After the slime left, only Troll remained in the secret workshop.
As he moved, he looked at Claire, who seemed more relaxed after receiving a massage from the slime.
‘I’m jealous. If I had muscles, I could’ve enjoyed that too.’
While they were still in the secret workshop, the slime had offered to give Troll a massage as thanks for bringing it meat.
Troll had seen people enjoy it on the broadcast and tried it out.
But the pleasure he expected never came.
Well, Troll is a lich.
Meaning, he’s all bones!
No matter how much he trembled from the massage, there was no way he could feel any muscle relief.
At best, he just felt his bones shaking a bit.
While having such carefree thoughts, Troll began to speculate about what might happen next.
‘Meeting Nellin in Chilture won’t be easy. But the clues should be easy to find, so maybe they’ll meet her within a month.’
But reality didn’t go the way Troll expected.
As soon as they arrived in Chilture, Claire took the slime straight to the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Are Marin and Godrick here? They're handing out flyers for a missing slime.”
“Ah, you must mean those folks. Unfortunately, they’ve already left Chilture. That slime by any chance...?”
The receptionist glanced at the slime sitting on Claire’s head.
“Might not be, but it looked smart so I came to check.”
“I see. Did you come after seeing the flyer?”
“No, I didn’t see the flyer. But I met Marin and heard she was looking for a smart slime. Anyway, where did Marin go?”
“They said the Godrick party was heading to the Holy Capital.”
“The Holy Capital?”
“Yes. They said something came up, and asked that if someone found the slime, they should either bring it to the Holy Capital or leave it with this guild.”
“Leave the slime with the guild?”
“This is the first time we’ve had such an unusual request. But they repeatedly assured us it was a smart and friendly slime, so there wouldn’t be any issues. And even if it goes wild, it’s just a slime—we can handle that.”
‘Yeah right.’
Claire, who knew full well the strength of a slime that could one-shot a B-rank monster, couldn’t believe the guild would be able to handle it if things went south.
“Would you like to leave the slime with the guild?”
Claire shook her head.
“No, I’ll keep it with me.”
“Then are you planning to go to the Holy Capital?”
The Holy Capital was about ten days away from Chilture.
‘That’s far.’
She had just spent a whole week riding a carriage to get here.
Even jerky from the last village had gotten boring.
“I’ll think about it. I just want to rest now. My butt hurts from riding all that way.”
“Understood. Ah, since you haven’t seen the flyer, please take one. Here it is.”
“Thanks.”
Claire tucked the flyer into her clothes and headed straight for the tavern.
***
After finishing her meal, Claire returned to her inn room, placed the slime on the bed, and pulled out the flyer.
[Name: Tongtong]
[Light green slime]
[Very nimble]
[Friendly to humans]
[Understands human language quite well]
[Often bounces around and trembles when happy]
[Can jump very high]
[Can glow on its own]
“Hmmmm.”
Claire glanced between the slime and the flyer.
There were many similarities between the two.
First, it was indeed a light green slime.
It was nimble, friendly, and trembled sometimes.
But she had never seen it jump high or glow before.
After thinking for a bit, Claire realized something.
There was no need to overthink it.
‘I’ll just show it to the slime.’
This slime could read menus, after all.
If it could read this, she could just ask if it was the one mentioned.
Claire showed the flyer to the slime and asked, “Is this you?”
The slime looked at the flyer Claire held out.
‘Tongtong! That’s me!’
Boing!
Realizing the flyer was about itself, the slime bounced on the bed.
Meanwhile...
▶ What does it say?
▶ It sounded like the human called it a flyer.
▶ Maybe it’s something written about Squishy?
[Noblesse Fire] ▶ Hey, anyone here can read human writing?
[Squishy Queen] ▶ Troll! Translate it! You must know! I saw books written in human language in your nest!
[Free Spirit] ▶ It’s nothing much. Just his name and traits written there.
▶ Ah, don’t be vague. Translate it properly.
▶ Do your job, Troll!
▷ I’ll say it!
As the chat clamored to know more, the slime copied the contents of the flyer word for word, like it was reading its own skill description.
▶ Tongtong lol, it’s been a while.
▶ This is from those four humans, right?
[Squishy Queen] ▶ Hmph, still looking for my kin, huh? I suppose that’s... kinda endearing.
▶ So pure lol Honestly, aren’t those humans closer to Squishy than you are?
[Squishy Queen] ▶ SILENCE!
▶Looooool
▶ Stop hitting her with facts lolol
▶ Just saying what’s true! Ikkacola!
While the chat was teasing the Slime Queen...
‘Is it really?’
Claire had only been with the slime for a week and couldn’t tell if its reaction was a confirmation or just a response to the flyer.
So Claire decided to test its intelligence.
“If that’s really you, show me one tentacle.”
Pop!
At Claire’s request, the slime immediately extended a tentacle.
“Oh.”
Seeing the exact answer she was hoping for, Claire nodded.
“So your name is Tongtong.”
Boing!
‘Tongtong!’
The slime was thrilled to hear its other name again after so long and bounced on the bed.
▶ Ahahaha, not Tongtong but Squishy, haha.
▶ Nah nah, the name is actually Alexandros II.
▶ Aw~ I thought Furry was going to come up with Squishy’s new nickname this time. Too bad.
‘So it really was the slime Marin was looking for.’
Claire clenched her fist in joy at the unexpected stroke of luck.
Even though it was supposed to be a smart and friendly slime that Marin was searching for, she still had doubts about whether such a slime could really be strong enough to take down a B-rank monster in a single blow.
But now, with this flyer, she had confirmation that it was the same slime.
‘I can become even stronger.’
Now that it was confirmed to be the same slime, hope blossomed inside Claire—hope that she could truly become Nellin’s disciple and grow stronger.
“?"
A sudden thought popped into her mind, and Claire looked at the flyer again.
‘Can glow on its own.’
“Tongtong.”
‘Yep!’
Boing!
“Can you glow too?”
‘Yep! Sparkle sparkle!’
It had been a while since the slime had used its glowing skill.
Excited, it poured more magic into it than usual and lit up brightly.
Paaah!
“Ahhh!”
The sudden flash of light struck Claire’s eyes head-on.
***
—No, no, that won’t do. That’s boring.
Somewhere on the Derxia continent, in a certain cave.
There, someone was watching the slime’s broadcast through a system window.
A humanoid monster over 3 meters tall with dark green skin.
Possessing intelligence enough to use the system, and an aura proving it to be one of the highest-ranking beings—one that pressured and dominated nearby monsters with sheer presence.
This being was one of the S-rank monsters living on the Derxia continent.
The apex of orcs and ruler of all orcs.
The Orc King.
Currently, the Orc King had major complaints about the broadcast.
Namely, that it had been nothing but boring content for way too long.
Months of dull, bloodless sparring.
The only excitement came from the slime’s performance in the Lightning Strike Forest, but even that was short-lived.
Now it was back to another boring travel arc.
The Orc King found no entertainment in humans getting massages from the slime and smiling.
‘And now it’s heading to the Holy Capital? That means it’ll meet that saintess and paladin human!’
That would just mean more boring content.
The Orc King preferred scenes of blood, human screams, or dramatic moments.
And he didn’t really care if the slime died to make that happen.
In fact, the one who anonymously urged the slime into dangerous actions every time it got close to trouble after leaving the cave—giggling and pushing for more—was none other than the Orc King.
He once had a proper nickname but got banned from other broadcasts for trolling, so now he operated anonymously.
If he didn’t like the slime’s show, he could just watch another one.
But that wasn’t the kind of troll the Orc King was.
‘Why should I leave first? They should change the show to suit me!’
His mindset was one where others should adjust to him, not the other way around—one of entitlement and constant complaints, earning him the title of troll.
Back when the slime was with the Godrick party, the Orc King had considered creating content of his own.
He planned to send his minions to the village where the slime and the Godrick party were staying, start a raid, and enjoy watching the slime and humans fight back.
He was thinking about how to stage it and which minion to send first, but that plan got shelved when the slime fell off a cliff and met Amelia and Paulen.
‘Can’t mess with the guys who took down that damn flying lizard.’
As a top-tier creature, the Orc King had naturally extended his lifespan.
It had been 60 years since he evolved into one.
And he still remembered a certain unforgettable broadcast from 50 years ago.
A deranged black dragon who suddenly claimed to be a human turned dark dragon.
At first, the dragon went around picking fights for a “Get Stronger” challenge.
Then he launched a “Show True Evil” arc, starting a Human Massacre Challenge.
He labeled non-existent races on the demon continent—humans, beastkin, elves, and dwarves—as Ningen, Furry, kanpun, and Dwarfs, coining terms that are still used today.
And instead of massacring humans, he just went around burning places down, even torching the forest the Orc King lived in.
Because of that fire, the Orc King lost many of his hard-earned minions.
Just thinking about that time still made his teeth grind.
▶ You bastard!!! You said you were killing humans—why’d you have to burn down the forest too?!
▷ Come fight me then, lololol. Can’t, right? Too weak? Scaredy-cat?
Even when he complained in the chat, the black dragon would just taunt him more.
The Orc King ground his teeth, unable to confront the dragon directly.
Just from watching his fights on the demon continent, it was obvious he was far stronger.
And the ones who eventually took down that black dragon?
A group made up of Ningen, kanpun, and Dwarfs.
That broadcast was so powerful it still haunted the Orc King’s memory.
He remembered clearly that one of those humans was called the Saintess.
And now he was supposed to attack that Saintess?
If he messed up, he could die.
‘But not right now.’
The Saintess wasn’t around, and neither was Troll.
‘If Troll were nearby, he might come if Squishy was in danger.’
But it didn’t seem likely they’d come all the way to his nest.
Keh heh heh heh...
The Orc King chuckled at the thought of restarting the content he’d once given up on.