Aarav had never been so satisfied in his life. No, never in both lives! He currently sat on the cart that had brought the food and was now empty, all of the contents currently sitting comfortably in his body. Well, about eighty per cent of it at least. The other two had eaten some of it after all.

“By, Ursa, you can put it away!” Haemish exclaimed after a minute of nothing but watching the Slime endlessly devour morsel after morsel. Through his food coma, Aarav could see the look on both human faces. They were in awe of the Slime as they should be! I am a magnificent specimen.

The more time he spent as a Slime, the more he appreciated being one. Who wouldn’t want to be what he was? Incredible, flexible and above all, able to be anything he wanted to be. What was not to love about being a Slime.

He had easily exceeded the five kilos he needed to eat. If Aarav were a betting man, he would say he had doubled that. Never had he felt the bloated feeling of being full more than right now. “Woah, too much. I think I might be sick!” True to his words, there was a small amount of retching but nothing more. It was a gut reaction from his human days. Slimes don’t barf.

“Okay, stop that; you should learn to control yourself. You are behaving like an animal and a particularly greedy one from what I see.” Haemish retorted, and his expression said the Slime deserved what he got after behaving without civility.

“It will take me most of the night and tomorrow to digest all of this. I really need to exercise restraint.” Aarav said, more to himself than to the two people in the room.

“I would say that is an understatement, new friend!” Marasa laughed at the Slime’s predicament and the two men’s back and forth. Aarav saw the look she was giving both men and ignored it. He had more significant problems to deal with, literally.

“Right, well, I can’t do anything for at least an hour. Need to digest.” Aarav stumbled off the cart and almost fell to the floor on his head when his legs would not cooperate. “Urgh, wish I could learn to balance on these damn things.” Was it always this hard to balance on legs? It seemed to effortless as a human. But then Aarav reflected, you always started on all fours first.

“Haha, if you only knew how long it normally takes humans to manage that feat. You, my friend, are surprisingly adroit at it already. We start on hands and knees before we learn to walk, and you seem to be trying to go straight to walking!” Haemish chuckled again at Aarav's attempts.

“Ahh, maybe that’s the problem. Let me try that first. Aarav promptly got those knees and hands to touch the floor and shuffled along. Balancing on four points was much easier than trying two straight away. I suppose I should have known it would be a simple case of getting back to the basics. “Right, this is a lot easier! I wonder why we don’t just stay on all fours?”

“Haha, can you imagine being on all fours? Everyone would struggle to have a conversation! Anyway, we to walk on our legs because we are built that way, and it is the reason they are longer than our arms!” Haemish quickly replied.

Marasa was a little more contemplative. “You say that Haemish, but I wonder. If humans adapted that way? We find it odd to walk on all fours because we associate it with infants and childhood. Hmm, an interesting proposition Resh!”

Aarav had not intended to start a philosophical debate, but if Haemish to stop ribbing him, he would take it! “Hmm, yes, that is what I think, and as a non-human entity, I think I can provide some much-needed perspective on the topic.” The Slime said from the floor. It is hard to have a conversation like this; even with Haemish and Marasa seated, it was still an awkward angle. Aarav turned his head so that he was facing them, arms and legs sprawled out. He still had to look up at them, but the human range of motion norms didn’t bind him.

“Speaking of humans and infants. I wanted to ask you, Haemish. What is the average stat growth for humans? I have no context for the stats that I have, not knowing what the averages are and such.” Aarav finally remembered to ask a question that had been bothering him for a while now.

“Hmm, that is very difficult to say. There is much variation in what I know, and I have taken a tiny sample.” Internally Aarav cheered. Of course, Haemish would have an idea.

“Okay, just an average then. I just need a little context, is all.” Aarav quickly stated, egging the man on to divulge what he knew. It would be his way to gauge how he stacked up against regular people.

“Well, hmm, how to put this? Hmm, this is actually much harder than I thought it would be to try to get an idea.” Haemish tried to get the words out.

“Come on, Haemish, just an idea is all I need. I just want to see how I stack up with the average human, you know?”

“For world dominion, is it?” Haemish laughed again, and Marasa joined him.

“Yes, that is exactly why I need to know.” Aarav said in the driest tone he could muster. Aarav sighed.

“Yes, yes, oh alright. Let me put it like this. The average that I have seen for a human adult is around a hundred. Now bear in mind this is an oversimplification since stats are not everything. There are skill levels and other abilities to consider, and many of which you are unlikely to have to deal with right now.” Haemish began.

“Like Talents and Magic?”

“Like Talents and Magic.” Haemish agreed with a bit of surprise that Aarav knew of them. “How do you know about those? Do you have some Talents already? And Magic as well?”

“I heard some other people talking about it in the halls when I was coming back from taking the Soul Oath.” Aarav quickly lied; he should just keep his mouth shut.

“Ah, right.” Aarav wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he thought Haemish suspected he wasn’t being entirely honest. He continued regardless, and Aarav also let it be. “Regardless, as I was saying, on average, a human might have around fifteen hundred stat points distributed between the fifteen core stats. It is also possible for other stats to develop. One of those is Luck. A rare and powerful stat that can bring the owner a lot of good fortune, and some of the greatest men in existence have it!” Haemish finished with that exciting bit of trivia.

Yeah, it brought the owners a lot of Luck. Of course, it did! Aarav thought. Wait, did he say it was extremely rare? Aarav’s mind was reeling a little. But could it be that the gods had blessed him? He had received the luck stat very early on. And now, after six or seven months, it had built up to fifty. That was very slow going, but it had been up and down a lot.

“Interesting, okay that...” Aarav just realised the rest of what Haemish had said. One hundred in each stat on average! That meant he was below average, with only Intellect being at average. No way! So he was a complete weakling in the context of adult humans. “...sounds interesting.” He finished a little hoarser than usual.

Haemish frowned, clearly misunderstanding the Slime’s reaction because he said. “One hundred is only the minimum. People that work hard to improve their stats would have higher. As I said, skill levels and other things also come into play. Most people don’t improve their stats beyond one hundred in any category, and their skills take them beyond. Also, it is harder to get stats once you get to one hundred in any category.” Haemish finished with a flourish.

Aarav had no words. The absolute weakest of humans had an average of one hundred in each category. He was the lowest of them, more vulnerable than the most inferior human. Somehow in his mind, he had not expected the disparity to be so great. The Slime sighed. Why am I not surprised? It was the hand he was dealt, and now for the second time and in another life, he had the same hand. Why not this one as well? The role of the underdog was his. Once again, he would have to crawl his way to the top.