Cautiously, Alexander retreated back a few feet in the hole he had made in the side of the hill. All he had wanted was to make a temporary home in this hill, but it turned out that someone or something had beat him to it. Hopefully, whatever was living in this hill was either gone or sleeping and had not noticed Alexander.
Alexander thought for a moment. What should he do? He could risk the night and attempt to find another shelter. No, that wasn't practical. There was no way he would be able to find shelter before night descended, and the horrors of darkness emerged from their hiding places. He for sure was not going to venture out into the forest to hide. He had to choose the lesser evil.
Slowly and carefully, Alexander rolled back up to the opening at the end of his tunnel, poking his slimy body through ever so slightly so he could observe the inside of the hollowed out hill. The house in the hill looked like a normal, humble human dwelling. Luckily, it seemed like the resident was not home. Alexander had made his hole right above the occupant's bed, and there were a few crumbs of dirt that had fallen onto the pillow from Alexander widening the hole. He was lucky there was no one sleeping there.
The house was cylindrical to fit as much space inside the hill as possible, and it had a diameter of about 15 feet. On the curved walls, large beams flanked by numerous bookshelves rose from the ground and curved together at the top of the home, meeting at a single point to form a cone-shaped roof. There was no advanced technology in the home, making it feel like a farmhouse straight out of medieval Europe, similar to the ones that Alexander was familiar with back when he was king of Aragon in the 1200's. However, the architecture of the home was reminiscent of an expert architect even in the 21st century. The way that the large logs curved to support the structure of the building was ingenious and completely impossible at this house's level of technology. It must have been made using magic.
In addition to the out of place architecture, there were a few gadgets in the house that he did not understand. In the center of the cone shaped roof, a large glowing orb, suspended from the ceiling by a small cord, radiated a mellow light across the cabin-like home, giving the structure a comfortable, homey feeling. The home was simply furnished with a table, one chair, a small bed, and a nightstand. On the nightstand, Alexander spied another smaller orb that was also radiating light, placed on top of an enormous stack of books.
There were two large features of the house that caught his eye. Firstly, directly across from Alexander was a large hearth that he determined was used for blacksmithing. Next to the hearth was an anvil and a giant hammer, longer than Alexander himself. Secondly, every possible space on the walls was lined with bookshelves, except for the hearth and where Alexander had entered. There were old tomes, seemingly new paperback books, and even scrolls made of both wood and paper.
Alexander was elated. Obviously, breaking and entering was not on the top of his bucket list, but this may be his only chance to learn something about this world!
Alexander hopped down onto the bed from his vantage point at the edge of the hole, and rolled over to a section of the bookshelves which contained the oldest, most dusty tomes. He figured that if he wanted to gain insight on the history and workings of this world, the oldest books would be an intelligent place to start.
He approached the bookshelf in anticipation and read the titles on the spines of the tomes. He could see these books and their writing clearly because of the immense amount of mana that they carried. It was as if the words had been written with deliberate intent to convey the power of the author. Some of the books' mana was light, others slightly darker and more robust. Others still had no mana and Alexander was unable to read the contents. At first, the tomes seemed to be written in a foreign language, unlike anything he had ever seen, reminding him slightly of a child randomly drawing with a calligraphy pen.
These letters slowly morphed into a language he could recognize. Alexander remembered the same thing happened when the system first appeared.
Wait a minute. If the system translated text for him, would it do the same for the spoken language, or would he have to learn the scribbly language? Well at the moment, he didn't have ears, so it wouldn't matter if someone spoke to him anyway.
As he was thinking, two weird features of the house caught his eye. The house seemed slightly too small for a human and the bed was a little bit undersized. Even the chair and table looked as though they had been pulled straight out of elementary school. In addition to this, Alexander realized that there was no door! How did the owner leave and enter the house? It was all a little bit off. He would have to get out of here as quick as possible after gaining some information from the books.
Alexander returned to studying the titles of the tomes. He read many, surprised at the oddity of some.
The History of Magic; by Great Sage Chellberg the third.
The World Tree and how to Harvest a Dungeon's Mana; by the A rank adventurer Zvetsky The Tiny.
The great Thunder Parakeet: A Memoir; by Augustine, son of Gerald.
Traversing the Moist Swamps of the Demon Land; By Grasius the Traitor.
Goblins: The Second Level of the Maidenhair Dungeon; by Calix IV, King of Alfheim.
How to Find and Kill the Lesser Slime; Marissa Steelheart, Veteran Adventurer.
Alexander was slightly offended by this book. Who would dare to kill the mighty slime!
Next to the slime book, he finally found what he was looking for. It was a book titled:
The World: for Beginners in Philosophy; by Daniel The Great Scholar.
The book was a thick tome, perched atop the second shelf. Alexander used his stickiness to climb up the shelf, stick an appendage to the book, pull the book out, and then he proceeded to fall to the ground along with the book. He decided it would be intelligent to invest in some physical strength stats as soon as possible. He stuck out a slime tendril and opened the book.
Luckily, the book was less dense than he had originally thought, and he started to read:
Chapter 1
The world as we know it is called Isedor. While Isedor is called 'the world' in many countries, it is simply a large peninsula surrounded by water on three sides. Most claim that the entire world is composed of Isedor and the land that it is connected to. I, on the other hand, suspect that we are but a small sliver of the total land mass, we have just yet to discover it. Many sailors have attempted to brave the journey across the oceans. None have returned. I still hold out hope for the day we are able to escape this wretched continent. As of now, the continent of Isedor is split between the five warring states. These five states are constantly fighting for resources, land, and dungeons. These states, or countries as some may call them, are ruled by the five races respectively. Starting from the rightmost region of Isedor, on the tip of the peninsula is Dwargon of the Dwarves. Then there is Alfheim of the Elves in the Middle North. Next is the Heliopian Empire of the Humans in the Middle south. Finally, on the Border of Isedor, are The Colony of the ants in the North and the Demon Kingdom in the South. Beyond these, no one can be sure of what lies in that land, only that there is seemingly endless forest overrun by countless dungeons.
Alexander was astonished. Elves! Dwarves! Ants!!! What an amazing world. He wondered where he was at the moment in this gigantic world. Could he be in that lawless forest zone at the end of the known world? No, there was no way someone would be dumb enough to build a home there, unless they were very powerful.
Just then, he heard a loud POP from behind him. He jumped and dropped the book on the floor.
Suddenly, a loud, gruff voice boomed in Alexander's mind, "WHAT IS A LITTLE SLIME DOING IN MY HOME!?"