I hopped home, content after having eaten three left shoes and half a pant leg. The guards hadn’t put up any fight, not that I’d expected them to. The whole reason K’esil and I were there was because it was the less experienced knights who were given the early-morning shift. After the loss of their clothing articles, the knights had kept to themselves, and I wondered if they thought I wouldn’t be willing to carry out my threats. They should have known that slimes were always willing to do exactly one thing: eat. Bonus slime points for eating things that are inconvenient to others.

  “Oh! Suri!” Samara called.

  I paused and waved a pseudopod in greeting. “Morning, Samara! How is Samri this morning?”

  “Better. He got up for breakfast, and only seemed a bit tired,” she reported.

  “That’s good to hear.” The news, however, did nothing to banish the image of twisted gray mana choking his light. He would get worse. It was the only thing I knew for certain.

  “Yes, I’m hoping for his recovery.” Her eyes darted around. “By the way, have you seen the Wing Mother this morning?”

  “L’aera is on shift this morning with E’rina,” I said. “She just relieved us a few minutes ago.”

  “Oh, that’s great. I’ll just head up to the walls. Bye, Suri!” With a final wave, Samara was gone.

  I stayed still for a minute. Something about the interaction seemed off, but I didn’t know why. Samara was cheerful, even smiling broadly when I told her where L’aera was.

  She’s probably just making friends, I finally decided. There was nothing wrong with making friends. In fact, it gave me a bit of hope! If the knights could learn from her example, maybe they wouldn’t run out of shoes.

  With a hopeful spring in my slime, I continued hopping home. Feydian and Jaden were both awake and seated at the table outside. They waved, and I returned the gesture, before they went back to spending quality time together as guardian and ward. With Pelslow demanding so much of Feydian’s attention, it was nice to see the servant sparing some time for the child who adored him. The lemony lordling was likely sleeping, since he was to take the night watch from L’aera later in the day.

  Dorin, however, wasn’t due on the walls until tomorrow, which made it the perfect day to solicit his help in gathering food. I slid beneath the door and into the shack. The draken knight sat cross-legged against a wall, fingers busy twisting twine around a scrap of iron and a carved handle. He looked up as I hopped to his side.

  “Just keeping busy,” he murmured. “Samri and Tanev went out back for some sunshine. I just…thought I’d be useful.” He sighed as he held up the makeshift knife. “What I wouldn’t give for proper tools. This wouldn’t hold up to cutting carrots let alone in a fight.”

  “You still have your axe, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, but I thought I might start teaching Samri how to fight with something smaller than his mother’s blade,” he said, then he paused and his face fell. “If he ever gets the chance, that is.”

  “Well, actually, K’esil had an idea about that.” I crawled onto his leg and elongated my body to be taller. “Why don’t you and I go to Dragon’s Gate and bring back some drakes for stew? Samri will fight the decay better on a full stomach, right?”

  Dorin stroked his chin. “I suppose someone has to do it, since Pelslow won’t assign anyone to the task.”

  “Lemon Man can starve on his own. I’m not bringing him a single morsel,” I muttered bitterly.

  “Lemon Man?”

  I nodded. “His magic is the most sour thing I’ve ever tasted.”

  “Funny. You wouldn’t think that by looking at him. He’s usually so well put-together.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure he’s quite the heartthrob back in the capital, not that I understand why.”

  “You’re talking to the wrong slime if you’re looking for an answer. I’m only an expert in cute.”

  Dorin huffed in the not-quite-a-snort way that he did to show his amusement. “And how do you figure that?”

  “Because I’m the embodiment of adorable. Tanev said so.”

  Maybe that wasn’t exactly what Tanev said all that time ago, but it was close! Why else would she fawn over me and hold me tight when she was sad? She was an enlightened individual, able to look past the biases of most humans to see just how cute I really was.

  “If you say so.” Dorin pushed himself to his feet, sending me tumbling to the ground. “Well, I suppose drake hunting is as good a way to spend the afternoon as any.”

  I wobbled happily and began to hop after him. We bid our farewells to Feydian and Jaden before rounding the back of the building to tell Samri and Tanev. Samri looked crestfallen after learning he couldn’t go with us, but Dorin wouldn’t have allowed that even if he was healthy. However, the prospect of extra food excited Tanev greatly.

  “I wanna help cook it! I’ve never cooked with drake before!” she exclaimed.

  “Then, we’ll bring back a whole bunch to make sure you can have extras to experiment with,” I promised.

  It wasn’t long before Dorin and I struck out for the dungeon entrance. The scenery on the short distance between the harpy nest and Dragon’s Gate was a lot prettier from the ground. Though I rode in the wheelbarrow Dorin borrowed from Mattis’s father, I reached out with a pod to taste the tops of the flowers as we passed. The decay hadn’t made it this far in, which I was grateful for. Just knowing the decay lay coiled around my friends’ magic was enough to sour anyone’s day.

  “You know, if we had a town big enough, it would probably sprawl all the way to the dungeon entrance,” Dorin mused as we approached the great brass doors decorated with flying dragons.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “You think so?” I wondered. “What would it be like to have access to the dungeon from town, do you think?”

  He shrugged. “Any number of things. It would draw adventurers trying to test their mettle. We could hunt monsters more easily. That sort of thing.”

  “Sounds complicated.”

  “Governing a community always is.”

  “I wouldn’t know. Slimes are solitary creatures.”

  I hopped forward into the darkness. Cracks in the walls illuminated with the raw mana of lesser slimes. One even dripped down onto my top and was swiftly consumed.

  “You certainly wouldn’t think they’re solitary based on the sheer volume of them that are here,” Dorin mused, holding a small flame towards the walls. “They almost seem to grow in clusters.”

  “They’re probably trying to eat each other,” I said, cramming my pseudopod into a crack to pull out another one.

  “You sure? You seem like a pretty social animal.”

  I paused, examining him closely. It wasn’t like Dorin to joke around, but what other reason could he have for saying something like that. I was about as far from social as can be. In fact, at that moment, I’d just finished absorbing another slime from the wall. How could he possibly think I—and by extension slimes as a whole—were social creatures?

  “I’m sure. Slimes don’t have family groups, nor are they intelligent enough to communicate.”

  Dorin frowned. “That doesn’t make sense,” he muttered. He might have said something else, but it was too soft to hear.

  We passed the door that would bypass the first floor, the one we’d used to escape the first time. It was set into the rock, completely indistinguishable from the surrounding stone save for a sheen of copper magic illuminating it within my senses. Though Dorin could not see it, it was comforting to know it was there, should we need it.

  For this adventure, though, we dove deeper. Drakes were common on this floor, and it was only a few minutes before deep, throaty growls reached us down the hall.

  “You going to ambush?” Dorin asked, but I shook my slime instead.

  This was a good opportunity to practice. With two of us at full strength, a mere Tier 1 drake was about as much threat as a pocket of lesser slimes would be. I still had two slime fighting forms I could work on that would further my progress toward Primordial Slime. That, along with Rock Eater Slime, was a far more appealing option than Apocalypse Slime.

  I was ready with slime primed with Slayer’s Stance. As the drake came around the corner, my mana flowed into my outer membrane like super-heated magma shooting into rock crevices. It hardened into a thick shell as Stoneskin took hold.

  Strictly speaking, the Creator never said anything about Stoneskin increasing damage. According to her, it was a purely defensive ability, but I had an idea to change that.

  My slime moved more slowly than normal. The drake clawed at the ground, its claws slicing through rock like paper, before it charged. Its teeth dripped with saliva as it opened its maw wide, its tongue lolling out. I hopped only once, timing the landing to hurl my reinforced body straight into its chin with as much force as I could muster.

  It wasn’t quite a pseudopod strike, but close counted. The drake’s neck snapped up, piercing its tongue and jamming one of its many spiked horns into its back. It whimpered pitifully as I landed and immediately pivoted on my slime. A thick but short pseudopod cracked from the rock. With a spin of my slime, I slammed the appendage into its knees, knocking them out from under the lizard in one swoop. It slammed into the ground, and I crushed its windpipe in a single blow.

  [Slime Fighting Style Skill Increased

  Pod Striker: adept]

  “That was some fancy fighting,” said Dorin. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed as I single-handedly felled the creature.

  “I’m working on something new,” I admitted. “Have to learn more fighting styles for one of my evolution paths.”

  He huffed. “I guess it’s good that it’s in your control. The only one I have has a requirement to win the fealty of a hundred lesser dragonkin.”

  “Where would you even find that many dragonkin? Dungeon Born drakes won’t turn on their creator.”

  “Hence my irritation.”

  Down a long corridor, another creature arrived, but not a drake. It was smaller than the creature I’d just felled, which was a shame since it wouldn’t get as much meat as a full drake would. But, unlike the drake, its front talons were connected to its body by large wing membranes, giving it the appearance of a giant, draconic bat.

  “Wyvern,” Dorin provided. “Mind its breath.”

  “Is it as spicy as yours?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Not even close, but it’ll scorch you all the same.”

  As Stoneskin wore off, my slime swapped stance to Healer’s Bearing, but I immediately swapped it back, wishing I had a more versatile ability that would switch my stance for me. As it stood, only Arcane Ascendant could apply Slayer’s Stance automatically, and the last thing I wanted was to make myself a bigger, less mobile target.

  Slayer’s Stance took hold over my slime just as I leapt onto the wall and climbed to the ceiling. The wyvern shrieked a slime-curdling cry as it spied Dorin. As was my specialty, I waited patiently until the wyvern was almost beneath me, then I released. The distance to fall wasn’t far, and I landed squarely on its horns.

  The wyvern cried out in alarm, throwing back its head and unleashing a gout of fire that scorched the walls. Its scales shimmered with defensive mana, which was quite the enticing treat. I made a swift decision, then grew a pod and struck the wyvern hard across the side of the head. It crumpled to the ground, unable to stand against the strength of a higher tiered monster. Before it could recover, I spread my slime across its body. It flailed as I fought to dissolve the scales.

  Its defensive mana was concentrated around the creature’s torso rather than its wings which I left alone in case Dorin wanted to use the parts. The rest, however, was mine. The magic resisted for a moment before splitting apart and crumbling beneath me. The rest of the body followed quickly.

  [Enchantment consumed:

  Defensive enchantment: 5/5

  Ability Unlocked: Warden’s Wall]

  I gleefully hopped back and forth as the Creator illuminated this most recent reward.

  [Warden’s Wall—Mana cost: 2. Summons a barrier of pure mana which can block attacks. Only usable in Healer’s Bearing. Applies Slayer’s Stance upon destruction or dismissal of the barrier.]

  An ability that could swap me back into Slayer’s Stance automatically. It was something I sorely needed, but with Slime Sacrifice and Stoneskin, did I really need another defensive ability? I mulled it over while Dorin sat and began stripping the wyvern’s wings, horns, and bones.

  I had two ability slots left, but had no way of getting more until I evolved to Tier 3, at which point I would gain an additional 3 thanks to my high [Versatility] stat. I’d turned down Bone Spike because I didn’t see it as being useful, was this any better?

  Would it be better to use the last two ability slots on increasing my speed? I hadn’t eaten anything that would obviously give me a speed boost, except maybe Lemon Man’s chrysoar boots, but without knowing what a chrysoar even looked like or where to find them, I had very little hope of pursuing that option. Not even his right boot would give Efficient Eater enough information to grant me an ability.

  Maybe slimes just aren’t meant to go fast, I thought with a sad sigh. If that was the case, then my better bet was to make myself an inedible object. Since I could not run, I would have to withstand any monster that wanted to eat me.

  Thinking about it in those terms, the answer was obvious.

  Select Warden’s Wall, please.

  [Ability Selected: Warden’s Wall

  Ability Slots remaining: 1]

  “I’m starting to run out of room in my wheelbarrow,” Dorin complained, tossing the last bit of the wyvern’s wings over the drake. “Maybe one more drake, and we should head back.”

  I wobbled in agreement, but before I could take even a single hop, a pulse resounded through the dungeon’s copper mana.