Chapter 7: Destruction of Private Property!
Huh?
What the? Why is everything so different?! What just happened?!
Somehow my surroundings had changed, one moment I was laying atop my minions sitting beside a wall wanting to sleep, and now, I was resting atop a throne made of bricks and surrounded by tree limbs and other pieces of disgusting refuse with my minions nowhere in sight!
Then it hit me, My complaint to sleep, IT HAD ACTUALLY PUT ME TO SLEEP! Leaving my minions without their father or guidance to protect them! Had they all died? Were they fighting? Where did they go?! Did they abandon me?!
These thoughts flooded my mine as I wiggled back and forth and opened up my dungeon menu.
[Dungeon System Interface!]
[Name: Hiro Dungeon]
[Level: 1]
[HP: 7000/7000]
[MP: 480/1000]
[EXP 230/500]
Tamed Monsters: 1/10
Pylons: 0/5
[SKILL LIST]
ONE?! ONE?! WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL MY MINIONS?!
Immediately feelings long dead began to ignite within my rubber body, feelings of panic, fear, and anger. Someone or something somewhere had attacked my precious employees! Destroying all my hard work that I had spent hours to find!
I released a squeak, one of anger that bounced off the walls.
SLIMEY! SLIMEY ARE YOU THERE?! I called out, opening the minion menu where my metaphorical jaw dropped.
Name: Slimy
LvL: 3
Species: Elite Mutated Cleaning Slime
HP: 120/120
MP: 20/20
Skills: Dissolve LvL 3. Slime Shot LvL 4. Solidification LvL 2. Bounce LvL 2. Physical Resistance LvL 1. Blend LvL 1.
HUH?!
Upon reaching out, I suddenly felt the throne of refuse beneath me move, the colors of the trash fading away to reveal green sludge shaped into trash.
SLIMEY!
At my call, the slime completely revealed itself, the once tiny slime now a large goop of green with multiple red cores swimming around in its ten foot tall jelly.
Protect. Master. Slimey sent back, the creature using a new word that brought tears to my metaphorical eyes.
OF COURSE! How could I forget?!
Immediately I could see now what had happened as the large slime wiggled back and forth. My collection of minions had merged! Fused. A natural course for slimes in too close of a proximity.
Stolen story; please report.
Suddenly an ingenious idea emerged as I eyed my minion counter. The system recognized Slimey as only one entity. Meaning…
Ha… ahaha. AHAHAHAHAHA! EXCELLENT! EXCELLENT! OH YOU BEAUTIFUL DISGUSTING MONSTER!
At my compliment Slimey wiggled, the monster reacting to my emotions.
Slimey! Fetch me more slimes! AHAHAHAHAHA!
[You have laid claim to a minion!]
[What is this creature's name?]
Slime eighteen obviously.
Days passed in the sewers, each day spent adding new additions to my collection that would be used as a sacrifice for Slimey’s ascension.
Oddly, there seemed to be less slimes in the area, fewer than there should be as I shuffled around my domain sending Slimey to encase and trap new slimes.
Unfortunately, no matter how many compressed and kept together, the slimes didn’t seem to want to fuse, leaving me frustrated and annoyed. I even tried hibernating again to see if I would be greeted with a nice surprise of another elite slime but alas…
What am I doing wrong?
I turned my attention over to Slimey, the ten cored big green blob beneath me surrounded by nine tiny blobs.
Oh. Oh wait, I’m a dingus. OF COURSE they wouldn’t fuse! I didn’t have enough slimes! UGGGGGGH all this wasted effort!
My little rubber duck body deflated a little.
The only way for me to gain more minions slots was to create pylons and fulfill the quest requirement. Yet I was stuck because I didn’t know how to create a pylon, what a pylon was, or what it would be used for.
If only I could just look at a space and say Create Pylon and be-
Suddenly my entire body shook, my senses flickering from existence for a moment as my domain shook and something bubbled up from the ground!
My beak squeaked, body quivered at the sight of the glowing pillar that rose out of the cobblestone and connected with the ceiling, the new twisted structure of brick and vines reinforcing my sense of self and domain.
[PYLON CREATED! COOLDOWN 59:54]
IT WAS THAT EASY?!
I suddenly felt the urge to cry. Days of trying to figure out what a pylon was and how to make one was instantly solved by me just willing it into existence.
Alright! SUPER SLIME MINION! HERE I-
An intruder. I could feel it. A monster setting foot into my domain and revealing itself from the fog of darkness.
It wasn’t a slime, it wasn’t a bug, but rather, it was the bipedal crocodile that I had pinged from before during my scout mission.
Oh boy… The description of what my squeakerlocation had pinged didn’t do the monstrosity justice now that it was out in my domain. It was hunched, seven feet tall, the greenish brown monster standing on thick hindlegs that connected to a large upright scaly body. Along its skin were bags of puss, infected scales that began from its milky eyes to its blackish tail and a skin pouch beneath its neck that was filled with some substance.
It was walking towards me. Heading in my-no! My Pylon’s direction!
HEY! HEY! GO AWAY! SHOO I sent to the creature, my slimes already spacing out and forming a wall of jelly to defend me.
Yet it ignored me, even ignoring my attempts to dominate its mind as it walked casually by and punched my Pylon, collapsing it into a pile of rubble.
HEY! WHAT GIVES?! I squeaked in fury, the monster continuing to ignore me and my slimes as if we weren’t a threat, as if I weren’t even worthy of being acknowledged! Frustrated, I reached out, attempting to dominate it once more, yet somehow, it didn't work, an invisible barrier of some kind prohibiting me from doing so.
Eventually it wandered off, disappearing into the shadows to leave me behind and fume.
No no no. You’ve had a thousand years of isolation Hiro, you’re fine. Everything is fine. What’s an hour of waiting?
I sat there, staring at the Pylon timer, counting down the seconds until I could finally proceed with the quest. Despite it only being an hour, each second was akin to a minute, each minute, an hour. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have been staring at the clock but when you are a rubber duck, there's not much in the way of entertainment.
[PYLON CREATION READY!]
Finally.
Pointing at an area in my domain, I willed the creation of a pylon which within seconds the ground was twisting to create a new one.
YES!
The crocodile came back
NO!
The monster emerged from the shadows, lumbering directly towards my pylon.
SLIMEY! SLIMES! ATTACK!
I sent my minions forward, my little green goops bouncing around and attacking the creature who merely swiped them away in annoyance. With one well placed strike, two of my slimes were immediately out for the count, the creatures now stains against the sewer wall with their fractured core shards falling into the floor.
My heart? Sunk as my minion counter went down, the brave little slimes doing no tangible damage against the monstruous monster I dubbed Crocotauer.
Slimey moved, the large slime wrapping itself around the crocotaur that seemed to get angry before tearing Slimey in two and finally reaching its destination.
My Pylon.
COME ON! WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?! I screamed as the croc destroyed my Pylon and slinked back into the shadows.