As we rushed out of the barn, we were met with long gelatinous trails of slime zigging and zagging their way through the grounds. Grass was matted down by the sticky filth.
“Uhh.. Eric? Where are the monsters?” I looked around but couldn't sense any movement.
The nearby tall grass was met with a violent force as a scene played out that could only be compared to an encounter in pocketmon. A bright green slime dashed out, striking Eric in the head. Goo and sludge dripped down the side of his body as he tried to wipe up the mess.
"Ew, get it off of me!" he flailed his arms above his head, trying to swipe the gelatinous blob off of him. His hands seemed to merely pass through it, creating larger trails of slime that seemed to coat his small body.
Walking over to him, I grabbed the slime, my fingers sinking slightly into it, and detached the creature from his head. Lobbing it off into the distance I shook the slime off my hands. My fingers were still tingling from where the sludge had met my skin.
"Aww why'd you do that?" Fanny whined.
"Cause it was trying to eat your kid brother," I replied.
"I kinda thought it was cute…" she bent down to Eric's height. "Let's get you cleaned up," as she placed her hands in front of him a light shone out as the slime began to turn into steam. It was as if it was being burned off of him.
"Did you use a skill?"
"Just a little bit of magic. It's a spell called Cleansing Light."
"So you know cleaning magic?" I almost snorted at the thought.
Fanny turned to face me but was stopped short. "... Eric, how many monsters did you say there were?"
We both turned, finding ourselves met with a huge onslaught of slimes barreling towards us. A small green slime with small dents in the top rode along the tops of the wave. Has it come back for revenge? Wait… these are level one slimes right?
Ding
[Horde of Slimes: This large swath of semi-sentient slimes typically attack as a group when provoked. Left unchecked, they will devour anything and everything in their path. Unlike normal slimes, these slimes usually have one among them that is higher ranked leading the pack. Rating: Wisp - Imp]
Well, wisp and imp ratings both sound weaker than a striker, so hopefully it won’t take much to resolve this. Ducking back into the barn, we shut the doors behind us as quickly as we could.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked.
“What do you mean, what’s the plan? You’re the one that attacked them!” Fanny retorted.
“Right, so well, the one I threw I think might be leading them, meaning if we take care of that one maybe they’ll all go away.”
The barn doors began to shake as we could feel the slimes banging against them. Cracks in the wood began to seep with ooze. Within seconds Eric was covered once more. Before we could try to rip the slime off of him he was pulled back through the door. The wood had eroded away, leaving a hole in the barn. We watched as he was dragged away in what looked like a big slime ball. The leader slime seemed to almost taunt us as we followed Eric outside.
A bright light shook the sky as the mass of slime began to resonate. The amorphous mass seemed to shake and bubble as a multitude of slimes seemed to convalesce into one. As the light died back, we were left staring at what appeared to be a slime person. Huh, and here I was expecting a slime girl or something, it does look a bit feminine in the face but otherwise it's pretty androgynous. Wait, is this like one of those stories where the main character gets a humanoid slime to have as a pet or companion? Before I could say anything the slime creature burst into tears. Clear goop rolled down its face as it tried to wipe it away.
Ding.
[Ichor Slime: A slime that has evolved to take on another species’ characteristics. They glow with a golden vigor given to them by the gods. It is said that they make good idols because they are always hungry. Rating: Striker]
The crying piss puddle is a striker class?
“Sel… why is it crying?” Fanny asked
“Sel, thrown it,” Eric said, finally speaking again.
“Fanny make it stop please. It's getting gross,” the puddle of tears was starting to form a small pool beneath the slime.
“Hey there little guy… it's okay, don’t be sad,” unfortunately fanny’s mothering tone only stood to increase the slime’s blubbering.
I thought back to the Ichor Slime’s description. Always hungry… Maybe that’s it. “Fanny, why did it attack the farm in the first place?”
“How should I know that? Eric, where did you first see them?”
“The corn. They were making them go all wooahwoa,” as he explained, he flailed his arms in the air like an inflatable dummy.
Like I thought. “Fanny, is there any food in the barn?”
“Oh good thinking, there should be some dried corn in a box, we were planning on using them for decorations in the fall but they should still be considered edible.”
Grabbing the stale corn cobs from the barn I returned to the Ichor Slime. At the sight of the corn it immediately stopped crying. Instead it switched to salivating. Goo continued to emanate now from its maw. Its eyes, or what could be considered eyes, were glossed over and rosy, not leaving the corn. Slowly I moved closer to the slime, the corn in my outstretched hand.
“So I hear you’ve turned into an Ichor Slime,” I could still see some of the dents in its tendrils of hair. It still seemed to be caught on the corn in my hand, not even changing at the sound of its name. Is this thing even sentient? Or is it still semi-sentient? “I hear that you really like to eat, which I suppose is probably why you’re here on a farm,” my eyes darted to Fanny with an I-told-you-so kind of look. “Now, I’m sorry about throwing you before, but you can’t eat people, especially the ones that live here. Instead, you can have this corn.”
“But that’s not to say that you can just go and eat all the corn on the farm!” Fanny added.
“Right. We can give you some food, but then you’ll have to leave. Understand?”
The creature seemed to nod ever so slightly. I guess I’ll take that as a yes. Tossing the cob of corn, the slime seemed to almost suck it straight out of the air into its mass. The corn floated around inside before dissolving in the slime’s acid. The dents in the slime’s hair seemed to pop back out to their normal shape. The slime’s face quickly changed from hungry and sad to pouty. That’s a strange look.
“Why have you been treating me like a beast?” it bubbled.
“Oh wow! So you can actually talk!” Fanny beamed.
“Of course I can talk!”
“Okay, will you leave now?” I’m starting to get annoyed.
“I don’t wanna!”
Why is this slime acting like such a child? “Well, what do you wanna?” I asked sarcastically.
“I wanna stay here!”
“Now why would you want to do that?”
“Tasty food!”
“Not if you eat it all,” I watched as the little slime began to pout again.
“Stay!” It whined.
“Slime girl can be a friend I guess,” Eric added.
“Sel, there have been more monsters around the farm lately. Maybe the slime could help by… eating them? Or something, just so that my dad can till the land in peace,” Fanny suggested.
“Ohhh eat smaller monsters! I can do!”
“I guess it's settled then,” I said with a shake of my head. I guess we did get a slime for a pet after all. “Hey slime, what do you want us to call you anyway?”
“Call?”
“Hey you called it an Ichor Slime right? What about Icky?” Fanny suggested.
“I like that!”
And that’s how Icky the slime came to live on and protect the Tillman’s farm.
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