Chapter 2: EXP and Training

Exiting the pod, I meditated to calm my mind. Staying inside the pod would rest my body, but although not as much, the mind still works inside the game.

I’ll sleep for about two hours, then enter inside. It seems that the time conversion rate is at a 2:1 state, a scientifically proven healthy time change. Also, it seems that you can play in your sleep as the machine safely sends data without burdening your mind too much. Clearing the rest of my stress, I woke up and took care of my bodily needs.

After doing my business, I cooked a light meal. Today is Saturday, and also the first day of summer vacation. I have plenty of time to learn about the game during beta.

Going inside the VR Machine, I checked for any mail I had. Seeing mail about detailed information on the beta, I wondered why I didn’t get it with the first letter.

Reading the mail, it said about how the game would only fix a few glitches from beta period to official release. So the NPCs will remember even when the official release comes out. Great, now I can’t escape the village of monsters.

Well, maybe something good will happen. Entering the game, I appeared where I left off yesterday. Appearing on Kira’s bed, I saw that she was asleep as it was still early morning in-game.

A healthy boy would ogle the sight of a pretty girl in her pajamas, but considering my mentality I won’t be affected by something of this level. Plus I’m a slime now, so no human hormones.

As if she noticed my presence, Kira woke up and said to me, “Good morning.”

Taking care of her needs, which I politely turned away, she finished in about a few dozen minutes. Even in a game world, girls take time to put on their cosmetics. Picking me up, she said to me, “Come on, let’s go make you stronger. Speaking of which, what’s your name?”

Checking her skill windows, she read my name.

“Hmm, Vocal. What a weird name for a monster. Oh well, let’s make you stronger. For peak sake, how did a level 1 slime survive in the forest.”

Walking out, Jack greeted us, “Morning Kira, morning…”

“Vocal. His name seems to be Vocal.”

“Seems to? Is he a named monster.”

“I guess. When I checked the [Tamer] skill, it said that a Vocal was registered as my pet.”

“Oh. I guess you’re going out to train your new pet?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, stay near the low leveled areas. Come back for lunch.”

Taking some stuff, Kira picked me up and ran out the house. Running down the village, we were back at the forest where we met.

“Okay Vocal, just stay near me while I hunt some monsters. In no time, you’ll get a lot stronger than you are now.”

Running around, we quickly encounter a horde of twelve wolves.

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Common Grey Wolf Lv: 12

1200/1200

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Quickly destroying the enemies with her bare hands, I watched as my experience skyrocketed.

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Congratulations!

You leveled up!

You leveled up!

You leveled up!

You leveled up!

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Sharing some experience, the rest of the afternoon was spent with me on Kira’s head hunting out many of the wolf population.

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Coming back in the afternoon, I reviewed my current status. Earlier I took time distributing my stats. Considering my skills, I might as well for a balanced distribution for now.

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Name: Vocal

Level: 31

Class: None

Race: Slimen

Gender: Male

Health: 310

Health Regen: 52 / Min

Mana: 310

Mana Regen: 52 / Min

Titles:

[Game Master] [Kira's Pet]

STR: 52

AGI: 52

VIT: 52

DEX: 52

INT: 52

LUC: 52

Attack: 1-52

Spell Damage: 1-52

Defense: 52

Elemental Resistance:

Fire: 1%

Water: 1%

Earth: 1%

Wind: 1%

Light: 1%

Dark: 1%

Stat Points Available: 4

Skill Points Available: 0

EXP: 93%

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Seeing my stats, I felt pretty good until I remembered the level 12 wolf had around 600-700 health. Is a slime three times weaker than a wolf? Then how about a player? The more I grow, the more I find myself weaker than others. I can’t even equip japtem considering most japtem are either for Kira or made for humans.

While I was in my own world, I didn’t pay attention to Kira and Jack talk.

“So how is he.”

“Well he leveled up to Lv: 31, but he seems depressed that he’s weaker than other monsters.”

“Oh, how so?”

“Well you know the weakest monsters in the forest are the White Rabbit right. Well when I had Vocal fight one, it took almost a minute to defeat it.”

“So? The rabbits all have good reflexes so it’s hard to hit them.”

“Well, when Vocal caught the rabbit, he kinds wrapped around it so it couldn’t move. Them he started hitting it, but because his hits were so slow and weak it took a while to kill it, and that was when he was level 15.”

“Hmm, that would disappoint anyone to find out that no matter how much you level up, you won’t get a lot stronger.”

What they didn’t know was that Soula was trying to learn how to test out his new body in battle, so obviously for his first time he wouldn’t really rush it. But to both of them, a monster always have battle instincts and focus on quick kills, so such thinking was quite abnormal to them.

“Maybe we should make him train in higher leveled areas.”

“But what good will that do. We should just forget about him, you should worry about your training more.”

“NO! Uncle Jack, he’s just like me. If I was able to get to where I am today, then so can the weakest monster ever.”

Complicated feelings arose in Jack’s thoughts. He remembered how the cheerful girl in front of him literally couldn’t kill a fly a few years ago.

“...okay, take him to the higher leveled areas. But make him fight his own battles. Stats are important, but without proper skills then you can’t unlock the body’s full.”

“Thanks Uncle Jack.”

With that, it was decided that Vocal would be a bit more independent.

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Taking me out again, Kira took me to a new area. Going deeper into the woods, we went to another part of the forest. Here, there were large tall grass making it hard to tell where enemies would come from and what they would be.

“Okay Vocal, I want you to survive as best as you can. I’ll come pick you up in 5 days, so come back here on the morning of the fifth day. I don’t know if healing potions work on a slime, but here’s 10 Low-Health Potions.

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You received 10 Low-Health Potions.

You received a quest.

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Quest: Survive for 5 Days Alone

Description:

You have been sent to train by yourself to learn independence.

You have to survive for 5 days alone while defeating monsters.

Requirements:

Have a close relationship with Kira.

Goal:

Survive for 5 in-game days without dying.

Get stronger by fighting against monsters.

Failure: Die before the 5 days are up.

Failure to reach the designated spot by Kira.

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“Okay, see you later.”

Finally, I’m FREE. Or that’s what I would’ve said before I knew the potential of staying with Kira. For peak sake, I leveled up 30 times in less than a day, and I didn’t even have to work for it.

Then again, I guess I need some time to work out this body of mine.

Going around the tall grass was inconvenient, so I started to eat the grass as I moved around.

Maybe I should go to my human form. Using [Change Form], my slime body started turning into a human. My body was formed looking like my real life body. Luckily it seems that I got some clothes, or something that looks like clothes.

I use [Eidetic Mind] to recover my mana by speeding up my mana recovery.

With [Eidetic Mind] ending my stats returned to normal, but I noticed that my health was still at 10. Confused, I test the other skills of change form. So it seems that when all of my stats transfer to something other than VIT the health goes down to 10, but doesn't recover. Luckily [Slime Armour] also seems to fully heal my health.

Checking my body, it seems that I kept several traits as a slime. My body wasn't really flesh and blood, but more like a slime body that changed the exterior only.

Also my sight was still like a slime, with my mind focusing on all directions not limited to my eyes. Also I have a limited power to stretch my arms and legs like Mr. Fantastic.

This made me just a slime that looked like a human, or so I thought. Looking at my stats changed my mind.

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Name: Vocal

Level: 31

Class: None

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Health: 3100

Health Regen: 61 / Min

Mana: 3100

Mana Regen: 61 / Min

Titles:

[Game Master] [Kira's Pet]

STR: 61

AGI: 61

VIT: 61

DEX: 61

INT: 61

LUC: 61

Attack: 1-61

Spell Damage: 61

Defense: 61

Elemental Resistance:

Fire: 1%

Water: 1%

Earth: 1%

Wind: 1%

Light: 1%

Dark: 1%

Stat Points Available: 4

Skill Points Available: 0

EXP: 93%

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It seems that my base stats got better, with my health multiplied by 10.

With barely any clothing on me, I looked for some monsters to kill. Hopefully they’ll drop some japtem. Walking into the tall grass, I was looking for a rare Pokemon to capture so I could become the best trainer there ever was

…yeah right.

Then I ran into a couple of deers. Checking them out, I thought that maybe I could take them.

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Water Deer Lv: 45

4500/4500

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Trying to single out a single opponent from the others, I quickly pull out one of them into another part of the area. Taking just a few moments, I quickly crushed it’s throat. Thank god for my underworld skills including stealth and open-hand attacks.

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Congratulations!

You leveled up!

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Man, that thrill you get when doing some sort of accomplishment. Now let’s test something out. Pulling out another Water Deer, I repeat the same process as before, but right when it dies, I activate [Devil’s Luck] moving all of my stats to luck.

In other games, Luck determines a hidden factor in events as well as increase chance of critical hits and rare item drops.

When the deer died, a single ring dropped down near it’s corpse.

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Ring of Water [Rare]

A ring that's related to the Water Deers.

Restrictions:

Lv: 30

Equipped:

+ 100 HP

+ 10 AGI

+ 1% Water Resistance

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I knew it! Rings are one of the hardest equipment to find considering you can have up to one ring per finger. To find a rare ring like this so early in the game makes me quite lucky.

Equipping it, I start hunting the other deers using the same luck increasing trick. What I ended up with were a cape with decent DEF, three more of the same ring and also a new one.

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Deer Mottle Cloak [Common]

A cloak with the pattern of the Water Deer on it.

Durability: 8/10

Restrictions:

Lv: 25

Equipped:

+ 7 AGI

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Ring of Elder Water Deer [Unique]

A ring related to the Water Deers, it belongs only to several of their kin.

Restrictions:

Lv: 32

Equipped:

+ 150 HP

+ 15 AGI

+ 5% Water Resistance

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A unique item! What an incredible find. Usually unique items are so hard to find unless you’ve played the game for quite a while, and I only played for a few days.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the item ranking list goes like this: Common, Rare, Unique, Ancient, Artifact, Legendary, and Divine. In all of the games made so far, the top players always have at least Artifact level gear. Only incredibly fortunate people could find a divine weapon.

Equipping the items, I felt the increase in AGI and VIT when fighting against the Water Deers, but they’re too weak. I need to train my combat skills, so I should stop fighting these docile deers before I forget myself. But seriously, although I did get pretty rare items, how come I didn’t find a normal item like a sword or armour.

Well, I leveled up a few times. Let's go somewhere else.

Moving around, I noticed that it was near night time. During nighttime, the daytime monsters would sleep and the nocturnal monsters would appear. Only some monsters can be seen at night, so hunting during nighttime is quite normal.

Moving in the dark would hide me from others, but the reverse is also true. Jumping at me, I barely hit my attacker with my palm before it bit my hand.

-493

Taking that much damage honestly surprised me. It barely grazed me, and not even at a vital spot, and yet it dealt so much damage. Looking to the enemy, I saw that it was a weird mixture between a fox and a racoon.

Grabbing it, it slipped out of my grip due to it’s oily fur.

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[Elite] Masked Rox Lv: 59

3541/5900

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What kind of monster is that? What are the chances of encountering an elite monster. Judging by its health, it seems that it got injured in a fight before running into me. Could it be running away from something?

As if fate was reading my thoughts, another shadow jumped out. This time it was a large tiger-like mass of darkness. With a large body, it towered over me and the Rox near me.

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[BOSS] Shadow Lord Servant: Tiger Lv: 70

67981/70000

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Seeing the monster, I instantly ran. I have nothing to do with this, so why risk my life by staying around. OH SHIT, WHY IS THE GIANT TIGER RUNNING AFTER ME!?!

Noticing the Nox monster running in my direction, I instantly activated [Eidetic Mind] and while hiding the grass, I quickly eat some of the grass and activate [Change Form].

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You have activated [Change Form]

Do you wish to save the transform [Tall Grass]

Yes/No

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Clicking yes, I turn into the surrounding grass. Thank goodness [Change Form] leveled up to Lv: 3 from using my human form for a long time. Now I have 3 transformation slots, excluding my base body.

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Congratulations

You have gained the skill [Camouflage]

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Camouflage: Lv: 1 (0%) [Passive]

You can meld into your surroundings easier.

Increase in level makes you blend into your surrounding easier.

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Oh, another skill. It’s also a good one too.

With no one noticing me, the Nox ran past me with the giant tiger on his tail. Waiting for both to leave, I started to leave, but then realized that I couldn't move. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to move for a while. Also [Eidetic Mind] is still on cooldown.

Well, I'll just wait so I can use the skill again. Oh look at that, I never noticed all of these ants before. I guess changing your size also changes your perspective. Hey wait a moment, THEY'RE EATING MY BLADES.

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SOMEONE SAVE ME!!!