Soon after I left the mansion I encountered an animal, it’s body was like a deer, slender, with a long neck and it had a head with horns like a goat. The fight ended quickly, I dodge as it charged at me and then stabbed it with the knife. After it dropped to the ground I finished it with a stab in the head, so that it died quickly. That’s a big burden off shoulders. But while I was distracted with that a few other animals appeared, and I ended up running around trying to lose them, just like before.

Two days later, as I was following the river, I heard the distance sound of something clashing with something like metal, followed by a shout and a roar. I was about to head in the opposite direction but then I thought, “wait, that sounded like metal, and that shout was very human like…”. That was enough for my curiosity to take over and I headed straight for the sound. It wasn’t too far, I walked through  the forest for around fifty meters until I found the source of the sound.

Hiding in some bushes I stared at the fight between a tusk gorilla, with its body covered in glowing red marks, and a group of humans. A big, burly dude, wearing a very thick metal armor over something similar to a dark green coat, I think it may be padded armor. He was holding a tower shield in front of him, defending against the incessant attacks coming from the tusk gorilla. But even though the gorilla was bigger than him, its attacks didn’t even move him.

A man with orange, spiky hair, wearing a dark green bandana on his head, was to the left of the tusk gorilla. He had less armor than the big guy, only covering his arms and legs with metal over a dark red padded armor. He was holding his sword ready, waiting for the tusk gorilla to attack.

On the right was a woman, with long dark hair. She was, as well, wearing padded armor, this time black in color, accompanied by some metal gauntlets. Those three seemed to be the warriors of the group, since they were the only ones with swords.

Away from them there was another man, an archer by the drawn bow in his hand, with a brown cloak over him. I couldn’t see what else he was wearing, but if I had to take a guess, I’d say the same as the others.

Lastly, there was another woman with short, chestnut hair. She was the one that picked my interest the most. She wasn’t wearing a weapon like the others, she was carrying a wooden staff, carved with some intricate lines, and decorated with a gemstone, slightly smaller than a fist, in one end of it. All my knowledge told me one thing, she was a mage. But, different from what one would expect, she wasn’t wearing robes or anything like that, but similar to the rest, some padded armor and armored gloves.

The warriors waited for the tusk gorilla to attack one of them before they took the chance and slashed at it. For some reason, it always attacked the big dude, almost ignoring the rest. The battle ended when the archer shot an arrow and the gorilla fell flat on the ground. The arrow didn’t strike in any vital place, but it brought it down anyway, it must’ve been coated in a poison or something.

Afterwards something incredible happened. The girl with chestnut hair approached the gorilla and placed her hands on it. Then her hands began glowing and the red marks that covered its body began fading away, all the injuries banished as well. After that was done the group pick up their stuff and left the gorilla sleeping, and went on their way.

I stayed there for a moment, amazed at what just happened. That was definitely magic, and that girl was definitely a mage. The crystal from the mansion got me thinking about it, that magic was a reality in this world, and it was just confirmed. That got me very excited, could I use magic? I hope the answer is yes.

I noticed that they were gone so I quickly followed the direction they left to. Normally I would’ve stop for a moment to decide if I followed them or not, but my curiosity and excitement took over almost immediately. I kept a good distance from them, I didn’t want to get caught and ruin my chance to see another display of magic, also, I didn’t want to die. As I followed them, they began talking among themselves, it was a language I didn’t recognize at all, so I couldn’t understand them.

I followed them for a while, they easily dealt with all the animals that they encountered and every time the mage would heal them from what was making them all enraged, it made me wonder if they were here for that reason. Thanks to that they advance a lot faster than I did. They kept walking for a while and I noticed that whenever the number of animals would drop, they’d change directions and soon enough found more. This confirmed my previous idea, this guys are probably trying to deal with the source of the enraged animals. Should I lead them to the crystal? I’m not sure how they’d react to me.

 Eventually we reached a small open space in the forest, the canopy was still dense, but the trees were a little more spread. When the group reached the place, the dark hair girl suddenly stopped and dropped herself on her back, all in a very tired and dramatic manner.

- Jegir lela ors vileet oiblikk!.

Then she spoke those words. By the context and her actions, I could guess she said something along the lines of “I’m tired”, “let’s take a rest” or maybe “I’m hungry”. Then the guy with orange hair approached her and said something else.

-velm, deter for biidag. La osr haluns.

This was a little harder, but maybe he either said “get your ass up, we rested five minutes ago” or “sure, why not? Let’s have lunch”. It’s a hard choice, let’s see what happens. The rest of the group either agreed or disagreed with his comment and then began setting up some things. The burly man took a wood board from his backpack as well as a knife and begun cutting some vegetables. The orange hair dude set up the campfire and the girl with chestnut hair, the mage, used her magic to lit it up. I wonder how big it’s the range of her magic, because she can heal and use fire as well, it’s that impressive or common? Another question to add to the pile.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

After setting everything they started eating, they talked among themselves but without any context I couldn’t guess what they were talking about. Since I couldn’t understand them, I began making up their conversation myself. It started normal, and slowly became weird and amusing, then it became awkward and stopped making sense.

After a while it became very difficult to come up with things, so I started thinking about different things. Should I guide them to the mansion? They do seem to be here to deal with the animals, and they seem like good people, they’ve healed the animals after all, they could’ve easily just killed them. I turned to look at them and they were playing something like rock paper scissors, it didn’t seem important so I ignored it.

The next question was, what’s the best way to approach them?

Wait… The dark haired girl just turned to look my way, then got up and started approaching. Does she know I’m here? As she got close she slowed down and creeped her hands up, preparing to catch me. As soon as I saw this I started running the opposite direction, the girl shouted something as she jumps to catch me but I avoided her. She then started following behind me and before I knew it she was landing in front of me. She was about to catch me but suddenly jumped backwards, I used that chance to go back the other way. I wondered why she backed away and then remembered that I’m carrying a knife with me, she must’ve avoided that. She shouted some things as she chased me and moments later the rest of the group was after me. I tried my best to avoid them but I ended up surrounded, no way out.

They talked among themselves, there was some surprise in their voices so I figure they were talking about my knife. While they were doing that, I was thinking of anything that I could do to stay alive, but before I could come up with anything, the mage raised her staff and began chanting a spell. It’s this how it ends for me? Killed by magic in the middle of nowhere before achieving anything? I close my eyes as she casted the spell, waiting for it…

After waiting a little too long, I opened them again, I was still alive, the mage was still standing there and nothing seemed to happen. Am I impervious to magic? Nah, probably not, maybe she tried to heal me or…

-Eh, hello?

What? A voice? No way, did I finally became insane and I’m hearing voices in my head? The month of solitude has finally taken its toll on me? Where there even people here, or was everything just a hallucination?

-Eh… are you… ok? What are you?

Well, I’m as good as any insane person.

-Ehm, you are not insane, we are real.

I was about to say how that was exactly what a hallucination would say when the dark haired girl spoke to the mage.

-Is everything alright, Bri?

-Yeah, just… something unexpected. Can you guys give me a moment?

-Eh, sure.

To my surprise, I was able to understand them. Was it the spell that she cast? All but the mage went back to the campfire, and when I thought about magic, her expression turned a little surprised.

-Mmh, you know what magic is?

Eh, kind of. Wait, it this spell some sort of telepathy? Are you the girl in front of me?

-Yeah.

Wait, so you can heal, cure the animals, use fire and now you have a telepathic spell as well?! Are you a prodigy or is that normal?

-Well, most mages can use basic elemental spells, and this telepathic spell it’s used to heal the mind. I’d say I’m good, but not a prodigy. By the way, what are you? You’re smarter than any other slime, even any other animal, I’d say almost human.

Why, thank you. That’s a very nice thing to say.

-…

…

-So?

So, what?

-What are you?

What? Can’t you see? I clearly a giant, winged, red dragon.

-Umm…

It was a joke. When you’ve been an entire month, bored out of your mind, and being chased by blood thirsty monsters, you can’t let go the chance to have some fun.

-You are very interesting, very smart for a slime.

Yeah, I tend to have that effect on people.

-Have you meet other people?

Eh, no, it was just a joke.

- Well, that’s quite an odd behavior, tell me why are you carrying around knifes?

Oh, well, because they are pointy, and pointy things are useful for stabbing other things.

-Where did you got them?

Before I answer that, why are you guys here?

-We came to take care of the animals, I think you saw us fighting some of them, right?

Wait, you guys knew I was following you? Aw, and here I thought I was being really sneaky. Anyway, in that case I think I could help you out.

-How so?

Before I meet you guys, I was exploring the forest, and came across this big old mansion. Surrounding the mansion there are no animals, but, going out a little bit farther and you can’t walk a minute before you find some.

-That does sound very suspicious.

I can guide you there if you want.

-You’d do that? That’ll be great. We’ve been on this forest for almost a week looking for the source.

Yeah, my pleasure. It’d be nice to have some company, that way I can avoid becoming insane. Now, can you tell me how this spell work? Does it send an idea so we can both understand it or something like that?

-Yeah, that’s the basic concept. You keep surprising me.

So, that means I can do… This! And then I thought of the creepiest looking spider that my mind could conceive. That was followed by some high-pitched screams. That’s the best idea I had in a long time. I was laughing internally so much, that I didn’t notice when the rest of the group surrounded me, all prepared to attack. I’ll admit it wasn’t that great of an idea, still worth it, though.

Then they started talking. The big burly guy, said something to the mage. I couldn’t understand them anymore, probably my prank broke the spell or something. Guessing by the tone he was asking her something, probably “What happened?”. Then the mage started talking, probably explaining everything. By the end of it, she was slightly embarrassed, and when she finished, everyone let out a laugh, relaxing their swords.

Following that, the orange haired dude made a comment. I don’t know why, but I have the feeling that it was something rude. Then the dark haired girl crouched down to look at me, and said something as she turned to look at the mage again. I wasn’t sure what was going on, what a novelty, but then she extended her hand to me. I may not know what they say but this was a language I could understand. I made an extension, formed a hand at the end and we shook hands.