Robert lay on his bed in the semi-darkness of a small flickering light he'd conjured engaging in some post-coital spooning with Andrea. Bare flesh pressing in places, his arm tucked under her head, and her hair fanned out on the pillow. A lingering smell of sweat and semen filled the air.

Something inside of him was relaxed and at peace with the universe, while another part was telling him to hurry up and get out of there as quickly as possible. For the time, he ignored the second voice and lay there wrapped in and around girl. To say that it had been a stressful day would be a bit like saying Royalroad had a web fiction or two.

He could have stayed like that for the rest of the day, but eventually, the moment had to break. Someone pounded on Robert's door.

"Go away," Robert said.

"Robert, you've slept enough." It was Ahmed's voice.

Disengaging from Andrea was harder than he thought. Not the physical action of disengagement, but fighting against the psychological need to just stay in bed next to her small tight body. But he couldn't rest, so said "give me a second," and put on a pair of pants, a shirt, some socks and left his room.

"So what's the emergency," Robert asked.

"No emergencies. We just need you to get off your ass and be responsible again." Ahmed said.

"Can't Leslie or Huang handle things. I was busy getting busy."

"Sorry to interrupt your booty call. And you're right Leslie or Huang, or anybody probably could manage things, but people have started asking for you. They're hungry and want food, and since you put your foot down at lunch, Leslie thought you might have ideas about dinner. Plus Joan and I took samples of the river water, she has something she wants to show you."

"Did the two of you find the sewage and water pipes?" Robert said.

"Not yet. Joan figured it would be a good idea to check the water supply before we thought about pumping it into the pipes."

"Probably a good idea."

Almost as soon as they'd walked into the cafeteria, Robert was swarmed by people wanting to eat. "Look, we need a couple people who don't mind cooking regularly. At least one person with fire Magic. Someone who understands that we need to ration. Are there any volunteers?"

When nobody raised their hands, "That's what I thought. It looks like I'm using my light magic to cook hotdogs under a heat lamp for dinner tonight."

Robert unlocked the kitchen door. Rooting around in the thawing freezer, he found a box of lukewarm hotdogs and some buns. He dragged the box out and filled a couple of steel roasting pans with the uncooked dogs. Then he conjured a bright red light that had a steady heat.

While he was doing this, April and her boyfriend John came up to them and April said, "Robert, wait."

"What?" Robert said.

"We can do it. At least for now. Since this is an emergency. John's studying Human Nutrition and my folks ran a restaurant. The two of us were thinking of starting a food company after we graduate. We haven't taken any magic yet. We were thinking about what we wanted to do. But we'd like to help. At least for now."

"That's great April. It was John, right? Thanks. Anything you need from me?"

"Just hold everyone off while we go up to the rock to get some magic and skills. We've been talking things over and listening in to people who took the Magic Theory skill. Fire, Cold, Purify, Light, and Water, right?"

"Check. Maybe add some Nature too, for herbs and veggies. And thanks again. This is one major problem of my back." Robert said.

"Just keep it with the hot dogs for tonight. We'll start tomorrow." John said.

When he felt the hot dogs were warm enough, he took them out into the cafeteria and laid them out on the table with buns and condiments.

"What no sides veggies?" Someone asked.

"Ketchup is a vegetable," Robert said. "No more than two each, until everyone has had their fill."

Grabbing a couple dogs and sitting down over where his friends usually sat. Joan came over to him carrying two Nalgene water bottles and put one of them down on the table while placing the other on the floor beside her. The Water inside the container on the table was clear and filled almost to the brim.

"Ahmed said you wanted to talk to me about the river water? He said you discovered something. Something that wasn't the sewage pipes?"

"Robert, you said you have analyzed magic?" Joan asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"Then take a look at this."

Joan took the empty plate that he had used for his hotdogs and spilled some water onto the plate. Bread crumbs floated in the water, but overall it seemed clear.

"Use Analyze magic on the water," Joan said.

Humoring her, Robert cast analyze on the Water. As the magic finished, his viewpoint changed, and it seemed he was looking at the water through a low powered microscope. At first, Robert couldn't see what Joan wanted him to see. The water was surprisingly clear of particulate. He couldn't see any algae or dirt.

Then a blob moved into Robert's field of view. Then another. "Holy shit, those are big amoebas," he said.

"That's what I thought at first. Then I found this. Turn off the Analyze magic," Joan said, putting the second Nalgene bottle in front of Robert.

"Aren't you going to pour it out onto the plate?" He said.

"I don't have to, just look at the water inside the bottle."

Looking closer at the Water in the bottle, at first, he didn't see anything and then there was movement in the Water. Then he saw it. A huge Amoeba. At least 4 centimeters in diameter, and it seemed to move and reach out with a pseudopodium as it floated in the Water.

"Holy shit!" Robert said.

"Watch," said Joan.

Joan cut off the tip of her hot dog then cautiously unscrewed the top of the water bottle. Seeming to sense the motion the Amoeba's pseudopod reached up out of the water. Dropping the hot dog into the Water and quickly resealing the jar.

The thing flailed around the tip of the sausage. The Water splashed and before their eyes the tiny bit of meat dissolved into the Amoeba.

"Holy Shit!" Robert said.

"Ahmed said he thinks this is what is called a slime. Though strictly speaking, it doesn't actually seem slimy. You see why I don't want to pump river water into the building. We need to figure out how to kill these things."

Robert said, "They live in the river?"

"Yeah. They seem to like Water."

"Come with me," Robert said. He got up and walked over to where Darnell was sitting with his friends. "Hey Darnell, you said you had a fishing rod in the back of your car?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Wanna go fishing?"

"What? Right now, Rob?" Darnell said.

"Yup."

Darnell shrugged. "Sure, sounds fun. I'll be right back."

Joan said, "Fishing?"

"Sure." Robert said, "With hot dogs." He pointed at the water bottle.

They sat back in their chairs, and eventually, Sarah, Neil, and Leslie got out of the line for food and came over and sat at the table. Neil glared at him but didn't say anything. Since they were eating in silence, Robert said, "Who wants to go fishing?'

"Fishing?" Leslie said.

"Joan, show them the slime," Robert said.

Joan pulled out the Nalgene water bottle and had them look at the gigantic Amoeba like creature that she was keeping inside of it.

"And you got that from the river?" Neil said, temporarily putting aside his anger.

"Yeah. I wanted to test the water. I was expecting maybe some bacteria or some viruses we would need to filter out before we used it. Instead, I found these." Said Joan.

"There are more of them," Leslie said.

Joan showed them the other Nalgene bottle. "There are dozens of tiny ones in there. The biggest is around half a millimeter. Most are smaller. I got lucky catching the big one. I think it was trying to feed on the smaller ones."

"And you want to go fishing for them? Why?" Exclaimed Leslie.

Robert shrugged. "Experience? Slimes are usually beginner monsters. Thought we might have some fun."

Leslie shook her head and said, "Boys!"

"Mind if I get in on this. Sounds exciting." Sarah said. She had taken off her kendo gear and was dressed in a floral summer dress. "My dad used to take me bass fishing when I was a little girl."

"Sure, why not. Ahmed? Neil? You guys want to come too. I'll get some beer." They nodded.

"So we're going drinking?" Leslie said.

"Naw, hopefully, we're just blowing off some steam and having fun," Robert said.

"Then I might as well come too. I'll bring some wine coolers." Leslie said.

"Neil, Ahmed, Susan. Mind waiting here for Darnell. Tell him I'm getting some booze. I'll be right back."

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Robert ran back up to his room. Andrea was gone, he hadn't seen her in the cafeteria. She must have gone to whatever magical land women go to when guys aren't around. The smell of her was on the pillow. A faint hint of lilacs and oranges. Putting the pillow back down, Robert grabbed a backpack and shoved a dozen beers into it. He'd gone and bought a two-four of Molson Canadian just the other day, and he was gonna run out soon.

There had to be another way to get some booze. Maybe once they got established, they could make some. Worst case situation he'd read on the internet that you could make booze by emptying ketchup packets into a garbage bag, adding yeast, and then letting it ferment in a toilet for a few weeks. It sounded revolting and hoped it didn't come to that. Hopefully, one of the engineers or chemistry majors had a better technique.

When he got back to the cafeteria, Leslie and Susan weren't back, so Robert stood on a table and called out, "Did anyone take Frost Magic?"

Two people raised their hands. One of them was one of the guys he'd seen playing hockey on the green. "Mind using your magic to cool down the freezer in the kitchen so that our food lasts longer."

He led the guy to the fridge. Before they chilled it down, he put a couple more hotdogs into a ziplock. Most of the dirty dishes were on the dish cart. He would deal with that later. There were no more remaining hot dogs or buns, so he brought dishes he used to hold them back into the kitchen.

There was a chill coming off the freezer when he locked the room back up. He would have to come up with some sort of enchanting to keep the food longer. One more thing to add to the list. Or maybe he could shuffle that project off to someone else.

By the time he got out of the kitchen, Leslie and Susan were back and were standing around chatting with Darnell who was holding a nylon net and a rectangular protective case, and a tackle box. "I brought my casting rods and not my fly fishing gear. I haven't seen any insects so I doubt my flies and nymphs would work." Darnell said.

"We're using hot dogs," Robert said.

"What kind of fish?"

"No fish, we're going after slime."

Darnell blinked a couple of times. "Not with my good gear your not."

"Awe Darnell, come on, man. It'll be fun. I brought beer."

"Look, Robert, I'll give you some line and a hook. You can find a long stick to do it the old fashioned way. Call it Tenkara fishing if you want to be a hipster about it. But we're not using my good gear on anything that is called a slime."

"Just come Darnell, you'll see. You'll enjoy yourself." Robert paused, then said, "I think. No, I hope."

"Oh, I'm coming. This is bound to be interesting." Darnell said, heading towards the door to the cafeteria. "I'm just not bringing my good gear. Give me a minute while I put it in my room."

Eventually, they set out towards the far end of the cave. Instead of climbing up into the overhang area that Robert had climbed through earlier, Ahmed used earth magic to carve a stairway into the cave wall. Then he opened up part of the roof of the hole, so everyone could walk through without ducking.

While Ahmed was playing with rocks, Darnell went over and cut down a long maple sapling from the forest. Using his Bowie knife, he stripped off the excess branches until an eight-foot long thin pole was left. Then he tied some braided fishing line to the end realed out about 30 feet, then attached a hook, a weight and a bobber to the line.

"I'm not gonna bother using a leader," Darnell said to himself. "We're fishing for Slime. I mean, really?"

The group finally climbed up into the overhang and passage through to the lake, then down to limestone sand beach. Now that he looked closely Robert saw that there were slimes which had washed up onto the shore, and lay like squished and bloated Portuguese man-o-wars stranded on a Florida beach.

"So when you said we are fishing for slimes, what you really meant is that we are fishing for jellyfish?" Darnell said, "what kind of fun is that?"

"Did you see the one Joan had in the cafeteria. The way it went after the hot dog. These things aren't jellyfish."

"I was promised beers and wine coolers," Sarah said. She had set up a lawn chair and had her iPhone playing Taylor swift. Leslie sat in a lawn chair beside her, and she dug into her backpack and pulled out a couple of wine coolers. Handing one to Susan, she said, "Enjoy."

Robert handed his backpack over to Neil, and his beer was distributed as well.

After putting about a centimeter worth of raw Hotdog onto the hook, Darnell cast the line out. It landed with a small splash about 20 feet from the shore. The red bobber floating in the calm water.

A minute later, the bobber started to twitch and then submerged. The Stick Darnell was holding snapped forward, and the line jerked forward.

"Caught something!" Darnell said. "It's fighting."

"Bring it in! Bring it in!" Leslie yelled.

The fishing line was taut, but with no reel, Darnell had to pull the braided cord in by hand. It was harder than he thought. Whatever was on the other end of the line didn't want to come towards the shore, and was fighting.

Then as if suddenly changing its mind or at least changing the instinct to fight against the line, the bobber reappeared on top of the water, and they began traveling quickly towards shore. When it was about three feet out, a blob of translucent single cellular monstrosity appeared. It was three feet across and had Darnell's hook and Hotdog wrapped around a vacuole. Instead of a nucleus, it had a small gemstone.

The Amoeba raised a pseudopod out of the Water, and a fine mist of liquid sprayed the group.

"It burns," yelled Ahmed, who was closest to the Water had received the brunt of the spray.

"Leslie, heal him," Robert yelled.

"How?" She said frantically.

"I don't know. Fill him with life magic. Try putting body magic into him. Try something."

Darnell kept fighting with the Slime on the end of his fishing rod. Ahmed was rolling on the ground with streaks of blood across his face. Susan was pulling him back from the shore towards Leslie.

Robert let out a blast of lightning at the Slime. When it connected the Slime convulsed in the Water and retracted the pseudopod, it was waving in the air. Robert hit it again. And again. The Slime stopped twitching.

He turned to the group. Darnell was lying on the ground also twitching like he'd been electrocuted. Ahmed was further up the beach, but the lines of blood and acid-drenched skin was healing up quickly. Now Neil was rushing over to Darnell, his hands were glowing with white light, and as Robert watched, Darnell stabilized.

Robert sat down on the beach. This entire trip had almost ended in disaster. Some leader he was.

He turned to Neil and said, "How is he?"

"Good. Healing. No thanks to you. The electric current ran up the wet fishing line and zapped him. Almost stopped his heart." Neil said.

"This was a disaster," Robert said. "How about Ahmed? How is he doing."

"I'm okay, Robert. I used body magic almost as soon as I was hit and managed to fix the worst of the acid damage. Leslie helped out too."

"That was too close. Too damned close. I thought this would be fun. Combat is always fun in books and movies."

Ahmed said, "It hurt like a bitch, but I don't think we were prepared for this. We should have had Susan cast a force shield as soon as the Slime came in close. You should have not used electricity considering how Darnell was tied to thing. Or he should have been wearing rubber boots and gloves. But mostly electricity should have been a no-no in this situation. Too many minerals in the Water."

Ahmed pushed himself up from the ground. With Susan's help supporting his weight, he walked over to the Water's edge and examined the Slime. Digging into the electrically cooked creature, he pulled out the stone from the center of the Slime's nucleus.

"This looks like one of those experience stones to me," Ahmed said.

"If it is, we should give it to Darnell. He got the worst of this." Leslie said, and the group nodded.

"Hey, a blue screen just appeared and told me I got 12 experience points for my part in killing a young water slime," said Neil.

"Young water slime. I wonder what an old water slime is like." Sarah said.

"Sarah, Prophet tells us to never say something like that out loud, you'll jinx us," Ahmed said.

"I'm pretty sure that Muhamed never said anything like that," Sarah replied.

"It's in one of the lesser-known Hadiths. The book of stupid and unlucky things to do and say." Ahmed said.

"Sarah, what did I tell you. Stop making fun of Ahmed's religion. Besides, he makes sense. I'm feeling a whole lot less secure here. Let's get back into our cave." Robert said.

"Robert, I'm just saying that I probably know more about Islam than Ahmed does." Susan countered.

Darnell had snapped out of it by then, but they helped him and Ahmed back to the cafeteria all the same. They took it slowly, and Robert frequently looked behind them to see if a slime had emerged from the water and was making its way across the lawn in their wake.

They made it back inside and sat down at one of the tables.

April came up to him almost as soon as they sat down and said, "We're pretty much out of Water. People wanted to get some from the river, but I told them it wasn't safe. People are getting thirsty."

Robert looked over at the rest of the table, they were exhausted. Leslie was carrying Darnell's branch and fishing line.

"There is the water cooler in the main offices?" Robert said.

"They were supposed to get a delivery today, so there were only 2 full bottles and about a third that was in the dispenser. That's all gone now. Claudia used her crowbar on the two coke machines, and on that note, someone else smashed the glass and stole all the candy from the candy machines." April said.

"Nothing we can do about the candy. I'm not about to institute a dorm by dorm room search for nougat, and a couple of Coffee Crisps. Have a bunch of people bring the empty water bottles and the dispenser over here. I have a couple points in Water magic, so I can probably refill the bottles with fresh water. And this is a nice central location for everyone."

April nodded, "I should have thought of that. I took a couple points in Water too. I'll go get John and some of his buddies to help."

Darnell took off to the Species Stone to see if he could get any experience out of the gemstone he'd received, Robert would have gone too, but Fiorello, Fatima, and the other Leslie all came up to him and said, "Robert we want to kill you."

"What!" Robert said. "What did I do now?"

"We've talked it over, and we want to kill you for experience. Like you did for Neil. Nobody else wants to let us kill them."

"No fucking way," Robert said. "Absolutely not. That was a one-time thing. I was testing a couple hypotheses. Dying hurts, and I've decided I want to do it as little as possible."

Neil said, "They could go fishing for Slime. I got 12 experience points from that. If they kill enough Slime, they could get a class."

Robert thought about it. "It was really dangerous. I was thinking about giving you guys some of my spare experience. I have like 12 left. That might be enough to hook you into the system."

Neil said, "We can probably figure out a way to make it safe. We just didn't know what to expect."

At precisely the same time Leslie said, "You can withdraw experience points? How. Why didn't you say something."

"Leslie, didn't you see the word Remove on your character sheet? Click that, and it asks you how much you want to take out. I took out 15 and got two small gemstones. One worth 10 and the other worth 5. Hell, after the conversation I had with Andrea, I was thinking about using experience gems to set up an economy. A gem worth one experience point is worth one dollar. Or something. But I needed a way for people to generate experience first. And I also needed everyone to settle in." Robert said.

"If you had that all planned out, then why did you make me kill you," Neil demanded angrily.

"We need people who can leave the dungeon. Some of those people never want to come back. And I wanted at least one person I trusted to be part of that group. Besides, and in the future, we might want to establish trade and diplomatic relations."

"You could have asked. You can't know how I felt when I thought I'd killed you. And then you came back as if it was nothing and all that guilt and shame I felt suddenly became meaningless. Like you had thrown it back into my face. Robert you really are a mother fucker."

"Thanks, Neil. Glad you care. Has anybody seen Akiko recently? She hasn't been around."

"I think she was in the Library when I killed you and overheard what you said. She got to me really quick, and she seemed angry. I haven't seen her since." Neil said.

Robert sighed. One more friendship he'd damaged. He would have to find a way to make it up to her.

Ahmed and Darnell came out of the chapel, and Darnell announced, "I got 24 experience from that slime."

"Robert, I was thinking…. What if we create a modified fish trap," Ahmed said.

"What do you mean?"

"We use earth magic to make a section of the lake that Slime can get into easily but have a hard time getting out of. Then we put some bait. In crayfish traps, they use chicken guts. We could try something similar. Then we leave the trap overnight. The next day, we take a few people who have destructive magic. Fire, electricity, that kind of thing, and we blast all the slimes in the trap. Then we force the Water out, gather the gemstones and fill and bait it again for the next day." Ahmed said.

"Who would get the experience?" Robert asked.

"The people who were around and helped out," Ahmed replied.

Robert thought about it for a bit. "No. It sounds like a good plan, but we need to stretch out those experience point gems a bit. The people who helped out get 70 percent of the experience gems they take. The other 30 percent goes to a community tax to help level up the people who cook for us, who are working on reestablishing the plumbing and electrical systems, to level up our healers and farmers, that kind of thing."

Ahmed nodded, "I can live with that."

Robert said, "We definitely need someone with book-keeping skills."

"So what's up with Andrea?" Ahmed asked. "I thought you were into Claudia."

"Andrea just sort of showed up and claimed me. Not sure how serious it is yet. I haven't seen her in a couple of hours, and I don't feel like going to look for her. If she wants me, I'll be around."

"Ahmed, would you mind it if we went and you used your earth magic to make a bunch of those tiles, and then carried them back here. I was thinking about spending tomorrow enchanting lights for everyone." Robert said.

"Sure thing. I was going to go out and start working on a slime trap, but that can wait. Are there any milk crates in the kitchen we can use?" Ahmed said.