Rustle, rustle. Scurry, scurry.
I placed my weapons on the ground, holding my breath as I moved.
~Unidentified Information Log~
…
Fue Toukouya (Jewel Slime) has acquired the 〖Skill: Stealth〗.
…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before long, I could see the place where I had fought the Goblins earlier.
It was around here that I had heard human voices.
“ကြောက်စရာကောင်းပါတယ်”
“တစ်ဝက် စားရသည်။ နတ်ဆိုးသန္ဓေသား၏ လုပ်ငန်းဖြစ်သည်။?”
I carefully peeked from the bushes. There were four humans there, carrying weapons.
They had brightly colored hair, red and blue, which seemed to be common for humans in this world.
It seemed they were discussing the Goblins, surrounding them.
If I thought about it calmly, the way I killed them was quite bizarre, so they probably thought some dangerous entity was lurking around.
Literally, not a single part of them was left intact, and even from a distance, the corpses looked grotesque.
“အခုတော့ အိမ်ကို ယူသွားကြရအောင်။”
~Unidentified Information Log~
…
Fue Toukouya (Jewel Slime) has acquired the 〖Skill: Comprehension〗.
…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“That’s right.”
“(!?)”
As I listened to their conversation, I suddenly began to understand what they were saying.
The pronunciation itself was still in an unfamiliar, other-world language, but I could clearly grasp the nuances of what they were trying to convey.
Looking at my 〖Status〗, I saw that a 〖Skill〗 called 〖Comprehension〗 had been added. This must be the reason.
I could only understand what the other party was trying to convey, not what they were trying to hide, but in the current situation, it was a useful 〖Skill〗.
According to the information I got from 〖Comprehension〗, they seemed to be wondering who was responsible for the gruesome Goblin massacre.
Normal Demon Beasts wouldn’t kill like that, and if a human had done it, it was strange that the materials were left untouched, they were discussing.
The fact that the bodies were half-melted was also a source of confusion.
“Well then, let’s just take the materials back for now, okay?”
“We’ll keep watch around here, so let’s get this done quickly.”
“I’m counting on you. It might be related to the explosive clash of 〖Mana〗 this morning.”
They ended their conversation and began to strip the materials.
They decided to just report it to their superiors and gratefully take the materials.
…I, too, need to make a decision soon.
Whether or not to go out in front of the humans.
–Honestly, I was feeling lonely for human contact.
It had only been a day since I regained my memories, but even so, being alone in the forest was quite tough.
Even if I tried to act cheerful, there was a sense of loneliness somewhere in my heart, and that feeling grew stronger when I saw humans for the first time.
However, I held back.
I didn’t think I could build a friendly relationship if I went out.
“(Besides, I can’t even speak.)”
With 〖Comprehension〗, which I had acquired through listening, I could vaguely understand what the other party intended.
However, if I couldn’t speak, I would just be targeted as a Demon Beast.
No, if I were just targeted, that would be fine. I could just 〖Escape〗.
The worst-case scenario would be if Jewel Slimes were known as Demon Beasts with a lot of 〖Soul Shard (Experience)〗.
I would be chased no matter how much I ran, and there was even the possibility that rumors would spread and a large number of humans would come.
I had no intention of being killed silently, but I didn’t want to kill people either. I should swallow my longing for human contact.
So, I decided not to go out.
“My 〖Mana〗 is pretty depleted, so should we just head back for today?”
““”No objections!”””
After stripping the materials, the humans collected the Goblins’ weapons and turned back.
They were heading in the opposite direction from the bushes where I was hiding.
“(…I guess I’ll go too.)”
As if shaking off the slight lingering regret, I quickly returned to the place where I had left the axe and knife.
I was worried that they might have been taken by Goblins or humans, but the weapons were safely there.
“Sura-ra-ra!”
I was so happy that I swung my beloved axe around.
Because I was holding it by the end of the whip, I almost lost my balance due to the centrifugal force.
I need to be careful when using it in battle, yeah.
Then, I shouldered my weapons again and began exploring the forest.
Thanks to 〖Transportation〗, the weight of the weapons wasn’t a problem. This 〖Skill〗 had the effect of reducing the load from the transported items.
Oh, and speaking of 〖Skills〗, I had acquired another new 〖Skill〗 earlier.
It was 〖Stealth〗. It seemed to be able to reduce the presence of sounds and smells.
I honestly didn’t know if Slimes had a smell, but being able to silence myself was a bonus.
So, I began my exploration while activating 〖Stealth〗.
“(Any prey around?)”
I raised my axe and played the Namahage.
I hadn’t encountered any Demon Beasts at all, and my tension was getting weird.
I learned that if you want to meet something, you won’t, I realized.
Now, even though I say prey, what I wanted to target this time were Demon Beasts that were a little higher 〖Level〗 than me.
〖Lesser Beasts〗 would be safe and appreciated, but at this point, 〖Greater Beasts〗 would be fine too.
Probably, even if it was a 〖Greater Beast〗, it would be difficult for it to penetrate my 〖Toughness〗.
By the way, herbivorous small animal-type Demon Beasts were very wary, and even if I used 〖Stealth〗, they would quickly sense me and run away, so I couldn’t hunt them.
Hunting those was the domain of Demon Beasts with high 〖Speed〗.
Well, as I continued my search, a Demon Beast appeared.
Its appearance was–
“(…Eh, a Crayfish…? No, a Centaur… ?)”
–It had a bizarre appearance, like a combination of a Crayfish and a Centaur.