That Time I Fell in Love with a Slime

Naming [rewritten]

"Why did I do this?" I asked myself as I bobbed gently up and down, not actually going anywhere. I really hoped I wouldn't be stuck for too long, enough of this and anyone'll go crazy. "Seriously, what where those slimes thinking?!" I mouthed off at them angrily. "Notice. You decided to follow them." Did you hear something? No? Me neither. "... ... ..." It felt like Curiosity was going to say something there, but I guess not. And besides, I couldn't exactly stay there on my own! Strength in numbers, remember I've been targeted by someone!

I guess none of that really helps me here, though. Was I gonna be stuck here forever? So rundown time: after a while, the slimes decided to, of all things, jump (not literally, of course) into the river and I followed them. Then we all got stuck here, in a gentler part of the river, bobbing up and down endlessly.

I thought about how to escape for a little while, but came up with nothing. "Curiosity, help me! I'm sorry for ignoring you earlier!" "Received. Unique Skill 'Protector' should be used to create a raft." Wow, I never thought of using it like that. I guess it has its uses outside of battle too. I set to work creating the barrier beneath the 30 slimes present. Luckily, they all fell within the 150 metre limit so no problems with creating the raft. Curiosity helped with its dimensions, and soon enough we were floating on a gently bobbing raft. Which lead to a new problem: how were we going to get out of the water? We still weren't going anywhere, but then I had an idea. I would use the Barrier Manipulation skill from Protector to create oars from the barrier and row. "Notice. That would be possible. Furthermore, from the pattern of water and air movement, the location of the nearest shore has been deduced." Alright! My plan would work, and Curiosity had already sorted the difficult details for me. Seriously, that skill felt like cheating.

"You want me to what?" Rita cried in utter disbelief in one of the rare occasions she expressed herself truly before her boss. "You're seriously asking me to name that creature?! Surely you're joking." Rita was exasperated, first he had her trek through Jura, then she had to oversee an annoying trade, and now this - his most outlandish request yet. Sure, Rita had more than enough magical energy to name it, but the risk of fully losing some power was too much for her. "No. I do not recall asking you, I am ordering you to name that creature." Suddenly, she felt the cold prick of steel pressed against her neck, digging in just enough that the dagger wouldn't break the skin, but no less. "Tch. You always were a sneaky one." Rita grumbled at the person holding the knife to her neck. "Release her." As soon as the order came down, she was released and her captor vanished into the shadows. "So, you will name the slime, correct?"

Freedom at last! That took ages, but we escaped the lake and made it to dry, solid ground. I thought I'd be able to rest after that hard work, but nope, the slimes resumed their migration. And one of them slid right over me too, so rude! Whatever, I had to follow them even if I didn't like it or else I'd be lost alone here, which would do me no good at all. So, once again, I trekked into the unknown with nothing but a couple of skills and a herd of slimes.

It wasn't long before trouble found me, either way.

"Hey, slime." Did I just hear a person's voice? How, wasn't I deaf? "Received. This is believed to be a telepathic communication. Further analysis is currently underway." Curiosity came in with an explanation almost immediately, that thing worked fast! "I'm going to name you, 'kay. Honestly to think I'd be reduced to naming slimes, and I have to do this with telepathy as well? Why can't you slimes just be born with hearing, huh?" Sheesh, not my fault, what're you doing getting all huffy about it? "Notice. Analysis complete. This is the effect of the Common Skill 'Telepathy'. It allows for two individuals to converse through thoughts alone, using magicules as a medium." I got the full rundown of Telepathy from Curiosity. Seemed like a pretty useful skill, but it was one I sadly didn't possess. "Notice. The communication allowed by Telepathy is two-way." Which apparently didn't matter here. "Um, hi?" I carefully said. "Eh? I guess you really are unique, aren't ya? Never heard of an intelligent slime before. Anyway, I'm going to name you, alright."