put an emphasis on properly rearing the slimes, causing him to only have so many variations, but as a result, their total numbers broke past 900. Ryouma had always been good at simple but repet.i.tive tasks, so with no one to stop him, Ryouma just kept on going and going, and in the end, the slimes ended up where they are today.

That kind of lifestyle had a healing effect on Ryouma’s tired soul, and despite sometimes happening upon some bandit or large beast, which Ryouma promptly took care of with his own strength and his staggering ooze of slimes, Ryouma was able to live happily.

It was in this way that Ryouma pa.s.sed his days, forever and ever…

Tl Note:

I’ll post the rest tomorrow.