Chapter 2 Survival Guide

Pop—

Accompanied by a splashy noise, Ybur, along with a large amount of water, was ejected from the pipe, landing on the ground with a splat. Its round body bounced like jelly a couple of times, followed by a series of gurgling sounds from within.

I feel so dizzy...

The biomatter that made up its body had almost been thoroughly shaken.

It took several seconds for Ybur to recover finally. It surveyed its surroundings, and thankfully, Ruby still had some conscience, not having actually flushed it down to some sewer. The place it was in appeared to be an underground cavern. The uneven rocks beneath its body provided an especially clear sensation.

Strangely, even though there was no natural light in the environment, it could distinctly capture every detail around it.

That wasn't actually visual perception but a kind of scanning ability that converted all sensed information into vivid, lively images in its mind. All colors in the spectrum danced before its eyes, delineating the contours of the rocks, with the thermal images of living creatures being the clearest—when a tiny bug scurried across the soil, it left behind a brilliantly red trace.

And...

Because it possessed a part of Ruby's memory and personality, it subconsciously considered itself human. However, Ybur realized that its way of observing the outside world differed from that of humans.

Humans have only two eyes, and their field of vision is to the front of their bodies, but Slime is different. It... although it has no eyes, when the mind generates the thought of "looking," the biomatter within spontaneously forms a visual organ called an "Eye Point," capable of sharply sensing light, temperature, and vibrations.

The observation field of this visual organ is approximately a sixty-degree cone, but it can generate multiple visual organs at once, theoretically achieving an omnidirectional, no-blind-spot, three-dimensional panoramic view.

But that is particularly exhausting.

Its thinking organ struggled a bit to process such a vast amount of environmental signals, feeling as if its brain were about to boil after just maintaining it for a while.

However, after scanning around, Ybur suddenly noticed a marker.

A small arrow on the ground. Although tiny, it was extremely conspicuous in its perception—almost instinctively, Ybur realized that within its "visual ability" was an additional layer of observation. The part of memory from Ruby informed it that this was known as "Magic Vision," which enabled it to directly perceive the Magical Aura emitted by certain things. Ordinary Slimes didn't have this ability; it was a result of Ruby's modifications.

Ybur slithered forward following the arrow.

Its body contained no muscles, with the biomatter constituting itself being similar to water, soft and squishy, naturally spreading out upon relaxation, forming a near-pancake shape. To puff itself up into a round shape, it needed to ingest a significant amount of air to inflate itself.

At such times, it could clearly feel many cavities within itself, and as the cavities expanded, some web-like structures also unfolded—whether these were nerves or muscles, it wasn't sure.

Ybur examined its body with some curiosity and a bit of confusion, wondering: where is my brain?

It couldn't figure it out. But considering that a skeleton, which is just a framework of bones, can still move about, maybe a brain isn't all that important for a Slime.

After crawling forward following the arrow for a while, another new Secret Technique marker appeared before its eyes, a line of text:

"Dig down!"

...??

Ybur was slightly confused, extending a thin tentacle to scratch its head.

How am I supposed to dig?

Its entire body was about the size of a human head and lacked skeletal support or muscles—the tentacle was as soft as cotton, with no ability to dig.

But after being puzzled for barely two seconds, a flash of inspiration struck Ybur's thinking organ.

Employed by Slime was typically a "pocket" made of tough membranes, also serving as Slime's predation and digestion organ. This pocket could move within the body, with strong abilities to contract and expand, even able to evert to the outside of the body. By squeezing the pocket, it could even shoot Digestive Acid like a water gun.

Thus, as the thought occurred, its entire body inverted from the inside out, expelling its predation and digestion organs to cover the ground.

It began attempting to digest the mud.

Slimes are scientifically known as mud-shaped monsters, but this is actually a broad category. Any creature resembling ooze, capable of crawling and changing shape, can be called a mud-shaped monster, and most of them don't actually eat earth. It's creatures from the Earth Elemental plane, like the "Mud Elemental," that consume earth, but even their "eating" doesn't involve digesting soil. Instead, they use the spiritual power within their core to manipulate the soil, so the actual size of a Mud Elemental largely depends on their spiritual power.

Based on the dim and fuzzy knowledge bubbling up in his mind, Ybur realized that he should actually be a subtype within the larger category of mud-shaped monsters, possibly belonging to the branch of gelatinous monsters. To be more specific, he might be a sort of Black Pudding Slime. However, a typical Black Pudding Slime is usually an enormous blob, like a small hill, whereas he was quite small...

It didn't matter, small could be cute too!

And besides, Ruby had mentioned something about Immortal Elixir inside him, which roughly equated to him possessing Divine Blood. Divine Blood Black Pudding Slime! Although he hadn't found any special traits yet, there must be some great potential hidden within him.

The Digestive Acid secreted by the Black Pudding Slime was its most powerful weapon, capable of corroding metals and most organic materials, but its effect on mud was very weak. Ybur strained to secrete Digestive Acid, feeling as though he was draining his own body. He eventually managed to soften the earth under him, but it was unclear whether it was eroded or simply soaked soft by water. In any case, he stretched a tentacle into the soft, bubbly mud, groping around, and at last, he found something.

He laboriously wrapped it up and dragged it out of the soil.

It was a book.

The book cover was exceptionally tough, completely unresponsive to his Digestive Acid. Each word on it was written with Magic, thus emitting a Magic Aura that was clearly visible even in the dark.

The book's title was:

"Ruby Mommy's Thoughtful Survival Guide Prepared for Her Baby"

"..."

Ybur guessed that the emotion bubbling up inside him could probably be called "speechless."

Although, in theory, Ruby was indeed his creator, his feelings towards this person, who had tossed him into the toilet and flushed him away after exchanging just a few words, were quite complicated.

He extended a thin tentacle, turned the first page, and saw the following big characters:

"Haha, Special Duties Bureau dogs! The content here is nothing more than basic knowledge. Even if you find it, it will be useless! Go eat shit!"

Below was a Q-version caricature giving the finger, which even glowed. Its colorful dazzle flashed continuously, seemingly full of irony.

In the dark, the glowing finger caricature was reflected on Ybur's round and Black Pudding-like body surface, shining brightly.

"..."

Nerve, that almost made me laugh.

He could be quite certain now, that feeling was "speechless."

Ybur, with patience, turned to the next page, and there was another line of large characters:

"Sorry, baby, Mommy shouldn't swear. Good kids should never learn that~ So, turn to the next page, and the formal teaching content begins~"

Ruby, are you sick?!

Ybur couldn't help but mentally rant. He hadn't learned other knowledge yet, but swearing words one by one awoke in his mind.

Looking further:

"Though I should have embedded most knowledge and memories into your mind, I can't guarantee the results of the experiment. Therefore, to be safe, this book contains necessary meditation knowledge to guide you into the Dream Realm to explore your own path. In addition, there is a map in the book where I have marked safe zones suitable for your activity. Don't worry about me, nor come to save me. Protecting yourself is the most important. Do not head to other places before you have sufficient strength."

"PS: Be wary of everything in the city, especially those Special Duties Bureau bastards."

"Good luck~"

Below was a Q-version caricature blowing a kiss, flickering with pink light in the darkness.