The Slime Doesn't Die from Mana Transfer-Chapter 30 : What It Means to Be Human

Thud!
With a dull crash, the thick trunk split under the axe blade and slammed onto the snow-covered ground, sending up a cloud of white powder. The packed snow beneath groaned faintly under the weight.
Controlling Rozelite’s body, Russell raised her sleeve and wiped the sweat from her brow.
He gazed at the fallen tree and let out a helpless sigh, disappointment clear in his voice.
“Still no loot drop…”
“…Mr. Slime,” Rozelite’s voice sounded in his mind, tinged with exasperation.
“I don’t know where you get your common sense, but normally chopping trees does not make weapons suddenly appear.”
Russell unconsciously tightened his grip on the axe handle until his knuckles turned pale.
“But just now, clearly—”
“No… that was obviously her personal item, wasn’t it?” Rozelite countered.
“It just fell when the tree shook.”
Their shared gaze turned toward the unconscious girl lying in the snow.
She lay silently on the icy ground, her long silver hair spread out like a shimmering waterfall, glowing faintly against the white.
Her white dress was fine in quality but terribly thin. Her exposed skin was pale to the point of translucence.
Yet the serene image was marred by the gash on her slender arm. Blood seeped from the wound, staining her sleeve and the snow beneath her crimson.
Russell gave up on chopping trees. His attention fixed entirely on the girl.
【Name: Anna Volantia】
【Race: Human】
【Level: 42】
【HP: 230/1300】
【MP: 844/2000】
【Status: Lightly Injured, Poisoned, Weakened】
【Skills: Flight lv9, Wind Magic lv6, Hawk Eye lv6, Short Sword Mastery lv5, Stealth lv5, Light Magic lv5, Mana Strengthening lv5】
…Well damn.
That skill list was no joke.
Never mind her base stats—what stood out was that lv9 Flight. Russell had never seen anything like it.
In the labyrinth, flying monsters were rare. Even when they appeared, none had 【Flight】 listed as an actual skill.
And that made sense—just as humans didn’t list 【Walking】, 【Running】, or 【Eating】 as “skills,” because they were innate biological functions. For Russell as a slime, reproduction through division was a survival mechanism, but not a skill.
…Not that he had any intention of reproducing.
Still, humans flying? That was bizarre. Humans didn’t have the organs for it.
“Rozelite,” Russell asked aloud while controlling her body, “do you know of any magic that lets people fly?”
“I don’t,” Rozelite said after a thoughtful pause.
“I’ve heard of people using dark magic to float and then wind spells to move, but that’s nothing like true flight. I’ve never heard of an actual flight spell.”
“I see.”
Russell nodded, sinking into silence.
The temptation of flight was immense.
Who hadn’t dreamed of soaring through the skies, looking down at the world below? In his previous human life, he’d barely flown on airplanes a handful of times.
If he devoured her, he might really gain the power of flight… with that lv9 skill, even if 【Insatiable】 weakened it, he should at least get lv7. Though how a slime would actually fly was another matter.
But…
She wasn’t a monster. Her 【Race】 clearly said “Human.”
She had no enmity with him, no conflict of interest.
She’d collapsed here for unknown reasons—but that wasn’t justification to devour her.
Russell sighed silently.
Since becoming a monster, he’d noticed his thinking shifting away from human norms—killing without hesitation, consuming without emotion. In this brutal world, perhaps such cruelty was survival.
But that wasn’t what it meant to be human.
He wanted to be human. He longed to be human.
So he had to restrain himself by human standards.
Not from kindness, not from some naïve compassion—but because walking the path of “becoming human” required it.
Even so…
Damn it, he still really wanted that flight skill.
Wait. Did 【Insatiable】 ever say he had to devour the whole target? What if he just ate a piece—an arm, a leg? Would that work?
“Anyway,” Rozelite’s urgent voice snapped him out of his thoughts, “we need to get her onto the cart, Mr. Slime! The snow is too cold—if she keeps lying here, she won’t last long.”
Russell glanced again at her status.
【HP: 225/1300】
Her HP had dropped again in just that short moment.
This wasn’t the cold. It was the 【Poison】 eating away at her life. Left untreated, she’d die even if they did nothing.
Devouring a living human was wrong.
But if she died from poison… that was another story, wasn’t it?
That thought was still forming when—
“Mr… Mr. Slime!”
Rozelite’s voice rose into a terrified shriek.
“What is it?”
Russell instantly tensed.
Following her gaze, he too froze.
From the girl’s back, two pristine white wings were unfurled—small, delicate, folded against her frame.
She had been lying face-up the whole time, her wings hidden beneath her body and the snow.
“Born with wings… no wonder she has 【Flight】…”
Russell mused.
Meanwhile—
Rozelite staggered back in shock, her foot crunching on a branch beneath the snow. Her face went pale, lips trembling.
“M-Monster race! She’s a monster! Mr. Slime, why—why is there a demon here?!”
“Demon?”
Russell frowned.
“But her race is listed as Human. How can she be demonkind?”
“You don’t know, Mr. Slime?!”
Rozelite’s voice was taut with fear as she gripped the cart to steady herself.
“Wings on the back are the hallmark of the winged race among demonkind!”
“The winged race of demonkind…”
Russell’s confusion deepened into a headache.
He realized he had overlooked something crucial—how exactly was “demonkind” defined?
That pointy-eared guy from the Blue Falcon party had also been labeled “Human,” yet looked like an elf. And now this winged girl too was “Human,” yet Rozelite insisted she was demonkind.
Could it be that humans, demons, elves—all of them were considered “human” in this world’s system?
While Russell pondered, the girl in the snow stirred.
Her long lashes trembled faintly.
Russell acted without hesitation.
Swish—!
A slime tentacle erupted from Rozelite’s back, coiling around the girl’s slender, pale neck like a cold rope.
It tightened sharply.
Her unconscious body jerked, crimson seeping from her lips and trailing down her cheek onto the snow.
“Whatever the true definition of demonkind,” Russell’s calm voice echoed in Rozelite’s mind, “if you believe she’s a danger…”
“Then it’s best we deal with her—before she wakes up.”