It was the first time I recognized it. This had to be the so‑called World Language. There was no mistaking it, since the Sage spoke only when spoken to, but the two voices did sound exactly the same.

But I didn’t have a moment to ponder over this. The more pressure I applied on the water, the more pressure I felt on myself, and I was rocketing forward at astonishing speed, as if I was about to launch myself into the sky. The acceleration was intense. Honestly, maybe it was a good thing I couldn’t see. Instead, I just basked in the sensation of my body zipping along through the darkness.

Well, let me clarify. If I could’ve seen my surroundings, I’m sure the fear would’ve been intense…but not being able to see was just as terrifying.

If you’ve ever been on a roller coaster in an amusement park in total darkness, perhaps you’d understand the feeling. My mind flashed back to my previous life and the single day I spent visiting a certain paradise under the rule of a certain rodent. At least his magical dreamland offered safety harnesses.

By this point, I wanted to punch myself for coming up with the idea. And trying it out right after thinking it up? Come on, man! What happened to some kind of, you know, preliminary safety check?

The terror was starting to affect my train of thought. How long would I keep accelerating? How much water did I spit out, anyway? As that thought occurred to me, I felt my body crash headlong into something and bounce off it. I braced myself for a wave of paralyzing pain. Which never came.

Huh? Shouldn’t that have, like, damaged me? Or did it damage me, and I just didn’t feel it or whatever?

Received. You have acquired Cancel Pain, which interrupts the creation of pain. Your Resist Melee Attack has reduced the amount of damage taken. The amount of damage your body has incurred is ten percent. The intrinsic slime skill Self-Regeneration has taken effect. Would you like to support it with your Predator unique skill?

Yes No

Oh, so I was hurt a little, then? Made sense. I wasn’t sure whether this was a good or bad thing, but as long as I knew something was up, then maybe I didn’t need to feel pain after all. It’d make certain things easier.

Predator support, though, huh? I don’t really get it, but sure. “Yes.”

At that moment, I was greeted with the feeling that I had suddenly lost some of my body mass. After a while, I felt it return. My damaged parts had been Predated, analyzed, and repaired. Talk about a useful body to have. I should try testing later to see how much of it I can afford to lose before I’m KO'd. It was way too dangerous to mess with in detail, but I guess I could afford to go without at least a bit of it at a time, so…

Something told me I was getting a little too careful, anyway. I had a stockpile of recovery potions, which I didn’t even have to use. And I would’ve figured losing a tenth of my body would be a pretty serious issue, but now I knew I could just regenerate it in the space of ten seconds. Next time I was damaged, I’d try using those potions. So where am I, I wonder? Making sure my body was back to normal, I checked out my surroundings. No telling what kind of dangerous monsters might be nearby. I was out of the water, but maybe there were scary, scaly things waiting for me on the other side.

Slowly, carefully, I started taking action.

It kind of seemed as if whenever I did something “carefully,” it meant I was about to be exposed to a heap of danger. I was sure it was just my mind playing tricks on me, though.

And that thought probably did me no favors, because…

Can you hear me, little one?

I heard something.

***

Little one? It’s probably not anyone besides me, is it?

It wasn’t a voice, exactly, but something I could recognize more directly and instinctually in my mind. I didn’t have any ears to listen with anyway.

Hello! You can hear me, can you not? Respond to me!

Well, no shit! But how was I supposed to reply without any mouth? As an experiment, I tried thinking Shut up, baldy! in my mind—not like this guy could hear it or anything. But how was I gonna get anywhere here if I couldn’t even give a—

…Oh‑ho! You dare to call me bald, do you…? Rather a lot of nerve packed into such a little body, no? I had hoped to give my first guest in quite a while a little kindness, but it would seem you are in rather a hurry to die!

Uh‑oh. Geez, could’ve warned me that would work first. And I had no idea who I was dealing with, either. Well, that was it. My loss. Time for an apology.

I’m sorry! I didn’t know how to reply to you, so I just tried saying the first thing that came to mind! I’m really sorry about that! I can’t see anything right now, so I have no idea what you even look like!

Did that come across? Kind of rude to call this guy bald when I couldn’t even see him, I supposed. If he was, I’d probably just pushed some very delicate buttons.

Heh‑heh‑heh… Eh‑ha‑ha. Ahh‑ha‑ha‑ha‑ha‑ha‑ha!

The resulting laugh came in three distinct levels. A masterpiece.

So were we cool now, or—?

How fascinating. I had assumed you reacted as such upon seeing me, but you cannot, eh? Most slimes are low‑level monsters, incapable of conscious thought as they run through the cycle of absorption, division, and regeneration. It is the rare one, indeed, that ever leaves its habitat. Now what was he talking about? Was he more curious than angry, then, or…? Either way, this was my first contact with another intelligent being. The first conversation in my new, oozy life. I wanted to keep it a friendly one.

You had aroused my curiosity, slime, by the way you so eagerly slammed into my body. The regenerative powers you just showed astonish me. Are you a named monster, perhaps, or a unique?

A what? And a what? Say again? I’m sorry, I don’t get what you mean. I’ve only been alive here for ninety days…

Hmm. I suppose, with your sentience, you were never destined to be merely a slime. Named monsters are those who have been assigned an exclusive name. But only ninety days? Ridiculous. Are you a unique, then?

“Unique” meaning…?

A unique monster is an individual who has suddenly attained unusual abilities, akin to mutation. They are occasionally born in areas with high magical concentrations… Perhaps you were born from the mass of magicules that leaked out from me, then?

Muh? What the heck?

Let’s try using my previous‑world knowledge to suss this out. This guy (I’ll call him a guy for convenience’s sake) had been leaking magic all over the local area. It was so thick, in fact, that it gave birth to a monster. A slime. Me. Was that it?

Hmm. No monster has ever come close to approaching my domain in the past three hundred years. If you were born from my magical force, then perhaps, indeed, that gave you the power to touch me and live to tell the tale!

Oh… So you’re kind of, like, my dad, then?

No, not your parent by blood. I have no reproductive ability to speak of. Some monsters do, and some do not, you see.

Really? ’Cause I thought that kind of came with the package by default. But if I just spontaneously burst out from magic or whatever, maybe you don’t need it, huh?

…Your intellectual abilities surprise me. Very few, indeed, are the monsters that possess anything of the sort. Among all the monsters, only magic‑born have sentience in the way you or I would understand it.

The commentary went on for a while. But the most important thing to learn from it was that apparently humans existed in this world, too. Then there were nonhumans, species very close to mankind in nature and similarly gifted with reproductive abilities. These included races like elves, hobbits, dwarves, and other fairy types, and generally they were allied with the humans.

Alongside that, you had races like goblins, orcs, lizardmen, and so on, which were hostile toward mankind and treated like monsters as a result. This animosity wasn’t inherent to their biology, however, so crossbreeding was entirely possible.

Next were the “magic‑born people”—the catchall term for those who came into being from magic itself, monsters who experienced sudden mutation, and sentient beings evolved from animals or magical beasts. They had both intelligence and reproductive ability, but only within their own subspecies. In their upper social castes existed titans, vampires, devils, and other longer‑lived species—all equally capable of having offspring, although they rarely did so, since their overwhelming magic force caused them to be nigh immortal, obviating the need to leave descendants.

These diverse intelligent, reproducing species were hostile to mankind and collectively referred to as the “magic‑born race.” And reading between the lines, the impression I got was that the magic‑born weren’t so much overtly hostile toward humans as the humans feared and coveted their powers. It remained true, though, that both sides were fighting for their own living spaces.

These sundry monsters had been classified by levels of danger. The upper ranks of the magic‑born were packed with some pretty powerful buggers—all capable of leveling a human town solo if they felt like it. Not the kinds of guys you’d want to hang around.

So my new companion kept going for a while—about how he’d fought against the upper‑level magic‑born in the past and so on. Finally, the subject turned back to me.

As I told you, then, I lack the ability to produce offspring. The reason is simple… Because I do not need to. I am of the dragon race—one of only four in the world, both unique and the most perfect of my kind. You will hereby know me as Veldora, the Storm Dragon! My lifespan is infinite, my flesh unfathomable! As long as my will remains intact, I shall be ever alive! Ahhhhh‑ha‑ha‑ha‑ha‑ha‑ha‑ha!!

He could’ve skipped the laughter. I got it. So he didn’t need to have kids, because he was gonna live forever, right?

And while this guy took a while to get to the point, he did mention something I didn’t want to overlook.

Veldora was the Storm…Dragon?

Plus, if he liked taking a good‑natured swipe at upper‑level magic‑born now and then, he was…like, pretty tough, wasn’t he?

Using my knowledge of Earth stuff, I tried to picture Veldora the Storm Dragon, no doubt seated in front of me right now. I didn’t like what my mind came up with. He seemed to be acting polite with me, and that made it all the creepier.

So what now…?

W‑wow, really? Well, thanks for all that handy guidance, sir! Guess I better be on my way, then!

I tried my best to flee.

Halt. I have told you all about myself. It is your turn now, would you not agree?