"Now that we have some new armor and a weapon for you Garrett, I think it is about time we head out to deliver that package for the guild quest." Blixie said as she kept staring at her new bracers. "Unless there is something else you want to get?"

"No, I think I'm good. Let's head out to Lakefall." Garrett responded as he started walking away from Pangolins Protections with the morning sun in his face.

"Hey Garrett, Grandma Jenny said Lakefall was east not west." Blixie called out.

"Oh, thanks Blixie." Garrett said sheepishly. "Guess I still have a few things to learn about your world." The group headed off east through the small village and passed under the gates with a wave from the guards. A wide, flower filled field greeted them with a well-worn road heading off over the distant hills.

A few hours passed by quickly while the village slowly grew smaller behind them. The field of flowers slowly thinned out until only the rolling hills remained with a few trees and bushes here and there. "I think we are far enough away from town for others to not hear us." Kyle said. "Man, it was hard to not talk that whole time. We have got to come up with a reason that would explain how I could talk with people. Any ideas Blixie? You know this world."

Blixie looked over at Kyle while she floated along on a light breeze. "The only slimes that I have heard of talking are usually humanoid in shape, and even then, it is more of just a mimicry to lure in prey or unwary adventurers. No real intelligence behind it."

"What about a magic item, or a skill? Oh, maybe I got cursed and my body got changed into a slime?" Kyle said with a hopeful voice.

"As a slime I don't even think you can use a magic item. A weapon maybe but nothing that could explain why you could talk." Blixie thought for a moment. "The curse angle could work as long as we don't run into anyone that can examine magical properties since they would sense no curses on you." She sighed in frustration. "I'm sorry Kyle. For now, you will just have to stay quiet while we are around people and play the part of faithful familiar, at least until we come up with a better idea." Kyle sighed in disappointment. "Cheer up Kyle." Blixie quickly said. "As adventurers it wouldn't be weird for us to be out of town and away from people for long periods of time."

"That helps I guess." Kyle said. "But if I'm only talking to the two of you it's going to get a little old after a while. No offense."

"I understand. When I was first assigned to Garret, I didn't think he could talk." Blixie laughed. "I had resigned myself to a couple of boring years waiting until we could talk. Even after we started talking it would get boring sometimes since he would just lose himself in making his dungeon."

"It's not my fault I would lose time while making things." Garrett chimed in. "I'm pretty sure that is just a dungeon core thing."

Blixie chuckled. "Oh, it definitely is a dungeon core thing. At school we were told about a dungeon so focused on creating and modifying their dungeon that they went about twenty years without talking to their guide."

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"Well at least we might have someone else new to talk to soon, if they will start talking." Garrett said.

"What do you mean?" Kyle asked.

"Well, so far there have only been two things I couldn't pick up with my Unseen Force skill. My core and the bottle you were in. Since you couldn't touch the shield, I figured I would try, and my skill just slid off like it wasn't even there. So maybe it is one of our friends that reincarnated but I haven't heard them talk at all."

"Well, even if it is one of our friends maybe they can't talk since it is a shield. Right?"

"That makes sense I guess, but I haven't even felt it move or anything."

"Then maybe it is just a cursed shield and can only be picked up by something that could normally use it." Blixie said.

"Well, we will have to see about that later. I think I see a goblin trying to hide behind a rock off to our left." Garrett floated to the very top of his range and saw over a small set of boulders that had tumbled from a nearby hill. A small green creature the size of a child peered around the edge of a boulder. "Yup, I would say a typical goblin. I don't think it has noticed that I see it."

"If there is one goblin there are probably around five more hanging around." Blixie said calmly as she looked around for other goblins. Trees were scattered here and there with a few more clusters of rocks interspersed between them.

"A goblin? Where?" Kyle said loudly and quickly looked around.

The goblin jumped slightly in surprise thinking that it might have been discovered. It turned and ran toward the hills behind it.

"Looks like it saw us." Garrett said. "We should get out of here while it is gone."

"Might as well." Blixie responded. "If there were other goblins about, they would have attacked already."

Squelch, Squick.

The three had just restarted their trek when they heard a couple of sounds.

"What was that?" Kyle asked.

They looked around for the source of the noise. "It looks like you two just got shot." Blixie responded and pointed at an arrow poking out of Kyle and one out of the back of Garrett's puppet body.

"So that was what that feeling was." Kyle said. "I thought I had just picked up something again."

Squelch, Squick.

Another arrow lodged itself into Kyle and one into Garretts shoulder. Garrett looked back among the trees beside the road and saw two goblins with very crude bows. "Good time to try out that idea of yours Kyle." he said and quickly made two small dagger-like shards of rock from the ground and threw them at the goblins with his Unseen Force skill. The goblins yipped in surprise as one of the rocks hit the chest of a goblin and killed it. The other rock bounced off of a tree beside the other goblin. The goblin yelled something in a throaty, hacking language before turning around and running away through the trees.

"Looks like your aim needs work Garrett." Kyle said quickly before he formed his body into a ball and quickly rolled and bounced his way after the goblin. It took only a couple of seconds for him to catch up to the small green creature. Kyle bounced into the air and launched a tentacle at the goblin and pierced it through the chest. He then rolled back to Garrett and Blixie. "Got him."

"Great job, Kyle!" Blixie cheered. "Now where did that first goblin go?"

Garrett looked back to the rocks and saw the first goblin running toward the hills behind it. "Looks like it is running away to get reinforcements. We should go and finish it off before that happens. Maybe there will be a reward at the adventurers guild for killing these goblins." Garrett quickly made some more rock shards and launched them at the goblin. The shards flew quickly through the air but fell short by a few dozen feet. "I thought those would have gone further." Garrett said as he started chasing after the goblin.

Kyle and Blixie followed after him. They saw the goblin run into a small cave entrance hidden by some bushes. They would have easily missed it if they hadn't seen the goblin run into it. "We should be careful." Blixie warned. "We don't know what we could be walking into."