After the cheater incident, JohnWillStab and Bonifacius were once again travelling to a place in Grimwood to complete another quest.

“Bonifacius: I have taken the liberty of accepting two quests since both require us to travel to the same place!” he explained.

“JohnWillStab: Cool, maybe I’ll level up twice!” he exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Bonifacius: Perhaps! Thou should cherish the swift levelling while thou have the chance!” he replied with a hearty laugh.

“Bonifacius: Soon, each level shall be a day of questing in and of itself!”

JohnWillStab breathed a sigh.

“JohnWillStab: A whole day!?”

“Bonifacius: Indeed, though thy troubles shan’t start until about level forty,” he explained.

They travelled down the dirt road that split off from the cobblestone one they took the last few times.

The land seemed flatter than usual, and wetter, with large mounds of moss that rose up and down almost like the plant itself was breathing.

The moss seemed so odd, JohnWillStab even clicked on the strange plant to make sure they weren’t monsters.

The trees were also coated in moss, they looked dead, drained of all nutrients.

Most had already fallen over while some trees were still moving, they were being carried around by the slow movement of the green glacier.

Within the soft, spongy plant that covered most surfaces around their area flowed small streams of water which fed into large pits.

They almost resembled exposed veins except they carried water and wildlife instead of blood.

“JohnWillStab: This place looks cool,” he remarked seeing a passed-out boar moving down the moss-stream into one of the pits.

It looked kind of fun, like a less vertical waterslide with large pitfalls.

“Bonifacius: Tis called the ‘forest of fluffy moss’!” he exclaimed.

“Original name…” John thought, seeing the soft, fluffy expanse of moss.

JohnWillStab walked off the path and onto the massive, thick blanket of moss, the first thing he noticed was its unusual feel.

It was bouncy.

“Bonifacius: Thou should be careful, moss-pits are easy to miss, they are filled with poison and acid!”

“Bonifacius: Not that the poison would harm an undead!”

JohnWillStab hopped off the waterbed-like surfaced and onto the regular grass.

“JohnWillStab: Acid?! I thought this was moss!”

“Bonifacius: The line between plants and stationary monsters is quite blurry in this world!”

“Bonifacius: Even I would struggle to last a minute submerged in acid, the damage is scaled with level and bypasses thy armour!” he explained.

John looked over to a writhing patch of moss in the distance, an unfortunate demon-bear stepped onto it causing a puff of green smoke to erupt from a small crack on the moss’s surface.

In mere seconds, the bear was paralyzed on the ground as its body began to sink into the moving mass of green.

John felt a shiver run down his spine as the idea of being vored by a plant entered his mind.

“Bonifacius: Fear not, thou won’t be consumed unless thou step on the large, yellow patches of hair-like grass in the middle part of the forest!”

John nodded.

“JohnWillStab: How do you know so much about virtual moss?” he questioned.

“Bonifacius: Tis nothing, I simply heard it from a friend!” he explained.

“JohnWillStab: Your friend studies virtual moss?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Bonifacius: Amongst other things! He has written several in-game books about many aspects of this world, from slimes to plants!”

No matter what kind of assumptions he made about its nature, John couldn’t comprehend the idea of moss being interesting to look at or write about for that matter.

“In-game books? Who’d waste their time writing books…” John thought taking a sip of his energy drink.

Gradually, the landmass of moss left their sight as a collection of ruined homes came into view.

Five buildings, a two-story inn, a blacksmith and three generic-looking homes, each looked abandoned.

Aside from those, dozens of foundations of buildings long gone stood, seemingly burned to ash.

Shattered windows, missing patches of material in the roof and walls, piles of rubbles and several skeletons, all of these things littered the charred landscape.

Scorch marks painted the walls black.

"JohnWillStab: Cosy…” he remarked seeing one of the skeletons sticking out from the windows, in his hand was a smoking pipe.

Bonifacius opened up his quest journal and began detailing the first quest objective.

“Bonifacius: Firstly, we must collect ten slime-coated apples!” he explained gesturing to what looked like an old, decaying orchard in the distance.

It was walled off by a stone wall that was broken in several places unlike the rusty, metal gate the stood the test of time.

“Slime coated?”

John and Bonifacius made their way through one of the holes in the wall and into the big field of rotting trees.

Aside from the dead apple trees, it was populated densely with amber-coloured slimes.

John clicked on one of them.

“Level 1 – Apple Cider Slime”

They were round and rolled around like bags of liquid rather than hopping around like typical slimes.

Within the slimy membrane of the slime floated one or two apples as well as the occasional skull or bone.

JohnWillStab took a moment to process what he was looking at.

"JohnWillStab: Are those… apples slimes?” he asked.

Bonifacius nodded.

“Bonifacius: Indeed, the collective hatred of the unpicked apples left to rot manifested the apple-slimes!”

“Hatred?!”

"JohnWillStab: And why exactly do we need the apples according to the quest?”

Bonifacius glanced over to the quest again.

“Bonifacius: We need to recover the apples from within the slimes, due to their natures the slime penetrates the apple and converts many of its sugars into alcohol, in other words, these are alcohol-infused apples!”

JohnWillStab nodded uncertainly.

"JohnWillStab: I see…”

“Did he learn that from the moss guy too?” John wondered.

He turned towards the slimes and pulled out his daggers.

John slashed at one of the slimes only to have it pop like a water balloon.

“…”

His character was now soaked with apple cider.

At his feet now lay the apple from the slime he just popped.

He picked it up and opened his inventory, confirming the apple was there, along with no less than three full stacks of “Tasty Cider Slime”.

“Eww, it leaked into my inventory…” he thought in disgust.

While trying to drag it out of his inventory he accidentally right-clicked the item and as a result, ate it.

“…”

John’s character reached into his pocket and pulled out a blob of amber slime before lowering it into his now open mouth.

After swallowing the ooze with a wet slurp his health went back to full since he lost one or two percent of his maximum health from the slime popping in his face.

“The slime tastes sweet and cidery…” read the chat.

“Bonifacius: I see thou discovered the eatable slime!” Bonifacius remarked stomping on a nearby slime and causing it to pop into a wet splatter on the ground.

“Bonifacius: Most races cannot handle that much of it since it is very potent, but undead can’t get drunk!”

Despite the fact he has done literally nothing to earn this ability, John was very proud of his alcohol tolerance and the ability to remain sober after eating the equivalent to a bottle of vodka.

"JohnWillStab: Cool… can I sell it?” he asked.

“Bonifacius: Thou could, but it wouldn’t be worth much!”

JohnWillStab slashed another slime as they spoke, it burst open and covered him in the amber goop upon death.

"JohnWillStab: Hmm,”

"JohnWillStab: Are there any other types of slimes?” he asked picking a handful of apples off the ground.

Bonifacius nodded.

“Bonifacius: There are indeed, I may not be qualified to talk about the details, but there are beach-slimes which eat salt,”

“Bonifacius: Blood slimes, sand slimes and even ice slimes!”

“Bonifacius: Most slime species are very weak against salt, even a simple meal prepared with salt can be enough to slay a large one!”

John nodded.

Before they even noticed it, they killed a dozen extra slimes while chatting about their kind.

"JohnWillStab: Hold on… I think we finished the quest already…” John remarked looking at the forty-three apples in his inventory.

This wasn’t theft, this wasn’t murder, this was full-on baseless slime genocide!

“Bonifacius: Thou are correct! I was simply preoccupied speaking of slimes!” Bonifacius laughed.

JohnWillStab laughed as well.

"JohnWillStab: Yeah, I never expected so many different kinds of slimes!”

The following is merely speculation by yours truly on the events that took place next… Not actual dialogue took place between the NPCs.

Meanwhile, in the cider-slime capital about seven meters away from John and Bonifacius.

Between the handful of bushes and a hollow tree-trunk stood the cluster of slimes.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 1): blub (WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON OUTSIDE!?)” cried the first slime.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 2): blub (THEY’RE KILLING EVERYONE!)” exclaimed another.

Apple Cider Slime (Level 4): Slurp (Everyone under level three retreat into the safety-hole, they can’t reach you down there without magic!)” commanded the highest-level slime.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 2): Blub (It’s no use! We’re all dead already!)”

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 4): Blub (Wining about it won’t help!)”

The level four slime turned towards the six level three slimes that stood beside him.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 3): Slurp (So what’s that plan?)”

The low-level slimes retreated into the hole under the tree trunk where most players couldn’t even spot them.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 3): Blub (Do we even stand a chance at defeating them?)”

The level four slime took a few seconds to respond.

It looked at the most skilled slimes in his entire kingdom.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 4): Slurp (I… don’t think so…)”

No slime replied.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 4): Slurp (Even so, I won’t be popped as a coward!)”

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 4): Blub (They always come here for the apples…)”

Within the level four slime floated four apples.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 4): Slurp (We can’t afford to make them snoop around for more…)”

He remarked looking towards the safety hole.

One of the level three smiles rolled up.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 3): Bubble (Can we just stop talking already? We’re the highest-level slimes in the orchard, right?)” he asked with an anxious chuckle.

One after the other, all level three slimes expressed their sentiment to defend their slime-friends and slime-family.

Seeing the small army of level three slimes the level four slime nodded.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 4): Bubble (Right!)”

He turned to face JohnWillStab and Bonifacius as they popped a few low-level slimes that were too slow to escape.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 4): Bubble! (I’ll see you all in slime-Valhalla, brothers!)” he exclaimed before rolling into the battle.

He rolled faster than any of the other slimes in the orchard as he jumped from the ground and flew at JohnWillStab.

John effortlessly slashed the slime.

As its internal pressure ruptured more and more of its membrane, it used its remaining strength to squirt some of the slime into John’s eyes causing his screen to go blurry.

The remaining level three slimes charged in next, over the blood of their kin and into the two tyrants who invaded their sacred lands.

One of the slimes was stomped by Bonifacius.

"JohnWillStab: Ah, f#*k! It pis$#d in my eyes!” he cried attempting to wipe the sludge from his face to no avail, he only got some of it onto his sleeve.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 3): Slurp (TAKE THIS A#$HOLES!)” exclaimed one slime as it charged right into Bonifacius.

It built up its own internal pressure before popping and covering Bonifacius in a thick, syrupy liquid which slowed his movements for several seconds.

"JohnWillStab: Its it just me or are these getting more aggressive?” he asked.

After slaying the seven slimes that attacked them, John and Bonifacius collected the extra apples and looked around for any extra slimes.

"JohnWillStab: Monsters respawn too, right?”

“Bonifacius: Of course, most shall reappear after only five minutes so will friendly NPCs!”

JohnWillStab knelt down next to a hollow tree trunk and noticed a small hole underneath.

"JohnWillStab: Found some slimes!” he exclaimed pointing to the collection of level one and two creatures in the small hole under the tree trunk.

Suddenly, a flash of light erupted from the corpse of one of the slimes.

The level four slime became the level five slime as its deflated body returned to normal.

“Bonifacius: Oh, a levelling monster! Those are quite rare!”

"JohnWillStab: So, monsters can level up?”

“Bonifacius: Monsters possess something called short-term experience, they may temporarily level up if they killed enough players or dealt enough damage!”

The level five slime leapt at JohnWillStab, pushing him backwards and making him fall to the ground.

JohnWillStab slashed at the slime, this time the cut was too small to make it pop, instead it simply began to leak as it pounced at JohnWillStab once again.

John kicked the slime away causing its body to hit one of the trees before falling to the ground again.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 5): Blub (I’m… not done… with you… yet…)”

The slime began rolling towards JohnWillStab again.

"JohnWillStab: That slime’s really weird…”

“Bonifacius: Indeed, perhaps it was meant to be here as a mini-boss!” he speculated.

The slime leapt at John who sliced at it again, the ball of slime split in two splattering more sticky fluid onto John.

"JohnWillStab: Huh,”

The two parts of the slime fell to the ground, one shrivelled away as the other burst into light once again.

“Apple Cider Slime (Level 6): Blub (THIS… ISN’T… OVER!)”

JohnWillStab headed towards the hidden slimes only to be tackled again.

“Bonifacius: It levelled up once again!”

It jumped on and off John, doing little damage despite its level advantage.

JohnWillStab dodged one of its attacks before kicking the slime across the orchard like a football.

Its fragile body was punctured from the impact alone.

JohnWillStab looked to the slime and down to the slime-hole again.

"JohnWillStab: …”

He took a step towards it seeing the slime slowly put itself back together again.

He took a step back and saw its membrane part ways again as its body relaxed.

“Bonifacius: What is it?”

"JohnWillStab: This is going to sound really stupid… but I kind of looks… like Its trying to protect the other ones…” he remarked, finally joining the dots together.

“Bonifacius: I see!” he exclaimed.

“Bonifacius: That explains its determination!”

"JohnWillStab: Determination?” he questioned.

“…”

John breathed a sigh.

"JohnWillStab: We have all the apples already, wanna move on to the next quest?”

“Bonifacius: Good idea! We shall honour the bravery of the slime!”

"JohnWillStab: It was embarrassing to say, but yeah…” John relented.

“To think I’d fall so low as to feel bad for a virtual monster… not even a virtual person…”

With that, JohnWillStab and Bonifacius left the Orchard, covered in slime and with stacks of cider-slime in their inventories.