A fragment of memory from my childhood.
Everyone has probably taken shelter beneath the eaves from a sudden shower at least once.
Water pouring down without warning, thunder roaring as if it would swallow the world.
We instinctively hunch our shoulders before nature's might and seek somewhere safe.
Yet even amid that fear.
There was the sense of wonder with which we watched lightning plunge from the dark clouds.
Observing a storm from a safe place brings a peculiar feeling of relief and exhilaration at once.
Now then, what would it feel like to become the storm itself and sweep across the battlefield?
It was time to experience that rapturous sensation firsthand.
***
CRACKLE—!
Accompanied by the electrifying sound of a discharge.
A slime wreathed in electricity streaked smoothly through the green forest.
It reduced everything blocking its path to ash. A merciless trail was being carved into the earth.
'Sparkling, shining, this feels incredible—!'
I kicked off a moss-covered rock and soared into the air. I sprang upward with the rebound, curling my body into a ball in midair to add rotational force.
Blue lightning streamed after me like a tail as I hurtled toward my target like a bird of prey.
Green leaves burned and released acrid smoke.
The hunters who had been stealthily roaming the forest stopped in their tracks.
Those who noticed my noisy entrance raised their weapons from every direction.
"There it is!"
"Catch that rat bastard of a slime!"
FLASH—!
I did not even allow them time to finish speaking.
I condensed the mana in my core and swelled my body into the shape of a solid hammer.
The jelly hammer brimming with lightning mercilessly crushed the man's chest.
Violent sparks sprayed out and tore through his entire body. The ground caved in, and shock waves spread in every direction.
[Slime (Common) has defeated Player Bai Yun (China).]
[Slime (Common) Player Xuan Tianyu (China)......]
[Slime (Common)......]
[Running Wild!]
Leaves rustled against one another, and another presence swept in on the wind.
'Now, which side might these guests be from?'
The approaching presence was closing in directly on my position.
The group ran without hesitation, roughly snapping branches as they charged ahead.
Hunters in hakama emblazoned with cherry blossoms had drawn their keen blades and were watching the forest warily.
"I heard there was a rare slime around here......"
"Heh heh, I am looking forward to this. Just so we are clear, whoever catches it first owns it, all right?"
They emerged through the underbrush, and our gazes met in the center of the clearing.
The moment of encounter.
They flinched when they saw me emitting blue lightning.
But greed devoured even their fear.
Soon, the man at the front drew his katana and dashed forward fiercely.
His companions scattered left and right, pulled sharp shuriken from their clothes, and sprayed them through the air.
I rotated the mana in my core to form a powerful magnetic field.
I had made proper use of the repulsive force emitted by the Ring of Static.
The iron shuriken flying in from every direction abruptly stopped in midair as though they had struck an invisible wall.
Having lost their trajectories, the concealed weapons pattered helplessly to the ground.
An opening created by their bewilderment.
I leaped at the speed of lightning and slipped into the leader's reach.
The startled man brought his katana straight down.
The instant the chilling blade touched me.
I opened a round hole through the center of my jelly like a doughnut and let the sword strike pass through empty air.
Then I wrapped around the back of the blade and surged violently toward the hilt.
[Slime (Common) has defeated Player Kirisaki (Japan).]
[Slime (Common) Player Toma (Japan)......]
[Slime (Common)......]
[Unstoppable!]
That was when I finished clearing out the forest's remnants and pushed into its center.
A dull vibration shook the earth, and the air pulled taut.
In the middle of a vast, basin-shaped clearing.
The apex predator of the Black Tower's second-floor ecosystem.
The Storm Giant Horned Bear.
A Giant Horned Bear the size of a house stood on its hind legs and roared.
Sharp blades of wind spun violently across its thick hide.
The Horned Bear was in the middle of a standoff with a combined Chinese-Japanese force of Hunters.
"Raise the shields!"
"Watch the wind blades! If they sweep you away, you are finished!"
'Ah, you Hunters in the alliance! As if I would let you defeat the boss!'
I kicked through the underbrush and boldly charged into the center of the clearing.
CRASH—!
My jelly body cut through the air and wedged itself between the creature's two enormous horns.
I stretched my jelly out as though grasping both horns and formed myself into a lightning rod.
The force of lightning scorched its thick hide and erupted.
"Th-this is insane! Where the hell did that slime come from?!"
"Heehee! I hereby claim this stage for myself!"
GROOOOAR—!
Its eyes bloodshot with rage, the Giant Horned Bear swung one enormous forepaw.
Bladelike winds flew out and tore through everything around it.
But I was positioned in the exact center of its crown, a perfect blind spot its forepaws could not reach.
The Horned Bear only ended up clawing at its own head.
Using the recoil, I crushed its brow and scattered violent bursts of impact.
"Wh-what, th-that slime iiiis!"
"Where do you think you are going?!"
GRRRRRR—!
Bloodied, the boss brutally slammed the ground and prepared a final struggle.
The surrounding air rushed fiercely into its enormous mouth.
Of course, I prepared my ultimate move without backing down either.
[You are unleashing the Blessing of Lightning!]
My transparent jelly transformed into a dazzling sphere of lightning.
Primordial lightning drawn from the depths of my core.
I turned the breath drawing in the wind against the creature and dived unrestrained into its esophagus, as though being sucked into a vacuum cleaner.
FLAAAAASH—! CRA-CRACK—!
"Impossible......! A tiny demonic beast like that, the field boss......!"
"Haha! I am the strongest Slime in history!"
RUMBLE—!
A storm of lightning erupted from within.
The thunderbolts swept through the beast from its most vulnerable insides outward.
Its sturdy hide and muscles collapsed from within.
The Giant Horned Bear crashed to the ground with a hideous death cry.
An overwhelming victory, but the battle was not over yet.
The Chinese and Japanese Hunters remained.
The gazes of the Japanese and Chinese Hunters frozen at the edge of the clearing wavered.
Deep greed stirred beneath their horrified expressions.
"Th-the boss is down!"
"That slime landed the final blow! Attack before it swallows all the loot!"
The humans raised their weapons, forgetting even the threat before them, and fireballs and sharp arrowheads rained down from every direction.
I stood still and quietly observed their foolish offensive.
I spun the lightning circling my core to its absolute limit.
Blue sparks climbed over the surface of my transparent jelly, tangling like a spiderweb.
THUMP—!
I kicked off the ground and leaped.
Using the surrounding terrain as stepping-stones, I slipped elegantly through their formation.
The speed of lightning, a distant realm human dynamic vision could never follow.
Before the electrical attacks could even land, my body had already dropped into the very center of their main force.
"Gaaagh! Block it!"
The shield-bearing tanks of the Chinese guild hurriedly tightened their formation.
I forced every drop of mana in my core into the tip of my jelly.
A blue hammer hardened solid.
Then the Blessing of Lightning cloaked it, transforming it into a brutal mace of thunderbolts.
BOOM—!
The steel shields crumpled like paper and released a violent burst.
The shock wave exploded radially and swept away the Hunters on the front line like fallen leaves.
"I-it is an insane Flying Slime!!!"
Screams erupted.
Without stopping, I used the recoil that flung me away to aim at my next target.
A Japanese Hunter brought down his longsword in a surprise attack from my blind spot.
The instant the cold blade touched my jelly's surface.
ZAP—!
The lightning surrounding my body flowed backward along the blade and engulfed his arm.
I launched myself at the underside of his chin while he stood frozen in paralysis.
CRUNCH—!
With a dull impact, the man became a dazzling cloud of light and scattered through the air.
In an instant, the battlefield descended into pandemonium.
I actively used the forest terrain to disrupt their vision.
Stepping off the thick trunks of ancient trees, I zigzagged from one to another and built up speed.
Trails of blue lightning slashed through the forest like a spiderweb.
I moved faster than the eye could follow.
The Hunters began swinging futilely at empty air or getting caught in one another's spells and destroying themselves.
"Damn it! Healer! Where is the healer?!"
"Run! We cannot lose to some low-level monster like th...... Ack!"
It was easy to reap the lives of those who turned their backs. I was a veritable blender of lightning, and those trapped within it could not even finish their screams.
Lightning pierced their entire bodies, and they helplessly dissolved into clouds of light.
It was a one-sided massacre born from an overwhelming disparity in force.
The Chinese-Japanese alliance that had united to survive collapsed as futilely as a sandcastle.
A wretched end for those who had believed themselves the center of the world.
From the heart of the battlefield, I watched their pride shatter into pieces.
Now, the only ones left were the defeated soldiers who had thrown down their weapons in terror...... or so I thought.
'I see. There is at least one among them with a working brain.'
"Re-form the ranks! Mages, provide covering fire from the rear......!"
A man who appeared to be the commander of the Chinese guild urgently raised his voice.
But his cry came far too late.
I was not about to leave him alone, and I drew my core's output to its limit.
SWISH—!
The instant I kicked off the ground, dust exploded upward.
Blue lightning sliced through the air.
My body became an enormous shell and pierced straight through the man's solar plexus.
BOOM—!
"Urgh......!"
The commander crashed to the ground, scattering blue particles of mana. The armor that had surrounded his body failed to withstand the lightning's heat and sprayed fragments everywhere.
[Dominating the Battlefield!]
Having lost its center, the Hunters' formation began to collapse rapidly.
"A-a monster!"
"Th-that is not a slime anymore! Run!"
The desperate screams of those who sensed their defeat.
They no longer coveted the loot.
They were too busy shoving one another aside and fleeing for their lives.
The Japanese Hunters even discarded the samurai pride they had boasted of.
One threw away his sword and crawled into the underbrush.
Another tripped a companion and tried to escape first.
On a hellish line between life and death, human nature exposes its ugly depths with such transparency.
I quietly observed their disgraceful behavior and vibrated my core.
I decided to sweep them all away.
Curling my body into a sphere, I condensed my surface tension to its maximum.
FLASH—!
My jelly shot out once more, racing every which way through the forest in pursuit of the routed soldiers.
The merciless devastation continued.
Every time the adorable blue trail swept past.
The allied force became a handful of light and was expelled from the Black Tower.
[Avatar of the Battlefield!]
Only one remained.
A man wearing the emblem of a Japanese guild stumbled backward on trembling legs.
Utter terror filled his eyes.
"E-eek! Stay away!"
Snot and tears streaming down his face, the man slashed his dagger at empty air.
I leaped lightly and dropped onto his head.
THWACK—.
A light blow.
The final man rolled his eyes back and fainted before gently dissolving into particles of light.
[Legendary!]
I bounced up and landed lightly atop a rock.
I caught my breath and stabilized my core.
A translucent scoreboard appeared in the air with a cheerful chime.
When I first entered this forest, my accumulated points had been pitiful.
[ - ] Slime ( 0 GP ) (-)
The pitiful record of my origin, a meaningless number assigned to one of the forest's lowest monsters.
But from the moment I tore through the Hunters' formation and swept them away with lightning, the gauge began to convulse.
[ 9,999th ] Slime ( 250,754 GP ) (▴)
The scoreboard's numbers shot upward so rapidly they made my eyes spin.
My points surged past the hundreds and the thousands, updating explosively. At last, the display stopped moving, and a heavy grinding noise rang in my ears.
FLASH!
[ 1st ] Slime ( 2,535,215 GP ) (▴)
A staggering 2 million Goblin Points (GP)!
A figure no single demonic beast on the Black Tower's second floor had ever recorded in its history......!
The very top, looking far down upon the scores of the self-proclaimed elite Hunters.
And the owner of that glorious throne was none other than a tiny Slime......!
The forest through which battle had swept was strangely quiet and peaceful.
'Heehee, what a very satisfying day this has been......!'
DING!
[A special reward will be issued for your dazzling achievement.]
A sparkling chest dropped out of the air in front of my jelly.
I rolled my round body elastically and broke the chest's lock.
[You have obtained 3 bottles of Health Recovery Elixir (Common).]
[You have obtained the 「Forest of Beginnings, Area 2」 Trophy (Special).]
[ Trophy ] 「Forest of Beginnings, Area 2」 (Special)
▸Effect: While active in the Forest of Beginnings, your attack power increases by 5%.
I drank the clear liquid that flowed from the chest and held the Trophy above my head.
The energy consumed in the fight was restored in an instant, leaving me comfortable.
That was when the hunt was finally drawing to an end.
At some point, my translucent blue body had begun emitting a brilliant light.
My vision flickered.
Mana whirled around my body and fiercely drew in the surrounding air.
Soon, a dazzling flash of pure white light surged and swallowed me whole.
Let us return.
Back to the nest where Airi was waiting.
My steps carried me home with new spoils in my embrace.
I could already see the face of the woman who would smile languidly at me.