Benjamine.

  Benjamine reached for her mana, the sensation as familiar and cool as it had ever been, though, rather than the chill running through her veins, her entire body let out a quivering ripple as though snow had just fallen down her neck…

  It was at once wondrously reassuring that she had access to her magic, and freaking cold!

  So cold, in fact, that Benjamine let the sensation go a moment ter.

  What the hell? Why did she feel like she was freezing her ass off?

  Worse, the sensation didn't get better—in fact, she felt herself getting colder and colder by the moment!

  She'd already been a little chilly, sure, but now it felt like she'd jumped in a bath filled with ice!

  Panicking, she manifested a small fme from her—well, blob... The fire rested just above her body, much as it might if conjured in her palm.

  The warmth was incredible! And as she reached for even more mana, the chilling sensation was comfortably offset by the tiny fme.

  Annoyingly, though her 'stats' would have one believe she had twice the avaible pool of magic at her disposal—the loss of her feats made that discrepancy somewhat one-sided in a way that saw her decidedly weaker than before.

  Benjamine was far from helpless, given her evident abilities, but she was unquestionably 'weaker' as far as being a mage was concerned.

  Everything else?

  Ha! Well, if her raw stats were to be believed, she was a veritable monster of physical prowess, and strictly looking at her charisma, she suspected herself to be quite the charmer for a red puddle of goo…

  Great.

  She'd have a bright career in the royal courts as she sat before the throne, burbling her nonsense to the counts, barons, and royals...Probably while they either ughed at her, or pretended to understand what she was saying, just to be polite.

  Charisma was weird like that...It didn't matter what one said, as long as their wisdom score wasn't too high, it was pretty easy to convince people of whatever you wanted—under most circumstances…

  Charm did have its limits. And, like everything to do with the system, diminishing returns were to be expected.

  That said—physically speaking—pfft...Benjamine was, theoretically, nearly as strong as her father stat for stat! O-of course, with all the man's feats as a warrior, that became a dubious comparison.

  Yet, Benjamine knew that her father had front-loaded his physical capabilities while letting others nguish. It was why the man was out fighting for a liege that hardly had a hook on him to call his banners…

  However, Benjamine was a bit of a powerhouse in all aspects of her new existence.

  It was said that, for most folk, 'silver' was about as far as one could expect to progress through their lives. The 'commoners pteau,' as it was called.

  Benjamine, as a noble, had naturally been retively high-level for her age. Already what 'most' would consider silver, though she'd been no 'fighter' in the conventional sense.

  She was a politico and an administrator. And yes, also a mage, but all nobles in the kingdom were mages, so it wasn't like it was any significant accomplishment.

  Still, to see her abilities outright multiplied was—well, she was still trying to parse it, in all honesty... It just seemed a little absurd.

  And yes, she'd lost approximately half her feat points, her css, and all her skills... Yet, the system was saying that her level was 'one...'

  Fucking one!

  That had to be a mistake, right?

  But if it wasn't...

  Curious, Benjamine shifted her attention to the wobbling tremors she felt at her side. Genuinely curious now that things were beginning to generate a touch of interest.

  She again tried to shift herself, now giving it some real focus, understanding that she was, for ck of a better word—liquid.

  Oddly enough, she managed to get a somewhat meandering shuffle going. Nothing special, but it was a start!

  She rolled in a bubbling, burbling mass, gaining traction and picking up speed! Her momentum made it easier and easier to move until she found herself inexplicably on top of something…

  It was—tasty?

  Y-yes, that was probably the best way to describe it…

  Though, the fvor wasn't easy to discern... It wasn't complex like a correctly seasoned beef pastry and certainly far from unpatable…

  However, if Benjamine were to put a single phrase to it, she'd call it sweet…

  Benjamine would have smiled if she could. After all, she'd always had quite the sweet tooth! The young woman had, of course, controlled her urges, as any proper 'dy' of the court should. But Benny would be lying if she cimed the fvor didn't spark immediate joy!

  Well, perhaps there was something moderately worthwhile to this whole affair!

  She found herself slowly melding over the object she was—ahem—dissolving…

  Her body feeling natural in its desire to feed and subsume her meal. It was strangely gratifying…calming even…

  And slowly, as she suckled at the unknown but delightfully tasty object, her warring state of mind finally came to admit this wasn't all bad…

  The interesting thing, however, was what happened on her status page.

  The line that had identified her mass as being 'three' kilograms had changed.

  Now, she was four kilograms…

  Interesting…

  Was there a point? Had she just—gotten bigger?

  Looking at her portrait, Benjamine couldn't determine if there was any real difference. So, with a slight mental shrug, she kept to her pn to investigate the odd quaking disturbances.

  She found several other 'objects' she still couldn't identify, the first of which she settled over, just like the st. However, when she encountered the fourth such delicacy, Benjamine was getting annoyed.

  Caught between the allure of deliciousness and the desire to know more about her situation, absent eyes as she was, the young woman tried something different.

  Rather than just 'lying' on top of the object like some zy cheese of a noble too fat to get off the couch, she tried finagling it into her body, and wonder of wonders, her body 'picked' the object up and pulled it into her getinous form!

  There, it rested, jiggling like jelly, but not in threat of dislodging, even as she trundled on.

  Curious, she gnced back at her status, fighting back against this no 'eyes' business, especially since she could 'see' her status menu!

  What she saw was—not what she expected…

  "Ohhh... that's what those are... hm..." was all the noble had to say on the matter.

  Was it gross that she was looking at a skeletal hand now floating around inside her red, goopy form?

  Mayhaps.

  But Benjamine had never been averse to good bone broth! M-more, bone or otherwise, the delicious fvor was nearly impossible to ignore…

  The more she ate, the more her taste buds tingled with satisfaction as they awoke and started detecting more subtle curiosities!

  And, though the comparison was odd, this particur treat almost tasted like chocote cake! It was so close, so very close... And much like bone broth, Benjamin adored chocote cake.

  The 'why' didn't matter to her.

  The 'gross' wasn't important.

  Carnivores did not care where their food came from, only that it was as delectable and plentiful as they could get it.

  It was, admittedly, a little weird that bones should taste sweet, but she was no longer human, was she? No, Benny was a 'slime girl,' and to 'slime girls,' bones, evidently, tasted like cake.

  Fuck it, Benny wanted more cake.

  She collected several more bones as she rumbled along the floor, watching as her mass increased as the tiny morsels were slowly digested within her.

  By the time she finally 'found' the source of a nearby tremor, Benjamine was nearly thrice as rge as when she started! Which made what came next have a discernably important buffer for her…

  The contact was what she first noticed. Her form slowed as the odd vibrations grew more and more noticeable until they were practically right in front of her.

  With a tentative touch, Benjamine reached out with a small tendril of herself, as thin and tentative as she could make it, to try and feel what it was.

  Immediately, there was pain! Her fluids felt like they were on fire! Her exploratory appendage suddenly winked out of her consciousness as something surrounded it in a tidal wave of aggression!

  She had a moment to contempte what had happened before she felt her body suddenly assaulted!

  Something was climbing over her! Trying to stretch across her, trying to absorb her!

  And Benny, unable to escape as the creature tched itself onto her form, snarled and began stretching right back!

  There were no blows, no wallops, cuts, or jabbing points of gleaming steel…no, it was more like a wrestling match, only she was naked, lying in a pit of mud, and had a blindfold over her face while trying to drown her opponent in the muck!

  Benjamine was constantly shifting herself, fighting a desperate battle, attempting to keep the other creature from surrounding her as the two monsters fought for dominance!

  Slowly, the young dy realized her mistakes, she learned how wrong she was doing it! Abandoning attempts to fight like a human with tendril-like arms and legs and replicating how the other monster kept trying to smother her.

  Everything was on fire!

  Her world felt like it was dissolving at its fringes!

  And yet, the pain was motivation…

  It was bizarre, but the individual with the superior mass at her beck and call soon gained the upper hand.

  Constantly pulling herself 'out' of the other creature's grasp, 'through' herself, while slowly closing her net around the attacker until, with a gentle 'plop,' Benny managed to surround the little devil that began a lovely sort of burbling misery as it began melting in her guts!

  Ooooh…this one tasted like saltwater taffy! She hadn't had that since the duke had visited when Benny was a tiny girl…

  She wobbled with delight! Both from her hard-fought victory and the wonderful treat she got to eat!

  It wasn't enough…

  Benny still felt hungry, still felt like she wanted more… Her body's desires were quite clear on the matter. And not unwilling to slide right down the dopamine waterslide, she immediately set out for the other tremors that she sensed moving nearby…

  Benjamine swallowed them all…

  She ate the next slime that she found, not giving it the same chance that the other had nearly managed! Simply colpsing upon her prey like a rising tidal wave as it loomed over the small vilge it sought to devour!

  And the rger she got, the more bones she picked up! The process of her growth became near exponential as she grew and grew and grew…

  Before long, Benny was looking at her status and noticing that, not only did she have a level pending, but that she was now just shy of thirty kilograms!

  Curious, she accepted her 'level' and found she had six avaible points to spend however she wanted.

  Hmph… that was two less than what she'd gotten as a human… That said, she hadn't been able to freely allocate her points since she'd maxed out her racial level…

  So, she was right back where she started… Right at the beginning of her system journey, only, for whatever reason, she had a monster rating, and with that rating, she was technically getting twelve points rather than six.

  What a joke!

  If Benny had lips, she'd have ughed!

  This was—well, it was getting better and better!

  Oh! Would she be like a normal monster when reaching a new threat ranking? Would she triple her stats, just like that?

  The thought nearly made Benjamine blush with excitement!

  She had no idea why she was being given so much power, but if said power came with the caveat of being whatever it was she'd been turned into, well, as far as 'second chances' were concerned, this was better than being a zombie!

  The loss of her feats wasn't amazing, of course, and all her hard-earned system abilities were gone, but this was certainly novel and just as potent if she had the right read of the situation.

  Monsters, after all, often had to be taken on by 'teams' of syers when they got too powerful...

  Still, it was annoying that she had no clue where she was or what was around her. Worse, things had become boringly silent.

  There were no more tremors moving through the floor, at least not that she could feel. And by the time Benny had rolled and rolled and rolled without doing anything beyond gathering more bones—she got annoyed…

  "Okay, there's got to be something I'm missing..."

  Surely, the 'people' she'd heard talking meant there were—well, possibly others like herself? She wasn't sure…and she certainly wished she could have understood them!

  Being a slime was both immensely gratifying in a way she couldn't have ever expected and also frustrating to an extreme that made her want to yank all her hair out!

  Not that she had hair, but—oh, who cared, the metaphor stood!

  No, Benny wasn't just a slime. She was a 'slime girl,' was she not? So, it stood to reason that—if she could be a slime, she could be a girl, right?

  Wrong. Or, that was to say, partially wrong.

  Benny struggled with that fact for a long time. Fighting to 'mold' herself into an even rough approximation of her prior state, but no matter how hard she tried, the noble simply could stretch as far as she wanted.

  Interestingly enough, she was having success! It was more that, while she could form the beginnings of a 'red' and translucent pair of feet and legs, o-or the same but with arms and a head, she never had enough 'her' to manage anything near a proper form…

  It was there! She could feel it was there! The ability to take on a shape that was at once familiar, if not different at its core, but…it was there!

  Instinct?

  Desperation?

  Hope?

  She wasn't sure what had her so confident she could do it, but—there simply wasn't enough of her…

  That was when she had a brilliant idea!

  Well, if she didn't have enough 'goop' to make her full-sized body, then could she make a tiny one?

  The notion stirred her to make an attempt. And as she began slowly stretching and tightening herself, Benjamine discovered she was finally making progress!

  After a span of unknown time in which she spent struggling with her own nature, Benjamine had finaly done it!

  Her eyes opened to a world of near-complete darkness…

  Worse? She was naked.

  Worse than that? Well, her form was—ugh… no, no, no, no…

  Benjamine immediately bubbled back into a giant red ooze. Unwilling to walk around as she'd initially envisioned herself.

  For some reason, the conclusion that if she couldn't be an 'adult,' she'd make herself a child had backfired in such an amazingly horrid way that Benjamine wondered how she could blunder so terribly!

  She was not about to go walking about looking like a grubby, grotesque, and snot-nosed ten-year-old.

  Disgusting. And she'd rather die than return to those days of being all elbows and knees and—ugh, miserable puberty...

  No, attempt number 'two' had Benny forming her body into a miniature but no less 'adult' version of herself that was decidedly a hundred times better for her sensabilities.

  It was perfect!

  Maybe a touch slimy and almost disconcertingly drippy, but she had eyes! As did she have ears, a mouth—lips, hands…

  Huh…

  "Voice?" she asked aloud, cocking her head and hearing what was—well, her voice…

  Weird… really, really, weird…

  Standing at four feet tall, and very much naked, Benjamine made an attempt at clothes, but—ugh…they sort of slushed off of herself, the whole process looking a good deal more sacious than just walking around with her jelly-bod…

  It wasn't like there were nipples or anything, so—yeah…what was the point of a dress?

  As it happened, Benjamine's first steps were somewhat problematic.

  Her legs would spsh about and deform without any meaningful structure, but once Benjamine started controlling her 'fluids' with magic, it got easier.

  In fact, once she applied mana to the problem, she 'solidified' right up! Almost as if she had a real body—but one that was less flesh and more a gradient kind of red and shiny getin…

  It was not an issue as far as she was concerned, as Benny was simply happy to see things again!

  That said, her surroundings weren't that interesting. And she found herself in a rather nondescript chamber.

  There was, as she could see, a singur entrance to an otherwise dome-like cavern, the exit marked by a lone torch that brightly lit the area in question.

  The flicker and sway of its dancing light captivated her for a time, if for no other reason than what it represented.

  Benny was alive.

  She wasn't sure why, and she wasn't sure how, but she was alive!

  Sure, she might be a little different, but so far, there was nothing here she'd name 'unworkable.'

  That being said, there were other aspects of the chamber that she quickly began contempting.

  The number of bones that still y scattered about was—impressive. Heck, the pce was a graveyard of the things…Yet what struck her was the lone chair that sat at the room's center.

  It was so out of pce…so—odd…Its simple wooden design, both familiar and entirely without any artistry to it…

  Now, she was convinced. Somebody had been here. Had been—watching her…

  Were they the ones who had created this new body? Had they taken her soul and put her in this strange vessel?

  The only 'physical' aspect of herself was a small marble that had a subtle luminance to it. And, much like the 'core' of a slime, Benny could shift it freely within herself, maniputing the object as she saw fit.

  It was, undoubtedly, her 'heart' and if she worked anything like a normal slime, her biggest weakness...

  Everything else was, well, in the right shape, she supposed, and whole her exterior wasn't strictly liquid at this moment, her insides definitely were. Outside was more like a stiff gel while distributing her mana through the form… It didn't feel like she was using very much of it, but Benny suspected the moment she expended her reserves, she'd be right back to 'blob' Benjamine...

  "Okay… not ideal, and we still don't have any answers..."

  Annoyed but not willing to give up, Benny walked around the entire room, collecting bones as she went.

  All the noble girl had to do was use her feet to gobble the things, stepping on them wherein her body would absorb their mass so she could shoot it up her leg and into her greater form.

  She gained a few more kilograms and, with it, a bit more height. Pushing things to five feet before Benny was satisfied, she'd gotten everything she could find.

  Hmph!

  Upside to being a monster? Benny could indulge in her inner glutton to her heart's wildest desires! And all the while, constantly feeling as though she were sampling various fluffy delights, which was a bonus in itself.

  However, as to whether Benny could have anticipated what she found in the very next chamber, the young noblewoman couldn't rightly say. All the same, the sight, for whatever reason, made her face stretch.

  A broad and hideously delighted smile twisted her beautiful red features in a nightmarish parody of hunger as she gazed through the passageway...