"So, the one asking people to come help build houses... that was you too, huh?" Ning asked. "I can see you didn't have any bad intentions, so I'll let it slide."
"O-of course," the slime said. "I'm not a bad slime."
"That you are not," Ning said and started walking. The slime walked behind him.
Well, 'walk' wasn't exactly correct. The slime waddled along the floor as its body continuously spun like a wheel to move forward.
It was already surprising to Ning that it was even able to keep its 'face' in the front even when it was constantly moving.
Ning walked around, looking at the unfinished projects. The beasts and humans had been living together, building houses for nearly 2 years now from what the slime had told him.
There were some houses that had already been built, but most of these places seemed new.
"Why are there so many new houses?" Ning asked.
"Oh, that... actually when I first summoned humans, I didn't account for them in the numbers to have houses for so I needed to make more."
"To help in that, I summoned more humans and I needed more houses, so I summoned more humans, and so on and so on. Before I knew it I had about 3 thousand total subordinates, all of who needed houses and I had to help them build them."
Ning sighed. Despite being a Rank 9 beast, the slime was actually quite dumb.
Speaking of which... "How old are you?" Ning asked.
"Me? Hmm... let's see. 3 years," the slime said.
Ning stopped. "Wait, what? 3 years? Are you sure you're not counting wrong?" he asked.
"No, no. It has been... about 1100 days since I was born in this world," the slime said.
"In... in this world?" Ning looked towards the slime. "Do you know about other worlds?"
"Uhh..." the slime realized it had said something that it shouldn't have said. "Umm..."
"Did you reincarnate?" Ning asked.
"What? No, nonsense. Wh-wh-who even asks this sort of question?" the slime spoke up.
Ning smiled. "Then how did you get to Rank 9 in just 3 years?" he asked.
"I... I..." the slime was unable to answer at all.
Ning used his Omni-analysis on the slime. Instantly, he received information on everything the slime was, had, or ever done.
"Oh, a system huh? Quite impressive," Ning said.
"Wha-what? How do you know that? Who are you?" The slime started getting suspicious.
"Don't worry. I am similar to you too," Ning said. "I have a system too, just like you. And I was reincarnated as well."
The slime got a little less defensive. "Really?" it asked.
"Yes," Ning said. "I died because a zebra kicked me. What about you?"
"Wait, a zebra kicked you?" the slime snickered. "Really?"
"Don't laugh. They are surprisingly deadly creatures that you should be careful around. I had only been in the zoo for a few months, so I kinda screwed up. Well, I don't think there was my fault there."
"Wait, a zoo? Not even in open ground or in the jungle when hunting? You died in a zoo?" the slime started laughing.
Ning was a little angry, but at least the slime was getting a little less defensive.
"So, how did you die?" Ning asked.
"I..." the slime got silent.
Ning looked at it to see why it was hesitating when he realize the slime was quite sad.
"Something wrong? You don't have to tell me if it's a troubling memory," Ning said.
The slime put on a tragic smile. "My father... he used to be rich, very rich," the slime said. "But then he died in a car accident and the inheritance was left to be divided amongst my stepmother, my stepbrother, and me."
"I... I guess you can see where I'm going with this," the slice said.
"They killed you?" Ning asked.
"Well, my step-brother did. But I suppose my stepmother was in on this too. Well, why wouldn't she be? She would get a million Firozes too after that," the slime said.
"I'm sorry," Ning said.
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have laughed at you. In a way, you were much luckier than me. You didn't have to see the dark side of your family," the slime said.
Ning sighed. He wouldn't have been able to even if he wanted to.
"Let's forget about this sad stuff. Now tell me, how many houses do you want exactly? I will help you make them," Ning said.
"Really?" the slime asked. It looked around hurriedly, trying to figure out how many houses he needed.
"Well, I have about 1700 beasts, so I will need about 80 buildings that can house 20 or so beasts each," the slime said.
"80?" Ning didn't know what to say. There were already houses built, so maybe he needed some less.
'System, check the resources here and give me an estimated data on if we can fit all 1700 of this slime's subordinates in houses that can be built from those resources,' Ning asked.
The system analyzed for a second and returned with an answer.
<Taking in general data from the beasts in a 1-kilometer radius, and resources that are already scattered around and built from, you can make 42 houses that can easily fit up to 2000 different beasts>
"Ooh, nice," Ning thought. Then he turned back to the beast.
"I can make 42 houses that should be able to fit them all. They would be more like shelters than exact houses, but the beast won't mind, right?" he asked.
"Of course not. Anything is better than nothing," the slime said.
"What about you? Do you want me to make you a separate house or do you want to continue living in that old tree?" Ning asked.
The slime looked at the tree, then the beasts, then finally toward Ning.
"I... I don't know if I want to live here at all now," the slime said.
"Huh?" Ning gave him a confused face.
"I... I want to go live with the humans."
