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Major Character Death
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転生したらスライムだった件 - 伏瀬 | Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken | That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime - Fuse無職転生 異世界行ったら本気だす - 理不尽な孫の手 | Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu - Rifujin na Magonote (Novels)無職転生 ～異世界行ったら本気だす～ | Mushoku Tensei: Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu | Jobless Reincarnation (Anime)Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken - Fandom
Characters:
Rimuru Tempest | Mikami SatoruRimuru TempestRudeus GreyratFuture Rudeus GreyratRoxy MigurdiaSylphiette (Mushoku Tensei)Eris GreyratOrsted (Mushoku Tensei)Nanahoshi ShizukaPaul GreyratZenith GreyratPerugius Dola
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Inspired by Mushoku TenseiInspired by Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken | That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
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English
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Published:2026-05-20Updated:2026-07-24Words:112,051Chapters:25/?Comments:43Kudos:124Bookmarks:19Hits:5,214
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime in Mushoku Tensei
Mao00
Chapter 4: Chapter 3: That Mana Is Terrifying
Chapter Text
The bluish light from the magic crystals bounced off the wet rock while Roxy moved slow through the tunnel, dodging little puddles and bits of ceiling that had fallen off. Even after everything, I could still tell her steps were a bit off. Not bad. Just enough to remember how draining that last fight had been.
And she was still carrying me like I was made of glass.
Which was pretty ironic, considering less than an hour ago she'd frozen an entire army without her hands shaking once.
"You know?" I finally mumbled, letting out a small sigh. "This feels weirdly humiliating."
Roxy glanced down, barely.
"Hm?"
"I'm being carried."
She blinked once.
"...You're a slime."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. But mentally I still feel like a functioning adult."
That answer made her pause a second longer than usual. I saw her tilt her head a little, looking at me with that curious expression I was already starting to recognize.
"Mentally...?"
Ah.
Shit.
I tried to think of a quick excuse, but too late. The curiosity in her eyes was already fully awake.
"Now that I think about it..." she murmured while she kept walking. "You said something weird before."
"That doesn't narrow it down much."
"You said you were... reincarnated."
Her words hung there for a few seconds, echoing between the stone walls.
Guess I was gonna have to explain it eventually.
"Yeah."
For a moment the only sounds were water dripping somewhere far off and her steps echoing softly against the wet rock.
"Does that mean what I think it means?" she asked at last.
"Depends what you're thinking."
"Were you human before you died?"
...Direct.
"Yeah."
Roxy dropped her gaze a little.
"I'm sorry."
"Whoa, wait, wait. Don't make that face," I said right away. "Honestly, considering everything, I'd say I'm doing pretty well."
She looked at me for a few seconds.
"You're a slime."
"Exactly. Could've ended up a lot worse."
"...Worse than being a slime?"
"I could've come back as one of those giant spiders."
The reaction was instant. Roxy visibly went pale before she sped up her pace slightly.
"...You're right. That's definitely worse."
"SEE?"
This time the laugh she let out was small, tired even, but a lot more natural than the ones before. It didn't sound forced by tension or discomfort anymore. It just came out.
And, weirdly, that relieved me more than I expected.
After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again.
"Sorry if I'm asking too much but... you seem pretty familiar with the idea of reincarnation."
I felt her arms tighten just a bit around me while she waited for an answer.
"Why?"
Roxy hesitated a couple seconds before answering.
"Because it's not the first time I've heard something like that. There's a very famous demon in my land who... comes back every so often. Or at least that's what the stories say."
Oh.
Well, that was actually interesting.
"So..." she went on a little later. "What were you like before?"
I tried to picture myself.
An office.
Screens.
Endless meetings.
Convenience store food.
Packed trains.
Work stress.
...
Wow.
Put like that, my previous life sounded incredibly depressing.
"I was human."
Roxy frowned slightly.
"...Human human?"
"I think that covers most humans."
"You know exactly what I mean!"
I couldn't help but laugh a little.
"Yeah. I was a normal human man."
Well.
"Normal" was maybe a pretty generous word considering certain parts of my life I'd rather never remember.
"What kingdom were you from?"
Ah.
Right.
Kingdom.
Because obviously "Japan" wasn't gonna mean anything to her.
"From the easternmost kingdom in the world," I answered, improvising with a confidence I definitely didn't feel.
Roxy blinked.
"From the Central Continent...?"
I nodded fast several times.
"Ah... so you're from Biheiril. No wonder you talk so weird."
...
Sorry.
What?
"What's that supposed to mean?" I protested immediately.
Roxy avoided looking at me.
"You just talk weird."
"That's still offensive."
"I didn't mean it in a bad way!"
"Incredible. I survived giant monsters just to end up discriminated against for my accent."
The little laugh she let out this time sounded a lot more relaxed while she kept walking through the tunnel lit by the blue crystals.
"It's hard to explain..." she admitted. "Some words you use sound way too formal and others completely absurd. Also... you're speaking the Demon Tongue fluently. That's not normal. You must've been someone pretty educated as a human."
...Demon Tongue?
(The Great Sage skill automatically converts your words into the most appropriate language for the listener.)
"That does sound a lot like me."
"Plus you say things I don't understand."
"That also sounds a lot like me."
Roxy let out a small amused huff through her nose while she kept moving through the tunnel. The difference from before was pretty obvious; she wasn't walking stiff anymore or holding her staff ready like she expected something to jump out from every corner. She was still exhausted, yeah, but at least she seemed to have stopped thinking she was gonna die any second.
And honestly… seeing her relax like that was weirdly satisfying.
While we moved, I spread Magic Sense through the nearby tunnels. Several presences were still moving in the distance: Tarantula Deathlords, some Iron Crawlers, and a couple of huge signatures that probably belonged to Mad Skulls sleeping inside nearby caverns. None of them were coming toward us for now, though that didn't mean much in a dungeon like this.
"So..." Roxy spoke after a while. "What was your life like before?"
Ugh.
Tough question.
"Normal."
She gave me a side-eye.
"That explains absolutely nothing."
"I worked."
"As an adventurer?"
"Worse."
"A soldier?"
"Much worse."
Roxy frowned slightly.
"…An assassin?"
I couldn't help but look at her.
"Why would that be an upgrade?"
"I don't know. You sounded depressed."
…
Cruel.
Surprisingly accurate, but cruel.
"I was an office worker."
The silence that followed lasted barely a few seconds.
"What's an office worker?"
Ah.
Right.
How the hell am I supposed to explain modern capitalism in a fantasy world?
"It's... complicated." I hesitated a moment before sighing. "Imagine a place where tons of people spend most of their lives locked up working for someone else in exchange for money."
Roxy blinked several times.
"That sounds horrible."
"It was."
"So... were you weak?"
Okay.
That stung a little more than I expected.
"Not physically," I answered immediately. "Well, yeah, also physically, but that's not the point. I knew a lot of useful stuff."
"Like what?"
The curiosity in her eyes looked completely genuine.
I opened my mouth to answer… and blanked.
Internet.
Electricity.
Video games.
Anime.
Microwave.
…
Wow.
Hearing my own thoughts really wasn't helping my self-esteem.
"Theoretical advanced knowledge," I finally answered with as much dignity as I could scrape together.
Roxy's eyes lit up instantly.
"So you really were a scholar!"
The excitement in her voice was so sincere I ended up letting out a small laugh.
It was weird. The more we talked, the more natural her expression got. The tension in her shoulders had dropped a lot, and even though I could still feel through Magic Sense that her mana reserves were way below normal, she didn't look like she was forcing herself to stay conscious just to survive anymore.
That made me think of something.
"Roxy."
"Hm?"
"Do mages usually take long to recover mana?"
"Depends on the person."
"And you?"
She hesitated barely a second before answering:
"Faster than most."
The little bit of pride in her voice was impossible to miss.
Huh.
I had no idea who'd let someone this small end up exploring a hellhole dungeon like this, but they'd clearly made some questionable decisions.
We kept moving for several minutes. Just the sound of water dripping, our steps echoing in the tunnel, and the faint blue light of the magic crystals lighting up the damp walls.
Until Roxy spoke again.
"…Do you miss your old body?"
The question caught me off guard.
For an instant I remembered city lights reflecting on wet streets, packed trains at night, stores open at midnight, and the tiny apartment I went back to after work. A boring life. Monotonous, even.
But it was still my life.
"…I think I do," I admitted at last.
Roxy lowered her gaze toward me slightly.
"But?"
Huh.
She caught that pretty fast.
"But it's not like I left much behind," I went on slowly. "I didn't have family. Or a partner. Most of my days were work, go home, sleep, and repeat the same thing the next day."
Saying it out loud sounded way more depressing than I expected.
I felt Roxy shift me just a little closer against her chest. It wasn't uncomfortable or invasive. Just... soft.
"Even so," she murmured after a few seconds, "you still talk about that place like you miss it."
I stayed quiet a moment before answering.
"Yeah. I guess I do."
Because even if that life was boring, exhausting, and pretty empty…
it still belonged to me.
Silence came back between us, calm this time.
Until Roxy spoke again.
"I do have people waiting for me."
I lifted my body slightly to look at her.
"Oh?"
Her expression changed just a bit. Warmer.
"My party."
"Ah, right. The companions you mentioned."
She nodded slowly.
"Paul… Geese… Talhand…"
The way she said their names sounded familiar. Tired, yeah, but also close. Like someone talking about problem people she still cared about a whole lot.
"Paul's an incredible swordsman," she continued. "Too impulsive, too loud, and probably the most irresponsible man I know…"
"But."
Roxy let out a small sigh.
"But when it really matters, he always protects the others."
Huh.
That sounded like genuine respect.
"Geese is hard to explain."
"That description inspires a ton of confidence."
"He's useless in a fight... at least if we're talking just physically."
"Uh?"
"But somehow he survives any situation, he's reliable, and he always has an answer."
"...that actually is impressive."
"He also talks too much..."
"Ah. Then we'd get along."
"....."
"And Talhand?"
Roxy's expression relaxed a little more.
"Talhand is... Very strong. Very stubborn. Complains constantly."
"So?"
"...He's a good friend, and he's always been there for me."
The answer came without even thinking.
And it was weird, because even stuck in a dungeon full of monsters, she still talked about them with absolute certainty. Like she had zero doubt they'd eventually find her.
"Then they're probably looking for you right now."
"Yes."
She didn't hesitate for a second.
"We were also looking for someone."
"Oh?"
"Zenith. Paul's wife."
Ah.
"She disappeared during the teleportation incident."
I had no idea what exactly that incident was, but Roxy's expression made it pretty clear it wasn't something minor.
"We don't know where she is," she continued. "But we keep looking for clues."
"That explains why you ended up in a death dungeon full of monsters."
"...Yes."
"Great."
"It's NOT."
"A little yes."
Roxy let out a small defeated sigh before going on.
"One of Paul's sons was my student... that's the reason I have to be here, I have to help."
That immediately got my attention.
"Student?"
And then, for the first time since I'd known her, Roxy smiled for real.
Not tired.
Not forced.
A genuine smile.
"Rudeus Greyrat."
…Oh.
That name clearly meant a whole lot to her.
"He was incredible," she said immediately. "Honestly absurd."
"That good?"
"He can do magic without incantations, and he reached Saint rank in water magic at 5 years old!!"
I waited for the rest of the sentence.
It never came.
"...Wait."
Roxy looked at me, confused.
"What does Saint rank mean...?"
…
Long explanation about the basics of this world...
...
I tried to look impressed, but my absolute silence probably spoke for me.
Roxy, on the other hand, nodded with completely visible pride.
"I've never met anyone with that much talent."
"What kind of monster did you raise?"
She let out a small laugh.
"And he was a bit of a pervert."
That definitely didn't help.
…
Uh oh.
Silence.
I stared at her from her arms.
"Roxy."
"Yes?"
"Your student's terrifying as hell but… if you're a kid, how the hell did you even teach him that?"
The change was instant.
Roxy stopped walking.
I felt a huge amount of mana stir around her.
"...A kid?"
Oh no.
OH NO.
"Rimuru."
Her voice came out dangerously calm.
"Yes."
"How old do you think I am?"
That was a death trap.
"Well…" I hesitated a moment. "Twelve?"
CRACK.
A small crack split the nearby wall just from the magic pressure.
"...Fifteen?"
"Maybe sixteen if we count the strict teacher aura."
"Rimuru."
"Yes."
"I'm going to freeze you."
"I'M SORRY!!!!!"
Roxy took a deep breath before lifting me up in front of her face.
"I'm forty-nine years old."
…
…
…
"Eh?"
I blinked several times trying to process that information.
"Migurds age slowly," she explained with a completely serious expression.
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT?!"
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT HUMANS AGE LIKE FRUIT LEFT OUT IN THE SUN!"
…
Ouch.
That was personal.
Oh,, actually no...
"And here I was thinking you were a lost student mage..."
"WHY DOES EVERYBODY THINK THAT?!"
"BECAUSE YOU'RE FIVE FEET TALL!"
—----------------------------------------
Several days had passed since I found Roxy.
Three. Almost 4.
The constant teleports completely destroyed any reasonable sense of time and, after going through enough identical tunnels full of homicidal monsters, even my sense of direction started to give up slowly.
If it wasn't for Great Sage's help I'd have no idea where we were.
Even so…
things didn't feel as horrible as before.
We were still trapped in an absurd dungeon. Still lost, surrounded by creatures capable of ripping our heads off without much trouble.
But I wasn't alone anymore.
During those days we ended up crossing a ridiculous amount of different zones: flooded caverns where the water came up to Roxy's waist, tunnels covered in giant crystals that lit everything in bluish tones, ancient ruins buried under spiderwebs, and entire fields of teleportation magic circles that looked like they'd been designed specifically by some psychopath with a personal grudge against adventurers.
And we fought constantly.
Well.
"Fight" was a pretty generous way to describe what happened most of the time.
Because usually Roxy just watched me commit magical atrocities against the laws of nature while trying to accept that I existed.
"Rimuru."
"Hm?"
"Slimes shouldn't be able to use magic…"
Conversations like that started feeling dangerously normal. Too normal, actually. Enough that both Roxy and I let our guard down and forgot one pretty important detail:
we were still trapped inside a dungeon apparently designed by a lunatic with a personal hatred for all intelligent life.
We remembered at the worst possible moment.
The ground lit up under our feet with a bluish glow I recognized too late.
"...Ah no."
The magic circle expanded violently around us. Roxy barely had time to go pale before trying to hold me tighter.
"Rimuru, wait—!"
The space around us warped like someone had slammed the world against an invisible mirror.
And an instant later everything vanished.
The sensation of teleportation was still awful. It didn't exactly hurt, but every time it happened I felt like my consciousness was getting dragged through a dimensional blender for half a second before popping back into existence somewhere completely different.
When I got my bearings, we'd appeared in the middle of a gigantic cavern.
My Magic Sense reacted even before I could process what I was seeing.
The amount of presences around us was absurd.
Iron Crawlers crawling on walls and ceilings.
Tarantula Deathlords moving through huge masses of webs.
Mad Skulls gathering mana in different spots of the cavern.
There were monsters literally everywhere.
Roxy let out a small exhausted sound while she tried to steady herself after the teleport.
"...Not again..."
But then I felt something else.
Something much worse.
At first it was far, almost outside my perception range, but even so it made my entire body tense up instinctively.
It wasn't just a huge amount of mana.
In fact, the more I tried to measure it, the less sense it made to describe it as just "a lot". What that presence was giving off was a density so absurd that my Magic Sense stopped interpreting it as normal energy and started treating it like I was looking at some natural phenomenon impossible to calculate.
Like staring into the bottom of a completely black ocean and never reaching the end.
The environment itself seemed to warp around it.
(Warning. Detected magic energy quantity exceeds standard calculation parameters.)
…
Okay.
That was definitely NOT normal.
The presence kept approaching at high speed while, at the same time, all the monsters in the room reacted to our appearance.
Dozens of magic circles appeared around the Mad Skulls almost simultaneously. The Deathlords dropped from ceilings and walls while the Iron Crawlers charged straight ahead, kicking up chunks of rock in their path.
Roxy raised her staff immediately.
"Rimuru!"
"Got it."
I released mana all at once.
(Earth Golem.)
The ground exploded under several monsters before huge stone pillars shot up and impaled multiple Iron Crawlers from below. At the same time I launched several Stone Cannons in different directions, blowing apart webs, limbs, and shards of exoskeleton that went flying against the cavern walls.
BOOOOOOM.
Roxy reacted right alongside me without losing a second.
Yep, acá va el cierre. Todo traducido, nada omitido, con el mismo tono roto y menos pulido:
Okay.
That was really fucking scary.
"Ah… thank god…"
The voice echoed through the whole cavern.
And for the first time since I'd known her, Roxy froze completely.
"...Eh?"
The young man ran straight toward us, cutting through the last few monsters without even slowing down.
And honestly, seeing him up close only made the feeling worse.
My Magic Sense was literally trembling trying to process the absurd amount of mana packed inside that human body. It was so huge and deep it was hard to understand how someone could exist normally carrying that much without accidentally destroying everything around them.
"...Ridiculous," I muttered without meaning to.
The young man finally got to us.
His eyes found Roxy immediately.
And the next instant I practically vanished between the two of them when he hugged her with absurd strength.
HE'S CRUSHING ME.
"Su~u..."
"Eh? EHHH?!"
"GYAAAAAAAH—"
My body got violently compressed between the two while the guy buried his face in Roxy's neck, breathing like someone on the edge of a full emotional breakdown.
WHAT KIND OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH DID THIS HUMAN MONSTER EVEN HAVE?!
"R-Rimuru—!"
"Rimuru?" The young man's eyes went wide. "You were with someone else?"
"M-my slime!"
Roxy reacted late, completely red while she tried to pull him off a little.
The young man finally lifted his head.
"...Slime?"
"Yes! You're crushing it!"
"Eh?"
Luckily he loosened his arms slightly.
OH THANK GOD.
My body slowly recovered its gelatinous shape while I peeled myself off his robe, traumatized.
Okay.
Breathe.
Mentally.
Because technically I still don't have lungs.
The young man was still hugging Roxy, though now it looked like he'd realized something important.
"...Roxy… sensei…?"
His voice trembled just a bit saying it.
Roxy still looked completely confused while she stared at him up close.
"U-um..."
And then it happened.
I saw the exact moment realization hit her.
Her eyes slowly traced the young man's face: the hair, the look in his eyes, the structure of his face… until they finally went wide.
"...Wait."
The kid held his breath.
"...R-Rudeus?"
And the magical pressure around him exploded emotionally right away.
"YES!!"
Whoa.
Okay.
That was intense.
Roxy kept staring at him, completely stunned.
"...L-Ludy...?"
"It's been like ten years!"
I had to process that for a moment.
Ten?
"SENSEI HASN'T CHANGED AT ALL!!"
"Migurds age slowly…"
…
Okay.
This was surreal.
The terrifying infinite-mana monster my Magic Sense had spent several minutes desperately trying to analyze was the little prodigy student Roxy had been talking about for days straight.
THE PERVERT GENIUS WAS THIS ARCANE DEMON?
No, wait.
That explained way too many things.
Rudeus kept looking at Roxy like someone who'd just found water in the middle of the desert after months walking alone. The amount of relief visible in his expression was so genuine that even I stopped being paranoid for a moment.
"...I thought I was too late," he murmured, still breathing unsteadily.
Roxy's expression softened slightly.
"Ludy…"
Okay wow.
That guy literally seemed to light up every time she said his name.
There were DEFINITELY A LOT of psychological issues going on here.
And then Rudeus finally looked at me.
His eyes slowly dropped to my gelatinous body.
"...Sensei."
"Y-yes?"
"...Why do you have a slime?"
Excellent question.
Roxy opened her mouth to answer, but froze for a few seconds, clearly trying to decide where exactly to even start that explanation.
"...It's complicated."
"I'm a good slime!" I clarified immediately.
Rudeus went completely still.
And then he partially covered his mouth while trying to hold back a laugh.
…
EHHHH.
WAIT.
DOES HE KNOW THAT JOKE?
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