Adventures of a Slime
Page 4
“And our potion?” demanded Jiggly, holding out an insistent leg.
“Of course,” I said. I took out the bottle the witch had given me and handed it to the spider. “Tiffin warned me that this mixture was especially powerful, and that you shouldn’t have to use much of it.”
Jiggly held up the bottle against the light. She was so busy marveling at how the liquid glittered and shimmered in the sun that she seemed to forget I was there.
“Now, we can conquer the world!” she exclaimed.
“MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAH!”
“Seriously?” I scorned, unable to stop myself.
“Oh. You’re still here, slime?”
Jiggly threw me a dark look and I understood that it was time for me to leave—before she decided she was tired of being nice to me and sent her guards to chase me. Whatever the spiders were thinking of doing wasn’t my business. I had my eyes, and my outfit was so close to being finished I could practically taste it.
DAY 24
The next day, I was on my way to see Tiffin with the spider eyes in my hand.
I couldn’t believe it.
I bet she had given me this task because she didn’t think I could do it. I was looking forward to seeing her expression when I appeared on her doorstep to claim what she owed me.
I reached her hut and I knocked on the door.
“Tiffin! Tiffin! Open quick!”
Silence.
I went around the back, jumping to see through the window. No trace of Tiffin anywhere.
HOW FRUSTRATING!
I WANTED MY POTION RIGHT AWAY, DARN IT!
“AAAAH!”
Suddenly, Tiffin’s scream tore through the swamp.
That wasn’t good. Not good at all.
It sounded like it had come from the lake, so I leapt in the direction of the water as quickly as I could. When I arrived, I saw Tiffin surrounded by a band of Minecraftians. She was throwing potions at them as fast as she could move her arm, but she was outnumbered, and it wasn’t going to take the humans long to stop her.
I couldn’t let this happen. If they did away with Tiffin, I could kiss my potion goodbye.
“HOLD ON, TIFFIN! I’M COMING TO SAVE YOU!”
I plunged into the battle. The Minecraftians were so busy fighting Tiffin they didn’t notice me until it was too late, when I was right in the middle of them.
“TAkE THAT!”
I shouted, as I sent a Minecraftian flying.
“What took you so long?” asked Tiffin, smiling, her energy buoyed by my arrival.
She pulled out another potion and hurled it at the nearest Minecraftian. While he tried to dry himself, I threw myself on him, knocking him out in a single blow.
I had enough food for weeks after all that!
“Thank you, Bert,” Tiffin told me. “If you hadn’t arrived in time, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“Here, let me give you a potion of strength, to thank you.”
She rummaged in her robe and brought out the long-desired bottle. I couldn’t believe it. On one hand, it was great to finally get my potion, but on the other . . . if I had known it was enough to run to Tiffin’s rescue for her to give me a potion, I would have been happy to assemble a group of Minecraftians instead of going to pay the spiders a visit. This would have saved me a chunk of energy and time.
Oh, witches! I would never understand them—not even if I lived to be a hundred years old.
DAY 25
I hid the spider eyes in a small hole, in case I ever needed them, and got back to my outfit. Because I hadn’t looked at it for a while, I saw it with fresh eyes, and it was as wonderful as I had remembered.
I held the costume out in front of me: it was the perfect human disguise.
YES, I WAS GOING TO DRESS UP AS A MINECRAFTIAN!
I’d wasted a lot of time with the sheep and cows, when I should have been focusing my efforts on creating a Minecraftian outfit.
NO SLIME WANTS TO EAT SHEEP OR COWS WHEN THEY CAN HAVE HUMANS INSTEAD.
I uncorked the bottle and liberally soaked the fabric with the potion of strength. As the liquid was absorbed, the outfit seemed to shine, for a brief instant, with an eerie glow.
I pulled gently on the outfit at first, and then gave it a harder tug. It held! Using all my strength, I tried to rip the fabric—but it didn’t tear. Tiffin was right. Her potions really worked! And this was exactly what my outfit needed.
I slipped it over my head and bounced toward the nearest puddle of water.
I stared at my reflection and loved what I saw. What an improvement on my basic slime look!
I WAS A GENIUS!
My creation was surely a turning point in slime history. We would never again be doomed to exist as nothing more than simple blocks. We could look however we wanted and be whatever we wanted. We could have fun blending into crowds of Minecraftians. They would suspect nothing—until we took off our disguises and devoured them!
The other slimes would be waiting in lines for hours to order my outfits.
I was going to make a fortune selling clothing. Not only was I going to change the course of slime history, I was going to become rich beyond my wildest dreams!
DAY 26
I put on my outfit. It fit me perfectly and it looked even better on me than it did lying on the ground. I was eager to see what the other slimes thought of it. I jumped to find my friend Phil. I could always trust Phil to cheer me up, and I knew he would be really excited about my costume.
“Phil! Hey, Phil!”
Phil was hopping around in the swamp, and, when he turned around, he did a double take.
“Bert, is that you in those rags?”
“These aren’t rags, this is a Minecraftian costume,” I corrected him, turning in a circle to show him the whole thing. “Tada!”
“I’M SORRY,” HE SAID, WHEN HE’D FINALLY CALMED DOWN AGAIN. “I DIDN’T MEAN TO LAUGH—BUT YOU LOOk COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS!”
“NOT AT ALL!” I protested. “Look, this is the cutting edge of fashion. This time next year, all slimes will be wearing clothes like these.”
“IS THIS A JOkE?” Phil asked, laughing harder. “Nobody will ever want to be seen in something like this! Anyway, slimes are perfect just the way we are. We’re beautiful! You only need to look at yourself in the mirror to see it.”
“You’ll want one of my costumes,” I insisted. “You’ll see.”
I hurried off across the swamp to find other slimes. Phil didn’t know what he was talking about. The others were going to love my outfit.
“YOU LOOk STUPID!”
“DID YOU FIND THAT IN THE TRASH?”
“HOW LONG DID IT TAkE YOU TO PUT THAT GARBAGE TOGETHER? FIVE MINUTES?”
Everywhere I went, slimes kept making fun of me. I couldn’t understand it.
Didn’t they have any taste? Or a sense of adventure?
Not a single slime liked my outfit. Still, I wasn’t giving up hope. When they saw how much easier my disguise made it to hunt Minecraftians, they would change their minds.
DAY 27
I set out for the nearest village. I was going to prove to slimes that my costume was a brilliant idea.
Sniffing the air, I detected the scent of Minecraftians in the distance. There were two of them headed in my direction. Perfect! This would be the first test of my outfit. If I could trick these two humans, then I would be able to sneak into the village without anyone noticing me—and, once inside, I would be able to feast until my stomach was full to bursting. And then the other slimes would regret not coming with me.
The two Minecraftians walking toward me were getting closer, so I stretched myself out to look as tall and straight as possible.
I felt my pumpkin head wobbling and hoped the potion of strength would do its job and keep it in place. If my head fell off, I’d be so embarrassed.
“Hello there,” said one of the humans.
“Mmmmh!”
I had just discovered my first problem.
I didn’t speak Minecraftian! I could understand, more or less, what the humans were talking about, but I was unable to pronounce their words. I gave a little jump to make my pumpkin head nod, hoping this response would be enough for them.
The two Minecraftians looked at each other, confused.
“Okay, I guess,” one of them finally said. “I think we’re going to keep walking. Goodbye, whoever you are.”
They took off at top speed, muttering and throwing looks over their shoulders. Either they were suspicious, or they had somewhere to be. In any case, they hadn’t screamed, “A SLIME!” or drawn their swords, so I was going to consider this a success. I had shown that I could be close to Minecraftians without them attacking me.
My disguise was working.
Now, it was time to move on to the biggest challenge of all:
INFILTRATE A VILLAGE!
DAY 28
The following day I journeyed to the nearest village. I arrived at lunchtime and the village was busy—so it was going to be easy for me to blend into the crowd.
As I hopped toward the center of the village, everyone was looking at me sideways.
I didn’t have any illusions. They were certainly talking about me behind my back, but I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that they didn’t suspect I was a slime.
The smell of Minecraftians was overwhelming. I did my best to restrain myself, because I wanted to explore the village. I hadn’t set foot (in a manner of speaking) in a human city in a long time, and it was weird. There were buildings everywhere, filled with humans. I was spoiled with choices.
Should I snack on a shopkeeper or start off with a child as an appetizer?
Finally, I couldn’t control myself any longer. It was time to unleash myself.
With a roar, I threw myself onto a villager . . . and fell flat on my face!
My costume was so comfortable I’d forgotten I was wearing it. It was impossible to fight in this thing!
I tried to tear it off, but the potion of strength had not worn off, and the fabric resisted all my attempts to tear it. Fighting to get the disguise off, I rolled around on the ground while a crowd of Minecraftians gathered around me, wondering was going on.
“IS IT A MONSTER?”
a little child exclaimed.
“IT IS! IT IS A MONSTER! IT’S A SLIME!”
I hadn’t even managed to get rid of my disguise yet, and my cover was already blown. It was a disaster! But, even worse, I couldn’t defend myself because I was completely surrounded, and I heard the iron golems pounding toward me.
“TAkE THAT, SLIME!”
I felt the blow of a sword land on my back, and I yelled in pain. This was not at all how
I thought my trip to the village would go.
Another sword struck me, and another, but just when I was on the point of giving up, one of the swords cut through my outfit. I was free.
“Ah-Ha!”
I cried.
I leapt out of my suit, ready to jump onto the first Minecraftian who came my way—but, when I saw what was waiting for me, I paled. It looked like every armed Minecraftian in the world was in the village, and I was completely surrounded by swords pointed at me. I was wondering whether I would be able to run away if I jumped over their heads, when I heard an incredible commotion.
“Don’t worry Bert. We’re coming!”
The humans spun around to see a group of slimes, led by Phil, coming to my rescue. Some of the Minecraftians bravely stayed in place, but many dropped their weapons and ran for the nearest shelter, barricading the doors behind them.
“Phil, what are you doing here?”
Phil muscled his way through the crowd of Minecraftians to join me.
“I saw you heading out in your ridiculous outfit and I knew you were going to get yourself in trouble. And what are best friends for, if not to help each other out?”
“Thanks, Phil.”
Together, we fought the Minecraftians until the slimes had conquered the village. Afterward, we wrapped up a few of the humans to snack on later and headed home. My costume may have been a failure, but, overall, the day had been a success.
DAY 29
“So, what’s your next outfit going to be?” Phil asked me.
“I’ve decided not to make them anymore,” I replied. “It turns out to be a disaster every time. I’ve decided that being a slime is the best thing in the world. I don’t know why I thought I could improve on perfection.”
“Exactly. The cube is the building block of Minecraftia,” Phil explained. “We’re the best shape in the world.”
It was true. Now that I had tried out different outfits, I had learned that the best thing was to simply and truly be yourself. A slime could not be improved: we were the most awesome creatures in all Minecraftia.
“Since I’m not going to make any more clothes, do you want to go hunt some Minecraftians?” I asked Phil.
“Maybe later,” Phil answered. “I still haven’t finished digesting all the villagers we ate yesterday. I’m going to relax down by the lake, maybe even take a little nap.”
“Sounds good. See you later!”
Phil hopped away. I was heading home to get some sleep myself, when I noticed something moving in the bushes. Could it be a Minecraftian who had come to get revenge? If so, how had they disguised their smell?
I jumped closer, and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the bushes part to reveal a spider.
“Jiggly! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? IF SLIMES FIND YOU YOU’RE GOING TO BE IN BIG TROUBLE.”
“I know, but tell them that I’m here to do business and they’ll let me go.”
“To do business? What are you taking about?”
“The spiders heard about your outfits, and we think they sound fantastic. We’d like you to create Minecraftian disguises for us.”
“Minecraftian disguises?
Are you serious?”
“Absolutely!” Jiggly said. “Only, figure out a way to include a mechanism that sprays poison. We tried spitting it—but there’s something about spiders that makes the poison lose its powers once we put it into our mouths. So, we need a solution. We thought you would be the best one to invent something. We’ll pay you for your trouble, of course. How do more spider eyes sound?”
“Spider eyes, you say?”
I thought about it for a minute. I thought about how I could buy all sorts of potions with the spider eyes the spiders would pay me with for creating outfits for them—the witch did seem to like those spider eyes.
“It’s a deal,” I finally said.
“I’ll start by working on a sample. You’ll have your Minecraftian outfits.”
“Thank you.”
Jiggly scuttled back to her side of the swamp, while the possibilities began to whirl in my head. If making an outfit for a slime had been difficult, it would be even harder to make one for a creature with eight legs—but I was ready for a bigger challenge. I didn’t know why the spiders wanted their outfits, but I didn’t care. I was going to become a famous fashion designer at last.
And if it wasn’t fashion for slimes, oh well! I was still going to make a lot of money doing something that I loved—and that was all that mattered.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Books kid is convinced that behind every Minecraft character there is a story.
Early in 2015, he began writing his stories about Minecraft and publishing them as Ebooks on Amazon. He writes books to promote reading among kids, using the language of Minecraft that he and other fans of the game love. He has now penned more than forty stories, which have made it onto the list of the top 100 most-downloaded children’s books.
But his dream truly became a reality once 404 Éditions contacted him to publish his books in France.
ABOUT AYPIERRE
Since 2007, Aypierre has been creating fun and innovative videos about video games for his millions of followers. As a great fan of Minecraft, he fell instantly for the adventures of this slime.
Silver Dolphin Books
An imprint of Printers Row Publishing Group
A division of Readerlink Distribution Services, LLC
10350 Barnes Canyon Road, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92121
www.silverdolphinbooks.com
Text copyright © 2018 Books Kid
Illustrations and French text copyright © 2018 404 éditions
Minecraft is a registered trademark of Notch Development AB
This book is a work of fiction and not an official Minecraft product, nor approved by or associated to Mojang. The other names, characters, places and plots are either imagined by the author or used ficticiously.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Printers Row Publishing Group is a division of Readerlink Distribution Services, LLC.
Silver Dolphin Books is a registered trademark of Readerlink Distribution Services, LLC.
Translated from the French, Moi, le Slime, by Daria Chernysheva
All notations of errors or omissions should be addressed to Silver Dolphin Books, Editorial Department, at the above address. All other correspondence (author inquiries, permissions) concerning the content of this book should be addressed to:
404 éditions
c/o Édi8
12 avenue d’Italie
75013 Paris, France
www.lisez.com/404-editions/24
eBook ISBN: 978-1-68412-938-6
eBook Edition: August 2019