The knowledge settled quietly into the slime's core. It now understood instinctively that it held a new skill, one that allowed it to create sound, to shape noise and form something like speech.
It lay still, its surface looked calm, its core pulsing slowly with green mana light.
Aria watched it with tired but curious eyes. She leaned forward slightly, studying it. She didn't know what it would do next.
Silence hung between them.
Aria swallowed and gathered a bit of courage.
"Um… excuse me," she said softly.
Her voice trembled, trying to speak as politely as possible to something she didn't fully understand.
The slime remained motionless, only its faintly glowing core giving any sign that it had maybe heard her.
The slime stayed silent for several long seconds. Then wet, uneven vibrations rippled across its surface.
A sound began to leak out from a small opening that hadn't existed before.
"Ex… cu… se…"
Aria jerked backward, eyes widening.
The voice—if it could be called that—sounded eerily similar to her own, but rasped, hoarse, and broken.
But more than the mimicry itself, what shocked her was the simple fact that the slime was trying to speak!
Did it gain that ability after consuming the three men? Aria wondered, heart pounding.
If that was true… then this creature wasn't just unusual. It might be a completely undocumented high-tier monster.
Something priceless.
If she could capture it alive, she could earn a fortune. Enough money to clear her family's debt and enough to live comfortably in the capital for years.
Enough to change her entire life.
The thought flickered through her exhausted mind, bright and tempting.
Aria's eyes sharpened. She instinctively licked her dry lips.
"Ex… cuse…"
"…me…"
The slime kept practicing, its strange body quivering with the effort as mana flowed every time it used the skill.
"Excuse me."
Finally, it managed to form a full sentence.
The slime felt the drain of mana that accompanied the skill's use, but it was not too excessive. It kept its gaze fixed on her, its core glowing with faint determination, as if it wanted more.
The slime's core pulsed faster. This time it was not from hunger for flesh, this time it was hunger for something entirely different.
It wanted knowledge after discovering the Speech skill. As if a whole new realm has been opened for it.
Its membrane rippled in small, restless waves, eager and almost trembling with the desire to understand more, learn more words and know more sounds and more things.
Aria drew in a slow breath, steadying herself.
"You… you can speak to me?" she asked cautiously.
The slime immediately echoed her.
"You… you can speak to me?"
The same hoarse mimicry. The same broken sound of her own voice, but distorted.
Aria blinked, her astonishment shifting into comprehension.
So that was it.
The slime wasn't truly talking. It wasn't forming its own thoughts into words. It was mimicking her speech exactly as she said it.
Which, she admitted to herself, made far more sense.
A creature like this shouldn't logically be able to form sentences on its own. Perhaps it had been trapped deep in the dungeon for who-knows-how-long, surviving alone, evolving in strange ways… until fate pushed it toward her group.
And it saved her from a fate she didn't even want to imagine.
Aria lowered her gaze, conflicted emotions twisting in her chest.
Then she suddenly froze.
What about the miners who were still supposed to be outside?
Her eyes widened.
She pushed herself upright with shaky legs and hurried out of the small chamber.
Her shoes scraped against rock as she made her way toward the mining site where the two miners had been working earlier.
But there was no one there but abandoned chips of mana ore scattered on the ground.
"They ran away," Aria whispered.
Of course they did. After hearing commotions in that chamber it made sense they'd fled without looking back.
She sighed.
A soft sliding sound echoed behind her.
The slime emerged from the chamber.
Then, without hesitation, it glided quickly across the rocky floor toward the wall where veins of mana ore still glimmered faintly blue.
It stopped in front of the ore.
Its surface rippled. Then its core brightened.
[Analyze]
The slime instinctively activated the skill, scanning the mana ore embedded in the wall.
Its body vibrates softly, absorbing information, eager to understand.
The rippling of its membrane steadied as the information flowed into its core.
A soft notification echoed inside the slime's mind:
[Analyze Result]
Name: Raw Mana Ore (Low Purity)
Rarity: Common.
Description: Unrefined stone infused with weak ambient mana. Common material used for basic enchantments and low-grade potions. Provides minimal mana when consumed.
The slime's body quivered with recognition.
Without the slightest hesitation, the slime compressed its body like a spring and launched itself at the wall.
SLAP.
Its gelatinous form splattered across the stone, covering the glowing vein of mana ore completely.
Then it uses Consume.
A deep vibration pulsed from within its core as the ore began dissolving under its membrane.
The stone cracked, crumbled, and was absorbed. Faint blue light flickered inside the slime as small bursts of mana transferred into its body.
The humming grew stronger.
Chunks of the wall fell as the slime scraped and devoured every last shard, leaving a clean, empty streak where the ore vein had once been.
Bit by bit, the glowing blue minerals vanished into the creature's body, feeding its growing hunger.
The slime did not stop until the wall was completely bare.
[Absorbing Core Mana…]
[Core Mana acquired: low tier mana ore]
[Consume level 3: 95/100]
[Evolution: 771/1,000]
The slime felt the thrill vibrating in its body.
Aria who was looking from a few meters behind it gritted her teeth. She was even more certain now that the slime was not just regular slime.
It was possibly even a high tier creature with an incredible mana core!
This really could be her chance.
—