It had been two weeks since the extermination request for the Moon Kobold was posted.
At first, many adventurers were enthusiastic about hunting the Moon Kobold.
However, by the end of the first week, that enthusiasm gradually faded.
The adventurers searched diligently for the Moon Kobold.
They thoroughly searched all areas near where the roars were heard.
But they could not find the Moon Kobold in the end.
The most suspicious trace was found on the first day of exploration.
When they saw a tree deeply scratched with claw marks, they thought the prey must be nearby.
Especially since there was a cave right nearby!
That’s why the adventurers thoroughly investigated and searched the area.
They entered the dark cave and even waited near it for several days, but the Moon Kobold never appeared.
Other adventurers, thinking it might have relocated, quickly expanded the search area, but they couldn’t find a trace of it.
They had hoped to make easy money by catching a relatively low-rank monster, but only wasted time and effort in vain.
Unaware that a slime had already taken down the Moon Kobold on the night of the roar, the adventurers were left empty-handed.
Meanwhile, during those two weeks, the Godrick Party and the slime each achieved great success.
First, while other adventurers were fixated on the Moon Kobold, the Godrick Party steadily hunted orcs and other D-rank monsters to build their record.
Although they didn’t fight many monsters directly, the Godrick Party gained a variety of experiences as mercenaries.
And with the slime’s support, D-rank monsters weren’t difficult opponents.
As a result, the Godrick Party was now on the verge of taking the C-rank promotion test.
And as for the slime’s major achievement—
[Shop Function Unlocked]
It was the unlocking of the shop function.
Aside from the troublesome Moon Kobold, the kobold had introduced monsters near the city.
In particular, monsters that would allow the slime to earn coins.
Of course, they only went out at night.
And only to monsters within range that the slime could defeat and return from by dawn, considering its speed.
The slime was happy to quickly find monsters that would yield coins.
‘As expected, my knowledge isn’t outdated!’
Troll rejoiced in the fact that even after 30 years, he wasn’t obsolete.
Though the monsters didn’t yield as many coins as the rare Moon Kobold, they still gave 2 or 3 coins each time they were defeated.
By continuing to defeat such monsters at night, the slime finally accumulated 100 coins and was able to open the shop.
The shop notification that popped up at midnight made the slime bounce with joy.
▷Shop! I got it!
▶👏👏👏👏
▶ 👏👏👏👏👏
[Noblesse Fire]▶What, you only just got it?
[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶On the contrary, now’s the time to be praised. This is why unsympathetic, shut-in, neckbeard dragons are useless.
[Noblesse Fire]▶You punk! Coming back after a long time just to start a fight?
[Squishy Queen]▶My kin! What! What kinds of skills can you buy?
The viewers were curious about which skills the slime could buy from the shop.
Because the list of items sold in the shop differed from monster to monster.
What you could buy in the shop were essentially the skills you didn’t choose or couldn't obtain due to missing some small condition—available for purchase with coins.
The slime opened the shop and looked over the list of skills.
[Poison Creation: 5 coins]
[Antidote Creation: 5 coins]
[Devour: 10 coins]
[Bounce Jumping: 10 coins]
[Hardening: 15 coins]
[Tentacle Creation: 20 coins]
[Glow: 5 coins]
‘So many!’
Boing! Boing!
The slime was thrilled by how many skills were available in the shop.
▶What the heck? It’s jumping like crazy.
▶ Seems like more came out than expected?
▶ Tell us, tell us, tell us, tell us, tell us.
Responding happily to the viewers’ requests, the slime shared the list of available skills in its shop.
▶These are just right for a slime to have.
▶What’s Hardening?
▶Wait a sec! What is Hardening?
▶ It’s a skill that hardens the body to deal more damage with physical attacks like body slams!
▶Too much detail lol
Looking at the skill list, the slime thought hard.
Which one should it get?
‘Should I just buy them all?’
Currently, the slime had 85 coins.
Buying all the skills in the shop would cost a total of 70 coins.
It could buy them all.
But the slime decided not to rush into it and asked the chat first.
Because the viewers in the chat likely knew more than it did.
▷Should I buy them all?
▶Full purchase? lololol
▶ 🤩Go all in!!!
[Squishy Queen]▶What are you saying about going all in! Silence, you fools! My kin! You must never rashly buy all the skills!
▷Why?
Although innocent, the slime had learned from observing the chat how to distinguish jokes from genuine advice.
So it responded to the words of the Slime Queen.
[Squishy Queen]▶Because we don’t know how many coins the next evolution might cost! Don’t overspend and ruin your future!
[Thread-Lady]▶That’s right~Squishy! It’s good to pick two skills you like for now and buy more later!
▶Nothing’s worse than running out of coins before your evolution and having to grind hard lol
‘I see!’
Accepting their advice, the slime decided to choose the skill it most wanted.
But to do that, it needed to know in detail what each skill did.
Apart from Poison Creation, Antidote Creation, and Hardening, which were easy to guess or had been explained in chat, the slime opened the detailed descriptions through the system.
[Devour: Expands body volume to absorb entities larger than itself.]
[Bounce Jumping: Consumes mana to enhance elasticity and perform a high jump. Can jump very high.]
[Tentacle Generation: Creates tentacles that can move freely. Consumes mana to regenerate tentacles or to extend them beyond a certain length.]
[Glow: Emits light beyond a certain intensity. Can emit stronger light by consuming mana.]
Thanks to the detailed explanations, the slime was able to understand what each skill did.
And after reading the descriptions, the slime chose the skill it wanted.
‘I want this one!’
***
Having obtained a new skill, the slime was overcome with the desire to brag about it immediately.
Of course, it didn’t want to boast to just anyone, only to those it considered close.
While the Godrick Party was on the move after receiving an orc extermination request—
The slime confirmed that there were no other humans nearby using its detection skill, then jumped off Def’s head.
Boing!
“Huh? Tongtong, what’s wrong?”
“What the— Is a monster coming?”
Def looked puzzled as the slime suddenly jumped down from his head, and Godrick became alert to their surroundings.
That was because monsters often appeared when the slime suddenly leapt down.
But this time, the slime wasn’t reacting to a monster’s presence.
It was just eager to show off its new skill.
The slime bounced in circles around the Godrick Party.
“What’s this? Why is it acting like this?”
“Pfft, does it want to play?”
“Tongtong, let’s play later. We’re in the middle of a quest right now.”
After confirming everyone’s attention was on it, the slime suddenly stopped and bounced in place.
Boing! Boing! Boing!
After bouncing a few times to warm up—
‘Bounce Jumping!’
Using mana, the slime increased its elasticity and leapt high into the air.
Boo~yoing~!
The slime suddenly shot upward.
It soared well above the treetops and kept going even higher.
“Whoa!?”
“T-Tongtong!”
“What is that?!”
“Flying slime...”
“Now’s not the time for nonsense, Hawane!”
The Godrick Party was left speechless as they watched the slime leap into the sky.
Sure, it was good at jumping and ramming into monsters before, but no one expected it to jump that high.
And moments later—
Boing! Boing! Boing!
After landing, the slime bounced several more times in place due to its elasticity.
‘Amazing, right?!’
The slime leaned its body slightly backward as if asking for praise.
The first to pick up on that was Def.
“A-Amazing, Tongtong!”
As soon as Def praised it, the slime jumped onto his shoulder and vibrated.
“Hehehe, i-it tickles, Tongtong.”
Normally, it would have gone back to his head from there.
But one compliment wasn’t enough for the slime.
Sliding down from Def’s shoulder, it then climbed onto Hawane’s.
“Huh? Why are you on my shoulder—”
“Hawane! Tongtong wants more compliments!”
“Pfft, me too? Alright. That was awesome, Tongtong.”
Brrrrrrrr!
As if confirming Def’s words were correct, the slime vibrated happily on Hawane’s shoulder.
Then it moved on to Godrick’s shoulder.
“Yeah, yeah, that was really amazing.”
Understanding the pattern, Godrick patted the slime on his shoulder and praised it.
Brrrrrrrr!
Only one person remained—Skol.
Boing!
“Do I have to do it too?”
“It’s not like you’ll run out of compliments. Just do it and get it over with, Skol.”
“Tch, fine, boss. You’re amazing! Incredible, incredible!”
Brrrrrrrr!
“Ahh! That tickles!”
Having received praise for its new skill, the slime was overjoyed.
But it still wasn’t satisfied.
There was one more skill it had yet to show.
That evening—
Def urgently knocked on the doors of Godrick, Hawane, and Skol.
“Boss! Hawane! Skol! Come quick!”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Hehe, something’s up.”
“Ugh, what now?!”
“C-Come to my room!”
Gathering the three in his room, Def pointed to his bed.
“Look at this!”
He gently lifted the bulging bedsheet.
And of course, underneath it was the slime.
The sudden reveal of the slime under the covers puzzled the three.
“Why’s Tongtong in there?”
“Tongtong! D-Do it again, that thing!”
‘Okay!’
Responding to Def’s words—
Vvvvvvvv!
The slime began to emit light.
It was the other skill it had chosen alongside Bounce Jumping—
Glow.
“Look! T-Tongtong is glowing!”
Jumping high was one thing.
But emitting light was something they never saw coming.
“What even is this thing?!”
Unable to process what was happening, Skol was stunned.
“...Ghhk, it’s a glow-in-the-dark slime.”
This time, even Godrick couldn’t argue with Hawane’s comment.
He simply said—
“I don’t even know if it’s a slime or some other kind of monster anymore.”
***
The next day—
‘I showed off! Got lots of praise!’
The slime, thrilled from showing off its new skills and receiving plenty of praise, was in a fantastic mood.
It had chosen Bounce Jumping out of a desire to jump higher and see more of the world.
Glow reminded it of Jessie reading books to it by lamp light back at the Ludendion mansion, which sparked fond memories.
Receiving praise made the slime want to gather more coins.
More coins meant more skills.
And more skills meant more chances to be praised.
Among those it wanted praise from were, of course, the Godrick Party—and Jessie, whom it hoped to meet again someday.
And as the slime basked in its happy thoughts—
“Today’s finally the day, everyone.”
“Yes, boss!”
“Let’s go for that C-rank promotion!”
The Godrick Party was burning with motivation for the C-rank advancement test.