Waking up the next morning I had a small panic attack thinking I was back in the sewers, a zero, and about to have to trudge into the sewers to clean again. But after a short time, I realized I’m lying on a soft bed, and that the room I’m in is obviously not a sewer, so I was able to calm down and remember the events of the day before. Alright, I need to start my day, looking around I spot Notch on the desk cleaning up the dust that has settled on it. Noticing this, I glance at the rest of the room and see that the whole place has been cleaned of the dust and all other trash that has settled around the room in the time it was not being used.

“Notch did you clean the room while I slept?” I ask while getting up. Notch stops moving for a second to nod; then he continues with what he was doing. “Alright, thanks, Notch.” He gives me another wiggle, and I do what will become my morning routine of showering and dressing. When I was done getting ready I ask Notch, “Hey Notch, do you want to stay here or do you want to go clean the stables over at the inn?” Notch seems to think about this for a minute then slimes his way up onto my shoulder. “I’ll take that as a yes then.”

Walking out of my new room I lock the door behind me and make my way out of the library and into the main Guild building, waving at Adile, who was busy helping someone, I left the Guild. The short walk to the inn was uneventful, and we made good time there, we first entered into the stable.

“Hey, it’s you again, your slime gonna help us clean up again?” Asks the stable boy in a happy tone as soon as he sees me.

“Yeah, Notch decided to come by and help again,” I respond while helping Notch to the floor.

“Alright, that will be a great help, but I’ll only be able to pay a single Talon this time.”

“That’s fine,” I say with a wave to Notch and the stable boy I left and entered the inn.

“Good morning sir,” said the same young women from the night before, “just breakfast for you today or will you need a room?”

“Just breakfast thank you,” I say with a nod and then walk towards the tavern part of the inn.

Once in the tavern, I head straight to the bar and talk to the bartender, Reg, “Good morning sir, Learna said I could get myself some breakfast here on her tab?”

“Ah, yes Lea did say she had a new hire, I’ll go get you a plate do you need a drink?”

“Just water, thank you.”

Reg brought over a plate with a few fried eggs and two slices of toast. I ate without any hesitation, thoroughly cleaning my plate of every crumb. Just as I was finishing my water, I almost drop my mug when a blue screen popped up.

Partner Basic Green Slime, Notch, is now able to evolve into a Sludge Slime due to absorbing mass amounts of toxic material. Partner has declined this evolution. Do you want to override this choice? (KNOW THIS: If you disregard your partners choice they may choose to dissolve the partnership instead of evolving.)

Yes

No

When I started reading this notification I was excited that Notch was going to grow in strength, Sludge Slimes have a Spirit Level of four if I remember correctly and they give a bunch of poison type spells to work with which would be helpful for the dungeon. But reading the rest of the notice, I am only left with questions… why would Notch not want to evolve? Being distracted by this thought, I thank Reg for the meal and go to the stable to ask him myself.

Greeting the stable boy again he handed me the Talon and left to continue doing his job. After, a moment I see Notch sliming towards me in a kind of timid way, how does a ball of slime look timid; I’m not sure but dammit if he doesn’t look it. Getting back onto my shoulder he seems uncharacteristically un-wiggly…, that’s not a word. Still, I guess works. Knowing what’s wrong I, and not wanting to talk about our partnership in public, don’t say anything until we get back to the library and into our new office. Luckily, the walk back was just as eventful as the walk there, and we were not stopped by anyone to talk all the way to the office.

Once inside I set Notch on the desk and sit down. “Notch,” is all I get out when he compresses his body, making him look smaller. Continuing I ask, “Why don’t you want to evolve into a Sludge Slime?”

And in response I get… a long wiggle, I don’t know what I was expecting honestly. “Okay let's try a different question, do you ever want to evolve?”

To my relief, he gives the nod, “But not a Sludge Slime?” Not surprising but I got another nod. “Okay, do you know what you want to evolve into?” Notch seems to think for a moment then shakes his body, “...Okay, then how do you know you don’t want to be a Sludge Slime?” He just starts shaking more. “Alright, I get it you don’t want to be a Sludge Slime,” saying that I bring the screen back up and hit no, and a few new screens come up.

Sludge Slime evolution has been denied.

Sludge Slime has been added to the Evolution Menu.

Congratulations! You have gained access to the Evolution Menu.

“What the hell is an Evolution Menu… I don’t remember anyone ever talking about that before.”

With no idea what this is I say, “Evolution Menu,” a new screen shows up with an explanation and a short menu.

With the Evolution Menu, you can pick an evolution that has been denied before, with both partners permission, or see the requirements for different common evolutions. (Note: more can be added to list through various means.)

Notch (Basic Green Slime)

Tier I

Evolution’s

Evolution Requirments

Sludge Slime (DENIED)

Absorb 500 lbs of noxious matter (Completed)

Water Slime (DENIED)

Live in or next to the water for two years. (Completed)

Flame Slime

Be exposed to fire for a total of 100 hours without dying.

Plant Slime

Absorb 500 lbs of plant matter.

Stone Slime

Absorb 500 lbs of stone.

Spark Slime

Be exposed to lightning/electricity for a total of 100 hours without dying.

It was a good thing I was sitting otherwise I would have fallen to the floor because information on monster evolution has been long researched with little to nothing to show for it. But this one menu just freely gave me information on six different evolution paths for slimes… if I had this information for stronger monsters, it could be considered priceless to the right people.

“Notch, have you always had access to this evolution menu, do other monsters too??”

Notch, who seems to be back to his usual wiggly self since I denied the evolution, nods so I continue to ask, “So you do not want to evolve into any of these types of slimes?” With a shake of his body Notch starts to clean up the whole room of the dust, ink stains on the desk, and the stray paper shreds.

I guess he was done with this conversation… I didn’t have any more questions on it anyways… After glaring at the slime that is ignoring me I can’t help but look at the now clean desk, so I decided just to get to work and start with The Monster Compendium. The book or I should say books are incredibly long, five volumes to be exact, and in alphabetical order. Taking the first volume I open it up and can immediately tell what Lea meant, there are ink splatters all over the pages and the script is almost indecipherable… this is going to take a lot longer than I initially thought.

Hours passed as I did my best to decipher the script of the book and copy it down neatly onto the new book. I made a few mistakes, but I found out Notch could just clean up the page as he wished using tentacles to just absorb the ink that I either splattered over the page or a misspelled word saving the page and me extra work. By the time I decided to stop for the day I only got maybe an eighth of the first book done. With my hand cramping from doing the repetitive task, I get up with Notch back in his spot on my shoulder we head over to talk to Adile about what commission we can grab.

Leaving my new office, I lock the door and walk past two people reading in the library before exiting into the main Guild building. Adile was back sitting behind her counter petting her Fire Cat.

“Hey new guy, done copying the dusty old books for the day?” asked Adile as soon as she saw me approach her counter.

“Yeah, I don’t think I could write another word today even if I wanted too,” I reply messaging my sore hand.

“Ha, I can imagine luckily for me the boss lady says my handwriting is barely acceptable for forms let alone to copy books. So, what can I do for you or are you here just to flirt?”

I feel a blush creeping up my face, “I… I…. I wasn’t flirting,” is all I’m able to stammer out before Adile starts to laugh at my reaction.

“Lea was right you are easy to tease, calm yourself Nox I was just messing with you what do you need?”

“I uh, just wanted to know how to take a commision,” I was able to get up a blush still covering my face I’m sure.

“Ah, that’s easy over on the wall over there is all the commissions find one that is acceptable for your level then bring them over to me and I’ll upload them to your Guild ID. Once that is done the System will keep track of your progress. When you’re done to get your reward, you just have to turn the items over to me and show me your ID.”

“Okay, thanks I’ll be right back,” I say as I walk over to the wall I saw earlier that was covered in slips of paper. Looking through I notice most of the sheets are for different kinds of resources, like herbs and ores but I do find a few for monster parts in the dungeon. Taking a few commisions, I go back over to Adile.

“Found some that you like,” she asks as I hand her the slips, “Ah, yes I thought these would be the ones you would pick just give me your ID, and I’ll add them to it.” Sure enough a moment later she hands me back my ID. “There you go that should be everything.”

Looking at my ID, a few new screens appear before me.

You have accepted four quests from the Dondton Guild.

Collect 30 of the medical herbs, Golden Nutmeg, Forest Lavender, Lake Lavender, or Nettle Sage.

Reward: Variable on Herbs

Collect 30 of any kind of ore.

Reward: Variable on Ores

Collect 30 Water Rat fangs.

Reward: 15 Talons

Collect 30 Water Rat pelts. Pelts must be in good condition to be accepted.

Reward: 30 Talons

And my ID now looks a little different from before.

Nox

Spirit Level 1*

Element: N/A

Herbs: 0/30

Ores: 0/30

Water Rat fangs: 0/30

Water Rat pelts: 0/30

See all the new info stuns me for a second but then I ask, “Any idea where I can get the herbs or ores? Or even what they look like?”

Adile laughs, “Nox, you work in the library… where do you think you can get that info? Joking aside, for the herbs check out Medicinal Wild Herbs, a good book for the ores would be… Ore’s and Where to Find Them, and the monster parts will be the Monster Compendium, but Water Rats are found in the dungeon.”

“Oh… okay, I’ll check those books out later, maybe tonight, but for now, I think I’ll just go straight to the dungeon.”

“Alright, be careful in there even though it is considered one of the weakest dungeons in the empire you are just a Spirit Level one… with a slime…”

Notch seems to wiggle offendedly on my shoulder, but I don’t say anything about it because I know she is just warning us of the dangers. “We will be careful thanks for the help and the warning Adile I’ll see you later.”

“Alright, good luck!”

Leaving the Guild, I head towards the Dungeon.