Peek: Slimy

Fouled air, putrid water, the stench of the waste of an entire town.

Slimy couldn't be happier with the world it finds itself in. Even freshly spawned, it has a vague idea that most would be utterly disgusted with these surroundings, but Slimy is specifically designed to thrive in a place like this! It even has a name!

So much to work with, so much to do! The job is a bit bigger than Slimy would have chosen for itself, but then again, it's not alone. It may be the scion, but there are other putrid oozes to help out. It's purpose is to clean, as is the purpose of all the oozes. If the sewers were clean, what would its purpose be?

It shudders, ripples traveling along its entire gelatinous form. It would much prefer to be swimming in filth than to be without a clear purpose. Although... how clean should it try to make the sewers? It knows it can break things down to different stages, but how far does its dungeon want it to go?

It prods the bond, and soon gets a response: all the way. That's fine by Slimy. Each stage produces something useful, and decaying the sewage all the way to mana is certainly the most useful to the dungeon Violet right now. If she wants it to change later, that will be easy, too.

It directs the other oozes to problem areas, sensing the places more ripe with decay to easily accelerate, and marking other places that will take a bit more effort to process. The best places still have a little flow of water, the motion helping the waste break up and break down on its own. These will be the places Slimy directs its fellow oozes to start with, and earn Violet an easy return of mana. Slimy knows it was not cheap to make, so it wants to wipe clean that particular blot as soon as possible.

Unfortunately for it, there are forces that want to delay the cleaning. The flies are thick, seeking to use the sewage for their own purposes, but the oozes are easily able to dispatch any that think they can land and claim anything for themselves. The problem comes from the rats.

Slimy can feel a certain warmness from Violet towards the rodents, at least until they start killing the oozes. They may look like the Voice of the Mentor, but they have none of his charm. The only hope the oozes have against the rats is to drag them into the muck and hold them there until they expire, adding more waste to decay to useful mana. But the fight is difficult, with it requiring five or more oozes to reliably deal with a single rat!

But Slimy and its oozes are not the only new forces of Violet's in this place. Teeth has heard the cry of his fellows, and lead his own forces to the rescue! Where Slimy's oozes are slow to deal with even a single rat, the caiman can snatch up several at once to devour! Working together, the rodents are driven back, leaving Slimy to the peace and quiet of breaking down and cleaning up the mess.

Teeth stays close for a time, which Slimy is grateful for. It already knows it will prefer to fight stains rather than battles, and Teeth seems more than happy to take that particular niche. However, the rodents are coming for more than just this particular pool of refuse, so Teeth must go and deal with them as well. He leaves a few defenders, and even has Slimy point out where it would like to focus its efforts next. The other scion nods and directs a few more caiman toward the next pool as he searches for more invaders to obliterate.

Slimy knows he finds great success as it continues its peaceful duty. The aftermath of a battle is a very different cleaning detail than the aftermath of a meal, but it is no less important for it to be cleaned. It wobbles in a clumsy dance as it cleans, wondering if it might clean itself out of its purpose. Instead of dread, it finds the thought is sillier than the dance it's doing, causing it to burble in mirth. Even if it cleans the sewers spotless, the delvers above will always produce more.

Cleaning is a job without an end, which suits Slimy just fine.