I now sit in my brass dish, in the basement where I had spent most of my time before. Next to my dish is a wide but shallow pan for water. Gizmo knows I burn off my hydration, and thus need to replace it.

Ever since we came back, I had been allowed to roam and explore. But I stayed in the basement, mainly because I had gotten to be a size I wasn’t use to. And judging by the density of my various lairs, I’ve come to a point where things would be difficult to operate if I simply condense things down like normal.

I ponder what to do, recalling everything I know about my body. Then I caught onto something. Having the ability to clearly recall everything, and hyper speed thinking is amazing. Whenever I eat something new, my core grows slightly. But then it also grows when I channel mana to it. And I get mana by dissolving things made of mana.

That forced imprisonment crystal was definitely a really high end item however. I don’t think I can count on something like that in the future. What else can I dissolve? My mind races through this life’s memories, and the last’s.

That’s it, I have a core. Those wolves didn’t, but maybe stronger monsters might have cores? Magic beasts in particular. It’s worth keeping note of. Now back to my body. I focus on the slime that I consist of. I stuff a lot of my mass into the density of my core membrane. Nothing feels to different, so that’s good.

I get out of my dish and roll around, using my outer membrane like a wheel, and then bounce around a little. Okay, things feel good. At that I focus on myself again. I hadn’t really gotten any smaller. I go back to my dish, allowing a tendril to droop off the side into the water pan.

I could enforce my outer membrane, but then id need a designated mouth. I guess it wouldn’t be that bad. Anything that breaks through would just end up in my stomach anyways. The only downside is that it’d take longer to repair. Though I guess I could repair it in a thinner state, then thicken it.

My thoughts are interrupted by a door banging open and steady foot steps coming down the stairway. Signs of Gizmo and his golems bringing down items. I watched as they came into view, and then was surprised when multiple crates where placed before me. I “look” up to him and twist the mass to the side, as if I was turning my head to the side in question.

“I’ve had these things laying around for a while now. Honestly, I have no way to dispatch of them, and I refuse to sell them. Not only could someone learn how they where made or function, they might actually use them. Please eat them. It’d be a large weight off my shoulders.” He says with a cringe. Ah, that's a mad scientists post nut clarity. I guess I’m about to eat some weapons of mass destruction. I wonder if this stuff is illegal as well.

I shrug and nod to him, hopping into the first crate. Dissolving, wood, metal, and crystals. Some of the metals will take much longer than others, and everything is heavily drenched in mana. The crystals where the cherry on top. It takes the better half of the day, but then I run into a problem. I had used a lot of energy. That is to say I burned through my mass. I could still wield it, but like dead skin, it needed to be exfoliated. I look around and find the closest container, which just so happened to be my old jar. I droop a tendril into it and release. It was quite a lot, I lost a third of my size. And now I was hungry again.

I look back to Gizmo who was watching with obvious intrigue. I try to form a tentacle and point to my self. He realized I was addressing him, but didn’t say anything. I took it as a cue to continue acting out my request. I starting rubbing my front in circles and motions like I was eating, best I could. He perked up and I withdrew my extended appendage.

“Ah your hungry. It seems you need a supply of organic matter to compensate for dissolving inorganic matter. Is that right?” he asked. I nod.

“Ah-hah! But it does look like eating those items granted you something.” He said getting up. He was right. Within my watery clear body, my cores nubs had grown slightly. I could feel it. My core was the size of a ping pong ball, and perfectly smooth. From what I can tell my core was orange, but it’s hard to tell. Like knowing your skin color, but trying to know your eye color without using a mirror. Magic sight it pretty cool like that though. The points where about half an inch, growing like stalagmites on the vertical plane of my decided orientation.

He seemed to be observing my core as much as I was myself. After we were both satisfied he got up and announced that he’d be back. And with that I went back to my dish. I felt exhausted, and my body wasn’t responding as much as id like. He had come back with a small crate filled with seemingly kitchen scraps, but also a few slabs of good meat. I grow two little arms and wave him onto me.

“Hah, that tired? All right.” He said tilting the box onto me. I take it in and I take it all in. I dissolve it nice and slow, no need to waste energy speeding up the process. Gizmo watched for a moment before going to his usual work station. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I heard papers and tools shift around. And with that I meditated on my meal. I was more exhausted than I have ever been before, those blue and pink metals really took it out of me to dissolve. But I focus on myself with mana sight and “smile” to myself. My core was growing.

I was snapped out of my meditation by Gizmo coming back down the stairs. It appears to be the next day. He opened a sack and placed it in front of me. I saw various crystals, but these ones where different. The other gems on the tools, and the forced enslavement gem seemed to be natural with mana put into the, enchanted in other words. Questionable so with the forced enslavement crystal, but the mana did feel foreign compared to what it was stored in. These seemed to be crystals perfectly attuned to the mana that was in them, or possible, they made the mana that resides in them.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I give Gizmo a inquisitive look.

“Monster cores, I wonder if they’ll help you.” He said. I got out of my dish and plopped some of my mass in the bag. The cores where slurped up into my body and I began dissolving them. One thing that seems certain now, is that converting magically inclined materials into the proper material for my core seems to take mana. I’m not some powerful being now that I had eaten all these items, yet it’s being put into me. That is to say the conversion process both costs mana, and distills the mana.

In other words, I’ll need a lot of material to achieve the results I desire. I sigh internally at the realization. Though these cores do seem to help. I cant notice any real difference to my body, but I know my core is better off.

“Interesting, I saw alot of mana loss, more so than with enchanted items.” Gizmo said lifting his goggles.

“If I had to guess, it’s got to do with the mana attunement. Some sort of conversion process?” he says. I nod to him. He looked delighted.

“Oh to have a first hand account to confirm my theories!” he cheered.

“Are you hungry again?” he asked. I shrugged back to him. The cores where easy enough to break down.

“Ah well then, how about you join me upstairs.” He said startling to walk off.

I did so. The rest of the tower was actually pretty nice, not as bad as the underground mad scientist lair I had grown use to. It actually gives of wizard tower vibes. The rest of the day consisted of me following him around and watching him throughout his day. He worked on potions and magic circles up here. I had to mind myself in the library, since I saturate anything I come into contact with.

The Garden was pleasant. I felt the sun shine on me, it set some instincts off, probably because of the heat and nature of having a liquid based body, but as a human I felt there was about the same level of harshness. Don’t under estimate the sun. At least ill be able to just drink water, and not have to worry about a sun burn.

Things went on like this for a couple of days. If I didn’t know any better, he seems to be happy to have some one to talk to. He narrates his doings, and chatters during breakfast. I respond as earnestly as possible. It actually feels like he’s becoming a sort a parental guardian. I do keep some mental walls up however. I’m not about to subscribe to being in this old mans charming grasps just yet. But I think I could call him grandfather.

Some more time passed before it was announced that we were going back to the city.

“Now, I must remind you, these matches are death matches. I… am now reluctance to make you participate. But…” he said looking at me. I just nod at him. The way I see it, it’s free food, and real battle experience. Also if I wasn’t here, I could have been a slime in the wild, thus need to fight regardless.

“Okay then. I know you’ve been practicing moving lately. In retrospect, I suppose putting you out there the first time without knowing if you could move effectively was a gross oversight on my end.” He sighed. I gave him one of my shrugs and got on the wagon. The bottom had been lined with tanned hide for me.

The journey was simple and uneventful. More one sided banter, and sight seeing. The guards were alerted to my presence again. They seemed more agitated that I wasn’t restrained this time. But after a lot of choice words on Gizmo’s part, we were let through.

Instead of heading straight to the colosseum, we go by the market district, and he buys two goat legs for me. We get even more looks as I dissolve the meal, and were even stopped by the guards once. But after all was said and done, I found myself in the cell with the two golems, waiting our turn to fight.

I recall the practice that I’ve done, learning to move in new unique ways. From moving my mass around like a water mage whipping around their element, to a seeming suspension of gravity that give me a moon gravity like state. That one was fun, I have to both push my mass up, and pull my core up with my mass. It strains me a lot to do so however.

There is the more basic movements like rolling my outer membrane like a wheel, and my bouncing has grown more efficient. Aside from movement, I had grown more efficient with utilizing grown appendages. It’s still a stress on my core to to hold and form them. And aside from the initial blast of forming them they are more difficult to manipulate.

The sounds of a grumpy Gizmo pulls me from my thoughts.

“Listen, those bastards are doing something awful. They have three war golems, metal, enlisted. Prefabricated and bought golems shouldn’t be possible to enlist in these fights, yet somehow everyone’s looking the other way. You can pull out if you want to, those things are crude and lethal.” He spits.

At this I kind of just shrug. I’ve seen Gizmo work on these golems, and while the metal might be a problem, I’ve seen how they are put together. And if they’re more clunky, then I should have some leeway when it comes to inefficiencies to take advantage of.

“They are lethal, stupid sure, but powerful all the same. I hate to say it, but these two probably wont last long.” He said motioning towards his golems. I nod to him.

“There will be three of them. This might just be a suicide battle” he states. I ponder at that. I make a “arm” and point to my core, then to the golems, then to the arena. After a moment Gizmo seems to get something from it and smiles.

“As long as you have a plan I suppose. You better make it out of this alive. I won’t forgive you if you leave this old man on his own again” he said downtrodden. It’s funny hearing him talk about himself like that, and I just nod.

“Sigh, Okay then. I’ll be rooting for you. Show them what your made of.” He said turning and walking off.

“You know it’s just a slime right?” the guard said. He was amused and watching the whole time.

“Yea yea, but it’s no normal slime. I modified it’s core to be able to learn. You don’t think I would just bring a normal slime would you?” Gizmo lied. After all, Gizmo was known as a savant when it came to making intelligent golems, and modifying a slime core would be something he could pull off. But he cant. He stressed to me that he’s tried. And that he had recreated whatever he did to “make” me. It never yielded the same results. The ritual never yielded any results actually. I watched him perform it at least twice now.

After a while he had come back. He and the guard escorted us to the gate leading to the arena. I thought about the best way to deal with the supposedly bulky metal golems. Slow and clunky is how they where described.

They, I guess, would be the stupid muscle heads, to Gizmo’s elegant and agile vanguards. This should give me an opening. I am quite the fast thinker, and my body has no nerves that need to relay to my body what to do.

The only question I have is, How thick is their armor?