TTIGRAAS: Predator

Chapter 28

I was glad to be able to spend more time as a slime now that the kids were aware of my species. Up until this point, I had to make do with hopping around during the night.

I even went around the school when nobody was around, taking advantage of the darkness. The smooth tiles in the hallways always felt nice on my body; that's why I ventured out of my room despite possible risks.

It definitely wasn't to freak out the skittish Vice Chairman who has a comedically high-pitched shriek for a man his size. I'm too sneaky to get caught so carelessly, I swear!

Now if I did happen to get caught, I suppose someone might have taken me for a ghost since I'm sorta transparent as a slime. Yeah, let's go with that.

Said supposed 'ghost' sighting, by the way, definitely didn't spawn a school-wide phenomenon akin to the sighting of a cryptid. Not at all.

Either way, I'd been avoiding the school on my nighttime jaunts after that fiasco. That definitely didn't happen by the way... though if it did, it may have been why I was using a mix of [Ranged Barrier] and [Formhide] to turn myself invisible and sneak around the city, nabbing alcohol from various bars.

It's not like they would sell it to me if I tried to pay, in either of my forms.

Currently, I was hanging out in a back alley behind my favorite location, a bar-restaurant owned by a wealthy businessman. I couldn't get drunk due to [Poison Resistance], which meant it was only that taste that I could enjoy, and this place had the best-tasting alcohol.

Watching the inside with [Magic Sense], at the perfect moment I shadow-motioned inside and immediately started reaching for the cabinet they used to keep the good stuff.

Dangit, they changed the locks on it again. It's so much trickier than last time! That didn't matter though. With a slime-ified finger and a few minutes of hard work and effort, I was in.

I had to stand on the counter to reach, but I grabbed a couple bottles off the top shelf. As soon as they came in contact with me they were covered by the same stuff hiding me, and I absorbed them into my hand.

"Oh nooo!" A voice suddenly said behind me, "not again!"

I froze, wondering if I'd been caught. My skills were probably still enough to keep me hidden, but I didn't want to risk moving on the crowded counter and giving away my location.

Please go away, please go away, I pleaded.

"What is it?" A new voice said as a pudgy man in expensive-looking furs walked in. He was a lot more well-groomed than most people in this city, though it didn't do much to help his rat-like face. This guy could run the yakuza and he wouldn't look out of place.

"Mr. Mjollmile!" The cook said, "this is what I've been talking about! It's the Spirit-stealing Spirit!" He gestured to the open cabinet, which I was still in front of, completely invisible.

Huh. I have a new nickname, it seems. The pudgy man, Mjol–mole... Mollie stroked his chin. "Don't they usually leave behind coins?" He said.

Right. They'd caught me midway through the act, so I hadn't left my payment yet. Honestly, I didn't know why this guy was complaining, I always paid, over-paid, even. Maybe it was the existential dread of knowing they could never stop me.

"Th-they must still be here!" The cook exclaimed, "I'll lock down the building, we'll catch them this time!"

If I was a spirit, did you really think locking the doors to this place would stop me?! Ifrit would just burn it's way out of this place within seconds!