Chapter 71 A Field

I touch grass. The grass. Blades of grass. Many of them. Plenty of green. A sea of grass. There was a lot of grass. A field of so many acres of the finest soil, coated by the most marvelous, lovely garden of grass, that found its place under the bright, yellow sun of today's lunchtime. A field that went far in the distance, endlessly running toward both ends of the horizon. The most gigantic garden extended thus, lying from East to West. And from today onward, that was my field.

A garden was a resplendent thing to possess. Or at the very least, my Uncle, the old man, said as much. For many reasons, he was a fan of those green things. Finding myself at the heart of the sea of grass, I didn't know if I could agree with him. Still, I'd try to. At any rate, in a certain way, I could agree with him—my garden was an awesome thing.

An awesome piece of land. The awesome piece of land. But I was afraid it was only my garden that I liked awesomely. Why that was, simply because my garden wasn't any piece of refined land. No, it was different. You could call it a battlefield. Here, war raged. But anyway, right in the middle of my land, though very far to the South of it, next to the elves' Forest, I bathed. Both in the freshness of the bright, green soil and under the heavy sun.

A monster was lying down there. It was an eerie thing: Splashed on the earth, it embraced a square meter of the mellow lawn. Bodiless, it sometimes moved around, sometimes assumed a dog's fluffy shape, sometimes a rat's cute little figure, and, most of the time, a human's youthful silhouette. Only hardly could the monster do all that.

So, rather than a dog's shape, a rat's shape, or a somewhat humanoid form looking like the fairy/spirit of water people confused me with, I was, most of the time, plainly shapeless, looking more like the 'watery slime's' part people also confused me with. I could barely take any all of the precedent different forms and silhouettes. Still, at will, I could somehow produce stretching arms and stuff from my ball-shaped body. Creepily enough, then, the monster, that was me, just a plain and boring living body of water, crawled all around the garden—or rather, the battlefield—without a care in the world.

I could only test the specifics of my skills (and unique condition) that way—[Jelly-like Shapelessness] and [Resistant Body]—taking on various shapes and silhouettes while having fun. What I noted was that my body was in fact shapeless. Most of the time, while discarding the human form (the Character I'd created a day back), I could more or less easily take on two forms. That was a somewhat ball-shaped form and a relatively humanoid form.

As for the ball-shaped outline, needless to say, balling myself into a ball didn't require much effort from anyone. Yeah, maybe it was just me. In any case, that was an easy thing to do. Now, about the humanoid form—without even calling on to the System's power and being the 'Character' it said I was—I reckoned I could just about assume it because I'd been so used to having humans, folks of the human race, as Receptacles. That way, as I was still lying down under the sun and embracing the grass all around me, that's how I managed to slide here and there, slowly exploring my uncharted territory.

As I said, testing and exploring the specifics of my skills and condition was the goal here. My Uncle put me up to that. The old man was my attendant, or something along those lines, after all. And what he had said was, "You go, son! You go get 'em! And while you're at it, you show your old uncle about your aptitudes! If we, explorers of the 'Outside World', as you would have it, are to explore indeed, we need to know more about ourselves! Your powers shall be put to light, and we shall vanquish!"

Suddenly, four giant armored feet, coming along with two even more gigantic blades, gushed forth to me: Had they not seen me? Would I need to find yet another spot again, and move further to the Forest's side? A deafening Clang brutalized my 'sense' of hearing.

Sparkles were sent down flying my way. The loudest stomping foot dug the earth right next to me, shaking the earth as it went. Following these ear-splitting annoying sounds, many other Clangs rang out, along with many other stomping feet. That was annoying. Thankfully, they didn't at least step on me. I could take damage from all this fighting around. After a minute, the pair of fighting opponents gradually slid further away from me, still going at each other's throats with their arms and blades.

Phew. It was a good thing they went away. I didn't have to change spots again, in the end. I have had to do that numerous times before. Can you imagine, they wouldn't leave me alone, the stomping feet and swords. I was just with my grass, testing a few things about myself as the old man instructed, but no, they wouldn't leave me to my peace. I did want to tell them all off for disturbing me so many times, but I figured I wouldn't. Not for now, at least. That was my garden, my battlefield, and it was especially good because of the disturbing folks. But anyway—I was testing my skills, for now.

I was sentient. That's the [Consciousness] Passive Skill for you. Also, I can see pretty much all around, thanks to the [Mana Perception] Passive. These two skills meant I could feel, see, hear, touch, smell, taste, understand, and comprehend most of everything, and the list could go on. I could feel and touch the oh-so-numerous, mellow yet rigid blades of grass coating the earth. I also could feel around and grip the rich brown soil underneath it. That was me.

About the two skills I mentioned earlier, Jelly-like Shapeless and Resistant Body, the body of water—that was me: life in its purest form—could walk the earth without sinking into the deeper grounds. Briefly, that was pretty much it. For the time being, the senile old man who sent his grandson to battle for very few reasons (not that the grandson asked for any), would have to be satisfied with such a report.

Or maybe not. There were other skills, after all. Many others. And as the old man insisted, if he and I were to go about exploring and sightseeing the world together, as it was what my youthful mind wished for, we needed to know about our force. Our team, so far, was composed of three: a senile old man, a passed-out former elven princess, and a cheesy unique monster-type.

As for the senile old man, he said his old bones ached so intensely he couldn't dare move out on the battlefield. That was a lie. Despite the many decades his body had seen, the old man was perfectly healthy. Fortunately, the old man's usefulness didn't lie in his fighting abilities. Or that was how I considered the tool he was, at the very least.

From the very beginning, it was agreed he would be my information and knowledge, not my sword. The old man completed this condition very well. All of that was to say I didn't mind my senile old man's absence on the battlefield. My gang was formed from zero. We had very few members, but it wasn't just me and the old geezer alone anymore, now. Another member was here. The elven princess. Former princess. Unfortunately, due to some illness the old man called 'fever', she passed out and was unconscious.

And so that left only me: the monster.

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