Maddy leaned back against a jagged rock, her stomach distended to a comical degree. She had consumed the equivalent of an entire boar in one sitting, her Amorphous Body stretching and shifting to accommodate the massive intake. She looked like a woman who had swallowed a boulder, her breathing heavy and satisfied.

"Oh... I think I overdid it... I feel like a Thanksgiving parade float."

[Response: My sensors indicate your stomach volume has increased by four hundred percent. You are currently eighty percent boar by mass.]

Maddy groaned, the initial euphoria of the meal replaced by the sluggish, heavy ache of a true food coma. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Don’t judge me, Lucy. It was a masterpiece. I couldn’t just leave a masterpiece to get cold in the open air."

She closed her eyes and focused on her internal mana. She tapped into her newly acquired Soothe Slime traits. A cool, minty sensation began to radiate from her core, spreading through her digestive tract.

The enzymes from the Cleansing Secretion worked alongside the Regenerative Gel to break down the heavy proteins at an accelerated rate. The bloating vanished, the "bad feeling" of overeating dissolving into a peaceful, warm energy that fueled her recovery.

"Much better!"

She sighed, her body snapping back to its petite, toned shape.

"Who needs antacids when you have slime biology?"

She stood up and reached into her mental inventory. She "recalled" the heavy canvas, iron stakes, and padded bedrolls she had absorbed from the adventuring party’s campsite earlier.

Using Form Manifestation, she began to extrude the materials from her own mass. In seconds, a sturdy, professional-grade tent stood before the fire, complete with a reinforced frame and a thick, insulating floor.

"Goodnight, world. Tomorrow, I find a town that isn’t made of jelly."

She had just pulled the heavy blanket to her chin when a sharp, mechanical crack tore through the silence of the mountain pass.

BANG!

Maddy bolted upright, her Mana Sensitivity flaring like a struck match. The sound was unmistakable—the dry, violent report of a high caliber firearm. It echoed off the space, followed by the distant, frantic shouting of men.

"Was that a gun?"

Maddy whispered, her playful exhaustion vanishing instantly. Her hand went to the hilt of her sword, her eyes narrowing as she peered out of the tent flap toward the dark ridge.

Her map flickered as her senses picked up a presence. She steadied her breathing; her Prey Detection skill revealed the rhythm of blood flow and the telltale movement of something approaching. She could see a form...

Maddy stood up, her camp gear dissolving back into her skin as she prepared to move.

"Guns mean people. And people in this part of the world don’t fire those things unless they’re terrified or hunting something they can’t kill with a blade."

She stepped out of the tent, her camp gear dissolving into her skin. Her Prey Detection skill flared, mapping out the frantic heat signatures of two distinct lives. One was small, jagged, and fading; the other was heavy, aggressive, and approaching with a mechanical coldness.

"That’s not a hunt... that’s an execution. What the hell is going on?"

She saw a small girl with messy, brownish-orange hair stumbling through the jagged rocks. A fresh wound on her foot left a dark trail on the stone, forcing the child to hop in a desperate, lopsided escape.

Behind her, a man leveled a long barreled gun. He screamed something unintelligible, his face twisted in a mask of cruel authority. He pulled the trigger, the muzzle flash cutting through the night.

The bullet whistled toward the girl’s remaining good leg.

Maddy moved. She activated her Extreme Adhesion to stick to the shadows and lunged with Thumping Locomotion. She reached the child a split second before the lead could find its mark. Her hand clamped around the girl’s small, trembling wrist, and with a sharp, controlled yank, she pulled the child behind a massive boulder.

The bullet struck the stone with a sharp ping, sending sparks into the air.

"Stay quiet, sweetie."

Maddy whispered, her voice a low, vibrating hum that commanded instant silence. She pressed the girl against the rock, her body shielding the smaller form completely.

The man slowed his pace, squinting into the darkness. He chambered another round, the metallic echoing.

"Where did you go, you little brat?"

Maddy pressed her palm firmly over the girl’s mouth. She felt the child’s tears, hot and frantic, soaking into her skin. The little girl’s body shook with the kind of primal terror that only comes when the world turns into a nightmare. Maddy leaned in close, her breath warm against the girl’s ear.

"Breathe through your nose, honey. Just follow my rhythm. I have you. You are safe now."

On the other side of the boulder, the crunch of boots on gravel slowed. The man chuckled, a dry, grating sound that lacked any scrap of humanity. He followed the dark smears of blood on the stone with the patience of a butcher.

"You can’t hide forever, little sprout... Do you really think running helps? Your village is gone. It was nothing but a ’slime village’ anyway—just a bunch of soft, useless things waiting to be harvested. You should be grateful I’m even keeping you alive."

He paused, the metallic slide of his weapon clicking as he adjusted his aim toward the shadows.

"Think of your future! You’re going to be very useful in a big house far away from these rocks. You’ll scrub floors, carry water, and learn exactly where you belong in the world. You’re high quality stock, girl. Just like those slimes you grew up with, you’ll spend your life being ’useful’ to someone who actually matters."

Maddy’s eyes didn’t just narrow; they changed. The green hue slit of the Super Snakes flooded her irises, glowing with a cold, predatory light. She felt the girl’s wounded foot twitch against her cloak, the pain radiating through the air.

The girl’s trembling only worsened under Maddy’s hand. Her breath came in shaky, uneven bursts through her nose, just like she was told but fear still clawed at her chest.

Her small fingers tightened weakly around Maddy’s sleeve, clinging like it was the only solid thing left in the world.

"M-Miss...please... don’t let him take me..."