It had only been a few days of since traveling down south. The number of bone soldiers had grown to 57. Each day, Toki would used most of her mana to summon them. Drol had a toothy grin when he looked back at ‘his’ army, but will it really be okay?

The town that Drol wanted to go was always his initial destination to get his revenge on adventurers. Since it was a place where adventurers inhabited, it was the most likelihood he would die. With Toki, he might get his revenge and his life intact. Afterwards, he doesn’t know.

“Stop.” Drol said.

“Huh? Why?” Toki was puzzled while laying on Drol’s head.

Drol slowly turned his head to make sure Toki didn’t fall. “Come out! I know you’re following us!” But nothing moved and no sound was made.

Drol orders a couple of bone soldiers to attack one of the nearby trees. Before their swords made impact, a glob jumped out of the way and landed a few feet away of Drol.

“No fight.” A simple sentence was spoken by a slime!

Drol slightly opened his jaws in surprised. To his knowledge, slimes never spoken before…ever. Maybe his world view was quite small. His knowledge was only his experience and from his predecessors of his former pack.

“Jiggly thing!” Toki leaped off of Drol’s head and walked towards it.

“Wait kid!” Drol placed his paw on Toki’s back to stop her from going near it. He wanted to question the slime. Slimes came in a variety of colors and this one was transparent like water. It had a silver core within it. Actually, it had used camouflage on the tree. Once it escaped the bone soldier’s blade it changed it colors from tree bark texture to this. Isn’t it rare? A slime that can used camouflage?

This slime can be dangerous. “Why are you following us?” Drol growled and shown his fangs.

“Curious.” The slime responded in a monotone voice.

What?

It continued to speak. “Wolf. Tortoise. Undead. Together. Curious. Join?”

“Welcome to the party! I’m the leader Toki! And this meanie is Drol.” Toki spoke from under Drol’s paw.

“Woah, woah kid. You can’t decide this on your own. Aren’t you too trusting of this slime?”

“I can feel that this jiggly thing will be a good minion. Yep!” Toki nodded her head in self-satisfaction. She had a new play thing!

“…” Drol began to think the negatives and positives. But he gave up arguing with Toki. Having another companion might not be bad thing but the fighting potential was hard to evaluate.

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The slime was the size of a basketball. It jumped onto Drol’s back and it extended part of its body like a tentacle and grabbed Toki. The slime placed Toki on itself and wrapped a part of itself over Toki like a blanket. Drol thought it was gonna devoured her, but Toki smiled and didn’t look harmed.

Great. What am I? A horse! Drol thought.

***

Back at the goblin's home base which Toki and Drol left, three young people came upon it.

Shoji had already investigated the insides from the tops of the trees, there was no living being inside.

Shoji, Geo, and Heri entered the goblin’s camp and searched around. It’s a complete mess and that chair made of flesh and bones was ominous. Each of them searched through multiple tents and found nothing worth noting.

“I can’t believe it was close.” Heri commented.

Their village was one mile west of the Kokuri Woods because they could use resources from the woods despite the danger. Yesterday, they decided to stick close to the river as a marker back to the village. They assumed it was the same river that was close to their village.

They searched high and low but no clues to the ‘mastermind’ of the attack or the magic user that killed Shoji’s brother. There was a dead corpse of a goblin shaman but Shoji was skeptical that it was the same person.

“The trails runs cold. It was fun but our families must be worried sick.”

What did Shoji just heard? Was Geo ending this search? Shoji’s eyes blazed and glared at Geo. “What are you talking about?”

Geo spread his arms and spun in a full circle. “Look around you! There’s nothing here. We found an empty goblin camp with some dead goblin, what else?”

“Do you know what this means!? A bigger threat came and forced the goblins to serve him!”

“Will you search the whole woods trying to find him!?” Geo placed his palm on his forehead and tried to think of how to convince Shoji to go home. He and Heri came along to be Shoji's supporting friends and prevent him from doing something stupid.

“Look, I’m not telling you to forgive and forget.” Geo walked in front of Shoji and grabbed both of his shoulders. “If this threat is powerful, are you willing to put our lives on the line? This is something for the kingdom, adventurers, and heroes to deal with.”

Shoji’s heart shuddered. It been only a few days of searching, this was the end result. Nothing. If they continued to wonder around and came upon the threat, what then? He had magic but his resolved was shaking.

Heri came in Shoji’s view. “Please, let’s go home,” she said.

Shoji dropped to his knees in tiredness. Were they right? No!

“Then I will become an adventurer!”

***

Under the moonlight, Drol, Toki, and the slime were sleeping by a large tree.

It was early into the night, the slime and Toki squeezed themselves into Drol’s underside for warmth. A handful of bone soldiers went out and search the perimeter.

“Slime, why are you under my belly?” Drol asked.

“Curious.”

“It’s super cozy! Isn’t it Jigges!” Toki squealed. Since the slime didn’t have a name, Toki took the liberty to name it and the slime accepted it.

Drol just smirked and relaxed. He laid his head down and felt a certain kind of melancholy. “Hey kid, where your parents?”

“What parents? What are they?” Toki popped her head out of her shell and stared into Drol’s eyes.

“The mother who gave to birth to your? Um, laid eggs? Raised you?” Drol’s voice had a hint of concern, if not curiosity.

“Mother? Raised? I raised my myself! Hmph!” Toki withdrew her head pack into her shell. Drol was loss at words and wondered if it was just him not understanding the ways of the tortoises.

“Concern?” Jiggles said.

Drol ignored the slime and went to sleep.