Received. The body of a slime consists of a mass of completely identical cells. Each individual cell may function as a brain cell, a nerve cell, or a muscle cell. Since the operational cells used for thought are rotated in and out at regular intervals, there is no need for you to sleep.
This raised the question of where my memories were being held, exactly. Maybe it was kind of like a RAID setup on a computer?
That would be close enough, came the response. Considering its lack of personality, the Sage certainly came up with some snappy replies.
Speaking of which, the “Great Sage” skill consisted of five effects:
“All of Creation”? So I know about everything, everywhere, with no effort on my part? Score! Or so I thought.
It turned out that I could only be told information related to things I’d already heard about—in other words, I needed to recognize and understand a concept before I could grab a full Analysis of it.
And the spell thing—did that mean I could instantly use any magic once I learned it? And, like, there was magic in this world and stuff?!
The Great Sage replied with a big Yes.
Well, once I knew that, I just had to try to learn a few spells myself.
I checked with the Sage to see if it could help me cast magic, but that was a no-go. Eh, it was worth a shot.
Still, I had another great idea: Could I link the “Predator” Analysis skill with “Great Sage” Parallel Operation?
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Received. It is possible to link “Predator” Analysis with “Great Sage” Parallel Operation. Do you wish to link them?
Yes
No
Uh, yeah? Not that I had anything to analyze yet… Wait. Or did I? That grass in my stomach. The stuff I had been eating to pass the time. What was that? Not like I had anything else to do. Let’s give it a try.
Off you go, Sage.
………
……
…
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Analysis complete.
Wow! That was what I’d been snacking on? Talk about an unexpected windfall. I immediately set out to create some medicine of my very own. The process took place inside my body, so it didn’t really feel much like crafting, but the Analysis took less than a second, and within another three-ish, I had my very first potion. Five minutes, and I could’ve had a hundred. And while I didn’t have anything else to compare it to, using my Great Sage skills to assess them resulted in a “high quality” rating.
So there you go. I was happy enough with it, at least. It all went so fast, too. I asked the Sage about it, and it said the process usually took more time than that. Linking it with Parallel Operation must’ve been the right idea, I suppose.
To test that theory out, I unlinked it long enough to create a single potion. It took fifty minutes. Damn, that was slow. Looks like I had the foresight to stumble across some mega-compatible skills to combine. Not that I knew what I was doing at all.
Some of your garden-variety weeds were also sprouting here and there, but most of the local grasses were hipokute. How ’bout that? So I decided, as a little insurance, to Predate all the herbs I could in the area and turn my stomach into a little recovery-potion factory. I didn’t have much else to occupy my time. It was still pitch black in here.
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There was no doubt about it. I had put my guard down. I had a partner who granted me skills and the ability to engage in (kind of passive) conversation, and I let it get to my head.
I suppose that had a lot to do with how for ninety days in a row, I never ran into any other creatures. No danger to my life whatsoever. But either way, I had let my guard down.
For an instant, I was like, “Huh?”
I felt a sudden sensation that I had grown lighter or heavier or, like…unstable.
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Did I…fall in some water?
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In the past ninety days, I hadn’t felt so much as a drop of water hit my body. I’d assumed I was in a rain-free cave or some other kind of shelter, so I had never even entertained the possibility before.
I had probably slipped into a river or something. Rivers don’t exist indoors, so maybe it was some kind of underground creek in this cave I was in…? Up to now, I had been careful with every step I took, making sure everything remained steady in the darkness. But after learning about my skills, getting full of myself, and using Predation to eat a pasture’s worth of grass, I had stopped paying attention to what was under me.
I was always like that. Getting cocky, then screwing it all up in the end. I’d proclaim to a customer, “Oh, absolutely! That won’t be any problem at all!” and then have hell to pay. It had happened over and over. I still remember the spiteful looks the rest of my team gave me for it.
Too bad I didn’t think to stop myself in time. What kind of idiot runs off into parts unknown when they can’t even see? If I survived this, I was gonna give myself what for. Of course, given my personality, I doubted I’d learn anything from it.
It was funny how serenely I was handling this whole thing, though. Not like I had much in the form of arms or legs I could flail about in horrified panic…
Guess it’s over, then. Pretty short lifetime—even by slime standards, maybe. I said my final prayers, awaiting my inevitable suffocation.
………
……
…
Suffocation never came.
Why not? Did I not fall in the water? Time to call on the Sage, maybe.
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Received. A slime’s body operates exclusively on magicules. Oxygen is unnecessary, and therefore, so is breathing. That is why you have not been engaging in that behavior.
Oh… Right. I wasn’t paying attention, but I guess there wasn’t any breathing, was there? Made sense. Even after ninety days, I was still learning something new!
But now wasn’t the time to celebrate. I had fallen into water, and even if I wouldn’t die, it did still put me in kind of a bind. What now? I couldn’t really tell whether I was floating or sinking. My lack of limbs precluded any attempt at swimming. Would I wind up at the bottom sooner or later and be able to creep my way back to the surface? Or was I doomed to bob around in the middle of the current, never reaching much of anywhere?
Though, if anything, it felt less like a violent torrent and more like I was being rocked in a cradle. Very gently rocked. It felt pretty good, even…
Something told me this wasn’t flowing water after all. Maybe it was a lake, not a river. I didn’t feel as though I was being taken anywhere. I was just kind of bobbing up and down, like a plastic bag, and it didn’t feel as if I’d ever hit bottom. If things stayed this way, I was in big trouble.
What now?
Just then, my brain cells—or my slime body, I guess—came up with an ingenious plan. Maybe I could go all Predator on this water and then spit it out for some water-jet propulsion. Would that work? Only one way to find out. Not like I could do anything else.
So I started drinking, filling my Predator stomach up to approximately 10 percent of its capacity. Then, I expelled it like I was wringing out my stomach.
The sense of release was exhilarating.
Suddenly, I heard a voice in my mind: