Monster Breeder

Jing leads us through corridors of geological marvels filled with stalagmites and dripping stalactites dimly illuminated by our glowing guides. Paths branch and converge in a maze she navigates with preternatural ease. “Alright, alright, something easy to fight, something small and weak…”

“Hey, Jonny, you think can we trust her?” Chris whispers to me.

“That’s my mom, you jerk! Can we trust you?” Tink butts in, having heard the candid words with her surprisingly sensitive minuscule ears.

““Enough,”” we say, “Tink hasn’t steered us wrong so far. We’re trusting her family to see us through. If the fights are too tough for us, we’ll head home immediately.”

“Oh! Little hero, it seems we’ve found something~” Jing sings, her voice like the peal of bells, incongruous with our surroundings.

Our party stumbles into an eerie pile of bones as we come to a halt. Around us are pieces that belong to multiple monster species, both prey and predator. Many of the bones have scrapes or divots as if their owners died fighting an armed opponent.

“I don’t like this place…” Gale murmurs. She seems wary of this deathly chamber.

"Don't worry, Mistress Gale, we'll protect you with our lives," Rosie promises. Monal beside her nods in agreement.

I don’t blame Gale in the slightest. This arrangement isn’t natural.

“So, what is all this?” Chris wonders aloud while inspecting the bare skeletons with trepidation.

“It’s either a trap, something for us to fight, or both,” Flou assesses from a blood-crystal dagger in the bunny girl’s hand.

“Precisely,” Jing agrees. “This is where they dump all the trespassers’ bodies. Slimes love the free food.”

"Oh! This is perfect, Mom!" Tink does a midair flip. “If my man wants Slime Cores, my man gets Slime Cores!"

Despite their reassurances, I don’t sense any roaming Slimes at first. I’ve grown accustomed to Brenda’s senses and have gotten plenty of experience hunting their mana signatures during our walk through the dark. It doesn’t take long for our enemies to reveal themselves, though.

A gnawing sound catches our attention, and we turn as one to see a furry mass chewing on a femur by the wan light of the Fae and nearby bioluminescent lichen.

“Grrrr,” the furball growls, bearing its monstrous toothy chompers.

One of us identifies the enemy instantly. “Fuzzy Slime!” Flou shouts. Despite the 'family resemblance,' this is a feral monster that doesn't seem able to speak.

Chris slings a crystalline dagger that misses by a hair as the Slime spits out its grizzly snack and dodges aside. I trudge forward, but my stony limbs are slow compared to our target. Rosie beats her wings to lunge forward with her ruby claws bared until Gale calls for caution.

“From the left!” the Rainbird announces an instant before a tibia flies at us from far afield.

I sense the auras of more enemies, cold, lifeless, and hard with a stale aftertaste. A loud clatter accompanies the assembly of half a dozen piles of osseous debris arrayed against us. The unmistakable magic of a Slime Core emanates from each.

“Bone Slimes,” Jing dubs them.

They remind me of the old tales of ‘decorator crabs’ sticking various detritus to their shells for camouflage. Such mysterious, majestic creatures!

Regardless, the Bone Slimes start throwing their namesakes at us in a flurry. Ribs, phalanges, humerus, metacarpals, vertebrae, and skulls of various sizes rain on our heads. Olindia’s long jellyfish tentacles rise from Chris’s pink tutu like snakes to strike the projectiles from the air as we rally for a counterattack.

Hearing a soft *thump*, I turn to see a transparent bubble of hard light engulf me as more Fuzzy Slimes throw themselves uselessly against the ‘windowpane.’ We’ll have to explain to Tink after the battle that we’re tougher than the others. She should be shielding the girls instead of us. As we think that, Monal does a roundhouse kick that tears a soaring Fuzzy Slime from the air while cleaving it in half.

Gale then takes the offensive against the Bones Slimes. Her Rain Pellets may not pack a heavy punch, but they serve as valuable suppressing fire. She flaps her wings to create a horizontal downpour that's almost impossible for the Bone Slimes to get past. Their projectiles proceed to fly off course by a wide margin from then on.

That gives Brenda and I the time we need to wade into their midst. The clattering bones and pouring rain mean nothing to our Stone Skin. One punch shatters bones, breaking osseous tissue like pretzels, and scatters their defenses. Literally, as they attempt to flee from us in all directions. I’ve never seen feral Slimes retreat. It's true they've been su*cidally agressive until now. I suppose these evolved Slimes are a cut above their First-Tier brethren.

Olindia switches from blocking to grabbing, her tendrils hunting down most of the Bone Slime escapees before they get away. Then Chris throws a ruby dagger that hits its mark in a Fuzzy Slime’s flank while Rosie and Monal guard Gale from any stragglers. The remainder of the battle is a simple mop-up.

In the end, we catch five Bone Slimes and four Fuzzy Slimes.

There’s a stark difference in quality between a feral Fuzzy Slime and an intelligent Fuzzy Red Slime. Or maybe what we’re seeing is the gap between Bone and Stone. In either case, the wild Slimes got totally outclassed by our party members. Neither the Fuzzies' teeth nor the Bones' bones could penetrate my defenses or withstand my attack. The same goes for how they stacked against Flou’s ruby blood-crystal constructs.

Flou, Brenda, and I could’ve taken all these ferals on by ourselves, although the others helped wrangle the fleeing Slimes after the battle. It feels good to be strong! It’s something I’ve never experienced before as a human. At least, not in such a visceral way since the Symbiotic merger with Brenda. Back home, I always compared my muscles against Orcs, Rams, Minotaurs, and Wargs, seeming weak and fragile next to them. According to history, even a human strongman trained in combat would fold in a fight against any average Second Tier monster.

We let the remains of the defeated Slimes evaporate (the Bone Slimes are small, sticky white balls underneath their osseous armor) for a minute before collecting all nine cores. Flou manifests from a blood-crystal dagger in her Fuzzy Slime form and approaches the pile, hesitating at the last second.

"“Go on, you have seniority,”" Brenda says through our shared voice.

“I totally said you could have all my Cores until you evolve, dummy,” Olindia burbles her agreement.

With their Slime Solidarity solidified, Flou proceeds to open a toothy maw and gobble up the cores. We can’t see what’s happening beneath the fur of Flou’s Fuzzy exterior, but her slimy interior roils with exploding energy… which gradually subsides with no visible changes. Did it not work?

““What happened?”” we ask.

“Tummy ache?” Gale wonders.

Flou wobbles from side to side for a ‘no.’ “I think I understand how the Third Tier Slime evolution works, now. We all have the necessary combat experience, so that’s not a problem.” We nod in agreement. Each of Alex’s Slime companions has participated in multiple fights against Third Tier monsters, defeating Peter, Aello, and the Elder Tree. “Then we need three-of-a-kind Second Tier Slime Cores to advance each of our aspects. Maybe three of any type is enough with an additional catalyst, but it might advance one of our aspects at random.”

“Okay, then just do that,” Chris advises with avid interest. “A random Third Tier advancement is better than nothing.”

“Agreed,” Flou replies, “But I still don’t have enough Cores.”

“Girl, didn’t you eat, like, nine of them? Or can I not fucking count?” Olindia questions.

“…These were Small Slime Swarms, like me. Three of their Cores count as ‘one.’”

“Again, nine Cores,” Olindia counters. “I’m pretty sure if you divide that by three, it gives you a trio.”

“Again, Small Slime Swarms,” Flou replies without heat. “Five Bone and four Fuzzy, so divide by three, but fractions don't count. In other words, I’m short a Bone Slime or two Fuzzy Slimes to make a triple trio of Cores. Actually, one of the Fuzzy Cores got nicked in the fight and I had to feed it the extra Fuzzy core to repair it for the trio. We may as well go find another Small Slime trio to complete my three-of-a-kind.”

“Yeesh, this is going to be a lot more God damned tedious than I thought,” Olindia harrumphs.

---

We continue following Jing through shadowy caverns. She’s our best shot at finding three-of-a-kind for everyone. I agree. Even if I don't yet trust her 100%, if she wanted to betray us, we'd already be in the clutches of the supposed 'guards' by now.

“So, Mrs. Bell, why didn’t you help us fight in that last battle?” Chris the angora bunny girl bluntly asks. “Aren’t you a Third Tier monster? Or am I wrong?”

The larger of our Fairy allies doesn’t seem put-off by the line of questioning. “Oh, it’s just 'Jing,' not 'Mrs.' because there’s no ‘Mr.’ She does have a 'father,' but we're not together. Keep in mind Fairy reproduction works a bit differently from big folk. You can call us Bell if you want, though; we don’t mind.” She titters like wind chimes in the breeze. “As for your question, did anyone get hurt? Of course, not! Don’t worry, we’ll protect the friends of our widdle baby girl’s Companion.” Jing playfully pinches her daughter’s cheek.

“Mooom!” Tink tugs herself free from her mother’s grasp.

That does make me wonder about how Fairy reproduction works, but I can be patient!

“There’s something big coming,” Gale announces, her tone unconcerned. We must have plenty of time to get away if she's that calm.

“See,” Jing says as she zips to the front of our party, “I’m protecting you now.” The matronly Fairy’s blue glow intensifies and expands, projecting a bubble shield of the same exact color that engulfs everyone. “Be patient, and don’t move.”

Seconds pass. Nothing happens.

“Uhh, how long are we, like, supposed to wait?” Olindia wonders aloud.

“Gale isn’t sure. She can’t sense her mist outside the pretty bubble, but the monster wasn’t moving that fast.”

“Not that fast, huh?” Jing scratches her head while thinking, and a cascade of glittery Fairy dandruff falls from her scalp.

“What is it, mom?” Tink asks.

“If it is what we think it is, then the guards have been slacking,” Jina predicts.

““An intruder?”” We blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

The Fairy woman shakes her doll-sized head in a ‘no.’ “Not likely. You all are the first intruders we’ve had in a hot minute. The guards’ job is to shepherd the merchandise, harvest when the time is ripe, and prune undesired elements.”

There’s a lot to unpack here. What sort of place is this dungeon?

Flou murmurs to herself at this revelation, singling out one element in particular, “What’s considered ‘undesirable?’”

“That.”

Finally, our foe slinks into view. It’s a luminescent lime-green slug the size of a wagon. Where its bulk rolls over stone, the glowing lichen is ripped off the rock walls to dissolve in the creature’s stomach. Watching it closely reveals a curious aspect—it’s mostly translucent, giving us a clue to its true nature.

“A Large Green Slug Ooze,” Jing analyses. “Getting close to Huge.”

The gelatinous monster proceeds along its course without regard for our companions. We stare with careful regard as it passes us, the knowledge that there’s no Core for us to collect if we won a fight with it in the forefront of our minds.

“Can it not see or hear us?” Monal says, turning to address the group.

Jing tosses her blond locks. “Not with Slime senses. There are certain advantages to being Bonded to the Dungeon Core.” Ahh! I did notice her aura has the same taste as the Dungeon itself. She must be invisible to the Slimes' mana detection. I hadn’t gathered that much, but I’m new to borrowing Brenda’s abilities. Then the Slug’s eyestalks swivel around and land on us. The slow, bloated mass begins to drag itself our way. “…Sight is another matter.”

We grow tense as the threat looms closer by the second.

“So, are we fighting it?” Gale asks a few moments later, the monstrous slug having advanced several feet.

“Not unless you want to. My replacement is here,” Jing replies, her pronoun swap not escaping our notice. “Don’t worry, we were going to have to switch out anyway since I can’t leave the first floor without attracting attention. Bye-bye!”

Jing collapses the bubble around us, blasts the Slug’s ‘face’ with a hard burst of Air Magic to get its attention, and buzzes off before we can stop her. The green Ooze’s eyestalks follow Jing, the monster shifts to expose its flank, and we’re about to attack it regardless of what she said—no way am I letting a Slug eat my mother-in-law—when another Fairy zips into view.

“Dad!” Tink squees and glomps onto her father. So, this is the 'father' Jing isn't 'together' with?

“Hey, squirt. Ready to show your friends the second floor?” The Fairy before us looks like the identical twin male version of Jing wearing nothing but a leafy loincloth. Tink gives a couple of rapid, enthusiastic nods.

““Hello, s-sir,”” I stammer in our combined voice, having been thrust into another unexpected in-law introduction.

He raises an eyebrow at me. “Uh, yeah. Hi, Jonny-boy.”

How did he know your name? Hmm.

“Lucky that you found us when you did,” Flou observes.

“Heh,” he chuckles while confidently folding his arms. “Luck has nothing to do with it; I’ve been on my way since your fight with the Swarm Slimes.”

Gale’s gaze stays locked on Jing as she flies away into the dark with the Slug Ooze in pursuit. It’s surprisingly fast when hunting. “Shouldn’t we help her?” the avian girl asks.

“What?” Tink’s father says, wrinkling his brow in confusion, “We thought you wouldn’t want to waste your time fighting Oozes…”

““But what about Jing? Isn’t she in danger?”” we say.

Tink cocks her head in confusion, “But Jing is right here…”

“Yep,” Tink’s father agrees. “Still here.”

“You’re Jing too? Gale is confused!”

Flou seems to have figured it out, though. “You said you were a Dungeon Fairy Swarm. Does that mean you’re like me?”

“Like you? No, we’ve never met an intelligent Swarm Slime before, though they’re known to exist.” Jing taps his chin and hums before continuing, “But, if you’re wondering if we have one mind and multiple bodies, then not exactly. We have a single Oversoul, true, but each Fairy in the Swarm is also an individual. We share knowledge, emotional connections, and pleasure, but not pain. All the memories, ideas, and opinions of the lost live on in each of us. We evolve together as a single entity, and any children we have amongst ourselves become more Swarm members. Only a separate Fae entity can impregnate us with a new life separate from our own, like our darling baby girl, Tink. Now, do you want our genealogy next, or do you want to collect some Slime Cores?”

“So, like, your whole existence is a continuous circle-jerk of incestual masturbation?” Olindia analyzes. Monal and Rosie both snerk at the insinuation, though Chris seemingly couldn’t care less if it’s true.

Tink balls her fists and stomps while hovering in midair on buzzing dragonfly wings. “Hey! Don’t talk about my parents like they're gross! They're all great, especially my cute little sister-moms and brother-dads.”

““We don't have a problem with Jing, Tink. Ahem, so you’re the Dungeon’s security system, then?”” I ask in our shared voice, relating Jing’s existence to some stories from ancient humanity. The purpose of having a Swarm monster patrolling the Dungeon’s halls seems obvious upon consideration. Once an invader is spotted, all the guards can be alerted almost instantly even if one of Jing’s bodies is slain in the process.

“Eh, what’s that, sport? You want to know more about what we do for a living? Well, I don’t mind humoring my daughter’s Bonded Companion a little, but aren’t you in a hurry?”

Just because this ‘security system’ is on our side doesn’t mean the guards can’t find us the way that Slug Ooze did. We shouldn’t linger here longer than necessary, Jonathan.

“How fortunate,” Flou comments. “It seems like we used up a lifetime of luck stumbling across the daughter of the Dungeon’s Fairy.”

“Gale is still trying to figure out whether she should feel sad if Tink’s mother dies protecting us from the Slug Ooze. Gale is a good girl who wants to do the right thing.”

Tink’s shoulders slump. “Maybe just a little sad. They’re all my moms and dads, and they’re all Jing, even the baby ones, so it’s not like we have a funeral whenever something bad happens…”

Jing shrugs. “None of you cry when you cut your hair or nails, right? Even Fairies get old and die eventually, but the Oversoul endures through the younger generation. If we’re fine, you shouldn’t worry too much. Now, come on!”

I suppose that makes sense. We proceed to follow ‘Jing’ down another set of stairs, taking us to the second floor of the Dungeon proper.