Mistress Of The Evil Forest

Case 19: Slenderman in the woods.

[Entity: Slenderman successfully summoned]

[ -- has become your follower]

gulp

I involuntarily gulp, staring blankly at the man before me. With Smiley, he's just a husky with different teeth, so he still seems relatively 'normal', but this man... Is legitimately so cool...!

''Hi?'' I take a step back and extend my right arm, to which Mister Slenderman immediately takes it with his bony and long hand.

So here we are, shaking hands. He seems quite friendly, like your local uncle next door, almost. Smiley is also here, nuzzling his way into his feet.

''W-What in the world...'' I hear Ariel mutters.

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Name: --                

Race: Slenderman                    Title: --

Level: 1

HP: 17/17                    MP: 19/19

STR: 2.5                    INT: 6.5

AGI: 2.7                    STA: 2.3

Skill: [Slender Walking Lv.1], [Impersonation Lv.1],
[Telepathy Lv.1].

State: Happy.

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His base stats are pretty high, how about the skills?

[Slender Walking: Enable the user to appear and disappear at will without leaving a trace] [Unique]

[Impersonation: Enable the user to mimic the voices and appearances of other entities] [Unique]

[Telepathy: Enable the user to speak directly into another user's mind] [Legendary]

Two uniques and one legendary... Isn't he too powerful? And that [Slender Walking], isn't that just teleportation without MP cost and CD?? They all sound broken. But that also means...

[Automatically linked a skill of --: Telepathy]

[Linked: Language (Ariel), Teleportation (Skely), Acceleration (Smiley), Telepathy (--). (4/5)]

I can copy another legendary skill. What a harvest.

[Would you like to name Slenderman?]

Oh, I wonder if he wants a name.

''Would you like a name?'' I ask. He can talk to me without a mouth, right? There's [Telepathy] after all.

Yes

''!!''

''O-Oh, I see.'' I shutter a bit, mostly because the sensation of a voice suddenly ringing in your brain is too alien, and his voice is quite eerie as well, like a beast's deep grunt, but not exactly, I'm not sure. I will have to try this skill myself later.

''Lady Aurora, please don't call him 'Slenly' or anything like that...!'' Skely comes over to stand beside me, pleading.

''What are you talking about, Skely? Why would I do that?''

That doesn't sound nice at all.

''Er, no... It just seemed like something you would do, excuse me.''

How terrible do you think my naming sense is, Skely? I'm sad now.

''Either way, how does 'Slen' sound?'' I turn back to my new comrade with a name I just came up with.

''Ah, at least that's not too terrible.''

''Agreed.''

Keep quiet, you siblings. You guys are literally dead.

'''' ... ''''

Alright

[Name registered]

''Alright, welcome to the team, Mister Slen!'' I reach out to him once again, and we shake hands. ''I would like to go straight to combat practice, but... yawn... It's morning, you see.''

Sleep comes first.

Sure

Mister Slen nods lightly and disappears entirely, leaving behind nothing but air. 

''...Well, I guess we can let him play for a bit.''

After some basic testing, we were able to determine a few things about our new addition to the team.

Firstly, Mister Slen is really able to teleport without CD or MP cost. However, he cannot keep teleporting forever, there seems to be a stamina system built in. He also cannot bring other people with him or travel to unknown locations, unfortunately. 

Secondly, the telepathy skill I got from him is extremely useful. I can send messages directly to my followers' minds. The only constraint is the limited range of about a dozen meters, which I believe will increase as the skill level increases, otherwise, there don't seem to be any limitations.

Thirdly, his main attack methods are knife stabbing and tentacle attacks. Yes, he can summon a knife out of nowhere, I'm not sure how either.

Fourthly, he doesn't need to sleep, eat or rehydrate, unlike us. I'm not quite sure what he consumes to maintain his body, I certainly hope it's not children.

And finally, he is a man of few words.

''You think you can take on that?'' I ask, pointing at the group of three jellyfish in a small clearing.

Yes

And there I stand, watching in silence as a level 1 Mister Slen absolutely obliterates those level 10-ish jellyfish. Every time the little ones try to attack, he just blinks somewhere else and stabs his tentacles and/or knife at them. He can't kill them quickly because of the level difference, but those jellyfish are certainly not his opponents.

Exactly three minutes later, Mister Slen has now turned level 8. I wonder what will he choose for his skills in the future.

After two more days of stabilizing our team and finding out our synergy, plus raising Mister Slen's level a bit more, we decided that it was time for a big hunt. 

''So, according to our scout, the destination for us this time will be an ancient tomb.'' I begin the meeting, sitting at our newly made table. I made it with my claws, how amazing of me. ''Ariel, any information on the enemies there?''

''Yes, captain!'' Ariel, who's not sitting at the table, but rather floats above the chair, salutes. ''The tomb is mostly guarded by golems, their levels ranging from seventeen to twenty-four!''

''Which means we're under-leveled.'' I nod intently. ''And one of our greatest weapons - mental attacks are not effective against them.''

Ariel's wail, my [Domination], and Smiley's madness aura won't do anything to those blockheads, unfortunately.

''That said, one of golems' most critical weakness is their core, which usually would be exposed due to maintenance needs, so if we know how to target them properly, it won't be a problem.'' I continue.

''I can confirm that. There was a barrier blocking me from going in halfway through, but all of the golems that I saw had their cores exposed.'' Ariel proudly says.

''Any traps?'' Skely ponders. 

''Not that I could see.''

Truth be told, I still think that it's a bit risky, but it's not like I want to spend the rest of my life here hunting small monsters peacefully in the wilderness or anything. Most of all, I want to see more eldritch creatures. My [Horror Lord]'s summon count is still capped at two, and I don't know what the requirements are to unlock more, but I strongly suspect that leveling up is one of them.

''It seems alright to me. What do you think, Mister Slen?'' I look up at Mister Slen, whose sitting pose is hilarious, to say the least. Because he's too tall for the chair that I made, he is forced to stretch out his legs, so now he looks like a child sitting on a particularly low chair.

'''' ... ''''

Alright

''So it is set, then.'' I stand up and stretch out lightly. ''We will begin the operation this evening, now sleep.''

I immediately walk over to the brand new bed that I made with owl mom's feathers as a cushion.

puff

I flop down the soft and warm bed, melting myself into it. This is it, this texture... Reminds me of Chloe's bed...

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