Hevagrain was a lion and the dungeon was in its den. For hundreds of years, Hevagrain was relevant in world history, but it was only in the last several decades it rose to political prominence and world power status. The heart of the kingdom was a fertile river valley. With rain winds coming from the Ilm Ocean to the East and the towering Orphant mountains bunching up the clouds, the kingdom never saw drought and enjoyed stability in their food reserve.

The same could not be said for the nations on the other side of the mountains. Over a hundred years ago, the western side of the mountain experienced an extreme, prolonged drought which cracked the land and starved the people. The Kingdom of Hevagrain saw its chance and, under the leadership of King Deon III, invaded those nations through the mountain passes. They met little resistance. The Orphant mountains and their rich mineral deposits came solely under Hevagrain’s control along with the stretches of land beyond it.

However, the greatest gains came under Deon III’s son, Zeralt the Conqueror. Using the precious metals from the mountain range, he upgraded the kingdom’s army and set his sights to the forested lands to the north. After subjugating the elves and other races in the area, he harvested the raw wood and resources to build a navy that could rival any. Leveraging his newfound oceanic might, he wrestled control in the Ilm Ocean from the other major players, taking the Goy archipelago and assuming control of the major trade routes in the area. In a last spurt of conquest, Zeralt combined his peerless ground forces with an unmatched navy to annex the Great Rei Strait to the south. Hevagrain had completed its conquest. With the metals and minerals from Orphant, raw wood from the North, and the trade and control from the archipelago and straight, Hevagrain entered a golden age of stability and growth.

While territorial gains had ceased, its growth had not. Under King Harold the Wise, infrastructure and land improvements were heavily invested in which reaped dividends for the people. Better roads for transporting goods. More irrigation systems to improve crop production. Development of tools and equipment to better construct buildings and mine for resources. More castles and outposts to protect the land and subjugate monsters and unrest. And then, under King Deon IV, the quality of life soared. He invested heavily in school institutes and development of the youth. Sanitary efforts and sewage was put as a priority for urban areas which brought the average citizens health up and disease down. There were more doctors and lawyers and skilled labor so there was an economic boon from developments in all facets of the kingdom.

History had always been an interesting topic for me, so much so that sometimes my other studies suffered. My friends said I was obsessive with it at times. I never denied it. I loved my country, we had a great and rich history. But that was all the more reason for me to be cautious around those knights. As did every nation and society, Hevagrain had its share of darkness. I hated to admit it. They would have killed me right there if they weren’t in the right mood, especially if they knew about the slime. It felt weird to think that I was a member of the same knights just a while ago. Technically, I still was, I guess.

However, the main thing on my mind right now was the slime. The thing was missing when I woke up, but turned up after the knights left. It was still a murderous little shit, asking me if it could kill anything that moved, but it was a little strange now.

It body slammed my upper thigh, again, causing me to topple over. “Fuck, what was that for?” I rubbed the now-purple bruise on my leg.

Hi. It shined in the sun. The slime, after eating suit after suit of armor, had gone metal. It was no longer a plain, translucent white but instead silvery and metallic, almost like a metal bearing ball. It was remarkable development. There were slimes of many types and colors, but I never knew it was their diet that impacted their growth and caused these differences.

“You’ve changed, haven’t you?” I asked, testing the slime’s self-awareness.

Yes. Am rock solid.

I frowned. “Rock solid? Don’t you mean as hard as metal?”

ROCK. HARD. The slime doubled down. It reared itself and leapt at me again. I was ready this time and sidestepped the bugger. With a crash, it cracked through a stone slab behind me, leaving a messy hole in it. The slime peeled itself off the slab and flopped back onto the ground with a thud. See? Am hard. Rock Hard.

I didn’t argue with the thing; it didn’t seem like slime was budging on the matter. I took out my notebook and looked at my to-do list. Creating and strengthening (improvement?) was next.

The slime tackled my gut. I sputtered and spun, the wind knocked right out of me. “What is it this time,” I almost yelled at the slime. The round ooze ball made me want to kick it so bad, but I restrained myself. Kicking it would just set a bad example for it – not to mention I didn’t want to break my toes kicking the little metal shit.

Hungry.

Hungry? It was already hungry? It was just a few days ago it ate 12 suits of armor, and it was hungry already? I felt like a poor farmer with a dozen young kids to feed. “Sorry, but we are out of metal, can you eat something else?”

The slime crouched.

“Woah, no, hold up!” I took a step back and raised my hands in a stopping motion. I knew what the slime was up to. “Don’t try to slam me again.”

It backed off. Fine.

“So,” I scratched the back of my neck, “Can you eat something else other than metal for now?”

It paused as if to consider my proposal but instantly responded, No.

No metal. It won’t eat anything else. I wasn’t distressed as I had an idea; perhaps mana could be used as a substitute to feed the monsters. It would make sense that if mana can be used as an influencing force, it could also be used for upkeep purposes. In fact, since I fused with the dungeon core, I had not needed to eat or drink once. Mana, I suspected, was the reason for that.

“Hold still,” I told the little slime, “I’m going to try something.” It remained still out of confusion. Meanwhile, I prodded the depths of my pool of mana which was still recovering from my recent expenditure. The slime was hungry and I wanted to test strengthening – I could kill two birds with one stone with this. I said, “I will be sending mana into you as a replacement for food for now. Tell me when you are full okay?”

Okay? Slime didn’t seem to fully understand what was going on, but that was fine.

I opened the proverbial tap and directed mana straight to the slime. The world was different through my dungeon senses. Humans had five, but this felt like I was seeing and processing the world through six or seven. So much information was now visible, and I was nowhere close to being able to handle it all.

I tapped my feet. Monitored the mana. Kept my awareness up. The slime didn’t say anything. Mana oozed out of my pool. Drip. Drip. Drip. There was nothing from the slime. I cut the mana feed.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you not full after all that mana?” I had given it about half of what recovered. The silence made me feel like my efforts would have been better spent making metal and feeding it to the slime.

Not full. It confirmed.

I sighed. “Still hungry? What am I going to do with you…”

No. Not hungry.

“So, you aren’t full, but you aren’t hungry either.” I crossed my arms. “Which is it, or is there a problem? Everything all right?”

Don’t know. Not hungry, but not full. Am okay.

“That’s good,” I said, but I couldn’t help but feel something was off. The slime’s surface was a little bit shinier. In fact, it looked bigger as well. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what was up. “How do you feel,” I asked, “Anything different?”

Great. Full of energy. Stronger. Feels good.

I smiled. There it was, the slime had mentioned ‘stronger’. What that meant was up for debate, but it noticed a change. I wasn’t about to test that claim either – being smacked by a slinging ball of metal was not pleasant. I jotted in my journal: slime fed and improved, check.

A success. Progress. Felt great to be productive; I haven’t done much since fusing with the dungeon core, and I intended to change that. A life of boredom and sitting around would certainly kill me if adventures or soldiers didn’t.

“Come, slime, let’s go into the dungeon. There is one last thing I wanted to do.”

What? It asked with a little extra spring to its hop.

“I’m going to try and make some more slimes.”

The slime said nothing.

I decided to do this on the fourth layer as the fifth I reserved for myself. The upper levels were also a no-go as I didn’t want them close to the surface. Cracking my knuckles, I went to work. Deep breaths, in and out. I tapped into the mana.

Using the instance I created Slime as a basis, I made the mental image of the white monstrous slime balls and poured mana into it. My chest throbbed, the dark lines glowing once more. Dark mist filled the air once more. Chunks of my mana disappeared. I could feel it – they were being born.

When all was said and done, a dozen happy slimes hopped around. They seemed different than metal slime. Their movement didn’t have purpose and they weren’t saying anything either. I added a note to investigate the differences another time. What came with large expenditures of mana was extreme exhaustion; my mana pool was empty, so I had to rest.

“Hey, metal slime, I’m going to sleep, so could you bring the new ones up to speed on how to act and what not?”

…Okay.

“Right, then I’m off.” I felt like I could trust metal slime with at least this. I have told it how to act and what to do after all. What could possibly go wrong? That is what I would think, but I knew better than that. This was a test, an experiment, to see how metal slime would react and how it would carry out a task. I went to bed excited for the results.