Once again entering the shallow waters without any of his clothes, with his round wooden shield tied on his back, he looked out for the ungrateful slimes that seemed to have forgotten about his existence.
He moved carefully, not disturbing the moss on the lake surface.
He now knew these creatures were attracted to the moss and nothing more, so he had already created a bowl-like container to gather as much of it as he could in the short intervals that he would get later, and after finding a right, safe place, he was ready to test his theory.
"Let's hope this works."
He did not want to kill these things, they deserved to live and to enjoy their freedom as much as him or the rest of the players who enjoy this world.
It was stupid to think that the creatures that players kill on a regular basis had anything like a right to freedom or life.
He himself knew that he would inevitably have to kill some beings in the future if he wanted to peacefully enjoy his time in this world with his crazy partner, but he at least did not want to do that with his own hands.
He knew it was foolish… but until the inevitable day came, he wanted to keep his hands clean.
"Now."
From what he had seen, these low intelligence creatures followed their basic instincts and went after food.
They had no interest in anything else, not even a human like him.
All they wanted was the fine green stuff that grew at the bottom of the lake, a place they could not reach for some reason.
They were aquatic species themselves but they could only swim on the surface and not dive inside.
That was what he had understood with his observations.
And, he also knew that if they were naturally inclined to ignore anything that did not serve them their food, they would also be naturally attracted to something that gave them more food than what they naturally obtained after roaming around the waters.
'The first time it came here was when a lot of moss was gathered on the surface after I slipped.'
And then many of them gathered when he picked out the moss from the ground himself.
Now… if they followed their natural instincts, what would happen when they realize he is someone that could give them more food than they might ever gather by themselves?
"Come…"
Taking a deep breath, he first got ready and gathered a large chunk of Moss from the water surface and filled his bowl.
The slimes had already sensed the disturbance in the waters so they instinctively moved towards the disturbance at the same deadly speed that had previously knocked him out.
But this time, he was ready.
-Shrrrrr…!
As soon as the slimes had reached a certain closeness to him, he threw a handful of moss away from him.
-Shrrrrrr…!
Some slimes followed the moss, but just like last time, there were some that could not stop and moved past his 'safety line'.
When this happened, he either dodged them in a timely manner or used his shield to block them, endured the impact that was lessened thanks to his increased stats, and threw some more moss to chase them away.
As he predicted, they did not know that there was a big bowl full of moss in his hands and only chased the thrown one that made contact with water.
'Good.'
He repeated this process until the slimes had realized that he only threw the moss when they were a certain distance away from him.
When they were outside of that range, there was no moss.
And when they were too close or crashed into him, the moss that they received was too little and it was thrown too close to the others who were already having their portion.
'Now, if only one of you realizes it…'
He repeated this process until the slimes had learned when they would get more moss and when they would have to compete against the others for the little amounts.
He made sure to constantly move, get out of the waters, take breaks, and rest enough in between.
Staying too long in water was no good either, so he stayed in only when he needed to and when he was done with his 'training session' he went out and dried himself with the fire that he had barely managed to light.
Another day passed just like that, and though he was not hoping for it anytime soon, something interesting happened the next day…
'Yes.'
A slime Stopped right before his safety line. And it did not follow the others who had run away at the moss that was thrown a distance away.
'Come.'
The slime waited blankly for something to happen. And, surely, when all the others were away, Elio placed a bigger bunch of moss around him.
He did not know what kind of thought process the slime might be having or if it was just instincts but, the slime did something he wanted. And it was rewarded for that.
He made sure to cover himself with a shield to show the creature that it would not receive the moss if it ran at a high speed like he had done yesterday, and as to have understood his intentions, the slime moved slowly, reached the moss, and started eating the biggest portion without having to share it with anyone else.
'Cute.'
It did its best to finish it before the others who had sensed another presence of this moss around him arrived here, but it was small and failed to finish the big portion by itself.
-Shrrrrrrr…!
-Dhum!
The others came running faster than they had done previously, and this time, some of them crashed in his shield, throwing him far back into the lake.
"Phew."
Thankfully, he managed to maintain his footing even in the slippery lake, and after the slimes followed him for more food, he repeated the process.
'Good!'
He knew that he was close to achieving something.
There was a unique feeling inside his heart indicating something unique, so he continued feeding them until all nine of the slimes were following his lead and stopping at the point he wanted them to.
They all got their individual big portions of moss when they did what he wanted them to, they enjoyed it without fighting with one another, and by the end of the sixth day in this forest… the nine slimes were following him like trained dogs.
Doing exactly what he wanted them to.
'Holy macaroni…'
And, by the nighttime on their sixth day, they had even learned not to harm the one that fed him the delicious water moss.
[Ding!]
"This actually worked, lol."
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-6) Manawater slime.]
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-4) Manawater slime.]
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-4) Manawater slime.]
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-3) Manawater slime.]
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-5) Manawater slime.]
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-4) Manawater slime.]
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-5) Manawater slime.]
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-5) Manawater slime.]
[You have successfully Tamed a (Level-3) Manawater slime.]
[Ding!]
[You have successfully tamed a creature for the first time! Rewarding Exp.]
[You have earned an achievement!]
[Tutorial tamer (Rare) has been achieved!]
[Achievement box will be added to the inventory.]
[Ding!]
[You have made your first achievement! Rewarding Exp.]
[You have made an achievement during the tutorial, earning an achievement!]
[Special Rookie (Common) has been achieved!]
[Achievement box will be added to the inventory.]
[Ding!]
[You have subjugated nine creatures through taming.]
[Subjugation target: 9/30.]
[Ding!]
[You have tamed more than one creature simultaneously. You will be rewarded.]
[Intelligence+3.]
[Charm+1.]
[Level up!]
[(Level-2) > (Level-6).]
"Well, isn't this great?"
Two achievements and a jump of almost four levels. Four system stats, one point in the rare stat Charm, and even the solution to his predicament.
His efforts these past few days surely paid off.
And to top it off…
"Bling."
"Blong."
"Bling."
Now, He also had nine fellows that he can play around with until he finishes this rather difficult quest.