MC POV

Jesus mother of FFFUUUUUCCCKKK!!!.......

“Did absorbing all those memories at once hurt? You know I only ask because you won’t let me see.” (Adam)

Yes they fucking hurt. Note to self, sentient creatures think about a lot more than slimes. Ok, ok let’s just take a second to organise them…bla bla bla names, bla bla family, bla bla hopes and dreams. Oh here we are, language, races and…OH! There’s a city not far from here. Good. Now we have a game plan.

“Hurry up and make a body already.” (Adam)

Ok but what type?

“Just think human and see what happens you can do specific details after. Like a template.” (Adam)

I take Adams advice and will myself into a human form, with the mimic slimes memories and my own memories as a human it was easy to do. My gelatinous body morphs into a silhouette of a human but due to the metal properties and lack of details it looks more like a 5’5 foot mannequin.

“Guess using your own memories left a few flaws.” (Adam)

I ignore Adam-

“Hey!” (Adam)

-and I decided to go with a tall, muscular build for my first transformation, to compensate for my last life. I increase in height until I reach about 6’6.and the physique became more defined and muscular, but not excessively so as to hinder my movements. There was another part of my anatomy I paid special attention to. The adventurer, Bordani, seemed to have a few special traits I copied over and ‘emphasised’ to make sure that when others paid special attention to it in the future they wouldn’t be disappointed.

I then moved on to the facial features, and of course chose to be handsome. While I know blending in is important, I can change appearance at will if I want to be discrete, so why not indulge in my fantasies when in a fantasy world. I choose the bedhead hairstyle. (It’s pretty easy to style hair when you controlee each strand at will) and spent a lot of time designing the eyes. One, because I wanted to ‘see’ things again and two, a person’s eyes say a lot about them so making them perfect would be key to building relationships with people in the future.

As for colouring I left it to my affinities and they didn’t disappoint me. My eyes reflected my nature affinity, holding a peaceful and nurturing green with just a tint of the predatory variant I got from the mimic slime. This gave them the perfect ‘kind to friends, brutal to enemies’ appearance which was a trait I always admired in xianxia characters

My hair went into a metallic silver whilst my skin took on a light brown due to the different aspects of my earth affinity. With my current appearance I wouldn’t be surprised if people thought I was related to dryad in some way.

I opened my newly created eyes and examined my work. My skin had a metallic shine like it had been buffered.

“Reminds me of Mr 1.” (Adam)

Oh yeah. I guess it does. Maybe I’ll ad blades or something later.

“Don’t add weapons. This is already too much like spore. Anyway haven’t you got other more immediate issues? You’ve been forming your body for about five minutes now.” (Adam)

Right the dryad. I keep doing that for some reason. Anyway, I look towards them to find them in the same positions as before but with dropped jaws and looks of fear on their faces. Even the rogue is so stunned that he released his stealth by accident. I turn to him and signal him over with a look.

I tapped into the memories I collected. The rogue’s name is Sete, not much of a talker, but a competent spy with a large sensory range. I guess he could be useful so I’ll keep him around for now.

Noticing my signal he warily approached me. He performed a shallow bow and lowered his eyes, likely out of fear.

“Your name” (Me)

Damn my voice is awesome. I forgot to check earlier but it seems my voice was affected by my earth affinity and comes across as being quite powerful. The rogue seems more distracted that I can speak at all but he quickly recovers.

“Sete, lord” (Sete)

A short reply as expected. I nod to him and place my hand in front of him.

“Your cloak.”(Me)

He becomes acutely aware of my lack of clothes after I mentioned it and quickly removes his robe to present to me. I take it from him and wrap it around my waist. It will do until we reach a town at least. I then turn my head back to the Dryad. They seem to have escaped from their shock after I spoke to Sete but have become quite tense, so I try to ease their nerves a bit by smiling softly to them. And adjust my domineering voice towards the nurturing aspects of nature.

“Hello, I apologise for our earlier confrontation but I’m afraid it was unavoidable.”(Me)

I spoke in their native language as to ensure there wouldn’t be any translation issues. They were obviously surprised and didn’t lower their guard but they didn’t seem quite as tense after sensing my lack of aggression.

The shaman Polerta furrowed her brows and appeared angry at my statement but didn’t make any provocative movements.

“Unavoidable? You attacked us and killed three of our kin! Now you apologise and expect us to simply let you leave once we have you surrounded? This is just another trick that you humans always try to pull on us.”(Polerta)

Now it was my turn to crease my brows. I don’t know why she thinks I’m human but I don’t really care. What’s important is that we don’t start our talk with me pegged as the villain.

“Get of your high horse dryad. Was it not you who attempted to capture me? You of all people must understand that when others are trying to enslave you, violence is more than justified. Besides you don’t want to drag this conflict out. Even if you have me surrounded you can’t really think you’ll be able to stop me without taking casualties.”(Me)

The other dryad seemed to hesitate at my words. It seems my words struck a chord. It’s much easier to mobilise troops for a just cause, but my words that imply they are no different from humans seems to have impacted their fighting spirit.

“Madam Polerta, his words make sense. If he were a slaver I doubt he would have killed any of us.” (reasonable dryad)

Would polerta let me go? I doubt it. She seems to think I’m a human with mimic magic of some kind. Leaving me alone would be a huge threat to them. I imagine she will think up some pretext to kill me. But whilst she and the dryad were talking, I was using a combination of both my magic sense and the dryads’ memories to assess my situation. I was at the centre of a forest formation. All the trees surrounding me are positioned to leave no gaps and can be fully controlled by the dryad. It’s essentially a regenerating, fighting prison cell that defends the dryad whilst they rain down attacks on me. If I really were human I would be in trouble.

“How about this then. We will take you to the high shaman of our village and he will conduct a fair trial to determine your fate in this matter.” (Polerta)

Even if eyes of truth didn’t recognise “fair trial” as a lie I still wouldn’t agree to go with them. Without a strong enough nature affinity, I cannot guarantee my safety against this ‘high shaman’. If Polerta is a ‘shaman’, then a higher tier job like ‘high shaman’ must have been attained at lv200. Not somebody I would want to mess with right now.

“I see. What a pity.” (Me)

Before she could respond my body becomes gelatinous and completely surrounds Sete like a cocoon. I then dive into the earth and it forms around me as though it were water. This is the first time I’ve tried using ‘one with the earth’ in this way but it was fairly easy, I’m so fast I even surprised myself. I travelled at least 80mph through solid rock and appeared above the ground like a mole outside the range of their forest formation.

After releasing Sete so that he can breathe again, I return to my human form and tie the robe back around my waist.

It’s really a shame isn’t it a trope for the hero to save oppressed beautiful women? Well I can’t blame really them. After viewing the dryad’s memories I can see they’re just scarred. Constantly being on guard for people and monsters trying to steal your children would make anyone a bit trigger happy.

Even if I don’t owe them anything, If I find any enslaved dryad on my travels I’ll see what I can do to help them. Enough of that for now. I look towards Sete who is still shaking slightly on the ground. I guess he thought I was going to eat him back there.

“I’m sorry about that. I couldn’t think of another way to guarantee your safety in that situation.” (Me)

I lower my hand to him. He looks at my hand as though contemplating something. After a full 5 minutes of silence he accepts my hand and I pull him up.

“I don’t yet have a name so address me as anomaly for now. Our first stop will be Matora.” (Me)

I like this guy. His quiet disposition has a stark contrast to my other companion, speaking of which, this will be the first time I’ve spoken to Adam by actually talking. I’ll speak English so Sete doesn’t understand, but I may getting odd looks from him if I start talking to myself. Well I don’t really care.

“Adam, what’s up man? I haven’t heard your voice for a while.” (Me)

“Huh? Oh yeah I’m fine. How did everything with the dryads go?” (Adam)

“Uhm fine I guess. We couldn’t make friends but they weren’t strong enough to catch me…wait aren’t you normally watching this stuff?” (Me)

“Sorry I was getting used to my own new body. I had to change the sizes of a lot of the things in my dreamscape like my cloths and even my furniture, damn you were short. No wonder you were bullied” (Adam)

Yep. Really starting to like Sete.

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“”{I'm so happy because today

I've found my friends

They're in my head

I'm so ugly, but that's okay, 'cause so are you}”” (Me, Adam, Kurt)

Adam and I were singing as we approached the gates of Matora. Sete seems to have gotten used to my constant singing over the course of the journey but refuses to join in. Maybe he has trouble pronouncing the lyrics. Oh well Adam always sings with me so I don’t mind.

Using a few threats I pieced together part of Sete’s reason for selecting the second route. It seemed he wasn’t keen on his companions plan as he had a ‘bad feeling’ about it. It seems rogues have a honed instinct for detecting traps, so when my option screen appeared he could sense how dangerous the first and third options were but wasn’t able to tell his teammates before they selected. But that can’t be the full picture. But from my gathered memories he was very loyal to his party, so he may even have chosen to fight by their side if he didn’t have something more to live for. I’ll keep an eye on him for now. It’s not like he is strong enough to be a long term companion anyway.

Speaking of the adventurers memories, I learned about the general situation in Matora. It’s marketed as a neutral city due to its geographical location at the centre of the continent, but it’s closer to a city of outcasts. It lies in a barren region between the borders of the elven empire (north east), beastkin empire (northwest) and human empire (south). In reality it has become a haven for mixed bloods. Most races that hold impure bloodlines are looked down upon in all three empires, so families congregate here to raise their children in peace. Naturally such a pitiful place doesn’t hold much military might, making it my ideal first stop. It’s obvious that Adam put a lot of effort into selecting my starting point even if he won’t admit it.

As this is a weak city I plan to fully release my mana sense here. From the knowledge I’ve collected there shouldn’t be anyone in the city who can notice it now that I’ve turned lv88. They would have to be lv237 and the lord, who is supposedly the city’s strongest, shouldn’t be much more than lv210. Plus even if they notice my sense I doubt they can pinpoint me in a city as busy as this one.

We notice a line of carriages waiting to enter the city. I select the one that looks the most dilapidated and approach them with Sete. After an awkward discussion with the driver I used Sete’s money to buy a ragged shirt and trousers for far more than their value and used the back of carriage to change cloths.

Getting into the city was uneventful. Isn’t someone supposed to start a fight or something? Oh well. We both headed straight for the guild. This is your first test Sete. Friend or foe.

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Guild Master Jonas POV

No this isn’t right. Delicacy is required to attempt soft stone yet I keep putting so much force into it. Damn I’ve been so uncomfortable these past few days, what’s with all these rookie mistakes I’m making.

“Sir. Sete has returned sir. He is here to report on the quest sir.” (Mono)

“Good they’re finally back! Thank you Mono, but why aren’t they all here to report? Ah typical Bordani he’s…Mono…Mono whats wrong?” (Jonas)

Tears are cascading down her face. What’s going on? Could it be…?

“Mono! What are you doing we can report this please just sit down. Sir I’m sorry but…please talk to them directly sir.” (Lucile)

I can only nod at Lucile, she and Mono are best friends and run the reception desk together. If she’s acting this way I can already guess what’s happened. I won’t force her to repeat it here in front of Mono.

“I’ll speak to them, please take care of Mono. Ill Close the guild reception today. We can’t run without you both.” (Jonas)

Poor girl. The adventurers can just use the quest board for a few days. No one will complain given the circumstances. As I’m thinking this an uncloaked Sete enters my office with a man I’ve never seen before following him and holding his cloak. He usually wears it to hide his features but isn’t for some reason, perhaps it’s out of respect for the dead. Very honourable. He tall man closes the door behind him so that its only us three.

“I didn’t think the ladies needed to here this again so I hope you don’t mind me closing the door.” (Sete’s companion)

The young man appears quite considerate. I can’t help but evaluate him. As a sculptor I instinctively look for the flaws in people, yet despite his tattered clothing he appears perfect. He is likely a very powerful warrior. But his courteous personality removes mercenary, and cloths removes noble… regardless I’m sure I’ll be enlightened soon.

“Sete. If you could please explain.” (Jonas)

(Sete)

“Excuse me. I’m sorry to interrupt. It’s just that Sete isn’t very talkative. It already took half an hour to explain it to the ladies out there. Do you mind if I speak. Sete can confirm my words as we go.” (Sete’s companion)

(Sete)

“ahh that’s probably for the best. Go on uhm… I didn’t catch your name son.” (Jonas)

“I can’t give you my real name sir. Like a lot of people that come here, I have a delicate history. But please, call me Thane.” (Thane)

“Jonas, and please continue” (Jonas)

The young man explained how he met Bordani’s group on his journey here. After talking to them he agreed to accompany them to the quarry in exchange for a recommendation to the guild. This much made sense to me. Bordani would always help people he came across on his travels. But it’s what he said next that shocked me. The entire dungeon was cleared of slimes when they got there, and a group of mages were casting some powerful runes on the dragon vein. They couldn’t get any information on who they are or what they were doing before they were attacked. These two could only escape due to Sete’s speed, and this young man’s defensive ability.

“You claimed to be attacked but I don’t see any injury on you” (Jonas)

“The attacks destroyed all of my armour first. By body had a few wounds but nothing a health potion couldn’t fix.” (Thane)

(Sete)

Hmm that should be the case if Sete says so. He is certainly built to take a few hits…

“Thank you gentlemen. Ill report this to my superiors and they will investigate he dungeon. I hope we can find these mages…Sete I’ll give you the full reward for your work. And Thane, by Bordani’s will I officially grant you a place in the guild. Ill have a guild card made up for you, and don’t worry you don’t have to give your details. However whilst I know you may be strong enough for B-rank I can’t give you such a rank without you having taken a single quest so I’ll grant you a C-rank pass for now.” (Jonas)

The two thanked me and left my office. Haah this is too much. I only came to this place for some peace and quiet… Something isn’t quite right about that Thane. The sculptor in me cannot acknowledge such perfection…well I can’t be considered an expert, let’s leave it for now. If he doesn’t cause any trouble its fine. I hope Mono will be ok.

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MC POV

“Dude! That name is awesome. What made you choose that?” (Adam)

“Named after my favourite RPG assassin.” (Me-Thane)

“A ‘M*ss Ef*ect reference? nice. I’ll keep that in mind…” (Adam)

Everything went smoothly and I became an adventurer. The perfect cover all over the world. With Setes help I could create a cover story for his team and avoid the annoying f-rank missions. Of course skipping the generic status check clique was key for someone as bizarre as me.

I can’t think of any more uses for Sete due to the strength difference between us, so just having him go on with his normal life would be fine, I mean he can’t disappear or I garner suspicion at the guild. Maybe I’ll think of something later. We arrange to split up. I command him to continue with his normal life and make sure he agrees whilst using ‘eyes of truth’. He doesn’t lie so were good.

“Really you’re just going to assume he won’t tell anyone. He could be telling the truth now but change his mind later.” (Adam)

“It’s fine. When I carried him through the earth a few days ago. I used ‘drones’ to create very thin needle. It’s currently buried in his back and he doesn’t even notice.” (Thane)

“That was pretty smart. You can use it to keep an eye on him. But that still doesn’t solve the problem. What if he starts to tell someone, you’d still have to run over and stop him right?” (Adam)

“That would be true, but you forget that I’m always compressing my mass. That needle will become a spear at my whim. So I’m not too worried.” (Thane)

“Wow. You really made something out of that trash skill didn’t you?”(Adam)

“Enough about that. Now that I have a cover for being in this city. Let’s get to the real objective.” (Thane)