“Holy crap?!”
Nan Cheng's face was filled with utter shock.
Beyond the bushes lay a wide forest clearing, dappled with sunlight filtering through the canopy.
And across the open ground bounced, rolled, and wriggled dozens—no, hundreds—of round, jelly-like creatures!
They came in all sorts of colors. Besides the blue one they had encountered earlier, there were green, pink, yellow, and even translucent ones... Emitting soft “mumu,” “puji,” and “gulu” noises, these multicolored slimes moved sluggishly across the clearing.
Some bumped against each other in play, some sprawled on the ground munching on unknown berries, some absorbed dew drops from leaves, and a few larger ones hopped lazily along with tiny slimes riding on their backs.
It was practically a slime paradise!
“Did we just poke a whole slime nest?!”
“Way to go, Bruce! Talk about insane luck!”
“A wish come true?!”
Everyone was stunned.
Meanwhile, Nan Cheng turned to look at Bruce, who was scrambling up from the ground with leaves dangling from his hair, and slowly gave him a thumbs-up. “Bruce, your mouth... is it blessed or something?”
His tone held a hint of genuine awe.
Bruce: “...”
He scratched his head. “I just said that off the top of my head...”
The viewers in Nan Cheng's livestream chat room witnessed this scene as well, and the chat exploded instantly:
“Hahaha, Bruce is officially the comedy relief!”
“This luck is insane! I'm so jealous!”
“Streamer, charge! Slice all these slimes down and the EXP will rain!”
“This is why you have to watch what you say. What if it actually comes true?”
“...”
Right now, all five party members were brimming with excitement.
“Who cares if his mouth is blessed?!” one player lowered his voice in excitement. “There are so many slimes! We're gonna strike it rich!”
“Hold on, don't rush,” Nan Cheng held back his eager teammates while inspecting the scene carefully. “There are too many of them, and our mana hasn't fully recovered from using skills earlier. If we pull too many at once, we might wipe.”
“Makes sense,” the party's Mage agreed. “It looks like these slimes aren't very aggressive; they're all minding their own business. We can pull them slowly and kill them in batches.”
“How do we pull them? My taunt skill has a tiny range, and the number of targets it affects is limited,” Bruce asked.
Nan Cheng thought for a moment, then picked up a small pebble from the ground. “The old-fashioned way: pull them one by one. I'll test one first.”
He aimed at a stray blue slime on the edge of the clearing and flicked his wrist—
The pebble struck the slime's round body with a soft squelch.
“Mumu?”
The blue slime wobbled from the impact, turning its body around blankly as its two tiny dot-like eyes looked toward the direction the pebble had come from.
The slime seemed to hesitate for a moment before squeaking “mumu!” and hopping toward the bushes.
“It's coming, it's coming! Get ready!” Bruce tightened his grip on his wooden sword.
“Wait, behind it...” a player's eyes suddenly widened.
Behind that blue slime, three other slimes—one green and two yellow—curiously followed along.
“One pull aggroed four? That works, we can handle it,” Nan Cheng made a split-second assessment. “Bruce, get ready to control them with taunt. Two of you flank left and right, while the Mage and I deal ranged damage. Focus fire on the blue one first. Based on our earlier fight, I suspect it's the basic model, so it should have the lowest HP.”
“Understood!”
The battle broke out five seconds later.
With a single Novice Taunt, Bruce successfully drew the attention of all four slimes at once.
Nan Cheng's Wind Slash and the Mage's Fireball struck the blue slime almost simultaneously. The wind fed the fire, triggering a small elemental reaction—
With a wet squelch, the blue slime's body rapidly shriveled into a watery stain.
Realizing what had happened, the remaining three slimes launched their counterattack.
The green slime spat out a small stream of acid, which Bruce blocked with his wooden sword. Sizzling sounds immediately erupted from the blade's surface as its durability plummeted at a visible rate.
“Holy crap?! My mighty sword?!!” Bruce cried out in agony.
“The acid is corrosive! Don't block it head-on!” seeing this, Nan Cheng immediately shouted.
Meanwhile, the yellow slimes' bodies rapidly expanded before snapping back, shooting several hard, pit-like objects that sent surrounding leaves rustling down.
“Whoa?! They have ranged attacks too?!”
The party's warrior player dodged awkwardly. “Is this really a slime?!”
Fortunately, the players had already established a bit of teamwork. Though flustered, they managed to resolve the fight within two minutes.
The three slimes turned into watery stains one after another, contributing a few hundred EXP.
“Phew... That's interesting.”
Nan Cheng caught his breath. “It seems different colors have different abilities. Blue is the basic model, green has acid, and yellow can shoot projectiles. I wonder if there are other variants.”
“There's a translucent one over there!”
Bruce pointed toward the center of the clearing.
“It seems to be absorbing sunlight! Its body is flickering.”
“Maybe it's light-attributed or a magic type,” Nan Cheng's eyes lit up. “Pull it over and let's check it out!”
...
Time flew by amidst repeated pulls, battles, and summarizing combat experience.
The party gradually figured out the patterns:
Blue slimes were the weakest, moving slowly and only possessing a charge attack. Green slimes spat acid, but had a very short range. Yellow slimes could fire hardened seeds with a range of about five meters, making them a high-priority target. As for the translucent “Flash Slimes,” they indeed possessed magic resistance with noticeable damage reduction against elemental skills, but physical attacks worked very well against them.
They also discovered that the “watery stains” left behind after killing the slimes were not ordinary liquids.
Bruce accidentally stepped on a puddle again, receiving a 30-second “Slippery” debuff that made him skid around while moving. Meanwhile, the Mage player discovered that dipping the tip of his staff into the residue imparted a faint matching element to his next spellcast, though overall it wasn't particularly useful.
“This design is surprisingly detailed.”
Nan Cheng wiped the slime residue off his wooden sword with leaves while addressing his livestream audience:
“Did you see that, guys? In this game, even monster remains have interactive effects. Although it doesn't seem very useful right now, who knows—maybe alchemy or enchanting can use them later.”
Bullet comments flooded in response:
“This game company is obsessed with details.”
“666, they can even turn slime goo into a feature.”
“Bro Cheng, there's a pink one over there! Go check it out!”
“A pink slime? Could it be a hopeless romantic? (doge)”
“...”
Nan Cheng also noticed the pink slime rolling lazily along the edge of the clearing.
It was slightly larger than the other slimes, its body displaying a dreamy light pink color with tiny glittering spots on its surface.
“Bruce, see that pink one over there? Pull it carefully, it might be another new variant.”
“On it!”
Bruce cautiously cast his taunt on it. Upon being hit, the pink slime didn't charge forward angrily or blankly like the others. Instead...
Its body swelled slightly, and then it spat out a small cloud of pink mist from its top.
The mist diffused rapidly, covering a radius of several meters around it.
“Holy crap! Poison gas?” Bruce scrambled backward.
However, when the mist floated over to them, it dealt no damage.
Instead, several system notifications chimed in everyone's ears simultaneously:
“You have been affected by ‘Joyful Aura.’ Stats slightly increased.”
Bruce froze for a second, then suddenly grinned broadly. “Heh... hehe... this mist... feels kind of joyful...”
Another player's expression softened. “I suddenly feel like... slimes are actually pretty cute...”
Even the usually calm Nan Cheng felt a wave of inexplicable relaxation and joy. Looking at the pink slime hopping around, he actually found it a bit adorable.
“Is this thing... a support-type monster?” Nan Cheng shook his head, trying hard to stay clear-headed. “It doesn't attack and gives players positive buffs instead?”
“Maybe it was designed for comedic effect,” the Mage player laughed. “But what attribute is it? I don't see it on the panel.”
“Hidden stats, maybe? Perhaps it affects skill cast success rates or NPC favorability?” Nan Cheng guessed. “Whatever, let's clear it out and see how much EXP it gives.”
The pink slime had virtually no combat capability and was dealt with easily.
Yet the EXP it awarded was a staggering 200 points—double that of a blue slime.
“Whoa, an EXP piñata!” Nan Cheng chuckled, delighted. “Pity we've only spotted one for now.”
...
Rate on N.U.
