Who would’ve thought that having eight slimes would make work so easy? The oozes worked their jelly asses off, getting it done in way less time than I could with a dozen versions of myself. Their silver tendrils spawned from them, snatching shards as quickly as frogs catch flies.

  Not only that, they even found shards buried in the earth, all while babbling about a "numb smell." How can something smell numb, anyway? The important thing is that they made my job fast. Obviously, I helped the slimes—Geen practically became the shard bin.

  Not that the self-proclaimed bag complained. How could someone fit so much inside themselves without showing it? Magic, pure and simple.

  These heirs probably have ways of storing things; otherwise, everyone would have a slime bag. The ooze even doubles as a cool cape.

  And, thankfully, it didn’t eat my underpants. Speaking of the slime troublemaker, even as my temporary pants, Doom helped me collect the shards too. It also complained about not getting to eat the tiger meat, but with the way things are going, it’ll find some soon enough.

  Soon, the area was clear of shards. Two hours tops, and no sign of tigers. Speaking of them, only some dropped shards. I’m so loaded with shards now that I didn’t even notice. The pale tiger dropped a magic nexus and a divine core—a weird mix of shards.

  It saddens me, though, that the tigers obviously stole a bunch of sparks. Furred assholes.

  Work finished, time for a bathroom break. Far enough from the slimes but close enough for them to kill any tiger that shows up. Doom was glad to leave, the rascal thinking it would find some meat. Are slimes even male or female? They probably don’t care. Although, would more slimes just spawn out of nowhere? I don’t think I have enough bonds for that.

  Problem for later.

  Returning to them, my jelly arms reformed into my armor, the cape flowing and Jelly Blade back in its sheath.

  "All that work really made me thirsty. Geen, could you give me my water bottle?" The slime got it right on the first try, but the bottle wasn’t enough to satisfy my thirst.

  "I really need to find more water. Although I’m not looking forward to going home." Or back to the village.

  "...Geen has more water bottles!.." Which isn’t wrong.

  "Yes, but it’s not like I won’t get thirsty later with all this fighting. Also, I need to think about the future too. If I remember right, there’s a small river nearby." Just on the other side of the forest from my home—the normal forest, not this alien hellscape.

  "...Henrique wrong, river big! River full of water. Cold water, cold water. Dangerous water..." What nonsense—are they afraid of water? Wait.

  Taking a quick look at my tile relic, I confirmed it. There’s a river on the left side of the palace. The thing isn’t actually blue, so I thought it might be something else, but zooming in, there are drawings of the river, even some fish.

  Also, the river’s name: Blue Fool. Probably the worst name for a river. There must be a story behind it. Oh well, I have some time to spare, and I need to consume all these shards. Why not?

  "Alright, smart asses, do you know where this river is?" Because I bet my GPS won’t work.

  "...Ooze smart, ooze smart! Easy, river and sewers close. One tunnel to the river. Dangerous river..." Relying on them for directions doesn’t sound that smart. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll use the tile map and try to find a landmark.

  What I really, really want right now is to get freaky with the shards.

  "Alright, you oozes take the helm. Walk us to the river." My own autopilot.

  "...Lin knows best, Lin guide. Din doesn’t know directions; Din lost his smarts. Din is smart! Dumb dumb..." As long as we reach the river.

  As for the shards...

  "Hey Geen, let’s talk about shards. There are various types of shards. I’m sure you’ve seen some. The small ones are called seeds—yes, the ones we caught the most, only shining..."

  ---

  Sadly, Geen doesn’t know math. It would be so much easier if it did. Maybe I’m finally hitting the limits of my sanity. Slimes fighting as professional swordsmen, each one part of the body, working in unnatural synergy? Sure. Knowing basic math? Impossible!

  After this succession thing is over, I’ll teach them the basics. Or maybe put the AI or Houonas on it. That’s a plan for later.

  Also, fourteen hours and twenty-five minutes until I need to meet with the team.

  What matters more is that I’ve figured out the perfect way to fully focus on consuming the shards. The semi-autonomous slime machine—basically letting Geen feed me the shards with the lowest essence first, like a steam train fed charcoal.

  In this case, I’m the steam train. And yes, I did watch a couple of ancient movies. Better than the AI slop, anyway. Practical effects are the game.

  It’ll be a long while to finish the connection. Especially for a couple of reasons:

  1. One thousand seeds equal one nexus shard. So even at two per second, it’ll take eight minutes and twenty seconds, more or less, just for one nexus shard.

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  2. I’ve become a magic addict, so I’ll obviously focus on it first. The problem is the mega star didn’t even create a visible connection after more than 100 shards.

  3. Trying not to lose count is hell.

  4. I really should be focusing on this instead of thinking. But what can I do? Counting and staring at nothing isn’t that interesting.

  Wait—slowly, as I pumped in two hundred and three shards, a line began to appear. Frail, thin as a hair. Nevertheless, now I’ve got something to look at while I work.

  So it’s full focus on getting strong as fuck time. Also, fighting the boredom.

  The results of consuming each seed shard seemed negligible by themselves, but as the numbers grew, the connection to the mega star increased.

  At one thousand one hundred thirty-one, a frail red bond, like a thread, became visible. At three thousand five hundred ninety-two, the connection wasn’t even half the thickness of a normal star bond. My assumption that it would follow the normal progression seems to be wrong.

  At nine thousand six hundred fifty-two, the connection was almost half the thickness of a normal spellstar bond. Still, I can’t tell exactly how many shards it’ll need. Soon, I’ll need to start using the cores. The fortune of shards I’ve got seems like it’ll save me, but I need to figure out the exact cost for the bond. Geen said it had a "slime’s worth" of them. How much is that? How the fuck would I know?

  The slimes found enemies—not Erythocetes, but more beasts. They’ll need to deal with it. I’m fully focused on this.

  At ten thousand shards, I stopped using seeds. Time to use the sparks. Doom wanted to eat the dead beasts’ corpses. I just said, "Okay." Full focus on this.

  At eleven thousand three hundred forty, the magic sparks shards were gone. Time to use the cores. For the first time in this process, I’m afraid I might not have enough.

  At thirteen thousand one hundred forty, it was time to use the nexus shards. The problem is, I’ve already consumed a bunch of them. Geen only said it had a "bite" of them. Not useful, but let’s do this.

  At eighteen thousand one hundred forty, I felt the connection growing more intense. The size of it matched the other stars’ finished bonds, but it still wasn’t enough. It felt like I was only halfway there.

  No more nexus shards. I didn’t see an option but to use the relic magic shard from the vampire heir.

  Holding it in my grip as my slimy friends sliced through a poor creature resembling a furless bear, I slowly pumped energy into it. I didn’t feel the resistance I did with Water’s Reflection—it felt empty.

  No choice anyway. What I regret more is that some essence got wasted. All this fucking counting for nothing?!

  Math for the oozes!

  Consuming a relic shard’s essence is like drinking water after being thirsty for hours. The sensation is amazing.

  The quantity of essence felt like a wide river. The bond grew thicker as well, and soon all the vast essence flowed into the connection between me and the mega star.

  The connection felt almost bursting—but still not enough. Time to use the magic seed shards.

  And in a blink, they were gone. Not actually a blink—now I’m twenty-eight thousand eight hundred twelve shards in.

  I’m already too deep to stop now. Time to use the basic seed shards. It’ll be hell not to lose my mind counting two for each shard, but oh well. A little more time and concentration won’t kill me.

  I’m feeling a headache, though.

  A little slower, I kept consuming the basic seed shards, slowly reaching twenty-nine thousand. At twenty-nine thousand and thirty-nine shards, they became the magic number.

  I expected a round number, maybe thirty thousand. But no—29,039.

  Soon, my connection with the star grew taut, the tension strong as if I were roped to a battleship.

  Like a sun rising, the mega star began to shine, and it didn’t stop there. Each connection to the other stars grew wider, matching the one with the mega star.

  The constellation shone bright and beautiful, and it was like a haze had finally lifted from my head.

  Before, I could only see weird lines, like runes. And right now, I still see the same thing. Nevertheless, it’s like my mind interprets it differently—like a kid seeing shapes in clouds, but even more insane. Like people seeing a bear in the stars.

  For the first time, I understood—or maybe I’ve gone mad, like the guys who came up with the names for constellations in ancient times.

  Because right there, before my eyes, I see a glob of molten lava, dark red, and within it, something even greater: a calm fire. Welcoming, homely, like a bonfire.

  Soon, my attention turned to the projection of the mega star, which revealed itself as another spellstar.

  There, the first ethereal projection I saw appeared again: an arm with veins on fire. Now I knew for certain—its blood pumped like lava, the cut on its finger unleashing crimson flames. The blood in it felt stronger, more powerful.

  And as I looked at my other spellstars, I saw the same change in them. More oppressive. More powerful.

  Would my veins one day turn into real lava? Now I’m fucking curious.

  Soon, I absorbed all the concepts of this mega star. If I could describe what changed in me or my spells, it’s simple: an attunement to fire. Let’s call it Ember.

  This attunement feels like a sprouting seed. Something in me has finally opened. How can I increase it even more?

  I don’t know how, but I know where.

  Again, a sprawling, uncountable number of stars calls to me—and even more ignore me—in the magic star cluster.

  This magic constellation is finished. My first one. I name you Bonfire. Both as a reference to one of my favorite games and for the warmth and safety you’ve given me.

  Yes, this sounds a little embarrassing. It’s not like I’ll tell anyone about it, anyway. Maybe I should add some mention of blood in it, like Bloody Bonfire. Whatever. It’s Bonfire.

  Looking around, the slime armor kept walking instead of me. I feel like I’m inside another me, which sounds weird as hell. Nevertheless, I could get used to that—just floating around.

  No sign of the river, and no sign of vampires or any other fuckers.

  So it’s time to see if I can finish any other constellations.