Girl in the Box: Please tell me why I was reincarnated as a mimic monster!

Outside the nest entrance, it resembled a battlefield, littered with signs of battle: fire pits, splinters, stones, the corpses of dragon ants scattered everywhere, scorched soil… I could almost smell the gunpowder smoke; that's the feeling this place gave me right now. I could still feel the ground shaking; I guess a battle was still raging inside the nest.

The traces of battle left here are so chaotic that I can't tell what caused them. If that's the case, going in would be very dangerous, because I don't know what was fighting the dragon ants, and the scene looks like a one-sided battle. Even with my Blazing Heart, I probably don't have much of a chance of winning.

I've used up all my magic for today. I have three runestones containing magic, and only one Blazing Heart, my trump card. If I use them all up in the upcoming battle, I'll have to consider how to repay that debt.

But rewards come with risks, and I'm currently going through a fierce internal struggle with this decision.

But upon closer reflection, if something is fighting the dragon ants, can't I just sit back and reap the benefits?

I jumped down just like last time, then retreated back into my shell mid-fall. Last time, Slime-chan was with me; I always felt a great distance between us. I hope I find it soon.

Doom!

The shell hit the ground, and I felt a strong impact. My HP dropped a bit, but that's okay. I immediately stretched out my limbs to make sure I could move right away.

Fortunately, no battle took place here, but there were traces of it. The sounds of battle came from various passages, making it difficult to determine the direction by sound alone.

I followed the trail of the battle and encountered several dying dragon ants along the way.

I just casually added a stab, it felt like picking up trash, but the reward was much greater than picking up trash.

Following this passage, I arrived at that familiar place, a room teeming with larvae. Strangely, none of the larvae had been killed, and there were no signs of a battle in the room.

What happened? What kind of monster were the dragon ants fighting? What exactly did those dragon ants, who used to be able to easily defeat me, encounter?

I have this feeling that I'm about to hand over this heart that I haven't even had a chance to warm up to.

Since that monster couldn't deal with the larvae here, I'll take over. It's not for the money!

And so began my long and tedious work, swallowing up this endless white ocean. The average level of this nest was higher than I had imagined, and I was getting a lot of experience points and gold coins. This smooth sailing gave me a bad feeling.

I've been doing this tedious work for so long, and I haven't even leveled up by killing the last one. It's really strange. Why haven't I leveled up after killing so many?

At this rate, I think killing these chubby, white experience babies is pointless, because it seems like we can't level up normally anymore. And even a treasure chest would get tired of repeating this same task over and over.

I heard the sounds of battle again, and I followed the sound to the location of the battle, hoping that I wouldn't encounter anything troublesome.

What I saw there was a scene of a red slime fighting against four dragon ant soldiers.

Huh...? Another slime?!

Chapter 26 Reunion with Slime

The red slime crashed directly into the fireball spewed by the dragon ant soldier, then emerged unscathed and fired a fireball back at the dragon ant soldier.

A red magic circle appeared where the slime was aimed at the dragon ant soldier, then it spat out several fireballs. Was that magic?

The dragon ant soldiers used their mortars to sweep away the incoming fireballs, while several other dragon ant soldiers approached the slime under its cover, simultaneously thrusting out their weapons.

However, their attack was ineffective. The slime skillfully aimed in the opposite direction and fired another fireball, using the reaction force to dodge the thrusting spear.

Wow... to be able to handle six dragon ant soldiers so easily at the same time, I'm practically a useless mimic... This world is so strange...

I hid in a dark corner to observe the battle. Although the dragon ant soldiers were more numerous and had a racial advantage, it was ineffective against the slime, which moved with a speed that ordinary people could not react to.

This is like... wait a minute...

I tried my best to keep up with its speed and analyzed it with my magic eye. Then information about the slime appeared.

Aquamarine Slime, LV28.

Slime-chan Aa ...

I never dreamed I'd see it here. It's really still alive! But it seems to have changed a bit. Its level is still higher than mine. No wonder I was wondering why this slime's level was higher than mine. If it's Slime-chan, then it makes sense.

After all, slime-chan is special!

I really want to go up and help it right now, but the current situation doesn't seem to allow me to suddenly intervene. I have a feeling that Slime-chan is planning something.

It's amazing that it slaughtered so many dragon ants all by itself... It really is a 'monster'.

I put away the prepared Scorching Heart; there was no longer any option to use it in this situation, as it would hurt Slime-chan.

So let me get involved now...

Runestone - 'Twisted'.

I twisted the space at the tip of the pincers and fixed the twisted space with a magic circle. My target was the dragon ant soldier that had gotten close to Slime-chan.

A faint magical circle appeared on the back of the dragon ant soldier's neck. I grabbed its neck with lightning speed and cut it off in one swift motion, killing the dragon ant soldier instantly.

"Defeat the Dragon Ant Soldier, gain 94 EXP x2, dropped items have been placed in the chest."

"Ugh...?"

Just as Slime-chan was preparing to fight, she saw the Dragon Ant Soldier fall to the ground and made a puzzled sound. "Sorry, let me steal the monster this time."

The other five dragon ant soldiers were also thrown into chaos. The original balance seemed to have been disrupted by me, and their coordination was not as smooth as before. Slime easily dodged them.

It dodged the falling stone hammer, retaliated with a ramming attack, and unleashed a fireball directly at the face.

"—!?＊＆％@" The dragon ant soldiers let out a jumble of mournful cries.

Wow, his head was burned off! Just looking at it makes my scalp tingle.

At this moment, Slime suddenly turned back to light blue. When it landed on the ground, a light blue magic circle appeared on the ground, which looked like a very powerful magic.

I suddenly emerged from the shadows and rushed towards the nearest dragon ant soldier. At that moment, the dragon ant soldier's attention was entirely on the slime, and it didn't notice me approaching.

The slime noticed me too, and then the magic circle beneath it shrank a little, as if it was about to activate.

I killed one of the dragon ant soldiers with a single pincer strike. The attention of the other dragon ant soldiers was drawn to the mournful cry of that dragon ant soldier, and they turned their heads. At that moment, Slime-chan's magic was activated.

The magic circle emitted a stream of water, which gradually compressed into a water gun, and then transformed into a high-pressure water jet. I've seen that thing on TV; it's said to be able to cut through anything.

What if this were used on dragon ant soldiers? The result is obvious.

The water blade swept directly across the last four dragon ant soldiers, ending their lives. Because I was relatively short, the water blade did not hit me.

My perfect teamwork with Slime-chan deserves full marks!

Chapter 27 Why am I getting utterly destroyed by a slime?!

I have to say that the time I spent apart from Slime-chan was truly filled with many emotions. I became stronger, Slime-chan became even stronger, I gave up thinking... I've become numb to this world.

But I never expected that it would actually chase and beat me!?

EXM?

What did I do?

Rewind to a minute ago, I just wanted to get closer to it and say hello, but I didn't expect it to shoot splinters at me.

I was caught off guard and got hit. I thought it wouldn't work, but to my surprise, I felt a slight numbness.

Sensing danger, I started to run away, and the slime-chan chased after me relentlessly. I really couldn't figure out what I had done to cause it to attack me.

bake--!

Several fireballs flew past me, one of which hit me, causing my HP to drop significantly. Because I had just fought the Blazing Thunder Wolf, my HP wasn't high enough to withstand the slime's magic.

I don't know what happened during this time, but it actually learned magic, and it's magic of a different element than its own. Considering the water magic I just saw, I suspect it might also know magic of other elements.

Creating distance might be a mistake. I'm like a running target being shot at. Slime-chan's magic is so precise it could probably be called a national athlete's accuracy; it always hits me with pinpoint accuracy.

Even if the magic doesn't hit its target, it's meant to lure me into the magic I want to hit. It's reliable to have it as an ally, but it's truly terrifying if it's an enemy.

I'm so glad it doesn't have earth magic. If it did, it could change the terrain and I'd be done for. But it probably doesn't have that much magic power.

As I was thinking this, I tripped over the suddenly sinking ground, rolled around, and came to a stop. This could only be the work of earth magic.

Are you kidding me?!

The slime-chan caught up and rammed into me. Before I could even get up, I was knocked to the side again. My HP was almost depleted, and if I didn't do something soon, I was done for.

I rolled over to avoid the slime that was about to crash into me again, then used the pliers to hold my ground and began to fight it head-on.

After its attack failed, Slime-chan started circling around me. It had used this tactic before when I fought against the Dragon Ants, but I didn't expect it to be used on me today.

The slime moves so fast that it's hard to catch a glimpse of it. It's hard to imagine that a slime has such agility. I always feel like what I see is just a blur.

The worst-case scenario is that the Scorching Thunder Heart will blow me up along with it, so it's best to avoid that situation as much as possible.

The slime attacked me from behind. Since it was in my blind spot, I couldn't defend myself and got hit squarely.

It was like a dragonfly skimming the water; after hitting me, it used the reaction force to create distance and continued to linger around me, occasionally shooting out splinters.

The splinter wasn't serious enough to hurt me, so I grabbed it with pliers and broke it off, making it unusable. Otherwise, the fight would go on forever.

It'll probably attack my back next, so I'll do that.

I quietly spat out the runestone, preparing for my next plan. My vision was starting to blur as I followed the slime's afterimage up and down, but that was the only way to capture that fleeting moment.

The afterimage of the slime started to turn red. I remember it appeared earlier, but I don't know what it does. I have a bad feeling about it.

I seized this feeling to stimulate myself and discovered the moment the afterimage paused.

Now—!

"distortion"--!

Chapter 28: The Slime's Status Reversed

I unleashed a distortion from behind, spreading the magical circle as much as possible over my back, while placing the exit in front of me. I figured this was a move it wouldn't expect, and I wanted to grab it before it could react!

Instead, a fireball flew towards them.

Bang! Whoa?!

I was blasted backward by the fireball, and then the slime-chan finished me off by charging into my back. Wow, my health bar is almost gone! Couldn't you have gone easy on me?!

I remembered that I had used Twisting on it before, and I didn't expect it to remember it and even prepared a countermeasure to deal with my Twisting. But what else can I do besides Twisting now?

Wow, what a huge loss! I even wasted a runestone. Should I try to escape first...?

I used the impact to create distance between myself and it. After landing, I immediately started running without thinking. I even spat out the things I had collected to restrain it.

Slime-chan couldn't dodge the various things falling from me, so I slowed it down for now, but this wasn't a long-term solution; I had to disappear from its sight as soon as possible.

I estimate that Slime should be almost out of magic by now, and I'm in a similar situation, but I still have Runestones.

And then there's the Scorching Heart, a last resort...

But I won't use it; that thing can't be used in a place like this, it's too narrow.

I ran into the room filled with the corpses of larvae. By then, Slime-chan hadn't caught up yet. I didn't have much left to vomit, and it would be too much of a loss if I vomited again.

However, I still failed to escape. I had only run a few steps when I was knocked over by the slime. The two monsters rolled around together a few times before stopping.

"Pfft!"

Slime-chan looks quite angry, but she hasn't continued attacking me. Huh? Why is that?

The slime left me and approached a dead larva. It seemed to be pointing at the corpse and trying to express something, still looking quite angry.

Hmm... it's probably because I stole a lot of its EXP... after all, there are a lot of dragon ant larvae here...

I approached the slime with apologetic hands and tapped my shell with my pliers to express my apology, but the slime didn't appreciate it and instead bumped into me... to the point of causing some damage... though it was very minor...

What exactly did it do during this time...?

It climbed onto my back and pushed me away from here, towards the edge of the nest. It seemed its anger had subsided? It's so good that we don't have to fight anymore…

After leaving the nest, Slime-chan went limp on my head like a deflated balloon, not moving at all.

I feel like it's lost its motivation for something. Could it be that I did something to offend it...?

...? I remember I was the one who subdued it in the beginning? Why does it seem like the roles are reversed now?

forget it……

A sense of powerlessness filled my body, and I became indifferent to this kind of thing. This other world is so much fun; I'll never be reborn here in my next life...

I drove Slime-chan home like this. I finally saw Slime-chan, but I wasn't happy at all. It was a good thing, but I also encountered a lot of things that made me think. My feelings were complicated.

Come to think of it, I've only been out for less than a day and I've already run into this... What was I doing before...?

Come to think of it, I seem to have forgotten something important? Oh well... I'll talk about it later...

I gave up thinking and started my journey home.

Chapter 29 The Amazing Slime

When I brought the slime-chan back to my front door, the slime-chan was still motionless, as if it were dead. I climbed inside and then dumped it on the ground from above.

I came back in less than a day, and I feel like I was quite perfunctory about this trip. All I got was a Blazing Heart, but I lost a lot because of the Slime-chan.

I looked at the motionless slime lying on the ground with mixed feelings. Was it a blessing or a curse for me? Well, that's just how it is.