That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Vol. 1

  Copyright

  That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Vol. 1

  Fuse

  Translation by Kevin Gifford

  Cover art by Mitz Vah

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  TENSEI SHITARA SLIME DATTA KEN volume 1

  © Fuse / Mitz Vah

  All rights reserved.

  First published in Japan in 2014 by MICROMAGAZINE PUBLISHING Co.

  English translation rights arranged with MICROMAGAZINE PUBLISHING Co.

  through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2017 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  First Yen On Edition: December 2017

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Fuse, author. | Mitz Vah, illustrator. | Gifford, Kevin, translator.

  Title: That time I got reincarnated as a slime / Fuse ; illustration by Mitz Vah ; translation by Kevin Gifford.

  Other titles: Tensei Shitara Slime datta ken. English

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York : Yen ON, 2017–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017043646 | ISBN 9780316414203 (v. 1 : paperback)

  Subjects: GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.

  Classification: LCC PL870.S4 T4613 2017 | DDC 895.63/6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017043646

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-41420-3 (paperback)

  978-1-9753-0110-1 (ebook)

  E3-20171129-JV-PC

  PROLOGUE: DEATH AND REINCARNATION

  It was just your typical kind of life. I graduated from college, landed a job at a sort-of-big general contractor outfit, and with my older brother taking care of our parents for me, I was currently enjoying all the myriad benefits of the bachelor-pad life. Age thirty-seven. No significant other.

  I wasn’t exactly short or frumpy or hideous or anything. But when it came to the opposite sex, apparently I had nothing to offer. I’d made efforts along those lines, with varying degrees of dedication, but by the third rejection, something fizzled out within me. Besides—really, at this age, I was kinda past the point where a girlfriend needed to be my main focus. Work kept me busy enough. Plus, it wasn’t like I was gonna die without one.

  …I’m not making excuses, all right? It’s just that I started thinking…

  “Oh, hello, sir! Sorry we’re late!”

  There he was, walking toward me, bursting with all that youthful energy of his. He and the beautiful woman next to him. His name was Tamura, one of the guys who worked under me, and she was Sawatari, the front-desk lady and pretty much the “it” girl around the office.

  These bums asked to see me because they were getting married and wanted my advice. In other words, this meeting was the whole reason I was brooding over why I was such a failure at personal relationships. I was leaning against a telephone pole at the intersection where we’d agreed to meet after work, thinking to myself.

  “Nah.” I nodded a greeting at Sawatari and asked, “What’d you want to talk about?”

  “Oh, good to meet you. My name’s Miho Sawatari. I’ve seen you at work a lot, but…um, I guess this is the first time I’ve spoken to you, huh? It makes me kind of nervous, somehow.”

  I’m the one who should be nervous, lady! my mind griped to itself. It’s not like I’m any good at speaking to women. How about a little sympathy here?

  Any way you looked at it, I was the wrong person to ask. I knew nothing about love. They were doing this just to spite me—I was sure of it. Pretty sure, anyway.

  “Oh, there’s nothing to be nervous about,” I replied. “Satoru Mikami. It’s good to meet you, Ms. Sawatari…although you’re famous enough around the office that you hardly need to even introduce yourself, huh? Tamura and I went to the same college, and we kinda hit it off during his training period, so that’s how we know each other.”

  “Famous? Oof! Not famous in a weird way, I hope?”

  “Oh, y’know. I hear stories about you dating Kameyama or messin’ around with Mr. Kihara in management…”

  Somehow, I decided that picking on her would be a good idea. I just meant it as a passing joke, but it made Sawatari’s face turn a bright shade of red, her eyes watering up a bit. It was cute, in a way. People were always telling me to tone that stuff down—that I needed to consider people’s feelings more or, if not that, at least make it funnier—but I couldn’t help myself. So mark that down as another failure. Maybe I really do have a crap personality.

  Tamura took that chance to intervene, giving Sawatari a pat on the shoulder. Dammit, Tamura! So blessed with the natural charm you need to live a decent life… I wish people like you would just explode!

  “Aw, stop being mean to her,” he admonished with an effortless smile. “And don’t worry, Miho, he’s just having a little fun with you.”

  Cool, refreshing, and completely guileless—Tamura was impossible to hate. He was still just twenty-eight, quite a bit younger than I was, but we got on well nonetheless. I probably owed him at least a few congratulations…

  “Hah, sorry,” I said, figuring there was no reason to let my jealousy devour me. “I can’t help but needle people like that sometimes. But no point standing here on the sidewalk. Wanna get something to eat while we talk?”

  “Aaaahhh!!”

  Screams. Chaos. What is—What’s going on?!

  “Move! I’ll kill you!!”

  I turned around to find a man sprinting toward me, a backpack in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other. I could hear shrieking. He was coming my way. With a knife. A knife? And at the other end of it…

  “Tamuraaaa!”

  The moment I shoved Tamura aside, I felt a burning pain run across my back. My body balled up as it collapsed to the ground, trying to withstand the shock. I couldn’t tell what had happened. I wanted to move, but I couldn’t.

  “Get the hell outta my way!” the man shouted as he ran off. I watched him go and then checked to see how my companions were. The suddenness of it all had reduced Tamura to a stupor, but he was unhurt. That was good. But, man, was my back burning. So hot. Beyond anything I’d describe as pain.

  What’s up with that? It’s too hot… Gimme a break.

  Confirmed. Resist Heat…successfully acquired.

  Did I… Did I just get stabbed?

  So I’m gonna die from a stabbing? Holy crap…

  Confirmed. Resist Piercing Weapon…successfully acquired. Following up with Resist Melee Attack… Successfully acquired.

  “M-Mr. Mikami, you’re bleeding… You won’t stop bleeding!”

  I really didn’t need to hear that right now. Was that Tamura? I thought I heard some kind of weird voice. If it was Tamura, then so be it.

  I’m bleeding? Well, duh. I’m only human. If you stab me, I’ll probably bleed all over you, yes.

  Damn, this was starting to hurt, though…

  Confirmed. Cancel Pain…successfully acquired.

  Um… Well, shit. All this pain and panic was starting to screw around with my consciousness.

  “T-Tamura… Shut up. It… It’s nothing big, all right? Quit worrying…”

  “Mr. Mikami, you’re… The blood…” Tamura tried to hold me up, face drained of color and looking about ready to break into sobs. So much for that bravado from two minutes ago. I tried to see how Sawatari was doing, but my vision was too fogged up to manage it.

  Now the burning feeling on my back was starting to fizzle out. Instead, an intense, frigid cold was attacking me from head to toe. That… That’s probably bad… People die once they bleed too much, don’t they?

  Confirmed. Constructing a blood-free body… Successful.

  Hey, what’re you talking about? I can’t hear you too well…

  I tried to speak. And failed.

  Shit. I think this might really be it… Like, the pain and the heat were pretty well gone by now. It was just cold. Cold as hell. I felt as if I was gonna freeze in place.

  Who knew dying could keep you so damn busy?

  Confirmed. Resist Cold…successfully acquired. Combined with the previously acquired Resist Heat, the skill has progressed to Resist Temperature.

  Just then, what remained of my increasingly oxygen-deprived brain cells chanced upon a flash of brilliance.

  Oh, craaaaap, the files on my
hard drive!

  I summoned up my remaining wells of strength, striving to relay the final regret I had left in life.

  “Tamuraaa! If… If anything bad happens to me…take my computer, okay? Put it in the bathtub, turn it on, and just fry everything on the disk for me, man…”

  Confirmed. Electricity-based deletion of data… Cannot execute. More information required. Substituting with Resist Electricity… Successfully acquired.

  It took a moment for my plea to register with Tamura. He gave me a blank stare. Then he snickered.

  “Ha-ha! That’s just like you, isn’t it?”

  Even if it was just a snicker, it beat having to depart this plane of existence with a grown man blubbering on top of me. I’d take it.

  “All I wanted was to show Sawatari off to you, too…,” he continued.

  “Pfft…”

  Hah. I knew it. That bastard.

  “It’s fine, okay? Make her a happy woman.”

  I wrung out the last bit of strength my body had to offer.

  “Just kill my PC for me…”

  It was just your typical kind of life. I graduated from college, landed a job at a sort-of-big general contractor outfit, and with my older brother taking care of our parents for me, I was currently enjoying all the myriad benefits of the bachelor-pad life.

  And I was a virgin.

  Imagine that. Floating off to meet my maker in completely unused condition… My manhood was probably crying its single eye out right then. Sorry I couldn’t make you a real grown-up. If there’s such a thing as reincarnation, I’m gonna go on the attack next time—I promise. I’ll hit up everyone I see, stalking my prey before I go in for the kill… Okay, not like that, but…

  Confirmed. Unique skill “Predator”…successfully acquired.

  I mean, here I was, lookin’ at forty without ever losing my virginity. Like an old sage meditating in the mountains. Another few years, and I probably could’ve been the great sage of celibacy. Not the road I wanted to take in life, but there you go.

  Confirmed. Extra skill “Sage”…successfully acquired. Evolving extra skill “Sage” into unique skill “Great Sage”… Successful.

  …Hey, someone mind telling me who’s talking? What do you mean, “unique skill ‘Great Sage’”? Someone tryin’ to start something with me? There’s nothing “unique” about that! If you think I’m finding that funny, I’m not! That’s just mean, man…

  Before I could continue down that train of thought, however, I fell asleep.

  Weird how death’s nowhere near as lonely as I thought it’d be.

  That was the last thought I had on the mortal plane.

  CHAPTER 1

  MY FIRST FRIEND

  It was dark. Too dark to see anything. Where was I? What even happened, for that matter? Someone was picking on me for being a celibate sage or something, and then…

  That was enough to jump-start my mind again.

  My name was Satoru Mikami. Just another thirty-seven-year-old in a suit. And when I shoved my coworker aside on the street, some random maniac stabbed me. Good. I remembered all of that. Which meant I must be fine. No need for panic. That wasn’t like me anyway. I was known for having a cool head. The last time I panicked, it was grade school and all I did was wet my pants, just a little bit.

  I tried looking at my surroundings. Then I noticed—I couldn’t open my eyes. Odd, I thought as I tried to rub them and my arms didn’t respond. And more to the point, Where’s my head, anyway?

  This was getting confusing. Like, whoa. Wait a sec. I needed some time to deal with this.

  Whenever I start freaking out, I always find it helpful to sit still and start counting prime numbers until I calm down. Let’s try that. One, two, three—

  Wait, one doesn’t count as a prime number, does it?

  Ugh… Now wasn’t the time for this. I couldn’t let myself think about this stupid crap. This was bad, wasn’t it? Like, what’s going on, here?! Was I…like, past the point of no return, unless I did something?

  Panicking, I checked to see whether I was hurt anywhere. I didn’t seem to be. Physically, I felt terrific. No cold, no heat—perfectly comfortable. That, at least, came as a relief. Now for my hands and legs… Oop. Not so hot there. No response from any of my limbs. What’s up with that? Getting stabbed in the back wouldn’t force the doctors to amputate all my extremities, would it? I’d kind of like those back.

  Then there was the whole “can’t open my eyes” thing. I was in a world of darkness, where I couldn’t see a thing. An anxiety like none I’d ever felt before began welling up in my mind.

  Am I…in a coma or something?

  I was conscious, certainly, but had I gotten detached from my central nervous system, maybe?

  Oh, man, anything but that! I mean, think about it. When you throw a guy into a dark, enclosed space, it takes practically no time at all for him to go insane. And that was exactly where I was—and I couldn’t even die in peace any longer, it looked like. If insanity was all that waited for me here, that was enough to take the wind out of anybody’s sails.

  Just then, I felt something brush against my body. Hmm? What’s that? I focused all of my senses on this unknown sensation. It felt like grass against what might have been the side of my stomach. Concentrating on the sensations, I slowly began sussing out what was around me. I could feel the pointy edges of some nearby leaves prick against my body.

  It made me a little happy, really. I was in total darkness a moment ago, but now I had my sense of touch back, at least. It made me so overjoyed that I made a beeline for the grass, and—

  Creep.

  I could feel my body sliding flat against the ground. I… I moved?!

  This, at least, was clear evidence that I was not on any kind of hospital bed. The feeling beneath my stomach (?) took the form of hard, jagged rock. Hmm. It still didn’t make much sense to me, but I appeared to be outdoors.

  So I headed toward the grass, keeping my senses keen against what I touched, although I still wasn’t quite clear on where my head was. There was nothing to smell; I wasn’t sure whether I had that sense or not.

  Really, I had no idea what I was shaped like. I felt…flowing. Jellylike. Kind of like a certain fantasy monster I was well familiar with. In fact, the idea had been running through my head for a while now.

  …No. Come on. That’s just silly. Anything but that. I decided to leave that anxiety-inducing prospect behind for the time being and instead try out the final, untested one of my five human senses. Not that I knew where my mouth was. So…now what?

  Suddenly, a voice ran across my mind.

  Use unique skill “Predator”?

  Yes

  No

  Huh? Wh-what? Unique skill “Predator”?

  And what was up with that voice? I thought I heard something weird when I was talking with Tamura earlier. That wasn’t just me imagining things? Was someone there? Something didn’t seem quite right with it. It wasn’t that I thought I had a visitor, so much as…well, as I just had words floating into my mind. Cold, unfeeling words, like a computer-generated voice.

  Let’s go with no for now.

  No response. I waited a while for one, but no further voices came. It appeared there wouldn’t be a second question. Did I make the wrong choice? Was this the kind of game where you got stuck if you didn’t start giving “yes” answers? I was assuming the question would just repeat forever until I said yes, like any normal RPG. Guess not.

  Kind of rude of that voice, though. Showing up, asking a simple question, then disappearing forever. It was nice hearing someone for a change, but…the hell, man?

  Oh well. Let’s go on with what I was trying before. My sense of taste.

  I moved toward the grass I felt earlier. As it brushed up against me, I leaned forward, feeling the whole of my weight settle over the field. It was definitely grass of some sort.

  Once I was sure of that, I suddenly realized that the area where the plants met my body was starting to melt. I thought it was myself melting at first, but apparently it was only the grass. And with that, I could now tell that the components of the plant life beneath me were being taken into my body.

  So that was how it worked? Instead of having a mouth to eat with, I just ingested plant matter with my whole body? It sure didn’t taste like anything.