Chapter 2: Little Fire

Half a month later, the first day of school.

Yuxiao Academy, First-Year Class A1.

“Children, quiet down for a moment.”

Isaiah looked up drowsily. The speaker was a young man who looked to be only in his early twenties, with a cockatiel perched on his shoulder.

“My name is Zong Zhi. I’m your homeroom teacher and also your Beast Psychology instructor. For the next six years, I’ll be accompanying you all in life and study. If you have any problems, come find me anytime.”

Yes—beasts. Isaiah had already been in this world for half a month and had learned most of the general knowledge. He had learned this world’s writing and had even finished studying the content the teachers would cover this semester. For a slime’s immense spiritual power, this was nothing.

This was a world where beast taming reigned supreme. Humans contracted beasts and provided them with heavenly treasures and earthly riches to make them stronger, and the beasts would fight on their behalf.

As a slime, Isaiah felt a sense of crisis and decided to keep his cover tightly sealed. He didn’t want to end up with a master!

His only comfort was that it seemed only the human language had changed in this world. The languages of the other races of spirit beasts, as well as the common beast tongue, were still the ones Isaiah was familiar with.

“Tomorrow is your first day of classes. The schedule has already been sent to the class group chat—don’t be late.”

“I know many of you are already looking forward to choosing your first beast, but don’t rush. There are many tips and taboos when it comes to getting along with beasts. After a month, once you’ve gained a bit of understanding of the relevant content, you can go ahead.”

With that, Zong Zhi added, “That includes those of you who have already obtained beasts. Studying the academy’s courses will help you better raise your beasts and explore more possibilities…”

After explaining the lengthy list of precautions, Zong Zhi picked students in the front row to help distribute the textbooks.

Isaiah listened absentmindedly. Of course he had a beast. Tribe talents generally didn’t involve contracting another beast, and he had contracted the slime he’d split off that day.

This world’s contract had its merits. As the Slime King, Isaiah was naturally bound to the slime race, and they could sense each other’s positions. But that contract actually allowed him to communicate with the contracted slime regardless of distance.

It probably worked on the soul level. This world truly had hidden dragons and crouching tigers.

Beast Tamers were ranked from one to nine, and the mark of advancing to the next stage was generally whether one could condense a soul seed for a contracted beast.

A first-rank Beast Tamer could only contract one beast. Isaiah could feel that he could condense many more soul seeds, but just to be safe, he only contracted one. After all, he had never needed a contract to command slimes.

Thinking this, Isaiah pulled the slime out of his pocket. Although there was a soul seed space, spending more time with one’s beast helped cultivate their bond. People with a group of beasts following them could be seen everywhere on the streets, so Isaiah followed local custom.

Putting the slime in his desk drawer, Isaiah watched it bounce around while pondering how to train it.

In his original world, Isaiah had possessed a huge multitude of slime subjects with all sorts of attributes and abilities. After all, having lived so long, aside from cultivation, Isaiah certainly had to find some entertainment.

The slimes split from Isaiah all counted as his offspring. They obeyed him unconditionally and possessed a weakened version of his Devour Heaven trait. After weakening, Devour Heaven retained only a few traits, and devouring could only strengthen those.

During this half month, what Isaiah had spent the most time on was actually catching up on all kinds of herbs, minerals, and other materials.

A small portion of the heavenly treasures of the two worlds were very similar. For example, the Moon-Gazing Grass that grew facing the moon and had the effect of calming the mind and spirit was called Moon-Worship Grass in this world, and instead of three leaves it had five. The Wind-Summoning Vine, which only grew on barren, windy cliffs, kept its name but had a darker color and denser patterns on its body, and so on. But the rest Isaiah had never seen before.

Isaiah sank his mind into his Devour Heaven Pouch, searching for the materials he needed.

The spirit herbs he treasured didn’t seem particularly rare in this world. After confirming he would join Yuxiao Academy, Yu Tian had given him a batch of specially approved resources, and it was said that cultivation resources could be collected every month based on in-school performance.

Found them! Lava Grass and Ash Spirit—materials rich in fire attribute.

Isaiah had just withdrawn his consciousness from the Devour Heaven Pouch when he discovered the slime was gone. Looking around, it was rubbing against the leg of a girl next to Isaiah.

With its bouncy, jiggly texture and a translucent body that seemed to shimmer with light, the girl stared at it excitedly, wanting to touch it but not daring to.

So cute!! Lin Jun screamed internally. Whose beast was this? Looking this weak, it had to be wild, right? Then let me take care of you!

Just as Lin Jun was about to reach out, Isaiah picked up the slime first and gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that—my beast caused you trouble.”

“Ah? Oh, it’s fine.” Lin Jun was a little disappointed, but she soon began sizing up Isaiah.

She had noticed this boy when she entered—not just because of Isaiah’s good looks, but also because of his S-rank talent.

Before coming to school, Lin Jun had memorized the list of people with development potential whom she needed to befriend. In Class A, including herself, there were four S-rank talents.

Blond hair, red eyes, a slender build, a jelly-like beast—yes, that was him.

“Your beast looks really special.” Lin Jun smiled more warmly. “I’m Lin Jun. We’ll be classmates from now on, so please take care of me.”

“You can call me Isaiah.”

…

After receiving textbooks on the first morning, there were no more tasks. Isaiah returned to the dormitory intending to train his slime.

The dorm was a two-person room, and the other roommate had not yet appeared. It had separate rooms and even a kitchen where one could cook—presumably a benefit the school arranged for S-rank talents.

Isaiah took out the Lava Grass and Ash Spirit. Neither was a material he had used before when evolving slimes, but Isaiah could sense that the energy they contained could accomplish the same thing.

At the same time, he had already decided on the first slime’s name. “You’re the one—Little Fire!”

Little Fire, having been fished out, bounced appropriately and swallowed the materials on the table in one bite.

Isaiah waved his hand and condensed a thinner layer of slime mucus to wrap around Little Fire, so that the evolution wouldn’t cause too much of a disturbance.

Inside the mucus ball, Little Fire’s body twisted in pain. The originally transparent blue slime that reflected sunlight gradually shed its color, then was dyed red by the herbs within, like a translucent pigeon-blood ruby.

Isaiah flipped through textbooks for a few hours before Little Fire’s evolution finally ended.

He gazed at the red Little Fire, and its abilities naturally surfaced in his mind.

[Race: Flame Slime]

[Level: LV10]

[Rank: Elite]

[Traits: Devour Heaven (False), Fire Resistance, Soft, Regeneration]

[Skills: Fireball, Sea of Fire]

[Trait Name: Fire Resistance]

[Trait Effect: Damage dealt to you by fire-attribute attacks is negligible.]

[Trait Name: Soft]

[Trait Effect: Your body is very soft and can absorb most impact damage.]

[Trait Name: Regeneration]

[Trait Effect: Rapid recovery when injuries are not fatal.]

[Skill Name: Fireball]

[Skill Level: Apprentice]

[Skill Effect: Releases a fireball.]

[Skill Name: Sea of Fire]

[Skill Level: Apprentice]

[Skill Effect: Discards half the slime mucus on your body, transforming it into flames and altering the terrain.]

According to the Beast Catalog, although beasts could only be measured for strength by level, they were also artificially divided into six grades—Common, Extraordinary, Elite, Commander, Monarch, and Emperor—due to uneven average strength among races.

After all, a Magic-Winged Tiger could defeat a gentle small herbivorous beast like a Snow Rabbit across thirty levels, and a Floating Soul Vine could dominate a lower-tier race like the Ghost Vine of the same level. Racial potential often determined the upper limit of a beast’s advancement.

Beasts with three racial talents generally started at Elite rank, but as everyone knew, slimes were not powerful creatures—their racial strength could even be considered weak.

Isaiah thought it over. The reason Little Fire’s talents were expressed was probably that it had inherited his bloodline. Creatures whose strength reached the “King” level could already greatly influence their offspring’s potential.

Just as wolves and leopards were generally fast, but few wolves had traits like [Rapid] or [Swift] in their entries—precisely because their abilities weren’t yet sufficient to manifest as talents.

Setting aside [Devour Heaven], if a native slime were tested for Little Fire’s three traits, it would probably be lucky to have [Soft] at all, and the effect would likely be greatly reduced.

According to Isaiah’s estimation, without intervention, the slimes split from Little Fire would return to native slime level after five generations.

His Devour Heaven Pouch could store living creatures, so on ordinary days he could let Little Fire multiply some slimes and spread the branches and leaves of their race in the new world.

Isaiah and his beast were linked in mind, and Little Fire sent a mental wave: “King, I will develop the race well!”

Clearly, the materials it had eaten had not only strengthened Little Fire’s body but also promoted the maturity of its intelligence. The formerly newborn-child-like Little Fire now had an adult’s comprehension, just lacking some experience.

“Little Fire is such a good boy.” Isaiah cupped Little Fire and rubbed it, and Little Fire was so excited that a few sparks even burst from its body.

By the time it ended, it was already mealtime. He had to watch over Little Fire at noon, so Isaiah didn’t come out to eat. He couldn’t miss dinner.

Even as a slime that no longer needed to eat, Isaiah was still very keen on three meals a day like a human.

Especially after he had tasted the astonishingly delicious dishes of this world—all kinds of noodles and rice sweeter and more fragrant than the softest white bread, meat dishes full of expensive spices with no strange tastes.

Not only were the flavors captivating to Isaiah from the first bite, but every ingredient here more or less possessed spiritual energy. Under Isaiah’s Devour Heaven, every bit of food met its proper end.

Isaiah declared that if he weren’t afraid of attracting human attention, he could eat from dawn to dusk. More importantly… he, Isaiah! The Slime King, once the strongest being above ground, the Lost Demon Lord who possessed countless territories and wealth, had fallen into penniless destitution in another world.

Three free meals a day, full tuition exemption, and other financial aid benefits for impoverished students—it was Mr. Yu Tian who had taken him to apply for them.

Without figuring out the situation in the other world, Isaiah would not act rashly. At worst he’d eat fewer meals for a few years; in the future he would definitely recruit hundreds of manor humans to cook for him day and night without rest!

Isaiah pursed his lips regretfully. Back then in the forest he hadn’t needed money. By the time he appeared in human sight, no one could stand against him head-on. Wherever his true form went, he was enshrined. Even hiding his identity, he could rob a few wealthy unlucky fellows by the roadside. After conquering territory, countless subjects offered him tribute. As a result, the slime who didn’t know the hardships of the world still didn’t know how to earn money normally.

Whatever. Was earning money something a king should worry about? Isaiah righteously assigned the matter of making money to his clansmen.

Aside from Little Fire, Isaiah had personally split off a batch of about a hundred slimes. They would be the royal family of slimes in this world, and they were now awakening their intelligence and growing happily in the mountains and forests around Green Lake Town.

The slime children, still just kids, had no idea that the responsibility of feeding their king had already fallen on their shoulders.