When I told the group I’d start out by summoning some slimes, I was given a lot of hesitant looks. Even Johan, who seemed to have unwavering loyalty to me gave me a look and said “Are you sure m’lord?” They all looked at me with that sort of “you should change your mind please” look but didn’t say anything to me in the face.

I had initially thought it was because they didn’t want anymore ill tempered slimes like Voop around, but I was very very wrong. I had invited everyone to come to the summoning, but in the end, it was only Voop who would come. He was the only one who didn’t really hesitate at my idea, but I had a feeling he was holding back something.

Just like before, when I thought about summoning slimes, the command prompt came forward with a ding.

[Would you like to summon a Lvl 1 Slime?]

[>Y/N?]

I pressed yes.

A magical circle began to glow in front of me, blinding me for a moment. When all was said and done, a small green slime was in place of where the magical circle was. It was small, smaller than Voop, but had the same type of derpy eyes. It was round and had a tiny "mouth," a total 180 from our own resident cat slime monster.

“Pyuu?” It led out an adorable little noise while slowly making its way over to me.

This… This was completely different than my expectations of what a slime looked like in this world. If anything… this was like how all slimes looked like in every stereotypical fantasy world.

“Ugh Voop is once more disappointed. Voop will be in Voop’s thinking puddle if you need Voop.” His deep voice jostled me out of my momentary shock and I watched him bounce away, his ears flattened down and his tail flicking back and forth angrily.

Come to think about it, wasn’t Voop the anomaly here?

“Pyuu!” The adorable small green slime finally made it towards me and nuzzled my foot. It seemed to recognize me as it’s master. Still I couldn’t give this much thought for the moment and settled on summoning 9 more slimes so that we had a manageable number of 10 slimes in total. 11 if you counted Voop.

The Dungeon Master System seemed to allow for a DM to build onto their dungeon as long as they had the funds, but seeing our treasury was low, I had to build everything by hand by gathering the supplies outside.

I managed to convince Moby and Goby to assist me by telling them I’d get them candy the first chance I got, and they immediately said yes, but that was the extent of help I could get. Darnelle was already out scouting, Johan was practicing maintenance and was too busy, Patty couldn’t stray too far from her eggs, and Claire was out patrolling. As for Alfred? Well…

He tried to help but his bony arms could only do so much, so I had him keep an eye on the slimes while the goblin twins and I went searching for usable materials. Since they were raised by Patty and Claire, they were good kids, but a little mischievous and talked in a way that was kinda weird coming out of a kid’s mouth.

“Hey Boss will this one do!” Moby asked as she held up to me a bundle of wood. Since I was looking for some thin but sturdy wood pieces to act as a makeshift slime pen, what Moby brought was exactly what I needed. She gave me a sharp toothed grin, as if expecting something in return. From the looks of it, she wanted praise for her hard work.

“This is perfect Moby, exactly what I needed,” I said, petting her tiny head. She beamed at me and took the bundle inside the dungeon towards Alfred, who was seemingly training the slimes with military like precision.

Goby rushed up to me next. In her tiny little arms was a giant log that a grown man would have trouble carrying. “HEY BOSS WILL THIS DO?” she asked excitedly.

I felt a cold chill rush down my spine. Forgive me gods for whatever pain this child will one day bring to the humans who visit this dungeon.

“Uh, why not something a little smaller Goby?” I asked, giving her a nervous chuckle. Goby pouted but there was a fire in her eyes, as if she wasn’t going to be outdone by her sister. The goblin sisters were like day and night with their personalities. Goby was aggressive and competitive, while Moby liked to take a more passive quiet route. But both sisters loved attention, and were the happiest when someone was praising them. This led to a sort of sibling rivalry, albeit one sided since Moby had her own strengths that Goby couldn’t outdo.

“I’M ON IT BOSS LEAVE IT TO ME!” she shouted as she dropped the log with a loud thud and began rushing around looking for more appropriate sized sticks. I kept an eye on her, but it seemed that every time I looked away, she would find something completely different than I had asked for.

Roadkill, long dried out skulls, more logs, a rusted sword from who knows where, shiny rocks that had caught her attention. If it wasn’t a good sized stick, she brought it back. Eventually I had to ask her to give up, and help me bring in all the stuff I collected. Goby looked down trodden as she brought in half of my bundle inside.

“Don’t worry Goby, you can help me build the pen,” I said, trying to cheer her up.

She grinned and rushed forward where Alfred and Moby were waiting, and I was forced to catch up to her. Kids sure had a lot of energy.

Together the four of us got down to work. I had Moby and Alfred keep the slimes in one corner as I ordered Goby to dig into the ground with the small hunting knife she was given. Together, we built a small trench around their would be pen, and encircled it with the sticks. I purposefully gathered thin ones so that I could weave them around to make a makeshift wall. The pen was high enough they couldn’t jump but low enough that we could walk over it so that we didn’t have to deal with a gate and a potential jailbreak.

Next we all gathered buckets of water and built a moat in the trench so that the humidity levels would stay high and they had water to feed from. During my initial research, a slime’s main source of food was the element they were based off of; in this case, water. Of course, a healthy diet for any slime was to consume smaller creatures and absorb their nutrients to get bigger, but they could survive off their elemental base as long as they need to. Mana, too, was a plus, but too much may cause the slime body to explode as it goes over capacity. Kinda like a diabetic taking too much or not enough insulin.

Really, I had thought slimes would be the easiest to manage, but it seemed they took a lot of maintenance. Still, they were easy to summon and quick to train. They were already used to the sight of me and the others, and would rush towards me whenever it was time to feed them. They’d make small little noises that were adorable and would rub at my legs wanting attention.

But, the main reason I summoned the slimes was for experimentation.

That's right. Unlike other monsters, slimes evolved and transformed quickly and bred just as fast. The perfect opportunity for me to see how I can get these guys to high enough level before any humans came into our small dungeon.

On the first few day I kept detailed records of how the slimes acted and what their routines were like. Thanks to the DMS, any monster I summoned had its name floating above its head as a way for me to keep track of them, kind of like in an RPG. I could simply click or say their names, and their stats would show up.

In order there was: Bean, Mushroom, Soup, Jello, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cream, Strawberry, Cake, and Coffee.

I may or may not have been very hungry when I was naming them.

More or less their stats were pretty much the same with a few exceptions.

【Bean】

Level: 1

Race: Slime (green)

Class: N/A

Gender: N/A

Rarity: ★★☆☆☆

HP: 20/20

STR - 5 (+3)

DEX - 8

CON - 10 (+5)

INT - 5 (+2)

WIS - 1

CHA - 10

LCK - 5

SKILLS:

【Shock Absorbent】【Ooze Attack】【Mob Mentality】

【Coffee】

Level: 1

Race: King Slime (green)

Class: N/A

Gender: N/A

Rarity: ★★★★☆

HP: 25/25

STR - 10 (+5)

DEX - 10 (+5)

CON - 13 (+5)

INT - 8 (+3)

WIS - 4

CHA - 15

LCK - 9

SKILLS:

【Shock Absorbent】【Man’s Wisdom】【Royal Jelly (Boss Monster)】【Fleet of Foot】【Iron Stomach】【Enchantment】

When I first say it, my immediate reaction was ‘How the hell did I get such OP slimes?’

Once again, the DMS answered my questions. It seemed that when you summoned a monster, there’s a 1/10 chance it'll have some slight upgrade, and 1/100 to be a Boss type monster. I was the lucky bastard who somehow managed to get both. The rest of my slimes had stats similar to Bean but without their buffs or skills, meaning they were weaker. A given considering I already had two anomalies for slimes.

From there I went into phase two. Changing their diet. Since I only needed a little bit of mana that I had Johan prepare and water, feeding my slimes weren’t a big hassle. But now I was changing things up. Half of them would keep their normal diet, including Bean and Coffee, and the other half I would try to introduce other different elemental sources to it to see if it’d change.

I started with mushrooms. There were a few growing in the dungeon, and I heard from Goby that they were poisonous and that Voop had tried to eat them in order to become a poison type of slime. But the only effect it had on him was to make him sick and lose half of his health points. The more I learned about Voop, the more I started to think maybe he wasn’t actually a slime. After all he looked nothing like the others. On top of that, he had actual intelligence unlike the ones I summoned, who had the same level of intelligence as a dog.

Gathering a few of them, I fed the mushrooms to the slimes and watched them closely. Of course naturally I gave it to Mushroom, as it only felt fitting. Mushroom absorbed them quickly and let out a soft “pyuu~” in contentment. I wanted to pet it’s soft gelatinous head but if it actually became a poisonous type it would’ve been dangerous. Instead I gave it a little smile.

Checking up on it’s status, it said that it was still the basic green slime. It would seem I would need to keep feeding Mushroom until it could evolve.

Next was Strawberry. Making sure it was separated from the other slimes when I was feeding it, I asked Johan to make a small magical flame in a dish filled with oil. He gave me a confused look but Johan wasn’t the type to question my thought process so he complied. I put it next to Strawberry and motioned it to eat. Strawberry gave me an odd look and with a cheerful “pyuu” it hopped on top of the dish.

‘Please don’t die, please don’t die, please don’t die.’ I prayed loudly in my heart as I waited for the effects.

“PYUU~!” Strawberry cheered as they rolled in the fire. Even though they weren’t changing just yet, it wasn’t actually hurting them. Maybe changing a slime wasn’t immediate and rather a consistent thing that took time? So with that in mind I continued with my experiments.

Soup was next and just like Strawberry I gave them a shard of magically charged ice. Soup stared at it and again, just like Strawberry, absorbed it with a soft “pyuu.”

After that I tried some even weirder combinations, one that probably hasn’t been seen by this world period.

Yeah, that’s right: medical slimes. I gave this position to Cake, since sometimes after a long day of work a slice of cake heals your soul. So after begging Johan for an hour, I was finally given a small healing potion to feed to Cake. They excitedly climb into their dish and… surprisingly they immediately changed color.

[Evolution Unlocked: Healing Slime Unlocked]

[Evolve “Cake”?]

[Y/N]

YES! YES YES YES! FINALLY!

This was a no brainer. I hit yes immediately, and Cake began to glow. When the light disappeared, what was left was Cake, now a soft pink color, and a little antenna on its head.

“Pyuuuuu~!” It rushed to my side and nuzzled my leg, and I couldn’t help but cry in my heart. Not only was Cake going to be so useful, but they were cute to boot. I knew choosing slimes was a smart idea.

“CAKE YOU’RE GONNA BE THE SECRET TO OUR AMAZING DUNGEON!” I shouted, picking Cake up.

Next up was Jello. If I was being honest I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d try to evolve them into, so when everyone was asleep I tried to use magic on it.

I say magic but it was more like forced evolution. Magic was still super new to me, so I wasn’t sure quite how to explain what I was doing. Ever since Johan and Darnelle started teaching me, a small mana and health bar was always at the corner of my vision. I assumed this was due to the DMS. Except whenever I used magic via the DMS the mana bar never went down.

That ended up getting me thinking. If using the DMS didn’t consume mana, was it possible it wasn’t considered magic? I didn’t know the answer until I first summoned my slimes and the answer was: sometimes.

Summoning monsters costed mana, but messing with them didn’t. Messing with the dungeon costed mana and resources, but moving things around didn’t. Keeping an eye on everyone or opening my maps and status pages didn’t cost me anything, but trying to change something through them did.

Honestly it all felt a little confusing but the general idea was if it affected the real world, it costed something.

So with that knowledge I tried to force evolve Jello by opening the DMS and flipping to the monster manual. Shadow slimes or Dark Slimes were a rare occurrence in the world, but happened when enough dark magic coalesced into a slime. So my idea was to force enough dark magic into Jello until they evolved. Working at night time supposedly upped the effectiveness of the magic so I naturally stayed up till then to work.

Jello sat on my lap, giving me what I assumed was a smile in slime terms and a soft “pyuu.” Flipping through the spells section of the DMS, I found the basic dark magic incantation and pushed it into Jello. My mana dropped, but not as heavily as I thought it’d be.

The tiny slime shuddered under the touch and for a moment I was afraid I was hurting them, but just with Cake, suddenly they turned dark purple and a window popped into my view.

[Evolution Unlocked: Dark Slime Unlocked]

[Evolve “Jello”?]

[Y/N]

I pressed yes excitedly and watched in amazement as Jello changed. There was a dark shadowy aura around them and their soft eyes turned red, blinking up at me happily. I gave it a gentle pat on the head, enjoying the squishy sensation. Somehow, despite now being a Dark Slime, Jello wasn’t hurting me, and I got the feeling it’s because they didn’t want to hurt me. Just like I didn’t want to hurt it. Magic had to have intent; without the intent of hurting someone, it never will, it’ll just fizzle out into nothingness. I pocketed that information for later use.

So me and Jello stayed like that. They were making soft little “pyuu” noises that I could only chalk up to them purring loudly as I petted them. Slimes were soft and squishy, and even though they evolved, Jello was no exception. There was a firmness to it, but their gelatinous slime bodies were still malleable. No matter how hard I squeezed, Jello would spring back as long as I wasn’t intending on hurting them.

The texture and the squishing motions I was making reminded me of making tortillas with my mom when I was younger. I’d stand on a small stool and watched her expertly roll out balls of masa into perfect little lumps that would be flattened out on a plate later. I’d ask to help her out but instead of making the perfect little lumps, I’d squish them in my hand, laughing at the sensation of the masa leaking through my fingers only to come back together when I rolled them. I’d make weird shapes and animals like turtles and snowmen, thinking my mom could cook them like that. They didn’t but my mom let me anyways.

I faltered for a moment. Jello looked at me curiously, making their little slime noises at me.

I didn’t think I’d remember something like that here. It’s been a long time since I made tortillas with my mother. Too long actually. I stared down at my hands for a moment, trying to resist the urge to cry. It wasn’t fair. Life wasn’t fair. It’d never be fair. But dear god did I want it to be. Nothing was ever going to go my way. The world will still be cruel because as long as there was one bad person out the bunch, they’ll find a way to infect others, to manipulate them, to hurt them. My hands shook with barely restrained fury.

Jello nudged and rubbed against my hands in worry.

I let my breath that I had been holding go and forced myself to relax.

“Don’t worry little guy, I’m fine,” I said quietly, taking Jello back to the other slimes where they would rest.

I was walking back to the secret room slowly when someone stopped me.

“We need to talk.”

I stared down at Voop, unmoving.

“It’s about the slimes.”

I had a feeling something like this was going to come up. The more time I spent with the slimes, the more I realized how… un-slime like Voop really was. He was a cube instead of the smooth round slimes as the others, and he had cat ears and a tail. His body, while slimy and gelatinous, wasn’t transparent as the others. It also was thicker for lack of a better word, as if he had more mass. Much much more mass.

“Oh is that so?” I said, keeping my voice casual.

“You already know don’t you. You know about Voop.” It wasn’t a question. His voice was bitter and there was a tint of anger.

“I don’t know anything, I’m just an idiot guy who got summoned here.”

Voop stared at me for a long time. It felt like he was staring not just at me, but through me. Through my very soul. My memories, my very thoughts, my ambitions and goals, secrets and lies, yearnings in life, all of them were laid before him. That was the feeling his eyes gave me. He shuddered, as if he didn’t like what he saw.

No one ever did. There was a moment of silence between us. I didn’t feel inclined to say anything, as I had the feeling he already knew, and Voop seemed to be weighing out his pros and cons.

“Voop will show you something now.”

“What is it then?” I still kept my voice casual, but Voop knew. He already knew didn’t he? I had a feeling he was just like me.

“Open Voop’s Status. Voop knows Boss can see it.” He was still looking at me, unblinking.

I shrugged it off and opened it in front of me. For a moment it was the same. And then… it shimmered. It glowed and warped, as if shedding a second skin before a new screen opened before me.

“Oh… Oh that changes everything now does it,” I said, blinking in surprise. “Do the others know?”

Voop shook his head. It was kind of strange, like someone tapping a jello cube and watching it bounce. “Johan suspects but he is wrong in his suspect. No one but Voop knows. But now Boss knows too.”

I rubbed my chin in thought. “So… how do we fix it?” I had a few ideas and theories, but with my limited knowledge of the world, it’d be tough.

I stared at the slime cube in front of me. No… not slime cube. Just… just Voop. Voop grinned at me, mouth opened wide. There was a row of razor sharp teeth that looked so out of place, and instead of having a tongue or a typical mouth, it was nothing but a swirling black hole. The more I looked the more I could see. Vortexes of pain and hell centralized in one area. Swirling souls of the damned, the unholy, everything that corrupted this world. All in one small package.

“Easy… We kill God.”