Looking at my cellphone, an hour and forty-one minutes have passed since we started walking.

  How far is this river, to begin with?

  "Hey, how far are we from the river?" These guys say they’re good with directions. I just hope we aren’t lost.

  "...Reach river when you finish playing with shards again. Half river way. Din slow, Din slow! Din fast, less than half!..." Sometimes... these slimes should stop bickering, before I lose my mind!

  So, more or less halfway there. One constellation I’m sure I have enough shards for is the bio constellation—unless the number of stars needed changes.

  Another thing: can I use my bio spells with the slimes?

  "Hey oozes, I’m going to use my biological spells. See if you can use them for something." I alerted them, so let’s just see how this goes.

  I activated Blood Skin on my left hand, just the top part. On my right, I used Bloodclaw. Soon, I could see both of my hands as small platinum tendrils touched them like they were filthy.

  "...Stinky metal, stinky metal. Metal stinky and strange. Can’t be a right hand anymore!..." The last thing I expected was for Runi and Din to dislike it—and for Runi not to insult Din.

  "Alright, you disliked it. But can you use it for... I don’t know, something like strengthening you or making you more durable? Can’t you adapt to it?" Maybe I could use it as some sort of second layer of defense.

  "...No, no! Past Henrique better, red jelly power! Din right, Din right!..." And what the fuck is "red jelly power"?

  "...Did this do anything? This red jelly power." Knowledge is always good.

  "...Red jelly power amazing. Past Henrique like ooze. Symbiotic ooze, symbiotic ooze!..." Does Runi even know what "symbiotic" means?

  "Alright, any of you have something to say about this red jelly power?" The others suddenly went quiet.

  "...Red jelly power easy to learn past Henrique moves. Past Henrique wanted to move, we moved!..." Hmm, must be Lin and Doom. Vex is usually quiet.

  Neither of the other three slimes said anything. Speaking of which, they’re more serious. The most talkative one is Geen. Maybe they’ll open up eventually. Everyone has their time.

  Now, about this red jelly power. It seems quite interesting. From what the slimes said, it’s something that deepened their connection with their past heir.

  Let’s see how the biology constellation will go.

  There’s only one problem.

  "Do you two really need to treat my hand like it’s sick?!" Seems like it’s going to be a problem.

  "Din will protect hand, just not touch metal skin! Skin stinky, skin stinky!" They’re starting to sound like the old geezer—a little less insufferable and more cute.

  Hmm. "Geen, why don’t you have a problem with carrying my shotgun?" It’s pretty weird that the slime isn’t affected by it. It’s made of metal.

  "...Geen like treasures. Past Henrique liked metal things. Geen started liking, too. Treasures beautiful and fun..." Alright, that makes some sense.

  Maybe this metal skin could become a problem later. Time to get stronger, though.

  "Alright, Geen, keep the shards coming—the ones I told you about, the bio shards..." Soon, the ooze started my little shard-consuming technique.

  Geen kept giving me the seed shards as I counted them. I can’t help but think this is a hassle. Will I have to start counting all over again? While my hands are only partially secure?

  The answer is yes. Damn you, math!

  So, my consumption of bio seed shards continued its arduous process.

  The difference is that I didn’t have any of the stars unlocked until the 17th star, so it’s going to be a longer process. Using the seed shards and not wasting my time counting, I unlocked each one.

  Like before, the change occurred at my 17th star. The feeling of my blood regenerating even more, though only a minuscule wound on my skin remained. Xeen did a silent and excellent job over the past couple of hours.

  It was only a graze, but healing like that is still fantastic. Obviously, with enough money, you could ask for an expensive hospital to cure you in a blink—their machines are wondrous. But the price? Oh, the price. Better not to even think about it.

  The mega star looked at me, and I looked at it. Yes, it’s time.

  Pumping seed after seed, the process monotonous as ever.

  I stopped at a round number in the thousands—this time, at twelve thousand seed shards. I could’ve kept going, but bio shards are the ones I found the most in the turtle’s haul. Better to use the ones with more value and waste less time.

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  It seems that basic shards aren’t the easiest to get. Maybe none of them are, depending on where you are and who you’re fighting.

  Which makes some sense.

  As for the shards, using sparks, I stopped at fourteen thousand three hundred twenty. Soon, cores were next, stopping at sixteen thousand seven hundred twenty.

  Now, for nexus shards—I didn’t get as many as I did with magic. I only focused on getting them at the start. And the fucking asshole tigers robbed me of who knows how many nexus shards. With the ones I got from the vampire and the giant turtle, I had five—five more found in the turtle’s haul.

  I’d love to just pump the nexus shards and finish this counting. And I can, but let’s check this turtle relic bio shard.

  ...Fuck. I feel resistance from the bio relic shard. This sucks, but it’s also great. Later, I’ll see with Houonas what this relic bio shard is about. Sadly, for now, more counting.

  More counting because my ten nexus shards only put me at twenty-six thousand seven hundred twenty shards.

  Soon, after consuming all my bio seed shards, I reached twenty-eight thousand eight hundred thirty-one shards.

  The slimes said we were halfway to the river. Strangely, they didn’t say anything about reaching it, so better focus on my mega star.

  Using basic seed shards, my connection finished at 29,039.

  This time, though, what caught my attention in the mega star was the constellation, still inert. Projecting from it was a fully armored arm, filled with blades to cut and bleed my enemies. But what demanded my focus was the droplet of blood above the hand, its metallic sheen impressive.

  However, it flickered, changing, showing minuscule projections of what it could have been: a gorilla arm, an arm with deadly flowers blooming, scaly arms reminding me of a lizard’s.

  In this ever-changing image, I found it—a viscous red substance submerging an arm, looking like someone played with red hair gel, a dozen jars of it.

  Who would make such a stupid choice?

  The past heir of the slimes.

  Also, the current one.

  Maybe it’s stupidity, but if I think it’s true—if the slimes aren’t pulling my leg or just talking nonsense—it could improve my chances of surviving, both in this succession and in this crazy world.

  An army of one man and a bunch of slimes.

  Soon, I focused on the red slime jelly. The projection resisted, not wanting to concede to its nature of constant change.

  Different from my magic constellation, which always showed this nature—that my choice influenced its direction—now I was demanding it. Before, I let the constellation give me what it wanted.

  Slowly, the mega star conceded, its nature taking priority.

  In a blink, the small droplet of metallic blood changed to a viscous red, looking more like gel than blood. Slowly, the armored arm full of blades transformed into the laughable red slime jelly arm.

  The constellation now began its final step. Each bond between stars thickened, the spellstars changing to accommodate the new jelly attunement—or should I say, slime attunement.

  Different from the magic constellation, this one didn’t give me certainty. Nevertheless, I changed it to what I really wanted, so that’s a victory in itself. Though maybe the lizard arm could’ve been cool to have, the slimes’ prejudice seems to be only against metal.

  I can’t think of a better name than "Red Slime" for this constellation. Especially as the constellation shows it in my mind as I look at it: a droplet of jelly blood on an arm covered in red slime.

  Another strange name. I probably should hire someone to name my spells. At least the slimes already named my mega star for me: Red Jelly Power.

  I think that’s it. Now, which of my constellations should I go for next? I probably don’t have enough to finish another constellation, but nevertheless—

  As soon as my vision returns, I doubt for a moment what I’m actually seeing.

  Just ahead, there’s a river, which is fine. I’m looking forward to it—Geen could hold my watery treasure.

  The problem is the bunch of monkeys the size of people, which I can only call weremonkeys, like Houonas told me. Their bodies seem more human than monkey-like—backs not curved like a typical monkey, long legs, shorter arms. Their faces look skeletal, with no nose, kind of familiar. The weremonkeys entire bodies are jet black with a hue of navy blue.

  Stranger yet, there are two vampires with them.

  What could make it even crazier, I ask? The myriad of blue tentacles grabbing them from the river, the weremonkeys fighting like mad to get away.

  And look at that—just ahead of me, one of the weremonkeys is jumping up and down, waving its arms wildly to grab my attention. Anyone would recognize it as a signal for help.

  The question is, will I help these creatures?

  For one, I’m certain these two vampires can’t be heirs. No heir would be almost strangled to death by tentacles—not without some cool spell fireworks.

  They must be Dominion’s Fingers candidates at worst, or some sort of hired help—maybe servants.

  That grabbed my attention, making me want to help a little.

  Hmm. The thing is, I already have a pretty good reason to help.

  Time to test how powerful I am with two constellations completed and about thirty percent of my energy tank full.

  Try as they might, if this is an ingenious trap, they’ll regret catching the wrong prey.

  Time to get freaky.