[Slimy Slime] Chapter 66: Reconnaissance

“We need to leave!” Jeremy whispered intensely.

“We don’t have enough information.” Tina replied, eating her ice cream.

She had absolutely no idea how she was eating ice cream. There was an ice cream store, ran by a [Hob-Goblin] with a thick beard, and she’d even gotten a bowl and a spoon for it. There were no cows around, how on earth did they make it? Unless they used other milk… Tina stared down at her ice cream. Well, it tasted fine so it was probably alright right?

“Tina!” Jeremy raised his voice only to quickly quiet it when a few people looked over to them. “This is serious. A [King Slime] is a Tier 3 monster but one of the most dangerous. You know what happened before! You know the stories!”

“That’s why we have to stay. We don’t know for sure that it is a [King Slime]. Have you listened to some of the descriptions of him? They’re… nonsensical. They say he flies on a hand made of, and I quote, ‘ghost’. That he’s yellow and cute, the size of a head. King and Queen Slimes are… huge Jeremy. They are a one creature army. If this was really a [King Slime]... then why haven’t we heard about it? Why haven’t we seen a single slime yet? Not to mention that they’re freaking massive in size and scale.”

“Then it could be a variant, or a hidden evolution or something!” Jeremy said. “Either way, this has now become something that must be reported to the King.” Jeremy said resolutely.

“Of course.” Tina said a little vacantly, eating her vanilla ice cream. “And what are we going to say? They are going to ask questions, good questions, questions we should be able to answer. What does it look like? How intelligent is it? What are its strength and weaknesses? Is it really a [King Slime] or simply a King, who miraculously happens to be a slime? What is the evolutionary path it seems to be on if it is not a King Slime. Basic monster kingdom questions. Hell, just basic questions on any monster. And we know none of that Jeremy. We need to find him.”

Tina, with all the strength and acting in the world, kept the heat out of her voice when she said that last line. Because yes yes, all of that was true… but she’d already come to a decision. No matter what, she needed that Slime. It was clearly abnormal, special! Even if it was a horrifying [King Slime]... it was clearly different. It had a whole city, a well made city, with goblins and humans. It hadn’t escaped her notice how they’d mentioned other ones and that apparently King Slime had told them humans were prudes. That suggested intelligence, the kind that was rarely found in any species of Slime and…

And the kind even Tina struggled to buy.

It was a bitch, that was what it was. Any species traffickers, inevitably trafficked other species and [Humans], no matter the variant or kind. That was unacceptable and needed to be put down and those people freed. It was literally one of her job duties and she really wanted the money. And it was nice and good or something. But they were also the only kind of people that would have sentient slimes!

Tina had searched her heart long, long ago. Gone over it with a fine tooth comb and knew herself very, very well. She wasn’t a human supremacist, she didn’t think only humans could be people or that [Humans] were inherently better or anything like that. Even these [Hob-Goblin]s were clearly people and maybe even some of the Goblins too.

It’s just that she didn’t care.

Humans killed other Humans all the time. Used them, enslaved them, and when it came to Slimes… she’d long come to terms that she was the same. If she could get a sentient slime… or even a humanoid sentient slime… but that was rare and damn near impossible. Only a few slimes had both the intelligence and shape. The first line that eventually led to a kingdom destroying mass of monsters, was killed on sight. Too dangerous. Others were rare and far between and were usually also killed on sight, because it’s hard to tell a [Core Slime] from, say, a [Mimic Slime] if someone wasn’t paying attention.

She was practically salivating as she imagined it. And her thinking had clearly been too shallow! Interesting evolutions, that was what she had always focused on, but now… now a slime that was an interesting person had appeared. Her whole body practically shivered. If she could actually capture them… get them back home with her and restrain them…

Hehehe

“Hey. I don’t know why you have such an evil face but please don’t get us both killed.” Jeremy said deadpan.

“What are you talking about, of course not!” Tina said, quickly wiping away her previous expression.

“Let’s explore the City” She said. “Get as much information as possible. Possibly set up a meeting with this… King.”

Jeremy nodded once and they got up… right after Tina finished her ice cream.

Exploring the town was amazing, because she could instantly tell something that had escaped her. It was a notion that she found hard to accept but as she saw a bar owner, a blacksmith, a tanner… she realized they were, well…

“Amateurs.” Jeremy said, copying her thoughts as she stared at a [Hob-Goblin] completely failing to make what looked like… a trap? It was hard to tell.

That was… strange to say the least. By the time they’d gone through a lot more businesses and seen just how excited most [Hob-Goblins] were and just asking a few of them, some startling information came to light.

Half a year. That’s how old the city was. And the only reason the [Hob-Goblin]s knew that was because apparently the King himself was excited about it. Apparently, he was excited about ‘having one year anniversary’. When asked about what the anniversary was for, a barber had told them ‘for when he first showed up in the forest’. That… that was stressful. This all spoke to work beyond a simple Tier 3 Slime. This was the work of dozens or hundreds of mages working together with people. It spoke of [Architects] and [Builders] of at least a few dozen and time. Unless the Slime had somehow evolved in a completely unknown building direction, which was completely possible given how monsters are, this all spoke of an enemy nation pouring hundreds and hundreds of man hours and a terrible amount of mana into building a city.

It just didn’t make any sense.

And then all at once, it did.

“[Dungeon Architect] Sandra is…”

Tina and Jeremy froze, as everything slotted into place perfectly. All the buildings, the food, the creation, the City, the abnormal slime they’d yet to see. Tina gulped and Jeremy actually nearly fainted, stumbling in mute shock, his eyes nearly going white.

“We need to leave.” Tina said first.

“Jeremy absently mindedly nodded.”

They began to head directly towards the city gates, following the road when-

“Humans! It’s so good to meet you. I’m sorry, I didn’t get your names or get a chance to meet you when you first showed.” A [Hob-Goblin] called out to them.

They turned, only to take in a very bookish looking [Hob-Goblin]. The entire Goblin species changed more and more with their attributes than normal. They’d even seen a few fat [Hob-Goblin]s who’d clearly put too much into Constitution or just eaten too much for too long. This one was the first to look… intelligent. The smile he was giving them was all teeth too.

“Ah.” Was all that came out of Tina’s mouth for a second. Her brain was trying to rapidly come to terms with the fact that there was a fucking Dungeon here. One already claimed. A fucking [Crowned Monster]?! WHAT?! They didn’t just… show up!

They were going to die if they didn’t leave right now.

“T-Tina. And this is Jeremy.” The words fell out of her mouth, somehow.

“Hirik. Pleasure to meet you. We don’t often get visitors to Slimetopia. I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay so far?”

Even with everything going on…

“The City’s name is Slimetopia?” Jeremy asked, dumbfounded.

“Yes yes. Our King has some very fun ideas on names. It’s still a shame he’s the only slime here though. There was an initiative not long ago about finding him some Kin but, well, nothing has turned up so far. And speaking of our great King, I would be honored to introduce you two to him.” The smile Hirik gave them was… not at all pleasant.

“U-Uh. Actually, we were just leaving.” Tina said.

Jeremy nodded with a bit too much enthusiasm.

“Nonsense, nonsense. The King might really have my head if I just let you leave without meeting him. He still doesn’t quite trust me. Scared of my intellect, he said.” Despite what should have been fairly terrifying words to hear from a King, Hirik looked so incredibly proud of that statement.

“Come on. He’s just about to evolve actually. He’s been working so hard for this evolution, finally going up a Tier. We might miss it if we all just stand around here.” Hirik turned, beginning to walk up the main street, and Tina didn’t miss the motion he made to another [Hob-Goblin] in the crowd, who began to move.

“Fuck. What do we do?” Jeremy asked.

Tina seriously debated running for it and cutting down anyone who so much as slowed her down. But… the last thing she wanted to be responsible for was starting a War with a crowned monster. That was suicidal for her and terrible for her kingdom. She may not ‘care’ about it per se but she still lived there damn it. That would be as insane as Kingdom attacking a [Hero]. More than a few had been decimated that way, because people never learn.

Even if it was a clearly ‘Young’ crowned monster… that meant little. Even if it was a slime… nothing mattered. The quality and consequences were too high.

She followed after Hirik, Jeremy cursing behind her. But as she did so… a small part of her began to cause a problem in her mind. To grow and grow. She shoved it down, stoically following Hirik down the road.

It felt like a small eternity but for all the size of this place, the castle wasn’t that far. It was at the dead center after all. She took it in fully and just marveled. It strangely seemed, not exactly half complete, but simple. It was built well and sturdy, but it was made of the same material as everything else and didn’t have that many flourishes to it. Except for the slime motif.

One the walls, around, the closer she got to the castle the more she could see just how many cute little slimes were designed around it. She even passed a fountain that had a cute little slime spitting water and the houses around the area began to change, looking more like stone slimes more than anything else. The [Hob-Goblin]s this close by were… also a bit strange. Badly drawn paintings and pictures of Slimes, of glowing hands, of different small blobs of colors on storefronts, even what looked like paint on a few of their bodies that might’ve looked like Slimes if you were insane.

Hirik shook his head. “Fans. The area surrounding the castle is called Slime Square or Ring by my people. The King wasn’t exactly happy at the… worship or Savior Sandra going along with it. Still, he only made sure not every goblin was going off the deep end and let it happen.”

“Savior Sandra?” Tina had heard about this Sandra a few times, but that was a new name.

“Many of the older goblins call her that. She saved them all. Well… I wasn’t part of here for that but…” A dark expression crossed over Hirik at that moment. “...I was involved.”

Tina was starting to understand why maybe the King didn’t trust this particular Hob-Goblin. The King… that roaring bit of her mind came flooding back but she battled with it again and won.

They walked forward, entering the castle, and Tina had to blink as they did so. It was up a hill, sure, but it had seemed so much bigger from afar. But it was actually… pretty small? She’d seen castles before, she worked in one, this was less than half, no, a third the size of a normal one. Hirik didn’t comment on it though, so she didn’t ask.

The inside was as simple as the outside, a short hallway and pair of doors. In front of said doors were guards but nothing like the guards outside. These ones were bigger, meaner, fully at attention, and she was positive she looking at full suits of Steel armor and spears.

“Advisor Hirik.” One called out. “The evolution process is finishing now. You have missed it.”

“Ah well. At least I had a good reason. Can we go in Vook?”

Vook nodded and it was really dawning on Tina that she was heading towards a King. A [Crowned Monster]. A [Dungeon Master]. A [Demon King]. And as she walked, as she laid eyes upon him, that roaring inside her finally broke and won.

He was average for a slime. A deep orange color and at first, that was all she could think to say. But he shattered her worldview in the next second, jumping up as a ghostly appeared beneath him. But that wasn’t all she saw. She wasn’t talented in magic too much… but she had decent perception. And it was screaming at her, for the first time, that she facing a threat. A threat from many areas. As she looked, her mind located those areas, realizing that hand beneath him wasn’t the only one in the room. There were… dozens of them, invisible, hidden away. Moving around with fluidity. The, King Slime, began to change. A smile and eyes, cute ones, appeared in his face as he looked at the rest of the people in the room.

Tina was in love. No, even more than. She was in Lust.

Her dick grew hard, her heart began to pound, her whole body shivered. Talking, sentient, still had a cute form, unique. One of a kind. Could make facial expressions! Could cry, could struggle, could ask and plead for it to stop, could whine and beg, could realize what’s happening to it. A one of kind, nothing else like it in the whole world. He turned to her and the expression of genuine shock on his small body nearly sent her running towards him, her life be damned, as long as she could fuck him.

And then he spoke.

“Oh. Uh. Wow! Uh… This… When did people get here?! Wait, no, I mean- Ahem. Welcome Humans! I… am Slimy Slime! Many people around here call me King Slime but feel free to call me whatever. It’s uh… good to meet you?”

She had to have him.