Three days had passed. We barely left the cave we were in, just trapping local monsters that came by to drink water, while focusing on Eliquis’s muscle training. As I watched her, I wondered if her unique race was just naturally stronger than me. Of course I did some of my own training as well, since somehow a piece of my mind and my body remembered the exact actions to take properly. But the results paled in comparison to Eliquis. At the same time, I spent time accumulating the mysterious CMP. I used the ability eight times a day, but only six times during the first day, so I was now sitting at thirty. Each time I used it, a black blob around the size of a fingerless glove was created, and soon I had enough to make a makeshift vest out of it. It was a temporary fix to the issue that I was now looking at, since we didn’t really have any clothes or shoes. I pieced together bits of ideas on how to fix that problem, but everything kept coming down to going to that village.

I began going over the whole Class System again as I began devising a plan to test the “Corruption” and “Bran” of my skills. Normally, I would only be able to use this on six targets, but with that other skill, [Bran Upgrade I] I am able to use it on twenty-four other targets. From my previous dabbling with the skills, I learned a few things. When I try to target something that I’m able to put a bran on, it would usually only allow me to target Eliquis. But sometimes, if a monster or animal was close enough, a circle with crosshairs would appear on different spots of their body, as if telling me where I can put the Bran. Unlike with Eliquis, who’s only option was her left shoulder. And to top it off, there seemed to be unknown restrictions to the monster types. But so far, it was all of the monsters I was able to kill almost instantly, and Eliquis was able to handle on her own with some effort.

Beep. Oh, good, my Mana had just recovered to eleven. So after this test, I should be able to restore the CMP I used. Well, in theory anyways. I handed Eliquis the short sword and dagger, then checked the position of my knife and sword. I’m not really liking the position of the sword overall, but it’s not like there’s a better place for it. I thought to myself for a moment, while adjusting the strap on my right shoulder.

“Let’s go over the plan one more time,” I said to Eliquis, stopping her from leaving the cave.

“Mmm, sure,” she fidgeted with the straps on her short sword for a moment before gathering her thoughts and repeating everything I told her this morning. “We will be going into the forest area behind the cave to look for a monster for you to test something. And… you want me to make sure no other monsters interfere with the test, if they come close, right?”

“Pretty much. However, if there’s more than one monster, we focus on taking care of them and calling it quits for the day. There’s no reason to do anything too hastily, ok?”

“Y-yeah.”

After only about twenty minutes of walking, we ended up just inside the outer edge of the woods. I knelt down and took a look at all the grass and twigs on the ground. It didn’t seem like many monsters came this way, but there was definitely one specific type of monster that did. Although, from the tracks left behind it wasn’t that heavy. Good, looks like I’m pretty good at observing, still. Wait, still? Nevermind, focus. None of these tracks seem fresh, but the ground along this one is still moist.

I pointed in the direction that I thought the track would lead to and Eliquis began moving in that direction immediately. I followed her seconds after, but made sure to keep a four meter distance as a precaution and kept an ear out to our flanks and rear. After about another ten minutes of following the trail, Eliquis stopped, and held her left fist up in the air, then we both knelt and started to observe the area.

After that speech that I had given Eliquis a few days back, I started teaching her why training in groups was important. One person can’t do everything and teamwork always got the job done better and faster. Of course, people wouldn’t be able to talk much in a fight, which is why hand signals were used. For the most part, I taught her the basic scouting ones. Basically, to halt the group, hide yourself, since there’s a threat in sight, and where you see the threat. She was very adept and quick at learning, so she absorbed all the information rather quickly and always wanted to practice her skills. I saw no harm in her doing this, so I played along by following behind, so she could get a sense of how necessary it was to communicate silently.

Putting my mind on the task at hand, once I confirmed our rear and flanks were monster free, I moved swiftly to a tree about two meters in front of Eliquis, but diagonally to her left. Putting my back to the tree, I scanned our rear, while Eliquis used an open hand to point where the enemy was. Then, she turned backwards, so I could scope out the situation without one of us having eyes in the opposite direction. Perfect. There’s one here. I thought to myself, then tapped my foot on the ground to get Eliquis’s attention. I nodded to her, so that she knew that I was commencing the mission, then took after my target: a small body of viscous liquid that was a pale blue color and round- almost fifty centimeters in diameter. A slime. It was the perfect type of monster to test things against, since they were found everywhere and are extremely weak.

I ran up to the monster, who began panicking and started trying to run away immediately, but I just began focusing in my mind what skill I wanted to use. A circle with crosshairs appeared with a message that read [Place your Bran?]. Why, yes, please. I chuckled internally, but stopped immediately when part of my black blob-created vest shot out and chased down the slime. It never stood a chance.

The CMP, I’m assuming it was, eventually found its mark and burned into the top of the slime, which began to flatten out a bit and wiggle around as if it was in pain. Then I noticed that the mark left by the CMP was basically searing into the skin of the slime. Skin? Membrane? Uh… yeah, let’s call it a membrane. That sounds accurate based on its properties. Eventually, the slime stopped moving altogether and steam came off of where the CMP had hit it. I cautiously walked over and saw that the slime now had a black tattoo on it that looked like the face of a clock without the numbers on it. And the face of the clock was inside some sort of magic circle, with both hands pointing it made me assume that this creature was captured at 11:18. I think that’s eighteen? I mean, it's not exactly right before where the four would be… Wait, why am I even thinking about this?

I motioned that it was safe for Eliquis to come over, since the slime was now moving without it being hostile or scared. Eliquis poked the slime a few times to watch its reactions and it seemed like the slime was still undergoing some sort of transformation, since slowly the slime was getting darker. And every time Eliquis poked the poor thing, the darker liquid from deep inside of it surfaced for a bit.

“So, your test was to tame this thing?” Eliquis asked.

“Sort’ve. My test was to test that black mark on it,” I pointed to the bran and Eliquis studied it closely.

“What is it?”

“Good question. It just says it's a ‘Bran,’ so maybe the marking of a comrade or something?”

“Oh...I see. Then why didn’t you use it on me?”

“Many reasons. FIrst off, I needed to see what would happen to anything the Bran touched. Seemed like it hurt the slime, and now it's completely obedient.” Although having allies was nice, I didn’t need a mindless soldier who was unable to think for themselves. Depending on how this thing acts today and tomorrow, I might have to end up killing it, if it can’t do anything through its own judgment.

“I see. Hmm..” Eliquis’s ears twitched as she stood up slowly. “If you’re done, we should leave before those get here.”

I glanced in the direction her ears were twitching towards, and decided to not argue. That area of the forest was pretty thick and only one and a half meters away from me. It would be better to get back to an area where we both had some sort of line of sight. I picked up my new friend- i mean pet, and walked swiftly out of the woods with Eliquis at my heels. The trip back was uneventful, but it did provide me with a chance to notice a few things that I would be testing shortly.

“So you can put that Bran on up to thirty things?” Eliquis asked letting all of her curiosity out since we were now in the cave where she felt safe.

“Yeah. I’m still unsure of the conditions for it, but there are a few things I want to test it out on in the upcoming days, before we start heading towards the village.”

“So, when are you going to put one on me?”

“I wasn’t planning on it, if I am to be honest with you. But, if you’re willing to go through the risk for the sake of research…” It’s true that I wasn’t exactly prepared to be using this on a human just yet. Wait, is she even human? She doesn’t seem like a monster, at least. Well, if she’s ok with it, I’ll go ahead and test it on her after her watch for the night. “When you wake me up for my shift tonight, I’ll go ahead and put one on you. I can’t guarantee what will happen since I’m still looking for changes in this guy.”

Indeed, there were still subtle but noticeable changes going on with the slime. It was now a dark navy blue, and the Bran was glowing red on it now, instead of black. Plus, the slime was getting darker still. And to top it off, it was still growing. It was now almost a full meter in diameter. What the hell is corruption? Even though I was thinking that, I decided to make more CMP than usual, today and stacked up a total of seven more before laying my head down. Being drained from the lack of MP put me to sleep instantly.

When I woke up for my watch shift, I decided it would be best to put the bran on Eliquis before thoroughly examining the changes within the slime. I concentrated on the skill and let the CMP shoot out at Eliquis, who was caught off guard and fell over. Her left shoulder began burning as if a cattle prod was being pushed onto it and she screamed, writhing in pain on the ground. I sat and watched her expressionless as the scene triggered a few memories that flashed by too quickly for me to process. After a few minutes, it seemed like the pain subsided since she was no longer screaming, but she was now crying.

I sighed and pulled out a blanket that Raven allowed us to take and threw it over her. Then returned towards the entrance where the slime was. It may be cold of me to ignore her like this, but someone has to make sure that her screaming didn’t attract anything. Eventually, she did fall asleep while I was checking out the now pitch black slime. It seemed that it frequently went out to drink water, but never slept. I found this very interesting as having more than one of these things would mean we wouldn’t actually have to watch our surroundings while we slept anymore.

When I finished poking at the slime and taking a mental note of all the changes it went through, I pulled up my status in the Class System. I could now see the status of Eliquis and the slime- well I had thought it was a slime but it seemed to have evolved after being branded. I mean technically it is a slime, just a type of slime that’s created through Corruption, called ‘The Devil’s Slime’. Wait, the Devil? I checked what I looked like through the reflection of the river. I definitely looked human, and the Class System says I’m human. What’s going on here?

Okay, let’s put those unnecessary thoughts away and actually focus on this right now. It seems both Eliquis and the slime can kind’ve use the Class System. Kind’ve. From the looks of it, the slime can evolve once and Eliquis only has four future options available to her, compared to my twenty or so. That’s interesting. Also, it seems like the slime has Ability Points. I guess monsters can’t use their ability points themselves. Let’s take a look here. Mimicry, Minimize, Expand, and Mitosis. Only two Ability Points and four options. Let’s see here… Minimize and Expand are for its overall size. Maybe it also affects its weight too, but there’s no reason to actually have it learn such useless skills. Well, they’re useless to me, anyways. Mimicry allows it to copy things right? And Mitosis is… Wait, isn’t that like splitting apart? Hm… Yeah, those two seem worthy of testing.

[Ability Points in Devil’s Slime accepted. All ‘Devil Slime’ monsters and evolutions will have these Abilities as long as they remain Corrupted.]

What? And that voice was crystal clear this time too. So I guess that means if I corrupt other slimes, they’ll turn into ‘Devil Slimes’ and gain the abilities I just allowed for this species, right? Something like that, I guess. Further testing will need to be done, but I’m not gonna spend all my time researching this. I’ll see what these abilities can do in the near future and for now focus on my new target. I shifted my attention towards a plant that I had asked the slime to get for me before I went to sleep. It was the only plant I could corrupt- that I knew of so far. So I decided to do just that. The Bran was placed on every petal on the flower, but it didn’t really move like it was in pain or anything. It just slowly grew, even though a moment ago it was dying from being out of the soil for so long. I knew the process of corrupting something, based on what happened to the slime here, took about a half a day, so I decided to just build up some CMP and watch the night go on.

What the hell is Corruption? This is not natural at all...