Chapter 17: Adventurers.

Donni was still cautious of the slime turned women, stepping in front of Jill and moving her behind him. Ignoring the girls protests he faced the slime “You still have not answered our question, where is the rest of your group?” He asked. “Someone like you should not be alone in a place like this.”

The women smirked “Aww, worried for some one like me?” She teased before pointing upwards “Two others are resting in the boss room, I went ahead.”

Donni glared at her “How do we know you are not lying?” He asked,and seeing her tap the ball on her chest he lowered his guard. ‘wouldn’t be standing here if she did kill them.’ He thought to himself. Shaking his head to get rid of lingering feeling he took a deep breath before speaking “Well, you already met Jill…” he motioned below him to a waving jill before pointing to himself “My names Donni, and this dwarf is named…”

“Don” The dwarf spoke, not taking his eyes off the ball in her chest.

Catherine crooked her head to the side “You guys have similar names…”

Donni laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head “Yeah, his name is actually way longer, but its easier to just call him Don.”

Don threw out his chest, placing one hand over his heart “Name is Donnavindorundo, a proud member of the dwarven race and brave adventurer!” He said

“Nice to meet you Don.” Catherine said, chuckling when Don huffed, crossing his arms across his chest.

Jill laughed, coming up to the front of the group “Always funny to see Don sulk at people not using his name.” She trotted closer to Catherine “So what brings you here? Are you on one of their assignments?” she asked, crooking her head to the side as she noticed Catherine’s eyes squinting “what’s wrong?” she asked.

“What the hell are up with those bands.” Catherine spoke, pointing to the yellow bands attached to jill’s arms.

Jill looked at her bands for a moment, then clapped her hands in realization “oh wow, you must be really new.” She said, then hopped on top of the orc’s corpse “These are just Identifying bands, required when members go into dungeons that spawn their same species.” She then pulled one of the bands before letting it snap back into place on her arm. “Imps spawn lower down, not fun to kill your own but…that’s the life of a variant” she shrugged.

“Isn’t to pleasant for us either Jill, That’s why I suggested we go somewhere else.” Donni frowned.

“Hard to double check if it’s jill before I swing.” Don added, ducking to avoid Donni’s fist that came swinging to the back of his head.

Jill brought both hands together, striking a pose with upturned eyes “Awww, you guys are sweet.” She said then turned her attention back to Catherine “But I bet you already went threw that? Slimes are a lot more common than imps.”

Donni froze, he felt the air chill, he glanced towards the ball on Catherine’s chest as it glowed briefly. Before he could do anything however, the ball stopped glowing and the chill vanished.

“Yeah, wasn’t very…pleasant.” Catherine said.as she started sinking into the orc’s corpse, the area around her dissolving as it contacted her skin. This caused the two men to recoil back in disgust, a foil stench filling the room.

Jill laughed “Ah, sorry sorry!” she said, bowing repeatedly “Touchy subject, noted!” She said, taking a sidelong glance at the dissolving mess below Catherine she jumped off the corpse. “So, how new are you? You still have the leash so-oop!” Jill yelped, being unexpectedly lifted into the air by Donni.

“Look, as much as you want to talk…ah, Catherine was it? Mind if we ask you something about the status of the dungeon?” He asked, really wanting to move on and away from this slime.

Catherine shrugged “Wasn’t stopping you before, go ahead, oh! In exchange tell me where the stairs down are.” She said.

“Yes, uh sorry about that. Not every day you meet someone on a le-“ He paused, gulping he continued “Anyways! We have not seen anyone else for a few floors, did we miss something?”

Catherine leaned back, her lower body having extended into several tentacles that were dissolving the corpse. “Right, apparently we have this place booked. Rose mentioned there were a few groups still in here in a, deep dive? Guess she was referring to you guys and who ever you passed.”

“Ah shit we missed a return order!” Jill yelled, still being held in Donni’s hands she twisted herself around and started hitting the man in the chest “The heck didn’t we get the return order!”

Donni laughed nervously, trying his best to ignore both Jill and Catherine dissolving the corpse “Ah I see, that would explain it. perhaps we went in to deep.” he said, wondering why the other group heading down didn’t get the memo when the should have. Seeing Catherine motion in the air to get on with it he jumped “Oh right the way down, its uhm…”

“Two rights, a left, straight, and then a final right down that a way!” Jill shouted, pointing down the hallway.

“Yes, what she said.” Donni said “Well if that is all…” He turned to leave.

“Good bye.” The dwarf added, turning to leave but waited on Donni to take the lead, or to let Jill down so she could.

“Wait wait, let me down!” Jill squirmed, trying to break free from Donni’s grip.

“We are leaving, Jill.” Donni said, starting to walk away.

“You’ll have to let me down eventually while we are on this floor! And when you do I will just run right back here!” She said, halting her squirming as she stood straight in the air, her arms crossed and glaring Donni in the eyes.

Donni sighed, letting her down and watched as she trotted over to Catherine and what little remained of the corpse “Let me see the leash for a sec.” She said, holding out her hand. Catherine obliged, moving the ball to the palm of her hand and presenting it to Jill, curious at what she was going to do. “When you get back to the surface, if they let you contact people try and get in touch with me.” She said, poking the ball and causing it to project a screen, she quickly navigated through it before finding the screen she wanted, where she entered in some info and closed the screen.

“Just gave you my number, if you need help ask someone.” She said then smiled “Would love to chat and can offer some advice on ‘fitting in’ with people in general.” She then took a pose, pushing out her chest and placing one hand over her heart, much like how Don did earlier “I will show you the ropes as your proud and knowledgeable elder!”

Catherine chuckled “Sure, If I can.” She watched Jill smile, then trotted back over to her group.

“Bye-bye!” Jill waved, leading her group forward. Donni looking back once, seeing the orc corpse gone he grimaced then continued forward.

Catherine stretched, before melting down to her slime form. “Best continue…” She said to herself as she oozed forward. Thinking back to the group, even though they came from the lower floors she didn’t feel like they could pose a threat to her, but what interested her was the imp.

Like her the imp was apparently a variant, a monster coming from a dungeon that the organization picked up. That lead her into thinking Jill was stronger than how she looked, and made her wonder what she did to grab the organizations notice. But unlike with the fairy, she did not get the same feeling she did. Dea still felt strong, and somehow the skill said she posed a danger to her. While nothing like that came from Jill.

Granted, she didn’t know the limits of the skill, besides the few examples she had already. ‘More things to test.’ She sighed. Then there were the other two, the dwarf and oni. Both did not interest her, the oni was amusing to mess with but the dwarf did not stop staring at her chest, or more specifically the metal ball above it. She guessed he was watching for something but decided not to put much thought into it.

She followed their directions, triggering every trap she came across but was happy when she arrived at the stairway down. She raised her nubs in victory before rolling down the stairs, ready to take on what ever the next floor had in store.