Kalgilm read the ‘Monster Encyclopedia,’ over and over.

“Favorites are bugs, vegetation, and corpses.”

‘Slimes do like bugs, like I thought. This perfectly describes the Bouncy that I remember. I’ve prepared centipedes, spider mites, nine legged fire ants, and red cockroaches. I especially caught all of Bouncy’s favorites, but why is it not eating?’

Kalgilm never bothered with such things like bugs ever in his life.

In his dragon form, humans, elves, and dwarves appeared similar to bugs. To a dragon, bugs are but microscopic existences. He couldn’t even see them with his naked eye, and never thought they were worth his time.

Kalgilm only started caring for bugs after Bouncy came into his life.

He used bugs to reward Bouncy whenever it correctly listened to his commands. It used to eat bugs while shivering with pure joy just two hundred years ago.

Two hundred years felt like an afternoon nap to Kalgilm, but to a slime it had been a very long period of time. He was trying to catch as many bugs as he could to properly reward Bouncy for its two hundred years of hard work.

He stuck his head on the dirt floor while catching the bugs even though he was a prideful dragon. How could Bouncy refuse to even eat one bug? It was too cold hearted.

Kalgilm kept doubting himself and became curious whether slime monsters had evolved during the period of time he had been asleep. The monster encyclopedia he kept automatically renewed itself and after every hibernation, he made sure to update himself on the goings on of the world.

Kalgilm crossed his arms while reading his encyclopedia. He stared at Bouncy, who was bouncing in circles all around him.

“Bouncy, it’s time for your meal. Today, I got some roses for you.”

Bouncy darted to Elkiesel’s call and opened its mouth. Elkiesel fed a rose of just the right size to Bouncy. Its body transformed into a pastel pink color as it continued to obediently nibble on the roses happily.

“Yummy?”

Pu-Ring. Pu-Ring!

Bouncy hopped up and down for Elkiesel. Kalgilm’s mood suddenly took a turn for the worse.

‘Why does it enjoy everything Elkiesel feeds it, but refuses to eat anything from me?’

Bouncy was feeling so happy that it began rolling all around the lair.

“Bouncy, stop rolling around, it’s making our master dizzy. Come.” Elkiesel stopped Bouncy from approaching Kalgilm. He knelt down and opened his arms. Bouncy lightly hopped into Elkiesel’s arms. This time, Elkiesel took out a fresh tea leaf. Bouncy nibbled and its body gradually turned into a light green color.

A slime’s body would change according to what it eats. Therefore, you would just need to see the color of the slime to understand its diet. He wanted to punch Elkiesel who was making Bouncy’s body change into all sorts of colors.

‘It’s eating perfectly fine.’

A black aura began to seep from Kalgilm’s body.

Elkiesel became incredibly nervous because Kalgilm looked to be in an intensely bad mood upon his awakening, if his black aura was already starting to show up.

‘What’s wrong?’

Named monsters, sometimes called familiars, usually had a difficult time tending to black dragons because of their temperamental nature. Normally, this wasn’t the case for Elkiesel because Kalgilm found everything and anything too troublesome, to the degree that his laziness was on a whole new level. Even with a black dragon as a master, Elkiesel had absolutely nothing to do.

The lazy master that Elkiesel was so familiar with and taken care of all this time was giving off a different vibe and it was putting him extremely on edge.

Dragons were naturally aggressive. The world creator made dragons for the sole purpose of protecting this world, and so they naturally loved fighting. They reflexively seek battle, and their dark properties work to intimidate the gods and demons of the world.

Bouncy stiffened feeling dark energy seeping in the air.

“Shhh, Bouncy, it’s okay.”

Elkiesel comforted Bouncy and asked Kalgilm carefully, “Master, is something bothering you?”

“No. It’s nothing.”

As a prideful dragon, there was no way he could admit he felt jealous of Elkiesel, a mere named monster. Kalgilm shut his monster encyclopedia.

‘Maybe she hates it because the hardness of the bugs makes the digestion process very long. I should go catch some worms.’

Kalgilm set aside his laziness and left his lair.

Kalgilm’s territory was vast. It included the Adarune Mountain Kingdom of the dark elves who reside in the Oaktree Forest all the way to the Karhine dwarf tribe territories.

Kalgilm collected a total of thirty fat, juicy worms from the wetlands in a single bowl for Bouncy. Every time he caught a worm, he began to wonder about his life choices and became frustrated.

‘It’s okay. This is better than the time I continued to repeat the same command for over twenty-four hours.’

He needed to endure and continue to be patient. Patience was bitter, but the fruit of his hard work would be sweet.

Currently, he desperately required a bug that would be juicy and rewarding enough for his slime’s two hundred years of hard work. He looked down smugly, satisfied with all the squirming worms he’d caught.

‘Bouncy will be happy with this much, right?’

Kalgilm hummed a tune while returning to his lair.

“Let’s eat, Bouncy.”

Kalgilm almost snatched Bouncy out of Elkiesel’s arms. He presented the wiggling bowl of worms to Bouncy. The moment it laid its eyes on the bowl of worms, it let out an indescribably horrifying sound and bulleted back to Elkiesel.

Kalgilm felt his pride being stomped on.

‘What went wrong? I’ve practically bathed in mud to catch the worms, why won’t it eat them? It used to be so ecstatic for worms just two hundred years ago.’

It would probably eat well if he collected flowers and leaves like Elkiesel. However, he had his pride as a dragon, and this was unforgivable.

Kalgilm thought he was the one who understood his Bouncy the best in the world. As a dragon, he was on a different level than his familiars.

‘What do slimes like other than bugs?’

He immediately passed on copying Elkiesel with flowers and leaves, and deliberated.

‘Should I capture some humans for it?’

Slimes easily consume corpses, bones and all, and are commonly referred to as the corpse clean up squads. Kalgilm thought it was probably the best choice to capture some humans, since other monsters seemed to love them so much.

Slimes varied in size depending on the amount of magic they stored in their own bodies. They could be as small as a walnut or a big as a watermelon. Some slimes grew as large as a boulder.

Slimes nibbled on flowers, leaves, and ants like crackers. Slimes didn’t have teeth, so actually they just smooshed things in their mouths to consume them. For something as big as a human, they would need to swallow it whole before digesting it.

‘How many hours would I need to travel before finding a human? I’m so lazy. I should just find something similar to humans. It should be happy with orcs as well, right? I should capture one of the orcs under Elkiesel’s command or from my surrounding territories. I’ve never given it orcs as food yet. Bouncy is smaller in size, so it probably can’t eat a whole corpse. I should drain the blood and slice it into smaller pieces.’

Kalgilm traveled quite a distance outside his lair and returned after capturing a single orc. Kalgilm tore it apart into a pile of limbs for Bouncy. Before taking it to Bouncy, he decided to test out whether slimes prefered to consume such foods.

Kalgilm found the slime field by NeAffronti’s lair. The slimes recognized Kalgilm’s presence and scattered in fear. He randomly threw a piece of corpse into the slime field. The slimes gobbled the corpse pieces as quickly as they could

‘As I thought, they love it.’

Kalgilm imagined how happy Bouncy would be to eat the corpse. He wrapped up the orc meat in cloth and walked over the Elkiesel who was playing with Bouncy.

“Bouncy, it’s time for your meal.”

Bouncy ran over to Kalgilm on his call. Kalgilm unrolled the piece of cloth in front of Bouncy. The orc’s body parts rolled out in all directions. The meat wasn’t dripping with blood because it had been drained well, but a sliced body part rolled just before Bouncy’s eyes.

Bouncy, who had been round suddenly narrowed. Bouncy’s body elongated in shock so high that it could reach Kalgilm’s hips, then began to violently shake. Bouncy, who had been forest green, suddenly turned clear.

“GGGIIIIIIKKK!”

Bouncy let out a horrible scream and seemed to melt.

“Bouncy? Bouncy?”

Kalgilm hugged Bouncy in his arms.

‘Slimes can faint? Why would it faint when I brought it some delicious orc meat?’

“Bouncy!”

Elkiesel ran to Bouncy.

He had grown very attached to Bouncy while they protected the lair together all this time. He had never seen it behave in this way, and he felt like he was witnessing Bouncy’s death. He burst out in anger toward his master.

“Bouncy is a vegetarian! Of course it would get scared if you shove a chopped up corpse in its face all of a sudden.”

“Slimes eat corpses.”

“Bouncy is different from other slimes. Bouncy, wake up. Bouncy.”

Elkiesel hugged and shook Bouncy. Kalgilm took Bouncy back to his own hands and shared some of his own magic with it. Black light surrounded Bouncy’s body. However, Bouncy didn’t wake up.

Kalgilm looked at Bouncy who turned into a slime puddle. He carefully hugged it, and flung the pieces of orc meat into the sky.

‘Maybe it’s the shape? I should have roasted it.’

Kalgilm felt regret for the first time in his life.