By Kisetsu Morita and Benio. Released in Japan as “Slime Taoshite 300 Nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level MAX ni Nattemashita” by GA Novels. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Jasmine Bernhardt.

Perhaps the author has been listening to me a little bit more, as this volume thankfully features no fake yuri tease followed by Azusa saying that she’s straight. Instead it leans entirely on the found family side of the equation, while doing what it does best: adding new characters and telling fun stories. There’s no plot to this story, no ongoing goal or character development, so as always there’s very little to grab on to for a review, but in terms of “cute girls doing cute things”, it serves well enough. The closest we get to depth in this one is when we’re introduced to the Grim Reaper by the two goddesses, and Azusa realizes that, having lived 300 years, she is definitely the baby in the room compared with the others, who casually discuss trying something as a hobby for fifty thousand years to see how it goes. Which of course makes it all the more impressive that she’s one of the biggest powerhouses in the world.

In this volume: everyone gathers at the city of the undead to celebrate Rosalie’s 200th Deathiversary; The group hikes up a mountain to see a historical citadel that fascinates Shalsha; Pecora forces Azusa and Beelzebub to join her in re-enacting a favorite book… by running across the countryside on giant robot Godzillas; Godly Goddess and Nintan invite Azusa to meet the world’s grim Reaper, who turns out to be a frustrates author (and is also entirely covered in hair, it’s implied because of introversion); Godly Goddess gets Azusa to try out her new “training program”, which ends up essentially being a Super Mario game, complete with Pecora as the final boss AND Pecora as the Princess in the castle; a phanton thief vows to steal one of the exhibits in Halkara’s museum, and Halkara is quick to capitalize on this; and in the side story, Laika fights her old master and her sister.

A lot of these feel more like they’re there to entertain the author rather than the reader. The citadel one in particular is very “let me show off all the research I couldn’t put into my Oda Nobunaga series”. Those who enjoy nerd references in their titles will be amused by the robot kaiju, as well as the long parody of platformer games. There’s also some actual fanservice, as Azusa gets stripped to her underwear by the game, but I think it’s meant to amuse rather than titillate. The author also apologizes to the artist for having to draw someone who isn’t a cute girl – I assume he means the reaper, who is indeed a ball of hair, but I have no doubt that a future book is going to take care of that. Basically, the series keeps chugging along, and that’s fine. The Laika stories seem to come to an end with this volume, and I wonder who will take their place now that we’ve had Beelzebub, Halkara, and Laika.

So yes, fluff, good fluff, but plotless fluff. The goal with these is always ‘is there enough here for a full review?” Just barely.