The screech pierced the ears of the entire party. Made up of two human swordsmen and a mage, they were faced off against one of the most superior species of slimes: the Kingsguard Slime. Capable of localized hardening and decorated with four spear-like ornaments stemming from the top of its body that double as weapons, the Kingsguard Slime is a rare Monster only ever found in areas that are both extremely dense in Beelze Particles and must be created by another Monster capable of summoning magic.

“Damn! This was only supposed to be an extermination of some normal slimes! Why’s there a Kingsguard?!” The human swordsman acting as the vanguard of the party rhetorically questioned as the Kingsguard Slime violently fluctuated. Going over this three-man party we have Ser the solo Vanguard troop of the party, Gourd who acts as a guard to rear support, and Lyos the mage who is guarded by Gourd while she uses spells to support Ser. Gourd quickly spoke up, being the party’s leading expert in the nature and biology of Monsters.

“Kingsguard Slimes are Monsters that can only be summoned by other Monsters capable of necromancy therefore it classifies as a form of undead Monster.”

“Meaning?!” Ser shouted as he desperately avoided the hardened spears coming from the Kingsguard’s manually shrunken body–as to allow its spears to have further reach.

“Meaning that holy magic will work against it,” Gourd answered before turning his attention to Lyos, “Lyos, I recommend using the Holy Light spell. While offensive spells would work against the Kingsguard, it wouldn’t be as effective as something that can cover its entire body.”

“Alright,” Lyos said before beginning an incantation, “Ankh. Brass. Cross. Holy Light!” A ball of golden light appeared above the head of Ser causing the Kingsguard Slime to reel back in pain as its rays of radiant light beat down on it. The Kingsguard’s once translucent, platinum body began to harden in response to being exposed to the Holy Light.

“Ser! If you cut off its hardened parts now it won’t be able to regenerate!” Gourd quickly shouted to Ser in the front.

“Understood!” Ser responded before dashing toward the slime and cutting off one of its hardened spears. As he landed back onto the ground, Ser quickly turned and cut off another of its spears before backing away. The Holy Light spell didn’t have a long effect simply due to the fact that Lyos wasn’t religious in the first place.

“Should I cast another?” Lyos asked Gourd.

“No, Kingsguard Slimes are unique in that they can transfer information from surrounding Beelze Particles in order to gradually build up resistances from possible threats. Now that its ability to fight is impaired we should make a retreat. After all, we were only here to exterminate an infestation of normal slimes,” Gourd explained to Lyos, “Ser! Did you get all of that?!”

“Huh?! Y-Yeah!” Ser responded as he continued to narrowly avoid the Kingsguard’s attacks. Just as Ser began to run away to catch up with the retreating Lyos and Gourd, a flash of gold followed by an explosion blasted the three off their feet and into a nearby bush. As the dust settled, Ser took the initiative leaping out from the bush with his sword drawn and checked on his party members. “Oi! Lyos, Gourd, you guys ok?!” Ser, his face still turned towards the site of the explosion, used his spare hand to scrounge around the bush in search of his party members. Grasping at some kind of rough material, Ser took a firmer grip on it and tugged on it.

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“Ow! Hey!” Lyos shouted before slowly emerging from the bush, “Don’t pull on my foot like that!” As it turned out, Ser had grabbed Lyos’s ankle when her leg was contorted in a way that many may describe as…uncomfortable.

“Sorry, sorry,” Ser quickly apologized before moving on, “Where’s Gourd at?”

“I don’t know, I think he got sent farther away than us.”

“Hm. Alright, then it’ll be just the two of us.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The Kingsguard Slime was at the center of that explosion, but I don’t think it was produced by it. We are going to investigate what’s happened to the Kingsguard.”

“Wh-”

“Let’s go,” Ser unintentionally cut off Lyos as he began to approach the slowly dissipating tower of steam where the center of the explosion had taken place. His curiosity had overtaken rational thinking, prompting his desire to see what happened to both the Kingsguard Slime and the flash of gold just prior. The vegetation surrounding the two had been burned down to nothing but either ashes or burn marks vaguely resembling what was previously there. As the two got closer, Lyos pointed out an oddity.

“We don’t know what caused this explosion, but it clearly hasn’t been caused by magic seeing as how it's producing steam. However, the circumstances here also aren’t enough to cause a natural explosion. So, what caused this?”

“I’m not sure either, but I think the cause of it is right here,” Ser concurred with Lyos’s assessment as the steam covering the crater fully dissipated and the coagulation of golden light and the translucent body of the Kingsguard Slime came into view. The golden light quickly disappeared amongst the constantly-warping body of the Kingsguard before its translucent body slowly solidified into the body of a ghostly pale, entirely nude male paired with a head of shoulder-length, platinum-colored hair. As well, the spears that once decorated the Kingsguard Slime were now stemming out from the head of this unidentified man. “What on earth is this?” Ser questioned in a moment of unbridled confusion and shock, only to be interrupted by Gourd’s sudden reappearance.

“Ser! Lyos! Look at what I found, it’s a rare species of docile Monsters known as a Gemfl- What happened?” Gourd followed Ser’s gaze towards the unconscious stranger in the crater.

“Shall we take him back with us?” Lyos asked Ser.

“I’m not sure, we don’t know if he’s a kind of Monster.”

“Humanoid-type Monsters are incredibly rare though. The most common appearance of those kinds of Monsters are as Dungeon Masters.” Gourd informed Ser.

“Hm. We could also just lea-” Ser cut himself off as he noticed a quiet voice coming from the stranger sleeping in the crater.

“Mmh…Where…Millie…”

“Well, I guess we’ll take him with us,” Ser concluded–his curiosity once more taking over his rational thoughts–and he and Gourd took him up on their shoulders and the now four began to make their way back to town.