Mavis had been human. Or at least, it had memories of being human. The slime didn’t know what to make of this information. Now Mavis knew why it thought and acted like humans did, but that was only a small part of the mystery. What had happened to it in the past? Why was it in this form? Was there some hidden purpose behind its existence?

Ultimately, Mavis couldn’t call this revelation an answer. It was just another lead, and a flimsy one at that. Nothing about that painful scene had struck a chord with the slime. Everything had been so vague.

“So, how are you feeling?” Theo asked.

Theo and Vivian hadn’t taken their eyes off Mavis since it returned to its senses. They continued to shift and fidget nervously while Mavis thought of a response.

“Surprisingly…good.” Mavis replied.

Despite its bewilderment, the slime was feeling better than ever. Its body was like a coiled spring, ready to burst with power at any moment. Whatever fatigue it had been feeling was now non-existent. On top of that, its sensory range had extended a couple meters. One of the few things that hadn’t changed was its size. Mavis was very grateful for that.

After it relayed this information to Theo, he frowned.

“I guess you absorbed the jungle slime’s qualities, somehow. But I wanted to know how you’re feeling mentally.”

“Confused…but…” Mavis paused for a moment. “…But…I think…we should find…more…slimes.”

“Is that really a good idea? You sounded like you were in a lot of pain back there.”

“I am…fine. Can probably…get more…information…from…more slimes. Plus…I will…probably…get stronger.”

Theo’s frown persisted, but he eventually acquiesced. Even though he was worried, he couldn’t stop Mavis from pursuing its origin.

They spent the rest of their day exploring the third layer. A few monsters attacked the trio, but none of them were slimes. Unfortunately, none of them dropped any treasure either. Combat-wise, their second day in the third layer was uneventful.

The third day did not continue this trend.

*Pshooo*

Mavis woke to the sound of falling trees as the Torrent Guardian rampaged. Apparently, someone had poked that bear for a second time.

“Run!” Theo ordered.

They escaped along with a myriad of monsters. This multi-species stampede came to an abrupt halt once they broke away from the Torrent Guardian’s rainstorm. Shivering panthers, gigantic chittering mantises, half-meter tall monkeys with masks instead of faces, all of them looked at each other warily. Just because they’d been born in the same dungeon didn’t make them comrades. In fact, every dungeon monster’s stomach was primarily filled with other monsters. No matter how lethal dungeons were, there simply weren’t enough humans to feed their inhabitants on a daily basis.

Theo, Mavis and Vivian were also on guard. They had followed these monsters to escape as quickly as possible. After all, this jungle’s twisted structure meant nothing to these veterans. Now, Theo was regretting his snap decision.

Just when it seemed like all hell would break loose, the monsters suddenly mellowed out. The big cats straightened their shoulders, the bugs went silent and the monkeys’ hair fell flat. Theo relaxed as well. A small voice in his head seemed to be screaming about danger, but he casually tuned it out.

“Theo! Vivi!”

Fortunately, he couldn’t tune out the voice of his teammate.

The world snapped back into focus for the outlaw. Theo and Vivian clutched their heads as they observed the queer scene before them. The jungle monsters stood still as an army of moths approached. These moths were primarily brown with disturbingly realistic eyes patterned on their wings. Even more disturbing was the single real eye on their backs. Dozens of bloodshot pupils scanned the area as the moths landed on their prey.

“A…Ah.” Vivian let out a strangled cry as she looked up.

Above those tiny moths, clinging to the side of a tree, was a monster whose size gave even ‘Rainy’ a run for her money. Two five-meter long rows of eyes fluttered as the monster stretched its wings. Its body was even longer, easily bridging the distance between the forest’s floor and canopy. An eye the size of a small child sat at the center of its back.

At first, Theo thought that this was another illusion. This creature was too large to even fly properly.

“Mavis, do you see that big one?”

“Yes.”

Theo clenched his teeth.

Though it was a rather strange design choice, soul-piercing moths would always grow too large for their habitats. By the time the adults could procreate, they were already unable to fly through the dense jungle. However, they weren’t helpless. These enormous layabouts spread magically-infused dust that warped their prey’s senses.

The gigantic bloodshot eye trained itself on Theo.

When their dust failed, soul-piercing moths would use a more powerful targeted hypnosis.

Theo felt his senses slipping away once more. He quickly drew a dagger and prepared to stab his leg, but his resolve turned out to be unnecessary. Vivian’s lips moved rapidly as she chanted a somewhat obscure spell. A purple mote of mana sprung out of her hand and shot into Theo’s head, clearing his mind.

While the trio readied their weapons, another wave of monsters rushed out of the rain. After falling into the moths’ trap, all of the monsters stopped except for one. A worm-like mass of slime slithered between the stunned creatures as it rushed to safety.

“Slime!” Mavis shouted.

One slime immediately began to chase the other, but Theo wouldn’t let this continue.

“Mavis, stay focused! We need to deal with these moths first!”

All of the monsters that were waiting to be eaten turned towards Theo. The moths’ eyes locked onto him as well. Normal monsters couldn’t understand humans, but Theo, Mavis and Vivian clearly weren’t under hypnosis. Even moths could understand this much.

“At least this is a good chance to practice fighting in a formation.” Theo rationalized as he gripped his dagger.

The hypnotized monsters shambled towards the trio. Their movements were slow, but the mob worked in unison. As they surrounded their prey, Vivian pulled a hefty battle-axe out of her storage. She grunted slightly while hoisting it onto her shoulder. After charging it with mana, Vivian flung it with both hands. The axe missed the monsters, but it sent out a shockwave that knocked many of them down. Sadly, this was the only way they could use Tarq’s battle-axe. None of them were strong enough to handle it properly.

Using this opening, Theo shot forward and braced himself with his shield. One of the mantises was sent flying, while a dagger tore into the nearest panther. Pivoting, Theo slashed several more monsters before they could get up. These wounds weren’t fatal, but they didn’t need to be. As Theo channeled mana into his favorite dagger, the monsters’ cuts began to widen. The ominously named Voidcutter was unnaturally sharp and could even cut through stone and metal. Wounds inflicted by this dagger could be exacerbated by spending extra mana. A weapon like this, that could turn small cuts into deadly wounds, was certainly worthy of being gold-tier.

The rest of the monsters moved to overwhelm Theo, who had overextended, but they ran into an obstacle along the way. Dark blue tentacles wrapped around a few unlucky monkeys. They were pulled backward and stabbed by Mavis’s swords. Even when it was surrounded, the slime didn’t falter. Its omnidirectional vision was perfect for melees like these. Mavis continued to restrain and kill monsters while allowing their thoughtless attacks to hit its body. If they were lucid, this would have been difficult, but these brainwashed creatures never aimed for Mavis’s core.

“Moths incoming!” Vivian announced. Her cat’s eye had been trained on the giant moth from the start. Thanks to that, she was able to predict that it would change tactics. Much like its prey, the moth’s children followed its commands.

“Mavis, get ready.” Theo ordered.

Orange light flashed as Mavis knocked the remaining monsters away. It rushed to Theo’s side just before he channeled mana into his cloak. A surge of wind followed Theo’s hands, knocking the moths to the ground. Mavis abandoned its human form and dove forward. Expanding, it devoured the insects before they could fly again.

The adult soul-piercer’s eye swam furiously as it watched these raiders finish off its minions and kin. The gargantuan creature’s wings fluttered, but there was nothing it could do. Both its mist and hypnosis were being blocked by Vivian’s magic. As a being that grew up by slowly eating humans alive, its death felt like a taste of its own medicine. Theo and Mavis couldn’t deal much damage with a single hit, and so they had to stab it several dozen times.

“Vivi…where slime?”

The instant the fight ended, Mavis leapt towards Vivian.

“One moment…”

Vivian performed the searching spell that she’d used back in the second layer. Two lines shot towards her palm, a red one for Mavis and a blue one for Theo. Expanding her search, Vivian found another red line.

She sighed in relief.

Vivian had used this spell yesterday when they were searching for slimes, but the results were unreadable. Normally, there were too many monsters lurking in the jungle. When Vivian looked at the slain monsters littering the ground, she realized that the hydra’s rampage had been a blessing in disguise.

“It’s this…” Vivian trailed off.

Mavis was already gone.

“…way.”

Theo scowled as he spun his dagger.

“I don’t think we can chase her. Let’s hurry up and check these monsters. There must be a few treasure cores in this mess.”

“Yea…” Vivian nodded slowly. “Mavis should be able to handle herself, but I’m still worried.”

“So am I. She’s been obsessed with slimes ever since we came to this layer.”

“I know how this sounds but…does it even matter if she figures out what she is? We can teach her how to speak and act like a human.”

“Ultimately, that’s her decision.”

“But if she’s going to scream like that every time…”

“There’s no guarantee that will happen again.”

Vivian glanced at Theo, but he looked away. Despite his words, Theo couldn’t shake the feeling that Mavis’s obsession was dangerous.

- - -

Mavis tore through the jungle as it chased its sibling. It pushed its senses to the limit and eventually found the slime halfway through transforming into some moss. This time, Mavis didn’t fight it. The jungle slime wrapped Mavis in its tentacles, only to recoil when it touched its prey’s ‘skin’. Anticipating this reaction, Mavis lunged forward and pushed its core directly into the other slime’s body.

Once again, the jungle slime was completely suppressed as its body flowed into Mavis’s core. This was nothing like normal merging and, now that it had experienced this twice, Mavis had some idea of why. When two slimes of the same species merged, they would essentially share a body. Somehow, Mavis was different. Rather than the two cores stabilizing, Mavis’s core devoured its inferior partner.

But why was this happening? Mavis didn’t know.

As memories began to bubble up from Mavis’s core, the slime realized why it could remember things while it was merging. Forming a slime colony meant establishing a mental connection between two or more cores. At that moment, Mavis was reading the other slime’s rapidly decaying mind, but it could also search its own.

Mavis didn’t hesitate as it dove into its own memories.

It woke up in a featureless white room. Oddly enough, this time it was still in its faux body. Its senses, especially sight, had been limited to a human level. Mavis turned around to see a pale human kneeling on the ground. This woman was facing away from it and didn’t seem to have any intention of turning around.

“You’re…persistent.”

Mavis stiffened as the woman spoke. This was like hearing an echo of its own voice.

“Even after I showed you such a painful scene, you come back immediately.”

“Tell me…what am I?”

The woman raised her hands in an aloof shrug.

“I give up. You handle this.”

A portal opened up between the woman and Mavis. The being that stepped out of it was blindingly bright. With its human eyes, Mavis couldn’t look at him directly.

“I can’t believe it.” Words that rang like a thousand bells assaulted Mavis’s mind. “You of all people are asking me for help?”

The woman didn’t respond.

“This isn’t easy, even for me.” The being said. “If she comes here again, you’ll have to sort this out by yourselves.”

Before Mavis could react, the being placed a hand on the slime’s head. Mavis’s body suddenly felt hot to the point of boiling. After a few seconds of extreme discomfort, it woke up in the third layer.

“Agh! Why!?” Mavis yelled in frustration.

Wallowing in disappointment would get it nowhere, and so Mavis began to reshape its body.

“…Huh?”

After looking at itself with its omni-directional vision, Mavis noticed something strange. Its normally dark blue slime was now a green-blue, almost teal color. That wasn’t all. Its perception range had expanded to fifteen meters—nearly triple what it had been for the majority of its life. There were probably other changes, but Mavis was too angry to check.

The slime writhed in vexation as it realized the true meaning behind these changes. It had been turned into a different species of slime. One that was probably far superior to jungle slimes. At any other time, this would have been a blessing. Now, though, it wouldn’t be able to merge with any of the slimes in this layer. Mavis understood instinctively that its new body wouldn’t accept a species weaker than itself.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

For the first time in its life, Mavis cursed.