Slimes & Magic

4. Food! Wait what

The trio sits down around the campfire with each a boar in hand. Taking out their hunting knives May, Carl, and Elvan start skinning the boars. "*We want to skin these boars properly, the better the quality of the skin the more we should be able to sell them for once we get back to a town.*" Explains May to Alex as she is carefully cutting off the skin while showing Alex what she is doing. "*We start off with a cut from the neck all the way down the stomach, then moving on to the legs, cutting off the side of the stomach, and finally off the back right up to the neck.*" Cutting a ring around the neck of the boar the three of them each pull off the boars skins with only the heads remaining intact. "*aaaand done*" Says Carl as he finished up on his boar. "*Now all that is left is to dice up the meat so we can kook it up later.*"

Watching as they work Alex can tell that the three of them have done this many times before. Very little of the meat from the boars was wasted on the bones and all of the cuts of meat almost look like they were done by professionals. As they finished chopping up the meat May takes out a large leather bag and dropped all the meat from the boars in to it filling it up. Standing up with his hunting knife in hand Elvan says "*Now that that's all done ill go and check the traps, see if we caught us some meat for dinner*". Replying May says "*ill pull out the pot then, fill it with water quickly before you go would you. Carl could you light up the fire for me?*" As each of them gets to work on making dinner Alex decides to go back in to the forest to do an experiment. Remembering seeing a fallen log close to the edge of the clearing Alex hops over back to it. Knowing that the slime stomach is able to compress things down, hoping to be of some more help to camp Alex hopes to take back the fallen log so they can all sit on something around the campfire. Now taking a better look at the log Alex isn't sure that they would be able to fit the log in their stomach at all. Slightly worried, Alex goes over to one end of the log and starts absorbing it, slowly crawling forward as more and more of the log is compressed in their stomach. Pleasantly surprised the log does fit in Alex's slime stomach, they jump back to campsite where both May and Carl are now working on what looks to be a stew. "*Oh there you are, we were wondering where you went off to.*" Carl says as he sees Alex jumping back. *So, what were you up to?* As a response to Carl's question Alex lands next to the campfire and spits out the log aiming it to lie next to the fire. "*Well ill be damned! How in the world is a log that size able to fit inside of a small guy like you huh?*" Says Carl, looking equally surprised as May. "*Though don't you think that its a bit big to be firewood?*" Slightly confused by Carls question Alex hops on to the log so sit in front of the fire. Hoping that the two of them are able to pick up on his intentions Alex finds a comfortable spot to sit in on the log. Looking back at the two adventurers Alex sees a wave of understanding wash over May's face. "*No silly, that's not for fire-wood. Alex brought that for us to sit on!*" May says as she walks over and sits down on the log next to Alex. "*How thoughtful of you.*" she says while patting Alex on his head. "*Hey Elvan, look what Alex brought us! They went to the forest and picked it up and spit it out back here for us to sit on.*" May calls out as Elvan walks in to the clearing with two rats hanging in one hand and a snake in the other. "*Oh that's lovely. But wait, did you say Alex spit the log out? How?*" Says Elvan with a surprised look on his face matching those that May and Carl had. "*We aren't sure either, it just appeared out of them.*" May replies. "*Oh well, maybe Alex has access to some form of storage magic. Either way, I did catch some meat for our stew*" Elvan says lifting up the rats. "*Normally I would leave the snake be but I thought we could give it to Alex to eat since they will be staying with us.*" Elvan put down the dead snake next to Alex on the log, "*don't eat it up just yet ok? Wait a bit for our stew to finish too.*" He says sitting down on the log as well, quickly taking the skin off the two rats and dropping the ripped pieces of meat in to the stew that May had been making. "*Now we just need to wait a couple of minutes until the meat cooks up and the veggies get soft*" May says as she too sits down on the log.

While they wait on the stew the three discuss their plans for the following day looking at a map. Alex hops on to May's lap while they talk and looks in to the cooking fire. They had just been born in to this world in the morning, had made great friends by complete chance, and because of that was able to learn more about the world. Even being able to level up while helping out the three of them hunt some boars. Alex really does consider themselves lucky having met these three. Thinking back Alex realises they never actually checked what the level up message meant. Through a feeling of instinct Alex is able to make a box appear in their field of vision showing them their stats.

[Slime level 1+1 Stats:
Health: 5+5
Defence: 2+3
Strength: 3+3
Constitution: 3+2
Intelligence: 25+20
Agility: 2+4]

Initially Alex sees the box showing their base stats plus what they gained from their level up. After a brief moment however the numbers change to show Alex's stats at level 2, taking a guess at what happened Alex thinks that every time that they look at their stats after having gained levels it initially shows the levels before the level up together with what it gained. Only changing to show the current stats after having seen by how much they increase.

[Slime level 2 Stats:
Health: 10
Defence: 5
Strength: 6
Constitution: 5
Intelligence: 45
Agility: 6]

"*Hey Alex, our dinner is done now, lets eat.*" May says looking down at Alex, pulling them back to reality. Hopping back on to the log next to their snake dinner, Alex watches as the trio each fills up a bowl of stew for themselves and sit down on the log next to them with a spoon in hand. "*Eat up!*" the three of them say right before they start eating, like some sort of announcement. "*We always say that right before we eat, not sure why though*" May clarifies in between spoons of her stew," *you go ahead too*". Scooting over to the snake that Elvan had now set on a plate for Alex, they hop right on top of it. First the snake simply floats into Alex's slime body for a moment, then given the choice between storage and absorbing, it gets absorbed as nutrients. Not expecting the message to appear Alex hops in surprise when they see it [Snake absorbed as nutrients. Skills learned through absorbing: Venom bite, slide, & Slime transform.] "*Are you alright Alex?*" May asks in a worried tone, surprised by Alex's sudden hop. With a slight hesitation Alex jumps up twice for May saying that they are ok. Curious as to what these new skills are, Alex makes each appear in the same way as the stats. skill; venom bite gives the user the ability to inject venom in to any target that it bites, not sure to how this skill would be useful to a slime who doesn't have a mouth to bite anything with Alex looks at the skill; slide, which self evidently allows the user to slide over the ground for a certain distance given a push. Finally the skill that interests Alex the most, skill; slime transform, is a skill that is naturally available to slimes if they absorb something, giving them the ability to transform into said thing given that the slime is big enough to do so. Impressed by this new skill Alex excitedly jumps next to May, who had just set down her bowl having finished her stew. "*What's up little guy, you seem excited about something, was it the snake? Did you like it?*" May asks happily as Alex jumps into her hands. All three of them now looking at Alex as they have been brought to eye level by May. Activating the skill; slime transform Alex shrinks a bit and then turns in to a small snake, almost identical to the one they absorbed. "*WOAH!!!*" The three of them say in surprise as they all lean in closer to have a look at the now snake Alex. Proud of themselves, Alex slithers around in circles in May's Hands while the others look at them. "*Alex looks almost the same as that snake that I gave them, maybe with a slight greener highlight on the scales*" Says Elvan. "*Yeah you're right, I'd say the same size too, like 30 to 40 centimetres*" comments Carl. A small gasp comes from May, "*Wait Alex, hold still and look at me for a moment*" she says as she brings Alex closer to her face. Alex curiously tilts their head a bit to the side," *Aw that's cute*" May smiles," *but look at this guys. Alex, you have golden eyes! The snake definitely didn't have gold eyes!*" Not sure what she means Alex tilts their head to the other side. "*This mean's you are extra special Alex!*" She says excitedly, "*Golden eyes on a creature are known to be a sign of uniquely high intelligence. We couldn't tell before in your slime form because you didn't have any distinct eyes, but like this we can see them! You are extra special AND extra smart!!*" Now understanding her meaning Alex does remember their intelligence stat to be far above the rest. The two guys now too look at Alex's eyes in turn with a new-found respect in their eyes. "*No wonder you were able to keep up with what we were doing today, you must be as smart as we are!*" Says Carl in awe. Matching May's excitement Alex makes another round on her hands before stretching over to her cheek and rubbing against it with their little snakes head. May says giggling, "*Aww thanks Alex, I'm happy too! You know what Alex, I think you should become a permanent member of our group, You really are too precious you cutie.*" "*I agree with May here, I'd be happy to have you join the team Alex!*" says Elvan. "*Absolutely!*" Agrees Carl, "*you'd be awesome with skills like these. What do you say Alex, want to become a permanent team member?*" Overjoyed with their reaction Alex nods vigorously with their little snake head. Quickly transforming back in to their former slime self Alex hops on to May's stomach accidentally knocking her over, falling down the back of the log together to lie on her back. With everyone now laughing and giggling May tells Alex "*Welcome to the team little guy!*"

After a couple minutes of laughing together the trio got up from the log and the ground and started cleaning up their dishes from dinner. Alex now in the smaller snake form going around with May around her shoulders watching happily as they cleaned up. Chatting together afterwards, talking about all the potential that Alex can bring to the team, everyone eventually becomes tired and they all agree to go to bed. As agreed the two guys are together on their tarp, and May and Alex have one for themselves. Both of them still very happy about the evening, Alex back as a slime huddles closer to May as she covers up with a blanket. She pulls Alex closer to her chest into a hug and everyone falls asleep excited to see what their following adventures will be like.