Over the vibrant slopes of the Honeydew Hills and through the eternally twilight forest of the Starlight Woods, a simple but sturdy covered wagon persevered through the sleet and shine of the Stalwart Republic’s countryside. It stumbled on the unbeaten trail at times, the barely laid path filled with the beautiful imperfections of nature.
And yet, it continued onward, never swayed by the trials and tribulations between it and the lauded destination it had in mind.
At the helm of the wagon was a figure with long bright red hair that fluttered in the wind behind her, a long floral coat joining the hair in the windswept dance. A confident, easygoing smile stretched across the young lady’s lips, her hand firmly around the reins of her trusty companion, Dog the Ox.
Dog was an intrepid soul, the young lady knew, and never one to be dissuaded by even the most fiercest of enemies! Unless, of course, they were truly terrifying like a snake or perhaps a strange noise in the woods.
“Come on, Dog!” The young lady cheered him on. “We’re almost there! Our new home!”
The ox continued on, fettered by leather, but still within his own right to choose the speed he went. The young girl didn’t try to force it, anyway. He was her lone companion for the last few months of travel and she wouldn’t want to burn her last bridge.
Soon, Dog pulled the young lady and her covered wagon around the last stretch of trail, breaking out from the dense, but otherwise mundane and boring forest they’d been traveling through, and out onto a hill that overlooked a most wondrous sight.
“Oh wow, Dog,” she cried, pulling him to a stop for a moment, “Look at it! It’s beautiful!”
Dog chewed on a bit of grass as the wagon came to a rest and completely ignored what had gotten the young lady so excited.
A bright, multi-colored plains that was sewn with the beginnings of a rainbow-tinged forest behind it, the distant kaleidoscopic creek that threaded throughout the area, possibly leading to a lake somewhere in the midst of it all.
The Sea of Dew Forest, one of the many wonders of the Stalwart Republic, was known for its colorful landscape, every color under the sun having some speck of place within its vibrant earth, and the amazing alchemical ingredients that could be found on the outskirts of the northern edges.
Of course, here at the southern edges, such ingredients could be found as well! This area just came with one small addition that had scared off many looking to settle down in the area.
“Look, Doh!” The young lady jumped onto her feet, “There they are!”
Dog did look up, mostly due to his owner’s movement making him think she wanted him to get ready to move forward again.
And so, he completely missed the beautiful morning sight of small little orbular blobs beginning to leap and jump from their grassland bushes or hidden troves throughout the Sea of Dew.
The slimes of the Sea of Dew.
“Oh by the gods, they’re amazing!” The young lady practically fell back down into her seat, grabbing Dog’s reins, “Go! Go!”
Slimes were one of the many monsters that ran wild throughout the land, but the species of monster had no wider variety in appearance and capabilities than within the Sea of Dew. Within the colorful groves and vibrant waters, the slimes seemed to evolve and diversify with such strange results that it was hard for even the most valiant platoon of the Stalwart Republic’s soldiers to hold ground for long.
Because, at the end of the day, the slimes within the forest could get kind of bizarre.
“Look, look, Dog! It’s the web of a spider slime!” The young lady pointed towards the branches of a distant cyan pinetree, the remnants of gooey silk crisscrossing amongst the arms of the strangely colored flora.
The spider slime couldn’t be seen at this sight, although the young lady knew that they were a more hostile slime. It wouldn’t be wise to approach them before she got set up and had the proper equipment ready.
A half hour later, or by the young lady’s estimate, an eon, Dog finally finished descending down into the plains that bordered the Sea of Dew, slimes beginning to curiously watch as they entered into the home of the vibrant blobs.
The young lady gave them all friendly waves, not that many of them could truly understand the friendly intent behind them. Some of the slimes, slightly more developed in their lifetime, waved small little nubs back at her, mimicking the strange hand movements.
“I just wanna pick ‘em all up and cuddle them,” the young lady squealed. “But, no, gotta calm down for just a bit. Dog? Look out for an old building, it should look kind of beat up. Maybe a little crispy too.”
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Dog continued forward and did no such thing. He wasn’t even really sure what his owner was particularly asking for, but she hadn’t stopped him yet, and so, he would continue. Although, he certainly did not like how some of the slimes were eying him up.
He knew predators when he saw them.
The young lady suddenly pointed, at the edge of her seat “Over there! I think I see it! Dog? That way!”
With a small jostling of his reins, Dog began to turn at his owner’s request towards whatever she’d seen. All he was really looking forward to was a nice rest, they’d been pushing it since early dawn and at quite the quick pace.
“I knew I could count on the Resplendents to build something that’d stand the test of time.” The young lady pulled out a few documents from a ragged satchel bag, “Can you believe they were trying to power a giant laser with slimes? That sounds crazy!”
The gleam in her eyes, although, as she read through the old and tarnished reports of the Resplendents’ findings betrayed her interest in that exact idea.
Traveling through a few of the vibrant trees of the Sea of Dew, the young lady grinned as the building she’d been looking for finally came into view. With metal and glass panes making up the smooth inclined walls of the research bunker, the old research center for the Resplendents had withstood the test of time.
“Wow,” The young lady stepped off of her wagon as Dog neared the new abode. “It really does look good, doesn’t it? And if it looks this good on the surface, I bet the basement’s gonna be pristine!”
Dog chewed on the grass and made some discontent groans. The grass was strange in the Sea of Dew, which made sense considering it’s off-colored pigment. And yet, grass was grass, and the ox soon returned to silently chewing.
“I’ll still need to set up a place to sleep though, probably not a wise idea to go getting shut-eye in the ruins of some crazy experiments, you know?” The young lady began to take crates off the back of the wagon, her eyes glancing around at the few slimes that were paying attention to her.
She smiled, excited to see she wouldn’t be lonely in this place.
One slime, although, got her attention in particular. A sluggish little slime of a gray hue that seemed to be slumped onto the ground, it’s blob deflated as it’s despondent little face stared out towards nothing.
[https://i.imgur.com/2rybIRn.png]
Keeping an eye on the little slime, the young lady grabbed hold of one of the larger boxes on the back of the wagon and picked it up, easily setting it down onto the ground, before walking over to it.
“Howdy!” She squatted next to the little slime, feeling an aura of energy emanating from the small little creature. “My name’s Mickey McDowell, I’m from the capital.”
The gray slime seemed to stir slightly, wiggling as it tried to move away slightly, but Mickey made to grab at it. The slime suddenly burst with energy, a thick aura of gray washing over its surroundings and suffusing Mickey.
[Mickey McDowell resists the Aura of Depression!]
She stumbled a bit, her cheery demeanor slipping, before it came back with a start, “Well now, you must be a depressed slime! Let me make sure, so hold still!”
Picking up the slime without any more resistance, the slime resigned to its death, Mickey held the creature up and tapped its head, “[Identify].”
[Depressed Slime, Lvl. 12]
“I knew it!” Mickey placed the slime into her satchel bag, “You’re going to be my first new friend here, little guy. I’mma call you…Happy.”
Happy seemed to slightly wiggle at its new name, which Mickey decided to take as acceptance. Could slimes learn tricks? She’d certainly find out soon enough!
Heading back to her crates of supplies, Mickey spoke to her captive audience, “Well, Happy, this here is my new plot land. I got it cheap, but that’s mostly because I didn’t pay for it. I doubt anyone’ll be by here anytime soon though!”
The slime in her bag jiggled at her confession of illegally using land, but that was mostly because the bag had bumped up against the wagon and sent a ripple through its body.
Loading her arms up with more supplies, Mickey began to space them out and around, “You see, Happy, I’m going to be a farmer and a really good one! Don’t really got much left, you know?”
The sounds of the hopping slimes of the forest were quaint. It was alien, in a way, how the only thing resembling the chirp of a bird was a nearby winged slime that sometimes gurgled when it hit one of the various trees.
“And of course,” Mickey said as she ripped the lid off one of the crates, “I’ve been dying to see exactly what kind of horrific weapons and crimes against the empire I could whip while I’m not planting tomatoes!”
Taking out her alchemical equipment from the crate and beginning to set up a scattered lab amongst the tops of her unopened crates, Mickey sighed.
“I’ll never understand what everyone dislikes about this part of the forest, can’t they see the best part of this place is the slimes themselves?” She shook her head. “I’ll guess I’ll just have to show them their potential myself.”
Picking Happy up out of her bag, she blinked at the burst of deadly apathy that tried to soak into her bones.
[Mickey McDowell resisted the Aura of Depression!]
She gave the slime a pat on the head, “Ok, Happy, that’s nice, but you’re going to need to be a higher level to affect me, ok?”
The gray slime jiggled, shamed by its own inadequacies and likely death.
“Aw, hey now. Cheer up!” Mickey had a feeling that wasn’t really an instinct the slime had, but continued, “How about you give me a few weeks and I'll get you a nice diet of alchemically-supercharged vegetables and turn you into a proper weapon?”
She took the resigned jiggling as a resounding agreement.[https://imgur.com/a/762Vlzz]