Today I’m going to test more magic.

Yesterday I found out that [Fireball] uses two mana each time I use it.

“Magic is… pretty horrifying.”

I went out to the field again to practice. There was a pile of ashes and the ground around it was slightly charred.

||FIREBALL; MODIFICATION, PURPLE FLAMES OF HELL||

The purple fireball welled up in my hand. It had small purple embers that floated off of the top. It was a darker purple toward the bottom which was closest to my hand.

The fireball’s magic circle was on the back of my hand, glowing a bright cyan-like color.

“Ooooh~ look at this!”

I examined the fireball and I noticed that it spun going in a circular motion.

“I wonder if I can use this to make it go faster?”

I got into a pitching position ready to throw the flaming ball. I balanced my legs out and swung my right arm back as my left arm bent in front of me.

I took a deep breath slowly.

Then I started using my mana to control the fireball’s rotation speed. It sped up two to three times faster than it was before.

“Um… isn’t it going…”

“A little too fast?”

The speed kept rapidly increasing. The fireball started reacting to the speed nearly exploding in the palm of my hand.

“Oh shit-”

I whipped my hand forward, throwing the fireball. It went at such a fast speed that a part of the forest had a gaping hole in it and everything in its path was lit with a blazing purple.

“I couldn’t… even see the fireball…”

“Ah- How much mana did that use?”

“Stratum.”

I checked my stat window. 

||~Mana: 8/10~||

sigh

I thought it would consume way more mana than that.

Wait…

Why didn’t it consume more mana? That spell was way too overpowered. Does it not matter? Is it a single-use spell? Is that how magic works in this world?

“Well let’s just try using the spell some more.”

||FIREBALL; MODIFICATION, PURPLE FLAMES OF HELL||

I whipped the fireball toward a tree, but this time it didn’t go through. Instead, it stuck to the tree and burnt it until only ashes remained in the air.

“Again.”

||FIREBALL; MODIFI-…

I carried this on until I had two mana remaining.

“Ahhh. That spell is so destructive…”

How can I make it just a regular fireball? I don’t think I intended for it to be purple though…

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

I went back into town and was walking down one of the streets.

“Yeh!”

“Huh?-“

I turned to see Esther standing behind me.

“Oh, hey.”

“Um… I saw wondering fi uoy detnaw ot teg something ot tae?” 

I can kind of understand what she’s saying. Is it because of my [Language Master] skill reaching level zero? It isn’t much better than before, but there is improvement…

“Uh…”

“Sure?”

I’m not exactly sure what she said though…

She looked ecstatic about it so it couldn’t be that bad… right?

Esther grabbed my arm and started dragging me down the road, while she pointed at a bunch of buildings.

They all seemed relatively food related…

What time is it now?

Wait-

The sun is about to set?!

Am I going out to eat with a girl?

That sounds like a date right?

She ran ahead of me.

“Revo here!” She waved me down.

I forced a smile while walking over.

We got seated at this nice-looking… restaurant?

For the record I have no experience with girls. I saw some at school but the morals of the people in my old world were horrific so I tried distancing myself from them. Let alone all the bullying and mocking. Otherwise I mainly played games with a side of researching humanity’s atrocities… yeah laugh all you want.

Back to my point though. I have no romantic knowledge at all… besides maybe some manga and anime, but how could that help me? It’s fucking made up scenarios that can’t occur in reality-

Ah… but maybe I’m just overthinking it. I mean who would want to be with me? Hahahaha! Yeah, that’s right… Plus we just met-

I looked at Esther to see her with her head in her hands as she watched me with a light smile. Her blue eyes almost glowing in the dimly lit restaurant.

“Cute-” 

My mouth slipped up.

She jolted and quickly looked away, her face started turning a light red. 

Eh?

I just-

Said she was cute out loud and she knew what I said…

Ah…

That’s… a little embarrassing.

I kinda sat there dumbfounded. I didn’t know how to react to my slip up and my face was starting to turn red as well from embarrassment.

I slowly refocused and looked back at her after escaping my daze. She was catching glances at me while trying to be elusive.

“I- um… should we order?”

I pointed at the menu to try and be more clear with my point.

She subtly shook her head, it also looked like she understood some of my words. Esther’s cheeks were now puffed up as she rested her head on one of her hands.

Seriously though? Why was ‘Cute’ one of the words that [Language Master] picked up…

A waiter was called over and we began ordering. Though I struggled more since he didn’t know what I was saying half the time. So I just pointed at the pictures on the menu.

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

“Haaaaa…”

“That was great!”

“Thanks rof going tuo htiw me.” 

She spoke quietly.

“No problem, Esther.”

I heard ‘Thanks’ so I guess she had a good enough time.

Her face turned red again.

“B-bye…”

She paused for a second.

“...stahw rouy name?” 

She tilted her head curiously.

“Heh-“

Did I never tell her my name…? Did I seriously not?!

“Cynical...” I tried saying casually, slightly embarrassed that she didn’t know the entire time.

“Cynical, llew… goodnight.”

“Goodnight Esther.”

She smiled at me and started walking away.

Would that be counted as a ‘date’? I’m not sure what would be considered one… I’ll just call it an ‘outing’ for now.

||SKILL: [LANGUAGE MASTER] has leveled up four times! Your proficiency is greatly increased while reading!||

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

|TWO DAYS LATER|

⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱⊰───────•✦•───────⊱

It’s time for me to go to the library. I spent the last two days working on [Fireball] and trying to increase my mana. On top of that my [Language Master] skill leveled up four times after my outing with Esther. 

“Stratum.”

————————————

Name: Cynical

Species: Slime [???]

Level: 16

EXP: 1,362/7,490

————————————

[Titles]

‘World Ender’

‘Monster in Human Clothing’

‘Otherworlder’

‘Magician’s Crusade’

————————————

[Stat Points]

Strength: 182

Speed: 201

Perception: 206

Health: 250,000

Mana: 25

Intelligence: 72

Wisdom: 48

Luck: 9

Remaining Points: 76

————————————

[Skills]

||Passive:||

-Quick Learner, MAXED;

-Sentient Mind, MAXED;

-Chantless, MAXED;

-Language Master, Lvl 4;

||Active:||

-Absorption, Lvl 15;

-Form Shift, Lvl 9;

-Spell Creation, Lvl 2;

-Storage, Lvl 1;

-Sword Bolt, Lvl 6;

-Fireball, Lvl 6;

-Stealth, Lvl 3;

————————————

Everything is leveling up quite nicely…

So what if I try reading books now?

I looked through a catalog of books.

“Oh, how about this one?”

“Hmm…”

“H...isto…ry... of… th..e… Regu….lu…s… Sli…me...” I sounded out.

“History of the Regulus Slime?”

“Regulus? That was my last name.”

This isn’t right… the fact that slime is mentioned, as well as my old last name.

“Let’s dive deeper. Shall we~”

|TWENTY SIX HOURS LATER|

“Uuuuuuughhh… I’m… only around half way through the book…”

Being Percide for around four of those hours was stuffy as hell, so I simply decided to stick myself to the roof and read in a secluded part of the library.

To sum up the book so far it was about a special monster species known as the Regulus. Specifically the slime species. They are powerful monsters that are very similar to their regular counterparts. Except they are way stronger and way way rarer. The chances of a Regulus monster even existing are 0.002%, and that’s considered to be on the lucky side.

Regulus monsters are said to have unique skills, and hold very valuable loot…

It honestly wouldn’t be that odd if I was some sort of Regulus Slime.

I mean, what other slime would be this sentient and have those crazy starting skills. I started laughing to myself-

||SPECIES UPDATE: You have Successfully Dug Deeper into the World and have Discovered something about yourself! Your Species has been Restored to ‘Regulus Slime’! An all-stat Increase has been Applied!||

||Due to your ‘True’ Species being learned you have unlocked a new title! Title: ‘Darkest Monster’ has been Achieved! Due to your title the Unique Skill: [Variant Break] was unlocked!||

…

It was waiting.

There’s no way it wasn’t.

sigh

“Stratum.”

————————————

Name: Cynical

Species: Regulus Slime

Level: 18

EXP: 2,412/9,670

————————————

[Titles]

‘World Ender’

‘Monster in Human Clothing’

‘Otherworlder’

‘Magician’s Crusade’

‘Darkest Monster’

————————————

[Stat Points]

Strength: 192

Speed: 211

Perception: 216

Health: 250,000

Mana: 35

Intelligence: 82

Wisdom: 58

Luck: 19

Remaining Points: 76

————————————

[Skills]

||Passive:||

-Quick Learner, MAXED;

-Sentient Mind, MAXED;

-Chantless, MAXED;

-Language Master, Lvl 6;

||Active:||

-Absorption, Lvl 15;

-Form Shift, Lvl 11;

-Spell Creation, Lvl 2;

-Storage, Lvl 1;

-Sword Bolt, Lvl 6;

-Fireball, Lvl 6;

-Stealth, Lvl 3;

-Variant Break (1/1);

————————————

“[Variant Break] huh?”

“It says it’s one out of one right now? Does that increase with its level…”

Wait. Why doesn’t it have a level, can I even use it…?

Huh-?

What’s that?

I closed my stat window to see a notification hidden behind it.

||WARNING: [Variant Break] might have Serious Consequences! Once activated it can never be Reversed!||

That seems serious…

It just had to be me didn’t it?

“Anyway my mana and [Language Master] skill have leveled up quite a bit.”

I’m almost proficient in reading. I’m hoping once I reach level ten that it will let me speak and hear proficiently.

Wait…

I have the [Absorption] skill.

That can absorb anything… and everything right?

Won’t I level up? If I just eat the books?

“I’m so fucking stupid…”

||ABSORB||

I dropped down from the roof and began eating a bunch of the books in the manor’s library.

||SKILL: [LANGUAGE MASTER] has leveled up!||

||SKILL: [LANGUAGE MASTER] has leveled up!||

||SKILL: [LANGUAGE MASTER] has leveled up!||

||SKILL: [LANGUAGE MASTER] has leveled up!||

||SKILL: [LANGUAGE MASTER] has reached level ten! All proficiency is raised! You can now hold conversations with intelligent beings!||

“I DID IT!”

“NOW I CAN ACTUALLY DO SHIT!”

I was quite ecstatic about this, after all I’ve been working toward it for days at this point. I’m going into town immediately!

I sprinted to the terrace and jumped, landing on a nearby roof. My foot slid on the shingles as I ran towards the central plaza. I jumped down and just listened to everyone speaking along with the flowing water of the fountain.

“Selling fresh meat!”

“This armor is great for exploring!”

“Visit the temple in the capital for your blessings!”

The sounds of people, I can understand it now…

I can understand their language!

I mean… I don’t actually like the people, but communication is a pretty key component in a lot of things- 

Wait… these people specifically didn’t do anything wrong though… I haven’t really felt any resentment toward them either. So maybe it’s just an Earth thing?

“Cynical?”

I turned around.

“Esther?”

“Oh hey, I just wanted to say thank you again for the other night. It was fun.” She smiled.

“I… can understand what you're saying now…”

“Heh?” She said, her expression was filled with shock.

I swiftly hugged her.

“Let's go!”

I was holding her close to my chest.

“Uh… um-“ her legs got a little wobbly and her face was going a light shade of red.

I loosened up and moved my hands onto her shoulders.

“Oh, hey are you alright?”

“M-mhm.” She managed to mumble.

“That’s good to hear~”

I smiled at her, her blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight.

Her face appeared to be blushing.

“Hey are you sure? You seem a little red…”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine-”

I put my hand against her forehead. Trying to indicate if she had a fever.

She looked back toward me.

“I said I’m fine…”

Esther said it with a relatively straight face before saying something else.

“Hey I know a nice spot we could go to if you want.”

“Huh- uh sure.”

We walked relatively close to each other as we reached this sort of overview across the city. The sun setting slowly in front of us.

She grabbed the sleeve of my trench coat gently…

“This is… nice. Right?”

Her voice had a nice warmth to it.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to me.

“Huh-“ she tried to say.

“W-what-“ she stuttered. 

Her face grew a little brighter.

“Thanks.”

Her face changed from a more embarrassed expression to one of surprise. She leaned against me as we sat there watching until the sun was nearly all the way down.

“See you around… Cyni-”

“Just Cyn is fine.”

Esther smiled at me.

“Well then, see you around. Cyn~” She brushed her hair to the side.

“Yeah, see you around…”

I went back to the manor.

“Now that I have leveled up my language skill I should probably start playing Percide properly.”

“Let’s earn some money!”

I thrust my arm up excitedly.

Though the funny thing is… I never did that.