Claire had it lucky, though, because her bed was made from a slime. Unlike her brethren, she didn’t have to worry about ripping, tearing, puncturing, maiming, bending, or twisting her wings while sleeping, because the slime bed provided sensational support while also protecting her wings in its slimy body. Without its acidity, the slime was the perfect sleeping tool.
“Ahh,” Claire yawned again. Rubbing her eyes, she flew up off her bed and over to her bathroom. She poked the flaming slime and the spray slime embedded in the wall, turning on a comfortable jet of warm water in the room’s corner. She tested the temperature a few times, poking the flaming slime in various places until the water was the temperature she wanted. Dropping her dress, Claire sighed in happiness as the warm water washed down her head and over her body. She reached over and broke a small piece of soap off a bar she had stolen from adventurers to rub herself down. After using it all, Claire cast a magic the cleaned her hair with the help of the moving water.
After poking the slimes to turn off the water shower, Claire dried herself off with a handmade cloth made of plant fibers and sat down onto a stool. With a wave of her hand, her hair was dried and made fluffy. Another wave, and her clothes had all the dirt removed.
“What would I do without magic?” Claire giggled as she slid her dress back on. Flapping her wings, the pixie girl flew over to the kitchen where a variety of flowers were growing out of the wall. Claire tapped her chin as she examined each flower.
“Hm, now what am I in the mood for today?” she pondered out loud. “I had the hibiscus yesterday, and the nightshade the day before, so... sunflower it is!”
Claire skipped over to the large sunflower and squeezed the inner part. A few drops of nectar flowed out into her palm. Claire licked it experimentally.
“Hm, needs something,” she murmured. “Ah! Just a few drops of booze slime, and...”
Claire pulled an ornate leaf goblet out and set it under the sun flower. She took out a bottle of concentrated booze slime and added three drops to the goblet, followed by a smidgen of tea leaf dust. When she was satisfied, Claire squeezed the giant sun flower until a steady stream of nectar flowed down into the goblet. Stopping right before it filled up completely, Claire cast restoration magic on the flower and returned it to its previous state.
She took a small sip of the concoction and giggled.
“Ah, there we go. That’s delicious.” She said to herself.
She raised the goblet to her lips once again and spat out the drink in disgust. It tasted of blood, and it ran down her chin like rivers of pain. Claire choked up upon the realization and turned her eyes slowly to the goblet.
The goblet, to Claire’s horror, was filled with blood and she dropped it. The goblet shattered like glass on the ground, releasing a torrent of blood that enveloped the pixie girl. She was dragged under, and she struggled to swim to the surface. She broke free, gasping for breath as her form was tossed like a log at sea. The blood was everywhere around her. It caressed her, entered her, and became her.
Claire screamed in pain as the red droplets of life entered her body. They burned at her flesh and threatened to tear her asunder.
“You killed me,” a voice said suddenly. From the sea of blood, the face of a dead adventurer reached out to grab ahold of her. “Why did you let me die?”
More faces, more bodies, more voices.
“You watched me suffer.”
“You watched me die.”
“You laughed as I was ripped to pieces.”
“No, no!” Claire screamed at them, “It wasn’t me! I didn’t kill you!”
“You let us die. You watched us die. You laughed as we died,” the voices moaned together, dragging her down into the sea of spilled blood. “You encouraged our deaths, wanted us to die. Our families mourn for us, our dreams will never come true. Your fault, all your fault. You killed us! Murderer!”
“No!” Claire screamed, but the voices dragged her down, and they sank into the blood she’d made. And the dream… ended.
For all three of them.
*
Claire awoke abruptly, her breathing hurried and uneven. She clutched her chest as her heart threatened to burst out from it. It was the same dream lately for her, a dream of pain and suffering.
It was admission of her guilt.
When Claire first joined with Doc, she’d unknowingly been under a spell of memory cast on her by her mother. It had taken her some time to break free of it, and yet there always appeared to be more to uncover about her past. While her mother had cast the spell to protect Claire’s mind from the death of her father, for whatever reason, Claire’s mother had continued to make minor changes to her daughter’s mind afterwards, changes so small she wouldn’t notice them as they stacked slowly within her, manipulating her thoughts and morphing her character.
One such change was over the death of adventurers, or rather, the lack of guilt towards them.
Claire had encouraged Doc from the beginning to slaughter them. In her right mind, she could have revealed the natural dungeon way of life much sooner, perhaps stopping Doc from ever setting on the path of slaughter, all for a quick growth. She hadn’t felt anything upon watching adventurers die, and her attitude had seeped into Doc’s perception until he, too, joined in her watching people die. They’d spent many a day laughing and joking over some of the funniest deaths which, in hindsight, had usually been cruelest.
It was different now.
Claire’s father had been an earth pixie, a lover of life. She shared this love for life, in all forms. With the spell unraveling over her, Claire realized the wrongness of her actions. The… horrors… she’d inflicted on others sent a shattering slice through her heart. And the dreams had begun.
It began only after Doc’s foolishly impulsive act of moving the dungeon, perhaps because there were no adventurers to make up to. Perhaps it was because Claire no longer had the chance to apologize to the families of the dead. Perhaps, perhaps...
In a strange way, she and Doc were going through similar changes of spirit. Doc didn’t mention it, but Claire could tell that the loss of his spirit’s core, the humanity that originally resided within him, was affecting him greatly. He was trailing off more frequently, and he had more intense emotional outbursts. Claire, on the other hand, was regaining her spirit and suffering for her past actions. Maybe it would be her job once again to lead Doc on the right path; or, perhaps, they both needed to burn.
She slapped her cheeks encouragingly, settling her heart down. She flew off her bed of wrapped plant refuse and over to her bathroom. The shower was still broken with the missing elemental slimes, so she opted to use the cracked mirror to clean herself with magic. When she was satisfied, she walked over to her kitchen.
Even though most of her plants had died in the sudden move, she’d managed to save a few. She was thankful, as otherwise, Claire would have had to live on mana, which wasn’t the most filling thing to eat. She filled her tarnished wood goblet with rose sap and added a few drops of saved booze slime before slamming the empty goblet down onto the cracked table.
Having finished drinking the goblet, the young pixie walked back to the mirror. A pale, distraught face looked back at her through the cracks. Claire closed her eyes and shook her head. When she reopened them, only her smiling face was visible. Satisfied with her appearance once more, she flew out the door into the heart room.
“Good morning, Doc!” she called out happily.
She felt the dungeon’s attention turn to face her. “Good morning, Claire,” Doc answered her happily. “Did you rest well?”
“I slept as well as ever,” Claire reported. “So, tell me, anything interesting happen during the night?”
“Nothing too interesting,” Doc said. “A few predators entered the dungeon after the sun went down, but I trapped them and had Anadine and Rowen devour them. The three of us received enough mana to summon more slimes, who are now patrolling the floors. The plants have grown some more, too. So
me of the herbs seem to have changed into more tree-like forms.”
“Good,” Claire said, sitting down at the edge of her pedestal and dangling her feet off it. “Speaking of the plants, did you find that forest lion?”
“No. It seems to have hidden itself in on the second floor. The taller plants make it harder to find anything, honestly. I have the patrolling slimes clearing paths through the growth with the side mission for scouring for the forest lion’s nest,” Doc reported.
“What about Rowen and Anadine?” Claire asked. She didn’t see either boss slime in the heart room.
“They went on patrol,” Doc said. “Hey Claire, can you teach me the next step to become a natural dungeon?”
“Sure!” Claire clapped. “I’m glad we’re finally getting around to it. First step; bring one of the animals from you floors here. Anything, really, but I advise an insect to get started.”
“Not possible.” Doc metaphysically shook his head. “There aren’t any more animals in the dungeon that I can find. Any that remain are somehow capable of masking their presence from me in the plants, lion included.”
“Hm?” Claire cocked her head. “What are you saying? Before I went to bed, the dungeon was chalk-full of creatures of all shapes and sizes. Don’t tell me—”
“Yeah, the patrolling slimes ate all of them,” Doc confirmed.
Claire rubbed her nose.
“Any new evolutions?” she finally asked.
“It’s strange,” Doc said, turning reflective. “A few slimes, like the bug slimes, have this strange feeling of triggering evolution, but they are unable to make the next step. It’s as if they’ve satisfied whatever their body needs to catalyze for the next evolution but are missing something.”
“It’s probably because your power is too weak to summon tier three slimes still,” Claire analyzed thoughtfully. “Perhaps once you regain your strength, these new evolutions will appear naturally.”
“In any case,” she continued, “I’m sure there is some bug somewhere in your dungeon that your slimes missed. Let’s take advantage of your trait of removing creatures from your dungeon when you modify yourself. You’ll be able to sense what’s leaving and seize them.”
“Alright, I’m entering dungeon modification!” Doc announced.
As with previous instances, the entire dungeon vibrated under Doc’s careful control. The entrance sealed itself up, preventing any leakage of mana. When Doc needed to change the layout of his dungeon, the underground labyrinth automatically sealed itself, ejecting all non-dungeon monsters. It was only during this time that Doc could be at peace without the threat of invasion. Incidentally, modifying the dungeon also had the added after-effect of causing a small earthquake, which was sure to scare any nearby creatures.
Knowing this, Claire took a seat on her pedestal.
“Claire,” Doc spoke up, “the non-dungeon creatures are starting to be sent out of the dungeon.”
“Go ahead and let most of the little ones leave,” Claire advised. “You just need one insect. Oh, and if you want the lion to stay, stop yourself from getting rid of any large creatures. Since you’re sure nothing else remains, that’s the easiest way.”
“Understood!” It was easy for the dungeon spirit to slightly change the flow of mana, allowing for any creature larger than... The Twins to remain. Doc’s crystal brightened, illuminating the room in purple light that dazzled the eye.
“What’s Doc up to now?” Rowen’s grumpy voice echoed as he and Anadine entered the heart room. “That earthquake almost gave me a core attack.”
Anadine and Claire both giggled at the statement. Even Rowen’s thick slime nature couldn’t stop a small blush to appear on him, which he tried to hide with a grunt.
“Doc’s just moving the dungeon into maintenance and upgrade mode,” Claire explained from her pedestal. “The light show will calm down once the dungeon finishes shifting. How was the hunt?”
“Pretty intense.” Anadine chuckled in nostalgia as she slid into the room behind Rowen. “There were plenty of experienced old animals in that mess to deal with. Just surrounding them didn’t work. I had to use human tactics with the slimes to take down a few of them. Especially that anaconda. It managed to eat three slimes before I could take it down.”
“That’s a good lesson for the both of you,” Claire lectured. “We aren’t in human territory anymore, so there are all sorts of things out here more dangerous than the slimes Doc can control. And those predators are the bottom of the barrel, so to speak. As we get stronger, more of those dangerous monsters will appear here.”
“Whatever,” Rowen grumbled. “We just have to kill them, right? It’s just an opportunity to gather more points.”
“What, are you still annoyed I killed more animals?” Anadine teased. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’re just getting used to your new body still. You’ll definitely win next time.”
Rowen turned to give the slime girl a glare but said nothing.
“Claire, the dungeon is set,” Doc reported.
“Do you have an insect?” Claire turned her head and asked.
“Here.”
A magic circle formed on the ground, and out flew a colorful red insect with white spots on its shell. Stressed, the insect released the smaller bug it had caught to eat, the little green bug falling to the ground, twitching.
“Wow, a two-for-one!” Claire praised. “Great job, Doc. You’ve caught a ladybug and a leaf muncher. You couldn’t have found a better pair of bugs to work with!”
“Now what?” Doc asked.
“Now, it’s time for a dungeon upgrade!” Claire clapped her hands, and the familiar blue box condensed in the air. Unlike normally, however, this time the blue box only read a single option.
Additional Race
Tier 1 Ability
Able to create an additional race to the one held. Increases dungeon diversity
Doc gave off the feeling of a raised eyebrow.
“You want me to open up the dungeon to include bugs?” he asked incredulously.
“Not just bugs, Doc,” Claire explained, “Remember the many starting race options back when you and I first met? The animals race includes every non-sentient creature that does not possess a monster core. In essence, you’d be able to build up your dungeon into a vast cavern of creatures, with slimes at the very top of the food chain. It’s a rather standard build for larger dungeons.”
Doc was silent. Claire and the two boss slimes waited patiently. However, as silence stretched beyond a few minutes, the three began to feel confusion. Doc’s crystal offered nothing.
“Is something the matter, Doc?” Anadine asked gently.
“Hmm,” Doc finally answered. The heart crystal blinked, as if the dungeon spirit was opening and closing his eyes.
“Do you not want to add the insects to your dungeon, is that it?” Claire ventured. “That’s alright. We can start with small animals like mice or—”
“That’s not quite it,” Doc replied, interrupting her. “See, I don’t really want other kinds of creatures entering the dungeon.”
Rowen stretched himself up with an incredulous face, as much as a slime could anyway. “Doc, what are you talking about? Haven’t you slowly been adding non-slime monsters: The Twins, Anadine, and me?”
“Not really,” Doc said mused aloud. “Haven’t you both become slimes? And have you three taken a closer look at The Twins recently?”
Feeling curious at his words, the three dungeon inhabitants moved over to the hibernating pair of worgs in the corner. Noting an odd gleam on their fur, Anadine poked their bodies with a tentacle experimentally. To their shock, the fur juggled at the touch, much like a slime. Indeed, the fur clung to Anadine’s tentacle for just a moment before turning back into ordinary fur.
“I noticed this only this past night,” Doc said, interrupting their thoughts. “It appears The Twins aren’t only resting because of my weakened self. Whatever is causing this, their bodies are slowly conforming
to the monster type of this dungeon. In other words, they are being slimified. I’m not sure if it’s because of my magic or because they’re vulnerable while hibernating, but I think when they awaken, they’ll find themselves as slimy as the two of you.”
“Well, there is precedence to these phenomena.” Claire brushed the shock away as she became reflective. “There are a few old records of certain creatures entering a dungeon and being transformed by its powers. Though, as I’ve said, it’s a rare thing. I suppose the creation of the green orc monsters could be an example, as they are much more piggish than their grey orc cousins. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, there are two races of orcs, one monster and one sentient, and a dungeon was somehow involved.”
“Maybe this could explain why hybrid monsters exist,” Anadine considered. “Things like griffons, normal chimeras, bat-hawks, and the like. That would be a great research topic to submit to the Mage’s Guild!” Rowen nodded along with her before stopping himself with an annoyed look.
“The point is,” Doc broke into the conversation, “that while I have the desire to be the greatest dungeon in the world, I also want to be the best slime dungeon in the world! And I don’t feel that having an ecology based around other monsters and animals is the way for me to accomplish my dream.”
Claire folded her arms and flew up to Doc’s crystal, looking him straight in the crystal lattice. Her eyes stared him down in the most unreadable way Doc had ever seen.
“Is this truly what you want, Doc?” she asked evenly. She locked her tiny pixie eyes onto the very center of the floating crystal, awaiting his answer.
“Yes, that’s what I want to do,” Doc said resolutely. “I’m sorry if you feel disappointed in me.”
“Disappointed?” Claire let out the loudest and most joyful giggle Doc had ever heard. She shrieked in delight, “I’m the happiest I’ve ever been right now! Doc, let’s do it! Let’s make the greatest dungeon this continent has ever seen and show everyone the power of slime!” In her excitement, Claire embraced the heart crystal and hugged it with all her strength, rubbing her head against the comforting feeling of cold mineral. Hidden in the joy, however, was the faintest twitch of insecurity, which she masked by squeezing harder.
Dungeon Wars Page 6
