Chapter 45—Demon Colonel
"So, tell me now—are you two the only intelligent ones?" Slime#47 asked plainly, glancing at the cow and bull who had surrendered. He’d let the bull go. Both of them, the Cow and the Bull, knelt down.
"Yes, we are the only ones," they replied.
"What are your names?" he asked, clicking his tongue as he realized it was silly—they were probably numbered like him, such as 47.
As expected, Cow replied first with sadness, "I don’t have one, but humans named me Cow#1."
"Hmmm... I will kill that human," Bull said furiously, but when Young Slime glanced at him, he said, "I am named Bull#1." He’d gritted his teeth while mentioning his name.
’Yeah, he hates that name... who wouldn’t? Getting tagged like #1 or #9—at least if it were a secret agent code it’d sound cool.’ Slime#47 mused, clicking his tongue that humans sure make demons hate them with their actions.
They didn’t understand the human tongue, but when they were named, their names flashed in their status panels.
"I see," he nodded and asked, "How many of your kin are there?" He didn’t want to count them all.
Cow#1 replied plainly, "My kind are 30."
Bull#1 said, after counting everyone, "My kind are 10."
’Yeah... costs too much to raise them. Unlike slimes, they don’t multiply like weeds.’ Young Slime mused. Slimes numbered nearly 2300 in Oakfield village, while cattle totaled about 100.
Slimes could be fed filth, and one slime could turn into a reproduction factory, while with others, that’s not possible. Due to this, slimes were very populated in the village.
"You can lead your kind, right?" he asked, wary of their lack of intellect and not wanting to take care of their troubles.
"Yes, my lord," Cow#1 and Bull#1 nodded.
Young Slime nodded. "We are breaking out of this village," he said—simple, firm, deciding to take them along as they could be helpful.
Their intelligence changed his mind—he didn’t want to blindly kill them, as he’d felt they were like real people. If they lacked brains, he would have killed them without blinking his eyes.
"This..." Hearing this, they smiled with joy and touched their heads to the ground, declaring, "We surrender to you, lord."
’Didn’t they already surrender?’ Young Slime wondered, but a new status panel answered his thoughts.
[ Ding! You have gained a new title!—Demon Colonel {Common}! ]
[ —Demon Colonel {Common}—
—More than 2000 or so demons have acknowledged you as their lord!
—They won’t hesitate to act on your orders!
Congratulations!
Note: They might disobey if it goes against their morals! ]
’I see...’ Eyeing the panel, he understood—they had fully acknowledged him as their Lord, beyond light-hearted words. ’Before I knew it,...I had grown from weak slime to having 2000+ demons under me,’
More than two thousand slimes, despite lacking intellect, had acknowledged him as their lord due to his power and because he was their kin.
Wob!—Wob!Hearing the slimes bouncing, he knew Elder Slime had arrived.
Old Slime entered the cattle farm by bouncing over other slimes and stood in front of Young Slime.
"Child, let’s go... Have you finished your business?" He asked with a grin, showing no anger over the changed plans, as if expecting everything would turn out right.
’He really is a good mentor,’ Young Slime mused. He’d expected scolding... but Old Slime never disappoints.
"Done... they will be following us," he said, pointing to the cattle and Wob!—Bam!—broke the entrance with his punch.
Unlike fences in his field, they were made with metal; after all, bulls could break wood if they charged with full force.
The cattle glanced in disbelief as the army of slimes appeared in front of their vision, since the entrance broke apart into pieces.
"Well?... Let’s go, move...," Young Slime said, grinning at the stunned bull and cow.
"Moooo," Bull#1 and Cow#1 roared as their kin stood up.
Thud! Thud! Wob! Wob! They rushed out of the cattle farm.
Then he broke another cattle farm entrance, but to his disappointment, no intelligent ones there. He spared them, letting Cow#1 and Bull#1 lead them.
After they joined, the cattle grew to 40 cows, 30 bulls, almost touching 100 as Young Slime had expected.
Whoosh!—They rushed past in kneeling farmers’ awe, reaching Oakfield village’s upper section within minutes.
Villagers peeked from dwellings at the loud noises, bombarded by slimes jumping and bouncing over, with cattle following.
"Stop," he ordered; everyone halted. He checked the barrier he’d cast—the fire had calmed, leaving only burnt ash with no house signs.
Typically, a mana shield lasts seconds or a minute normally, but pouring enormous mana can extend it to hours or even days.
The shield dispersed at his command since it was his mana.
Bouncing on the ashes, he mused, tilting his body, ’How could there be none? There should be something—Bailiff must have hoarded people’s money as he’d titles like heavy tax imposer and stingy bailiff.’
Remembering the crate under the trough, he muttered, "Let’s try it; no loss anyway... Acid Fist," then slammed his glowing grey fist into the ground.
Boom!
A crater formed on the ground with debris rising into the sky.
"As expected," Young Slime grinned as the underground room’s interior finally revealed itself with a hole.
"Woah!" Little Slime exclaimed; the little guy couldn’t hide his joy as he rushed over and asked, "Boss Slime, Boss Slime, I will follow you...."
Young Slime nodded, as the little guy jumped into the hole made by the punch—Thud!—he landed safely.
Young Slime then retrieved the small metal box he had thrown onto a nearby dwelling’s roof earlier—he hadn’t forgotten it.
Elder Slime and he jumped down; Mama Slime wanted to follow but stayed to oversee the other slimes, as many annoyingly bounced into each other and almost got lost on the route.
The room measured just two square meters. He found one small pouch of crystals—both mana and aura dumped together—and one metal box.
Opening the pouch, he muttered, "Aha, so that’s how it is"—the pouch crystals had one stripe over them, while the crystals in the box ones had none.
"What a waste," Elder Slime said, glancing at the room with disappointment. The box, half a meter wide and a quarter meter long, filled less than one-fifth of the space; the secret room appeared empty at a glance.
Little Slime, however, had the time of his life, drilling into the box and playing with the crystals.
"Let’s go," Young Slime said, holding the box as he bounced out; Little Slime stayed inside.
Slime#47 could only agree, as Little Slime nearly cried when pulled out.
Elder Slime leapt, following Young Slime.
Both of them landed on the ground.
"Elder, how long would it take for adventurers to start looking for us?" Young Slime asked, needing an estimate to find a backer or escape to a human-unfriendly place.
Elder Slime glanced around and caught a woman peeking from a nearby dwelling window.
"You, come out," he said in the Lithya language.
The woman looked bewildered while Slime#47 grinned, finding the woman’s reaction amusing. He knew it as the third common human language, which he couldn’t understand.
"You... slime, you can speak?!" the woman stammered in panic.
"Yes, I can. Don’t worry, I will not harm you. Neither will he," Elder Slime plainly replied, pointing to Slime#47 to soothe her excited emotions.
End of Chapter.
__________________________________________________________________