Dungeons Online

"It worked..." Tom muttered, struggling to accept the operation's success just like that. 

The slime on his shoulder... was still there!

As if in response to his feelings, the slime turned bright pink, wiggling around like some kind of oversized tit. 

'So you are happy as well,' Tom thought, raising his fingers and gently patting the slime. 

It was a strange feeling. All the way until now, Tom believed that outside of a few glorious examples, all the monsters were only the targets to be eradicated. The obstacles on his way to the dungeon's stones or to his attempts at crossing over to their other side. 

But with the slime happily wiggling on his shoulder right now, he couldn't really look at the monsters in the same way ever again. 

'I knew there were some intelligent monsters ever since meeting that giant sage,' he thought, a wrinkle appearing on his forehead. 'But to think that slime could be one as well? What if all the other monsters also can be reasoned with?' he thought. 

'No, I can't waste my time on thinking about this right now,' Tom thought, steeling his resolve.

"We are going to go back the way we came. Are you ready?" he asked, turning his face towards the slime. 

In response, the slime simply turned green, just like when it was ready to cross back to the corridor. 

'It had to consume two of my spears to cross in one way but is more than willing to cross the other?' Tom thought, trying to make sense of the situation. 'Is this barrier only working as a one-way blockade?' he thought, stepping back into the boss room. 

"It worked!" Marvin shouted in joy, clearly capable of understanding the ramifications of this event. 

If Cleo could be healed with the help of Tom's skills and this slime, wouldn't that mean they just received an endless supply of an ultimate potion?

Even if using this kind of healing was taxing on Tom, didn't that mean they just managed to find a way to heal people that even his own healing spell failed to work on?

"Hey, Tom..." Cleo muttered, approaching her recent partner. 

"What's up?" Tom looked up, grateful to the girl for a chance to get his thoughts off all the matters that bothered him. 

"Do you think... I could hold it for a while?" Cleo requested, her eyes flashing up in passion. 

"Sure," Tom laughed it off, turning his face towards the slime again. "What will it be, little guy? Could you play with her for a little?" he asked. 

The slime turned pink once again. It then tensed itself up, only to jiggle up. The momentum created by its decompression carried it up and forward, making the slime jump away from Tom's shoulder only to end up directly in Cleo's cupped hands. 

"AAAH!" Cleo squeaked. "It's so cute!" she added in a high-pitched voice, only to bring the slime to her face and start rubbing her cheek against it. 

"Anyway, time to get the stones," Tom said as he shook his head. 

'If we could actually get friendly with all the monsters in the dungeon, wouldn't that make for a great zoo?' he thought as a smirk appeared on his face. 

Yet, rather than thinking too much over the topic, Tom ignored the overexcited girl behind him and approached the wall with the stones. 

This time, there was no invisible layer of slime covering it and stopping Tom from extracting the prize of the floor. 

A surge of energy later, the stones trickled down the floor, only to be stopped by Marvin's shoes. 

"With what you two were up to before, I assume it's my turn to consume them," he said, a weird smile growing on his face, "right?" 

"Yeah," Tom replied, averting his eyes. 

For some reason, his interactions with his old friend turned slightly weird. It was as if the fact that he slept with his sister made the air between them slightly awkward. 

"Here you go," Marvin said, raising the stone towards Tom. 

"On it." Tom whipped out his spear, yet, just as he was about to place it on the stone's surface, an idea appeared in his head. 

"Actually, give me a moment. I want to test something out first," he said, dropping his spear to the ground and approaching Cleo. 

"Hmm?" Cleo turned her face towards Tom, stopping her cuddles with the slime for a moment. 

"I will need the little one for a short moment," Tom announced. 

"Ehhh?!" Cleo cried out, clearly disappointed. Yet, she still grabbed the slime from her shoulder to her hands and passed it on towards Tom. 

"Listen, little one," Tom said. "Do you think you will be able to turn those stones into pure energy?" Tom asked. "Pure mana, I mean," he added a moment later, changing the wording to one that slime might have an easier time comprehending. 

The slime changed shape a little, a small protrusion growing out of it, only to turn into a thin thread that looked over Tom's shoulder. It then quickly recalled its limb-like part before turning green. 

"That's great. But listen to me very carefully now," Tom said, approaching his spear and bringing the slime with him. "I want you to consume all the energy in this stone. Once you are done, I want you to touch this spear and spit all that energy out to the spear," Tom said. 

'If I were to pierce it with my spear, I would likely end up killing it,' he thought, unwilling to take the risk.

The truth was, he had no idea if this arrangement would work. The chances were, once the slime would consume the energy, it would no longer be a fuel capable of powering one's growth. 

Just like Tom couldn't use the healing powers of his bloody spear to raise his own levels by attacking monsters, the same could be the case right now. 

'There is no biscuit for those who don't risk it,' he thought. In the end, for the possible reward of multiplying the energy from a single stone even further, he was more than willing to sacrifice a single, grade-four stone. 

"Well then, let's try it out," Tom muttered, grabbing the stone from Marvin's hand and passing it over to the slime on his own shoulder. 

The slime didn't touch the stone. Rather than that, it pushed its body forward... and simply enveloped the entire thing as if in an attempt to consume it!

'Well, even if we were to lose a single stone, it wouldn't be that much of a trouble,' Tom thought, still bringing the edge of his spear near the slime. 

For a moment, the stone continued to gently shine through all the liquid of the slime surrounding it. Yet, before long, both the shine and the stone itself started to diffuse, only to disappear completly a moment later. 

'Now, let's see what it will do,' Tom thought, staring with curiosity at the slime. 

And lo and behold, it actually created a protrusion out of its body and touched Tom's spear with it!

'What?' Tom shrugged in shock when a wave of energy assaulted all his senses. It wouldn't be an overestimation to say that the surge was just as powerful when Cleo shoved the entire bag worth of stones on top of his spear!

Thankfully, before Tom could get overwhelmed by the intense amount of magic flowing through his spear into his body, he managed to take the reins of himself and pull the spear away. 

The slime jiggled up and down only to turn yellow. Yet, rather than just waiting for something to happen, it extended its protrusion, clearly aiming to touch the spear again.

"I-it's enough..." Tom struggled to utter, barely capable of diverting enough of his focus to speak, too busy trying to control the raging mana inside him. 

"MARVIN!" he shouted, finding it way easier than simply speaking. 

"On it!" Marvin rushed to Tom's side, quickly grabbing his spear. Noticing his friend's plight, Marvin was so hasty that he even ended up cutting the skin of his fingers as he grabbed to the sharp edge of the spear instead of the blunt one. 

"Aaaah...." Tom released a deep sigh of relief as the mana finally found an outlet, surging out of his body and towards his spear. Yet, rather than remaining in the spear as he was worried it would do, it properly entered Marvin's system. 

"That's..." Marvin attempted to say something, only to gnash his teeth and cut his sentence short. In a second, his entire body started to shine for a moment.

And then it all ended. 

The shine of Marvin's skin disappeared, replaced by the natural, healthy color that his face would usually have. Yet, the stunned expression remained well-lodged in his eyes as he raised them to look at his friend. 

"Are you sure this was just a single stone worth of energy?" he asked, alternating his eyes between Tom's face and the slime, still yellow in color, on his shoulder. 

"I think so," Tom replied, taking a glance at the slime. 

As if reacting to Tom's words, the slime turned back to its natural color. Only this time, it was a bit brighter, more distinct than before. 

"Little one, do you have any energy of that stone left?" Tom asked, only to see the slime turn red. 

'That means...' he thought, only for an idea to spark up in his mind. 

"How about this. Back when you tried to reach for the spear, you still had the energy to spare, right?" Tom guessed, trying to figure out the pattern behind the slime's behavior. 

The monster on his shoulder turned green.