Red blinked before smiling wide as he finally got the notification he had been waiting for. He had been hoping for quite some time for another of his minions to ‘ascend’ since he had missed out on helping them the previous time. Albeit he was dealing with the emotional fallout of the Raid, but that was beside the point. He had lost the chance to see what a good number of his fairies could have become, alongside the fact that they didn’t exactly have jobs yet aside from the witchlings. He flexed his fingers as the menu finished loading.
Azure has leveled up enough to ascend to a greater form! Please choose from the following:
Note from Ras: Due to your excitement, I have taken the liberty of omitting slime species that you have already gained. If this action was incorrect, please state it out loud.
Sumo Slime: Might and honor! This slime grows massive but loses its amorphous capabilities for the ability to push anything it wants around. This large slime is made for bouncing away enemies and knocking them down for other attackers to get cheap shots in. Speed and Dexterity are lost in exchange for strength and constitution.
Caustic Slime: This gustatory gladiator is capable of digesting anything at an extremely accelerated rate. Its membrane becomes even more thin for the sake of any material being pushed into it but leaves it open for attacks. It is often seen as a true threat to anything that does not have any kind of ranged attacks. Dexterity and Constitution were lost in exchange for Speed and Attack.
Bewitching Slime: Magic and Mysticism are hard for slime to understand, but the first lessons have begun to be imparted to this helpful creature. The ability to impart basic enchantments or buffs on people or items is all that it can muster at the moment, but this power can grow if used properly. Loss of Constitution in exchange for magical abilities.
“Oh, well this isn’t all that complicated. I was expecting more severe options.” Red muttered as he looked through the options, wondering what could be the cost and benefit of each option. The important piece was not the fact that he would be just getting one of these, he would get the option to make them a summonable monster. That meant he would want the utility of having multiple of any given ascension.
“Well, Azure is part of the labor team so that means they are a support role. The Caustic would be good for the clearing that they are supposed to do. Then again the Sumo means that Hacker might have a chance at not pulling the cart anymore.” Red muttered as he looked at the first two options, not entirely considering the magical option that he had been offered.
[Red, If I may?]
“What is it, Ras?” Red asked as he glanced towards a secondary menu that had opened.
[My recommendation is the Bewitching Slime, as it has the most versatility of any option you currently have. While it will not improve much, the ability to cast minor enchantments is invaluable. Especially considering that wards against specific types of danger would be useful for construction.]
“Huh… you know what? You’re right! That would be perfect if we could get some wards going that protect against the undead. It means that I don’t have to worry too much about the dangers outside. At the very least if they are minor wards I will be able to send someone out to help right away. Thank you, Ras.” Red said with a wide grin, having not been considering the magic potion. As someone who had a protective nature, it made sense that those options with immediate results would be more enticing. However Red was woefully lacking in magic users, and his dungeon was going to become very one-sided if the issue wasn’t corrected.
He reached out and tapped on the bottom option of the three, the confirmation window being a surprise, but then again Red was sure there were times when dungeons had accidentally pressed the wrong button in the past. He confirmed his selection and looked over at Azure as the slime was covered in glittering golden light, much like how Snips had been surrounded when he had ascended to his current gilded form. Red watched with bated breath as he observed the strange transformation, light blooming with reconfiguration and rearrangement. The power of the universe sliding into place to imbue this creature with magnificent-…
It just looked like a darker green slime with red orbs of oil floating around in it. Red frowned and pouted slightly at the fact that his first ascension was essentially to turn the slime into a glorified lava lamp.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Uh, Red? First, we can’t see when you have an ascension window open, and second, can you please give me some warning before you transform one of my workers?” Ivy asked with a frown as she walked over to her slime, the hard still floating half submerged. Azure hadn’t even grown in size from the transformation, instead still being just the average foot-tall height of the other slimes.
“Oh, sorry Ivy. I was just really excited about getting to ascend someone intentionally. I didn’t mean to make your workflow get disturbed.” Red commented with a frown as he approached, looking at the slime that was still digesting random materials that were being thrown into it. It seemed that it was going a little bit slower at its digestion, but it was still able to get the job done.
“So what exactly did you do to Azzy? They look different, but I am not noticing anything changed about how they’re acting.” Ivy asked as she took out a small sketchbook and began idly sketching ideas for Herc’s home. It looked like Herc was going with a sort of swamp temple feeling, stone and masonry that would need some support in the ground to make sure the shifting nature of the swamp didn’t pull the entire thing down.
“I made them a Bewitching Slime? I guess it means that they can imbue things with minor enchantments and wards. I thought that you could use some extra magic in your buildings to make them more safe for whoever is living inside.” Red offered with a smile, not trying to take full credit for Ras’ idea. At the same time, he was very much thinking about all the ways that a labor-focused enchanter could improve construction.
“Gotta say, I like that utility. What about you, Azure? What do you know you can do at the moment?” Ivy asked the slime with a smile, Azure and Hacker both stopping their work for a moment. Ivy had strict rules about chatting while working, especially if you were part of the heavy-lifting team like these two were.
“Mmm… make things fix themselves… lazy broken things do all the work. Scare off bad things… though not strong bad things. Stupid bad things.” The slime burbled bubbles as it spoke in the universal language of dungeons, the sound being akin to if pockets of air could form words as they were being compressed.
“Well. Their intelligence went up by a thousand percent. Previously all I ever got was ‘Yes, Boss.’ ‘No, Boss.’ and ‘Blurble’. So they are smarter and have at least one enchantment and one ward. So… success?” Ivy asked with a shrug as she looked at Red, not having expected much from it. Slimes were things that gradually grew, and the fact that they could speak at all was a miracle at times.
“At least that is something. Keep me updated on all of their abilities. Now that I have checked in on everyone, I need to start working on my second floor.” Red said with a sigh as he watched the slime do its job without any real differences in how it acted. He was about to turn away when he remembered that there was another task for the build team.
“Before I forget, and when you have the time, Velua needs a house somewhere on the first,” Red mentioned as he looked at her before realizing how tedious all this was going to get if he constantly had to tell Ivy about every building that he needed her to construct. “Actually. You have my permission to build any kind of homes or houses that the first floor needs.” He said before seeing the smile getting so big on Ivy’s face. The Architect began to bounce up and down with excitement.
“If we weren’t outside where a scream would attract monsters, I would be yelling at the top of my lungs!” She held back the shriek of excitement as she looked at him, nearly shaking with the fact that she was going to get to change the first floor to better suit the fairies.
“Well, it has to not affect the theme of the floor. It’s palatial gardens with a world tree, not the suburbs.” He warned as he looked at her, figuring that most of the houses would be beyond the hedges. The land outside of the garden was still growing from the [Weird] effect that was applied to the room. He was hoping that she would be able to start constructing homes for the denizens of the floor around there.
“Yes, of course. Fine and good, good and fine.” Ivy waved him off as she flipped to a new page in her sketchbook and began to frantically draw while her clear team continued their work. The remaining three walked around the job site both to make sure their coworkers were safe as well as to be ready for when they needed to get to work.
“Fair enough, I suppose,” Red said with a sigh as he understood that he wouldn’t exactly be able to get much more from her until she was ready to talk to him. He would let it be for now and continue on his work with the second floor of his dungeon.
He floated back over the grounds and through the porch before he was back in the room where he had begun the summoning timer for Ka’ron. There was a glowing sphere where the summoning timer was, it floating in place as he waited for her to appear. Thinking about it, and the fact that Ivy didn’t bring it up, it might be that those in the process of being summoned were as invisible as his ascension menus.
The room was still featureless aside from the table and chair he had summoned, a wave of his hand making the stone-cold meal disappear as well. There were still twelve hours on the timer before the Boss of the second floor was created. So it stood to reason that Red could easily make some of the changes to the rooms as he was wanting. Six rooms were the current limit for this floor, and that reminded him he needed an eighth on his first floor. Perhaps he would splurge and give himself a proper core room instead of a boss arena.
Needless to say, that was beside the point. Red cracked his fingers, satisfying popping sounds only coming because he subconsciously expected them to happen. He opened his menus, before beginning to work.