Eugene had been walking around, humming cheerfully. Over the last two or three hours, more than a couple dozen of killing plants had attacked him already.

Alright, maybe that sounded a little masochist of him. No, that wasn't exactly the cause for his happiness. It was the fact that, thanks to the herbicide he produced (although "produced" sounded a little fancy for mushing up some leaves), he didn't even have to bother killing them. As soon as the monsters' roots shot out and tried to reach for his feet, they withered on contact. Which meant he was receiving a constant flow of experience with practically no effort on his side. This was perfect!

Or so he thought.

Suddenly, he heard a strange sound, like the rustle of leaves, but more violent. If the experience of seeing and playing all those horror games was right, then at least there was some scary monster behind him thinking of slurping out his kidneys, if not worst. Immediately, he turned around, swinging around the crystal dagger that he kept with him and once again putting some mana into it. On his experience, a shield would help little to none against a truly dangerous monster, so he chose to produce another dagger instead.

"(Crystal)"

He lowered his stand. He didn't know why, but everyone did that when they were facing danger, so why couldn't he—

"What the fu—?!" With no previous warning, something came out of the dense violet mantle of leafs. It was a... a... Well, if any of the knowledge he had from RPGs was of any value here, then that thing couldn't be called but a slime. It had a semi-spherical shape, and it appeared to be made up of nothing but a milky, dense substance which also shone in sunlight...

But why was he thinking about those things now?! Damn observer's habits!

The probable slime was too close to him. He couldn't spare the time to chant any spells or evade. So he prepared for the worst and at least covered his face with his arms. They would probably melt anyways, but that was better than no—

A splashing sound. Fuck! Too late! He stood in a comical position, as if embracing a nonexistent baby, as the slime crashed right on his face.

He feared the worst. He knew it: his face would start to burn a little, first, then in a matter of seconds it would be a lot. He would get poisoned as the slime melted his face and left his skull wide open, then it would suck his brain, and...

... and...

Nothing was happening.

Why?!

Without answering his question, the slime slid down, like a tomato smashed against a glass panel. Fortunately, it left none of its slimy (haha) substance behind. It fell right in Eugene's arms, making it look at if he was hugging it.

~Masteeeeeerrr!!! I found Master!!! Yeeeeeyyy!!!~

...

He blinked. Again. Then he looked around, dumb-like, looking for the source of that... weird (cute?) voice. A voice which he heard, but also didn't... He didn't know how to explain. If he had to name, it would be... telepathy, maybe? It was speaking right into his mind...

~Hehehe... Master, so nice~

Once again, the telepathic(?) voice. And then, as if it was the most natural thing to do, the slime started to rub itself against him. For some bizarre reason, he didn't find it disgusting, but rather comfortable—

"No no no!"

He hurriedly threw the slime away, stepping back. What kind of stupidly wrong thinking was that?! It was a freaking slime! It was a miracle it hadn't eaten his face already! Why would someone ever find comfortable to be hugged by something that can literally melt your bones?!

The slime, on the other side, kept crawling towards him with a silly smile.

Smile? Wait, what did he mean with a smile? Slimes don't smile! They don't even have a face!. And I'm really sorry, Mr Rim*ru, but you don't really count as "just a slime" any more. So how was it that he could he sense the slime was smiling?!

Just as he thought such things, an unexpected *pling* reached his ears.

System Notification (2) new Quests have been added to your Quest Board.

"Oh, alright..."

...

"Wait, what?"

His what?

There was a freaking quest board and he knew nothing about it?!

"Open Quest Board" he spelled what he assumed would be a valid vocal command, in the lack of a better idea of what a Quest Board would be like. Nobody had talked about that! This was the first time he saw this, so why...?

...

Ah, right. Sorry, I guess that's my bad. Uhm, I might've accidentally forgotten to, you know, mention it? But, nevermind that! He found it! There's no damage done, isn't it right?

Ahem.

Anyways, as he spoke, a new, unfamiliar screen opened up before him.

Quest Board

5 Unlocked Quests 2 Completed Quests

Quests:

---

Welcome to Riviria!

You've entered the marvelous world of Riviria. Enjoy your stay and don't get eaten!

Goals: Enter Riviria

Reward:

1 Attribute Point

Completed. You may claim the reward now.

---

First Blood

Make sure you let clear who's the hunter and who's the prey.

Goals: Slay 1 enemy

Reward:

5.00% Progression / 1 Attribute Point

Completed. You may claim the reward now.

---

Untangled!

Explore, kill and loot the very last corner of the Labyrinth Forest

Goals: Destroy the Labyrinth Forest dungeon core

Reward:

50.00% Progression / 10 Attribute Points

Pending

---

Slimeway to Heaven

Forge an unbreakable bond with the cute slime pet you indirectly created (Incompatible with: Slimeway to Hell)

Goals: Forge a master covenant with your soulbound slime

Reward:

5.00% Progression / 1 Attribute Point

Pending

---

Slimeway to Hell

Kill the annoying slime you accidentally created (Incompatible with: Slimeway to Heaven)

Goals: Slay your soulbound slime

Reward:

5.00% Progression / 1 Attribute Point

Pending

---

...

Okay, a couple of things.

First: of course there had to be a quest system? How could he be so dumb? Of course the experience bonus for killing things was not near enough to make it a proficient way of leveling up. It was the quest reward what made it all worth it! Ah, had he only discovered this way earlier...! He had to claim those rewards as soon as the whole slime problem was solved.

Second, and in relation to that: The slime wasn't his enemy. At least according to the system. Moreover, he had somehow helped creating it? He had absolutely no idea of how he could've ever done that, but if the system said so then maybe it was right... Maybe? Also, he could forge a covenant with it. Whatever that meant. That was probably something like a pact to make it stronger or something like that?

Which was honestly cool and all. Even if slimes were relatively weak (again, not talking about Rim*ru) it was still nice to have a fighting partner. He assumed he could level it up some... but he was getting ahead of himself.

Oh, and third:

The system had some awfully bad sense for naming.

"But back to the point" he stared back at the slime, which was by now slowly crawling up from his leg. "I guess you are mine now, for some reason I don't really understand" he said. He wouldn't put much thought into it, not when he knew it wouldn't answer much questions anyways. You have a name?"

~...no? I only have Master!~

Okay, that was nice, but it wasn't what he was asking. "Do you have any idea of how I could forge a covenant with you?"

The slime wriggled in place. ~Uhm... no?~

"Haaah" Eugene sighed. He swore, this was becoming a bad habit of his. Another one, anyways. "Uhm, maybe... Let's check with the system... Uh... System, Forge covenant?"

System Notification You are soulbound to the slime (unnamed). The values for the covenant creation will be the same as soulbinding. Accept Refuse

"Accept, I guess?"

With another *ping*, the screen disappeared from his vision field. A second later, the slime spoke(?) up.

~Wow! Green stuff! Nice!~

"You got a system notification?"

~Yes...? Yes!~

"What does it say?"

~Covenant... servant... power boost... Agh, too complicated! Accept?~

Definitively, the slime's forte stat wasn't his Intellect. "Yes, try that out!"

Then, another screen appeared.

System Notification You have successfully established a covenant with the slime (unnamed) Do you wish to rename it?

Accept Refuse

"Accept" he said. If he was going to travel with this thing, it would be a hassle to call it "it" or "slime"...

So. A name for a slime. As much as he wanted to call it Rim*ru, for good luck and hoping it became just as strong as the original owner of the name... Well, for some obvious reasons, and in order to respects the writer's rights, he couldn't name it that.

So, another name... No, not R*j either. For the same reason. Uhm... A slimy sound... Slop? Blob? Bob? Mob?

No, those all sound boring or downright weird...

Maybe some silly Japanese onomatopoeia, like... Chira? Pokan?

Pokan...

Hey, you know what? Pokan sounded like a good name! For some reason, he found it sticky and nice. And slimy and sticky were pretty alike... So, yes, Pokan.

"Alright, let's name you Pokan!"

System Notification Your servant, slime (unnamed) is now slime Pokan

"What do you think?" He wasn't exactly a genius for naming, but at least it wasn't called Gooball or something cringe-giving like that.

~Pokan likes Pokan! Pokan thinks it's nice! Thanks, Master~

Perfect, he liked it. Then, the next issue in his schedule would be...

"Status" he mumbled. He wanted to check how things were looking for him before moving on.

Status Name Eugene Progression 15.00% to reach Progression Race Human Vocations Title Orc Slayer

Runologist: C (8.00%) Blessings Phanes' Bless (None) Attributes

Physique

25

Charisma 23 Intellect

44

Magic

46

Killing so many plants had improved som of his stats, huh... Around +5 for each, and... his charisma had improved for the first time, too. Probably an effect of the general experience boost more than anything else. He hadn't used magic all this time, so of course his vocation wouldn't improve. He didn't even bother to check.

Next step:

"System, claim all my rewards" he said, hoping the system would understand such a loose syntax. Any mildly good program should do that, though.

System Notification

You recieved the following as a reward for completed missions:

10% Progression / 3 Attribute Points

"Open Quest Board"

Quest Board

5 Unlocked Quests 2 Completed Quests

Quests:

---

Untangled!

Explore, kill and loot the very last corner of the Labyrinth Forest

Goals: Destroy the Labyrinth Forest dungeon core

Reward:

50.00% Progression / 10 Attribute Points

Pending

---

Oh, right. He ha forgotten to analyze that...

So, this place was probably called Labyrinth Forest. So original. And it was a dungeon. That would explain the absurdly big amount of mana, and the monster popping everywhere. As for breaking it's core... he would see. He wasn't a fan of getting into danger just because the game told him so, even less for real life...

"Hah. At some point, I just started considering this the real life..." Even though he was a (self proclaimed) skeptical person. Well, meh. He only had to find a way back home then... Only. As if that was so easy.

"Eh, let's focus on something else, shall we?"

Pokan was his... servant now? He saw it more like a pet, but hey, that was just him talking. Anyways, he should be able to check his status screen too, right?

"Pokan, status" he said.

Status Name Pokan Progression 0.00% to reach Progression Race Slime Vocations Title Heir of Gluttony

Glutton: C (0.00%) Blessings Sin of Gluttony's Blessing

Shapeshifter: D (0.00%)

Attributes

Physique

-

Charisma 50 Intellect

5

Magic

3000

Right. That was his bad. Slimes were freakingly OP creatures. He had forgotten that...

"Haaaaah..." He sighed, deeper than any of the sighes up until now. His legs failed him, and he fell on the ground. He didn't even bother to get up. he leaned against one of the branch trees growing around, simply deciding to lay there for a while.

"Just what kind of jellyfied nuke am I holding?" he asked with a tired look on his face, looking at his new servant slash pet slash overwhelmingly strong and dangerous monster.

This was going to be seriously annoying. He just knew.