Chapter 9: Leveling Up and New Bonds

Chapter 9: Leveling Up and New Bonds

The people who had participated in the fight were sitting in a closed room, discussing the distribution of the orbs.

Since all of them had been present during the battle, they had witnesses to support their claims to the orbs.

After the distribution, Sam received:

1 blue orbs

1 green orb

3 grey orbs

3 black orbs

He then gave one grey orb to Blake, as he owed him. Others also followed suit, giving Blake the orbs they owed him, which resulted in Blake having the highest number of orbs.

Once the distribution was settled, they decided to block the stairs leading to the first floor and rest for the day.

In a quiet room, Sam sat on the bed after taking a shower and changing his clothes.

"Let's check how much I've leveled up."

The moment Sam thought about his status, something shocking happened.

Player Name: Sam

Species: Rank 2 Human

Level: 10

Strength: 23 (+)

Agility: 22 (+)

Mana: 25 (+)

Vitality: 20 (+)

Intelligence: 22 (+)

Free points available: 30

Contracts: Metal Slime (Pet)

Sam was surprised—his stats were displayed just like in a game!

With his eyes shut, he focused on adding his free points to Strength.

A sharp pain shot through his entire body, as if his muscles were cramping all at once. Then, suddenly, he felt lighter.

"Do I have to endure this every time?" he thought.

He continued distributing the rest of his points:

Increasing Agility caused a similar pain.

Increasing Mana made his pores itch.

Increasing Vitality made his blood circulation intensify; he started sweating heavily, but the previous pains subsided.

Increasing Intelligence was the worst—it felt like his brain had been electrocuted for a moment, followed by intense dizziness. It took him a couple of minutes to recover.

"Does this panel have some kind of sadistic tendencies?" Sam muttered in frustration.

However, he soon noticed that his perception had improved. His vision felt clearer.

He recalled Blake mentioning that the panel would unlock at Rank 2.

With the remaining points, he finalized his stats:

Player Name: Sam

Species: Rank 2 Human

Level: 10

Strength: 30 (+)

Agility: 30 (+)

Mana: 30 (+)

Vitality: 26 (+)

Intelligence: 26 (+)

Free points available: 0

Contracts: Metal Slime (Pet)

Now, he turned his attention to the contract section.

"Metal Slime"

Player can use 5% of its abilities.

Curious, Sam passed Mana into the tattoo of the slime on his wrist.

A strange pattern formed in the air, and then—

Thump.

A metallic ball dropped onto the floor.

Summoning the creature drained about one-third of his energy. As he looked at the metal ball, he reached out to touch it.

The metal ball rolled away and hid under the bed.

Sam frowned. "How do I interact with it?" He tried ordering it to come out, but nothing happened.

Then, he recalled the tattoo on his wrist. He had a feeling he needed to supply Mana into it.

As soon as he did, he suddenly sensed emotions that weren't his. He concentrated and realized they were mostly fear and curiosity.

He attempted to communicate through thoughts, following the logic of novels he had read.

After some persuasion, the ball slowly rolled closer to him.

Sam picked it up and placed it on his lap, gently patting it to calm it down.

"Looks like it's scared of me."

After some time, the ball loosened up, taking on a more liquid form—similar to a slime, though not sticky.

Sam massaged it, feeling its emotions relax.

"Alright, let's talk. Where did you come from?"

The slime tried to communicate, but its thoughts were a jumble of incomprehensible information.

"Let's forget that for now. Tell me—what do you eat?"

Understanding that Sam couldn't comprehend its thoughts, the slime transformed into a ball and rolled around the room, searching. It returned with a metal pan.

Then, to Sam's surprise, it absorbed the entire pan—except for the handle.

Sam wasn't too shocked—he had read about similar creatures in fantasy novels.

He then had an idea.

"Can you eat this?"

Sam pulled out a long knife from his storage chain. The slime visibly perked up at the sight of it.

Slowly, he placed the knife onto the slime and watched it melt and get absorbed into its body.

Sam smirked. "This slime could be really useful. If needed, I can command it to consume my enemies' weapons."

Then, another thought struck him.

"Can you transform into that knife?"

The slime tried, flattening itself and attempting to mimic the knife's shape.

While the form was crude, it was promising.

"It needs training."

Sam picked it up—it weighed around two kilograms.

"Good. Now return to normal."

The slime obeyed.

Sam rummaged through the room and found a plastic bottle.

"Alright, today's training: Stay inside this bottle and cover all the inner surface area. Understood?"

The slime hesitated but eventually complied.

Sam smirked. "This is going to be fun."