I became aware of my surroundings quite suddenly. One minute, I was nothing more than a bundle of blurry memories and faded lights. Then, within a single pulse of my core, I became…me.

  It was a strange feeling, becoming a thinking, feeling creature. Confusion engulfed my mind, and I withdrew the majority of my body closer to my core as I frantically searched my surroundings for threats. My senses took in every detail all the way around me as traces of living magic reached the outer membrane of slime that kept my mass safe and secure.

  There was no threat; at least none that I could see. The forest was alive around me. Trees waved as threads of natural wind magic pushed against them. Flashes of color darted through the branches as birds and other tree-dwellers went about their daily lives. None of them seemed poised to strike at a wayward slime caught far beyond its home, and I managed to relax just a touch.

  Behind me, a trail of barren ground had been carved through the grass and bushes. I’d come from that direction, but something seemed off. Though I didn’t know where home was, the trail didn’t seem to be leading there. Wisps of dark, sickly magic rose from the earth where I’d come from. It didn’t seem like the sort of place I wanted to hang around in.

  Without knowing where I’ve been, how can I find out where I’m going? I wondered. It was my first question, something that might have been momentous if it weren’t for the fact that it was immediately overridden by a crippling pain in my core.

  Hunger.

  It washed over me like a wave, urging me to find something, anything, to eat. Without thought or question, I hopped to a large, moss-covered rock, and threw myself at it. Acidic slime sizzled against stone, and I felt the material break apart under my touch. It melted into my slime, driving back the hunger for a few seconds as I processed the meal.

  The stone had a chalky dryness to it. It clearly had seen the heat of many suns and lost any water that fell upon its surface. Yet, despite the dryness of the stone itself, the moss that grew in the nooks and crevices was filled with moisture. The two flavors together made for a delightful meal, the details of which I savored. It was my first meal, or at least, the first one I could remember, and I made sure to burn every detail of the contrasting elements into my memory.

  The hunger abated, if only for a moment. It surged up again a few minutes later, and I jumped to another rock. Much like the first, it had a chalky inside covered with the sweet moisture of the moss above. Though it seemed my first meal was hardly remarkable as far as rocks were concerned, I catalogued every detail in my mind and stored it away in memory.

  [Substance Eaten:

  Stone: 2/10 to ability unlock]

  Instinct raged against rational thought as part of me was startled by the sudden voice ringing in my thoughts. No creature attempted to sneak up on me, not that they could do so easily with my 360 degree vision. Seeing no threat, my instincts relaxed, letting rational thought consider the voice.

  It was familiar, as if I’d heard it once in a dream. The woman’s voice was comforting, and filled with wisdom.

  Is this the one who created me?

  It must have been. No other being would be so familiar and comforting to me. Gingerly, I reached out with my mind. It was as if I’d done so a hundred times, reaching out to the voice and asking it for information.

  [Name: ????; Lesser Guardian Slime, Tier 2

  Status:

  Health: 22/22

  Mana: 46/46

  Injury Index: 1 - No injury detected

  Stats:

  Might: 5

  Resilience: 6

  Agility: 4

  Versatility: 9

  Affinity: 8

  Presence: 7

  Abilities: —]

  Stop there, I begged, my mind already swimming with numbers. I was only a slime, a species not known for its mental capacity. In fact, most slimes—and likely myself until a few minutes ago—didn’t even have enough intelligence to define it as a word, let alone use it in a sentence. They were creatures of pure hunger lurking in the dark corners of caves and dungeons, just in time to leap out at their unsuspecting prey.

  Making sense of what I’d been told took a moment, during which time I ate another chalk-flavored rock. As my slime ate through the stone, it became easier to think and understand.

  I was a slime, which seemed more than a little obvious to me. As a slime, I was made of magic, which was why my health was far less impressive than my mana. Despite being a Tier 2 monster instead of Tier 1, I wasn’t particularly strong or resilient, and my speed and ability to perform dexterous tasks was about what you’d expect from a creature with no legs, arms, fingers, or tail.

  However, where my true strength lay was in magic. [Affinity] determined my skill with magic, and with my exceptionally high [Versatility], I could be or do anything I wanted. All it took was practice. However, I didn’t understand [Presence] at all. Luckily for me, the Voice of the Creator was more than happy to answer.

  [Presence: This stat represents a creature’s ability to naturally command a room. Creatures with high Presence have traits that compel others to notice them in social situations, such as an intimidating aura, a charismatic demeanor, or an adorable nature. This stat does not represent a creature’s skill in interacting with others.]

  What an odd stat for a slime to have. While I understood the reasons behind high [Affinity] and high [Versatility], the reasons behind my high [Presence] eluded me. I ate another rock as I contemplated the answer, but still nothing came.

  [Substance Eaten:

  Stone: 4/10 to ability unlock]

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I hopped ahead, still trying to puzzle out the mystery of presence. During my travel, I measured time in objects eaten. Having thoroughly investigated the stones that dotted the forest, I turned to the plants. They had a sweet taste, but were lacking in any meaningful mana. Despite eating almost five times my weight in various grasses, bushes, and leaves, it didn’t seem like I was all that much closer to any sort of ability unlock from plants. However, just as I wiggled my slime in jealous frustration, something round streaked through a nearby bush and slammed into my side membrane.

  A surprise attack?! A predator trying to eat me?!

  Two could play that game. It’s an eat or be eaten world, and I wasn’t about to let some random predator out-eat me. In an instant, my slime engulfed the round thing. Acid sizzled as it ate into the hard outer shell, revealing a soft inside of squishy material that tasted awful and left bits of thread floating around in my slime. Though the threads were gone a moment later, for a brief moment, a horrible itching permeated my slime. Then, the round thing was gone, and I squished myself down, ready to strike at the predator as soon as it showed its face.

  [Substance Eaten:

  Child’s toy 1/1 - Requirement for evolution progressed]

  Huh?

  A child’s toy? Like, human children? Did that mean it wasn’t a predator’s projectile after all?

  And what did she mean “requirement for evolution progressed?”

  [Unlike humans—who gain experience from slaying monsters—monsters evolve after fulfilling qualitative requirements. Accomplishing certain feats, consuming certain types of mana, or visiting certain locations can all contribute to the requirements for an evolution path. ]

  Okay, so what path did I just progress?

  [Evolution path: Unknown, Tier 3

  Requirements:

  Consume Child’s Toy: completed

  Consume Man-made tools/weapons: 0/5

  Unknown: 0/5

  Unknown: 0/5

  Unknown: completed

  Note: Unknown requirements may be revealed through research, introspection, and experimentation.]

  Part of me wanted to know more. After all, power is what separates the greater slimes from the fodder slimes, and the last thing I wanted was to be eaten by something stronger than me.

  However, the Voice had made it clear that I would need to figure out the rest on my own. The unknown requirements were worrying, but I’d already completed one of them. I might not have known anything about how I did it, but there was hope that I could figure it out in time. Who knows, I could be the next big monster in the forest.

  “Samri! Why did you throw it so far? You’re so mean!” a girl’s voice called from somewhere beyond the bush that had spit out the round thing.

  The girl was answered by a boy’s laughter. “Tanev! It’s not my fault you didn’t catch it!”

  “I’m not going over there. You have to go get it,” the girl said with a huff. I could just imagine her stamping a foot in frustration.

  “Why do I have to do it?”

  “Because I’ll cry and tell dad it was your fault.”

  “You wouldn’t,” the boy challenged.

  “I would.”

  Another boy stepped in between the arguing children. “Come on, Samri. It can’t have gone far. We’ll just grab it and head home. It’s getting late, anyway.”

  The abrasive boy paused for a long moment before eventually saying. “Fine. But only because Tanev’s a crybaby.”

  “Am not! I just don’t want to get eaten by wolves.”

  “There aren’t any wolves this close to town!”

  Shuffling feet through grass heralded the child that stepped through the greenery a moment later. He was a human child…or at least I assumed as much since they were looking for the “Child’s Toy” I’d eaten. In truth, I couldn’t tell if he was two years old or twenty, since this was the first human I’d ever seen.

  Golden fire curled inside his chest, like a tiny dragon sleeping in its hoard. His mana hadn’t awakened yet, but it proved that he had the potential to wield magic, if he were ever to train with it.

  “Whoa,” he breathed, blinking at me several times as he beheld my shape on the ground. “Is that a slime? Jaden, come see this!”

  The more mild-mannered boy stepped into view. His mana shone like lightning in his chest, but was no more awakened than the first boy.

  “I didn’t think slimes came this far from Dragon’s Gate,” the new boy, Jaden, mused.

  The first boy knelt and grabbed a stick off the ground. “Dad said they can travel long distances given enough time.”

  “This thing? No way! It doesn’t have wings or legs!”

  I…didn’t really know what to do with this situation. I didn’t want to hurt them. They didn’t seem hostile and genuinely seemed fascinated by my mere existence.

  Am I really that amazing?

  It was a new concept, this idea that I was exceptional. I couldn’t remember the times I’d met other slimes, though surely I must have at some point. We weren’t an uncommon species. Something in my core told me that I must have been better than the rest, since I was a Tier 2 slime, not a lesser Tier 1. That alone made me superior to my unintelligent brethren.

  The stick jabbed hard into my membrane and I recoiled. The blow never came close to piercing my slime or damaging my core, but that didn’t make it comfortable.

  “I don’t think it liked that,” Jaden said.

  “It’s alright. Dad said slimes can’t feel.”

  That was just so wrong on so many levels that I had to correct him. Without fully knowing how I did it, I projected my mana, using it in combination with vibrations within my slime to make words like the humans used.

  “Well, I can feel, so please don’t poke me.”

  Both boys shrieked in surprise before reeling back. In an instant, the stick-bearing child and his friend had scrambled back through the bushes and out of my sight.

  “Back so soon? And distinctly without the ball?” the girl’s voice scolded.

  “It’s…It’s…Don’t go in there!” Jaden stammered.

  “Oh, really? Did you find the wolves I said could be there?”

  “No! Tanev, it’s waaay worse than wolves!”

  Curiosity urged me forward. These children were something new. I’d never dealt with children before, since slimes didn’t reproduce and didn’t have much of a juvenile stage. Though I didn’t remember it, I was certain that I’d popped out of a pocket of extra dense magic, fully formed as a Tier 1 slime, ready to eat my way to Tier 2.

  I might not get a chance to observe children in the wild like this. Taking in a few leaves as I did, I pushed my way through the bushes and into the clearing beyond where three children argued.

  The girl, Tanev, crossed her arms. Her hair was pulled into two tails that cascaded down her shoulders, and her inner magic looked cold, like the frost that forms at a cave mouth in winter. Her eyes were piercing as she scowled at the boys, who were both hunched and wide-eyed with fear.

  As I appeared, the boys shrieked again, both retreating to the far side of the clearing in a few hasty steps. Tanev, however, didn’t move. She watched me carefully, her arms unfolding. Rather than move away, she moved closer, kneeling next to me. I kept quiet, not wanting to frighten her the way I’d done the boys.

  “It’s so cute!” she breathed. “Samri! Is this what you’re so afraid of? It’s just a cute little slime!”

  “Little?” Samri protested, waving a new stick like a sword. “Tanev! That slime is at least twice as big as what dad said they were!”

  “Right, and who’s the crybaby now?” She reached out a gentle hand toward me.

  “Tanev! Don’t!”

  She didn’t listen. With a gentle finger, she tapped my upper membrane. Her hands tasted cold, just like her magic. My slime jiggled, and her eyes went wide.

  “It’s so squishy!” she squealed. “And what a lovely color! Maybe Dad will let us keep it!”

  “You want to keep a monster in our house?!”

  “I bet it makes a nice pillow, and a good friend to hug on bad days.” She tapped my top again and flashed her teeth when I wobbled again.

  Samri ran a hand through the scruffy hair on top of his head. “Tanev, as your older brother, I can’t let you take that slime home. Where are you going to say you found it? We’re not supposed to be out here! He’ll kill us both!”

  “Mother always said to be compassionate to creatures big and small.”

  “That doesn’t mean pick up a slime and take it home!” He took a deep breath. “Tanev, you’re nine. You don’t—”

  “And you’re only twelve, so don’t pretend to be an expert of the world.”

  With gentle hands, Tanev reached out and grasped my slime. She lifted, picking me up. I made sure to keep my membranes firm and my slime viscous enough to maintain my shape as she cradled me between her arms. She squealed once more, a sound I could only assume was gleeful as she didn’t seem inclined to put me down any time soon.

  “Look at its little core! It’s like a little emerald inside a bowl of green jelly!”

  I didn’t know why, but something about the way she held me and praised me filled my core with happiness. Maybe this was what [Presence] did. She seemed convinced that I was the cutest being known to man, and I hadn’t said a word.

  Something about that just seemed right. I was cute. Someone else had said that before. If that person had said so, and Tanev agreed, then surely it must be true.

  “Come on! Let’s go home and show dad!” With a twirl and a squeeze, she skipped away, holding me tight as she did.

  “She’s going to doom us all,” Samri grumbled.

  Jaden nodded as they began to follow. “Your dad’s going to kill you.”