Chapter 40: The Growing Slime

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After closing the interface, he finally noticed that it was already afternoon outside.

“Come to think of it, you actually had something this useful hidden away... You could have mentioned it sooner.”

The Whispering Grimoire replied leisurely, “You never asked.”

“...I suppose that’s true.”

After standing up and stretching, Qin Yuan suddenly remembered that the Nightmare Slime was still lying in his Player Backpack.

The Player Backpack appeared on the interface as a series of item slots, but in reality, its true form was a small room measuring roughly three by three by three cubic meters.

It could hold living creatures, although Qin Yuan himself could not enter it.

Even more astonishingly, it did not conflict with spatial items such as storage bags.

When he opened the backpack, he discovered that the Nightmare Slime had already been awake for some time.

“Huh?”

He noticed that its current state was somewhat different from usual.

He remembered that just two days ago, it had been charging around inside like a mad creature.

Now, however, the Nightmare Slime was remarkably quiet.

It stared blankly at the walls of the backpack with a pair of perfectly round eyes.

Its eyes were no longer black and red.

They had turned white instead.

Even its gaze had become clear and lucid...

After pondering for a moment, Qin Yuan had an idea and took it out again.

The Nightmare Slime instantly appeared in the room.

Qin Yuan watched it without blinking, prepared to subdue it immediately should anything seem amiss.

“Gurgle, gurgle...”

It did not display any particularly violent behavior. Instead, it gazed at him with two pairs of clear, enormous eyes, muttering something under its breath.

It sounded somewhat like a person trying to speak with water in their mouth.

“Can you understand what it’s saying?” he asked the Whispering Grimoire beside him.

The floating spellbook sensed it in silence for a moment, then shook its pages.

“No idea. In any case, it isn’t the language of ordinary slimes.”

Qin Yuan could only shrug.

“Perhaps you could try feeding it something,” the Whispering Grimoire suddenly suggested.

“Feed it something? Doesn’t it only consume nightmares?” Qin Yuan asked, somewhat puzzled.

The Whispering Grimoire explained earnestly, “Nightmares are its staple food. But creatures of this kind, especially when they are young, often eat magical materials or alchemical herbs as snacks. I’m not certain what its diet includes, but you could see whether you have anything it might like.”

“I see...”

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Qin Yuan immediately opened his backpack and began searching.

Magical materials were far too precious, often costing one or two gold coins apiece.

Although he had accumulated a modest amount of savings, he was nowhere near wealthy enough to spend money so extravagantly.

For now, he could only consider alchemical herbs.

Unfortunately, he did not have many varieties on hand.

Some were leftover ingredients from the last time he had gathered materials to brew Arcane Potions.

The rest were things he had occasionally collected in the forest with the help of the Eye of Revelation.

Though they were not worth much individually, finding two or three at a time still amounted to several silver coins.

He first took out a slender, elongated alchemical herb with a fluffy tip dotted with several star-like specks. Its shape somewhat resembled a morning glory.

This was an alchemical herb known as Stargrass, one of the ingredients used to brew Arcane Potions.

He slowly brought it toward the Nightmare Slime.

“Gurgle, gurgle...”

The slime leaned forward and sniffed it, then curled its lips and turned its head away.

It seemed completely uninterested.

Qin Yuan switched to other materials and tried several more times, but every attempt ended in failure.

Though somewhat helpless, he could not give up so easily. He took out another material.

He had happened upon this one while hunting monsters in the forest on his second day after entering the game.

With the Eye of Revelation assisting him, anything that entered his field of vision was difficult to miss.

It was a pure-black flower, with several dark leaves spread out beside it.

Its stamen was extraordinarily strange, seeming to exist somewhere between reality and illusion. At times it could be seen clearly; at others, there was nothing there at all.

He approached the slime once more, hoping merely to give it a try.

“Doot, doot...”

The slime sniffed it lightly, appearing somewhat interested. It opened its mouth and swallowed the flower in a single bite.

After chewing twice, it gently gulped it down.

“Gurgle!”

Judging from the change in its expression, it seemed to find the taste rather good.

Qin Yuan took out two more and fed them to the slime one after another.

They were gone in no time.

The last time, he had simply been lucky enough to discover three flowers at once.

“Gurgle, gurgle...”

Qin Yuan soon realized that the Nightmare Slime had become attached to him. It pressed close and stared up at him with two pairs of limpid, watery eyes.

“...”

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Qin Yuan spread his hands. He had no idea whether it could understand the gesture, but there really was nothing left. He could only try taking out several other materials.

The slime shook its head at each of them, showing no interest.

“What am I supposed to do now...?” Qin Yuan tugged at the corner of his mouth. The little bond he had just managed to cultivate was clearly about to be worn away.

He had no choice but to open the Player Forum again and publish a guide post.

[Buying the alchemical herb Shadow Flower at a high price: six silver coins per flower. Trade quickly if you have any.]

Although he had posted the message, it was impossible for anyone to respond immediately.

Since he had nothing else to do, Qin Yuan simply spent some more time playing with the Nightmare Slime.

He even painfully sacrificed the toys he had kept from childhood.

The slime showed no interest whatsoever and casually tossed them onto the floor.

Qin Yuan: “...”

...

Time passed unnoticed, and night soon arrived.

Sometime after half past nine, the Nightmare Slime began to feed.

Without anyone needing to remind it, just as it had in Ironstone Village, it drew in the surrounding nightmares. They transformed into strands of black threads before being swallowed into its belly.

It was obvious, however, that these dream-born threads were much thicker than those in Ironstone Village.

The main reason was naturally that the populations of the two places were on entirely different scales.

Brocade City was a major metropolis with a population of more than ten million, while Ironstone Village was merely a small village of several hundred people.

Although the Nightmare Slime’s absorption range could not cover the entire city, there were still tens of thousands of people within its reach.

As time passed, Qin Yuan noticed that the slime’s belly gradually began to swell.

The entire process lasted roughly two hours.

When Qin Yuan turned his head to look, he found that the Nightmare Slime had apparently stopped only because it was too full to eat any more. Its entire body had grown by a full size, and it was now as round as a ball.

“Will the Player Backpack even be able to fit it like this...?”

Looking at the sleeping Nightmare Slime, Qin Yuan muttered helplessly.

In the end, it took considerable effort before he finally managed to put it back into the Player Backpack.

“Phew...”

After all that exertion, Qin Yuan felt slightly drained. He lay down on the bed, wiped away the fine beads of sweat on his forehead, and took a hot shower.

“Come to think of it, I was planning to find somewhere to practice that spell I just learned. Looks like it’ll have to wait until tomorrow...”

With that thought in mind, he soon fell asleep.

...