Dawn, sunny with sparse clouds and muffled roar of waking monsters. A good day to go on a journey.
"Hic, hic- Lily. Did you bring your luggage, did you forget anything? You brought your lunch right, make sure to eat on your way. Lily, you have to be careful- Hic."
Pururu~
"Ahhhh…"
The three strangely unbusy Lords are standing by the side, watching my emotional parting with a man tall slime.
On one side is a handsome grey haired young green man with horns, on the other is a giant blob of demonic colours. Purple, brown, red and black. It reminds you of purgatory that is depicted in stories and myths, making you think 'if hell has a colour, this must be it'.
"Gobuda looks like a mom!"
"Why are you worried about her, for god's sake. A Pandemonium Slime can quite literally throw the continent into chaos."
"What do you know!? I raised this child for over 600 years now and it is the first time for her to leave the city!"
I bite back at them. During my darkest days when everyone fell asleep to weather the years of statis, I was the only one awake to maintain the city. At that time, it was Lily who accompanied me, soothing my loneliness, and bringing light to my days. I watched her grow from a palm sized slime till now, how can I stay calm when she's leaving!?
"Did you go senile?! This is all a part of your own plan!"
Gea and Ronia held me by the arms and Lir sent Lily off, waving until she is out of sight.
"Lily---!"
"Now, let start 'Operation: Becoming A Wanderer'."
"Wasn't it Project before, why is it operation now?"
"Who cares about names!"
Back into the basement labyrinth, I have long mastered the art of casting magic without magic. Since I can only maintain one spell, I renovated the huge magic circle underground to upgrade, increase efficiency and add new functions. I had just added a new function linked into the circle, thus sharing a single power source.
The new function empowers the Soul Contract between me and Lily as long as I stay here. The Soul Link allows communication over distance and limited sensory sharing. I plan to empower this to imitate the wanderer's cross universe communication with their avatars.
No, I can't do cross universe, don't joke. But I can do cross continent, enough to move around this world.
"Then, as the wanderers say…"
Link Star-
My vision blacked out as my body entered suspension.
I woke up in the middle of a forest while moving awkwardly. I can detect a shallow consciousness beside mine, it should be Lily's as her spirit has yet to fully develop.
It feels weird. Very weird.
First my sight is non-existent since slimes has no eyes. They depend on touch, taste, smell and when they become stronger, mana. Depending on their evolution they can develop a variety of senses based on magic and their attribute. Our Lily has many too, most of which I'm unfamiliar with.
That is a skill that Lily has and a sense anyone with magic can learn. Few does it though because of how difficult and unfamiliar it is, mages generally stop at
Filtering out the cluttered senses, everything became clearer.
'Oh Lily, I miss you. I'm here~'
Purupuru~
I can feel both her consciousness and body shake welcomingly.
'Good girl, good girl~. Now'
Temporarily taking control of her body, I used the ability [Transmogrification]. The moulding of an avatar is done by the system created by the gods. The intricate details are not something Lily can replicate, so I took over and processed it myself.
…If I am not a Sage, I might have died from the mental strain.
In the forest, while being surrounded by trees, a slime started morphing into a white humanoid. Slowly, features started appearing from its body. Green skin, black horns, grey hair. And eyes dark like the starry night. Unseen from the outside, vital organs and mana channels are developing within the body. Lastly, a set of shirt and pants appeared as if they are a part of the body, over which I don my set of white robes.
Something all wanderers have, but mine is more elaborate due to restricted admin privilege!
"Hm hm hmm… Ha ha ha ha… Mwahahaha-!"
[Condition Realised]
[Acquired Title: 'The Inexplicable Wanderer']
[Title: The Inexplicable Wanderer
Description: A title gained from the mystifying case of impersonation. It is baffling how much you can replicate and defile the Gods' workmanship, your audacity knows no bound.]
"…"
It works, I guess. It seems to help me disguise my status.
It is rare among Fels, natives of this continent, but there are skills capable of looking into someone's status. The vast majority is limited to the name, race and class, and the accuracy depends on the user's own knowledge. Speaking in another way, it is an ability to reconstruct someone's status through your own sensory information. A lot of wanderers act like they're cheated and despaired for wasting their starter skill slot on it, even though it's actually very coveted in the continent. If anyone can just see your entire status then privacy will no longer exist in this world, be reasonable.
Moving on, unlike normal wanderers who starts in the weakest state, this body was moulded from Lily, meaning the body has her stats. Imperfect copy has it's own merits here, hehe, though I don't fully understand the avatar design yet.
I can use Lily's skills since it's her body and I can use my magic since my spirit is here. It will be difficult to replicate my physical skills here, and Lily has many skills unsuited for a humanoid body… my magic should tide through all that so it's fine!
All in all, my strength is something no wanderers can hope to reach anytime soon just based on my magic.
Then with the centre of the continent, the Holy Kingdom as the goal. Depart!