Gi froze staring at the injured crystal slime who he could have sworn had just spoken to him. His focus shifted throughout his perception sphere, but there was nothing else. Only the injured crystal slime.

"S-save me?"

It seemed less sure of his intentions the second ask. Still, both his instincts and his mind were intrigued by the talking slime.

SLAUGHTER. DEVOUR. Can you hear me?

The crystal slime flinched backwards, bumping into a stalagmite. "D-devour!?"

This slime's instincts were all wrong. Gi considered just eating him to put the little guy out of his misery, but another one of those flashes of memory held him back.

The dark haired woman wore a magnificent red dress with a light sweater over top. She sat at a small table with little bites of fish and rice rolled together in front of her. She spoke animatedly with a small glass of some kind of drink in her hand, sake, as she told a story. Across from her was who Gi presumed to be a follower of some kind listening to her parable. He seemed like a loser.

"So back in middle school, there was one bully who ruled over all the other kids. Whatever she wanted, we had to do. The good snacks in your lunchbox? Hers. A cool rock you found? That's also hers. Frankly, it pissed me off. So, what did I do? I started my own gang. Yep, I just gathered up all the kids that she'd bullied and picked on and cornered her on the playground. She practically wet herself apologizing. I didn't even have to fight. It was delightful. So that's why all my friends call me 'Boss' to this day."

"Sounds like an... apt moniker, Danna," the follower said. The woman gave him a rakish grin that shone with the kind of divinity that only a goddess could possess.

The memory of the dark haired woman faded. Danna, as he now knew her name, had been trying to show him something he was sure. But what could it be? She'd had a troublesome opponent and by grouping up, she was able to defeat them. Gi glanced about his sphere, but from the edge of the cavern as he was he couldn't see the red slimes that had been rampaging before. Should he team up as well? Is that what Danna wanted from him?

Gi's focus fell back on the quivering mess of a slime. This thing? Really? His instincts raged at the thought, but his mind came around. At a bare minimum, he'd be a good distraction.

Do you want to be in my gang? Can you hear me? Gi asked the other slime.

"Gang? Team up? Friends?"

Having intelligence was rare he supposed. Close enough, but I'm the Boss. I'm in charge.

"Boss? Follow you?"

It took a few more rounds of explanation before the slime got it and even more to figure out a name for the little creature. P0 was it's designation so he was going to call him Poe.

The survival time slowly ticked away as they had this conversation making Gi very eager to leave. He didn't know why, but he knew that he needed to conquer as many other slimes as possible.

YES. DEVOUR.

Well, his mind knew he needed to as well. The two of them set off around the cavern. Poe happily flopped along as Gi stayed in [Stealth] beside him. It wasn't long before they came across another slime. This one a strange violet.

As soon as Poe flopped into its sphere, it spun revealing a strange rune on the face of it's membrane. The rune glowed brilliantly before an arrow of arcane light shot out and struck Poe.

"Ah! Boss! Help, help!"

Don't just lay there! Charge it!

Gi took his own advice, flinging himself forward for a [Tackle]. The violet slime's membrane strained as Gi slammed into it. It turned to face him, rune glowing brightly, but before it launched another bolt Poe flew in from the side.

"Poe fighting!"

The [Tackle] cracked the slimes membrane as it was even weaker than he'd been at the start. Gi wasted no time and dove on it to devour it. As the slime's membrane continued to shrink, Gi shivered. Being the dominant slime felt amazing. His instincts practically purred as he cracked the final layer of membrane and started to compress the core towards his own.

A blow to the top of his head sent him spinning across the cavern floor. The core inside him spinning wildly before he could fully integrate it. He spun his focus looking for his attacker, but his eyes only fell on Poe who was right at hand. Had he betrayed him? Did he want the violet slime for himself?

"Boss!" Poe yelled and before Gi could do anything he was slammed again. Now alert though, he saw it this time. There was a flying slime that was dive bombing him. Gi rolled with the flying [Tackle] and used [Prod] except instead of a jab of his membrane, he tried to grab onto the flying slime. His membrane slipped off as the [Tackle] hit and his body was starting to feel strained. He could only take a couple more of those before he started leaking. The flying slime rose back up and turned to dive bomb on him again.

Gi's mind rushed for a solution. It mapped out its trajectory and slotted its lowest point and that would be difficult for it to change. Swiftly, he rolled backwards and then executed a [Tackle]. His timing was perfect. The slime rocketed away from him and slapped against the ground. Right near Poe.

Stop him from getting back in the air!

"Poe fighting!" He roared his tiny battlecry before leaping onto the stunned slime and using [Engulf]. As Poe started to wrap around the flying slime, Gi charged in. Before it was fully surrounded by Poe's slime, he fired a few [Prod]s to help the progress along. Once it looked like Poe had the foe in hand, he returned to compressing the extra core inside him.

Danna had been right. Having a gang was better. Without Poe, he'd probably have been taken out by the flying slime. Even with his well executed [Tackle], it would have been back in the air before he could have done anything. Who was Danna? Why was she providing him with wisdom?

Gi did the final compression on the violet slime's core.

Arcane Slime defeated!

Foreign Inherited Trait [Arcane Bolt] incorporated. Arcane Slime's additional traits converted to 2 Evolution Points.

As he incorporated the Arcane Slime, a rune appeared across his membrane. Looking at the size of Poe, it seemed that he was growing with each slime that he devoured. Gi continued to wish for a face so he could grin. With their new gains, they could continue their path of domination.

"Weee!" Poe flew past his head. The smaller slime was now a much better resource. That pulled him up short though. As much as Gi wanted to devour everything in his path, the more slimes he gave Poe then the better he'd be. His instincts railed against his decision to share, but between his own thoughts and the wisdom of Danna, he knew it was the best choice.

Come on, Poe. Let's go murder.

"Weeee!"