Forest 1

~~*~~

The slime bunny looked at the carnage and blood and was in mourning. He was in mourning of the innocence that was robbed when he was nine. Ever since he ran away from home, he became indifferent and uncaring in the face of tragedy or happiness. This wasn't the first time he killed someone either. The police at the time were clueless as to what happened and he got away with murder. In fact, ever since that incident, the police were always by his side as if he were their adopted son.

He killed in self-defense and that was the justification he clung onto. It was a logical and unemotional conclusion but what else was there to say? That he felt bad for their deaths? He had no shred of emotion to the corpses that were now swimming inside his slime and that was what he was afraid and sad about.

"This is all your fault," the boy said scornfully to the entity with the dark aura. The entity looked like the girl but she had unnaturally-colored white irises and wore a tight-worn black robe.

The persona spoke in a calm but commanding voice which sounded elegant with a sinister overtone, "This was inevitable. You want to believe that our reincarnation is what is making you a monster but this is how we were all this time. Take some responsibility, will you? This body is only making you realize your inherent sadistic nature. Why else would we reincarnate as a slime?"

"That doesn't prove anything," the boy argued. "You could be an outside force from the Network or a cancer from the pseudo-god. There's no way you're part of me."

The entity disappeared but this wasn't his imagination. Something was influencing his mind and it wanted to follow the directive of a monster to kill senselessly.

He was scared.

A dark persona manifested and he had no idea where it came from or how to control it. But all he could do was what he has been doing. The entity he named Black would certainly compete with him as the girl has done for dominance.

When Black exposed more of his monster side, it gave him more knowledge of his own abilities. He had the ability to control souls, those of monsters at least.

He saw through the Network that the soldiers could track his aura through their spell. Yet, he still didn't have enough information to go on to properly counter this tactic. For now, he could only hope another group with a tracking spell doesn't catch up.

The slime woke up a while later on the tree branch to something below him making sounds. It was morning, he knew by the direction of the sun. How long was he out? He didn't remember going to sleep. His mana was recovered and felt refreshed. With his three-sixty vision, he saw it was a small white wolf making the noise. It was licking something attached to the tree.

Like a bear with honey, it was greedily taking the blue sap from the tree.

Wait.

Blue sap?

Looking at the tree trunk, the 'blue tree sap' ran along its length to the ground. His slime was leaking out of his rabbit meat suit and was slowly dripping from the branch he was resting on. How embarrassing and gross!

The fur of the hungry wolf cub was white with gray spots along its head, back, and legs. It had pretty blue eyes. Its mouth was covered by his slime. Why was this creature eating him? The small wolf wasn't a monster, it was a normal animal, so why the strange behavior?

He looked at the slime that spilled out of his suit. The slime dripping out of him wasn't holding anything important inside so he didn't worry about his structural integrity. The slime became curious as he stared at the blue honey on his brown rabbit paw.

Was he seriously going to do this? The wolf seemed to like it. He licked his own slime and experienced taste for the first time in this world.

It was sweet as expected.

Sweet like honey and sugar against his rabbit taste-buds.

In any case, it was time to make a new meat suit and he now had plenty of options. Whether Black was born from within himself or an external influence was irrelevant at this point. There could be no more compromises with his monster persona. He couldn't give Black another inch.

With this in mind, a new human body was in order.

He picked one of the better-looking younger males as his template of choice and began work as he was still up in the tree. Perhaps the disturbing sight of a giant pulsating pile of flesh would frighten the small wolf away. Taking away the heart of the body, he gathered all of his slime and shrunk the volume into the size of a large heart and encased himself in his crystal pearl for added protection.

He repaired the gashes from his spikes and freshened up the body with oxygen and blood. He hacked into the nervous system and replaced most of it with slime. This configuration of his meat suit was the same as the rabbit. Hopefully, it would translate well in human bodies.

The slime took a deep breath as a human for the first time in a while. It felt so refreshing as he coughed a glob of slime out of his esophagus and trachea. Opening his eyes, he saw the full vibrant array of colors for the first time and stared in awe in the majesty of nature.

He looked down at his hands as he slowly got used to the feeling of having opposable thumbs again. He looked himself in his monster sight and saw a young man with short brown hair and gray eyes.

After nearly two weeks as a mere slime, he became human again. But he wasn't. He knew from this moment that this body was no good. Just because he was wearing a human didn't mean it made him human. This body just felt like any other meat suit.

This was bad. What was he going to do now? If he gave up now, he would lose to the pseudo-god and Black. He sighed and got dressed in some clothing from the soldiers. Looking down from the tree, he saw the same wolf cub looking up. Did it not fear him?

It ShOuLd.

He caught himself before he did something he would regret again. No more killing for no reason. He went down and landed beside the wolf. It got scared but didn't run away as it let out a cute bark. The wolf saw the slime ball in the human boy's hand.

It was a type of canine he never saw before. All the animals he encountered so far consisted of small animals like bats and rodents which looked similar to Earth animals but slightly different. This wolf was no different and had a fluffier tail and sharper ears.

The slime boy was cautious when approaching it and crawled on his hands towards it while holding the dense viscous ball. The wolf cub approached slowly and the slime offered his slime with his outstretched hand. It accepted his offering and began to eat it. He dropped it on the ground for the wolf and raised his hand to pet its fur.

It was a male wolf. He could tell from its genitalia and mannerisms. He held the wolf in his arms as he pet and fed it. The wolf was so fluffy! It was wagging its tail as it came up and licked the boy on the cheek. It was an abandoned cub and was hungry. The slime boy guessed he was grateful. The wolf was giving him kisses and he giggled from being tickled.

He needed to get away from the area of his massacre so he began walking. If he wanted to, he could've killed a bird and make another meat suit but he didn't want to fly. He was afraid of heights and the tracking spell would alert people that he was airborne.

The wolf cub was following him. He didn't mind it. He liked cuddly things and it was nice to have someone around that didn't want to kill him. The monsters weren't bothering him anymore because of his Network connection but they had little will of their own, no good for conversation.

After a few hours of travel, the cub was tired and the slime boy began to carry him. The body he inhabited was young and fit. The clothes he was wearing was the tunic and baggy pants the person was wearing underneath his uniform and armor. It was a good idea not to wear the uniform because of the risk of being seen. Perhaps he could fabricate some new clothes later on.

The slime boy couldn't help but look at his human hand while journeying through the forest and feeling the full sensations of this new body. It was definitely a man's hand as it had calluses and a rough texture. Thick bones which drew a sharp contour and no elegance whatsoever. This hand was made to labor and screamed masculinity.

It felt so fake and disgusting.

Night fell in the unfamiliar temperate forest. He scouted the area beforehand and found a walled settlement in the distance. He made sure to walk away from it. Even in human form, it was best to avoid human contact. He made one final sweep around the area and settled down for the night. Monsters were more active in the dark and it made the slime boy uneasy. There was something unsettling about monsters roaming around in the dark.

Going back to the small campsite, he found the wolf was still waiting there. It got up from the warmth of the fire to greet him with a bark and wagged its tail. Petting it on the head, he wondered where it came from and how it became separated from its pack.

Whatever the case, it quickly became attached to him despite him being a monster. He ended up sleeping while cuddling with the wolf, using it as a cushion in his arms. The cold did bother him a little but the wolf was warm and cuddly.

Looking up at the sky, he felt embarrassed not to have noticed this until now. There were two moons in the sky, one large and light-yellow on the horizon, and the other was small and violet. They were so beautiful and they painted the night sky with their color.

But the most notable feature on both moons were the green patterns on the surface. They were glowing but not in a way that it was just light reflected off this star system's parent star. It glowed like the city lights did on Earth but they were in structured lines like a circular maze. They weren't naturally occurring.

He could definitely confirm now that the planet in his vision and this planet were the same. But where did that leave him? Many more questions than answers arose from this. There were also three 'moons' in his vision, perhaps the other moon was hiding under the horizon somewhere. How were their orbits even possible?

***

The slime decided to go hunting the next morning. His new companion looked up to him for something. The wolf was hungry. He couldn't just feed him slime all the time. Growing wolves needed a balanced diet.

He called out slime from his palm and formed a crystal bow and arrows. He strung the bow with a carbon thread he got from the soldiers. Larger animals inhabited this area and the slime could see them moving around in his three-sixty vision. The slime boy leaped from tree to tree and the wolf followed him. Spotting a pack of reindeer, he jumped down and took the wolf with him to hide in some bushes.

"Don't scare them off, alright?"

He whispered to the wolf. Nocking and drawing his arrow, he aimed his bow as the wolf looked at him with curious eyes. The arrow flew and pierced a deer in the heart. The deer collapsed instantly. The wolf barked in excitement and ran towards the kill as the rest of the deer scattered.

"Wait!"

The slime shouted the word in English but the wolf didn't listen. The slime used his superior speed to run in front and stopped the wolf before it could chow down.

"Nope!" He scolded the wolf but it wasn't having any of it.

The cub attempted to pass him for the food by pushing him and growling. But the slime boy didn't budge and instead grabbed him by his scruff.

"No! Don't!"

As the slime held him in his arms, the wolf seemed to understand. He stroked its fur again after he calmed down and then the wolf was all smiles again.

Storing the venison in his slime was good for the long-term storage of food. Organic material within his slime never decomposed and theoretically could be stored indefinitely. The sun was setting and so he started a small fire and began carving the deer. As he did, he rewarded the wolf with some raw meat for its patience.

Then, his knife broke. That was disappointing. He expected his slime crystals to have been durable given they pierced through this body's chest and created a decent pressure chamber and bow. Something told him that there was a limit to reinforcing his tools and weapons with mana. A thin knife was too much apparently.

He never formed anything out of inorganic material besides the rock. Could he mold a knife from the metal he obtained from the soldiers?

His palm opened and slime came out of his hand and formed a metallic knife. He shook the excess slime from the medium-sized carving knife and started butchering again. He was able to cut through the meat like butter.

Over-powered.

He basically had the power to create anything within reason as long as he had the materials. The knife he produced looked smooth and manufactured. However, when the slime tried to make a sheath for the knife, it was either too small or too big and so he simply reabsorbed it. The slime cooked the venison over the fire. The wolf laid still in his arms and the slime fed it the cooked meat. He had some as well and tasted with his human tongue.

Not good.

"At least you seem to like it," the slime said, disheartened. Cayden was confident in his cooking abilities back on Earth so he was quite disappointed. He wasn't judging himself, perhaps the meat here was different. The wolf was having a little trouble because of the meat's toughness so the slime had to cut them into smaller pieces. The way it ate was very cute. After dinner, the small fire remained as he sat against a tree.

Night two of their co-inhabitance, the wolf came to him again to keep the slime boy warm. However, it was different this time as the wolf prioritized the slime boy's warmth over his. Noticing this, he felt as though the wolf yielded the dominance of the relationship to him. He brought the wolf closer to him to give him his warmth in return. The slime boy didn't want a relationship of a dog and dog-owner, but of a caretaker and companion. He was waiting for the cub to fall asleep but the cub didn't seem tired.

"Hey," he said softly.

Getting the wolf's attention, he raised his head and turned to the slime boy, looking him in the eyes.

"You're a smart doggy, aren't you?"

The slime said while petting and hugging the cub more. He began to tear up a bit as he reflected.

"You know; I was reborn into this world from another world. I don't know why or how, or even where I am now. I don't know why I of all people was reborn. Perhaps I'm being punished..."

He rubbed the cub behind its ears, the cub seemed to like that and the gesture calmed him.

"We were both a little lonely, weren't we? I think it was good that we found each other. As long as we're here to protect one another, we'll be fine," he said smiling. "I'll name you Jun. Would you like that?"

In response, Jun licked his face. The slime boy laughed and smiled as he held Jun tight in a way unbefitting of the large male body he inhabited.

"Jun! You're a really smart boy, aren't you?"