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Slime and specifically slime hybrids were mysteries to most Players, they didn’t know how they worked.
In all honesty he was still only half sure himself. It wasn’t like slimes had a culture or anything.
Most slime hybrids grew up in small colonies in swamps, usually striking a deal with the local witch.
You learn from the elder slime hybrids about how to form your slime. About how best to survive in the swamp. About how not to piss off the Witch or get chased by her cat.
About how to avoid detection from those who come to the Witch for help.
Most slime hybrids simply stayed in a form that looked like a regular slime, only giving themselves tentacle like things to grab particularly fast prey.
He’d taken interest in the local witch and her patrons. The way their lives were more than the swamp.
Those who came to her for potions and spells talked about adventures they’d been on, places they visited, things they built, games they played.
His parents and the elders always told him to not get so close and that it was dangerous but he didn’t care, he was careful, he’d been doing it long before he got caught by his parents.
When he wasn’t hiding around the Witch’s he was learning the limits of how long he could hold a shape, how big a shape he could be, and all the combinations of them.
He couldn’t hold anything but the shape he’d grown up as, basically just a different colored slime, for more than a few hours but the humanoid shape he’d approximated was lasting longer and longer.
The witch did notice him but instead of taking it as a threat she allowed him into her hut to learn about magic and potion making.
Once he became an adult he left, they wanted him to stay, the rest of his colony, but he wanted to see the world.
He registered as a Player, iJevin, and that made it so much easier to hold his humanoid form but didn’t limit his ability to manipulate his form into basically whatever he wanted.
He’d been worried about people being afraid of him, of what he was, but most Players just thought it was cool.
He traded spells and potions for building lessons and places on servers.
Then he got reached out to about a smaller server called Hermitcraft, asking nothing of him but promising safety and community.
He accepted that invitation and it was probably the best decision he’d made since he left the swamp at eighteen.