“Ack, Claire, personal space! Ah, you’re crushing me! I’m going to break!” Doc cried out, finding the pixie’s grip a tiny bit stronger than he liked. He was shocked by her strength, feeling a tiny little fracture occurring along his surface. In retrospect, however, someone who could lift human-sized objects like ingots had to possess some level of strength.
Claire giggled some more and eased up but continued to hug Doc, to his distress. Claire’s heart was filled with so much joy that it pushed away the fear and guilt she’d been living with for the past few days. Doc’s resolution proved he was growing in the right direction. She hadn’t messed up.
Anadine hooked her tentacle around Rowen and pulled him next to her. “Would you look at that, little brother? Our parents are getting along after all.”
“I reject any semblance of family in this situation, but I will admit it’s nice to see Doc so flustered and Claire so happy,” Rowen said, struggling to free himself from Anadine. Failing to do so, Rowen gave up and allowed the blue slime to pull him close. Rowen sighed but decided to put up with it for just this once. Movement out of the corner of his eye attracted his attention.
“Hey Anadine, isn’t that one of your lesser mimic slimes over there?” he asked, pointing.
“I’m not falling for that,” Anadine retorted. “Just give up and enjoy the hug and moment.”
“No, seriously,” Rowen said, stopping his struggle. “Over there, by the ladybug.”
Anadine and Rowen turned to watch a lesser mimic slime sliding over to the ladybug. They watched it eat the ladybug and the leaf muncher slime.
“Well, that’s end of that, I suppose.” Rowen shrugged. “Fun while it lasted, but I guess becoming a natural dungeon wasn’t meant to be.”
“Uh, maybe not,” Anadine pointed. The lesser mimic slime vibrated and glowed under the light of evolution. The two slimes gasped in shock, openings literally tearing apart a mouth in their bodies as they watched the lesser mimic slime shrink and morph into what appeared to be a leaf muncher made of slime. The little bug slime shook itself and flew out of the heart room towards the upper floors.
Anadine and Rowen shared a confused look as Doc continued to try to get Claire off of him.
Chapter 6
In her exuberance, Claire kept hold of Doc’s crystal much longer than he was comfortable with, a private reassurance to herself that her lessons were working. When she finally released him, the dungeon grumbled and turned his attention away from the heart room.
“Oh, come on, Doc. Don’t tell me you didn’t like it?” Claire teased.
“Maybe for the first few seconds, but you held on for three minutes,” Doc said gruffly. “You’re not allowed to touch for that long or, more importantly, with that level of strength.” The dungeon spirit then stopped paying attention to the heart room and moved up to the labyrinth floor to repair the cracks in the ceiling and walls.
Laughing at the childish behavior, Claire turned her attention down to the floor and looked around for the little insects Doc had summoned. To her surprise, they were nowhere to be found.
“Oh, where did the ladybug go?” she asked Anadine and Rowen. “I don’t see it or the leaf muncher here.”
The two slime bosses shared a look before answering Claire.
“One of my lesser mimic slimes... ate it. And the leaf muncher,” Anadine responded, though a bit hesitatingly. “It was while you and Doc were having a moment.”
“Is that so? Well then that’s too bad,” Claire sighed in disappointment. “I had been hoping to capture it and place in my flower collection. No sense wasting regret over it, I suppose.”
That’s, uh, not the only thing that happened,” Rowen continued, comparing the size of the ladybug to Claire in his mind. “You see, the slime evolved after eating the two bugs and flew away.”
Claire cocked her head, staring at the two slimes. “What did it evolve into?” she asked, a little surprised. She understood that neither of the two would be behaving this nervously if it had been a normal evolution. Claire turned to alert Doc, but the dungeon was too busy working on repairing the dungeon.
“It looked just like a leaf muncher in both size and shape, and it could fly,” Anadine said, rubbing the top of her body. “After it evolved, it left the room, heading up. Funnily enough, that slime seemed to ignore us and Doc in favor of... food? Even though it was a lesser mimic slime under my authority, it seems to have also evolved instincts beyond my control. It was more concerned with following the scent of greenery, I think. That’s what I felt from it, anyway.”
“A leaf muncher slime?” Claire crossed her arms and wondered. “I’ve never heard of such a thing before. You say it evolved from a lesser mimic slime, so it must be a tier two slime. Being a type of bug, however, it should be a tier three evolved from a bug slime. How odd.” The little pixie folded her arms across her chest and frowned slightly. She’d didn’t understand.
“But Claire, bug slimes are about the size of normal slimes,” Anadine argued. “Even when they copy their bug of preference, they’ve never shrunk to the bug’s original size. They rely on their increased mass to fight their enemies.”
“Then this must be some new kind of slime,” Rowen reasoned. The little white and grey slime folded two tentacles and pointed. “While a bug size slime is worthless to fight larger prey, would it not stand to reason that it could replace a part of the food web you tried to persuade Doc to create?” From the tip of his tentacles, Rowen budded off a tiny grey slime the size of a pebble. The little slime squirmed slightly before drying up into nothingness. “It’s not like any other slime Doc’s created could serve as the base.”
“Not by itself, and not if it obeys the same rules as the other slimes,” Claire disagreed. “Doc specifically prevents the slimes from attacking each other by asserting his will during their creation. This way, every slime acts under his will instead doing what they’d do naturally. And... to create an entire natural system out of slime, why I can’t even imagine it, really. Proud as I am that Doc’s chosen his own path, the idea is something completely unheard of in nature.”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible,” Anadine pointed out. “After all, Doc has already created a few new slimes like the booze slime and the infernal slime, neither of which would ever appear in the wild under ordinary circumstances, if ever. Perhaps this type of mimicking slime never became known because it was too weak to survive without outside help, making it an evolutionary dead end.”
“There is precedence to her words,” Rowen interjected. “Back when I was alive, there was a rare form of grassland cricket that could produce beautiful music using innate magic. I checked while in town, but that cricket died out some time after I went to sleep. Its music attracted predators until there were no more. Nature has always created odd things that either succeed and flourish or die.”
“That may be true, but slimes are the most unchanging monster in existence,” Claire disputed.
Anadine and Rowen fixed the pixie with equally disbelieving stares.
“You know what I mean!” Claire muttered grumpily. “Slimes evolve, yes, but they always stay as some form of core surrounded by slime. Slimes don’t evolve into things that are... not slime.”
“Maybe, but—”
“Claire, you have to see this!” Doc’s excited voice echoed through the heart room, interrupting her. “There’s a tiny little slime eating plants on the second floor. You have to see this!”
The three dungeon inhabitants exchanged blank looks, Anadine and Rowen doing a remarkable job of displaying emotion with bunched up slime. Claire recovered first and looked up at the floating crystal.
“Do I have to fly up there myself, Doc, or are you able to create the images within your crystal?” Claire asked.
“Oh, right. I was too excited,” Doc remembered. “Give me one moment.” His crystal flickered to life as it displayed the moving images seen by Doc onto the walls.
Pixie and slime alike watched
in amazement as the image focused on the tiny slime. Its body was the perfect copy of the original leaf muncher, albeit with a different, more see-through color of purple. The slime core appeared to be with the head portion of the body, absorbing the mana from the leaf matter it ingested. It even made the same soft chirps of the original monster.
“Doc, can you focus on the slime core?” Claire asked abruptly. Doc complied, and the image focused in on the tiny core. The magic allowed for every little detail to been seen in perfectly clarity.
“Look there,” Claire pointed. “Look at the core! It isn’t smooth anymore. It’s rigid, like a brain!”
“You’ve seen a brain before?” Rowen asked. “I didn’t think slimes were the type to leave behind leftovers.”
“Whole brains are... a holdover from my mother’s dungeon,” Claire admitted reluctantly. “Some of the undead there… well, they had specific needs.”
The former humans looked disgusted.
“Anyway, I’ve never seen an insect leaf muncher brain before,” Claire continued, “but I think that we can safety say the core of this new slime has completely transformed itself into a copy of a leaf muncher’s brain. That would explain how it can mimic and behave so perfectly.”
“Leaf muncher?” Doc asked curiously. “Isn’t that the insect I summoned earlier?”
“That slime you’re seeing used to be one of my lesser mimic slime minions,” Anadine explained. “It ate the ladybug and leaf muncher bug from before and evolved into that new slime. A leaf muncher slime I guess?”
“Interesting,” Doc said with a glow of wonder. “From what I can see of its abilities, this is a tier two slime codependent on the presence of bug slimes. In other words, I would have never been able to create this slime had I not previously unlocked the bug slime evolution before. Wait…” Doc broke off suddenly. “This is new.”
“What’s new?” Claire asked curiously.
“This slime,” Doc said. “It doesn’t hold the pull of evolution that my other slimes have. It’s as if it is incapable of evolving further, a sort of evolutionary dead-end. It feels... boring? An odd mis of sour and bitterness in thought form perhaps.”
“How do you mean?” Rowen inquired.
“Well, I can’t taste anything, but relating the flavor of my thoughts into terms relatable to both humans and slimes—”
“Not that, Doc,” Anadine interrupted. “Though I’ll have to ask later. He meant the dead-end part.”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Doc admitted, “but I have a very strong feeling that this slime will never be able to evolve again. It’s as if it has used up all its evolutionary potential as a slime to stay in this one form for the rest of its life. This form is its final form, but it’s still a weak tier two slime. This is the first time I’ve ever felt this feeling from one of my slimes, including you two.” Doc glanced down at the two with a light smile.
Anadine and Rowen were surprised. The idea of them evolving into something greater was a foreign idea to them. Humans never evolved, after all, and this was another reminder of their current situation. Rowen’s slime turned darker at the realization.
“Perhaps,” Claire guessed, “that feeling of yours has something to do with the change in its slime core. After all, the core is the main body of any slime, and every slime core I’ve ever seen has been a smooth ball or dissolved into the slime.”
“You mean how Anadine and I have our cores sprinkled through our slime?” Rowen remembered. “I wonder, though, what shape is the scatter core in?”
“I wouldn’t know, since you both are high tier slimes. Your cores are better hidden than even other scattered slime types,” Claire explained. “Maybe when you get stronger you can figure it out for yourself. I do know that if you practice enough, you’ll be able to summon core back together to perform some really interesting boss abilities. But anyway, this little slime is a leaf muncher through and through, which gives me some ideas...”
As Claire began thinking to herself, Doc and the slime bosses watched as the new leaf muncher slime left the leaf and flew deeper into the maze. Its wings buzzed just as softly as a real leaf muncher, and its eyes darted back and forth in search of something. At a crossroad, the leaf-muncher slime turned a corner and discovered a basic slime. It immediately flew right toward it.
“Why is it moving toward that normal slime?” Rowen asked.
“Shh,” Anadine hissed. “Just watch and see.”
To their mutual surprise, the leaf muncher slime landed on the normal slime and sunk its mandibles into it. The new slime began to feed on its lesser relative, ingesting tiny amounts of slime that increased its own size. Its thorax expanded by a fourth, and the new slime left, buzzing away. The normal host slime continued its patrol, unfeeling to its previous parasite.
“Well that’s interesting,” Doc hummed. “It is ignoring my order to not harm other slimes.”
“Rather, I’m not sure you have actually given it any orders, Doc. After all, you didn’t notice when it came into existence, right?” Anadine asked. “Is it possible for you to give it orders now?”
“It’s... hard,” Doc finally admitted after a moment’s try. “While I can control the slime itself, I find that I am unable to give it certain orders like ‘Do not eat plants, do not eat slimes, and do not eat animals.’ I can still direct it where it can and can’t go and give it specific orders to attack, but...” He faltered, unsure where to go with his words.
“But you can’t interfere with its natural instincts,” Claire finished for him. The pixie’s eyes shone in delight. “Doc, I believe I know why this slime came into being. That slime is the beginning of your dream, a completely natural dungeon solely containing slime-type creatures. Just like how your mana seems to be changing The Twins, I think your inner spirit, your subconscious, is creating these new slimes to assist you in your ideal dungeon.”
“Hm? Subconscious? What’s that? Can I eat it?” Doc asked curiously.
“It’s something all sentient creatures possess,” Claire explained. “To sum it up in simple terms, it is the combination of primal instinct and hidden dreams wrapped into the back of your mind that you can’t normally find while awake. Given your unique heritage as a dungeon and your previous soul tenant, perhaps your mind unconsciously...”
“I don’t think he’s that complicated, Claire,” Anadine interrupted. “I apologize for stopping you, but I really don’t think this kind of long explanation is going to make any of us feel satisfied. Can’t you just say that Doc’s desire to have a pure slime dungeon was so great he unintentional created a new type of slime? Or magic happened?”
Forehead twitching in annoyance, Claire grimaced at the lady slime boss. Anadine made the effort to shrug with her tentacles.
“You take all the fun out of it,” Claire finally said. “I don’t get too many chances to show off how smart I am, you know. But fine, Doc created a new... type, species, form? What should this type of slime be called anyway?”
“Since it’s a normal slime evolution and not a slimified existence, how about slime animal?” Rowen suggested. “Slime animals are slimes that have shed their ability to evolve in favor of added abilities, the opposite of Anadine, The Twins, and I who have become slime monsters and not part of the normal slimes Doc can create.”
“That works,” Doc said happily.
Sighing, Claire smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “Well, as long as you’re happy, Doc,” she relented. “What’s the slime doing now?”
“Oh, it’s just laying eggs,” Doc said after a moment. “Nothing too interesting.”
“Slimes don’t lay eggs, though,” Rowen responded reflexively. “Rather, they don’t lay anything.”
“This slime is, though,” Doc reported, the image on the wall shifting to show what he was seeing. The leaf-muncher slime laid ten eggs and buzzed away. After a moment, the eggs each broke into a new leaf muncher slime.
“That’s amazing!” Doc gasped. “If I had this back with
the adventurers, I would have never worried about repopulating the dungeon after an invasion!”
“Um, Doc,” Anadine said hesitantly, “they’re laying more eggs.”
The heart room was still as the grave as they observed the leaf munchers for a few more minutes. Then the image changed. A horde of leaf muncher slimes were devouring their way through the maze floor, eating every plant and slime they came across.
“Ahh!” Doc screamed, scaring everyone. “There are way too many of them! I can’t stop them, and they’re destroying the floor I worked so hard to fix!”
“Hells below,” Claire screamed as the image on Doc’s crystal showed the horde of insects descending on the third floor. “The new slime must have copied the leaf munchers’ high reproduction rate and fused that with the slimes’ ability to multiply. Quick, Doc, you’re still in maintenance mode. Herd them!” Doc acted quickly, sealing the holes connecting the second floor to the cavern above.
“You two go on up. I’ll stay here,” Claire said to Anadine and Rowen. With Claire staying to guide Doc, the two bosses hurried away to begin the pest extermination.
“Doc, you need to stop them before they overrun you,” she said seriously. “They feed on mana, and your crystal would be the perfect food source.”
Unable to respond to Claire while concentrating, Doc’s crystal blinked as masses of slimes came into existence on the second floor. While in maintenance mood, the cost of slime creation was vastly reduced, allowing Doc to summon a mass of his tier two slimes to aid him. The two boss slimes quickly joined the ranks and took command of their respective groups. Under Doc’s, Anadine’s, and Rowen’s leadership, the vast mass of tier two slimes converged on the running horde of leaf muncher slimes.
Dungeon Wars Page 7
