“Tell him, ‘a fox in a cave’,” Robyn whispered to a bird. The small raven looked around for a moment. It tried to process what was just said. [Speech: Animal] translated Robyn’s words, but the bird still needed to have a high enough intelligence to act upon those words. The two stared at each other for a moment. The wind continued to blow, and the tree’s shade offered protection from the sun’s intense rays. Today was the start of one of the summer’s harshest heatwaves, but the team still opted to train. Robyn repeated herself, explicitly avoiding the use of her command skill. She wanted to try leveling up her speech skill by simply talking more. Genesis, however, preferred to acknowledge a different ability.

“NEW SKILL [ENHANCE ANIMAL] ACQUIRED.”

The skill immediately activated, and the raven started to fidget. Its basic thoughts slowly became more complex. Its vision became clearer. The wind beneath its wings became lighter. This little raven felt like a whole new bird. It spun around several times on Robyn’s shoulder, cawing with glee. The eager bird wanted to prove itself and searched for its target. It took less than a second to spot Nicholas in the middle of the field. He was taking refuge under a lone tree, and a slime was slowly engulfing him. The raven fluttered its tail. Its wings spread open. Within moments, the raven was racing down the grassland.

“A fox in a cave,” the bird said as it tried to stop. It wasn’t used to its improved body, so the poor raven zipped by its intended target. It had to make a large circle before returning the man who was still being eaten by a slime. Panicked wings flapped as the raven tried to find a good place to land. The curious bird hopped over to Nicholas. Initially, he was staring off into space. He was at peace in this heated environment, but that changed the moment he heard the raven’s words.

“Dang. I was hoping she’d take longer. Cuatro, show the others a fox in a cave.” Nicholas said. He was sad to see his cooling towel leave, but it was better to finish the day’s training before it got any hotter. Cuatro, the slime, schlepped off of its master’s body. The inside of its gelatinous form returned to its acidic state, rather than the chilled water-based fluid that Nicholas requested.

Cuatro hopped around as if to stretch out the soreness from its previous activity. Expanding to engulf an adult human is difficult for a normal slime, but Nicholas proclaimed it was all in the name of training. The raven remained with Nicholas while Cuatro bounced away. The slime steadily made its way to the edge of the Evergreen Forest, where two familiar faces were waiting.

“Password?” Xander asked as a slime approached him. Unfortunately, the slime that belonged to the team was indistinguishable from the slimes typically found in the area. Because of this, the group decided to teach the familiar a unique trick. This was used as a sort of password system. Now, no one could blame Nicholas or his slime if they mistook a random blob for an ally, which has already happened…more than once.

Cuatro bobbed up and down before contracting on itself. This particular trick required uninterrupted attention. [Change Form: Color] started after a few seconds. Cuatro first turned purple. Then, the color faded to a vibrant red. Then, an interesting orange. Before long, Cuatro was shifting between every color of the rainbow. The gradient change continued until Rex acknowledged the slime.

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“Good. What’s the message?” Rex asked. He knew what the training was about. It was the team’s first attempt at constructing a communication network. Theoretically, the four would be able to communicate without needing to be near each other. These messages could be used for a variety of things such as surveillance or attack coordination. Mobile communication had the potential to reshape how the team operated. The only problem was that neither Rex nor Xander could speak to animals. To address this issue, Cuatro would act as the middle-man (or middle-slime) and relay whatever was said.

The slime bounced around for a moment as it formulated the best way to convey the message. It first used the skill [Change Form: Shape] to morph into a basic four-legged animal. Trying to emphasize the first word “fox”, Cuatro constructed small little ears at the top of its head. The blue pseudo fox started to run in place before Cuatro hopped into the air. The slime flattened upon landing before rising with numerous spikes. The central spike stood at the tallest height, and an opening formed along the base of the formation.

“A goat on the mountain?!” Xander called out to his friend that originally sent the message. He turned his head to the side to spot Robyn further down the forest’s edge. All three groups sat evenly spaced out and formed a triangle. The training they were doing was important, but it also felt like a simple game of ‘telephone’.

“Nope! Run it back! We’ll try something easier!” Robyn shouted back to her comrade. She didn’t know what phrase could be easier, but she’d have to think of something. Cuatro could only express so many details about a scene. There had to be something that the slime could relay. Once she snapped out of her thoughts, Robyn noticed that she was now surrounded by a conspiracy of ravens. Each bird was eager to be her next messager and get a much-desired upgrade.

“Can we go home yet?! It’s hot out here! We could do this back home between our rooms!” Rex said, complaining so that everyone could hear. He saw no point in the train on that day. It was one of the hottest days. Why would anyone train? Not to mention, this sort of training could be done between rooms. The four already lived in separate quarters. It shouldn’t have been hard to send a bird to one and roll a slime to another.

“We live in a tavern that adventurers frequent and is run by ex-adventurers! They’d pop Cuatro the second they saw it!” Nicholas said. Monsters of any size were eliminated immediately. The crowd that drank at The Feral Tomcat wouldn’t be keen on asking questions before stomping the poor slime’s lights out. Of course, Nicholas could explain the situation and summon a new slime. He just didn’t want to lose his little buddy. Plus, he wasn’t sure if the new creation would retain any of Cuatro’s memories that were skill-related.

“Let’s at least get it right once before we go home!” Robyn said with an assuring voice. She also didn’t want to stay outside any longer, but it wouldn’t feel right to leave without some sort of progress. With two sins gone, things were bound to get worse for everyone. They needed to be ready.

“Fine!” Xander and Rex replied in unison. Rex scooped Cuatro from the ground and readied his arms. He aimed for his partner down the field. An exaggerated step forward was needed to hurl the slime. Cuatro flew further than expected, probably because it was rather light. It twisted in the air to look around, seeing more than it could ever dream. The team looked like ants from this height. The wind felt blissful against its gelatinous body. Nothing could ruin this moment…

Except, for the massive eagle that plucked the curious little slime out of the sky.