Flipping over, Gi scrambled for the shore of the river in the direction that Poe flew to. His paw landed on a smooth river stone as he did and he palmed it into the pocket under his armpit.

"Look, I've got pockets!" A brief vision of Danna said as she pranced about in a pretty forest green dress. Not thinking this was one of the relevant visions, he shook the image from his mind and rose to face the approaching monster.

From afar, the monster looked much like the Goblin Hero had from when he picked his race. They were green and well muscled, but the differences became more readily apparent as they got closer. This creature was a head taller than Gi with spikes poking up out of their mouth and their long hair was held in many braids that hung loosely around their nape. A scar that ran along the creature’s neck and up to just under the jaw was visible even from this distance.

The female orc, as Gi was confident that's what she was, halted several feet away from him and she gestured at him with a teal bow of energy in one hand. It wasn't aggressively postured, but she wouldn't have her trait running if she wasn't ready to fight.

"Are you intelligent?" The orc woman yelled.

Gi considered how he should respond. He did need more information about this Stage, but her approaching so soon after he spawned was suspicious. "Close enough. Why?"

"I'm from a Coalition of Independent Monsters. We work together to try and pass the Child Stage."

"Good for you," Gi said. "Are you here to try and kill me?"

The orc sighed, shouldering her bow onto her back, and then raised her empty hands up. "No, I'm here to recruit you. We've got an open invitation for any independent monsters with better opportunities for any strong monsters. Are you strong?"

Gi thought about that. He'd done pretty well in the Infancy stage, getting the bonus achievement as well as a host of traits for him to pick from. If Poe counted as his strength, he definitely wasn't a pushover, but the orc in front of him had an effortless grace to her movements and it seemed that she knew how to use her bow well. The only weapon that Gi had was a rock in his pocket. If she was as agile as he was, he'd be hard pressed to win. His [Arcane Bolt] just wasn't powerful enough to go claw-to-claw with a dedicated ranged attacker. "Maybe," was all he said though.

She sighed again. "Why are you being so evasive? We’re trying to help."

"I don't know you."

"I'm Krayli, Scout Orc for the Coalition."

"I'm Gi for me and myself."

Krayli shook her head, clearly getting frustrated. "We've got a town in the hills near the westernmost spawn points. Information, working teams. Lots of useful resources for an unaffiliated monster. If you decide to stop being a jackass, you can head over that way."

Before Gi could say more, she loped out of sight. It was hard to tell from the distance, but she seemed slightly taller than he was and her long legs helped her move quickly through the plains back towards the hills. Once she was out of sight, tension seeped out of his muscles as he sat back down on the ground near the river. He needed more information and the fact that Krayli just so happened to find him when he was newly spawned felt more like new monsters were being targeted. If she'd just wanted to kill him though, surely she could have simply shot him? With her speed, there probably weren't many monsters that could catch her. Despite their conversation, Gi didn't feel he had any more answers about his task or his place here.

“What do you think, Poe?”

“Scary lady,” Poe said buzzing up and down beside him. Gi shook his head. It would be up to him to be the brains.

“Good talk.” He glanced around at the horizon. Other than the waterfall and river at his back, the main points of interest were the hills, the mountain, and the strangely enticing forest. “All right, Poe, I’m going to go check out this forest a little more. You fly up towards those hills and see what you can find out about this town Krayli was talking about.”

“Yes sir!” Poe started to zoom off, but he looked back hesitantly between Gi and the forest. "Uh, Boss, the Forest seems bad..."

He followed Poe's gaze towards the forest and again, he felt tiny whispers in his mind. Was it a good idea…? He blinked and whatever concerns he had disappeared from his mind. "It will be fine. You trust me, right?"

Poe hovered for a moment before he must have decided that his misgivings were misplaced as he shouted "Okay!" and zoomed off without another word.

Chuckling at his innocent subordinate, Gi used [Stealth] and began stalking along the river towards the forest. Using his Trait made him internally facepalm though, he’d never gotten full details around Poe’s own traits. If the two of them were going to survive here, he’d need to know all the tools available. It only took a few more steps before he had another facepalm moment.

He was an otter. Why the hell was he walking beside the river?

After his chagrin passed, he did a smooth dive into the water, letting the current speed up his journey towards the forest. His body, which felt agile on land, felt even more lithe and powerful in the water. The muscles in his tail flexed helping him easily avoid rocks or a small outcropping of dirt and plants.

Enjoying the feeling, he raced ahead, spotting another spot of reeds sticking up out of the water.

“Do a barrel roll,” a vision of Danna said, one hand raised in the air and another clasped around a strange looking controller.

With a grin, Gi spun, rolling out of the way of the tall reeds and just barely avoiding a bite from a monster that had shot out of their shadows. The creatures body was made of small silver scales that made it look almost eel-like, but it also had claws that laid tightly against its side. As its bite missed, those claws launched forward to grab him. A tiny scream escaped Gi’s mouth with a torrent of bubbles floating towards the surface.

Now angry, he palmed the river rock from his pocket and started bashing it against the monster’s head. The water slowed down his attack, but a few strikes still caused more blood to fill the river as the eel released its grip. It didn’t stop harassing him though, launching forward to try and bite him again. Gi had the timing now though and realized that its speed was deceptive from the way it coiled up to attack.

He dodged spinning around the creatures teeth. Before it could bring its claws to bear, he smashed its face with his rock again. As he suspected, he was faster. The monster would bite, Gi would dodge, and then smack it in the face with his rock. They did that several times until the monster started to look woozy, drifting in the water.

Before Gi could finish it off, it raced off away from him. Not willing to let it get away after it ambushed him, he chased it. In a full out swim, he easily caught it, pulling himself along its body and trapping it with his claws before it could get back to its home of reeds. It struggled mightily against his hold, but once he was over it, its claws couldn’t reach around to him. A few more strikes from his rock and it lay still.

Dragon Pike defeated!

1 Soul Orb received. Current Soul Orbs 2 of 30.

Feeling triumphant, Gi turned back to the surface to get air when three more Dragon Pikes darted out of the copse of reeds the first had come from.

“Shit!” He tried to yell, but it came out in a flurry of bubbles as he quickly swam towards the surface. As he switched directions, one of them just managed to clamp down on his tail. He flexed it and swam with his claws furiously, but the Dragon Pike was doing just enough to slow him down for its companions to swarm him. Like an idiot, he realized he had way more traits he could use from his time as a slime.

An [Arcane Bolt] launched from his hand into the face of the Dragon Pike. While it didn’t kill it, getting a bolt of purple magic to the face was enough for it to let go of his tail. The other two launched themselves around the flailing Dragon Pike, but Gi activated his [Speed Boost] and tore through the water until he reached the surface, launching out of it like a flying fish until he rolled into the grass, breathing hard.

He had a lot to learn if he wanted to survive. The Infancy stage had been simple in an every-slime-for-their-own type of way. Only those red slimes had banded together so for him and Poe to hunt them down had been simple. That didn’t seem to be the case here. In fact, there was a whole town of other monsters that had banded together if Krayli was to be believed.

While joining up with them might make sense, that idea repulsed him. He was the boss.