[Slimy Slime] Chapter 25: The Gods watch us all but some more than others.

In the divine realm and on a large couch, a group of Gods and Goddesses looked down on the world. Specifically, a specific world and on a specific Godling.

“Ha! Told you he’d get it done.” said Demon.

That wasn’t his name of course but he had taken to it like a fish to water. They had realized that the new Godling wouldn’t be able to hear their real names but they were all surprised to have seen he had adopted personal names for each of them. They all had found it amusing enough that they had decided to keep them for a while. After all, they were flattering names, striking at the core of who they were.

“Ho Ho, a chip off the old block! He’s making good use of those skills. Lots of room for growth even! Aye, those really were some of my better work.”

“Ha Ha, and my items are coming in quite handy. Almost too bad though, that he has to use that ring so much. Ha Ha.”

“Would you two blowhards shut it!”

Stewing in anger with her arms crossed was Misfortune. Oh she wasn’t unhappy about the little godling surviving, no, that was fine but…

“Why did none of you tell me he was going to be a slime?! Two of my curses are useless, the isolation barely bothers him, and we’ve all seen vague hints in his mind that he’s got some idea about what to do with the undead! All that I have left is the lust curse!”

Her glare was directly pointed at Demon, surprisingly.

“Huh? What did I do?”

“Without you meddling and giving him that stupid spawn choice, he’d at least be isolated in a sewer or stuck in slavery on a ranch.”

Demon just waved his hand, causing Angel to shift from where she was sitting on top of his cock and make a slight noise.

“Yeah yeah, you say that but he would have broken free of that ranch in a few days and had an army. The sewer he’d have been a mimic slime already and adapted to human life there easily enough. Might even have a nice warm bed and a gal or two. If anything, I at least made your isolation curse mean something, ya know?”

Misfortune continued to grumble, unable to argue that fact.

While Craft and Item were patting themselves on the back for a job well done, Misfortune was grumbling, Demon was smirking at seeing the murder, and Angel was on top of Demon watching the T.V., other gods were not feeling so well.

In particular, Knowledge was berating herself inside her own head. She had tried to instill every piece of important knowledge into the Godling, but there were glaring holes that she should have told him.

Yes, he didn’t have a maximum on stat point gain from eating creatures. Others did. It wasn’t equal, depending on creature, Generation, and evolution line, but still. That was a key piece of information, among dozens of others, that she felt she had glaringly missed. It had just been, so, so long since she had to explain the very basics of the universe. She had been a teacher before she had been anything else. It had been a long, long journey up from Cat to God. From her Kittens to students to mortals, she had taught.

And now she had failed her most recent student. It wasn’t even the most glaring thing she hadn’t taught him. No, that honor clearly fell towards his stat structure and not even so much as mentioning synergy. It made her blood boil something fierce.

Order patted her on the arm.

“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not like I told him everything either. It’s hard to know what to say sometimes.”

“I failed him. Look! He shoved all of his stat points into strength.”

All the gods and goddesses grimaced at that one. Yes, strength had seen him through in combination with his [Spirit Hands] skill but if he had divided it between Intelligence, Wisdom, Spirit and Strength, he’d have had more overall power. Bumping up his mental stats like that would have made it easier to use his hands, as well as making them faster, stronger, and adding up to a more diverse weapon. He had hit harder with just strength but without even bumping up his Dexterity, his hands had been major weak points. Any time he had lost focus, which happened more than it should have if he had just bumped up his mental stats, they had been attacked and hurt him. Even now, as she watched him slaughter his way through, he couldn’t focus on all his hands at once equally or maneuver the strength actually in them easily. He was being hurt by regular wolves and his MP was reflecting that.

“I am a terrible teacher.”

“Knowledge, please don’t say that.” Chaos spoke up. “If anything, I feel it’s better this way, to have him chart his own path through things. We have never reached a point where our help was too much, but sooner or later, we will. I mourn for the first day we provide too much help.”

“That would truly be our saddest day.” Angel said.

Every God and Goddess nodded at that. There were certain things that happened to anyone, in any situation. PTSD from war was practically inevitable, happiness from good food and good drink affected damn near every creature, and for Gods and Goddesses? Well, for some annoying reason, loneliness was an element they all felt pulsating against them at all times. Not every God or Goddess was in this room, watching the Godling. Time, Merry, Destruction, and 17 other Divine were out there as well. They had actual jobs to do or couldn’t handle seeing another Godling fail.

29.

That was how many Gods and Goddesses there were, across the entire multiverse. Well, “True” ones at least. Planetary ones or creatures able to destroy solar systems, galaxies, or even threaten universes existed. But they were missing the fundamental nature that allowed them to go from that, to a “True” god. You could create a 2-dimensional image that stretched as far as a universe, but that would never make it 3D. That was essentially the ascension they were asking from every Godling. There was no set rules, laws, or bounds. No max level or set of specific requirements. Godhood was a personal journey.

And that and the rarity of Godlings was why there were so few Gods and Goddesses.

The loneliness was almost alien in its nature. All Gods and Goddesses felt it, strongly. Honestly, most of them thought it was because they were tied so directly to Chaos and Order and they were still lonely, so the rest of them were as well.

But every time a Godling had risen, it felt like a mountain had come off their back. Even Misfortune had cried tears of joy the last time and Demon had finally reconciled with Angel. They needed new Gods and Goddesses to rise. The failures were already so, so hard on them. Truthfully, out of the 9 watching, it was the one that had remained silent so far that had it the worse.

“Well, I think he just needs a bit more encouragement. And he’ll make it just fine. Perhaps from the Hob-Goblin he’s been so nice too~.” Said Gaia.

The plant woman was strangely the most invested. Well, not strangely, but more so than usual.

“Aye? You taken a shine to the lad?”

“He said he would make a world with me when he got back.”

Craft couldn’t hide a wince from his face.

“Aye. When he gets back.”

They all hoped but were ready for the most likely scenario. Even still, Gaia always took it the hardest and when, no, if this one failed, she would be particularly devastated. Already, she had been on the edge of her seat during the last confrontation and had looked heartbroken when he had been dying. Gaia cared and it made her good at her job, and it ended up hurting her more often than not.

“Speaking of needs and paths, he’s got a good head on his shoulders… but he needs some training.” said Demon. He had been Thee Demon Lord after all. Enough to rise to Godhood from it. He knew more than anyone about the mantle of being a Leader, tactics, battle strategy, and more. They all had their own experiences and expertise but well, they were Gods and Goddesses.

“There were at least 17 different ways he could have won that, well, that he could have reasonably thought of.” said Order.

“18, he could have used the Dungeon Core to enslave the Hob-Goblin.” Said Chaos.

Order frowned. “Reasonably thought of?”

Chaos looked at the screen and the devastation she was seeing from him. “Maybe. Hard to say. Definitely before his walk out into the woods in the first place.”

If Chaos was saying maybe, then the chance was astronomically low. Literally.

Which tracked. Chaos had seen his soul erupt in disgust and anger from seeing the Domination Authority. It went against his very being.

“Can’t believe he didn’t just stall for time and try to slowly improve during the fight. Wasted opportunity. Halfway through his resources he could have easily handled the Alpha and then finished off the Dire Wolves. Shows a lack of faith in his own abilities.” said Demon.

“Makes sense. He doesn’t feel like he’s made enough combat progress.” Said Angel.

Misfortune sighed long and hard at that one.

“That fool. Can we go look at that ridiculously overpowered thing again?” Said Misfortune.

Even Item had some bitterness from just how lucky their new Godling was. Some people just had all the luck in the world he thought.

The view from their T.V. panned over, zooming in on a particular patch of grass. Specifically, the patch of grass where Slimy Slime had been conducting his Astra experiments. Grass with no life in it, grass with too much life pushed into it and had died, healthy living grass, and the key to it all, grass that had never had life in it. Something only a few things could make, where it was still the same type of grass. Still grass at all. A pointless distinction most of the time, but when it came to Astra? Being able to see those four states at the same time? Utterly ridiculous.

“If he doesn’t die, he’ll be properly immortal before the year is out.” Said Misfortune.

“Now now, lucky as he may be, that time table is unrealistic. It’ll take him at least 100 years to truly conquer death.” Said Order.

Misfortune raised her eyebrow.

“Even with him having died three times already and probably going to die a few more, possibly on purpose, before this isolation is even up?” Misfortune asked.

“Uh, hmm.” Order thought.

The Gods and Goddesses got to see a rare sight as Chaos and Order both started to think hard. They were the primordial force of the universe. They could see the future all the way to the End of universes, calculate anything, shape consciousness and soul from the ether, and know everything there was to know. Any limit they had was either set by them or something they decided they shouldn’t do, for the betterment of the multiverse. Seeing them actually think only meant one thing.

Godling Bullshit.

“Oh this is going to be fun~.” Said Gaia.