A quest draw near! Command? (Dragon Quest Series)

It is a well known fact that slimes are the lowliest and weakest of monsters. This fact is also, in almost every respect, incorrect.

Though it is not known if they were created or simply evolved to fill such a niche, slimes are blessed with many oft-overlooked advantages. For one, their digestive system, the only one in existence that can be called truly omnivorous. No item has yet been found that a slime cannot digest, up to and including divine artifacts. A slime must be able to fully engulf an item to consume it, and more strongly enchanted items take longer to degrade, but there is no true defence.

For another, slimes are uniquely known for their abilities to fuse and fission. Where other monsters must mate, slimes possess additional options to strengthen and spawn, and it is likely such that has led to the global prevalence of slimes.

Most importantly, when thinking of a slime as weak, they think of the humble, classic slime. Not its more powerful variants like the kingslime or darkslime. Not even the basic variants like the metalslime. But in truth, these slimes are all the same species. An ordinary basic slime can, with luck, consume enough equipment and money to manifest permanently a protective metal shell, or fuse with others to make a larger slime, or grow flight-capable wings and soar, or learn divine magic and ascend. It may, in time, do all of these things, even if it has the poor fortune to be spawned as a basic slime who must permanently morph into a stronger variant instead of as a more advanced cousin who was born with that first step already completed.

Yet there is a reason that slimes are considered the weakest of monsters. It is because all of them, from angelslime to wildslime, are universally delicious and safely edible by all species. Should a monster attack a town, be it basic like a Komodo or stronger like a Walking Corpse, the inhabitants will gain little from stopping it save their safety. Should a King Bubbleslime do the same, everyone will be having green jello for dessert for the next week. It’s hard to take a monster seriously when it’s made of delicious food.

In short, though a slime may reach adolescence in mere minutes -- yet another advantage slimes share over other creatures -- calling slimes as a whole weak is comparable to calling humanity weak just because almost all children are helpless to defend themselves or contribute to society.

That said, a basic newborn slime, of which you are one, starts out weak enough for a freshly minted hero to reliably kill, albeit at the cost of a little damage.

Spoiler: THIS IS YOU

An Eldritch Abomination draws near!

Spoiler: Eldritch Abomination

Towering over you at over a meter and a half in height, the biped's skin varies between a more normal blue covering its torso and a mix of greys, whites, and browns elsewhere. A ring of metal encircles its head, and it holds a short, flat, pointed metal bar in one hand.

Command?
[ ] Fight
-[ ] Attack abomination
[ ] Magic
-[ ] You have no spells!
[ ] Item
-[ ] You have no items!
[ ] Run

 

CHARACTER SHEET:
Unnamed Slime Protagonist
HP: 8/8
MP: 0/0
Attack: 8
Defense: 5
Agility: 10
Wisdom: 12

Skillsets:
Slimer 0/100 SP

 

1. An Eldritch Abomination Draws Near! Command?