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The woman by the name of Mikami Sakura (or Sakura Mikami in the western order) had quite a few good things going for her. A surprisingly successful career as a salarywoman, a handful of close friends and being quite proud of (and annoyed on occasion by) the fact that she was a rather beautiful woman who was often mistaken for being in her early twenties despite actually being thirty-seven years old. Despite all that success however, there was something that she couldn’t keep herself from feeling jealous about, her lack of anyone to call a significant other. Though her lack of a significant other did at least come with one upside, namely that she could pretty much do whatever she wanted whenever she got home, including but not limited to wandering around in her birthday suit with only a few cares in the world and getting to enjoy… a certain series of fantasy games that were definitely not safe for work. Despite her flaws though, she was still a caring person who had no idea just how her life would change one day.

That day arrived a few days before Christmas of her thirty-seventh year of life. Sakura’s intended plans for the day had been meeting one of her friends, Tamura, who had recently gotten engaged and had decided to introduce his fiancé to Sakura, and do some Christmas shopping. Upon meeting the fiancé, a young woman by the name of Sawatari Miho, Sakura couldn’t resist teasing her friend about his engagement, namely by making a ‘when is the wedding’ joke and genuinely asking whether or not she was invited. Unfortunately, before she could receive an answer, an angry shout drew the attention of everyone on the street towards a man with a face that practically screamed ‘abusive ex-boyfriend’ running towards Sakura and her friends with a knife in his hands. What the man wanted and who his intended target was something that Sakura would never find out as, in the man’s rather berserker-like charge towards the group of three, Sakura ended up being the one with the knife buried in her guts.

Feeling her life draining away from her as she was laid down on the ground, bleeding, Sakura couldn’t keep herself from lamenting her (self-proceeded) failures in her life, and quite possibly starting to hear things that wouldn’t necessarily sound out of place in the context of a character-generator one could find on the internet. Amongst Mikami Sakura’s last words were the admission that she had lived a rather good life all things considered and a request to Tamura to dispose of her computer before she closed her eyes for the last time with a rather satisfied smile on her face.

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Despite the fact that what happened after death was one of the world’s greatest mysteries, regaining consciousness after dying was definitely not something that Mikami Sakura expected to happen. What was strange though was that while she could vaguely feel her entire body moving around despite seemingly lacking limbs completely and that she couldn’t really perceive anything beyond a vague sense of touch. That and an equally strange feeling that, at best, could be described as ‘being watched by someone or something from a distance, but at the same time, not really’ in the back of her (possibly only metaphorical) head.

“What the heck is going on here!?” Sakura couldn’t help but cry out inside her own (possibly only metaphorical) head. “Didn’t I just die!? Why does everything feel so weird and why can’t I see anything!?”

[Notice: Answer: Lack of visual stimulation is caused due to the current form lacking visual organs.]

“What the!? Who said that!?”

[Notice: Answer: This is the Unique Skill known as Great Sage. A Skill with the capability to answer questions and analyze various inputs.]

“A Skill huh? Sounds like something out of a video game. Hey, Great Sage, is there any way for me to properly perceive the world around me?”

[Notice: Answer: Yes. Activate Magicule Perception?]

“Yes please!” Suddenly, the world around Sakura became ‘visible’ to her, revealing that she was inside a massive cave that definitely wouldn’t be out of place in a video game of the fantasy role playing genre. “Woah. Awesome.” As Sakura continued to ‘stare’ at her surroundings in awe, most notably the massive crystals seemingly scattered throughout the entire cave but without missing the nearby lake, she absentmindedly started to move in a random direction, which felt somewhat similar to crawling on the ground and how she imagined a squeezable ball would feel while being rolled on the floor. Something that caused her to stop dead in her (metaphorical) tracks. “Alright, that does it. Hey, Great Sage, how did I get to this place anyway?”

[Notice: Answer: Reincarnation.]

“I see. As what?”

[Notice: Answer: A Slime Monster.]

“… seriously?”

[Notice: Answer: Yes.]

“SON OF A NICE LADY! Do I at least have any Skills that let me look like something besides a blob of gelatin!?”

[Notice: Answer: Yes. Possession of the Innate Skill, Slime Molding, and the Unique Skill, Predator, has been confirmed.]

“How do they work!?”

[Notice: Answer: The Unique Skill, Predator, allows the user to consume various things, including other creatures, to devour or store, analyze and copy the Skills and appearance of the consumed creature. Notice: The amount of forms currently available to Mimic is 0.]

“That’s not an option then. What about the other one? Slime Molding was it?”

[Notice: Answer: Yes, the Innate Skill, Slime Molding, allows the user, and Slimes as a whole, to mold their bodies into a shape they desire without changing their physical characteristics.]

“I think I can work with that one. So how do I use it? Do I just think ‘Activate Innate Skill: Slime Molding’ or something?” While Sakura’s question had been a sarcastic one, the method of activating the Skill was exactly what she thought it was, causing her gelatinous form to start swelling and stretching for about a minute before finally settling down into the shape of a buxom young woman completely made light blue slime with the only exception being the ‘eyes’, which were a darker color than the rest of Sakura’s gelatinous body. “That was weird.” Turning towards the lake in a rather awkward manner, Sakura eventually managed to catch a glimpse of her current appearance. “Damn. I look like a Slime Monster from one of my games. Tamura! You better have wiped my hard drive by now!” After simply standing there and admiring her reflection for about a couple minutes, Sakura decided that she had admired her new looks for long enough and that it was time to get moving. When she attempted to take a step back from the lake however, instead of actually taking a step backward like she attempted, what she ended up doing instead was to simply fall over flat on her back, which caused her face to shift into a very clear deadpan expression. “This… is going to take some time getting the hang of.”

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You’re going to have to learn how to crawl, before learning how to walk. A lesson of life everyone usually learns early in life, typically during infancy. A lesson that the newly Reincarnated Sakura Mikami had to learn for a second time as her new slimy physiology was unfamiliar to her. While she was starting to get a hang of controlling her new body in its ‘Slime-Girl’-form, it was through a process of trial and frequent error, which often resulted in her falling over onto her face, her ample mounds of slime mimicking a pair of breast or ample mounds of slime mimicking a shapy rear in various positions that could rather easily be considered either humorous, adorable (in a clumsy way) or arousing from an outside perspective, much to the chagrin and frustration of the aforementioned Slime.

“Muddlefudger!” Shouted Sakura (inside her head) with no small amount of frustration as she, once again, fell over. This time landing with her rear in the air and her ‘chest’ and face on the ground. Her face then suddenly shifts as if finally realizing something. “Wait! I’m alone! I can swear for real! *’deep inhale of air’* SON OF A BITCH!” With that (mental) shout of frustration, Sakura once again clumsily pushed herself to her knees. Gritting her (technically non-existent) teeth, she clumsily rose to her feet and finally managed to take her first proper step forward towards what looked like a large patch of herbs. The main reason why she had the tendency to use family friendly profanity was mostly because of how thin the walls were between the apartments where she used to live in her previous life and one of her neighbors was a family with children… that and she had a certain fondness towards children and therefore wanted to at least try to be a decent role model. She was able to take another couple of steps forward… before tripping over her own feet again and full body planting into the patch of herbs, leaving a ‘buxom young woman’-shaped imprint in the patch of herbs. Strangely enough though, instead of the herbs that she landed on being simply squashed and pushed away from point of impact, the majority of them were seemingly absorbed into Sakura’s slimy body, the only real exception being the mouthful of herbs that ended up in her mouth. While she was quite tempted to simply spit out the mouthful of herbs in her mouth on (mental) reflex, the fact that she could actually see some more herbs getting absorbed into her hands stopped her. 

[Notice: Hipokute Grass has been absorbed and stored inside Stomach.] Great Sage suddenly chimed in.

“What’s so special about it, Great Sage?”

[Notice: Answer: It’s a rare magical herb that grows in places with a high concentration of Magicules. It’s a central ingredient for making Restoration Potions.]

“I’m just going to assume that ‘Magicules’ are another word for magic, and those Restoration Potions sound useful, but what was that about a stomach?”

[Notice: Answer: Stomach is a component of the Unique Skill Predator. It allows objects to be stored inside a pocket dimension where the objects can be Analyzed and Processed.]

“Does that mean what I think it means?”

[Notice: Answer: Yes.]

“In that case, DINNER TIME! Nom-nom-nom-nom!” Changing from her ‘Slime-Girl’-form to her just plain (not-so-)old Slime-form, Sakura started to devour the magical herbs as if she was a robotic lawnmower. However, due to being caught up in her ‘feeding frenzy’, Sakura didn’t pay attention to where she was headed and suddenly found herself rapidly rolling down a hill, accidentally devouring more than a few things on the way down.

[Notice: Shards of Magic Ore have been absorbed and stored inside Stomach.]

“Duly noted, Great Sage. Did I swallow anything interesting during the tumble?”

[Notice: Answer: A New Form for Mimicry has been unlocked. Activate Skill Mimicry: Rock-Eater Bug?]

“Damn it. Of all the things I could have gotten as a first form for Mimicry, what did I do to get a bloody bug as a first form!?”

[Notice: Answer: You swa-]

“That was a rhetorical question, Great Sage!”

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As Sakura continued exploring the cave, occasionally picking up something to ‘snack’ on, she eventually stumbled (or rather slipped) upon (or rather into) a new obstacle. Literally. And that obstacle was a surprisingly deep lake. The main reason why she fell into the lake was still figuring out how to adjust the level of friction in various places of her ‘Slime-Girl’-form, namely her ‘hands’ and ‘feet’. Saying that it was a work in progress was quite the understatement.

“I’m starting to get really tired of this shit.” Sakura couldn’t help but (mentally) grumble with a frustrated expression on her face as she slowly sank to the lake’s bottom. Once she reached the bottom of the lake, a ripple traveled through Sakura’s gelatinous physique as her ample rear touched the bottom of the lake. The ‘Slime-Girl’ shifted her ‘legs’ into a cross legged position once the ripple settled down, sporting a thoughtful expression on her face. “How the hell am I gonna get out of here now? Perhaps… yeah. That might work. Active Innate Skill: Slime Molding!” With the activation of the Slime Molding-Skill, Sakura’s gelatinous form changed shape from her ‘Slime-Girl’-form into a form that resembled something in between a fish and a torpedo. “Step One: suck up some water!” Opening her mouth widely, Sakura managed to actually make her fish-like form look more than a little bloated. “Step Two: compress it!” While it was a struggle to compress the water, increasing the pressure dramatically in the process, Sakura still managed to succeed in her endeavor. “Step Three: aim!” Using the fin-like appendages on her torpedo-fish-like form, Sakura turned herself towards the other side of the lake. “Step Four: launch!” Releasing the pressurized water behind her, Sakura couldn’t resist practically cackling in elation as she rocketed through the water like a torpedo.

[Notice: The Skill Water Pressure Propulsion has been acquired.] Great Sage chimed in as Sakura shot out of the lake, activated Slime Molding to change back to her ‘Slime-Girl’-form mid-air and stored the remaining water in her Stomach for later use upon landing.

“HAHAHA! YES! IT WORKED! WHAT A RUSH!” Despite technically lacking the ability to produce adrenaline or anything remotely resembling the hormone, Sakura still felt the associated rush an adrenaline rush was known for. In her excitement, she couldn’t help herself from performing an impromptu victory dance, which included a couple moves from the ‘Macarena’ and a moonwalk before striking a pose. “Hahey!”

While Sakura was celebrating her victory over the lake, somewhere quite far away from the reincarnated Slime’s location, something (or rather someone) was sneaking their way into crate for a carriage in order to leave an unpleasant situation behind them, not realizing how their selfish but understandable actions would change the lives of not only themselves but also the aforementioned Slime.

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After spending a couple hours on continuing to explore the cave, occasionally devouring a monster, Sakura found herself in front of something that didn’t necessarily appear to belong in a cave. A rather large and intimidating creature inside what was quite obviously a magical barrier or seal of some kind. A Dragon. A really big one at that, easy around the size of Godzilla… or King Giddorah. Either way, despite her attempt at being stealthy, the sounds of Sakura’s ‘footsteps’, which vaguely sounded like popping suction cups, and probably some other factors that she wasn’t aware of caused the Dragon to notice the Slime-Girl. Turning its head toward the aforementioned Slime-Girl, there was a rather awkward silent tension between the giant kaiju of a Dragon and the comparatively tiny Slime-Girl. A tension that was abruptly broken by the Dragon suddenly starting to speak… rather shyly and very loudly.

“HI THERE!” Sakura wasn’t sure if it was because of the volume, the Dragon’s presence or a combination of both, but the result was ultimately the same. She was basically thrown backwards into a nearby wall and splattering against it before dripping off the wall into a blob of gelatinous slime.

“Motherfucker.” The Slime couldn’t resist (mentally) grumbling as she activated Slime Molding to shift her gelatinous physique back into her Slime-Girl-form. “Hey, Great Sage, is there a way for me to make an actual, verbal, response?”

[Notice: Answer: Yes. Acquire the Skill: Vocal Projection?]

“Sounds useful. Yes!”

“Hello? Anybody home?”

“TESTING, TESTING! IS THIS THING ON!? 1, 2, 3! TESTING!"

“Humph. Loud.”

“AS IF YOU HAVE ROOM TO TALK! I’M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A NEW SKILL! WHICH INCLUDES THE VOLUME CONTROL! WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE!?”

“Touché. Anyway, you’re quite the unusual Slime. Most of them aren’t particularly intelligent, let alone sentient, any reason for that?”

“THERE IS! NOT SURE YOU WOULD BELIEVE ME THOUGH!”

“Try me. I’ve been around for a long time and I have seen and heard quite a lot.”

“FAIR ENOUGH!”

Chapter Text

Despite expecting the Dragon, who (boisterously and loudly) introduced himself as Veldora the Storm Dragon in a rather happy fashion, to be at best skeptical about the circumstances surrounding her death and subsequent reincarnation into the New World, Sakura was surprised to learn from Veldora that she wasn’t the first person, or Otherworlder, to appear in the New World. She was however apparently the first Otherworlder to appear through actual reincarnation and death rather than being Summoned out of nowhere or a situation of certain death. Something that Sakura was more than a little surprised by was the fact that receiving a Name was apparently a very big deal for Monsters as such an action often caused them to Evolve alongside the revelation that, despite mentally having the Name of her old life, Sakura was considered a Nameless Monster by the World. Another thing she was surprised by was the fact that she was the first sentient being Veldora had gotten the opportunity to talk to in centuries and that he was slowly dying. A revelation that led to her making a proposition that, under normal circumstances, would be considered absurd. Storing Unlimited Imprisonment and Veldora inside her Stomach while Great Sage and Veldora analyzed Unlimited Imprisonment from the outside and inside respectively in order to find a way to break the seal and promising to let Veldora out once possible.

Rather needless to say, Veldora was enthusiastic about the idea. So much so that he decided right there that he wanted to not only thank Sakura by giving her a Name but also loudly declare that, from that moment forward, he and Sakura were sworn siblings, prompting Sakura to, after a process of associating, come up with a shared name for Veldora and herself. Tempest, much to enthusiastic applause from Veldora. And the Name Veldora decided to bestow upon the formerly named Sakura was Rimuru, making her full new name, Rimuru Tempest. A name that the newly named Rimuru definitely liked the sound of. Something that Rimuru shouldn’t have been surprised by but still was surprised by was the fact that something definitely felt different after receiving her Name. Namely that she felt stronger. Using the Slime Molding-Skill to shift into her ‘Slime-Girl’-form, she was more surprised than she should have been to learn that not only was the coloration of her gelatinous physique different, more specifically darker, but also that the proportions of the ‘Slime-Girl’-form were more… femininely mature, making ‘Slime-Woman’ a more accurate description.

Upon swallowing Unlimited Imprisonment (and Veldora along with it), Rimuru once again found herself alone in the cave. With not much else to do, she decided that the best course of action was to simply explore the cave and enjoy the ‘all you can eat-buffet’ that was the various Monsters inside the cave, granting Rimuru access to new forms to Mimic and new Skills to expand her arsenal of abilities with. The variety of abilities that the Monsters possessed certainly came in handy, even if Rimuru was thankful over lacking a natural gag reflex and ability to taste as some of the results of her new Skills were… nasty.

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Rimuru wasn’t entirely sure how much time she had spent inside the cave, simply exploring, Devouring Monsters and acquiring more Skills in the process, but after what had to have been at least a month (if her ‘stressed from isolation and lack of human-ish communication’-ed mind was to be believed), she finally found the cave’s exit. Which was sealed by a rather large pair of doors. Thanks to picking up a Skill that enhanced her hearing from a Monster similar to a giant bat, Rimuru could hear the various sounds of nature and, more notably, the voices of a total of three sentient beings talking on the outside of the big doors. Two males and a female, all three of whom were complaining about the doors being very heavy, which made sense given the sheer size of the doors. 

Deciding that the better option was to not be seen, Rimuru made use of her Slime Molding-Skill to shift her gelatinous physique into something less conspicuous than a buxom woman made of Slime, namely a simple puddle near the doors. While her disguise of a puddle on the floor of the cave was effective, unfortunately for Rimuru, it worked a little too well as, once the sentient beings on the other side of the door finally got it open, revealing the beings to be humans, two rather average looking guys and a rather beautiful/cute girl, who all ended up stepping on Rimuru, much to her chagrin as she could understand that some people like getting stepped on by a hot woman, she was not into being on the receiving end. Something that she learned while playing one of her more… risqué fantasy games… and with herself at the same time. As the only female human finally stepped off of Rimuru, the Slime couldn’t resist letting out a mental grunt of annoyance as she made her way out of the cave, only to stop dead in her tracks as Rimuru noticed that the human woman had turned her gaze in Rimuru’s direction.

“What’s wrong, Ellen?” One of the guys asked the only woman in the group, Ellen apparently.

“Nothing’s necessarily wrong, Kaval. I just can’t help but feel that we’re being watched.” Ellen replied to the same guy who spoke before, Kaval apparently, as she unconsciously took about half a step back, planting the heel of her shoe on the edge of Rimuru’s ‘puddle’-form. While getting stepped on didn’t hurt Rimuru at all, it still took her quite a bit of willpower for her to not let out an expletive of annoyance and blow her cover in the process. 

“Probably just a Monster. Gido?”

“Right. Time for some Stealth.” While the Skill that the second guy, Gido apparently, didn’t stop Rimuru from noticing the entire group, the apparent transparency and highly suppressed aura made it a little difficult for Rimuru to pay the group any real attention for an extended period due to something in the back of her (metaphorical) head telling her that they were ‘beneath notice’. Probably one of the effects of Gido’s Stealth-Skill, if Rimuru was to make an educated guess.

Shifting into her ‘plain Slime’-form, and deciding to have a bit of fun on the way down the hill where Veldora’s cave was located, Rimuru couldn’t resist laughing as she let herself roll down the hill. Picking up quite a bit of speed before finally launching herself into the air off a rather large rock. After a few seconds of airtime filled with laughter of excitement, Rimuru found herself back on the ground. Thanks to still having plenty of momentum, the Slime kept rolling quite a distance before eventually slowing down to a gentle pace and finally stopping… right in front of a group of green skinned humanoids roughly the size of human children.

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Listening to the tale of the green skinned humanoids (who introduced themselves as Goblins) about their current problem with the local Direwolves, Rimuru couldn’t help but feel a sense of Deja Vu as she sat cross legged in her Slime-Woman-form. The mounds of gelatinous slime that mimicked an ample set of bosoms bouncing as she mimicked the motion of making a tired sigh, apparently the Direwolves had been harassing the Goblins for a while now, and Rimuru was apparently the Goblins’ best chance of making the problem with the Direwolves a moot problem. She wasn’t sure why the situation felt familiar to her, but Rimuru wasn’t going to look the figurative gift horse in the mouth when it came to the strange familiarity of the situation.

Much like in one of her favorite video games, a rather fanservice heavy mmorpg with surprisingly in-depth gameplay for a game that on the surface appeared to be about buxom women and muscular men fighting/hunting monsters (which admittedly wasn’t necessarily wrong, but there was definitely more to it than just the fanservice, which mainly consisted of cosmetics and emotes that were variably suggestive in design or nature), Rimuru thought that the best way to figure out how to beat something was to acquire information about what she was up against. And in the case of the Direwolves, the best source of information and knowledge about the enemy was from the Goblins’ warriors who had faced the Direwolves in combat and survived.

Unfortunately, the majority of the warriors who had survived the Direwolves were too injured to be able to give Rimuru any information about the enemy. Crouching down to one of the few warriors who was still conscious but definitely in pain, Rimuru couldn’t help herself from letting out a quiet hum.

“Hmm. Hey, Great Sage! Can you prepare a dose of Restoration Potion for this Goblin?”

[Answer: Negative, insufficient data. Suggestion: Briefly place the specimen inside of Stomach for Analysis.]

“Sounds like a good idea.” The unexpected rapid swelling of Rimuru’s right forearm caught a nearby Goblin off guard and made the same Goblin worried when the injured warrior was placed inside the gelatinous appendage and disappeared in a flash of bubbles inside the Slime before being gently spat out from the gelatinous body part in another flash of bubbles. All in the span of, at most, eight seconds.

[Notice: Analysis completed. Notice: Dosage of Restoration Potion for ‘small Humanoids’ has been saved.]

“That’s good to know.” Rimuru acknowledged before turning her attention back to the Goblin she just healed, who she absentmindedly noted had a rather big nose and had been staring at the gelatinous mounds mimicking a pair of breasts the whole time. “Now… let’s find out what we’re up against.”