Another day, another expansion to my domain. I can feel my reach extend day by day by a few centimeters with my larger revenue of power, taking the reign of the terrain to do as I saw fit with it. It did not feel like it was new however, rather, it felt like it was always there, I just did not realize it. I felt like it would only go further a few centimeters more, but I could not complain. Defense in depth was the core of my guerrilla sort of tactics. More length meant more room for slimes to hide and seek invaders having to deal with the goo gauntlet even longer. I felt like a supervillain twinkling his mustache in sadistic glee expanding this vile design for my dungeon. Nothing is more infuriating than an enemy that constantly attacks, but never grants the chance for a counterattack, no matter how weak that enemy is. I was proud of it if you could not tell, despite it being a simple plan anyone could come up with. My pride over these small things kept my will from collapsing into lunacy and despair, being nothing but a scared cornered animal in an environment entirely different to its own. I felt like I was securing my place in the world, getting stronger and less vulnerable, gaining control of the reigns of my own fate. Leaving the silent misery of the corner and basking in the sun content.

Beezlebub and the core defenders played in the pond beneath me, which was deepened a few more centimeters to accommodate their larger sizes. The core guardians expanded their numbers a bit, a few slimes getting enough… whatever they need to evolve (I will just call it experience for brevity’s sake since it lined up with the roleplaying games I played in my first life)... and becoming larger slimes. I gained another firm slime, which I shall dub a defender slime, after I used it to block a mole-like monster with horns from escaping one of the holes of death. The theory that they evolved based on the situation they experience just before evolving. I am not sure if it is a conscious decision the slimes choose to perform whatever they are doing better or just a natural, unconscious change as result of certain conditions being present, but further testing should unveil more secrets.

Something else interesting happened however, I noticed that Beezlebub’s core is starting to dimly glow red. Perhaps it had been that way for a while, but with how protective of its core it was, I never got the chance to see it closely enough until now. I suppose this was a sign of growing power? If so, then becoming a slimy sun is in Beezlebub’s future if I have anything to say about it. Think about how powerful they would be then! He would not even have to touch the enemy to blind them, the light would do it for him!

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However, like always, life threw a curveball. Once again, alarms rang in my mind. I jumped a little, but quickly regained my composure. The alarm ringing became routine at this point. Just another wild slime or some shit I bet. Lazily scrolling over the mouth of the dungeon, my complacent apathy became horror and panic, there were people! They finally found me! The day was upon us! Defend! DEFEND! My dungeon rose from its previous torpor with the irregular, highly dangerous threat at the gates. Compared to before, compared to the dutiful calm atmosphere of before, now true aggression emitted from my monsters. They were ready to follow their instincts to fight and die for the core.

The visitors looked at each other pointing at something, breathing heavily and cackling with a certain melancholy madness. Both blood and tears stained their clothes and weapons while leaving a trail of red behind them. The first seemed to be a human male, I could not quite tell since his green hood obscured much of his face. He wore dark brown leather gauntlets, long boots, and breastplate over a green tunic and tan pants spotted with blood stains. On his side was a one-handed saber in a simple sheath. The second was very short, half the size of the first. Her ginger hair was tied into a ponytail and big round glasses hiding much of her face. She wore a steel breastplate with some sort of symbol with a white robe underneath. Clutched in both her hands was a staff taller than herself but had a short gladius on her back probably as a last resort to defend herself. She looked more shaken than hurt compared to the first. The final third one was some sort of lizard person, with large bulging eyes with vertical slits for pupils and tan scales with spotted black dots. If I had to compare them to something, it would be a humanoid gecko. They wore a black padded cloth gambeson with chainmail underneath, dark green pants, and brown leather boots. Slinged on their back was a crossbow and a quiver half filled with bolts. They seemed the most wounded with countless cuts and gashes. They heaved the heaviest of the three and seemed to be running on sheer willpower.

I honestly could not make heads or tails of it. Were they celebrating finding me? No, their laughter carried too much malevolence and sadness for that simple of a thing. Maybe they stumbled here accidentally after escaping something or someone? Maybe, but they seemed to be also excited about something when entering my domain and looked further into my territory with greed. They were here to do… something? Did they want to loot me? Or did they want to murder all my monsters for experience or something? Or was it to destroy my core and end me? It didn’t matter, either way, I had to repeal them and preserve myself. This would be my first conflict with the people of this world, I had to give a good showing at least to show that I was no mere walk in the park.