Slime#47 pivoted and glanced at the small blob, which jolted him.
"You seem to have intellect," said a ten-centimeter tall slime in a deep,
adult
male voice.
’Damn, it’s just another slime.’
Slime#47 felt stupid for getting startled by a
jelly
blob.
A regular slime with a few small
scars
on its body was in his vision.
He asked dubiously, "You used the word intellect—aren’t slimes
intelligent
? And by the way, who are you?"
The slime sighed, "The name humans gave me is Slime#1. You can call me
Elder Slime
."
"Elder—that means you have lived for quite some time," he asked, wanting to know how long a slime could survive
under
humans.
"How long have I been alive?" The old slime chucked bitterly and continued, "Not much—just
three
years."
’Three years? That’s barely enough for the human kid to stop peeing the bed,’
Slime#47 was utterly flabbergasted.
’And he calls himself an elder.’
He couldn’t help but be
surprised
; after all, it took him four years to stop wetting the bed!
’If my four-year-old version were to hear that someone called himself elder at three years, then he would proclaim himself
grand
elder.’
He mused with a silly smile.
"We slimes can live up to
thousands
of years, but once we were caught by humans and placed in fields like this, known as
slime
farms
, our life expectancy has fallen as low as
five
years." Elder Slime grieved over the fate of slimes.
"Are we so
delicious
that humans catch us?" Slime#47 asked, not believing they were the most tasty treat.
The Elder Slime replied, "We are ranked among the
top
tasty treats by humans, and most importantly, we are
cheap
and cost-effective to provide for."
"Cost-effective?" Slime#47 muttered, doubtful.
"Humans feed us
filth
," Elder Slime said with his eyes dropping, "then slice off more than half of our body, tell me, child—does this world ever
lack
trash?"
"Damn! That’s an
effective
business, " Slime#47 muttered, " Pick garbage, feed it, and get gold in return by slicing the jelly blob." He facepalmed himself due to the peak cruel
innovation
of humans.
’Even if we escape from this, other humans might catch us, or other races might devour us.’
He mused bitterly, wondering whether he should instead train like
cultivation
MC’s for thousands of years in the loop and go out!
"Hold-on!....How are you talking so clearly for a....new-born?" Elder Slime probed as suspicion built in his tone, surprised by Slime#47’s inquiries.
Young one replied with a smug wobble, "I might be the
blessed
one and chosen slime."
The elder slime
—Thup!—
knocked on his upper body, making his entire body wobble.
"Ouch," Slime#47 rubbed the struck area softly,
’So, I do
feel
pain like normal,’
He’d felt that his pain sensitivity was reduced, as he didn’t scream in agony when the woman sliced his body apart, but apparently not.
"Seems you have intelligence like an adult human. I can start your
training
," Slime#1 declared, pulling the younger slime to the north-east corner of the field.
’...Wait, these are
punch
marks from...slimes?’
Slime#47 exclaimed in his mind, noticing the small baby-sized fist marks on the wooden fence.
The older slime glanced at the younger slime, expecting him to
bombard
him with questions, but to his disappointment, Slime#47 just looked at him with stars in his eyes. "Come on, Old Slime—teach me.
Impart
that punching skill. I have to kick that brat’s butt...ahem..Punch"
Elder Slime’s body twitched, and he
—Cough!—
explained without question, "We, slimes are typically born
without
any intelligence. Until we are one year old, our intellect isn’t developed, but once we do, it reaches an
adult
human’s level."
’I really don’t know about this. After all, the only slimes I knew were
isekai’ed
and all of them had human-level thinking capability,’
he mused, feeling slimes were really the
lesser
race.
"Old slime, stop wasting time. Tell me what’s
important
," Slime#47 asked, looking at Elder Slime, who was watching the bouncing slimes with pity.
"Do you know, young one?" The old one’s voice turned heavy, "Out of all these slimes,
only
you and I are the ones with intellect."
"What?" Slime#47 blurted, stunned.
’Nani? Seriously?’
He’d expected that most of the slimes in the field to have intellect.
"Before you were born, your
mother
—slime#2 was the only intellect beside me, but she was killed by that pathetic human brat." Older slime lamented, with bitterness in his eyes.
"Wait a minute. Most of them can’t even think you say—then how the hell did many of them come into being?" Young one asked him, in disbelief.
"There isn’t any fact that only after gaining the intellect, they will have children! It is..." As Elder Slime was about to explain—Slime#47 understood,
’Humans. Damn humans.’
He’d known humans were so
exploitative
, but even to creatures like cute slimes? He’d felt humans in this world
fell
to even such a low point—they might have touched hell.
"Old slimes die due to
exhaustion
. And once the number of slimes falls to 50, those two humans would dump massive amounts of filth and some kind of
fluids
on us." He whimpered, his voice low, "Unlike other races, we have no gender, so
any
slime can give birth to a child, and we can
continue
to do so as long as we have nutrients."
Elder Slime had pointed out the actual truth of how slimes’
reproduce,
and they didn’t go
extinct
, due to their reproduction prowess, as they are the
first
targets to level-ups.
’If this is the case, even if I escape, humans might catch me and make me a biological factory,’
Slime#47 felt a chill and pondered what to do.
He’d decided to train a
self-destructive
skill so that he would commit suicide if humans did turn him into a reproduction machine.
There was
silence
for a few minutes as the older Slime let the youngling ponder on the destiny of slimes.
"Elder, I want to ask—is there no one
powerful
in our race? Any slime capable enough to
deter
other races so that we wouldn’t be exploited?" Slime#47 asked hopefully; after all, he’d read about a certain slime who could
create
the entire multiverse!
But he’d felt that there would be
no one
, since slimes are being exploited so much by humans.
"Yes," Elder slime said with awe, "once there was a Slime King ’
Remora’
—the seventeenth Demon King—who once shook the entire
Divinara
continent."
Older slime’s whole body
wobbled
when he mentioned the king!
End of the Chapter. ____________________________________________
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