“Well, whaddya know? This thing is cuter than I expected.”
It was a little smaller than most small dog breeds, so it was pretty tiny. When I gave it a light poke, its body jiggled in response. And judging by the way it grabbed on to me playfully, I think it understood that I was the one who’d summoned it. Definitely way too adorable. It reminded me of a dog someone I knew on Earth had.
“I’ll call you Shii!”
Name: Shii
Race: Slime
Class: None
Level: 1
HP: 11/11
MP: 2/2
Strength: 15
Stamina: 37
Agility: 26
Magic: 11
Dexterity: 52
Luck: 110
Abilities: Predation 1, Regeneration 1
Title: Demon Lord’s Subordinate
Hmm. Surprise, surprise, Shii was weak. That was fine though; it was cute, so I didn’t mind. I’d think of it as my pet.
According to my mental wiki, monsters like Shii that are “born of the dungeon itself” don’t need food because they “feed off of the dungeon’s magic power.” A pet I didn’t have to buy food for? Sweet deal. Then again, that being the default made sense when I thought about it—the dungeon wouldn’t want to waste its lord’s resources by making the lord feed every single summoned monster.
Wait a freaking minute. Shii’s Luck is higher than mine? What the hay, man? Eh, maybe I’ll feel better if I just think of it as my Luck being stupidly low. Of course mine seems low compared to someone—or in this case something—else’s. Yeah, that’s it. My luck isn’t lower than a slime’s, the slime’s just happens to be higher than mine, right? Right.
Yeah, no, that didn’t help at all. It made me kinda depressed to know for sure that my Luck was actually complete garbage. Then Shii abruptly started wiggling on the ground, moving toward me. It slinked onto my feet and tried to nuzzle me.
“Shii, are you...trying to comfort me?”
It bounced up and down, which I was guessing meant “yes.” Oh my freaking God, how much cuter could it get? I didn’t think I’d ever met anything this precious until now. Shii’s actions gave me the swift kick in the ass I needed to stop moping and start thinking clearly.
I was wrong to care so much about something as silly as my Luck stat. I knew it didn’t actually matter. I was able to meet Shii even with it being what it was, so luck meant nothing to me. I wasn’t unlucky or cursed or anything like that. The minute a person thought they were unlucky, that was exactly how they ended up.
Besides, even if bad things did end up happening to me, I knew good things would happen too. And those good things would seem all the more amazing in comparison, which would make me even happier. Thinking about it like that, I actually felt luckier than others. Maybe. Probably?
Anyway, thanks to Shii, I’d just learned a universal truth. That was pretty cool.
Okay, enough introspection for today! Now it was time to deepen my friendship with Shii since it so graciously came into my life!
And so, some time passed as I played with my new friend. But all of a sudden, my map opened on its own to warn me of a hostile presence. At the same time, I heard a beastly growl coming from the cave’s sole opening.
“Grrrr!”
I immediately raised my head to look toward the source of the sound. What greeted me was a terrifying monster with three wolf heads that looked like it’d been created using dark magic. All three heads glared menacingly at me while all three jaws snarled and snapped ferociously. It was gigantic—about the size of a lion, maybe even bigger. I used Analysis to read its data.
Race: Cerberus
Level: 32
So this was an actual monster. Just like when I’d met Lefi, I couldn’t see any of its other stats. Just like back then, it was probably because its level was so much higher than mine. I felt my body tense up at the sight of my dungeon’s first intruder.
Well, it was pretty much inevitable. I was bound to meet a real monster sooner or later. I just wished it would have been later.
I could feel Shii trembling in fear near my feet, but despite its terror, it jumped in front of me. It was like it was trying to threaten the attacker instead. My tiny slime friend didn’t have a face, of course, but I could tell it was scowling at the damn monster mutt. I felt like I was in a scene from that show. You know, the one with the kid in the hat who wanted to be the very best.
“W-Wow, Shii! You’re an amazing bodyguard!” I couldn’t help but shout when I saw Shii acting so brave. Seemed like it heard the admiration in my voice too, because it shook itself like it was trying to assure me that it would handle the beast.
You know what? Shii was right. It didn’t matter if the enemy was stronger than us; our mission was to destroy anything that stood in our way! I was ready and willing to go all David and Goliath on the thing right here, right now.
I hadn’t actually played any of the games related to the show with the yellow mouse, but I had played other battle games. The best part of those games was always using my brains and skills to take down high-level enemies, so show me what you’ve got, Shii!
“Shii, attack! Fast as lightning!”
Okay, so it came as no surprise that Shii wasn’t as fast as lightning. Even so, it boldly tried to follow my order. With a bounce, it flew toward the monster—but the Cerberus easily countered our attack by using one of its forelegs to slap Shii away like a bug. Shii slammed against the cave wall, slid to the floor with a squishy sound, and stopped moving.