Chapter 16: Traps.

Catherine oozed across the floor as she progressed threw the maze, setting off any and all traps she could. With how she was moving she could only trigger traps that were set off by a pressure pad or trip wires set to the ground. Setting off the traps and seeing them miss completely brought her amusement, as the majority of them were clearly designed for someone not a few inches in height.

Her favorites so far were the crushers, bits of wall suddenly jutting out and squishing anything unfortunate enough to be standing in its way. They would not of hurt her anyways, but seeing them miss entirely…she could imagine someone being annoyed at completely missing.

Among the more elaborate traps were anything attached to a trip wire, as setting those off could amount to a number of things happening, so far Catherine has seen blades falling from the ceiling, arrows flying passed, and the only thing that so far managed to hit her which was spikes extending from the ceiling and falling down, crushing anything below.

Of course, all this really did was just impale her and like everything that happened so far she shrugged it off and kept moving. After a round of setting off more traps, none of which were effective, she came across a roaming orc in the maze. The orc itself looking like the boss of the tenth floor, equipment and loadout all the same.

“oh about damn time!” Catherine yelled, her tiny nubs held high as she charged the orc recklessly. Noticing a tiny white blob moving towards it, the orc oinked in confusion. Instead of taking any hostile action it instead went down on one knee and looked at it questionably before being overcome with panic as the slime leaped into the air, covering the orc’s face completely.

The orc stood up, dropping its club as it used both of its hands to grasp at the slime on it’s head, trying desperately to pry it off it yelled out. It quickly discovered that was a bad idea, as slime started pouring down its throat. The orc clasped down in an attempt to stop the slime but it was too late, out of breath and with the slime eating it’s insides it fell to the ground, defeated without much effort.

Catherine chuckled to herself “This is how a slime should fight” She said triumphantly, using the part of herself already inside the orc to eat the mana crystal and brain. With the brain eaten she went over the new information, trying to see if she could find the location of the stairs down but sighed, not having any luck.

Shrugging with her little nubs, she placed a nub on the left wall and continued. Hoping to find some more orcs with new skills or magic, or one that knew the way down to the next damn floor.

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A party of three were on their way back from deeper in the dungeon, having not seen anyone on their way back up had them worried and suspicious. They occasionally heard loud bangs and recently started hearing the screams of orcs, so they figured someone was on the same floor as they were.

“There’s another one…” A short female adventurer with long droopy ears, blue skin, white hair, and yellow eyes who went by the name of Jill said as she heard another bang. She wore skin tight armor like Nyoka had, with two knives on her side. One feature on the armor was different, however, She had two bright yellow bands that flashed when ever someone looked at her, drawing the attention of anyone that looked at her. the girl was an imp.

“Someone must be setting off every trap in here.” Another adventurer said, this adventurer went by the name of Don, and was a short but wide man who stood a heads length taller then jill. He wore heavy armor with a giant hammer on his back. The most interesting feature on the man would be his great long red beard which extended bellow his belly.

“Might be an amateur? Or clearly someone who doesn’t care about getting crushed.” The final member, a man that towered over both of them looked like a normal human male, if not for the single giant horn adorning his forehead. Like the dwarf he was also wearing heavy armor, but instead of an hammer on his back he had two swords. An oni by the name of Donni.

Another bang, louder then the rest, was heard by the trio “That one was close!” Jill said, jumping in place excitedly.

“Do we wait here for them to pass?” Don asked, looking up at his larger friend.

The oni shook his head, looking at a holographic panel on his arm “If they are up ahead then they will have to pass by us to get to the next floor.”

“Lets hurry then! I want to see what kind of dumbass sets off all that noise!” The imp said, running forward down the hall, occasionally leaping over traps.

The dwarf scowled, “Great… this will be more trouble then its worth.” He grumbled, flinching and stumbling forward a bet as Donni slapped his back in a friendly manner.

“No worries, we just pass them and get out of here. Nice change of pace from not meeting anyone.” He said.

“All the more reason not to meet anyone, these floors usually have some adventurers in it hunting orcs.” He said, then gestured around him “We clearly missed the memo, we haven’t met anyone since the twenty fifth floor.”

“Well, then lets at least ask them why.” The oni said, then looked up and frowned “ah…don…” The man said nervously.

“Hmph, what?” Don looked up at him, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Do you, um, remember where Jill avoided…?”

The dwarf looked forward down the hall, puffed out his chest, and let out a deep sigh. “Nope.”

Donni sighed, bringing up a hand to his ear he spoke “Jill…you left us again. Get back here and help before we get crushed.” He then waited for a bit, relief washing over him as he saw Jill trot down the hallway, jumping every so often to avoid traps.

After being reunited with an apologetic Jill, they continued down the hall, hearing battle from around the corner they quickly hurried. “Oh this is it! Contact with another sentient body after so long~” Jill said while shaking in anticipation. They turned the corner, and down the hall they saw an orc, struggling to breathe as a slime was covering its face. “huh?” The imp blinked in surprise at the unusual sight.

The three remained at the corner, Donni leaning in a bit “Is that a, slime? Did it come down from the upper floors?”

The dwarf shook his head “No, not possible for a regular slime. Especially one that came from this dungeon.” He watched the fight continue for a bit, then looked around to see if anyone else was here “A tamer brought it in maybe?” With the way it was fighting, and it willingly fighting something that was supposed to be stronger then it, Don figured a tamer would be around.

Jill’s ears perked up, seeing a familiar sight, she jumped up in the air, pointing at the object floating inside the slime “No look! Look at the core!”

Donni looked at her questionably “The core?” He asked, figuring it was just another slime core so he did not pay attention to it, but as his comrades words he took a closer look and his eyes went wide “Is that a…”

“A leash.” Don said, briefly glancing at the imp in his party before looking back at the fight “Explains why there isn’t a tamer, where is the keeper?”

Donni stood up straight and stretched “Can’t be far, but that explains why this place has been empty. Testing their new pet?” He chuckled then yelped in pain. “Hey! Get off!” he yelled, Jill had leaped on top of the man, pulling his ears before jumping down just as he was about to grab her.

“That’s not nice! It isn’t a pet it’s a potential new member and ally to all of us!” The imp said, crossing her arms. ”You can’t just a book by its cover just because it has a leash, and besides, how bad could it be? Its just a slime!” She said, flinching as a loud *thump* was heard as the orc fell to the ground, limp and unmoving.

“Ah, how bad could it be, right.” Donni said “Look I know you share the same…” He looked at her, looking away and scratching his chin as he noticed her frown growing “Experience, but not all the creatures leashed are so willing to join the organization.”

Don grunted “Speaking of which, where is the keeper.” The dwarf moved in front of them, placing a hand on his hammer but keeping it behind him. “Oiy! Slime! Where is the rest of your group!”

The three watched as the slime jiggled, its body withdrawing from the inside of dead orc and climbing on top of the body, the ball inside it briefly glowing a faint red before dying down. ‘Damn thing just thought about killing us…’ Donni thought, moving Jill behind him.

“Hey! Don’t make us ask again!” Donni yelled. “Where is your party!?”

“Come on guys you are scaring it!” Jill said. Dashing in front of them, avoiding Donni’s hand as she trotted over. With a wide grin on her face she held out her hand “Names Jill the imp! What is yours?” she asked innocently. She watched the slime jiggle for a moment, Jill crooked her head to the side, her large ears flopping about “What’s wrong? Can’t talk?” She asked.

The two party members behind her watched as the slime jiggled, then began to grow in size. Donni dashed forward, grabbing Jill and stepping back “The heck it doing?!” he shouted in confusion, watching the slime triple in size. The slime’s surface rippled, then contracted and morphed, thinning in places as it formed limbs and a head.

The slime’s body seemingly solidified, the leash appearing on it’s chest as the skin around it gained color, the details of the face formed, and opening its red eyes it looked at them, white hair flowing down from its head to shoulder length, and sharp pointed elf ears appeared on the sides of its face. Finally, a layer of casual clothes appeared over its body.

‘The hell is this thing?’ Donni asked himself, out of all the slimes he fought and heard about, none of them could morph, let alone take the appearance of a person! He doubted it was even a slime at this point, he might as well of been facing a doppelganger, but it took the appearance of an high elf. That was something a demon like a doppelganger would not, under normal circumstances, do.

The three watched, as the women that was formally a slime raised her hand towards Jill, who shot her a questioning look before realizing “Oh.” She broke free of the stunned Donni’s hand and trotted over, taking the girls hand and shaking it. “Catherine, the slime.” The women said, smiling wide.