It was questing time. Her wisp guided her down towards the specific requester, a fellow who lived on the edge of the village. They lived in a little farm on a forest clearing, a quaint home surrounded by barnyard animals. Silver tipped chickens circled around grazing cows, cows that took their time to chew on the mana infused grass alongside their goat friends.

She moved past those animals and towards the front door, and with a knock, she met the fellow who wanted the slime dead. The moment the back of her hand hit the door, the door burst forth and a shout escaped from inside.

“Goddess-damned slimes! I’ll get ya!” they cried, and she stood and stared at the shotgun barrel pointed towards her.

It was a pump action loaded with mana crystal slugs, and staring down the sights was an unusual person. They looked left and right, then down towards Aria who waited patiently. The man wore a straw farmer’s hat and overalls. They looked fit for a hillbilly.

“Well, g’morning,” they said. “I reckon you aren’t a slime, are you?”

She raised her arms, revealing a pair of small, delicate hands that peeked out of the long white sleeves of her mage’s coat.

“That coat — you must be a mage! Awfully young, too, what’s up with that?”

“I am Aria,” she said, pulling out her quest sheet, “and I am here to take care of the slime problem, in exchange for those flame crystals — of course.”

“Perfect! Perfect!” and he marched out the front door, past his livestock and towards the back of his farm. She trailed behind along with a squad of shovel-beaked ducklets who waddled behind her.

“So, I reckon you saw the quest and thought to yourself that this’ll be an easy job, eh? Well prepare to have your preconceived notions blown away,” the farmer said. “This slime — this damned slime — it’s something else.”

“Oh? Go on.”

“Well, I got to say — this slime bastard’s made of tougher stuff. Normally, when you got slimes, all you need is to flail your arms around hard enough and they’ll come lumberin’ towards ya, makin’ it real easy to stab in the core with something like a pitchfork. This one, though, this one’s different.”

“How so?”

The farmer paused, then leaned in close to whisper, as if he didn’t want the nearby creatures to hear him speak.

“This one’s different. When it saw me, it ran away — and good Goddess, I ain’t never see a slime run away.”

A running slime? It was a strange image to take in, but Aria thought nothing of it. She reached into her satchel to pull out a trio of those explosive brews, her weapons of choice.

“I’ll take care of it,” she said, and Aria marched on ahead.

The farmer led her towards the end of a slime trail, and from then on, she tracked it like a bloodhound. It led her into the forest where wild animals and weaker monsters lived. The monsters, ranging from pebble golems that stomped around on the ground to bark geckos that clung onto the side of trees, camouflaging from both hunters who were after their skins to other monsters that preyed on them.

Humans were, in a way, a classification of monsters themselves. Every creature was a monster one way or another. It was a matter of EXP points that determined their worth and danger.

Aria herself was around lvl 6 and a half, but the wisp that surrounded her acted as a ward — scaring away monsters that would normally attack her with its massive lvl of 25. She hadn’t appraised Mister Arkos, but seeing as he was an old man, he had to be a high level.

The wisp fizzled with light, fluttering about her like a butterfly. It competed with Pen Pen and like a dog chasing its tail, the source of mana was chased by the creature born from its mana.

Then, all of a sudden, the wisp stopped and Pen Pen bumped into it — sustaining harsh burns that torched the fountain pen’s gold accents black.

“What is it, wisp?” Aria asked, and the wisp flew forwards, leaving behind a trail of glowing will o’ wisps.

She followed behind along with Pen Pen who shook off the ash on its fountain body, and trailing behind, she saw it — a mess of slime that glowed a slight rainbowish tint. She whisked it up with a finger, then examined it up to the sunlight.

“Slime…” she whispered, then pushed forwards.

Slimes were normally green or blue — or even red, if they were strong — but this was the first time she had seen a rainbow trail of slime. Tracking it forwards, she came across a strange sight. It was like a spider’s nest, but instead of webs there were trails of slime.

Slime, like glue, pulled together branches and lumber, forming a sort of lean-to shelter covered in leaves and built up with twigs. The wisp surrounded it, floating around. She took a moment to lean in and peek inside and there it was.

There it was. A rainbow slime. It hid inside a shelter, and when she saw it, the internal core of the rainbow mass turned to face her with a pair of black dots that made up its eyes. The two met eyes and the slime froze, then it did something strange.

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The slime turned to a strange shape, then slingshotted itself through the wall of its shelter. She couldn’t believe it. The slime was running away.

“Wisp?” she asked, and the wisp did as she asked — flying ahead to trail behind the slime.

It was surprisingly fast, using its slingshot technique to fling itself forwards and away. The farmer was spot on — it was smarter than the average slime.

The wisp flew on ahead, but when it got in the slime’s path, the slime did something strange. It turned to a strange shape, like that of a crossbow, then fired a projectile of slime — trapping the wisp and immobilizing it.

The wisp responded by shuddering, turning red hot, evaporating the slime and freeing itself. The slime continued to flee, but the wisp was hot on its trail.

For how high of a lvl the wisp was, it still was a simple creature — unable to strategize or think. It was up to Aria to catch the slime, and looking over to Pen Pen, she had an idea.

“Pen Pen,” she said. “Fly on ahead. Follow the wisp.”

The pen flew in circles before charging on ahead like a missile. The two worked together to wrangle the slime like sheepdogs and their flock. They led them towards Aria who carried her potion in hand.

The slime found itself trapped in a triangle attack, and at that moment, it did the unthinkable. It took the form of a bomb — fuse and all — and burst.

The wisp was soaked in slime. Pen Pen was smart enough to dodge behind a tree and Aria countered — destroying the projectile that flew at her with her bomb potion. The slime looked exhausted, having shrunken significantly after exploding like that. It was her moment to attack.

“Pen Pen!” she cried, and the pen flew over and sunk itself into the slime. The slime’s gelatinous body protected itself from piercing attacks, but she had already taken that into account.

Pen Pen did too, and with a twist, it opened itself up — allowing the ink inside to spill into the slime. The rainbow body turned black with the toxic ink and the slime shuddered, then slumped over.

Finally, it spat out its core which rolled away from the toxic body. With that, Aria took that core and looked the little slime in its eyes.

“I caught you.”

The slime had a look of exhaustion in its eyes, and before she could crush the core and defeat the monster, it did something she could never expect.

“Wait!”

She heard it speak.

“Wait! I’m not a slime!” it cried.

“A talking slime?”

“I’m not a slime! I’m a human!”

She paused, then tilted her head — intrigued. Clearly, it was not a human but a slime.

“I’m Troy — an adventurer — and I was transformed into a slime by an evil witch!” the slime cried. “I was exploring these woods until I met a witch who, with a spell, turned me into a weak, tiny slime!”

“Interesting. A talking slime,” Aria said, unconvinced. The slime teared up, spilling out rainbow tears.

“You’ve got to believe me!”

“Then tell me something only a human would know.”

“I —” the slime paused, then fumbled over itself, shouting, “Humans love to hunt slimes for easy EXP, and normally slimes mindlessly charge at them, making themselves easy targets! Knowing that, I had to hide! I needed to stay alive so I could find a cure to this curse!” and mid speech, the slime let out a shout.

Pen Pen had come over and worked together with the wisp to attack it, a form of revenge for getting slime on them.

“Gah! Tell them to stop! Please! My core is soft and delicate! I’ll die if they don’t stop!”

“Pen Pen? Wisp? Enough.” and the two backed off, returning to Aria’s side. The slime, tearfully, thanked her.

“Good Goddess, I’m saved. Little miss — you’re a saint, you know that? Showing mercy to someone like me — you’re too kind.”

“I’m too kind, oh?” and she turned to Pen Pen with a smile. Pen Pen pulled out a sheet of paper from her mage coat, and with it, it created a contract.

“I suppose you may be a human, but I’m not too sure.”

“I’m not a monster, I swear! I —”

“And thus, I believe this is the only thing I can do for you.” and Pen Pen wrote up a contract, one she handed to the slime.

“A contract to become… a servant?”

“I am the dungeon keeper, Aria, and I give you one option. Become my monster servant or die.”

The slime looked shocked, and being bullied by both Pen Pen and the wisp, it tearfully signed the dotted line with a hand made of slime. Signing was Troy Curtis, her first servant and her first step towards building a great dungeon.

The day came to an end, and with it, Aria returned to the dungeon with a handful of fire crystals in a sack. Following behind were her two familiars. When she made her way inside, she found that the dungeon was far larger than she remembered. New halls and rooms were built, all wired up with fire crystal dust.

Sitting in an office room was Gray, and coming in, she dumped the crystals onto his table. Gray, however, didn’t look impressed.

“What took you so long?”

“The shops were out of fire crystals so I had to take on a quest.”

“Ah, that explains it.” and Gray brought out a little bowl where he poured milk. Sulphur came over and lapped it up, a gentle sight after a day of slime hunting.

“So, what was it? What were you doing? I’m guessing the wisp helped you hunt, eh?”

“It did. Also, I brought home something else.”

Gray’s eyebrow perked, and Aria proudly dumped the slime core onto the table. Gray leaned in and met eyes with Troy, the slime.

“Meet the dungeon’s first guardian, Troy Curtis.”

“You… brought home a slime?”

“It signed a contract. Now it’s my servant for all eternity.”

“Slimes can’t sign contracts, young lady. They don’t have the intellect for that.” and Gray poked at the slime core, awakening Troy who let out a shout.

“Good morning, Master Arkos!”

“Gah!? It talks!?”

With that, Troy rolled over, as if it were bowing.

“I am Troy Curtis, a human cursed to become a slime by an evil witch!”

Hearing that, Gray looked at Aria suspiciously.

“Did you curse this Troy into becoming a slime?” and she shook her head no. Seeing that, Gray shrugged.

“Then I suppose we have a new member of the team.” and with that, Gray brought Troy’s slime core towards the water system. He placed Troy under the tap before pouring water atop him — allowing the slime to regenerate its body.

“Thank you, sir! I’m indebted to you!” Troy said, thanking him for hydrating him. Gray, however, grew a devious smirk.

“Indebted to me, eh? Then I suppose you could support us in some ways.”

Troy froze. The look on Gray’s face was devious — a bad omen.