"Do you think it's dead?" came a teenage boy's voice.

"I dunno. Why'd it stop moving like that?" came another's.

"Slimes are disgusting. Just squish it already and take its Core," came a girl's.

A trio of adventurers looked down at an oddly colored Slime inside the Dungeon west of Eigach. Normally, a basic Slime was a rather ill-looking shade of green. This one had flecks of pink in it. Pink, of all colors. The first young man prodded its corpse with his sword.

"That just ain't natural. Tch! We should probably report this," said the first.

"Think we should catch it on fire to be safe?" said the second.

"Why bother?" huffed the girl.

"Because it's creepy. And this is supposed to be a floor for undead. What if there are undead Slimes?" argued the second boy.

"Good point," she muttered, before reciting a small spell to slowly roast the slimy remnants, "Please don't be a zombie Slime, please don't be a zombie Slime ..."

The first cleared his throat, "So, new girl, have you ever been to another Dungeon before?"

The first teenage boy turned to the fourth member of their group, a slender figure wrapped in an off-green cloak.

"This is the only one so far," was the reply, the tone a bit raspy for a teenage girl, but otherwise pleasant to the ear.

"We should find a good spot to make camp soon. Been hours since I got to sit," the second sighed with a bit of whine to his crackling voice.

"Can't believe the group mage has more stamina than our rogue," the third woman said sarcastically, "One backstab and you're done, eh? Wait till everyone hears~!"

The second hacked and coughed, "Y-you!"

"Settle down, you two," the first sighed, "How about you, newbie? You tired?"

"No, I'm good to keep going. If someone needs to rest though, we probably should."

The second turned towards the 'newbie', "Hey, thanks! These two just don't understand, it's stressful maintaining awareness and looking for traps or monsters."

Second put his arm around the fourth, closing the distance between the girl and himself before continuing.

"Don't worry, just give me a few and I'll be back up 'n raring to go! Stay behind me and I'll keep you safe."

"More like she'll stitch your ass up if you make more mistakes," the third said with a tinge of jealousy and teasing.

Second and Third quarreled for a little before First interrupted their squabble. Being the de facto leader of the team, First was the one who had to manage this little group. The four set up camp in one of the cleared out rooms, before pulling some food and waterskins out. The two girls simply took bowls and created some water directly. Voila, magic.

First decided to make conversation.

"Not often someone our age is able to do this type of work, let alone use Healing magic so well. And already level 10, too! Sure you ain't some runaway from a monastery or something? Maybe a princess from another country?" the young man finished with a laugh.

"—Yeah, fill us in! That was super impressive! I thought I'd split my head open and you were just all, 'Woosh!' 'n then it had already stopped bleeding!" said an excited Second.

"Now boys, don't bother her too much. It's impolite to ask a woman her personal affairs!" Third chimed while beaming.

Second made a snorting noise and rolled, "So does that mean I can ask you, Miss Flat-as-a-Board?"

The two argued and carried on for a while longer, as time passed. First simply shook his head and began maintaining his equipment. Second was nursing a small lump on his noggin, and Third was pouting while sucking down some vegetable soup.

Yet after a short while, an eerie silence overtook the party's camp. Second looked up and down the hallway, naturally sensing something was amiss before First and Third. It was quickly brought to their attention.

"There's something coming, that way!" he pointed.

A hint of worry had seeped into his voice. Third clutched a wooden staff before her chest, quickly tossing her things back into her bag. First had long since cleaned up his belongings. He stood ready, short sword and buckler at his front.

"What is it?" he hissed to Second, who could only whisper back that he had no idea.

It didn't take long for a clanking sound to begin resounding off the walls. Quiet at first, the rhythmic tink! tink! slowly grew in size. The entire party could now hear it echoing off the chamber walls.

Third finally decided she could take this uncertainty no longer. She created a ball of light, before tossing it down the hallway—directly towards where that unsettling noise was being produced.

And then, not even a dozen meters away ...

First's mind burst with fear.

"A-A-Abomination!"

Standing in tattered and rusting metal armor was an undead visage, empty sockets staring back at the four members of the living. The light cast an eerie shadow, showing cobwebs inside an eye socket, along with the rotted flesh that futilely clung to bone and sinew.

That light agitated the monster. It let out a loud, hissing shriek.

"SSSHHHAAAAAAaaaAASSSAAA!!!"

"R-Run!" was all Second choked out, before turning and realizing Third had already made a few strides before he could. Morale had broke, and the undead knight watched as its opponents fled before it. An odd sense of disappointment struck the beast before that sliver of thought and free will vanished.

The barely cognizant undead stiffened up again, before raising its rusted metal sword and shield back up. It smelled life.

One of the four was left behind, abandoned by the group.

Base urges propelled the undead forth, causing its bones to creak and chainmail to rattle. Fourth, the party's Healer, was still sitting on the floor. The undead's non-existent pulse quickened, as it grew a tad excited at the thought of slaughter. Small amounts of emotion stirred within it.

Fourth looked back towards the departing three, with a dull look in her eyes, before directing attention back at the advancing monster. It was obvious anyone in this situation would be greatly panicked. Abandonment.

And then, a sigh.

Yes, she sighed. Her shoulders slumped. Her fingers pinched the bridge of her nose, and she sighed deeply in annoyance. She even smacked her forehead once.

"Figures. 'We want to be the next group of heroes!', I think they said? Yet they ran away as soon as they saw a Zombie Knight? Such cowardice."

Her eyes drooped, before mentally signaling, "Roz, we ran into a Zombie Knight and the group fled. I don't think they'll be able to accomplish that thing you asked me."

There was a pause. Amalia watched as the Zombie continued shuffling towards her, absolutely no tension in her body. She took a few steps back. There was then a click! noise inside her head, similar to a phone being picked up.

"You said they ran away?"

"That's correct, yes."

Amalia felt Rozalin's mood sour over the other end of the Link.

"And what, they just left you alone?"

"Pretty much."

Amalia felt Rozalin's mood sour further. Normally she would say a prayer for the trio who'd abandoned her, but she lacked the empathy or energy today.

"Useless bastards! They sure talked a big game. It's just a single Zombie Knight, yes? The heck!?"

"Sorry. It seems my eye for people still isn't good." Amalia replied.

"Haa-... This is the third group. Whatever, don't worry about it. These things happen sometimes. Do you need me to swing by and help, or?"

Amalia drew her sword from beneath her cloak and put a little more distance between her and the shambling corpse.

"It's just one, I'm fine."

"Alright, just make sure not to accidentally get hit in the head. I can't fix your brain if it breaks."

As Amalia rolled her shoulder and was about to charge the beast, Rozalin quipped once more.

"Oh and make sure to leave the party. Even if you're EXP capped, no sense sharing with those idiots."

"Noted," the beastkin sighed.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

----------------------------------------

—And so, after a brief pummeling, the undead lay on the ground motionless. The last strand of thought that had passed through its decaying brain matter was, 'Why me?'

It had been subjected to severe blunt force trauma and indiscriminate violence. Bones and gore lay throughout the cave. There was even a severed arm that had been used to bash in the thing's skull.

The undead had clumsily charged and slashed towards Amalia, at which point she dodged backward and the skeleton overextended itself. While it still had an unnatural amount of strength, its recovery time was abysmal.

The teen girl quickly dismantled and made short work of the klutzy knight. She also took some of her frustrations out on the monster.

While an Undead Knight often had great strength and defense, it was about as skilled as a half-blind child waving a very large stick around. If you kept your composure, there wasn't much to them. This particular Undead Knight was level 14, yet its threat was disproportionately low to the initiated.

Amalia sat down beside the campfire. Wood was a scarce commodity in most dungeons, so magic was also injected into the fire to keep the branches burning longer than normally possible. She stoked it a while longer.

"... stupid mercs. It's like they'd never seen an undead before. We're in a Gods-damned undead-spawning Dungeon. What did they expect? Unicorns and Tinderflies?"

With a sigh, Amalia contacted Rozalin again.

"Roz, are you done for the day?"

A pause, "Hmm? Did you finish the undead already? Yes, well, I'm nearly done experimenting for the afternoon. The neurotoxin is going well, so I'm fine with taking a break. Want to have lunch?"

"... Yes, please."

With a small hum, the older woman's voice continued, "I'll make you something tasty since I've acquired a few good supplies. Meet me at home."

The girl grunted in response, "Ah."

Amalia picked herself up with another sigh, kicking out the fire and gathering herself. Rozalin had constructed and dug out a secret, underground base of sorts. They were basically living inside the Eigach Dungeon's first floor. There were two entrances inside the Dungeon itself, then another from outside in a remote, woodland location.

Amalia would take the outside one since she was alone and didn't feel like fighting through monsters or waiting for Rozalin's escort. The path back would be much quieter, but she'd have to see the guards outside and possibly her former 'party members'. That displeased her.

In a sour mood, she traced her way back outside through the ever-familiar tunnels. A left turn here, another left, a right, and she was back outside. When she saw the trio from earlier, she locked eyes with them from a distance and gave them a flat look with a frown, before walking off on her own. Their faces had been filled with shame and embarrassment, plus a touch of concern.

Time passed.

—"and then they just, just ran away!"

"That is rather disappointing. Well, I suppose if they fled after a single Undead Knight, then they won't be much help against the Floor boss. I'll continue working on some sort of AoE Skill that won't affect your body. The Necro Slimelings are showing promise, too."

Amalia sighed while drinking a bowl of the delicious, meaty soup Rozalin had procured.

"Do you really think I'll be able to unlock a good Class? I haven't been able to level up in over two weeks and it's making me feel agitated for some reason."

For someone who spent her whole life just to get to level five, it seemed odd to complain about such a thing.

"Absolutely," Rozalin quickly replied, "Once we finish things here we can start moving deeper elsewhere. Just ignore that feeling, it happened to me too. Even if I don't know your conditions, I still have an idea how to go about this."

The pink slime fidgetted around a bit before her womanly voice sheepishly entered Amalia's head, "Sorry again that you almost died. I didn't realize how trying to look at the conditions would affect you."

Amalia looked blankly ahead with a wooden spoon in her mouth, slowly recalling how Rozalin had guided and advised her of a way to look at Class evolution conditions. Those three days spent recovering had left a profound impact on the girl.

After all, it isn't often that you experience the feeling of something scrambling the inside of your skull while blood drips out of all available orifices and even your skin pores. What had started out as a sharp pain quickly turned into an unimaginable hell that had left the teen paralyzed, vomiting, and delirious.

15 seconds went by as Amalia continued to motionlessly stare forward. Just as suddenly as she had froze, she resumed eating. The wooden spoon bobbed up and down.

"It's fine, ‘these things happen sometimes’," was her reply.

Rozalin was internally sweating bullets, all while thinking to herself, 'She's still upset.'

Not only had her advice nearly killed a child, but Rozalin had also nearly lost her sole companion, source of conversation, and pet knight. All because she failed to consider that just because a Slime could recover from being turned into a puddle, that perhaps doing the same to a human was ill-advised.

Worst of all, Amalia couldn't recall any of the knowledge she'd seen at the time. While the girl had managed to acquire Corruption Resistance, it wasn't worth trying again.

Though Amalia didn't remember much of her recovery, the memory had firmly ingrained itself into Rozalin's very being. Seeing and being responsible for such a thing left the Slime traumatized. Three days were spent pacing and pouring healing Mana into the girl. The few healing and Mana potions the two acquired for emergencies had lain strewn across the cave floor.

Rozalin forbade Amalia from ever trying to 'peek into the abyss' again, so to speak. Not that the latter needed much convincing.

"A-Anyway, eat up. One must maintain a healthy diet to stay in good shape."

Thus Rozalin attempted to smooth problems over with food. Not a terrible strategy.

For her part, Amalia was too weary to argue much with the slimeball. Plus, the beastkin figured it wasn't like Rozalin was near-killing her intentionally. It was truly a wonder how much trouble one Slime could get into. She owed Rozalin her life, but sometimes wondered how long she'd be able to keep it. If she was going to die, she wanted to do it in battle—not from having her brain sizzle out, getting swarmed by Necro Slimelings, or being beheaded as a war criminal.

Those damn Slimelings. ...

Amalia shuddered, paused, then continued to finish her soup.

After she took the last bite, Amalia held up the wooden spoon, covering Rozalin in her vision with it. The spoon was moved back and forth a few times.

"Rozalin, you ... are you getting fat?"

The Slime seized up.

"H-How rude! I am not getting fat, I'm bulking up!"

Amalia sat there with a dull gaze, unconvinced. She mentally estimated that Rozalin now weighed over thrice as much compared to when they'd first met. The past week she'd really ballooned. Something to do with a Skill Rozalin acquired while cannibalizing Eigach Dungeon's Slime population.

A 15-kilo Slime T-shirt was cumbersome.

"Roz, it's getting difficult to carry and hide you. Shouldn't you cut back on the ... whatever it is you're eating?"

At this, Rozalin puffed up, "Quite the opposite! I'm moving on to the next phase of my plans. Not only does my additional mass provide increased offense and defense, it's also vital to my societal integration plans. Behold!"

Amalia watched as Rozalin shuffled over to the wooden steamer trunk they used for storage and pulled out a cloak. Rozalin wrapped it around herself. The cloak billowed and bubbled upwards.

"Well? P-Pretty good, right?" Rozalin said in a strained tone.

Amalia looked upon the miniature, vaguely human-shaped form.

"I suppose you could convince people, but ... you still can't talk Roz. And it looks funny when you move."

The form deflated on the ground.

"I'm quite aware of that fact, thank you," Rozalin said bitterly, "It's still a preliminary framework. After another evolution and a Skill Up or two, then I'll ..."

While Rozalin was muttering to herself, Amalia reflected on Rozalin's tendency to use strange and bizarre words she'd never heard before. Worse yet, some of Rozalin's unique mannerisms were rubbing off on Amalia and becoming the norm. She was being infected by Rozalin's outlandish common sense. That thought was possibly the most terrifying thing so far.

"... so in conclusion, if you get me a wig and some paint for a mask, I should be able to travel around with you more easily. Vocalization can wait."

"Where am I supposed to get a wig out here?" Amalia asked, raising an eyebrow. This wasn't exactly the nobility district.

"It isn't high-priority, so just keep an eye out. I'm too busy focusing on fulfilling our Class conditions. We need to get you classed up, my faithful knight! Regardless, I don't intend to expose myself without perfecting a disguise. Who knows if those bothersome fellows are still looking for us?"

"Perhaps, but ... I haven't had much trouble in town, besides the usual comments. There haven't been any wanted posters, rumors, or the like."

Rozalin grumbled, "If only that meant they'd given up. If the matter is as serious as I've gathered, they'll investigate in secret for a long period of time before judging the case has gone cold. It could take years. Most likely, they have intelligence officers on standby throughout the country with a debriefing on what to keep their eyes open for. We need to keep bolstering our strength and make sure not to have any slips of the tongue."

Amalia went over to the wooden bed in their humble abode and sat down, rolling her shoulders and stretching.

"You seem awfully knowledgeable about such things," she replied, "Were you a spymaster at one point, or something?"

"Spymaster?" Rozalin's brow mentally furrowed, "Nothing of the sort. I managed financial records and paperwork, along with a few personnel. While corporations may have spies and backdoor deals, that wasn't something I was involved in."

While Rozalin wouldn't admit or fully realize such a thing, her deductions were largely based on paranoia and assuming the worst case scenario, rather than reasonable assumption or information gathering. It was spectacular, in its own way.

In response, Amalia simply went 'Huh' and carried on. After a bout of silence, the girl abruptly sat up.

"Oh, I just remembered. Rozalin, there've been a few mercs talking about the Necro Slimelings. People are worried the Dungeon is undergoing some sort of shift or evolution."

Rozalin paused, as if tilting her head in confusion, "Those little things? They're just a silly experiment I conducted with Life magic and my Slime Domination Skill. Completely harmless. ... Mostly."

That last bit was hastily added when Rozalin noticed the look on Amalia's face. Perhaps calling the Necro Slimelings 'harmless' was a bit inaccurate. Rozalin mentally noted that they'd been behaving spectacularly. ... Ever since the ball pit incident.

Not wanting to dig up old trauma, Rozalin kept that tidbit in mind and changed the subject.

"Don't suppose you've noticed any new Class options appear since last we checked?"

After a delay, "No, it doesn't seem like it. Nothing above Uncommon."

Rozalin mentally cursed her protege's bad luck. Unlike Slimes, it seemed humans and the like had a ridiculous amount of Class evolution options, sometimes called 'Jobs'. Just the 'Warrior' type branch alone dwarfed the entirety of what Rozalin experienced as a Slime. It was speciesism.

Basically, Amalia had options. But the options tended to be silly and uninspiring Classes like 'Farmer', 'Squire', 'Adventurer', 'Thief', 'Warrior', 'Cook', 'Light Mage Apprentice', and a myriad of other Common and Uncommon-tier Classes. Rozalin was positive that humanoids would be able to get Legendary grade Classes too, with a bit of effort. So she instructed Amalia not to choose anything yet.

Unlike monsters, humanoids could visit a government building called a 'Class Center' and acquire a basic Class through some sort of sorcery. They could also pick one as early as level 1. It was a bit unfair to the Slime woman, but she deduced some of the logic behind it. 'Human' was a race, not a Class. Humans were born Classless, so it made sense their first Class should be obtainable at level 1. She also suspected the Class Centers only helped unlock some of the conditions and made it easier to get a desired Class.

The average human in these societies was usually level 5 or so. Rozalin hypothesized that creatures could passively soak up magic, or some sort of 'experience', just through daily tasks and by being not-dead. Rozalin herself had experienced something similar before, after all. For someone to reach level 10 without having a Class was unusual. Then again, so was the rate Amalia had been leveling up since meeting Rozalin.

For her part, Amalia was less concerned with her leveling speed and more concerned about all the Divine messages and information she'd been able to see since then. Rozalin often called them 'almighty green boxes', which made Amalia wonder if her head was quite alright. Or rather, her Core, she supposed.

She was still having trouble making sense of this Slime. Rozalin gave Amalia headaches. And slightly elevated blood pressure. Theirs was a strange relationship, most certainly.

While Amalia was trying to decide what to do for the afternoon, Rozalin spoke up suddenly.

"Amalia, hide. Go down the hallway. Make no noise. Now."

Mild panic and curiosity welled up within the girl's chest. She wanted to object but instead moved into position. Once she arrived, she asked Rozalin to explain.

It was silent for a moment before Amalia heard a shuffling, followed by a jingling noise from above.

With a tone that was seven-tenths wry amusement and three-tenths venomous anger, Rozalin replied, "Simple, my dear."

click!

"We have a guest."