Alright, Slade. Pull yourself together! the slime thought.

Slade and his fellow pawn were the third and fourth wheel. They witnessed the lovely moments of intimacy between Shaki and Milia in silence.

He was exploding in frustration from being excluded. It felt so lonely that he felt bonding with the pawn, fondly renaming it “Broglodyte”.

Yes, he wasn’t from this world. But neither were Milia and Shaki.

“Kshiii” a beholder patrolled in front of the hole where Slade was hiding. Reaching the end of the corridor, it turned left.

Each day sucked Slade deeper into Hekalys, his new magical world.

He was no longer interested in worrying about the rent, going to job interviews or answering 56 missed phone calls.

I’ll get those girls out from this predicament, and I’ll earn the recognition I deserve! he thought.

His heart had a single wish: to fit in. He couldn’t care less about which world it was.

That’s why, he proved his usefulness by scouting ahead.

Slade waited for the beholder to disappear from his sight, and crawled back into a hole. He latched around Milia’s eyes.

[All clear, you can get out.] he wrote on his body.

Milia, Shaki and Broglodyte emerged from the small passage, sighing in relief.

“Thank god, I was scared that you would fart on my face considering all the grass you ate,” Shaki said.

Milia snatched an unused spear from her fellow rook.

“I’m sure you would have liked it,” Milia chortled while Shaki grimaced.

[The right path goes upwards at about 2°, but a beholder went in that direction.]

Slade surprised himself about how accurate he was able to sense his internal state.

Milia relayed Slade’s advice to her allies.

They walked stealthily, catching up with the patrolling enemy. 

“It’s going to turn back. Let’s ambush it at the corner,” Shaki said.

They waited, praying that there would be no other enemy flanking them from behind. Milia threw nervous glances behind. Her fingers squeezed her spear, as her parched throat tightened.

Slade wrote a countdown on his back.

[10… 9…]

The minotaur took deep breaths as she stood in readiness.

Finally, the countdown reached zero.

[Attack now!]

The woman’s head morphed into one of a cow. Her arms bulged out, a coat of fur wrapping them. She leaped onto the startled beholder, raising her spear in the air.

The tip slipped on the center of its eye because of her low accuracy in the dark. 

Fortunately, her bulky body slammed the beholder into the wall, and her spear managed to puncture the side of the beholder.

Pinned against the wall, the monster was about to scream. Instead, he only let out a gurgling sound as Shaki shoved her spear into its mouth.

In a last act of resistance, the beholder raised its tentacle. But Shaki’s guard gave the coup de grace with a thrust of his spear, straight into its brain.

Good job, broglodyte!

Milia threw the lone enemy onto the ground, and the party repeatedly stabbed the monster.

Slade jumped onto the corpse, absorbing it.

“Fu… I expected to one-shot it,” Milia said.

“Our flint spears don’t do nearly enough damage. It’s a good thing we kept the troglodyte with us,” Shaki said.

It took a minute for Slade to wipe away any trace of the beholder’s existence.

[Beholder form unlocked.]

They had no time for celebration, fearing they’d be caught from behind. And thus, the party resumed their escape towards the surface.

The corridors got wider and their elevation steeper. It was a good sign that they were heading to the surface.

After a couple of turns, Slade shuddered as he peeked out.

[Go back. Get away! Quick!]

The party jumped in fright as Milia scampered.

“Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope-” she said under her breath.

[It was an open room. There were about twenty beholders out there. They are probably cutting off our escape routes.]

They reconsidered their course of action after getting away.

“It’s depressing. How many more enemies are there?” Shaki said.

“There’s no choice, let’s go deeper and find some food. We can lay low until they get tired of blocking the path,” Milia suggested.

Shaki agreed with the plan. It was safer than fighting the enemy head on.

As they explored the depths of the maze, they managed to avoid the patrolling enemies. Unfortunately, their efforts were unrewarding as they were stopped by a series of dead ends.

“It’s the last path...” Shaki said.

A pair of beholders were standing guard. They stared at the end of the corridor without leaving any opening.

The party huddled together for a strategic meeting.

Shaki: “We can’t reach them before they call for help.”

Milia: “I could try using my Avalanche skill, but…”

Broglodyte: “Gruuh?”

Shaki: “No, using you as a decoy is useless”

Slade (relayed by Milia): [We definitely can’t go with a frontal approach.]

Shaki: “Is there a way to sneak past them?”

Slade: [They are scrutinizing the end of the corridor. I thought that they almost spotted me.] 

Milia: “Can we lure them closer? Maybe we can ambush them.”

Shaki: “We almost failed the previous ambush. Is it possible to deal with two enemies at once?” 

They were stuck in the corridor, out of ideas.

Was this how Slade’s story ended?

No! Let’s pull out our skill list.

[Skills:

• Mana transfer lv.3
• Absorption lv.3
• Regeneration lv.1
• Alchemical Synthesize lv.4
• Shapeshift lv.3
• Skin Care lv.1
• Massage lv.1
• Symbiosis lv.3
• Appraisal lv.1
• Corruption lv.1
• Impregnation lv.1
• Dark vision lv.1
• First aid lv.1]

Alchemical Synthesize… Maybe a sleep gas?

No… It’ll affect my allies too. 

Shaki ruffled her hair, while Milia stared intently at the tip of the spear.

Shapeshift… Can I change my appearance to cover everyone and jump onto the enemies? No they almost noticed me when I was only peeking out.

“How about throwing our spear?” Milia asked.

“We can’t one shot them like that! And losing our weapon will make it even worse,” Shaki said.

As he mentally explored the options of Shapeshift, his floating scroll changed descriptions.

[Shapeshift (passive): Exert efforts and mana to change shape of the Slime form. Allows the user to seamlessly use skills learned from absorbed creatures in the Slime form.

• Slime: Alchemical synthesis, Symbiosis, Mana transfer
• Troglodyte: Darkvision
• Gnoll: -
• Beholder: -]

What? The skill had an active part?

[Shapeshift (active): Temporarily assume the body of an absorbed creature, mimicking its internal structures and material properties. 

Allows the user to use unlocked skills of that form.]

Slade examined the available forms. The large number of skills overwhelmed Slade. As he focused, the system read his mind, filtering out the unimportant skills.

[Troglodyte

• Learned: Darkvision
• Unlocked: Troglodyte Meatshield, Troglodyte tongue
• Locked: Stealth

Gnoll

• Unlocked: Gnoll Toughness, Common tongue
• Locked: Parry

Beholder

• Unlocked: Disintegration Ray, Beholder tongue, Common tongue, True Sight 
• Locked: Beholder Convergence]

Damn, can I learn all of these skills?

[Using skills from Shapeshift (active) increases mastery. 

Upon reaching 100% mastery, an Unlocked skill will be Learned.]

Slade nodded. He found the solution to advance deeper unto the maze.

[Guys, hear me out!] he wrote on Milia’s blindfold.

Milia perked up, tapping Shaki’s shoulder.

[We’ll separate. I will use Shapeshift to make a Beholder’s distress call. Hopefully, the guards will leave their post, then you’ll be able to sneak past.]

Milia relayed his ideas.

“Isn’t that thing too smart for a mere slime? Will it be able to regroup? You said that they almost noticed it,” Shaki asked back.

[It’s okay, I’ll think of something,] he wrote on the bandana.

“That’s fine, I trust it,” Milia nodded.

“But, the onion soup idea didn’t work...” Shaki mumbled.

“It’s okay, we’ll just run if it goes wrong,” Milia said.

They couldn’t come up with a better plan.

The party backtracked while Slade stayed alone.

He crawled up to the ceiling and spread thin to get across the intersection. He had to lure the enemies in the opposite direction of where his party was.

The beholders squinted their eyes, locking on him. The slime froze in its track. They obviously noticed something strange.

He attempted to slowly advance.

FUCK!